On a recent Tuesday afternoon at Gregor Gracie Jiu-Jitsu in Brooklyn Bridge Park, a black belt named Mark was pinning a student noticeably bigger than him to the mat. To the untrained eye, it looked like two people wrestling. Gregor Gracie saw a game of chess.

“Every single thing — the way he got the head, where his knee is — there’s a purpose,” he said.

In jiu-jitsu, size matters less than leverage, Gracie explained. That’s by design, he said: His grandfather, Carlos Gracie, an “extremely skinny” man who struggled to pull off the strength-based moves of Japanese jujitsu, helped develop the Brazilian version around technique instead.

Gracie, a world championship medalist, is a member of the Gracie family, often called jiu-jitsu’s royal family. One of his uncles, Rorion Gracie, co-founded the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the 1990s. In the first UFC, in 1993, Rorion’s younger brother Royce Gracie used Brazilian jiu-jitsu to beat much larger opponents and win the tournament, a turning point for the sport’s popularity.

Jiu-jitsu is “basically a family tradition,” Gracie said. “Almost everyone became a black belt then followed that career.”

In August, he won the masters tournament at BJJ Stars 19, a professional jiu-jitsu event, beating 15 other veteran competitors. He called it “one of the biggest accomplishments” of his career. One opponent, he said, weighed about 260 pounds to his 190.

Gracie first opened his Brooklyn gym in a small space next to Kaigo Coffee Room in October 2017. After the pandemic forced him to close for more than a year, Gracie reopened next door in a nearly 5,000-square-foot space that had housed a kids’ activity center.

He said he was initially looking for a space in Park Slope, which he’d heard was a good neighborhood for families. But as he explored more of Brooklyn, he kept coming back to Brooklyn Heights to eat and walk around, especially in the summer. “When I came here for the first time, I said, ‘Wow, this is really nice,’” said Gracie, who lives in Carroll Gardens.

Now, his students range from 3-year-olds to people in their 70s, and about half are kids. Some families train together: One mother and her three kids all take classes. Many students live nearby, some in the same building, while others come from elsewhere in Brooklyn and from Manhattan.

Almost all of the gym’s instructors came up through its classes. “I don’t really hire from outside,” Gracie said. “I like to keep the philosophy of the gym.”

That philosophy is “all about respect and helping each other and community,” he said. “Most of the people here are friends.”

Most adult students are men, but the gym also offers women’s classes. Many women start there, Gracie said, then join the mixed classes, where men and women train together. Gracie said jiu-jitsu, built around leverage instead of strength, is especially useful for women defending themselves against bigger attackers.

The sport is also therapeutic, Gracie said, as it forces you to stay calm under pressure. “It doesn’t matter what kind of problem you’re having in your day,” he said. “When someone’s on top of you trying to choke you, you’re present.”

He encourages most of his students to push themselves and compete at least once. “It’s a very unique feeling going through a competition,” he said. After you compete, “you understand yourself a little bit better.”

As for what’s next, Gracie said he has no big plans, though he’d like to expand someday. “Just keep reaching people and keep making things a little bit better for everyone,” he said.

Heights Happenings

• There seems to be a trash problem at 269 Henry Street. Neighbors have posted signs around the block asking people to report the building to 311, saying the building continues to leave trash bags on the sidewalk, resulting in a “rat infestation.” Since the building’s owner, Townhouse Rental V LLC, bought it in February 2024, the address has drawn 66 sanitation complaints, 33 of which ended in Notices of Violation from the Department of Sanitation, according to city 311 records. Health Department inspectors also found violations three times after rodent complaints. The owner did not respond to a request for comment sent through its attorney’s office.

• The Art of Play drama continues. As we all likely know by now, Kelly Clarkson lambasted Art of Play, the curiosity shop on Atlantic Avenue, in a post to her 8.8 million followers on X last weekend. (We won’t get into the details, but the debate centered on an animatronic bird named Molly, which is now “on sale” for $15 million.) Clarkson’s five-minute shopping trip sparked an internet firestorm, garnering coverage from multiple major news outlets. (It also became a New Yorker cartoon.) CCTV footage released by video podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” added even more fuel to the fire. One of the store’s co-owners, Adam Rubin, told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle that employees, neighbors and customers have been getting threatening phone calls and text messages, and “people are showing up and screaming at us in person.” “Kelly Clarkson has put us in danger,” Rubin told Curbed.

• Electric Lady Florals is taking over Eleventh Hour Art tonight through Sunday. Expect fresh and dried botanical installations, plus new work by four other artists. There’s an opening reception tonight from 6 to 8 p.m.

• Jules is turning two. The pizza restaurant on Henry Street is having a two-year anniversary party on Saturday, Oct. 17 starting at 10 p.m.

• Packer’s pumpkin patch is this weekend. The school is bringing back its annual fall festival with rides, bounce houses, a magic show and carnival games on Sunday, Oct. 18 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wristbands for the block party start at $75 per person.

• There’s a new bat box in Brooklyn Bridge Park. BBP’s horticulture team installed the park’s first bat box on the Ferryview Lawn on Pier 6. It’s a new home for the two species of bats that live in the park: the eastern red bat and the silver-haired bat. (If you see a bat, do not touch it!)

• The Brooklyn Heights Association’s Spooky Stoop Contest is back. Send a photo of your favorite decorated stoop in the neighborhood to BHA via Instagram DM by Sunday, Oct. 25. Neighbors will vote for the winner the week of Halloween. The categories are: classic; chic and stylish; kid-friendly; and over the top.

• NYC DOT released details on a BQE town hall. There will be a public information session on the BQE Central Project at Brooklyn Borough Hall at 209 Joralemon St. on Thursday, Oct. 29 from 6 to 8 p.m.

• Help plant daffodils in Cadman Plaza Park. The park’s conservancy is looking for volunteers to help plant thousands of daffodil bulbs in Juneteenth Grove on Saturday, Oct. 24 from 10 a.m. to noon.

• Get your dog’s Halloween costume ready. There are two dog costume contests coming up in the area:

  • Montague Diner’s dog costume contest will take place on Sunday, Oct. 25 from noon to 2 p.m. near the diner on Montague Street.

  • Howl-o-Ween, a dog costume contest in Dumbo, will be held on Washington Street on Oct. 31 at 2 p.m. The prize categories: Most Original, Best Owner/Pet Duo and Best in Show/Cutest/Coolest.

Nearby News

• Vintage furniture is coming to Brooklyn Flea this weekend. Dozens of furniture vendors are bringing vintage lighting, mid-century furniture and other pieces to Dumbo Archway Plaza on Sunday, Oct. 18 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Someday Bar is haunted! Black Lagoon, a traveling Halloween pop-up, is taking over the bar on Atlantic Avenue in Boerum Hill through Nov. 1. There are spooky decorations and drinks like Abyssa’s Obsession, a pumpkin-infused rum drink, and Bone Temple, a take on a margarita with cherry and absinthe.

• Stoop Stories is having a stoop soiree. The organization is hosting its second annual fundraiser on Marj’s stoop at 163 Bergen St. on Saturday, Oct. 17 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Join for stoop hanging, snacks and bric-à-brac shopping.

• Open House New York is this weekend. The annual festival that opens up over 300 destinations across the city for tours and special activities has several locations in the area: the Center for Brooklyn History and Brooklyn Borough Hall in the Heights; Kings County Distillery in Brooklyn Navy Yard; and the 1914 Lehigh Valley Railroad Barge and historic tanker ship Mary A. Whalen in Red Hook. Check out the map here.

• Learn about whiskey at Sunken Harbor Club. Robert Simonson, an award-winning author and cocktail writer for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, is presenting his new book “Bourbon and Rye Cocktails: The History of American Whiskey in 73 Recipes” at the tiki bar above Gage & Tollner in Downtown Brooklyn on Sunday, Oct. 18. Reserve a spot here.

• Trudie’s Tavern was reviewed in The New Yorker. The Court Street restaurant, a follow-up to Gertrude’s and Gertie, is a “bastion of playfully Ashkenazi-ish cooking,” Helen Rosner wrote.

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The New York City Department of Transportation on Tuesday held a virtual Q&A session on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway rehabilitation project, where residents raised concerns about its impact on parks, pedestrian pathways and traffic — and questioned whether the highway should be rebuilt at all.

In August, Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled a roughly $4 billion plan to fix a crumbling stretch of the BQE, including the triple cantilever beneath the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. The plan includes building temporary roadways to keep the highway operable during construction and avoid sending traffic onto local streets.

DOT recently released new renderings of the temporary highways, first reported by Streetsblog, that show where the bypasses would go.

The first temporary bypass would travel over Furman Street from Atlantic Avenue to Columbia Heights at the same elevation as the existing highway, preserving two-way traffic. The second bypass, for Queens-bound traffic only, would run from Columbia Heights to just before the Manhattan Bridge, routing directly above the Brooklyn Bridge approach. Both bypasses would be removed after construction is complete.

Tiffany-Ann Taylor, DOT’s chief strategy officer, called the design “the most conservative proposal” the city has put forward but stressed that it isn’t final. DOT engineers are still studying other alignments and ways to lower some of the bypasses, she said.

A major concern among residents is the project’s impact on the promenade. Dumbo resident Lara Zizic, who has walked dogs along “every foot of the promenade,” said she’s still confused about how the work will affect it.

Taylor said the agency is working to keep at least a portion of the promenade open at all times. “As long as it is safe and feasible throughout the construction life of this project, we are maintaining access to the promenade,” she said. “We have heard folks over and over that it is a really important open space to the community and to visitors alike, so we have committed to that.”

Work would move along the promenade several spans at a time, either north to south or south to north, said Matt Kusy, an engineer on the project.

The promenade isn’t the only public space in the project’s path. Squibb Park, Hillside Dog Park and Harry Chapin Playground would all be temporarily affected, according to DOT. Harry Chapin Playground would be removed during construction and rebuilt afterward, the agency said.

At least one change wouldn’t be temporary. A corner of Squibb Park would be permanently taken to make room for a rebuilt overpass in the Columbia Heights area, according to Kusy, who described it as “minor permanent alienation.”

The city can’t use parkland for anything else, even temporarily, without approval from Albany, a process known as “parkland alienation.” That means state lawmakers will have to sign off on both the temporary use of the parks and the permanent loss of part of Squibb Park.

Several residents raised concerns about being “stuck” between construction zones. With three major projects underway — the Watchtower project at 25–30 Columbia Heights, the BQE rebuild and the Brooklyn Marine Terminal development — the waterfront from Dumbo to Red Hook could see years of overlapping construction.

Debra Tackney, a member of the Columbia Street Waterfront Association, said her neighborhood already struggles with gridlock traffic “on a continuous basis.” With potential congestion from both the BQE rebuild and BMT project, “our quality of life is being impacted on both fronts,” she said.

Those who live at the border of Brooklyn Heights and Dumbo, near construction zones for both the Watchtower project and the BQE repairs, face a similar issue. Barry Harbaugh, who lives on Old Fulton Street, said the construction could affect his kids’ commute up the hill to PS 8. “Especially with the Watchtower construction, it just seems like we’re going to be totally stuck.”

Another issue is the timeline: 10 years is a long time to live near a construction site, residents argued, and it may end up taking longer. Taylor said 10 years is DOT’s best estimate but doesn’t account for potential delays from land use review or lawsuits. She also acknowledged criticism of DOT’s use of the word “temporary” to describe the bypasses. “In this instance, it’s a long time temporary,” she said, adding that the structures are “not designed to be permanent.”

Some residents went further, calling for the city to tear the highway down entirely. Resident Andrew McLaughlin pointed to Robert Moses, who built the BQE.

“The original sin here is this horrific act of disfigurement that plows through Brooklyn and Queens, chokes our neighborhoods with pollution, threatens our children with traffic violence,” he said. “It’s a tremendous mistake, and I personally feel a deep sense of betrayal that this administration is proceeding with an extension of the life of this horrific act of violence on the city of New York.”

DOT officials framed the rebuild as overdue and unavoidable. The cantilevered section opened in 1954 with a 50-year design life. At more than 70 years old, it’s “beyond its design life,” Taylor said. “It is not at a failure, but we do not want to get to that point in time.”

Heights Happenings

• The Brooklyn Heights Designer Showhouse is in full swing. A cohort of 19 designers transformed the 1850s Greek-Italianate mansion at 1 Monroe Place for the biennial event, which opened last week. The showhouse will be open to the public until Sunday, Nov. 1, with opening hours on Thursdays and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The lineup of events includes mahjong open play sessions, trunk shows and a panel with The Brownstone Boys.

• More BQE meetings ahead. DOT will hold another virtual Q&A on Thursday, Oct. 22 at 11 a.m., and there’s a town hall on the project on Thursday, Oct. 29, with details to come. Public scoping meetings follow on Tuesday, Nov. 10 (in person, location TBA) and Thursday, Nov. 12 (virtual), and written comments on the draft scope are due Monday, Nov. 23. You can submit them through an online comment form, by emailing BQECentral@dot.nyc.gov or by mail. Details here.

• Lantern is becoming Khiao Savoey. The owners of Lantern plan to reopen the space as Khiao Savoey, a Thai restaurant, according to a liquor license application filed with Community Board 2. A menu filed with the application lists classics like pad thai and green curry alongside specials such as lobster tail and soft-shell crab.

• Darling is hosting a parent workshop. Parenting coach Maura Eden will lead “SPOT ON! Finding Your Focus in the Family Dance” at the Atlantic Avenue children’s store on Wednesday, Oct. 14 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tickets here.

• A pet pop-up is coming to L’Appartement 4F. Pet apparel brand Fren is doing a one-day pop-up at the bakery on Montague Street on Saturday, Oct. 10 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. There will be complimentary pup cups, custom embroidery and mini prints by Cait’s House.

• Both sides of Remsen? A resident is asking CB2’s Transportation & Public Safety Committee to allow parking on both sides of Remsen Street between Hicks and Henry streets. Right now the north side is legal only on Tuesdays, and the south side every day but Tuesday, so only one curb is ever legally parked. The proposal would copy Joralemon Street’s setup: both sides are parkable, with a 1.5-hour street-cleaning window on each side. The committee is scheduled to consider it tonight.

• It’s Banned Books Week. Books Are Magic is hosting a panel on how to protect the freedom to read at the Brooklyn Heights Library tonight from 6 to 7 p.m. The panel will feature the NYCLU’s Executive Director Donna Lieberman, school library media specialist Karissa O’Reilly, PEN America’s Freedom to Read Senior Manager Philomena Polefrone and authors Dr. Sonja Cherry-Paul and Rhonda Roumani. Books Are Magic is also putting free copies of banned books in its Little Free Library near its Smith Street location all week.

• Montague Open Streets is going western this weekend. There will be a hoedown with Hopalong Andrew, the “countrified king of New York City’s family entertainment scene,” and square dancing on Sunday, Oct. 11 from noon to 4 p.m.

• Salter House released a schedule of fall events. The lineup includes a live podcast recording with Mandylion Press on Thursday, Oct. 15; a lecture on “Frankenstein” on Thursday, Oct. 29; a book launch of “These Long Shadows: Women’s House Museums in the American South” on Thursday, Nov. 5; and a celebration of “Needlebound,” a zine about the online fiber arts community, on Thursday, Nov. 12. All events are from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Picture Room at 117 Atlantic Ave.

• Meet your street trees. At a City of Forest Day tree care event last weekend, an organizer shared the New York City Tree Map, where you can learn more about the trees in your neighborhood — the type of tree, inspection results, tree care activity and ecological benefits. (This pin oak on Pineapple Street provides $402.65 in benefits each year, according to the Tree Map.)

• Min Jin Lee’s “American Hagwon” is the Brooklyn Heights Association’s next book club pick. The BHA Book Club will be discussing the “Pachinko” author’s latest novel at Vineapple in mid-November. You can buy a copy for 20% off at Books Are Magic if you mention the BHA Book Club. Book club tickets will go on sale later this month.

• The Service Collective is hosting a community dinner with newly arrived refugee families. The community welcome dinner will take place at St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church at 157 Montague St. on Wednesday, Oct. 14 from 6 to 8 p.m.

• The Harvest Festival returns. Brooklyn Bridge Park’s annual fall festival is coming back to Pier 6 on Saturday, Oct. 17 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. There will be a mini pumpkin patch, arts and crafts stations, a Dolly Parton cover band and other activities.

Nearby News

• Old Fulton Street has a new name. The street in Dumbo has been renamed Patsy and Carol Grimaldi Way to honor the husband-and-wife duo who brought their coal-fired pizza to the neighborhood in 1990.

• One of the country’s biggest landlords is accused of a $40M rent overcharge in Downtown Brooklyn. Rent-stabilized tenants in three Downtown Brooklyn AvalonBay buildings sued the landlord Monday, alleging they were illegally overcharged $40 million, Crain’s reported. The suit follows an investigation by tenant watchdog Housing Rights Initiative.

• An NYPD officer ran a red light and hit a cyclist in Boerum Hill on Monday. The officer, driving an unmarked car on Atlantic Avenue, went through the light at Hoyt Street around 5 p.m. while four cyclists and six pedestrians were already crossing, according to witnesses and security footage obtained by Streetsblog. The cyclist was taken to the hospital.

• An old firehouse has a new purpose. After sitting empty for more than 20 years, the Engine Company 204 firehouse on Degraw Street in Cobble Hill is becoming a home and music school for the Noel Pointer Foundation, a nonprofit that offers string music education to underserved New York City youth, Brooklyn Paper reported.

• Seven Wonders Collective is having a Japanese selvedge denim pop-up. The vintage store at 398 Atlantic Ave. is selling vintage denim from Bek Res for the month of October.

• Roebling Rink is coming back next month. The ice skating rink in Brooklyn Bridge Park will return on Saturday, Nov. 14 and run through January 2027. Tickets and details coming soon.

• Collier West is turning 15. The home goods store is having a 15th anniversary party on Thursday, Oct. 15 from 4 to 6 p.m. at all three shops.

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On a windy Friday morning at the Pier 5 picnic area in Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn Heights nannies came together to celebrate National Nanny Recognition Week and start organizing for better pay.

The gathering, one of two such events in the neighborhood last week, was organized by the Carroll Gardens Association (CGA), a longstanding nonprofit on Columbia Street pushing for domestic worker rights, affordable housing and other issues.

CGA’s member-led organization for nannies, the Carroll Gardens Nanny Association, offers legal support and workforce training such as child nutrition classes, newborn care training, negotiation workshops and resume reviews.

Last year, CGA organized a “Raise the Rate” campaign in Carroll Gardens. Now, it’s bringing that campaign to Brooklyn Heights and other neighborhoods.

The campaign aims to raise the base hourly rate for nannies to $30. “We’re building the confidence, building power, having a voice,” said Charon Best, a domestic neighborhood organizer with CGA who worked as a nanny for years. “It’s about coming together. Put your religion, your culture behind and just working together in unity.”

Best has been handing out surveys to nannies in the neighborhood to gather information on what issues matter most — contracts, negotiations, sick days — to help narrow the campaign’s focus. She said CGA is also working with Councilmember Lincoln Restler’s office on nannies’ concerns.

At the Friday event, several nannies spoke about the value of their work and the power of sticking together. “Nannying is more than a job,” said Christine, a Brooklyn Heights nanny who gave only her first name. “It’s a profession that requires skills, dedication, patience and care.”

“Our voices matter. Our work matters,” she said. “Together, let’s stand, because divided we fall and united we stand.”

The push comes in an industry with little built-in protection. Most nannies are women, many are immigrants and many are paid off the books, often without written contracts. That means many of them don’t earn Social Security credits for their work and can have trouble collecting unemployment if they lose their jobs.

According to the National Domestic Workers Alliance’s analysis of Census data, 94% of domestic workers in New York City are women and 78% were born outside the U.S.

In 2010, New York became the first state in the country to pass a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, extending protections that many domestic workers lack under federal law. The law guarantees nannies, house cleaners and caregivers overtime pay after 40 hours a week, or 44 for those who live with their employers, along with a weekly day of rest, three paid days off a year after their first year on the job and protection from harassment.

But the law doesn’t require employers to provide retirement benefits or severance, gaps organizers say leave longtime nannies vulnerable when a job ends.

“Many workers, they stay for such a long time working with families and I think they deserve at least the retirement or the severance payment,” said Rosemary Martinez, a domestic worker organizer with CGA.

“Imagine those workers who are earning $20 or $25 in New York City right now, you know, it’s so expensive,” she said. “They have to think about their future as well.”

The current political climate and a tight job market have made some nannies wary of speaking up, Martinez said. “They’re a little bit hesitant to get involved.”

For those who do get involved, the campaign can pay off.

Lina, a Boerum Hill nanny who gave only her first name, has more than 20 years of experience and has worked for the same family for six years. Until last year, she was paid less than the campaign’s $30 target. Through Raise the Rate, she negotiated a raise that brought her above it.

Before she found CGA, she said, she accepted whatever she was offered. “No, that’s good money for me, that’s good,” she recalled telling employers. “Before I met them, I didn’t know anything,” she said in Spanish. Now, she said, “I know my rights.”

“The employer is not the problem,” Lina added. “The problem is us.”

Several nannies said they work for families who pay them fairly. Heidi Theophilus, a Brooklyn Heights nanny for more than nine years, negotiated her pay when she started with a new family. She asked for $30 an hour and settled on $28, with yearly raises and overtime pay. “They’re really, really nice and my hours are amazing,” she said.

But not everyone speaks up. “A lot of nannies, they’ve been through situations where they cannot speak to their employer,” Theophilus said. “They feel scared, they feel like their employer is going to fire them, like they have no rights.”

“We all have rights in this country, no matter if you take a boat or a plane, if you don’t have a green card,” she said. “We all have equal rights.”

Heights Happenings

• Several neighborhood events were rescheduled due to last weekend’s nor’easter:

  • The neighborhood open tag sale at Montague Open Streets will now take place on Oct. 4 from noon to 4 p.m.

  • Atlantic Antic was pushed to Oct. 4 from noon to 6 p.m.

  • Daybreaker’s Alive: NYC wellness festival will now take place from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Oct. 10 in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

  • The Wildlife Conservation Society’s STEM festival in Emily Warren Roebling Plaza was rescheduled to Oct. 3 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• It’ll be a busy Sunday for Brooklyn Heights pets! Here’s what’s happening on Oct. 4:

  • GTHR Yoga is hosting a free outdoor doggie yoga class outside their studio at 158 Montague St. from 12:15 to 1 p.m.

  • St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church will have a neighborhood Blessing of the Animals in front of the church at 157 Montague St. from 1 to 1:30 p.m.

  • Following the Blessing of the Animals, there will be a neighborhood dance party for pets and people, with music by DJ Del, from 1:30 to 3 p.m.

  • The Service Collective is hosting a pet supply donation station at Montague Open Streets from noon to 5 p.m. Donate new or gently used carriers and bedding and unopened pet food, or stop by the station to make a toy to donate. Donations will benefit Animal Care Centers of NYC, Sean Casey Animal Rescue and the Brooklyn Cat Cafe on Montague Street.

• Spread Love Brooklyn and Team TLC NYC will be collecting new or gently used winter clothes at Montague Open Streets from noon to 5 p.m. on Oct. 4.

• The Brooklyn Heights Association is looking for volunteers to help make sandwiches for the community fridge at 5 p.m. on Oct. 5 at the Zion German Evangelical Lutheran Church on Henry Street. Sign up here.

• There will be a group gardening project in Brooklyn Bridge Park on Oct. 3 from 10 a.m. to noon. Advance sign up is required.

• Aerin Beauty is teaming up with L’Appartement 4F on Oct. 2 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a signature pistachio latte and a complimentary sample of Aerin’s Amber Musk Pistache fragrance.

• “The Trivia Masters,” Chris Kelley and Stuart Post, are hosting a Brooklyn trivia night at the Center for Brooklyn History at 128 Pierrepont St. on Oct. 21 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

• The TCS New York City Marathon Kids Kickoff is coming to Brooklyn Bridge Park on Oct. 24. Kids ages 8 to 18 can run an untimed half-mile at 9 a.m., and kids 2 to 11 who are new to running can join short dashes at 9:45 a.m. Registration is free, and every finisher gets a medal and a New Balance T-shirt while supplies last.

• The first BQE virtual Q&A will be on Oct. 6 from 7 to 8 p.m. Register here.

Nearby News

• Neighbors gathered at Sacred Hearts Church on Monday night for a community meeting on the Brooklyn Marine Terminal, the 122-acre waterfront site in Red Hook and the Columbia Street Waterfront District where EDC’s vision plan calls for new housing alongside maritime uses.

  • “I am not interested in giving public land to luxury real estate,” said Councilmember Alexa Avilés. On the current vision plan, she said: “This vision ain’t a vision. In fact, what it is is an utter lack of creativity.”

  • Maritime and freight experts on the panel argued the site should be treated as transportation infrastructure, not real estate. They pushed for moving more freight by water to take trucks off local streets.

  • What’s next: The draft environmental impact statement is still to come, with a public comment period once it’s released.

• Tonight is the first-ever Dumbo Projection Walk, with more than a dozen outdoor projections on display in the neighborhood. There’s also a free guided tour of the projection walk starting at 6:30 p.m.

• Satisfy New York is hosting a 10-mile run with Hudson Wilder at 142 Plymouth St. in Dumbo on Oct. 4, starting at 8:30 a.m

• Face Time Beauty is hosting a “Tricks of the Trade” makeup masterclass at their studio at 220 Atlantic Ave. on Nov. 5.

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There’s one rule at Bebo, a Georgian restaurant that opened on Atlantic Avenue on Wednesday: “You cannot change the recipes.”

Bebo, which means “grandma” in Georgian, was built on the owners’ grandmothers’ cookbooks. The owners, Gio Kopaliani and Gio Lemonjava, both recently lost their grandmothers.

“There’s no one who we love more than our grandmas,” Kopaliani told Pineapple Street. “Once she passed away, it was a weird feeling. There’s an empty space in our lives.”

Kopaliani and Lemonjava knew each other back home in Georgia but became even closer six years ago while working as dishwashers at Kitchen at Cobble Hill — both of their first jobs in the United States.

“We had no one,” Kopaliani said. “We became like a family.”

On walks along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, the two talked about how much they loved the view and the neighborhood. When it came time to open a restaurant of their own, they wanted more than a concept.

“We never wanted to have just a business idea,” Kopaliani said. Behind the business, he added, “should be a story to tell people.”

Inside Bebo, that story is everywhere. The interiors are modeled after both grandmothers’ homes, from fringed pendant lampshades to the same bathroom wallpaper they had as kids. There’s even a ’90s-era TV tucked into a shelf, where they’ll play old Disney cartoons.

Some ingredients come from home, too. The owners’ mothers ship over traditional Georgian staples they say they can’t find here, like Svanuri marili, a salt blend from the mountain region of Svaneti, where Kopaliani is from.

Diners will find khachapuri, a boat-shaped cheese bread that Kopaliani called a very traditional Georgian dish — “We are very proud to have it.” But the menu reaches back further, to khinkali, Georgian dumplings, and kubdari, a meat-filled bread Kopaliani described as a very, very old dish.

Giorgi Tchulukhadze, who runs Bebo’s kitchen, was a chef in Georgia before moving to the U.S. last year and working at a Georgian restaurant in Manhattan. Kopaliani said they interviewed a lot of people for the job, but Tchulukhadze stood out because of his commitment to tradition.

“You know, we love modernization, but when you are trying to open a Georgian restaurant and the name is Bebo, which is ‘grandma,’ you cannot change the recipes,” Kopaliani said. “You have to keep it as it is.”

The same goes for the drinks. Bebo is pouring traditional Georgian wines and beers for now, with cocktails in the works while the owners wait on their liquor license. Georgians have been making wine for a long time: Archaeologists found the oldest known evidence of winemaking at an 8,000-year-old village about 20 miles south of Tbilisi.

For Kopaliani, winemaking is also a family practice. “No one is buying the wines, we are making the wines, and also vodka,” he said. “We are not just selling only wines, we are selling also a tradition.”

Kopaliani said that Georgian hospitality is built on trust. Neighbors don’t need to knock before coming over. “We are just opening the doors for everyone and we have some fun.”

In Brooklyn Heights, Kopaliani said he has found a similar sense of community and hospitality. “It’s a weird feeling, I don’t know where the feeling is coming from, but this neighborhood really feels like home, because of the people maybe, but it really does,” he said.

Of his neighbors, he added: “They are acting like Georgians.”

He’s betting the neighborhood will show up for the story as much as the food. “They really, really love to support people, not just go to the restaurant, but also feel what’s the story behind the restaurant,” he said.

People who live near the restaurant have been “giving love and trust,” Kopaliani said, in a way he’s never experienced in the United States.

“The love I felt here in this neighborhood is priceless.”

Heights Happenings

• As Pineapple Street noted last week, and multiple outlets have reported, the Hotel Bossert is becoming Ritz-Carlton Residences — the first branded condo development in Brooklyn, according to The Real Deal. Pineapple Street is looking to speak with neighbors about this development and other recent changes to the neighborhood! If you’re interested in chatting, please send a direct message via Substack, or email tips@pineapplestreetbk.com.

• Permits have been approved for work on First Bloom, Alison Roman’s upcoming store on Montague Street, Caper Media reported.

• Salter House is throwing a party with tarot readings and custom temporary tattoos to celebrate a decade of Mater soap at 117 Atlantic Ave. tonight from 6 to 8 p.m.

• Daybreaker is hosting Alive, an all-day wellness festival, at Pier 3 in Brooklyn Bridge Park from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sept. 26. The event will feature DJ sets, live music and wellness events.

• The date has changed for Twice Desired’s pop-up outside The Breukelen. The pop-up will now be on Oct. 10, starting at 10 a.m., at 57 Montague St.

• Emmy-winning actor and Brooklyn Heights local Matthew Rhys is hosting a fall regatta with Brooklyn Boatworks starting at 5 p.m. on Sept. 25. Join the waitlist or become a sponsor here.

• There will be a community tag sale at this weekend’s Montague Open Streets. Forty Brooklyn Heights households will be selling secondhand clothing, decor, housewares and toys on Sept. 27 from noon to 4 p.m.

• The Wildlife Conservation Society is hosting a STEM festival in Emily Warren Roebling Plaza in Brooklyn Bridge Park on Sept. 26 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event will coincide with “Aqua Cosmos,” a public art installation by artist Anita Glesta.

• Din Soup Dumplings has been going viral for its mini soup dumplings and Diet Coke combo.

• Diljān is now taking walk-in orders for pizza, though pre-orders are still available.

• The Brooklyn Book Festival is taking place outside Borough Hall this weekend. Children’s Day will be on Sept. 26 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Festival Day will be on Sept. 27 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

• Hernan Diaz, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of “Trust,” will speak with writer and journalist Jennifer Egan, author of “A Visit From the Goon Squad,” at First Unitarian Church at 119 Pierrepont St. on Sept. 29 from 7 to 8 p.m. Buy tickets here.

• Two City of Forest Day events on Oct. 3: Hillside Dog Park, aka “The Great Bark Forest,” is hosting a tree-care morning from 9 a.m. to noon, and Councilmember Lincoln Restler’s office, Big Reuse and the Brooklyn Heights Association are leading a street tree cleanup from 10 a.m. to noon, meeting at 45 Pierrepont St.

• There’s a new public bathroom in Columbus Park — one of 17 bathrooms the Mamdani administration is installing throughout the city as part of a one-year pilot program. The bathrooms are movable, as they don’t require connections to water, sewer or power infrastructure. They’re also touchless, and they have a 10-minute time limit.

Nearby News

• Atlantic Antic, Brooklyn’s oldest and largest street festival, is back this weekend. It will take place rain or shine on Sept. 27 from noon to 6 p.m.

• Your Best Friend is hosting a floral arranging night at June wine bar on Sept. 30 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tickets here.

• Porta is hosting a marbling workshop with JJ Ansuini of Ansuini & Co., where you can make 12 one-of-a-kind cocktail napkins to take home, on Sept. 30 from 5 to 7 p.m.

• There’s a two-hour cake fundamentals class at One Girl Cookies on Sept. 29 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

• If you’re interested in learning more about the Brooklyn Marine Terminal project, you can join elected officials and industry experts for a community forum on Sept. 28 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Sacred Hearts Church at 125 Summit St.

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Forty life-size buffalo puppets will stampede through the streets of Brooklyn next Saturday in one of the largest public art spectacles in the country this year.

Over 100 volunteers from across the United States will operate the herd as it moves from Abolitionist Place in Downtown Brooklyn to Brooklyn Bridge Park. The puppets, made from recycled materials like plywood, metal and burlap, stand seven feet tall and nine feet long — roughly the size of an adult buffalo. It takes three people to run one buffalo: two inside, one alongside.

“Return of the Buffalo: Tatanka Owe Akupi,” produced by St. Ann’s Warehouse, The Walk Productions and KBH Arts, in partnership with elders from Lenape and Lakota Tribes, will run for two days.

On Friday, Sept. 18, the herd will walk Lower Manhattan from 5 to 7:30 p.m., starting at Bowling Green Park and finishing in Foley Square. On Saturday, Sept. 19, it will cross the river for the Brooklyn leg, marching from 2 to 4:30 p.m.

Along the way, the herd will be joined by dance troupes, actors, artists, civic leaders and marching bands, stopping at sites they say are historically significant. Organizers say the idea is for viewers to walk alongside the herd as it moves through the streets.

The title of the event is Lakota, though the Lenape inhabited New York. Organizers say “Tatanka Owe Akupi” is a Lakota phrase that roughly translates to “buffalo trail home” — tatanka for the animal; owe for a trail or set of footprints; akupi for returning, and also for healing.

They chose Lakota, rather than Lenape, because of the long relationship between Lakota people and the buffalo, and say they worked with Lenape members to keep that history in the piece as well.

The herd number isn’t arbitrary. Producers say the 40 puppets stand for the “38+2” — the Dakota men executed in Mankato, Minnesota, in December 1862 in the largest single-day mass execution in American history, plus two more executed later.

Bison, the national mammal of the United States, were critical to Indigenous peoples. In 1870, an estimated eight million bison roamed the United States. Twenty years later, that number dwindled to fewer than 500, following the mass slaughter of bison by European settlers.

Today, Native nations are leading the animal’s return. The InterTribal Buffalo Council, formed in 1991, now counts more than 80 member tribes across some 20 states and helps manage over 20,000 buffalo, moving animals from national parks to tribal lands. Jason Baldes, who runs the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative in Wyoming, is among the tribal members taking part in the New York events.

The walk is a chance for New Yorkers to “reflect and appreciate nature, our land and our power to heal and renew,” said Susan Feldman, founder and artistic director of St. Ann’s Warehouse, in a statement. The buffalo’s story, she said, is one of near extinction followed by a long effort to bring the animal back. “It represents the worst of us and the best of us.”

Heights Happenings

• 112 Montague St. has been vacant for 14 years as the building’s landlord continues searching for the “perfect” tenant, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported.

• The Underground Thrift Store in Plymouth Church is reopening for the fall/winter season on Sept. 13. The store donates 25% of its proceeds to organizations that fight human trafficking.

• Brooklyn Bridge Park is building a new education center at 334 Furman St., with an interactive exhibition and more space for student programs. BBP is accepting donations for the new center.

• The Brooklyn Heights Association is looking for volunteers to help clean out the community fridge on Henry Street. Sign up for shifts here.

• Darling Shop at 149 Atlantic Ave. is having a backyard sale with Samantha Pleet, where you can shop Samantha’s personal collection of vintage and designer clothes, on Sept. 11 and 12 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

• Hatchet Outdoor Supply Co. at 77 Atlantic Ave. is having an opening night party to celebrate Scandinavian mountaineering equipment company Klättermusen’s four-month takeover of the store on Sept. 11 from 5 to 9 p.m. The party, presented by Amateurs Magazine, will have food from Decades Pizza and Mama Yoshi Mini Mart.

• Brooklyn Bridge Park is hosting a catch and release fishing event on Sept. 12 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Pier 5 fishing stations.

• Montague Open Streets starts again on Sept. 13. This Sunday will be a back-to-school party from noon to 4 p.m., best for kids up to 12.

• Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor will be discussing their new book, “End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World,” with The New Yorker staff writer Jia Tolentino at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church on Sept. 15 from 7 to 8 p.m.

• Multimedia artist Anita Glesta is bringing an immersive video art projection to the Brooklyn Bridge. The 18-minute projection will premiere in Emily Warren Roebling Plaza on Sept. 25 and Sept. 26 from 7 to 10 p.m.

• Vintage retailer Twice Desired is having a pop-up sidewalk sale outside The Breukelen at 57 Montague St. on Sept. 26, starting at 10 a.m.

Nearby News

• There may be a Happier Grocery coming to Carroll Gardens. A newly formed company linked to the grocery retailer recently purchased the former Rite Aid site on Smith Street for $21.5 million.

• Private equity giant Carlyle Group has been snapping up small multifamily buildings in Brooklyn, including in Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill, Crain’s reported. The firm has purchased roughly $90 million in apartments over the past year.

• Neighbors in Brooklyn Navy Yard are fed up with noise from the late-night parties and raves going on in the development. “I don’t want to sound like some curmudgeon,” Councilmember Lincoln Restler told Gothamist. “But I don’t find these events to be consistent with the core mission of the Yard.”

• Emma Cline, author of “The Girls” and “The Guest,” will be discussing her new novel, “Switzy,” at McNally Jackson at 1 Dekalb Ave. tonight from 7 to 8 p.m.

• Outline’s fall/winter catalog is coming out soon. Subscribe here to receive it at home.

City & Courts

• A Downtown Brooklyn man was sentenced to 13 years for robbing three people at gunpoint in four days. The robberies took place in Downtown Brooklyn, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office said.
  

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Plans for the conversion of the Hotel Bossert into a 61-unit condo building are moving forward.

The city Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a revised plan for rooftop additions and other exterior work, clearing the way for the conversion of the 98 Montague St. landmark.

The 9-0 vote came a little over two months after commissioners heard the original proposal on June 23 and took no action, sending the development team back to rework a design they said sat too heavily on top of the building.

Because the Bossert sits in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District, any exterior change requires approval from the commission — that covers everything from window openings to rooftop mechanical equipment. The building occupies the full block of Hicks Street between Montague and Remsen.

The Bossert, once known as the “Waldorf-Astoria of Brooklyn,” was built in two phases, the north section in 1909 and the south in 1912. The Jehovah’s Witnesses bought the Bossert in 1988 and used it until 2012, when they sold it as part of their broader exit from Brooklyn Heights. Efforts to reopen it as a hotel stalled repeatedly in the years after.

SomeraRoad, a development firm founded by Brooklyn Heights local Ian Ross, bought the building for $100 million in May 2025. The firm plans to convert the building into 61 condominiums, primarily three- and four-bedroom units.

Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group has signed on for a 3,200-square-foot restaurant on the ground floor — its first full-service restaurant in Brooklyn.

Both the building and restaurant are slated to open in 2028, a spokesperson for SomeraRoad said.

The building has carried rooftop additions since 1916, when the Marine Roof restaurant opened above it. The most recent came in the late 1990s, adding the existing 13th floor and part of the 14th. The earlier plan called for modifying those floors and adding a 15th. Commissioners in June said the new top floor was too dominant from the street.

The updated plan sets the 13th and 15th floors back, so the rooftop addition isn’t as visible from the street. The overall views of the building are now “much cleaner and much less of a competition between the addition and the building below,” said Ward Dennis of Higgins Quasebarth & Partners, who presented the revised design on Tuesday.

From Remsen Street, he said, the 13th floor now reads as a backdrop rather than a presence, and the 15th floor is “much less dominant than it was previously.”

The most visible change involves mechanical equipment. The earlier design placed bulky screened equipment prominently at the 14th floor, and the Brooklyn Heights Association raised concerns about its impact on the view from Hicks Street. The revised plan moves the equipment to the 12th-floor roof, eliminating the screening entirely.

Around back, the team also revised the proposed balconies at commissioners’ request, switching the slabs to black metal and replacing glass railings with metal pickets.

An offering plan for the condos — the disclosure document the state requires before units can be sold or advertised — was submitted to the attorney general’s office on July 30 and is awaiting acceptance.

Heights Happenings

• L’Appartement 4F is hosting a one-night omakase experience with Shom Mazumder, formerly of Bridges, Estela and the Four Horsemen, on Sept. 15.

• The stained glass water tower above the Brooklyn Bridge Park’s administrative building at 334 Furman St. has been temporarily removed while the building undergoes renovation.

• Lantern Thai Kitchen is closing after 20 years in the neighborhood. The restaurant on Montague Street will undergo renovations and re-open under new management. It’s last day of service is Sept. 30.

• The Pier 5 soccer fields will be closed until Sept. 7 for annual maintenance.

• A Con Ed transformer on Middagh Street caught fire on Saturday night, blowing off a manhole cover and pushing carbon monoxide into nearby buildings. Firefighters found potentially deadly carbon monoxide levels and evacuated 65 Middagh St. and 20 Henry St. No injuries were reported.

• Some transportation advocacy groups are suggesting that drivers should shoulder the cost of the new BQE project, and the Mamdani administration should insitute new tools like tolling, Gothamist reported.

Nearby News

• Bạn Bè, New York’s first Vietnamese-American bakery and cafe, is moving into a new space in the Columbia Street Waterfront District in November. The bakery will have to-go window service, indoor seating, in-house pantry items, classes and baked goods like pandan cookies. Founder Doris Ho-Kane is raising money for the bakery on Kickstarter.

• Sam’s, the nearly 100-year-old red-sauce Italian American restaurant in Cobble Hill, will reopen on Sept. 10. The new owner, Georgia Fulton, who previously worked as a server at Long Island Bar for 12 years, is keeping the new Sam’s close to the original, Grub Street reported.

• Cafe Wands, a coffee shop and all-day-cafe from Chez Fifi partner Justin Wands, is taking over the former Gus’s in Carroll Gardens, The Strong Buzz reported. Wands, a former opera singer and restaurateur with The NoMad and Chef Thomas Keller, plans to open the cafe at 215 Union St. on Nov. 1.

• Carroll Gardens has “lost much of its old-world charm” as longtime residents and restaurants continue to leave, Curbed says.

• A protected bike lane on Ashland Place, sometimes referred to as “Crashland” due to safety issues, is officially open. The two-way bike lane fills in the final gap of a 5.5-mile protected biking corridor from Sunset Park to Dumbo.

• The People’s Runway Fashion Show is returning to Brooklyn Borough Hall Plaza on Sept. 12 at 6 p.m. The show will feature five Brooklyn-based designers.

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Brooklyn Heights will soon have three members-only clubs within a half-mile stretch.

The Heights Casino, a 1904 Montague Street institution, will be joined by two newcomers in the “urban country club” space: Kings Athletic Club and the Beginning.

Kings Athletic Club, a 52,000-square-foot wellness club in the old Hotel St. George, is preparing for a soft opening over Labor Day weekend, a spokesperson for the club told Pineapple Street. Construction is “substantially complete,” according to the club.

It’s taking over the old Eastern Athletic space, which closed in 2023. Open Squash, a nonprofit squash club, was set to move in a few years ago, but the plans never materialized.

Kings Athletic is a project of private equity firm SC Holdings and real estate investment firm East Gate Investors. The firms signed a 29-year lease at 111 Hicks St. last year.

The club will have a pool, two tennis courts, pickleball and squash courts, golf simulators, a climbing wall, yoga and Pilates studios and a half basketball court. It will also have wellness amenities such as infrared saunas, red light therapy, massage treatment rooms, cold plunges and guided stretching.

Kings Athletic is specifically geared toward families, the spokesperson said. “We want KAC to be a place for families in the neighborhood to come together, whether you’re there to spend time with your kids or take a break.” For the kids: arcade games, ping pong, virtual reality and babysitters on staff.

Billy Durney, founder of Red Hook Tavern and Hometown Bar-B-Que, will lead the club’s food program. The restaurant will serve “health-forward” food during the day and a “tavern menu” at night. The restaurant will be open only to members and their guests.

Over on Columbia Heights, the Beginning is setting up in an 1860s brick building across from Hillside Dog Park.

The club from Little Big Hospitality, co-founded by Michael Schoen and Carroll Gardens local Chris de Koos, also has families in mind. The 45,000-square-foot space will have programming and classes for children, a spa, Pilates and a rooftop bar and restaurant.

A former European design director for Soho House, James Thurstan Waterworth, is handling the interiors, Curbed reported.

The private club boom is part of a citywide trend. In the years after the pandemic, the city saw a new wave of members-only clubs, as people sought out “third spaces” and offices emptied out with the shift to remote work. As of January, brokers were tracking more than 35 clubs operating or in development across New York City.

Some experts have questioned whether the new wave will last. Diana Kendall, a sociology professor at Baylor University who studies elite clubs, told The New York Times that newer clubs may lack “the prestige and resources of the old, established clubs,” leaving them more exposed to economic downturns. Renting rather than owning, she said, may limit their “staying power.”

The Heights Casino is one of those old, established clubs. The Casino, in a Flemish Revival building at 75 Montague St., was founded in 1904 “by and for the Heights’ wealthy residents,” according to Brownstoner. Centered on squash and tennis, it’s reportedly home to the first indoor tennis court in the United States.

By the 1950s, the Casino’s exclusive policies had pushed it to the brink of bankruptcy, per Brownstoner. It became more inclusive over the following decades. Its stated mission, from the start, was to be a “family and community club.”

As for what it costs to join the new clubs, the Beginning’s membership rates aren’t set, but Curbed reported they’re likely to start around $300 a month per adult and $200 per child. Kings Athletic Club declined to disclose its pricing.

Heights Happenings

• Major neighborhood news this week: Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday announced a $4 billion plan to fix the crumbling triple-cantilever section of the BQE — a piece of the highway that’s vexed city planners for decades. Here’s some more information:

  • Construction on the city-owned, 1.5-mile stretch of the highway between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street would take place between 2030 and 2040.

  • Unlike previous plans, this one wouldn’t require full closure of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. However, portions of the promenade would be closed at various times during construction.

  • The plan would involve building a temporary two-level highway above Furman Street. The temporary roadway would be “tucked out of view” from the promenade, City Transportation Commissioner Michael Flynn said.

  • Local officials, including State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon and Councilmember Lincoln Restler, said they were “encouraged” by the news, but they have “many outstanding questions.” The officials said they are “concerned about such an invasive and disruptive construction approach, and are worried about the damaging impact of temporary highways in our dense neighborhood.”

  • This fall, NYC DOT will launch an environmental review process and host two public meetings where community members can learn more about the project. Pineapple Street will share the registration links when they’re available.

    • Virtual Q&A #1: Oct. 6 from 7 to 8 p.m.

    • Virtual Q&A #2: Oct. 22 from 11 a.m. to noon.

• Two trees fell at the corner of Pineapple Street and Columbia Heights after a thunderstorm last Thursday, adding to a steady loss of trees in the neighborhood this summer. The city’s been working to plant new trees, but preservation is just as important, according to a new study from researchers in Chicago: Mature trees like the ones lost last week are particularly good for public health outcomes. “If we take care of trees, they take care of us, and might even help save our lives,” Harrison C. Garcia, lead author of the study, told The New York Times.

• There will be a Montague Open Streets Neighborhood Tag Sale from noon to 4 p.m. on Sept. 27. Brooklyn Heights households can apply for a spot to sell clothes, toys, kitchenware and household items here.

• An apartment fire broke out in a ground-floor unit at 35 Orange St. on Sunday afternoon, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported. The blaze drew 79 fire and EMS personnel to the building.

• The Brooklyn Book Festival is looking for volunteers to help with Children’s Day on Sept. 26 and Festival Day on Sept. 27. Sign up by Sept. 2.

• Books Are Magic is hosting a conversation between Priya Parker, a conflict facilitator and the author of “The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters,” and actor America Ferrera at the First Unitarian Congregational Society on Pierrepont Street on Sept. 9 at 6 p.m. Tickets here.

• Tickets are now available for the opening night party for the Brooklyn Heights Designer Showhouse on Sept. 30 at 1 Monroe Place.

• On Aug. 29, Dumbo Dads Run Club is teaming up with City Point BKLYN and the FDNY for a morning run ending at the firehouse at 74 Middagh St., where kids can check out the firetrucks. The run starts at Ziggy’s Roman Cafe at 8:30 a.m. RSVP here.

Nearby News

• Reformers inside the Brooklyn Democratic Party rallied outside Borough Hall this week against what they described as a “power grab” by the party’s chair, Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn.

• Light Switch, a coffee shop and wine bar, opened this week at 333 Court St. in Carroll Gardens. The Strong Buzz has all the details on the new spot.

• Two developers spent $400,000 to save a 100-year-old silver maple tree on their plot of land on Dikeman Street in Red Hook.

• West Village Girls and Murray Hill Boys have been flocking to Red Hook this summer.

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On a Saturday night in June 1989, a 37-year-old off-duty transit police detective burst into Wild Fyre, a strip club on the ground floor of the Hotel St. George, wielding his .38-caliber revolver. He paced the bar for 45 minutes, pointing his gun at various patrons and demanding a beer.

After a standoff with the bartender, the detective, Kevin Coyne, fired a shot at a stranger sitting at the bar. A few minutes later, about 50 police officers flooded the bar. Coyne fled out the back door into the Clark Street subway station, and was promptly tackled by officers.

The incident was one entry in the hotel’s long, strange decline. By the 1980s, the hotel, once a glamorous hotspot for celebrities like F. Scott Fitzgerald, had become “one of the city’s largest problem buildings,” according to The New York Times.

The original Hotel St. George was built in 1885 by Capt. William Tumbridge, a quarrelsome, larger than life businessman who served in the Union Navy in the Civil War. The 10-story hotel was one of Brooklyn’s tallest buildings at the time. In the following years, Tumbridge acquired more property on the block, expanding the hotel to over 1,000 rooms.

In 1922, the year after Tumbridge died, his family sold the hotel to real estate development group Bing & Bing, who continued to add new sections. By 1931, the St. George was New York’s largest hotel.

The hotel’s peak ran roughly from the 1930s through the 1950s. Presidents Truman and Roosevelt were among the guests who stayed overnight, and Brooklyn Heights local Truman Capote was a regular at the hotel’s massive saltwater pool.

By the 1960s, the St. George’s glamour had faded. Vacancies piled up and the building fell into disrepair. In 1984, the Tower and Grill buildings were converted to luxury co-ops. By the early 1990s, the St. George had effectively become a “ghost hotel,” The New York Times reported, “hauntingly half-empty, its paint-needy windows bare or draped with sheets or clothes, its hallways dark, its residents mostly elderly or ill.”

In 1995, a fire tore through the hotel, drawing more than 500 firefighters. City building inspectors ordered 350 nearby apartments closed until the most damaged buildings could be demolished, temporarily leaving hundreds of residents without homes. Police later said that the fire was sparked by a makeshift torch carried by a former Parks Department employee who had broken into a vacant section of the hotel in search of copper tubing to sell.

Today, the building houses student dormitories, and its old lobby doubles as the entrance to the Clark Street subway station — the same entrance where, just over a year ago, a corroded marquee came crashing down onto the sidewalk below.

But the building’s next chapter is already taking shape: Kings Athletic Club — a private club planning a bar and restaurant serving American classics, plus a pool, tennis courts, pickleball and other wellness amenities — is on its way. More on that in a future issue.

Heights Happenings

• The public restroom near the 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge is the subject of an ongoing legal battle between the owner of a $4.95 million condo and Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York magazine reported. The condo owner, Salim Samaha, claims that the noises from the bathroom, including “banging of toilet stall doors, hand-dryer sounds and banging when the park employees operate doors in the storage room,” violate city noise codes. The restroom has been closed since 2020 as a result of the pending litigation.

• Matthew Rhys, an Emmy-winning Welsh actor, Brooklyn Heights local and co-owner of the Brooklyn Bridge Marina, spoke with Good Day New York about his work with the marina ahead of a boating showcase this week.

• The Brooklyn Book Festival is returning from Sept. 20 to 28. The main event, Festival Day & Literary Marketplace, will take place around Borough Hall on Sept. 27. It will feature award-winning authors such as Marlon James, Joyce Carol Oates, Douglas Stuart, Colson Whitehead and Tracy K. Smith.

• New York City’s longest-running throwback dance party, Herbert Holler’s Freedom Party, is taking over Pier 6 Plaza in Brooklyn Bridge Park on Aug. 29 from 6 to 10 p.m.

• The New York Transit Museum and the MTA are hosting a bus festival in Brooklyn Bridge Park on Sept. 19 from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tickets are free — advance registration is encouraged but not required.

• L’Apéro by L’Appartement 4F is hosting a wine club event on Aug. 19 at 6:30 p.m.

• The Amateur Astronomers Association rescheduled last week’s stargazing event in Brooklyn Bridge Park to Aug. 19 from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m.

• Several Heights businesses are closed for summer holiday:

  • Lillo Cucina will be closed from Aug. 17 to Sept. 9.

  • Goose Barnacle is closed for August.

  • Diem Eatery will be closed from Aug. 14 to Sept. 9.

• This week’s Movie with a View in Brooklyn Bridge Park is “Bridesmaids.” Entry for the screening on Aug. 20 starts at 6 p.m.

• There’s a Coastal Cleanup volunteer opportunity in Brooklyn Bridge Park on Aug. 23 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Advance registration is required.

• The Brooklyn Heights Association and the Atlantic Avenue BID both received grants from the NYC Department of Small Business Services to improve conditions for small businesses in the area. In Brooklyn, 32 organizations received a combined $2.8 million in grants.

• The Center for Brooklyn History is hosting a Battle of Brooklyn Community Day to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn, the largest battle of the Revolutionary War. The all-day event will take place on Aug. 22 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Read about the role that Brooklyn Heights played in the battle in the July 1 issue of Pineapple Street!)

Nearby News

• Pony’s, a new cocktail bar at 424 Van Brunt St. in Red Hook, is opening Aug. 22.

• Brooklyn Pop-Up and the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition are teaming up for an artisan market on Sept. 19 and Sept. 20 from noon to 6 p.m.

• Atlantic Avenue LDC is looking for vendors for Atlantic Antic, the oldest and largest street festival in Brooklyn, on Sept. 27. The application deadline is Aug. 31.

• Planned Parenthood staffers rallied for better pay and working conditions outside of their clinic in Downtown Brooklyn last week, Brooklyn Paper reported.

• A former NYPD detective was indicted last week for allegedly assaulting a handcuffed man inside a holding cell at a Carroll Gardens police precinct earlier this year, according to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s office.

City & Courts

• The New York City Council approved a set of bills to bring back outdoor dining year-round.

• City Council also passed a package of four bills known as the Safe and Clean Outdoor Ownership Practices (SCOOP) Act to crack down on dog waste in the city following an increase in complaints about the issue. The bills would create a volunteer-led dog waste composting program, install dog-waste-bag holders on at least 1,200 public trash cans citywide, post signage warning of a potential $250 fine for not picking up after your dog and launch a citywide education campaign.

• Councilmember Lincoln Restler is pushing to cap Citi Bike fares at $3, the cost of a subway ride. The push comes as Citi Bike fares continue to skyrocket. (A Pineapple Street ride from Red Hook to Brooklyn Heights last week: $18.)

When Rachel Jones Bellas and Michelle Friend Sternlicht’s mutual friend moved to Italy, they decided to finally grab coffee after spending a decade on opposite sides of the same friend group. The coffee didn’t just amount to a new friendship; 10 minutes in, they had come up with a concept for a new children’s store.

Darling Shop, at 149 Atlantic Ave., opened in November 2025 and sells toys, clothes and one-of-a-kind vintage pieces for children. Its customers are mostly neighbors, but it also draws parents from Manhattan and out-of-towners, like grandparents visiting to meet new babies.

“We really strive to create a local community, but at the same time we want it to be a destination,” Sternlicht said.

When they were looking for a storefront, they knew it had to be in Brooklyn Heights. “We really felt like there was room for a children’s store in this neighborhood,” Sternlicht said. She lives three minutes from the store, and Bellas lives three minutes away in the opposite direction.

Bellas, a former costume designer, started doing pop-ups a couple of years ago, selling small collections of children’s clothes made from vintage textiles. Now, she designs the Darling line, which is made in the Garment District.

Darling’s childrenswear is highly curated and meant to be passed down. “We both feel that quality is incredibly important, which is why we’ve both always been drawn to vintage,” Bellas said. “The quality of vintage pieces is often really impeccable, whether it was made by a manufacturer or made by someone’s mother or grandmother.”

The vintage is what makes Darling unlike many other children’s shops. “We have a large collection of really incredible vintage pieces that are kind of just waiting to go on a flower girl or a ring bearer or for a really special party or christening,” Bellas said.

Still, new baby clothes have been the biggest seller, the shop owners said. When they sold out faster than expected, leaving only vintage on the shelves, Bellas and Sternlicht designed their own rompers, which have proven to be just as popular.

Bellas and Sternlicht have taken the Darling concept beyond clothes and toys. Out back, past the shop floor, is a pea gravel courtyard with wrought-iron bistro tables scattered across it, trailing greenery in steel planters and string lights wound through a tree.

Over the past few months, they’ve hosted backyard sales with writer Harling Ross Anton and actress Julia Chan, among others. They’ve also held art workshops with Edwina White, a Brooklyn-based artist, who designed the height chart in the store and other decor like pillows and cards.

The shop’s next big event will be a back-to-school party, and they’re planning a parenting workshop for parents of preschoolers, led by an early childhood expert.

Bellas and Sternlicht also design and decorate children’s bedrooms. Anyone who’s been in the shop has already seen the aesthetic — they did the interiors themselves.

There’s more to come in the “Darling world,” Sternlicht said. “We have so many ambitions for the store itself, the things we want to carry, the things we want to make ourselves.”

Heights Happenings

• Montague Street between Henry and Hicks won first place for Greenest Commercial Block in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s annual Greenest Block in Brooklyn contest.

• The old Floyd building is getting braced for a partial teardown. The Department of Buildings issued a permit July 6 to shore up 131 Atlantic Ave. — home to the bocce bar until it closed in December 2024 — from the cellar through the third floor, ahead of what the filing describes as “required partial demolition work.” Nothing on file yet says what’s planned for the site.

• Frenzie is going to fill a late-night pizza gap in the neighborhood. The restaurant will serve wine and pizza until midnight on weekdays and 2 a.m. on weekends, Grub Street reported.

• The Brooklyn Heights Association this week announced the designers for the semi-annual Designer Showhouse. Designers like Stollar Fearins Welch and Rachael Rosenblum will remake the 1850s house at 1 Monroe Place. There will be an opening night party on Sept. 30, and public hours will run from Oct. 2 through Nov. 1.

• The Amateur Astronomers Association is hosting a stargazing session at Pier 1 in Brooklyn Bridge Park on Aug. 12 from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m.

• Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriters The HawtPlates are performing a free event at the Granite Prospect in Brooklyn Bridge Park on Aug. 14 from 7 to 9 p.m.

• Dua Lipa Citi Biked through the neighborhood this week.

• This week’s Movie With a View in Brooklyn Bridge Park is Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing.” Entry for the screening on Aug. 13 begins at 6 p.m.

Nearby News

• Don’t Matter, a vinyl listening lounge and cocktail bar, is now open at 55 Sands St. in Dumbo.

• Earth Color Dye Lab is hosting BYO dyeing workshops at Loop of the Loom at 197 Plymouth St. in Dumbo on Aug. 14 from 5 to 7 p.m. and Aug. 15 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tickets are $50.

• Seven Wonders Collective in Boerum Hill is hosting a pop-up with vintage baby clothes on Aug. 14 from 5 to 7 p.m. at 398 Atlantic Ave.

• MUJI is opening another location in Downtown Brooklyn.

• Winner, a Park Slope-based bakery and cafe from Michelin-starred chef Daniel Eddy, is opening another location at 505 State St. in Downtown Brooklyn this fall.

• The Department of Transportation is looking for feedback on potential EV charging locations in Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Red Hook and Gowanus. Submit comments here.

• Activist group Voice of Gowanus filed a lawsuit against the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, National Grid and the current owners of Parcel III of the Citizens former Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) Works site, also known as Public Place. The lawsuit demands more extensive cleanup of the site, and argues that Parcel III should be categorized as a Superfund site.

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Construction is underway on two major luxury developments on Montague Street.

One Montague Place, located at the corner of Montague and Cadman Plaza West, is set to become one of the tallest condo towers in Brooklyn. The $550 million, 672-foot building at 205 Montague Street will offer 90 rentals and 46 condominiums, with half-floor, full-floor and triplex residences starting at 3,000 square feet. Each condo will have 600 to 1,900 square feet of private outdoor space.

The building will also be home to a jazz club, membership club, padel courts, a 63-foot swimming pool and the high-end Japanese restaurant BondSt. Its lead broker, Greg Williamson of Douglas Elliman, is the executive producer of the annual Love Rocks concerts at the Beacon Theater and the co-founder of Soho Sessions, an invite-only music series that’s featured stars like Paul Simon and Olivia Dean.

One Montague Place is “going to be something that Brooklyn has never seen before,” Williamson, a Brooklyn Heights native, told the New York Post.

Condo prices are expected to start around $5.9 million when sales launch in 2027, the Post reported. The development is expected to be completed in 2029.

Meanwhile, down the street, the 117-year-old Hotel Bossert is being converted to luxury condos.

In June, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) reviewed a proposal to make rooftop and courtyard additions to the landmarked building and sent the project’s developers back to the drawing board, according to Brownstoner. (Because the Bossert is in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District, its exterior alterations need LPC sign-off.)

SomeraRoad bought the building at 98 Montague St. for $100 million last year. The project may be less glitzy than One Montague Place, but Ian Ross, a Brooklyn Heights local and the firm’s founder, told Brooklyn Heights Blog that the new Bossert will bring “the most amenities a building in Brooklyn has seen.”

“I think there’s just been a lack of high-quality luxury condo product in a great location in this market,” Ross said. That’s partially because it’s a historic district, so it’s hard to build large buildings, he added.

The new Bossert will have 61 condos and commercial space. The condos will be primarily three- and four-bedroom units, Ross said. The building will also have a 60-foot swimming pool, cold plunge, steam room, Pilates studio and wine cellar, among other amenities.

Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group — known for Gramercy Tavern, Union Square Cafe and the Modern — will open its first full-service Brooklyn restaurant in the building. USHG will take over 3,200 square feet on the ground floor, with the restaurant slated to open in 2028.

The restaurant will be a welcome addition to a street where upscale dining options are thin. “Despite all of the things that we love about this neighborhood, I think it is underserved from a high-quality restaurant perspective,” Ross said.

The restaurant is “our gift to the community and to the neighborhood,” he said.

Heights Happenings

• As Pineapple Street noted last week, Doubles — a Caribbean restaurant with locations in Sag Harbor and Amagansett — is taking over the former Plymouth Cafe space.

• Frenzie, a pizza and wine bar from the Confidant team, is expected to open Aug. 13 in the former Pips space next door, the Strong Buzz reported.

• Diljān pizza is back. Preorder dates are Aug. 15-16, 21-23 and 28-30.

• The Black Bull launched Fish & Chip Mondays.

• Gov. Kathy Hochul visited Montague Street last week, stopping by L’Appartement 4F and Books Are Magic.

• “Jurassic Park” screens Thursday at 6 p.m. at Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Movies With a View. Jingmai O’Connor, a dinosaur paleobiologist and curator at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, will give a talk before the screening.

• Namuk, a Swiss outdoor clothing brand for kids, will have a pop-up at Hatchet Supply on Atlantic Avenue from Aug. 8 to Sept. 2.

Nearby News

• Dumbo Dads Run Club and Hounds Town Dumbo are teaming up for a run with dogs on Aug. 15. The two- or three-mile run will start outside Ziggy’s at 8:30 a.m.

• Outline, a boutique at 365 Atlantic Ave., was featured in The New York Times’ roundup of best places to shop in the city.

• Saturn Road in Cobble Hill is hosting a free bluegrass night this Thursday, starting at 6:30 p.m.

• Goog Thai Cook Shop in Red Hook is hosting jazz nights on its patio from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. every Thursday and Friday starting Aug. 6.

• After complaints from neighbors, the city hired an independent environmental monitor last month to track air quality and noise at the jail construction site on Atlantic Avenue, according to Councilmember Lincoln Restler’s office. The independent monitor will publish weekly and monthly reports on conditions at the site.

City & Courts

• Immigrant rights activists say that ICE activity is picking up in NYC. The NYC ICE Hotline is back, Brad Lander posted on Instagram. You can call or text 229-304-8720 if you see ICE activity in your neighborhood.

• Neon green “shame stickers” are back after a 14-year hiatus. The stickers will be slapped on cars that don’t move for street sweepers.

• Soon you’ll hear PSAs from comedian Robby Hoffman on the subway.

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Giant trash containers are coming to the streets of Brooklyn Heights this fall.

The city is rolling out more Empire Bins, roughly 6-foot-long gray boxes that sit on the street, to limit piles of trash bags and continue former Mayor Eric Adams’ plan for a “trash revolution.”

Brooklyn Community District 2, which includes Downtown Brooklyn, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Dumbo, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Brooklyn Navy Yard, will be the second district to be fully containerized.

Empire Bins will be required for buildings with 31 or more residential units, while buildings with 10 to 30 residential units can opt in. They’ll be serviced by automated side-loading trucks and secured with an electronic lock. Only building staff and Sanitation Department workers will have access cards to open them.

The bins are currently in use in West Harlem, where residents say rat sightings have gone down, but parking has gotten harder. Some schools in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill also have the containers.

Adams kicked off the fight against trash in 2022 by paying McKinsey & Company $1.6 million to conduct a study of the city’s trash needs. The following year, the consulting giant and the Department of Sanitation concluded that trash bags should be placed in sealed containers, not left on the street.

In July 2024, Adams ceremoniously unveiled New York City’s first official trash bin by rolling the wheelie bin outside Gracie Mansion and tossing a trash bag into it, as “Empire State of Mind” blasted in the background.

The Empire Bins take the wheelie bins a step further. The containers, manufactured by Spanish company Contenur, hold roughly four cubic yards of trash — about 25 large garbage bags. The containerization strategy is modeled on European cities like Barcelona, Paris and Amsterdam.

In New York, where DSNY collects 24 million pounds of residential waste each day, trash piles are “an all-you-can-eat buffet for rats,” as then-Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

In June, Brooklyn Community District 2 produced 3,137 tons of refuse, according to DSNY, though it’s a relatively low-volume district. Queens Community District 7, the city’s highest that month, produced nearly 9,400 tons of refuse.

While a reduction in rat sightings will be a welcome change, some residents are worried about losing parking spots.

In Brooklyn Community District 2, the Empire Bins are expected to take up 15,349 linear feet of curb. That’s just shy of three miles, or 768 parking spaces.

“There will be a loss of parking that comes with this, because they will be taking up space in the street,” said Richard Day, a DSNY employee who led a July 28 public information session. “But we think it’s well worth it.”

Heights Happenings

• Speaking of trash, Councilmember Lincoln Restler’s office said they’ve been receiving complaints about missing public trash cans. In response, his office launched a new interactive platform where residents can report missing trash cans in the neighborhood.

• All in One Deli Mart (aka Peas N’ Pickles, aka 79 Green Apple) has closed after 30 years. Customers gathered at the store, located at the corner of Henry Street and Pineapple Walk, to say their goodbyes to owner Minki Lee over the weekend, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported.

• Twice Desired is hosting a pop-up shopping event at Café Brume on Aug. 5 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. The event will have a curated mix of vintage jewelry, designer finds and home decor.

• Art of Play, the curiosity shop at 69 Atlantic Ave., will be closed until Sept. 3 for renovations, including “major upgrades” to its theatrical lighting for shows in its theater. The shop also has a new neon sign out front.

• “Clueless” director Amy Heckerling will join New York Times editor Veronica Chambers for a conversation about the film before its screening at Movies With A View in Brooklyn Bridge Park on July 30 at 6 p.m.

• The MTA finished its $106 million renovation of Borough Hall station, one of New York City’s oldest subway stations. Borough Hall is now fully ADA accessible, with three new elevators. The transit agency also added flood mitigation measures and fixed the crumbling ceiling, which partially collapsed onto a woman in 2018.

Nearby News

• Titán in Dumbo will start serving brunch every Saturday and Sunday beginning Aug. 1.

• Muddy Paws Rescue is hosting an adoption event at Randolph Beer at 77 Sands St. from 6 to 8 p.m. on July 30. Dogs welcome!

• Someday Bar at 364 Atlantic Ave. in Boerum Hill is throwing an anniversary party on July 31, starting at 7 p.m. It’ll have a shotgun Vegas wedding and Elvis contest — the theme is Chapel Chic + Casino Glam.

• June Wine Bar in Cobble Hill is hosting Poetry and Pours: A Wine and Poetry Tasting on Aug. 13 from 7 to 9 p.m. Tickets include a flight of five wines and two hours of guided tasting with live reading.

• There’s a 45-square-foot museum in Carroll Gardens dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi.” The painting is the most expensive artwork ever sold at public auction, going for $450.3 million at Christie’s in 2017.

• NYCEDC is hosting another public information session on the Brooklyn Marine Terminal project on Aug. 5 at 6:30 p.m. The content will be the same as the July 14 session.

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Above the idyllic River Deli, at the southwest corner of Joralemon Street and Columbia Place, a decadeslong dispute between the tenants of Riverside Buildings and a New York City landlord has dragged on — and the tenants have had enough.

The dispute began back in 1991, when the previous owners paved over the buildings’ courtyard area to create a parking lot without required approval. Riverside tenants filed complaints about the loss of courtyard use and, in 2000, the state’s housing agency ordered the owner to fix the courtyard and issued a rent freeze and reduction.

Pinnacle Group, the buildings’ current landlord, bought the buildings in 2002, according to public records, but it took until 2024 for the landlord to restore the courtyard. Over the years, Pinnacle repeatedly tried, unsuccessfully, to build a parking garage in the courtyard.

Now, tenants say the state housing agency has lifted the rent freeze, and that Pinnacle is demanding back rent and trying to force them out to convert the buildings to condos. They say that they have been living in unsafe conditions, with mites, cockroaches, brown water and dead rodents in the walls.

“Tenants have been sickened, hospitalized and even forced from their homes,” said Kathleen, a member of the Riverside Tenants Association who only gave her first name, at a July 15 rally outside the buildings. “It is the latest chapter in a decadeslong pattern of neglect and disregard for the people who call this building their home.”

There’s a lot to lose, speakers at the rally emphasized. Riverside is a place where working families and artists can still afford to live, in an affluent brownstone neighborhood where rents average $6,162 per month, according to RentCafe.

The deteriorating conditions affect generations of tenants, said Farhia Hagi, a resident who moved in during the pandemic. Hagi said the mouse problem is so bad that her 14-year-old daughter started naming the mice. “‘Well, that’s Josh over there,’” Hagi said, quoting her daughter.

Hew Evans’ battle has been with a nearly invisible pest. The mites in his apartment have cost him more than $1,000 to fight, and two months of “itchy, burning pain from these mites and the resulting rashes,” he said. “It’s embarrassing and it’s an affront to human dignity.”

Jean Campbell, who moved into a ground-floor unit in Riverside in 1973 when she was on the lookout for an affordable unit where she could fit her piano, said she’s had to manage persistent leaks over the years.

“I have routinely had buckets and tarps ready to catch water run-off from leaking pipes in the apartments above,” Campbell said. “This led to ceiling collapse in the bathroom, the kitchen and three areas in the sitting room, as well as destruction of the tiling on the bathroom wall.”

Crumbling ceilings, leaks and infestations mark a long fall from what the Riverside Buildings were built to be. Philanthropist Alfred T. White built the complex in 1890, complete with open ironwork stairwells, a turfed courtyard, fountain and outdoor stage for Saturday concerts. Rents ran $8 to $11 a month, and White returned a month’s rent to any tenant who caused no damage that year.

The same buildings — 10, 20 and 30 Columbia Place and 24 and 32 Joralemon Street — now carry 82 open violations with the city’s housing department, 74 of them at 10 Columbia Place alone. Among the violations: visible mold, defective faucets, and cockroach and mouse infestations.

Pinnacle has gained a reputation for poorly maintained buildings, racking up thousands of open housing code violations over the years across its portfolio.

In May 2025, the company filed for bankruptcy, nearly two months after Flagstar Bank moved to foreclose on many of its buildings. Earlier this year, real estate firm Summit Properties USA bought more than 5,000 rent-stabilized apartments, a 93-building portfolio, from Pinnacle. Riverside was not among the buildings sold.

City and state officials, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Attorney General Letitia James, fought back against Summit’s purchase. James and other officials raised concerns about Summit’s own issues maintaining rent-stabilized units, and close family ties between Pinnacle CEO Joel Wiener and companies connected to Summit.

The latest Riverside dispute lands amid a citywide crackdown targeting “repeat-offender” landlords. The day after the rally, Mamdani released the Rental Ripoff Report, a 23-point plan to hold negligent landlords accountable, including steeper penalties and heavier enforcement of housing code violations.

Pinnacle has “categorically waged war on their tenants for decades,” Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon said at the rally. “They are engaging in a well-known pattern, a long-standing pattern, common among people who are doing that sort of thing, that is to harass people, to fail to repair, to make people want to move out.”

Pinnacle is suing more than 20 tenants for up to $30,000 each, Kathleen said, claiming that restoring the courtyard entitles it to increased rent dating back to September 2024. The tenants have launched a GoFundMe to help cover their legal fees.

Ken Fisher, a longtime attorney for Pinnacle, said he couldn’t provide any information “beyond what is on the court docket.”

Councilmember Lincoln Restler said he and Simon are working closely with the city and state housing agencies and the mayor’s office to push for more consistent inspections at Riverside. The rent increases at stake would double, triple or nearly quadruple some tenants’ bills, Restler added.

“The conditions here are despicable and Joel Wiener should be ashamed of himself,” Restler said. “We are going to fight with these tenants every damn step of the way, because this is affordable housing.”

Heights Happenings

• Confidant made it onto the Michelin Guide, meaning the restaurant is under consideration for a Michelin star or Bib Gourmand.

• Montero has new merch.

• Workout studio F45 Training is hosting a free outdoor workout class at Pier 2 in Brooklyn Bridge Park on July 23 at 7 p.m. Sign up here.

• There’s a coastal cleanup event at Brooklyn Bridge Park on July 26 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. More details here.

• Councilmember Lincoln Restler and the Sanitation Department are talking to neighbors about the expansion of on-street trash bins in Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill and Downtown Brooklyn on July 23 from 3 to 4 p.m. Sign up here.

• Curious about what organisms live in the East River? Brooklyn Bridge Park is hosting a series of sessions where participants can catch and release marine life and learn more about what’s really in there. The sessions are on July 25 from noon to 2 p.m., Aug. 1 from 5 to 7 p.m. and Sept. 26 from 3 to 5 p.m.

Nearby News

• The New York City Economic Development Corporation held a public info session about the Brooklyn Marine Terminal project on July 14. Here’s some basic information about the development, and what residents said they were worried about:

  • The site runs from Pier 7 at Atlantic Avenue in the north to Pier 12 at Wolcott Street in Red Hook to the south.

  • The 122-acre development would bring 6,000 housing units, a new public school, a 400-key hotel, a greenway connecting Brooklyn Bridge Park to Atlantic Basin and at least 28 acres of public open space to the Columbia Street Waterfront and Red Hook.

  • At the meeting, residents raised concerns about the sheer size of the project, increased truck traffic, the dangers of building in a flood zone and pollution from more ships in the area.

• Design studio Hudson Wilder is bringing a rotating lineup of emerging chefs to its studio at 142 Plymouth St. in Dumbo for a summer Saturdays yakitori grill residency. The series will take place every Saturday from July 25 to Aug. 29.

• Cantonese American restaurant Sal Tang’s in Cobble Hill is closing. The restaurant, run by Sal Lamboglia of Swoony’s, Cafe Spaghetti and Bar Ferdinando, will have its last day of service on Aug. 1.

• Saturn Road is looking for artists to submit artwork for its next group show, “A Woman’s Work: The Art of Womanhood.” The submission deadline is Aug. 16 and the show will run from Sept. 7 through Nov. 13.

• Clay Crew Ceramics is hosting a pottery painting party in June Wine Bar’s garden at 231 Court St. on Aug. 18 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are limited.

• Threes Brewing Gowanus is throwing a party to celebrate its newest IPA, Open Channel, and honor 20 years of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy on July 24 starting at 5 p.m. at 333 Douglass St. A portion of sales of Open Channel will be donated to the conservancy.

• In more Threes Brewing news, Good Time Pilates is having a Sunday Funday event with the brewery on July 26 at 11 a.m. It’ll be a 50-minute mat class in the Threes space followed by beers.

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Community members and local leaders voiced frustration at a town hall Monday night over the latest plan to finish Atlantic Yards — a megadevelopment near Downtown Brooklyn that was proposed more than two decades ago and has delivered only a fraction of what was promised.

Real estate firms Cirrus Workforce Housing and LCOR, the project’s new development team, unveiled a $5 billion plan to complete the long-stalled development, largely financed by loans from union pension funds, at an earlier public meeting on June 29. The state is likely to contribute roughly $700 million in additional subsidies, because several buildings would be constructed on top of an active rail yard.

According to the development team’s proposal, the plan includes six high-rises with 5,600 units — 1,000 condos and 4,600 rentals. Of those, at least 1,242 would be priced for low- and middle-income households.

At the Monday night meeting, residents and local leaders argued that the affordability plan skews toward higher earners.

“I still think that we are missing the boat in affordability,” said Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, who represents the 52nd Assembly District. Simon argued the deepest need is among households earning below 80% — and even 60% — of the area median income (AMI), tiers that make up a small share of the plan: 585 units, about 13% of the rentals.

In the New York City region in 2026, 80% AMI for a family of three is $122,160. By comparison, Brooklyn’s median household income across all household sizes was $83,770 in 2024, according to the NYU Furman Center’s latest data.

Leaders from Cirrus and Empire State Development, the state’s economic development authority, stressed that the proposed affordability mix was informed by extensive community engagement, and they plan to continue meeting with the community to improve transparency.

But some questioned whose input that engagement captured. Gib Veconi, who chairs the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, said the community engagement was “very heavily skewed toward upper-income families of the exact income bands that are displacing low-income and very low-income people in this neighborhood right now.”

Cirrus’ own leadership acknowledged the plan’s limitations. “This is not a perfect plan, because Atlantic Yards is not a perfect site,” said Joseph McDonnell, managing partner at Cirrus. “I think it’s actually maybe in a better place than some may think, but still a work in progress.”

The project’s density and size have also drawn concern from residents, particularly over a nearly 800-foot skyscraper proposed for the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Pacific Street.

“It is extraordinarily tall,” said resident Angelica Radacinski. Many of the buildings in the area have already had “substantially troublesome issues” with electricity, Radacinski said. “We lost our heat, our electricity, our hot water last winter when it was below zero degrees because the new buildings blew out our power grid.”

Nearby buildings, including 38 Sixth, an affordable building steps from Barclays Center and one of the few the original Atlantic Yards project produced, have faced their own problems. The building has been plagued by water outages and leaks, Gothamist reported. It has drawn more than 100 housing violations and 1,320 tenant complaints over the past two years, according to Gothamist’s review of city data.

For Atlantic Yards’ new developers, the project’s existing constraints, including its long history of broken promises and financial troubles, are the starting condition, not a surprise. “Atlantic Yards and other sites like it are a bit of an exercise in making lemonade out of lemons,” McDonnell said.

Heights Happenings

• The opening night party for the biennial neighborhood fundraiser Brooklyn Heights Designer Showhouse will take place on Sept. 30 at 1 Monroe Place, an 1852 mansion at Monroe and Clark streets. Tickets will be released in late August.

• The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is currently reviewing a proposal for the conversion of Hotel Bossert at 98 Montague St., which is set to become an amenities building with a Danny Meyer restaurant on the ground floor. The 1909 hotel — once called the “Waldorf Astoria of Brooklyn” — went downhill in the mid-1900s and later became a place for visiting Jehovah’s Witnesses to stay. It then languished in limbo until commercial real estate firm SomeraRoad bought it for $100 million last year.

• Mike, owner of local ice cream truck Kustard King, spoke with the Brooklyn Daily Eagle about competition from the Mister Softee truck outside of the Pierrepont Playground.

• The Department of Transportation is looking for an engineer to take on the challenge of fixing the deteriorating triple cantilever section of the BQE. “This is an urgent infrastructure priority project, and leading that effort is a career-defining opportunity,” DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn wrote in a LinkedIn post. The section of the highway under the Brooklyn Heights Promenade has confounded transportation officials for years.

• An oversized semi-trailer blocked the intersection of Montague Street and Pierrepont Place for over an hour and a half on Sunday.

• Diljān launched its pizza program, and preorders sold out within the day.

• The New York Transit Museum at 99 Schermerhorn St. is hosting a curator talk for its special anniversary exhibition, “The New York Transit Museum: 50 Years of Stories,” on July 16 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

• The Center for Brooklyn History is hosting a conversation between Columbia University historian Kim Phillips-Fein and Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Steven Hahn about Phillips-Fein’s new book, “Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight against Equality in America.” The talk will take place at 128 Pierrepont St. on July 16 from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

• Brooklyn Heights neighbor Matt Damon was on Kareem Rahma’s Subway Takes a couple of weeks ago, promoting Water.org, the safe-water nonprofit he co-founded. His take: “Water is underrated!!”

Nearby News

• The Pride flag outside of Gallery Kooy on Atlantic Avenue in Boerum Hill has now been vandalized three times. In response, owner David Kooy asked passersby to sign 100 little flags, and set up an exhibit showcasing the signed flags. “I wanted to make sure that this hate crime is balanced by a love crime,” Kooy said in an Instagram post.

• Chris Pine is suing a developer over a Cobble Hill townhouse deal, The Real Deal reported. The actor claims Eckstrom Development’s Carlos Saavedra failed to return $100,000 in fees Pine paid while negotiating a seven-week rental of the property at 487 Henry St.

• Womenswear shop M.PATMOS is serving as a drop-off site for Brooklyn Book Bodega. Donate like-new and gently used books for babies, kids and teens at the shop at 358 Atlantic Ave.

• Marshlands, a bathhouse and social club, is opening in Dumbo in 2027. The bathhouse will offer contrast therapy, red light therapy, hyperbaric oxygen and IV drips.

• Greenpoint-based Sichuan restaurant Breeze is set to open a second location at 590 Fulton St. in Downtown Brooklyn this fall.

• Colson Whitehead will discuss his new novel, “Cool Machine,” at McNally Jackson in Downtown Brooklyn on July 21 from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

• A wrong-way driver caused another car to crash into Garden Gourmet Deli and Grill at the corner of Union and Henry streets in Carroll Gardens on Sunday morning, CBS News reported. No one on the sidewalk or in the deli was injured. The driver, identified as Juan Tenorio Ramos, 24, had a fanny pack with MDMA, LSD and heroin in it, though he was not intoxicated at the time of the crash, according to the complaint. Neighbors have set up a GoFundMe to help the deli recover.

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Elissa, an 1877 square-rigged iron barque, set sail from the Brooklyn Bridge Marina last night, bound for Boston, closing out a Fourth of July celebration that brought tall ships from around the world into New York Harbor.

The Galveston, Texas-based ship is the oldest Class A tall ship in Sail 250 — a global gathering of tall and military ships to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary — and one of three ships of her kind in the world to still sail.

“She’s something special,” said Todd Grove, who has been volunteering with Elissa since 2000 and is serving as quartermaster for the first time on this voyage. “She’s one of the very, very last of her kind.”

Grove and the rest of the crew departed from Texas on June 8. The roughly three-week journey to New York had “a little bit of everything,” Grove said. The crew, comprised of approximately 34 volunteers and a cadre of licensed officers, motored across the Gulf of Mexico to Key West, as the wind was “smack on our nose,” he said. After two nights in Fort Pierce, Florida, the wind had shifted to the southwest, and they sailed up the East Coast without touching the engine for 700 miles.

From New York, Elissa is heading to a tall ships festival in Boston, where she’ll spend the weekend before turning south for stops in Savannah and Pensacola. She’s due back in Galveston by mid-August, though hurricane season may impact the timeline.

The visit marked Elissa’s third trip to New York City. The 162-foot ship first visited in 1884, and last returned in 1986 for the Statue of Liberty’s centennial.

The ship was originally built in Aberdeen, Scotland for Liverpool merchant Henry Fowler Watt, who used her as a tramp trader — picking up cargo at smaller ports around the world rather than running a fixed route. She sailed under British, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish flags over the decades before ending up abandoned in a scrapyard in Piraeus Harbor, Greece. In 1974, the Galveston Historical Foundation bought her and began a restoration that returned her to sailing condition.

The ship is still rigged as she was in 1877, with the addition of a few modern touches like radios, chart plotters and radar. Asked whether it was ever nerve-wracking to steer a ship built nearly 150 years ago, Grove said his experience with Elissa — including a couple of storms over the years — has only reinforced his confidence in her design.

“All she has done this entire trip is prove just how fantastically designed and appropriate for this kind of work she is,” Grove said. “She’s taken really good care of us.”

Heights Happenings

• A new Georgian restaurant is coming to Atlantic Avenue. BEBO, which means “grandma” in Georgian, is slated to open at the end of the month.

• L’Appartement 4F is hosting a Bastille Day celebration on July 19 from 2-6 p.m., in partnership with Montague Open Streets. Tickets include drinks from Zev Rovine Selections and Back Home Beer, plus food — including a hot dog in a 4F brioche bun topped with Petrossian Caviar.

• Noodle Pudding is an “ideal neighborhood restaurant,” according to Eater.

• Diljān will start serving Afghan pizza in the next few weeks.

• Two ships from the restaurant group Crew — Pilot and Victory Chimes — sank in the Henry Street Basin in Red Hook last weekend.

• 192 Columbia Heights sold for $24.5 million this week — the highest sale in Brooklyn so far this year, and the third-highest residential sale in borough history. The 6,625-square-foot brownstone was built in 1856.

• Have feedback on last weekend’s Fourth of July events in the neighborhood? Submit comments to Councilmember Lincoln Restler’s office here.

• A ship owned by environmental organization Hudson River Sloop Clearwater was removed from the Sail4th 250 parade last weekend over “politically charged” messaging. The ship had banners that said “Save the Clean Water Act” and “Indigenous Rights, Racial Justice, ⁠Climate Solutions.”

• As multiple outlets reported, the Brooklyn Bridge briefly caught fire during the fireworks display on Saturday night. According to Councilmember Restler’s office, the fires occurred on the platforms built to launch the fireworks, not the bridge itself, and there was no structural damage to the bridge.

• The Center for Brooklyn History is hosting “An Unfinished Revolution: Dialogues on Freedom and Democracy,” a talk with historian Elizabeth Hinton, on July 22 from 6:30–8 p.m.

• Journalist Pamela Colloff is coming to Books are Magic on July 20 at 7 p.m. to discuss her latest book, “Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast.”

• The Brooklyn Heights Association is looking for volunteers to make sandwiches for the community fridge on July 13 from 5-6 p.m. Sign up here.

Nearby News

• Deez Links is throwing a media mixer at Public Records on July 14 at 7 p.m., co-hosted by Teen Vogue creative editorial director Mi-Anne Chan. Tickets are sold out, but there’s a waitlist.

• A 30-foot-tall polar bear sculpture is coming to the Gowanus Canal, alongside a 13-foot cub. The cub sculpture by Bushwick-based artist Jen Lewin originally debuted at Burning Man in 2022.

• The former Macy’s building in Downtown Brooklyn is getting a major overhaul. The 440,000-square-foot space will become “BKX,” billed as the largest contiguous retail space in New York City, with a new central atrium, entertainment, dining and retail.

• Mahjong has been sweeping the nation. Talea Cobble Hill is hosting an open / guided play event on July 9 from 6:30-9 p.m. Over in Dumbo, Chop Suey Club is hosting a mahjong workshop at Ziggy’s Roman Cafe on July 21 from 7-9 p.m.

• An affordable housing lottery is now open for Columbia Commons I, an eight-story building at 498 Columbia Street in Red Hook.

• St. Ann’s Warehouse in Dumbo is looking for 150 volunteers to train as puppeteers for a public art event in September. The event will bring a herd of life-sized Buffalo puppets to the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan. Applications are due July 15. No puppeteering experience required.

City & Courts

• New York City’s Department of Sanitation is planning to expand its “Empire Bin” trash program throughout the city over the next six years to limit the number of trash bags on sidewalks. Brooklyn Community District 2 info sessions for the program will be held on July 8 at 6 p.m. and July 22 at 6 p.m.

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Around 10 p.m. on August 26, 1776, roughly eight weeks after the united colonies declared their independence, the first shots of the Battle of Brooklyn were fired, aimed at a group of British troopers foraging in a watermelon patch.

The following day, the first and largest single battle of the Revolutionary War unfolded on Brooklyn soil.

On the morning of August 27, British soldiers advanced toward the Americans’ fortified camp on Brooklyn Heights. The Redcoats planned to outflank George Washington’s Continental Army, surround the troops and force them to surrender.

As the Americans retreated toward Brooklyn Heights, one brave contingent decided to fight back. Led by Brigadier General William Alexander, Lord Stirling, a regiment of 400 Maryland soldiers fought against 2,000 British troops in front of the Old Stone House in what is now Park Slope. It was the bloodiest stretch of the battle — 256 Marylanders were killed, and over a hundred others were wounded or captured. The Marylanders’ sacrifice allowed the rest of the Americans remaining in the field to escape across Gowanus Creek and survive.

The fighting only lasted hours. By nightfall, Washington and the remnants of his army were pinned on Brooklyn Heights, the East River behind them, with no clear way out.

On August 29, Washington called a meeting with his generals at the Livingston mansion in Brooklyn Heights. There, he made a decision that changed the course of the war: retreating to Manhattan was the only option.

After dark that night, the evacuation began. “We were strictly enjoined not to speak, or even cough, while on the march,” wrote 15-year-old Private Joseph Plumb Martin. “All orders were given from officer to officer, and communicated to the men in whispers.”

The soldiers started by transferring items — ammunition, cannon, horses and baggage — from their position at what is now Fulton Ferry Landing to boats waiting on the East River. By 10 p.m., soldiers began crossing.

The movement of thousands of men, their equipment and supplies across the East River should have been impossible to conceal. But a thick fog rolled in, hiding the American troops from the nearby British. As Colonel William Smallwood wrote, the evacuation was “happily completed under cover of a thick fog and a southwest wind.”

Washington managed to extricate about 9,500 men with their equipment and supplies, and all but five cannon, before the British realized what had happened.

From one of the final boats, Major Benjamin Tallmadge looked up to see a tall figure in a cloak. It was Washington, leaving with the last of his troops.

Heights Happenings

• Adam Driver bought three units in the Standish on Columbia Heights. The Oscar-nominated actor and former Marine paid $11.5 million for the sixth-floor units totaling 3,500 square feet, the Real Deal reported. Driver’s Henry Street condo recently hit the market for $5 million, per TRD.

• Demolition is complete at 205 Montague Street, clearing the way for a 47-story, 672-foot residential tower. The $550 million development will include 90 rental apartments and 46 condominiums, along with roughly 40,000 square feet of retail. No construction timeline has been announced.

• The Brooklyn Heights Association is looking for a local artist to design this year’s community hat. Submissions are due August 1. AI-generated designs aren’t permitted!

• Plymouth Cafe has officially closed its doors after 42 years.

  

• New York is under a heat advisory this week. Cooling centers in Brooklyn Heights are located at St. Charles Senior Center at 55 Pierrepont Street and Brooklyn Heights Library at 286 Cadman Plaza West.

• It’s going to be a particularly busy Fourth of July in the neighborhood this year, with the 250th anniversary of independence and the 50th anniversary of the Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks. Here’s what to know about access restrictions:

  • Starting at 1 p.m. on July 4, parts of Brooklyn Heights will be restricted to residents, businesses and authorized guests only, with NYPD checkpoints in place. Residents will need to show ID or other documentation to access restricted streets.

  • Montague Street up to Hicks will remain open to pedestrians without documentation.

  • No parking will be permitted in the restricted zone beginning the evening of July 3.

  • Resident and visitor passes are available by emailing district33@council.nyc.gov with your name and address.

Nearby News

• Lonnies in Boerum Hill is opening a cocktail bar next door. An official opening date hasn’t been set, but the bar is expected to open within the next few months.

  

  

• A new bar and diner is opening in the former Pitt’s space on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook. Val’s will open this month, according to the Red Hook Star-Revue.

• A Brooklyn-based architecture studio transformed a 1931 warehouse in Columbia Street Waterfront into a 4,400-square-foot home.

City & Courts

• A former after-school program director at the Brooklyn New School in Carroll Gardens was indicted last week on charges that she stole more than $111,000 in school funds over six years, prosecutors said. Shalisha Jackson, 37, allegedly wrote checks to herself and diverted program funds into her personal account, spending the money on hotel stays, luxury real estate payments, liquor store purchases and other personal expenses.

• Twenty-two alleged gang members were charged last week in what prosecutors called one of the largest takedowns in Brooklyn history. “These alleged gang members are responsible for dozens of separate shootings and other acts of violence all across Brooklyn and beyond,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.

• A motorcyclist struck 12 pedestrians at Commodore Barry Park next to Brooklyn Navy Yard on Sunday. The 53-year-old driver of the three-wheel motorcycle was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, among other counts.

One of the most closely watched congressional races in the city is on the ballot for Brooklyn Heights voters — and early voting is already underway. Here’s a guide to the June 23 primary election.

When & how

Early voting will run through Sunday, June 21. See below for early voting hours:

• June 17: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

• June 18: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

• June 19 to June 21: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Election Day is Tuesday, June 23. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

To find your poll site and view a sample ballot, type in your address on the Board of Elections website. Note that early voting locations are often different from Primary Day polling sites.

New York holds closed primaries, meaning you can only vote in your own party’s primary. Independent or unaffiliated voters can’t participate in primaries.

Who is on the ballot?

Which races appear on your ballot depends on where you live — not every Brooklyn voter will see the same contests. Here are three key races Brooklyn Heights residents will find on their ballots. Depending on your address, you may also see additional races such as county committee seats.

House of Representatives, New York’s 10th District — Dan Goldman (incumbent) against Brad Lander

NY-10 encompasses Brooklyn Heights, Dumbo, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Red Hook, Gowanus, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Sunset Park, parts of Borough Park and Bay Ridge, and Lower Manhattan.

The Goldman-Lander race has become one of the most closely watched primaries in the city. Both candidates are considered progressives. Goldman — a two-term representative, Levi Strauss heir and former federal prosecutor who helped lead President Trump’s first impeachment inquiry — is backed by Governor Kathy Hochul and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. He has put at least $1 million of his own money into his campaign. Lander, the former city comptroller who ran for mayor last year, is a close ally of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He’s challenging Goldman from the left.

The primary has been shaped by divisions over Israel, multiple outlets have reported. Goldman has been criticized for his support for Israel and ties to AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby. Lander has taken a harder line against the war, calling Israel’s conduct in Gaza a genocide.

Recent polls show Lander with a significant lead.

State Assembly, AD-52 — Jo Anne Simon (incumbent) against Lydia Green

AD-52 covers Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Dumbo, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, Park Slope and Prospect Heights.

Jo Anne Simon, a disability civil rights lawyer, was first elected to represent AD-52 in 2014. She was also Democratic District Leader for AD-52 from 2004 to 2014. Simon has focused on repairs to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, gun violence prevention and campaign finance reform, among other issues.

Lydia Green, a Democratic District Leader and progressive organizer, is challenging Simon. Green has focused her campaign on housing affordability, taxing the wealthy, the climate crisis and divesting New York State from the war in Gaza.

State Comptroller — Thomas DiNapoli (incumbent), Drew Warshaw and Raj Goyle

The state comptroller is New York’s chief fiscal officer, responsible for managing the state pension fund, auditing state contracts, and uncovering waste, fraud and abuse in government spending.

Thomas DiNapoli, New York’s state comptroller since 2007, is facing his first primary challenge. DiNapoli has longstanding support from labor unions across the state. Despite nearly two decades in office, a recent Siena University poll found 65% of voters said they had never heard of him or didn’t know enough to have an opinion.

DiNapoli is being challenged by Drew Warshaw, a former affordable housing nonprofit executive, and Raj Goyle, a former Kansas state lawmaker and tech industry veteran. Both are running to DiNapoli’s left, with campaigns focused on how the state pension fund is invested.

For more information on how to vote, visit vote.nyc.

Heights Happenings

• U.K. bridal shop The Fall Bride has opened a store on Main Street in Dumbo. The London-based boutique will bring a slate of British designers, including Jessica Bennett, Harriette Gordon, Talc and Cassandra Graham, to the U.S.

• Warships and other tall ships are coming to Brooklyn Bridge Park. In celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary, Sail4th 250 will bring roughly 80 vessels to New York for a two-day event starting July 3. The ships will dock in Brooklyn Bridge Park and near the Intrepid Museum in Midtown, among other locations.

• The DOT is seeking public comment on its plan to turn Dean and Bergen streets into “Bike Boulevards.” Submit feedback here in the Feedback Map section.

• Overdye, an appointment-only, pre-owned menswear store, has opened at 81 Prospect Street in Dumbo.

• There will be an “It’s My Park” cleanup event at Harry Chapin Playground on Columbia Heights at Middagh Street on June 19 from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Giant bubbles to follow.

• Titán, a cantina from the owner of Los Burritos Juarez, opens today in the former Gran Electrica space at 5 Front Street, beneath the Brooklyn Bridge.

• Goose Barnacle on Atlantic Avenue will be hosting World Cup watch parties on June 17 from 4-6 p.m. and June 24 from 6-8 p.m.

• Bathhouse on Atlantic Avenue is hosting a literary reading in the sauna on June 20 from 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., featuring readings by Caroline Calloway, Tony Tulathimutte and others. RSVP required.

• The Urban Park Rangers are hosting a walking tour exploring the Abolitionist movement in Brooklyn on Friday, June 19 from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. The tour starts at the corner of Furman and Old Fulton streets in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

• The stretch of Pineapple Street from Hicks to Henry will be closed from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 20 and Sunday, June 21.

Other news

• The Carroll Street Bridge over the Gowanus Canal has reopened after five years. The bridge, opened in 1889, is one of just four retractile bridges left in the U.S. It’s now only open to pedestrians, cyclists and emergency vehicles. There will be a community block party to celebrate at 420 Carroll Street on June 20 from 4-8 p.m.

  

• The team behind Gertie is opening Trudie’s Tavern in Carroll Gardens on June 19.

• City Council leaders have proposed a plan to build affordable housing on top of three libraries, including one in Brooklyn.

• The NYPD is spending a lot on overtime. NYPD uniformed overtime is projected to reach $890 million in FY 2026 — more than double what the department budgeted, for the third year in a row, according to a new report from City Comptroller Mark Levine’s office. Much of the spending is not driven by emergencies: planned events like parades accounted for more than half of overtime spending in the most recent quarter analyzed.

A protected bike lane is coming to Adams Street.

At last week’s Brooklyn Community Board 2 meeting, the Department of Transportation presented a plan to redesign Adams Street/Boerum Place and add a 10-foot wide, two-way bike lane for cyclists coming off the Brooklyn Bridge.

The bike lane will run between Johnson and Bergen streets. For most of its length, the lane will run in the center of the street along the east side of the landscaped median. Near Atlantic Avenue, the lane will shift to the west side of the street before continuing south to Bergen Street.

Currently, cyclists heading to and from the Brooklyn Bridge have few good options. The existing painted bike lane on Adams Street is frequently blocked by illegally parked vehicles, and cyclists heading north on Jay Street have to cut across four lanes of traffic to reach the Tillary Street bridge connection.

“It’s confusing,” one cyclist told Pineapple Street. “When you’re coming off the bridge, there’s a very clear bike path, but then it becomes very unclear where to go as a cyclist.”

A 2025 study by Councilmember Lincoln Restler’s office documented the scale of the illegally parked car problem. On an average weekday, 63 vehicles park illegally on Adams Street alone — nearly 60% of them abusing official government parking placards. Across 60 blocks of Downtown Brooklyn, the study found 457 illegally parked vehicles on a typical day, with only 3% receiving a ticket.

The Adams Street bike lane is part of a decades-long effort to improve cyclist access to the Brooklyn Bridge. In 2017, the city completed a long-awaited reconstruction of the Brooklyn-side entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge, building a shared cycling and pedestrian path along the median between Johnson and Tillary streets — a project that had been in the works since at least 2009. Earlier this year, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a similar upgrade on the Manhattan side of the bridge.

The latest redesign comes as the Brooklyn Bridge has seen a sharp rise in cyclist traffic. From 2020 to 2025, ridership on the Brooklyn Bridge jumped by 194%, according to the DOT. On a typical weekday, nearly 1,300 cyclists travel along Adams Street during a 12-hour period, the agency said.

The project will be completed in two phases, with the redesign of the area north of Atlantic Avenue slated to begin this fall and the southern section expected in 2027.

Heights Happenings

• Lindsey Lohan’s upcoming Hulu limited series, “Count My Lies,” is filming in the neighborhood.

• The Brooklyn Heights Community Fridge has a new home outside of the Zion German Evangelical Lutheran Church and Christ the King Church at 125 Henry Street. Neighbors can support the fridge by subscribing to the Community Fridge newsletter, signing up for a cleanup slot or volunteering to make sandwiches.

• The Juneteenth 5K at Brooklyn Bridge Park will take place on June 20. Registration is open until June 19.

• The Metropolitan Opera will perform their summer recital on the Harbor View Lawn in Brooklyn Bridge Park on June 17 at 7:00pm.

• There’s a Whole Foods coming to Cobble Hill. The Amazon-owned grocery store has signed a lease to take over 182 Smith Street, the former Cobble Hill Rite Aid space, Crain’s New York Business reported.

• Darling is hosting another backyard sale with art, antiques and womenswear at their 149 Atlantic Avenue store on Saturday, June 13 from 3–6pm.

  

• New York Transit Museum is bringing back the HH Shuttle, otherwise known as the Court Street Shuttle, in celebration of its 50th anniversary. On July 4 and 5, the museum will run vintage trains along the shuttle's original Court Street to Hoyt–Schermerhorn route, which operated from 1936 to 1946.

• Adidas is hosting a World Cup fan zone in Brooklyn Bridge Park from June 13 through July 19, open noon to 10 p.m. daily. The space will feature live music, watch parties, a beer garden and other activities. Free tickets are required, and ticket info is coming soon.

• A sprawling mosaic has taken over the walls of a 110-foot passageway tucked away in the depths of the Borough Hall subway station. “May Your Road Be Light and Fun,” a permanent installation by Nigerian-born artist ruby onyinyechi amanze, spans the corridor between the 2/3 and 4/5 trains.

  

Other news

• The New York Legislature on Friday passed the Anti-Shackling Bill, which prohibits the unnecessary shackling of pregnant and postpartum individuals in custody, weeks after a woman gave birth in a Brooklyn courtroom. More than two dozen City Council members on Thursday issued a letter to Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch calling for an investigation into why the 33-year-old woman was forced to give birth in the courtroom.

• Construction debris, including sheet metal ducts and plastic buckets, has been falling from the jail site on Atlantic Avenue, per The City Reporter. One resident described a “rainfall of trash” on her building’s patio. The debris issue comes as the site has faced a series of serious worker safety incidents and unsafe conditions.

• Early voting for the New York primary will begin on June 13 and run through June 21. Election Day is Tuesday, June 23.

• Over in Bushwick, Ibiza-based club Pacha is set to open in the former Brooklyn Mirage space. The nightlife company will host pre-openers on June 13 and 14, with opening weekend kicking off June 20.

A New Jersey woman has been indicted for allegedly stealing more than $700,000 from the Brooklyn Heights co-op building at 130 Hicks Street where she served as board president.

The defendant, identified as Isabelle Gallier, 60, “allegedly turned a position of trust into a six-year scheme to steal from her neighbors, spending more than seven hundred thousand dollars meant to maintain a cooperative on luxury items and personal bills,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said his office “will prosecute anyone who exploits their authority to criminally enrich themselves.”

Gallier was arraigned before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun and charged with second-degree grand larceny.

Prosecutors allege Gallier used more than $218,000 to pay her personal mortgages and another $125,000 on luxury items — including $12,000 in furs, a $4,000 Rolex and $53,000 on 150 pairs of designer shoes, among them 28 pairs of Christian Louboutins and 16 pairs of Valentinos.

The alleged theft was discovered after Gallier lost her board seat and new leadership took over. A review of the building's financial records revealed the missing funds, according to prosecutors. Gallier then sold her three units in the building and moved out, prosecutors said.

Gallier was released without bail and ordered to return to court on August 12.

Note: An indictment is an accusation. Gallier has not been convicted of any crime.

A longstanding battle over a parking lot in Columbus Park is heating up.

Dozens of neighbors gathered for a rally over the weekend to push for the parking lot next to Borough Hall, used by judges based at the Brooklyn Supreme Courthouse, to be transformed into green space.

Judges using the space for parking is “purely selfish,” Councilmember Lincoln Restler told the crowd. “It is wrong for them to be using our park space as their parking lot, and so we are demanding they do the right thing.”

For over 60 years, State Supreme Court judges have parked in the concrete space at the corner of Joralemon and Adams streets. The judges have long argued that they need parking in close proximity to the courthouse for security reasons. Death threats “are not unusual things,” retired Brooklyn judge Abraham Gerges told The New York Times. (Years ago, Gerges was placed under the protection of an armed guard after an incarcerated person sought to place a “deadly voodoo hex” on him.)

Yet, as residents and neighborhood activists have contended, the lot sits on land that is technically mapped as city parkland. The redevelopment of Downtown Brooklyn and influx of residential buildings has only deepened the shortage of public green space.

In 2024, Councilmember Restler and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso partnered with the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (DBP) to conduct a study of the eight-acre, city-owned space. In a public survey of 174 residents, 86% of respondents said yes when asked if the judges’ parking lot should be repurposed.

Last May, after a series of meetings and public feedback, Reynoso and Restler presented a new plan for the park, with potential design ideas such as a playground, dog run, skate park and lawn space. Under the proposal, the judges’ parking lot would become a lawn and pavilion with a kiosk and public restrooms below it. Restler has so far locked in $21 million in city funding for the redevelopment.

Restler and Reynoso have also suggested alternative parking options for the judges, including a nearby Marriott hotel and Brooklyn Law School. The judges can “relocate their cars to any variety of options around the neighborhood,” Restler told the crowd at the rally.

Whether the judges will budge on the decades-long conflict remains an open question, but there’s certainly community momentum. As one student at the rally put it, “We need more outside time, people!”

Heights Happenings & other news

• The Brooklyn Heights Association Dog Show will return on June 14. Proceeds will go to nonprofit Paws NY.

• Seven Wonders Collective is having an opening party for their new Atlantic Avenue location on June 13. Shoppers can get a live illustration with any $100 purchase.

• The Brooklyn Greek Festival is running now through June 7 on Schermerhorn Street.

• The residents of Dumbo are fed up.

• Last week’s big restaurant news: Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group is opening its first full-service restaurant in Brooklyn at the former Hotel Bossert on Montague Street. It’s set to open in 2028.

• You really can find anything at a Brooklyn Heights stoop sale

That’s it for now! See you next time.