Atlantic Yards & Brooklyn Flea Wander

In case you haven't been following it, there is a huge 5-billionish dollar development called Atlantic Yards planned on Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn,where the neighbourhoods of Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Fort Greene and Boerum Hill intersect. The centerpiece is the new Barclays Center, where the New Jersey Nets are supposed to move in 2012 (is it just me or is this the least talked about, most uncontroversial professional sports team relocation ever?). Basically an uber-rich developer (Bruce Ratner) wants to tear down a bunch of old dilapidated buildings, 1 bar, 1 nice brownstone, and a homeless shelter, cover over a rail yard, and build the stadium along with a mixed use facility on top . As they always seem to do here, the locals have freaked out about the plan; gentrification of the railyard, box store squeezing out mom and pop, no parking during games, streets unsafe for park slope kids, etc. They sued Ratner about 478 times and tried to perform a citizens arrest. There is an insane amount written about this project, so take your pick if you want to get the details. Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn seems to be the biggest organized opponent.

Prospect Park Snowpocalypse Wander

If there's 1 thing I've noticed about New York since I moved here it's how SOFT New Yorkers are. 0 degrees (32 F for you imperialists) is not frigid, it's winter. 1 foot of snow is not a blizzard, its snow. This is the North East. If you can't handle 0 degrees & 1 foot of snow, then head to California.

So today was the hundred year blizzard - Snowpocaplypse. The city was shut down. Schools were closed long before the first flake fell, my YMCA closed shop, and my work locked the doors and told me to stay home. I'm not going to complain about that, so with a beautiful Snow Day, I wandered out to Prospect Park via Park Slope -- somehow I made it back alive.

Click here for the wander map.