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I haven’t historically written endorsements in Bklyner, but many of you have asked me in the last couple of days who I think is the better choice for this district that now includes Bay Ridge and Coney Island – Ari Kagan (R) or Justin Brannan (D).  And one of the things I’ve learned from years of covering local elections here is just how little guidance voters get. The big citywide editorial boards often don’t endorse. The groups that do offer endorsements are often extremely partisan or single-issue and rarely connected to the districts. So I thought that given Bklyner reaches tens of t ..read more

Ahead of the November 7 local elections, when we get to pick our city council members again, NY1 held a debate Tuesday night (you can watch it here) between the two incumbents in what will be the new District 47 – Ari Kagan, a recent Republican representing current Council District 47, and Justin Brannan, a Democrat representing current Council District 43. Following the 2020 Census, all council districts were redrawn, putting Brannan's residence in the new District 47 and pitting two incumbent council members against each other in a district that now includes Bay Ridge and Coney Island, with ..read more

After seven inches of rain punished New York City on Friday, Mayor Eric Adams took almost a whole day to make his first comments about a storm that effectively ground his city, the country’s largest, to a halt. After having seven separate public events without acknowledging the storm, Adams finally commented, lashing out at the populace, that you would have to be living “under a rock” not to have known the storm was coming. If that’s so, Mayor Adams, why was the city so unprepared? Hours after the rain stopped, I rode my bike through Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, the southwest corner of ..read more

The weather has turned pleasant and just about every neighborhood in Brooklyn wants you to come out and enjoy all it has to offer — from Atlantic Antic Downtown, 3rd Avenue Fair in Bay Ridge, art crawls in Ditmas Park and Prospect Lefferts Gardens, to lots of literary events to go with the Brooklyn Book Festival. Or just plain fun. It also means the bi-annual running of New Yorkers for every cause imaginable will start taking over Prospect Park soon, culminating in the Turkey Trot in November — will try to give you as much heads up as possible. For now, remember that Queens-bound BQE will be ..read more

It seems that just about everything will be happening next weekend – arts, fairs, outdoor dance parties: Brooklyn Book Festival all week culminating on October 1 Downtown Atlantic Antic on October 1 Downtown Brooklyn Arts Festival September 29/30 New York Burlesque Festival kicks off at Bell House on September 28 Artmageddon takes over Ditmas Park on October 1 - more than 250 Brooklyn-based artists and bands will take over the porches, stoops, and gardens of Ditmas Park in Victorian Flatbush PLG Arts Fest is on September 30 across Prospect Lefferts Gardens 3rd Avenue Festival is on October 1 ..read more

The Brooklyn Book Festival kicked off its annual celebration of all things literary Sunday. The weeklong celebration brings together authors and readers for conversations and readings across Brooklyn, culminating on October 1, when the Brooklyn Borough Hall Plaza and Columbus Park will transform into a sea of stories, hosting local and national bookstores. The Festival's Literary Marketplace is a bookworm's paradise, claiming to be the largest outdoor book market in the northeast, with over 200 publishers and literary organizations coming together. On Saturday, September 30, the younger book ..read more

I could never understand why the Parade Ground entrance facing Prospect Park had no crosswalk. Of course, there is no gate to the park there either, but for decades, locals of all ages and backgrounds have made the mad dash across Parkside Avenue and navigated the hole in the fence, making the steep climb up to the road that leads to all the park could offer. DOT has finally acknowledged that there should be a crosswalk here. Image from a DOT presentation to Community Board 14. When the city put the protected bike lane along Parkside Avenue, that mad dash became even crazier as, in addition t ..read more

A supermarket and two medical providers have signed long leases at 1041 Coney Island Avenue – the recently completed residential building on the corner of Foster and Coney Island Avenues on the edge of Ditmas Park. Delight Bazar Supermarket, a South Asian grocery chain, has rented the largest of the retail spaces – 6,500 square feet – on the stretch of Coney Island Avenue that is also known as Little Pakistan. Quest Diagnostics has signed a lease for 2,000 square feet next door in a smaller ground-floor unit. The company will relocate its Church Avenue office to the new space, landlord's bro ..read more

Pharmacy chain Rite Aid closed two stores in Brooklyn this September. Rite Aid's store at 892-908 Flatbush Avenue quietly closed its doors on September 11, having served the community since at least 2011. In a typical fashion, the only notice was a sheet on the doors informing customers they could now pick up their prescriptions at Walgreens at 724 Flatbush Avenue at Parkside – a good 10-minute walk when the CVS at Target is just across the street. Yet, Flatbush isn't the only Brooklyn neighborhood affected by Rite Aid's recent decisions. The location at 185 Kings Highway in Gravesend closed ..read more