The (Big) Round-Up: Monday

Ambit Energy, a Con Edison alternative, promises big cash for a handful of plucky sales men and women. [NY Times]

Brooklyn’s seaside hustle. [NY Times]

Sonic Youth’s performance at McCarren Park Pool this weekend could be the venue’s last. [NY Times]

Private garages—the definitive urban luxury. [NY Times]

Making co-op life more livable in sour economic times. [NY Times]

The revitalization of a neglected Bronx community. [NY Times]

Creating the Dimaond District. [NY Times]

New Web site maps environmental hazards lurking under New York State properties. [NY Times]

For those who can see them, the mystery penthouses being built atop a 97th Street apartment building make for great gossip. [NY Times]

Parking-meter decapitator caught. [NY Times]

Moonstruck house in Brooklyn Heights sells for $4 million. [NY Times]

Shorter hours for Olafur Eliasson’s waterfalls. [NY Times]

The Meatpacking District—a drug dealer’s paradise. [NYDN]

Number of Coney Island visitors this summer falls dramatically. [NYDN]

Barring a new lease, Astroland vows to close (again). [NYDN]

Landlord steals own tenant’s identity to buy BMW. [NYDN]

As the economy falls, local bank robberies jump 57 percent. [NY Post]

Congressman Rangel has “only sporadically declared” income on his beachfront property in the Dominican Republican—a hugely popular tourist rental. [NY Post]

State comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to monitor Thruway Authority to ensure motorists aren’t being overcharged for gas. [NY Sun]

Treasury Secretary Paulson weighs options on Freddie and Fannie. [WSJ]

Lehman Brothers hopes to dump billions in real estate loans, as it looks to steer its way out of financial crisis. [WSJ]

Hedge-fund manager John Paulson cuts asking price on his Hamptons digs by $2.6 million; Manhattan’s Spence School scoops up a $27 million townhouse. [WSJ]