On Monday I walked past Housing Works Thrift Shop on Fifth Avenue. The shop was closed because the staff was busily preparing for a big event the next day. The showroom, on the corner of Garfield Place, was crammed with newly arrived furniture that needed to be priced. Through the window, I spotted a contemporary dining room table with four matching chairs with white upholstered seats. The legs were a pretty cherry wood color while the top had a green glass surface. Best of all, it looked like it folded out to be a much bigger table if the occasion required. I immediately called a friend.  "…

While I wasn't able to attend the Community Bookstore’s 40th Anniversary reading at Old First Reformed Church on Saturday, I did drop by the after-party at the bookstore just in time to hear an employee, who was wearing a morning suit, read aloud from an official proclamation from the Brooklyn Borough President. It declared September 17, 2011 “Community Bookstore Day.”  "Whereas, it is a Brooklyn tradition to honor those organizations and individuals that display exemplary leadership and commitment to the people of their neighborhood and the borough..." the proclamation read.   Ezra Goldstein…

All over Park Slope, kids are returning to school. Some return to the same school they went to last year, transitioning from one grade to another with new classrooms and teachers. Yet, others have graduated and they are entering an entirely different learning environment: from pre-school to kindergarten, from elementary to middle school, from middle to high school. That means new buildings, new teachers, new administrators and new kids. In other words: it's a big, big deal. My daughter happens to be one of those former middle schoolers and now can proudly call herself “a high school student…

Unbelievably, the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks is just days away. In my quest to understand how people are feeling about this disastrous event, I contacted clergy in the Park Slope area to see how they would be thinking on the anniversary of an event that changed New York City and the nation, and surely changed New Yorkers.  "It strikes me that we're still in a case of low-level shock, and we still haven't faced all the meaning of what we experienced," Reverend Daniel Meeter of Old First Dutch Reformed Church wrote via E-mail. Since the anniversary falls on a Sunday, …

By 10 a.m. on Saturday, hours before Hurricane Irene swept through Park Slope, Met Food sold its last bottle of water and was out of batteries. An orderly queue emanated from Connecticut Muffin and snaked to the corner of First Street. "I guess people are stocking up on caffeine and almond croissants," my sister joked. Someone standing in line told us that Starbucks was closed and we realized why the wait was so long. The woman’s comment reminded me of the days before the Seattle-based beanery and mega-franchise popped up on Seventh Avenue, when Connecticut Muffin was the only café in town…

When my children were young, I loved reading "Charlotte’s Web" aloud to them and was always struck by the poetic passage at the beginning of Chapter 15. "The crickets sang in the grasses. They sang the song of summer’s ending, a sad monotonous song. ‘Summer is over and gone,’ they sang. ‘Over and gone, over and gone. Summer is dying, dying." In Park Slope we don’t need crickets to tell us that summer is coming to an end. There are already too many reminders that sleepy summer days will soon be replaced by the ADD of real life. The morning crowds at Connecticutt Muffin will return. It will be …

After seven years on Court Street in Carroll Gardens, Cosbi A. Cabrera has added her airy clothing shop, Cosbi, to that stretch of Fifth Avenue (between Fourth and Fifth streets) which used to house an antique store called Under the Pig and the sex toys emporium, the Pink Pussycat.             Her new space, which features her Brooklyn-made line of women’s and children’s wear has an attractive, muted look. There are antique display cases filled with enticing jewelry, a vintage high chair in the children’s section, a wire birdcage and a stack of children’s books, including the award winning "…

The night I got back from my recent trip to Europe I ran into Charlotte, a good friend of mine, on Seventh Avenue and she told me that we were going to be having a sleepover date.  Well, not exactly a sleepover date. Charlotte, who is a member of Congregation Beth Elohim, had volunteered us to be Overnight Shelter Hosts at the new homeless respite shelter at Old First.  "You volunteered me to do what?" I said loud and clear standing on the corner of Third Street in front of Cheeburger Cheeburger.  "It'll be fun. We'll stay up all night and talk," she said.  I didn't really know what to say, …

During my two-week vacation in Europe earlier this month, I found myself thinking about Park Slope in expected places. I spent a day in Munich en route to Berlin and was amazed by how bike friendly that city is. It made me wonder why some in Park Slope are making such a big deal about the Prospect Park bike lane. Munich is miles ahead of most American cities when it comes to biking. There are bike lanes everywhere and everyone, young and old, rides their bikes around town. In fact I saw many elderly people on bikes with big baskets, doing their grocery shopping and errands. It looked like …

How many Brooklynites does it take to publish Construction, Brooklyn’s newest online literary magazine? One from Park Slope, two from Fort Greene, and one via Skype from South Korea. The group met as creative writing graduate students at City College, where they first had the idea to start a magazine. A few months ago, David Plick, Masha Udensiva-Brenner, Nathan Schiller and
Domenick Acocella (via Skype) got to work at Masha’s kitchen table in Fort Greene. And there it began, the latest in a flock of serious new Brooklyn-based literary endeavors, that before Construction included One Story, …

So, who’s a real Park Sloper? Are there people who have a more legitimate claim to this neighborhood than others? Do you have to have been born here—or to have moved here before a certain date—to be considered authentic? Sounds pretty silly, doesn’t it? Still, Park Slope residents tend to project a sense of ownership and/or authority depending on when they moved into neighborhood. Many have mixed feelings and/or various degrees of antipathy towards the residents who moved here after they did. With each migration, comes more affluence and a different set of core values. This can create a …

What could be more American than a Fourth of July barbecue on Third Street? Over the years we’ve had plenty of them in the front yard, the cement beach of our eight-unit, rent-stabilized apartment building. Indeed, the identical limestone apartment buildings on the block between Sixth and Seventh avenues, of which there are ten or so, have large, gated front yards that are perfect for child’s play, hanging out—and urban barbecues. Our building’s summer barbecues are legend. Or so we like to think. And we believe we started the tradition, though others may differ (discuss among yourselves). …

So, who’s a real Park Sloper? Are there people who have a more legitimate claim to this neighborhood than others? Do you have to have been born here—or to have moved here before a certain date—to be considered authentic? I think not. New York City is a city of immigrants. Just about everyone who lives here is from someplace else. That’s why this question of authenticity strikes me as anathema to what this city is all about. Indeed, the neighborhoods of New York seem to be in a constant state of flux (and gentrification) as one population is replaced or intermixed by another. That seems to be …

A lot of people call themselves Slopers. Sure, sure, you live somewhere between Flatbush Avenue and Green-Wood Cemetery. But do you really know the neighborhood inside and out? Were you born here or did you move here after it became chic, cool and expensive? What is a real Sloper, anyway? Aside from an address, it’s a tough thing to define. In my opinion, you should know some history of the place you call home and have a working knowledge of the people, places and things that make Park Slope Park Slope. Take the test and see just how Slopey you really are. The answers will be provided next …

Urban legends abound in Park Slope. There are certain buildings, people and places that arouse curiosity and stories—both real and apocryphal. It is a rare Sloper who doesn’t have a story or a curiosity about the dilapidated building on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Second Street. Dubbed “the house that whimsy built” by The New York Times a few years ago, it is owned by an elderly woman named Dorothy Nash, who at one time lived in the building with her daughters. I don’t think they are still living there. Last year I heard that Nash had sold the building to a developer but then tried to …

I grew up in a 12-story, rent-controlled apartment building on Riverside Drive in Manhattan. I learned early on that it was okay to borrow milk, butter and other necessities from certain neighbors and that one of the elevator men was something of a perv. As a family, we were friendly with roughly one third of the people in the building (there were 60 apartments) and the rest were either slightly mysterious or to be avoided. As a child, I frequently played with the other children in the building. There was no need to make what we now call a “playdate.” It was sufficient to simply ring the …

It is the Friday before Memorial Day weekend and Seventh Avenue is filled with Slopers in a jovial summertime mood. You can’t miss it: locals in shorts, tank tops and exotic European sandals carrying iced coffees or cones from Uncle Louie G’s, Haggen Daz or Yogo Monster. On this festive Friday, the temperature is in the eighties, the sky is a fetching shade of blue and the vibe on Slope’s main drag is decidedly low key and recreational. Really, what’s not to like about Park Slope in the summer? We’ve got park, we’ve got trees, we’ve got the Prospect Park West bike lane and a nearby botanical …

As you’ve probably noticed, JJ Byrne Park and playground (on Fifth Avenue between Third and Fourth streets,) is currently surrounded by a chain link fence as it undergoes a $4 million dollar renovation that includes two new play spaces for kids of different ages and a seating area with café tables for adults. There’s also talk of adding concessions, a picnic area, a water fountain, new landscaping and expanding the playstreet hours on the cul de sac on Fourth Street between the park and MS 51. It’s all good — and great news for a neighborhood, which depends on the recreational and cultural …

Maybe ten minutes into my interview with John Donohue, author of “Man with a Pan, Culinary Adventures of Fathers Who Cook for Their Families,” I found myself envying his wife. I mean, this guy not only prepares breakfast, lunch and dinner, but he shops for the groceries, too. Donohue, who has lived in Park Slope for 15 years and used to live across the street from the Park Slope Food Coop (and is, of course, a member), loves to think about food, write about food and, most importantly, prepare food for his wife and daughters, Aurora, 7, and Isis, 4. Donohue, a cartoonist and editor at The New …

One Story, a literary magazine based in Park Slope, is a publication with a mission, talent, heart—and a great idea. First, about the mission: in 2001, publisher Marybeth Batcha, a magazine circulation pro, and Hannah Tinti, award-winning author of The Good Thief and Animal Crackers, had the idea to start a short story magazine. “After 9/11 everyone was having that moment: 'If I’m going to do something I better do it now.' We thought it would be a small thing that maybe 100 friends or ours would read," Tinti told me over the phone. "But it took off in an enormous way. Now we're one of the …