http://www.observer.com Just another WordPress site Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:22:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Is Park Slope dead? Yes, Eustace Tilley, of course it is. It died years ago. But washed ashore on the East River's bay in Brooklyn, the old Park Slope decomposed and fertilized the neighborhood that it has become today. It is merely the circle of life: reborn with a silver spoon, a stroller, and Caribbean nanny.

Just as Fifth Avenue in Manhattan garnered prosperity and luxury at the turn of the 20th century, Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn is doing the same at the turn of the 21st century. National chains—Barnes and Noble and Starbucks—have spread to the neighborhood, but so have yoga shops, children's stores, and some Brooklyn favorites: Beacon's Closet, Bird, Gorilla Coffee and the Chocolate Room. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2012/02/park-slope-is-alive-and-kicking-bourgie-booty/ When's the last time you read about a high profile woman reportedly coming out of the closet and selling a Park Slope brownstone?

Well, as the poet says, "there's a first time for everything," and thanks to J. Crew creative director Jenna Lyons, we can now notch the above phenomenon off our list.

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]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/11/closets-galore-j-crews-jenna-lyons-selling-park-slope-brownstone/ On Tuesday, we reported that the NYPD had arrested a second man in relation to the +20 sexual attacks in the Park Slope/Sunset Park area since March. The 32-year-old Midtown bartender Joshua Flecha was caught trying to break into a car...or at least that's what detectives thought until they realized that he was actually looking at a pornography on his phone and pleasuring himself. One correct identification by a witness relating to a May 7th attack, and it looked like between Mr. Flecha and Adolfo Martinez (the first man arrested last week, who has already confessed to a groping), the case might be shut.

Except...

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]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/10/suspect-in-park-slope-serial-molestations-beats-it/ Now that everyone in New York has learned that at least 20 incidents of sexual assault have occurred in the Park Slope area since March, it's bound to drive real estate way down.  But don't worry: the NYPD have caught a second suspect in just as many weeks in relation to the incidents. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/10/second-park-slope-sexual-assault-suspect-arrested/ A string of sexual assaults in Park Slope and Sunset Park that stretches as far back as March 20 has residents of those neighborhoods worried about not only about what appears to be a serial attacker, but also about the NYPD response. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/09/is-nypd-dropping-the-ball-on-park-slope-serial-sexual-predator/ Our colleagues over on the Culture page bring word that Williamsburg art space Monster Island is really, finally closing. This is only the latest gallery/venue to be shuttered by gentrification's creep across the neighborhood, though this time, the scene may truly be over—it is rumored a Whole Foods is taking over the space near the waterfront. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/08/holy-whole-foods-billyburg-brobo-mecca-coming-to-williamsburg-waterfront/ The Observer's favorite newspaper columnist weighed in on our favorite grocer today. "Here’s Reason No. 501 never to set foot in the People’s Republic of Park Slope," Andrea Peyser declares in The Post, referring to the brewing Israel boycott at the Park Slope Food Co-op. Her screed is as loud and droning as a Phish concert. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/08/andrea-peyser-boycotts-park-slope-food-co-op-over-israel-boycott/ That's what a co-op member who works in Manhattan P.R. reminded The Observer in an email yesterday. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/08/newsflash-95-percent-of-co-op-members-seem-perfectly-normal-relative-to-n-y-c-population/ On the progressive blog Waging Nonviolence, Kiera Feldman mounts a vociferous defense of the Park Slope Co-op's right to boycott Israeli goods, should its members feel so inclined. It is in large part a 1,600-word critique of The Observer's recent series on the BDS debate that has swept the brownstone bastion in recent months. We considered grabbing a few paragraphs for a "smug" blockquote commentary of our own, but instead, we're giving the subject a full airing here, republished with permission. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/08/in-defense-of-the-park-slope-food-co-ops-israel-boycott/ Yesterday, we brought you the interminable-seeming-even-if-it's-only-been-a-few-weeks story of the Prospect Park West bike lane lawsuit. The case essentially revolves around whether or not the lane was built with community consent, and to some extent whether or not it was simply a trial and never meant to be permanent (nevermind all the support for bike lanes, belated or otherwise). Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/08/bike-lanes-dont-happen-overnight/ Opponents of the Prospect Park West bike lane have had their day in court—a couple of them, actually—over the past two months. Yesterday may have been their last. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/08/the-beginning-of-the-end%e2%80%94or-is-it-the-end-of-the-beginning%e2%80%94of-the-bike-lane-lawsuit/ With world leaders taking sides in the debate over a boycott of Israeli products at the Park Slope Food Co-op, what do the members, those who are not leading the fight, think? Outside 782 Union  Street on Monday night, the signature green-and-red neon sign buzzing overhead, The Observer encountered the kind of zealous ambivalence and shoulder-shrugging apathy so often associated with Brownstone Brooklyn.

"Why are they boycotting Israel? What about China? It's stupid," said Andrew Sepulveda. "You know, we've got these water bottles that say 'Designed in America,' but they're made in China. And sometimes you open them up and there are little notes inside and it says, 'Help me. They've got a gun to my head.' What are we doing about that?" Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/08/the-night-the-observer-almost-blew-up-the-co-op/ Israel and the Park Slope Food Co-op have a lot in common. Both were founded in part by Jewish socialists. Both are governed by a raucous democracy with laws and rituals to rival the Talmud. Both have a soft spot for hummus and couscous.

And now both are plagued by the Palestinian question. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/08/soy-vey-could-a-hummus-fight-kill-the-co-op/ In this week's issue, The Observer talked to Alan Dershowitz, Harvard law professor and maybe the staunchest defender of Israel on the planet, about a proposal for a boycott of Israeli goods at the Park Slope Food Co-op. In his typically brazen style, Mr. Dershowitz compared pro-boycott co-op members to bear-baiting-hating Puritans and vowed to shut the BroBo institution down if a boycott went through. "You have to fight fire with fire," he said. Soy veyzmeir, but these were some of his tamer declarations. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/08/first-they-came-for-the-penises-dershowitz-fears-brobos-circumcision-boycott/ The alleged Park Slope Pigeon Killer has graduated to... cats?

An infuriated woman on the Brooklynian message boards insists that the person apparently behind the screenname "Pyrrhic Victory," who wrote a post last week damning the pigeons who poop on his Park Slope stoop and vowing to slowly kill them off, is also responsible for the death of her cat, Scrumbles.

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