Avenue U will soon be home to Art Station, a new business selling art supplies and services.
Located at 1303 Avenue U, the storefront was previously home to White’s Silk Shop, a fabrics and home decorating business.
Welcome to the neighborhood, Art Station!
Thanks to Lisanne for the photo and tip.
Source: Daniel Hotaling via Facebook
Sheepshead Bites reader Andy Baum tipped us off to this beautiful and fascinating photograph of what is now Emmons Avenue and Knapp Street, an area once known as Hog Point Creek.
Taken in 1904, the photograph reveals the level of total commercial industrialization and development that has occurred in the area over the last century and change.
Daniel Hotaling, the guy who provided the photograph, gave some interesting information on Facebook as to what exactly we are looking at.
So it is basically looking down Knapp St towards Ave U from Plumb Beach. The cedar groves in the upper left hand corner were behind the sewage treatment plant on Knapp St. They were known as the cedars; my grandfather was born in the cedars 1905.
Great stuff, Daniel. If you, or anybody else, has any more wonderful historical pictures of the area, please send them to nberke [at] sheepsheadbites [dot] com!
Brooklyn Bloom, a new cafe serving coffee, baked goods and more, is now open at 1607 Avenue U.
The cafe replaces Donut Connection, which itself carried misleading signage, as most of the place was given over to El Mexicano Restaurant Y Panaderia Mexicana, which we once gave rave reviews for their chicken enchiladas mole.
We’re not sure when El Donut Conexión shuttered, but Brooklyn Bloom opened about a week and a half ago, an employee told us.
Welcome! We hope Brooklyn Bloom blossoms!
The FDNY is sponsoring a blood drive for the New York Blood Center. It will be held at the firehouse of Engine 321 located at 2165 Gerritsen Avenue (at Avenue U) on Monday, February 4, from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Please donate, and help save lives of fellow New Yorkers!
A staffer for Councilman Lew Fidler sent us the following note yesterday.
Today, Council Member Lew Fidler was informed that vandal(s) broke into the portable trailers, which have been used as a comfort station in Marine Park (near Fillmore Avenue), and caused damage.
The Parks Department is aware of the problem and Council Member Fidler has asked Parks to work as quickly as possible to make the necessary repairs. However, there will be no restroom facilities at this location for the next few days.
In the meantime, park goers can feel free to utilize the restroom facilities located at the Marine Park Environmental Center on Avenue U.
In lieu (Lew? [or, for a certain reporter who can't spell, Lou]) of a photo, please see the accompanying illustration.
UPDATE (5:50 p.m.): Turns out ninjas had nothing to do with it. This just in from Councilman Fidler’s office:
Councilman Fidler received an update today that the damage to the temporary comfort station in Marine Park was not the work of humans, as originally believed, but of animals. Further inspection today revealed that insulation was torn off and the heating element, used to prevent the pipes from freezing, was damaged. Without proper heat, the pipes to the station froze. Crews are working to repair the heating system and defrost the pipes. The current cold weather makes repairs more difficult but we have been told that a Parks Dept. crew is working to restore service.
I have long said we need to get the animals out of the parks. We look forward to Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal banning wildlife from using Parks Department land. All squirrels found in violation will receive a fine for 125 acorns, though observers already believe there will be lax enforcement due to a shortage of Parks Enforcement agents.
Source: ABC 7
Approximately 100 people gathered Saturday night for a candlelight vigil to remember the three victims killed in a devastating car crash in Gravesend over the weekend, according to a report by ABC 7.
The accident, which also injured three others, occurred early Saturday morning when a black Acura smashed into a red Toyota Camry at the intersection of East 5th Street and Avenue U.
The ABC report identified the victims and the circumstances that led to the deadly collision:
Both people in the Toyota were killed: 24-year-old Leonora Lavaud and 26-year-old Andre Capers-Jones.
The driver of the Acura also died in the crash.
He has been identified as 21-year-old Jonathan Ishan-Sade.
Three passengers in his car were injured.
Police say Ishan-Sade was travelling east on Avenue U at a high rate of speed, went through a steady red light and smashed into the Toyota.
Lavaud, a Brooklyn College student and waitress, was described as being very active in her sorority.
Capers-Jones, a health administration major at New York Tech, had dreams of becoming of a special needs teacher.
The Linkedin account of Ishan-Sade, a graduate of Baruch College, lists him as having been a marketing and advertising executive manager, with a link to a personal Amway page. He was reported to be living here in Sheepshead Bay at 2626 Homecrest Avenue, according to CBS NY.
The crash has devastated the families of the young victims.
“He didn’t deserve that,” said Maurice Capers, Andre’s cousin, to ABC 7. “He was doing everything, everything.”
CBS New York provided details on the three injured passengers:
One of them was ejected and slid underneath the parked car behind the Acura.
That person was taken to Lutheran Medical Center in critical condition. People who saw him come into the hospital described him as unresponsive.
The other two were trapped inside and were pried out. They were also taken to Lutheran Medical Center, where their conditions were reported as stable.
Updates on the conditions of the injured passengers were not available Sunday.
A NY1 news report gives an update on the conditions of the victims:
“One of the girls, Rachel, she was getting surgery on her right leg. She had open fractures and closed fractures. And the other friend, Dimitry, he’s on life support. He has a breathing tube down his throat,” said Nick Castello, a friend of the injured victims. “When I went in there to check up on them, one of the nurses said Dimitry woke up and was trying to take the breathing tube out, so they sedated him.”
Authorities also said that a firefighter who responded to the scene suffered minor injuries as well.
The owners of Chateau De Alik (1223 Avenue U) are getting fishy with a new project: Chateau Lagoon, a new seafood restaurant and market heading to Coney Island Avenue.
But don’t think for a second it’s going to be much like their current French-infused location.
“It’s a different type of restaurant. It’s a different theme,” said Joseph Shafie, one of the partners. “There’s going to be seafood, slash fish market, slash this, slash that. Everything has to do with seafood only.”
In addition to a seafood restaurant and fish market, there’ll be a large sushi bar. The market will also sell fish smoked in-house.
How will they fit it all? Well, they’re taking the huge space at 2570 Coney Island Avenue formerly occupied by R & S Strauss Discount Auto that closed when the national chain went bankrupt in June. The space is 5,000 square feet, and the restaurant owners signed a 10-year lease, according to Arsen Atbashyan, the CEO of Commercial Acquisitions Realty Services, who brokered the deal.
“We started marketing it for retail use and, considering it was an auto part store, we offered it to Pep Boys. But they passed on it because it was too small and no parking,” Atbashyan said. “And then we had this restaurant looking for space on Coney Island Avenue and it just seemed like a perfect match.”
Pep Boys’ loss is our gain – but we’ll have to wait. Chateau Lagoon won’t be open until late spring at the earliest, Shafie said.
The following is from our friends at the Bay Improvement Group:
Medical equipment! (Source: Stanford Medical History Center/Flick)
The following is a press release from the offices of State Senator David Storobin:
State Senator David Storobin (R-Brooklyn) announced that his district office in cooperation with FEMA, Project Chernobl and Dr. Igor Branovan will be helping doctors and other medical professionals get free medical equipment and furniture that has been generously donated.
The deadline to register is Tuesday, December 18, 2012.
Anyone interested may call Victoria Spodek at (718) 743-8610 or stop by our office during business hours at 2201 Avenue U.
Source: Friends of Ocean Parkway
Our friends at the Friends of Ocean Parkway blog tipped us off to the soon-to-be-constructed Edmond J. Safra Synagogue, coming to Ocean Parkway at Avenue U.
We called over to Rabbi Elie Abadie of Congregation Edmond J. Safra in Manhattan, but he told us the new building was not officially affiliated with his flock, but just that they share the same name.
According to the Manhattan congregation’s website, Edmon J. Safra was a “Lebanese-born [Sephardic] Jew who rose to prominence in the banking industry, [and] supported a remarkable diversity of institutions and charities during his lifetime.”
Welcome to the neighborhood, Safra Synagogue.
