Goodnight Irene

Here is one of my favorite photos from Irene's visit to New York:

 The sign on the car says "For Sale."   Right.

Some more bad damage, but I guess we're lucky it wasn't any worse.

Let' hope for some drier, calmer days in the future.

Brooklyn Homebrew's Taste Competiton to Take Place In Kensington

Booklyn Homebrew, together with Sycamore, will be presenting “Brooklyn Wort,” a beer tasting and brewing competition to take place in Kensington, at the Sycamore Flower Shop and Bar at 1118 Cortelyou Road.

The “Brooklyn Wort” was originally scheduled to be held on Saturday, August 27th, but due to the arrival of Hurricane Irene, it was rescheduled for September 10th.

One ticket to the event, which will be Brooklyn’s very first live homebrewed beer competition, will entitle participants to food and the tasting of 25 different beers from some of Brooklyn’s most deliciously successful home breweries. In addition to the Brooklyn’s best will also be Ballast Point, a San Diego favorite, pouring some of their incredible hand-crafted beers as well.

For more information visit Brooklyn Homebrew.

Last Week’s Record Rainfall Creates Mosquito Breeding Grounds throughout Brooklyn

Kensington, the rest of Brooklyn, and all other boroughs have become a choice breeding ground for mosquitoes this summer, especially in the wake of last week’s record-breaking rainfall in New York.

Added to the unpleasantness and nuisance of buzzing and biting mosquitoes is the fear that West Nile virus is also being carried by the pesky creatures. The health department has been testing for the deadly virus, and has found it in at least 33 city zip codes in every borough excluding Manhattan. In fact, the first such case of the virus was reported last week in a 64-year old woman from Manhattan. She was hospitalized at the beginning of August and is now getting better.

One woman from Kensington, Sharon Levy, revealed that her children were bitten by mosquitoes while visiting her mother in Park Slope. She believes a small kiddie pool was most likely the source of the mosquitoes, which prefer to breed in pools of standing water.

Kensington Out of Reach? Try Childhood, Brooklyn

Looking for a great place to live, raise your family; and generally enjoy life, but still keeping  a little bit of your hard-earned savings in the bank? Consider what many believe is a more than satisfactory option to the pricey, and increasingly snootier neighborhoods of Kensington and Park Slope; the nearby neighborhood known as Childhood.

Named in honor of the iconic green and crayon-yellow building of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Childhood offers tree-lined streets, Brower Park and of course the museum itself, an easy way for families to pass the day during the hot summer months with their youngins’ in tow in air-conditioned, low-keyed bliss.

Quaint brownstones give the place character while the borders of Nostrand Avenue on the west, Albany Avenue to the east, Eastern Parkway along the south and Atlantic Avenue north surround a diverse and distinct neighborhood which is lacking in many of Brooklyn’s more ‘exclusive’ areas.

According to one Childhood resident the neighborhood is “quiet and it has the park (Brower) so you can come and relax and bring the kids. One child said that Childhood is “fun, the best,” when asked how he liked his neighborhood.

Can’t find something in Kensington at the price you’d like to pay? Look into Childhood. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Kensington Library to Enjoy Longer Hours Beginning in September

Saturday hours are being restored to many branches of the Brooklyn Public Library system, including the Kensington branch library located at 410 Ditmas Avenue between East 4th and East 5th Streets.

Last year the Brooklyn Public Library, the fifth largest library system in the country, reacted to budget cuts by choosing to forego weekend library hours rather than lay-off union employees.

The libraries which will now be open on weekends owe their good fortune to a union-rule change which will force union employees to do basic library tasks during regular library hours instead of during overtime hours. About half of all the Brooklyn branches will benefit, bringing the number of libraries which will stay open six days a week up to 32, while the other 28 branches will still be open only five days each week.

“We are very excited to offer increased hours to our patrons at a time when they need and are using our community libraries at record levels,” said Linda Johnson, the system’s new executive director.

No libraries in the system will be open on Sundays, but the re-organization which Johnson is augmenting will add about 8 hours of service to each branch, on average, beginning on September 10th.

Not everyone is excited by the increase in library hours. The president of the Brooklyn library workers’ union, Local 1482, Eileen Muller, complained that the new schedules will make it more difficult for library staff to prepare programs and will also make it more difficult for the custodians to clean the libraries.

“It would be easier for the staff if they had that extra time in morning,” said Muller. “Unfortunately, the library is trying to make light of the work we have to do behind the scenes.”