The UTNE Reader takes a look at New York's jazz scene in their latest issue, and more specifically how the epicenter has shifted from Manhattan to Brooklyn. They recall that back in the day "the music especially thrived in areas where crime and abandoned buildings kept the cost of living low for artists like Charlie Parker, who rented an apartment at 151 Avenue B." So where can one find the best live jazz now, without......

What's the craziest thing you've ever encountered underground? Try to trump this Park Slope family's disturbing, X-rated experience; Gowanus Lounge reports that they (kids and all) ran into a man being orally pleasured on the steps of the 15th Street F Station in Brooklyn. "As we entered the turnstile, I looked up towards one of the staircases, and saw a man sitting on the stairs receiving oral sex from a woman whom I recognized from......

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has picked through the weeds for the 14th time, to find The Greenest Blocks in Brooklyn, and they announced the winners of the annual contest this morning. In the end, it was Park Slope and Boerum Hill that came out on top, with first-place residential block going to 8th Street between Prospect Park West and 8th Avenue. How did they get to be so green? By hosting “Mulch and Wine Night,”......

The Daily News exposes a flasher in Park Slope, or at least points out that there's one prowling the streets. That's right, a sexual predator is creepily stalking stroller central. The paper reports that a "man exposed himself to a 14-year-old girl after pushing his way into her apartment building two weeks ago," saying he had something to show her as he chased her up the stairs. The man fled when the teen's family heard......

Gowanus Lounge reports on a sad sight in Park Slope, as "hideous architecture" and history prepare to collide once again. The old SEPTA trolley car which locals had high hopes of one day seeing turned into a diner...is being deconstructed to make way for a 12-story residential complex. Will the 4th Avenue landmark be headed to the landfill? Earlier this month Brownstoner noted the construction equipment appearing in the otherwise vacant lot and the owner......

Photo looking northernly along 4th Avenue, courtesy Designing the 21st Century Street. Transportation Alternatives [T.A.] has issued an open call for new designs for the heavily-trafficked intersection of 4th Avenue and 9th Street in Brooklyn, at the western edge of Park Slope. Called “Designing the 21st Century Street,” the competition is wholly theoretical and not part of any actual city plan, but the winning prizes are very real, ranging from $2,000 to $6,000. According to......

Last week an ex-con attacked a woman in Park Slope, and the news is hitting the papers today. The NY Post reports that 32-year-old Thomas Russo followed 39-year-old Diana Greiner along 6th Avenue in Brooklyn last Tuesday around 11:45 p.m. Somewhere near Lincoln Place, Russo struck Greiner's skull (fracturing it) and slashed her face and body before fleeing on foot into a bodega. He was caught on tape and is currently being charged with attempted......

Slice's Adam Kuban takes his life into his hands by conducting a taste test of all the slices in his neighborhood, Park Slope. Although Kuban claims to have learned secrets of such intense pizza samplings "like only sampling slices, not entirely consuming them," he still manages to ingest over 15 slices in some way, shape, or form. In the mozzarella-hazed-aftermath, Kuban deems Tomato & Basil (226 Fourth Avenue, 718-596-8855) the "best in the Slope overall.........

This year sex shop Babeland celebrates its 15th year, and its 1st Brooklyn store. Claire Cavanah is the co-owner, but she's also a Park Slope mom...so naturally the borough's first Babeland is landing right in her own nabe. So far the neighbors have greeted them with an unexpected level of excitement, and today the Park Slope outlet of Babeland will finally open its doors. Recently Cavanah told us about the shop's history, the neighborhood-specific events......

Think paying $8 for a beer is outrageous? Then steer clear of ordering the Baladine Xyauyù at Park Slope's Beer Table, the 17-oz. bottle will set you back 95 bucks (but to be fair, would be the perfect accompaniment to the $175 hamburger). The new bar calls the Slope's 7th Avenue home, and the Daily News, unsurprisingly, describes the digs as "swank." As for the beer, it cannot be found anywhere else in New York,......

Babeland opening invite gift box; batteries not included. Park Slope parents were legitimately (and surprisingly) thrilled when they discovered Babeland would be building a new home in their community. Now the sex shop will be opening its doors at 462 Bergen Street on June 3rd, and they're certainly fitting in well with the Park Slope stroller set. The shop is offering up 'nabe-friendly events like "Eco Alternatives: Wood, Glass and Steel Sex Toys" and......

Brooklyn Paper has it that the smaller, funkier Tea Lounge in Park Slope, on Seventh Avenue and Tenth Street, is to close at the end of July. And you’ll never in a million years guess what the reason is! Turns out an obscene rent hike is forcing the neighborhood hang-out to move along and make room for, most likely, a Corcoran real estate office. Where have we heard this tune before? And so the tumbleweeds......

Photograph of a robot parade in Park Slope by Dave Surgan on Flickr In writer-director Noah Baumbach*'s 1995 film, Kicking and Screaming (about college graduates, not to be confused with the Will Ferrell's children's soccer movie), the protagonist tries to tempt his girlfriend to live with him in Brooklyn: "And not just Brooklyn, A-list Brooklyn. Park Slope. Division 2 Manhattan.” The NY Times Styles section has an article about Division 2 Manhattan--Park Slope: Where......

Starting Monday, alternate-side-of-the-street parking will be suspended on residential streets in Park Slope until further notice. The parking reprieve is being granted while the city changes all the signage to reflect a big change in the alternate-side parking rules: On street cleaning days, the duration of the “No Parking” times will be cut from three hours to 90 minutes in Park Slope. This also means that until all the new signs are in place –......

Pictured: Jon Crow entering Union Hall; from surveillance video. Before the big meeting tomorrow at Borough Hall, the Brooklyn Paper weighs in on the great Union Hall debate of Aught Eight. Recently some neighbors, led by Jon Crow, rallied together to stop the renewal of the establishment's liquor license at the end of the month; one neighbor, who has since moved, told us, "This place had a serious impact on my life, on my......

Today, in the wake of the CB6 meeting that took place last night, Eugene Mirman tells us what he really thinks of his nagging neighbors; sentiments that are surely being echoed from his speech last night. Put in some earplugs and read carefully Crow & Co.I feel bad that some people are genuinely bothered by the noise outside the bar — and Union Hall has done a lot to remedy the situation. I don’t live......

Pictured L-R: Anti-Union Hallers Roberta Lehrner and Jon "Old Man" Crow -- and their laundry list of complaints. Late last month some residents of Park Slope secured themselves a Community Board meeting with CB6 to air their complaints about Union Hall, and attempt to stop their liquor license from getting renewed. The meeting took place last night, lasted more than two hours, and to everyone's surprise -- the board voted against Union Hall. The......

Like No Impact Man before him, Brooklyn resident Scott Ballum embarked last month on a year long mission to radically examine his own patterns of consumption. He’s calling it the Consume®econnection Project, and his plan sounds simple yet exhausting: The Mission: A year-long effort to meet the laborers and craftsmen who build what I buy – and put a human face on consumption. For every transaction, there must be a personal connection with someone along......

Is Park Slope ready for its close up? The Post is reporting that the 'nabe may be getting the Star treatment, that is...the Darren Star treatment. He's "teamed with Sony and NBC for a proposed series about a group of affluent characters who live in the upscale Brooklyn neighborhood." The same execs of the yet-to-be-titled show also brought Sex and the City to the small screen, a series that Brooklyn-bashed throughout its lifespan. Post-Carrie Bradshaw,......

As if Brooklyn music venues aren't suffering enough right now, residents are currently rising up against what they call a "nuisance bar" in Park Slope. That bar is Union Hall. Jon Crow, one of those spearheading the campaign to shut the venue down, emailed us about an upcoming public hearing regarding the renewal of Union Hall's liquor license, admitting, "those of us fighting this nuisance bar are fully aware this hearing won't close it down."......

Erstwhile principal and school founder Debbie Almontaser made the front page of The New York Times today. The article is about how a woman who attempted to found a school based on cultural and religious understanding was forced from her position as the principal thanks to the resistance of spirited opponents. Almontaser founded the Khalil Gibran International Academy, which she envisioned as a dual language --English and Arabic--school that emphasized the cultural accomplishments of Middle......

Wildwood: Pit master “Big Lou” Elrose has come a long way from his Ozone Park lunch wagon; the 6’4 Brooklyn-born behemoth has now transferred from Hill Country to this new Park Avenue South barbecue restaurant, part of the B.R. Guest empire. The atmosphere is urban industrial and reclaimed rustic, with high ceilings and a 50-foot-long bar. Big Lou’s famous ribs, pork brisket, pulled pork and smoked chicken can be paired with such sides as Cast......

Photo by Dave Surgan. This past Sunday Brooklyn was host to a Robot Parade. Why? Some residents put one together and marched their metallic legs from Park Slope to Prospect Park, "just for fun." Check out more photos of their journey, here.......

Photo courtesy Gothamist reader Heather D. One Park Slope resident emailed us to describe a surprising scene unfolding this morning on 4th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues.I went out for my coffee around 10am and there were 4 white undercover SUVs, an NYPD emergency truck and a large, black DEP/HAZMAT truck/mobile unit parked on my street! When I came back from my coffee run I saw a Fire Dept. SUV parked at the 6th......

Ricky Kenig, owner of Ricky's (you've probably bought a Halloween costume there before), is leaving his Brooklyn home at 409 Eighth Street. Just last fall it was reported that he'd be expanding his chain to the neighborhood after purchasing a $1.3 million home there; he was said to be "enamored" with the borough. Now, less than a year later, the 19-foot-wide town house (circa 1899) has undergone a $1 million facelift and will be back......

Few residents of Park Slope, Brooklyn are probably aware that they share their neighborhood with a firearms company that has operated in the borough for almost a century. The Henry Repeating Arms Co. is garnering some unwelcome attention this week, however, after it was revealed that the company shipped four of its lever-action rifles with live rounds inside. The company produces around 100,000 rifles annually. The incident where loaded weapons were shipped has to do......

Last month The Brooklyn Eagle had a report on how Brooklyn has been sucking the creative lifeblood right out of Manhattan. In recent years Brooklyn has experienced a 33.2 percent increase in the number of self-employed creatives, while Manhattan’s growth during the same period was a mere 6.5 percent. On Wednesday the Center for an Urban Future held a forum addressing the impact of Brooklyn’s growing cluster of self-employed creative freelancers on the borough’s economy.......

It seems like every other weekend, Brooklyn is home to some kind of homestyle cooking competition, with a constant rotation of cupcake-offs, chili massacres, a big jerk-off, and probably some vegan tofu spread-a-thons somewhere. Prizes at these things are typically anything from homely trophies to a few cans of PBR, but the just-announced, upcoming inaugural Risotto Challenge is something special indeed: The prizes are going to be very nice. More on that below. On April......

CONTEST ALERT: Tomorrow night the indie-elite will gather at Terminal 5 for The Plug Awards -- featuring Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, St. Vincent, José Gonzalez, Dizzee Rascal, The Forms, DiVinci and more. Tickets are sold out, so you can either watch the show here, or you can win tickets from us! We're giving away 5 pairs, starting now. Just email GothamistContest@gmail.com and tell us why you want to go. MUSIC: White Williams,......

The NY Post spoke to two Park Slope residents before declaring the new Babeland sex toy shop would be giving off some bad vibes to the locals when it moved into their 'hood. But NYMag points out the Park Slope parents, if the Brooklynian message board is any indication, are rather delighted by their future neighbor. One stroller pusher declared, "How silly of the Post. Where do they think all the babies come from?" Well,......