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When most hear Brighton Beach, they think “Russians.” But the annual Brighton Jubilee, now in its 34th year, proves that the neighborhood is far more of an ethnic medley than many know.

I paid my first visit to the annual Brighton Jubilee yesterday, and was fired up to find a vibrant market fair as diverse as it was enormous. It wasn’t all kebabs and pirozhi, as I was expecting, but a five-block stretch of Latino, African, Caribbean, Arab and, yes, Russian immigrant vendors (not to mention old-school Brooklynites) selling some the strangest assortment of products I’ve ever seen at a street fair.

Used and new clothes, toys, gag items, jewelry, hand-made crafts, artwork, fur hats, sheets (!) – this wasn’t your usual “I ♥ [enter ethnicity]” fair, ringed with the ubiquitous Italian sausage-mobiles (though they made an appearance). It was far more complex, and vastly more intense – it was easily the most interesting neighborhood festival I’ve visited in Brooklyn.

And it was packed. Tens of thousands of people flooded Brighton Beach Avenue between Coney Island Avenue and Brighton 14th Street. In between picking through the odd assortment of goods, sun-drenched visitors watched performers brought in by Radio Pzitiv and Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz, played on inflatable rides or did a bit of Rock Band karaoke.

No word yet on how much money it raised for the event’s organizers, Brighton Neighborhood Association. The money goes to fund all the groups activities, including senior services, tenant services, social services, youth services and quality of life programs. We’ll let you know when we hear the final numbers.

Enjoy the photos of the fair, and if you have any to add just e-mail them to us at nberke [at] sheepsheadbites [dot] com.

View photos from the Brighton Beach Jubilee 2010.

The suspect // Source: NYDailyNews.com

Police are on the hunt for a man suspected of a stabbing over a parking spot in Brighton Beach last week.

The 48-year-old victim, Vladimir Reyfman, was sitting in his pickup truck on the corner of Brighton 11th Street and Brighton Beach Avenue when the suspect came to his window. Reyfman was asked to pull up so that the other driver could fit his car into a spot, but Reyfman explained that there was a truck ahead of him that was unloading, and he didn’t want to get too close to it.

The suspect then disappeared into a nearby bodega, but when he came out he went straight to his car, got a knife, and plunged it twice into Reyfman’s chest. The victim was taken to Lutheran Hospital and will survive the attack.

“If he was any thinner, the punctures would have killed him,” a source told the Daily News. “There was a lot of blood in the car.”

The suspect is described as 40 years old, about 5-feet-11 and around 250 pounds. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS (8477).

The Brighton Neighborhood Association is gearing up for the 34th Annual Brighton Beach Jubilee, a multi-block festival and fundraiser to celebrate the neighborhood.

The neighborhood tradition features multiple entertainment stages and blocks of merchandise and informational booths, as well as kiddie rides and delicious food. Established 34 years ago, the Jubilee now attracts more than 125,000 people every year and is dedicated to bridging the communication gap through the international language of music.

Organizers of the event, the BNA, use the festival to raise funds for to underwrite programs throughout the neighborhood, including their senior services, tenant services, social services, youth services and quality of life programs.

The group is advertising shopping bargains, international foods, kiddie attractions and lots of giveaways. Two live stages will entertain visitors along Brighton Beach Avenue down Coney Island Avenue to the boardwalk. Enjoy Russian performers from radio pzitiv and the great music of brooklyn including frankie marra and his band, pranha bros. And the ridge.

When: Sunday, August 29, 2010
Where: Brighton Beach Avenue and Coney Island Avenue
Contact: (718) 891-0800

View the flier for the event.

We’re hearing that there was some sort of a shootout in Brighton Beach yesterday, around noon. We’re told it was near Brighton 11th Street, by the bazaar, and may have been a drive-by. Gothamist Maps indicates there was a Brooklyn shooting around that time, but doesn’t give a precise location. Does anyone have any information?

How much is $315 worth to you?

For Alexandr Aliev, a 60-year-old Brighton Beach landlady, it was worth going to jail for.

According to the New York Post, Aliev was arrested for shoving a 21-year old renter down a flight of stairs at an apartment building on Brighton Beach Avenue near Brighton 4th Street on June 28. Aliev was enraged when the renter asked for a few more weeks to pay the $315 she owed.

Tragic as the incident may have been, it did prove one time-honored mobster tactic. After suffering a broken leg, the renter came up with the money.

You hear me, bill-skipping advertisers? You hear me?!

[via Gothamist]

The photos in this post were taken by reader BrooklynBus on a couple of recent Sundays. They’re all set on Brighton Beach Avenue, so at least we can feel better knowing that our misery has some company. (Actually, our other misery has company, too: car break-ins are on the rise in Brighton Beach.)

Pickups along Brighton Beach Avenue occur on Mondays, so with the good weather and the holiday weekend drawing people to the streets, the neighborhood is going to look pretty foul come Monday. But making matters worse is that Monday is Memorial Day, meaning an extra day (or more) until Sanitation comes, allowing this gunk to stew in the summer heat a little longer.

What’s hard to believe is that “Little Odessa” is increasingly touted as a rising tourist destination. But they wouldn’t let this shit happen in Times Square or Washington Square Park, would they?

Where is Sanitation in all this? Maybe they’re also enjoying the good weather, tossing back beers on the beach. Just this past Sunday, police arrested Sanitation employee Peter Steffen on Brighton 7th Street and Shore Parkway (also the site of those dreaded rats) for driving recklessly. Turns out he was drunk.

Maybe seeing the overflowing garbage cans on Sunday along Brighton Beach Avenue made him realize what an abject failure his department is and he had to drown the pain.

View more photos of Brighton Beach’s garbage problem

by Paul Birman

This past Sunday was the 65th anniversary of the Allied victory over the Nazi regime. Brighton Beach, home to the largest Russian-speaking population in the US, witnessed scores of veterans parade down Brighton Beach Avenue. Traffic stopped, everyone dropped what they were doing and came out to cheer, cry and thank the brave men and women who made incredible sacrifices six-and-a-half decades ago.

May 9 is the most cherished holiday in Russia and many of the other former Soviet republics. Every year, veterans of World War II put on their uniforms and decorate them with medals. The years of this tradition are numbered, for the youngest veterans are now 80+ years old.

Paul Birman was born in Moscow and moved to Chicago in the 1990s.  He finished school and worked a variety of jobs before moving to New York on Halloween, 2008, to pursue a full-time career in visual arts. Birman currently freelances as a photographer and camera operator. You can see his portfolio at his website.

View Birman’s Victory Day photo gallery on Sheepshead Bites.

When I passed by Corbin Place last week, I found a major project underway with the entire center of the street torn up. From Brighton Beach Avenue to Brighton 15th Street, a 10-foot-deep-or-so gash snakes through the asphalt. At its bottom are pipes.

But on that Thursday afternoon, not a single worker was in sight. Nor a van or truck with identification claiming jurisdiction over the project. I called Community Board 15 to try and learn more. But though the board is routinely notified when utility projects kick-off in the area, Corbin Place is the dividing line between us and Community Board 13. The board wasn’t notified, and they could only guess that it might be a sewage project.

Days later, I ran into a National Grid employee on another work site. I asked him if he knew. He looked confused, shrugged, then said, “Yeah, I think it’s gas. There’s a big gas thing going on around Corbin.” He didn’t sound so sure either. More like he just wanted me to go away (and who can blame him?).

So… has anyone seen a labeled van or a work crew at this site?

After a five-hour standoff, the police situation near the Brighton Beach Starbucks came to an abrupt and tragic end on Saturday, as police shot and killed Samuel White.

Police allege White kidnapped and raped an ex-girlfriend, who sparked the standoff by escaping out a window to the building’s roof after contacting relatives and informing them of her situation. When police arrived, White was holed up in the apartment with a kitchen knife. After five hours of negotiation, police entered the building to throw a remote viewing device, but White lunged at them and stabbed an officer. After a taser failed to stop him, police shot White five times. He was pronounced dead at Coney Island Hospital.

White reportedly had a long rap sheet, with 12 convictions. Five of those were related to his ex-girlfriend, including a previous abduction in which he took her to a Sheepshead Bay hotel.

You can read the full story from the NY Times and NY1.

It appears as if the exterior work on the Walgreens going up on Coney Island Avenue and Avenue W is almost done. Construction started about six months ago, notes Lisanne Anderson, who shot the above photo, and looks as if it may open sometime mid-summer.

This will be Walgreens’ fifth location in the area. Last June, they bought out Morris’ Drug Store on East 17th Street, where they expanded the store last month by removing the wall separating it from the next storefront, which is part of the same building. There is also a branch on the corner of Kings Highway and Coney Island Avenue, in the building that formerly housed the Kingsway Theater, and another branch at Brighton Beach Avenue at the intersection of Coney Island Avenue. Their branch at West 5th Street and Neptune Avenue was probably their only Brooklyn store previously, having been there at least since the late seventies, if not earlier.

Thanks to Lisanne for the information.