The Brooklyn Paper takes an awkwardly close look at Miss New York's "most recognizable assets," and declares, "They're spectacular — and they're real." 22-year-old Leigh-Taylor Smith won the title of Miss Brooklyn, somewhat controversially, before donning the Miss New York crown. She'll be competing for the Miss America title in January, but before that happens she cleared up any rumors that she had been surgically enhanced. One Brooklyn Paper reader said he still had his......

Earlier this year Leigh-Taylor Smith was crowned Miss Brooklyn, despite being from Manhattan (via Virginia). Now Newsday reports that the southern belle has become Miss New York, with a chance at the Miss America title and tiara come January. Executive director of Miss New York, Paul Brown, said that Smith qualified since she has lived in New York for a year (she moved here after graduation from the University of Virginia). She clinched the title......

After a 16-year absence from the beauty pageant circuit, Miss Brooklyn returned this year -- which meant that maybe, just maybe, a Brooklynite would become Miss New York, or even Miss America. Of all the 17 to 24 year olds in Brooklyn, last week's pageant was only seven-strong, and the winner is causing a commotion in the borough. The Brooklyn Paper is reporting on the scandalous move of crowning a "queen who's not from Kings."......

The Miss Brooklyn Pageant is coming back to town this coming Saturday after a 16-year absence from the scene (and they've returned in the MySpace age). The winner of the night will advance to the Miss New York Pageant, having a shot at becoming Miss America herself. Kim Thomas, executive director of the Miss Brooklyn Scholarship Program, told The Brooklyn Paper that, “The face of Miss America has changed. We’re looking for someone outgoing and......

Forget about Missed Connections on the Craigslist, the only way to find love this Valentine's Day is by hailing Ahmed Ibrahim's cab. The Daily News reports on the cabbie with cupid tendencies, saying he's spent years playing matchmaker to his patrons. His record is pretty impressive, he's organized 70 "real dates," 19 of which turned into relationships that lasted over a year. The numbers could be higher but Ibrahim is selective on who he sets......

A rendering of Brooklyn's proposed City Tech Tower, designed by Renzo Piano, at Tillary and and Jay Street sent some into speculation mode, especially since its height seemed to be up to 1,000 feet tall. Which would make just about twice the height of the 512-foot tall Williamsburgh Savings Bank, currently the tallest building the Brooklyn. However, the rendering of the building is apparently old. A representative at Forest City Ratner, the development company which......

What is it about Frank Gehry? When The Boston Globe reported this week that the architect (and a construction firm) is being sued by MIT, news organizations from Kansas City to Dublin reported the story. Does Gehry have a building in KC, too? Apparently, not, but he raised controversy there over an arena bid. Sound familiar?! The university filed a negligence and breach of contract suit, alleging design flaws in the $300 million Stata Center......

At long last, after more than a year suffering behind black netting, the four-faced clock and gilded dome of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building are back in (almost) full view. But don't rely on it to tell time. The hands don't move yet! The NY Times has a write-up of the restored clock, which the building's owner, the Dermot Company, began renovating in 2006. Certainly, the four-faced clock of Brooklyn's tallest is now a......

The hard-hitting polemical film, Brooklyn Matters, lucidly articulates and amplifies the movement to stop Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan. Directed and produced by Isabel Hill, the film portrays the AY project as an outrageous scam to be perpetrated upon hoodwinked Brooklynites. Numerous interviews with critical residents, planners, critics, and elected officials portray a scenario in which a cynical developer and corrupt State agencies have hired gullible community allies and a star architect to conceal......

The City Planning Commission has spoken and says the Atlantic Yards Project should be reduced by 8%. This is only a "recommendation," but since the project's developer the Forest City Ratner had been considering a 6-8% downsizing, given all the public outcry, this seems like something the group may well do. Especially since the City Planning Commission "raved," the Post puts it, about the tallest skyscraper in the group, Frank Gehry's "Miss Brooklyn" structure that......

The NY Times is reporting that Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner will cut the size of the project by 6-8%. How? By reducing the amount of market-rate housing. And also from the Times: "[Ratner's company] Forest City is also considering reducing the height of the project’s tallest tower, which is known as Miss Brooklyn, to get it under the height of the borough’s tallest building, the nearby Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower, according to real estate......

Residents of Fort Greene, commence panic! According to this cool diagram created by the Christina Porter Memorial Lighting Lab at Pratt, the Atlantic Yards development will cast most of the neighborhood into a state of perpetual darkness. Brooklyn Papers reports: ...shadows from the developer’s Atlantic Yards mega-project would darken a wide swath of Brooklyn from Prospect Heights to Downtown — including a strip in Fort Greene that won the “Greenest Block in Brooklyn” contest......

At a press conference today, Frank Gehry revealed new designs for Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards development in downtown Brooklyn, and The Real Estate has lots of images and quotes from the event. Such as how Gehry named the tallest building the "Miss Brooklyn" after a bride he saw while walking in Brooklyn, saying "She's a bride with her flowing bridal veil--I really overdid it. If you had seen the bride you would--I fell in love......