SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

This is a paid announcement from il Fornetto Restaurant, located at 2902 Emmon’s Avenue, Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn (718) 332-8494. 

Il Fornetto’s beautiful waterfront setting right on Sheepshead Bay is the perfect place for love this Mother’s Day. Treat your mother, grandmother, or wife  to a special brunch or luxurious three-course dinner in il Fornetto’s window-lined dining room. Reservations highly suggested. Please mention Sheepshead Bites when calling.

Click to open the flier, then press CTRL+P to print.

The above is a paid announcement by il Fornetto Restaurant. Sheepshead Bites has not verified the claims made in this advertisement. If you own a business and would like to announce a special offer to tens of thousands of locals, e-mail us at advertising [at] sheepsheadbites [dot] com.

THE BITE: Last time we wrote about Jordan’s Lobster Dock, faithful reader Local Broker chastized us for highlighting Buffalo wings. “Why would anyone who wanted wings ever go to Jordan’s in the first place?” he decried. So, in our continued quest to please our readers, this time we take on the seafood by ordering a tuna steak sandwich.

The tuna steak sandwich from Jordan’s Lobster Dock (2771 Knapp Street) is one hefty affair, both in weight and in size. The steak itself measured approximately 1.5″ thick and  about 6″ long by about 5″ wide at its widest. It probably weighed in at a good 1/2 pound. The tuna steak sandwich is available a la carte for $11.99, with traditional French fries for $12.99 or accompanied by sweet potato fries for $13.99. (Hint for takeout: go a la carte  - Jordan’s fries don’t travel well.)

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THE BITE: Cannoli filled to order are a rare thing in Sheepshead Bay. As the demographics in the neighborhood have changed over the last decade, the number of shops offering cannoli declined. But fear not, V & S Italian Kitchen and Pizzeria (1723 Emmons Avenue) still makes old-school cannoli for only $3.00 per piece.

Leave the gun. Take the cannoli. Feed it to Robert.

A fisherman in Coney Island. Photo by Erica Sherman

Tell the truth — What section of Brooklyn has greater bragging rights, in matters littoral? I’ll give you a hint: It’s not Williamsburg, Park Slope, Dyker Heights, or Kensington. We’ve got the beach and boardwalk at world famous Brighton Beach and Coney Island, and is Sheepshead Bay not Brooklyn’s answer to the French Riviera?

I rest my case.

To that end, Sheepshead Bites is asking you — “[s]hore lovers, beach walkers, surfers, fishermen, divers and others” — to share your undying love of All Things Shore by helping the American Littoral Society celebrate its 50th anniversary with a special request: Participate in the coastal conservation group’s August 20th Share the Shore event by showing the world how and why we love the shore, and also by promoting new efforts to protect our ocean and coastline.

In other words, not to point fingers or anything, but let’s try and put an end to our fabled Coney Island Whitefish population, mmmkay?

From a press release we received about Share the Shore:

This is a free event open to all who care to show their support for the ocean, coastal wildlife and their habitats. Share the Shore is actually the theme for numerous micro-events that are participant-created and planned to happen all along the New York and New Jersey coast. In addition, event goers will be capturing their love for the coast in photos, videos and other imaginative ways — the Littoral Society will link them together to create a virtual tour of the coast and a powerful message about caring for the coast to share through social media and its website.

From Montauk to Delaware Bay, coast lovers will share their “sure thing for the shore” by getting together with their environmental group, club, family, friends and neighbors to do their favorite “shore thing” at the stretch of shore they love the most. Any and all activities are welcome; however folks like to express their admiration and respect for the shore.

Tell Sheepshead Bites about your Share the Shore event — we’d be happy to promote it for you. To register for an event in our area or create an event of your own, go to www.sharetheshore.net.

The mayor is unveiling a plan today that may help repair and reopen the Manhattan Beach esplanade, spur dredging of Sheepshead Bay, and make repairs to the Gerritsen Beach seawalls – among scores of other waterfront development proposals. 

This plan, called Vision 2020, will open or develop huge swaths of New York City’s beachfronts, riverwalks and marinas and will produce an end result that Bloomberg describes as “one of the most sweeping transformations of any urban waterfront in the world.”

According to the Daily News, the plan calls for spending $700 million over the next three years to buy waterfront land, upgrade beaches, protect wetlands, improve water quality and add more parks in all five boroughs.

The development will likely employ hundreds – if not thousands – which is a good thing, since there will be plenty of unemployed teachers to fill those jobs.

Dredging Sheepshead Bay is expected to be included in the new plan

Southern Brooklyn communities may celebrate a major victory come December when the Department of City Planning releases its final version of the Vision 2020 plan, which outlines the city’s waterfront development goals over the next decade.

After a draft plan from the agency snubbed several communities along Brooklyn’s southern coast, City Planning is expected to embrace a slew of new proposals put forth by local community boards, said Community Board 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo.

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The Department of City Planning will be holding a public meeting tonight, October 12 to discuss the Vision 2020 “Comprehensive” Waterfront Plan.  At this meeting, City Planning will give a presentation, which will be followed by an opportunity for public comment.

Sheepshead Bay and Southern Brooklyn must be heard! As we told you last week, the new Vision 2020 plan outlines development priorities along New York City’s waterfront for the next ten years. And all of Southern Brooklyn was snubbed, giving only a vague suggestions of “exploring” the ideas that community leaders have been saying are critical for the sustainability of our neighborhoods. Meanwhile, Manhattan and Northern Brooklyn waterfronts got scores of commitments to build parks, gardens, museums, boat launches, markets and more.

If you can’t make tonight’s meeting, then submit your comments online so that our concerns are clear.

Public Meeting on Draft Recommendations
Tuesday, October 12, 6 p.m.
Rosenthal Pavilion, NYU Kimmel Center for University Life
60 Washington Square South, 10th Floor, New York, NY

Subway:
A,B,C,D,E,F,V at West 4th St.
R,W at 8th St-NYU
6 at Astor Pl.

Repairs to the Plumb Beach bike path is one of the only local suggestions that made it into the waterfront planning document guiding the next 10 years of development.

The city’s new so-called “comprehensive waterfront plan” ignores the needs of Southern Brooklyn neighborhoods, said Community Board 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo, and she plans to tell the Department of City Planning that we demand more.

“What they’re pressing right now [in Brooklyn] is Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Red Hook and the Gowanus Canal,” Scavo told Sheepshead Bites. “Look at the things they’re pushing over there. The ‘up-and-coming waterfront’; but what about the one that’s been here for years?”

“Compared to other places, we didn’t get much of anything,” she added.

The Vision 2020 proposal is designed to steer the development and zoning agenda of New York City’s 500-plus miles of waterfront, targeting places for revitalization, development and preservation. It’s currently in its draft stage, and the Brooklyn Borough Board – made up of the Borough President and Community Board chairs – will hear a presentation tonight from the Department of City Planning.

Find out what Scavo will tell City Planning, and what local issues the Community Board wants added to Vision 2020.

(Photo courtesy of nolastname)

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of our friends and readers.

Early morning reports from the Daily News and the New York Post tell us that a car went into Sheepshead Bay. There were three people in the car and all three were rescued by fisherman, Keith Gorman, who was nearby.

Alla Yelizarov was taking her two daughters to a family birthday party and had just parked her car in an angled parking spot on Emmons Avenue near Dooley Street. For reasons unknown at this time, the car went racing through the barrier and ended up at the bottom of the bay. When, Keith Gorman, who was working on the dock saw what had happened, he immediately jumped in the water to save the family.