Think of this as the “before” picture, just coming out of winter’s slumber, to be compared in three months’ time with summer’s fully-grown “after” affair.
Is it too early to admit I’m looking forward to this year’s outdoor movies?
Apr 192012
Apr 172012
(click to enlarge)
16 have been chosen. One will win.
It’s the most ambitious project to decide, once and for all, who has the best pizza in Bay Ridge.
The Bay Ridge Odyssey is conducting the 2012 Bay Ridge Pizzeria Bracket Challenge, where we have selected and seeded 16 neighborhood pizzerias, and will pair them off against one another, tournament-style. For each pairing, our team of judges will have a slice from each, and answer the simple question: which one is better?
The first round will showcase the bread-and-butter of any pizzeria: the plain slice. Eight will advance with the opportunity for greatness. The other eight will stay home… and continue to make great pizza, because let’s face it. There’s no such thing as a bad slice around here.
Attention, readers: there are still opportunities to become judges in the 2012 Bay Ridge Pizzeria Bracket Challenge. If you’re interested, let us know as soon as possible by e-mail (info@bayridgeodyssey.com). The cost of the pizza will be covered by the Bay Ridge Odyssey.
Apr 172012
A sample from a recent digest (click to enlarge).
There are a few different ways you can follow the stories on Bay Ridge Odyssey. My favorite is relentlessly clicking “refresh” on my web browser, which I highly recommend. But there’s more than one way to skin a cat (which I do NOT recommend). I have two other ways I like to keep up here – one of them is my subscription to the Odyssey’s daily digest – the e-mail that excerpts of all of our stories for the day.
Since I hate spam, I’ve crafted the daily digest in a way that I find interesting and helpful, instead of repetitive and spammy, in the hopes that you would derive the same value from it. It goes out at 3pm. In my office environment, that’s the time for a short break, coffee, or whatever. The perfect time to catch up on some local news.
It works perfectly for me, because I get to find out what’s going on before I leave for the day and without interfering with my normal work routine.
Sometimes I use that digest e-mail to drop little hints of projects that are coming down the pike, and give readers the opportunity to participate. That’s pretty cool, yeah?
So people – if this sounds interesting, please sign up. All we need is your e-mail address, which we never share or sell to anybody, for any reason.
You can use the signup form in the right sidebar, or click right here. Thanks!
Apr 162012
I followed through on a threat that I made a couple of weeks ago in discussing the Bay Ridge Festival of the Arts – I bought a plant at the festival’s spring plant sale benefiting the Guild For Exceptional Children. On the surface, you may not think that constitutes much of a threat, unless you have seen what happens to plants in my care. They die. Horribly.
Once, growing up, I managed to let a cactus die. More recently, I grew/tortured the Charlie Brown Christmas tree of tomato plants, with a small, sad little tomato making the whole thing droop like that Charles Schultz icon.
But I swore to you that this little plant will be cared for. This little plant will thrive. Accomplish great things! Readers: I want you to meet Ulysses, the new Official Plant of the Bay Ridge Odyssey Blog.
Ulysses is a geranium. I know this because the person who sold it said so, not because of any ability I have to identify plants. Amazing how the ability to recite all of the Doctor’s time-traveling companions since Sarah Jane Smith without Googling them doesn’t translate into the ability to tell a geranium from… some other kind of plant. It’s not a relative of uranium, that’s all I’m really sure of.
I named Ulysses because I thought it would be cool if a web site called Odyssey had a mascot named Ulysses. I also did it in the hopes that personalizing him would make me less likely to allow him to die.
Maybe when he’s older and a little more grown up (he’s supposed to be transferred to a bigger pot in about a month), he can come out to parties and meet the readers of the site. Until then, you can follow Ulysses on our Facebook page. He has his own photo album. You can Like the page here.
Apr 162012
Bay Ridge Odyssey received the following press release from the office of Councilman Vincent Gentile:
Sunday, April 22 is Earth Day. Each year events are held worldwide to increase awareness and appreciation of the Earth’s natural environment. This year Councilman Gentile is sponsoring a community clean-up. From 65th Street to 101st Street on Third and Fifth Avenues and New Utrecht Avenue from 70th to 86th Streets, we’ll all pitch-in and give our neighborhood a much-deserved spring cleaning!
If you are interested in volunteering, please email your information to jbrannan@council.nyc.gov
The cleanup is this Sunday, April 22, starting at noon.
Apr 162012
I took this picture on Easter Sunday, on my way down to the Shore Road Park, just as the weather was turning gorgeous. Today, the temperature is supposed to approach 90 degrees. In fact, this past weekend, many of you may have learned the lesson we all learn every April, because we forget it by the time the next April rolls around. And that lesson is, it is time to buy sunblock.
Do you have a photo you would like considered for inclusion in our Seen In Photos series? Please let us know by sending an e-mail to info@bayridgeodyssey.com.
Apr 142012
This is more than an excuse to geek out on Doctor Who - I love a good story about communicating with someone in the same place but different time via magic mirror. (BBC Cymru Wales)
Tomorrow night (April 15), at 6pm, the Ridge Repertory Company will bring a new musical called “Mirror, Mirror… A Musical In Seven Times” to the Bay Ridge Jewish Center. Susan Bucci, one of the writers, says this about “Mirror, Mirror:”
This play is about the tenants living a Manhattan brownstone over a period from roughly 1870 to 2011. The story covers these people and what happens to them at various points in their lives and how they interact with one another across time through the use of a magic mirror. While the play does have a certain fantasy element to it,it is really more of a musical drama with 21 original songs.
Director James Martinelli adds, “Being touched and and cared for doesn’t only happen with people of the present, it happens from people of the past.”
If you aren’t able to make tomorrow’s showing, “Mirror, Mirror” will run again next Sunday, April 22. Admission is $10, and includes coffee. The play should run about two hours, plus intermission.
The Bay Ridge Jewish Center is located at 405 81st Street.
Apr 142012
The 44th Annual Bay Ridge Festival of the Arts is going on right now at the Good Shepard Lutheran Church, and continues until tomorrow. In addition to the artwork, there’s a plant sale (daffodils!) (also, geraniums!) that benefits the Guild For Exceptional Children. Be sure to check out the entire exhibit this weekend.
Do you have a photo you would like considered for inclusion in our Seen In Photos series? Please let us know by sending an e-mail to info@bayridgeodyssey.com.
Apr 132012
Everything old is new again. Behold, the future of bicycle parking. Photo: Etsy.com
The Department of Transportation is considering a proposal to reuse old-school parking meters – rendered obsolete by electronic muni-meters – as parking for bicycles, a move cheered by Third Avenue store owners, according to Brooklyn Daily. The proposal is supported by several people, including Third Avenue Merchants president Robert Howe and former chairman of Community Board 10, Bob Cassara. (Muni-meters are expected to be installed this fall.)
I was in Williamsburg this past Monday evening, where I can assure you, the local bike-riding population has already made substantial use of parking meters as bike racks. But then, Williamsburg has become the nation’s most important enclave of seventh-year seniors and other grown adults who aren’t. Will meters-as-bike-parking be embraced by the Bay Ridge community?
Anthony Loupos, owner of the newly-opened Glow Thai, told the Brooklyn Daily, “Last fall on a nice day we would see four or five tables per day come on bicycle.” Cassara added, “We should be doing more things like this. Any merchants who are against this aren’t informed about how having more people on bikes can increase business.”
Speaking for myself, I don’t have a car, but I have a bicycle. An increase of bicycle parking would be great for those trips that are a bit past walking distance, but not seemingly worth the hassle of getting on the subway or the bus. What do you think? Would this plan be a help or hindrance?
Apr 132012
Community Board 10 will meet at Knights of Columbus on 86th Street.
On Monday, April 16, Community Board 10 will meet at Knights of Columbus (1305 86th Street) at 7:15. The agenda, pulled from the CB10 web site, follows:
- Traffic & Transportation Committee: Streetnaming request for Andrew Torregrossa Jr. Memorial Way, corner of 13th Avenue & 79th Street; Update on presentation by NYC DOT on Hylan Blvd. Select Bus Service project, including a proposal for bus stop modification for S79 Bus.
- Sub Committee on Outdoor Cafes: DCA Renewable Revocable Consent application for an unenclosed sidewalk cafe at Little Cupcake Corp., 9102 3rd Avenue, for 7 tables and 14 seats, License #1220615.
- Police & Public Safety Committee: SLA On Premise Application for Cafe Zio Toto, Inc., 8320 3rd Avenue; SLA On Premise Application for Hamilton Parkway Corp., 7102 Fort Hamilton Parkway; SLA On Premise Application for Good World Inc., 834 62nd Street; Update on review of CB10 required standard form for SLA Application.
- Environmental Committee: Update on presentation regarding NYC Clean Heat Program.
- Ad Hoc Street Naming Committee: Continued review of current CB10 Street Naming Guidelines.
- Communications & Public Relations Committee: Report on March 24th CB10 Tour of Harbor Defense Museum at Fort Hamilton Army Base. Continue reading »