Applebee's signs lease at Triangle Junction mall; Two Brooklyn Junction readers win restaurant prediction contest!

This just in: Applebee's will be joining the Triangle Junction mall. The scoop comes from Lori Raphael at the Flatbush-Nostrand Junction Business Improvement District who writes, "End of August, beginning of September is likely" for an opening date.

Revisiting my restaurant prediction contest from February, I am happy to report we have two winners. First, I must mention that Applebee's was the single most popular prediction. Brooklyn Junction readers were surprisingly adept at predicting restaurants (making me brainstorm what other contest I should bring to this able-minded group). Fully four people out of 16 predicted Applebee's. Two of them, however, did so anonymously, and the rules stated you had to identify yourself.

Two Applebee's predictors did so. "Brooklyn Girl" and "Linda Chavez" are the proud winners of $25 gift certificates to Applebee's upon its opening in the mall. Winners should email me at brooklynjunction [at] gmail [dot] com to make arrangements for gift card transfer!

Comment of the day: Rupert Murdoch's Courier Life

Alykatz writes in:

Well, Rupert Murdoch did buy the Courier-Life chain, along with the Queens Times/Ledger papers -- hence the NY Post ads that now appear on the yournabe.com website. He's trying to consolidate News Corp's hold on local advertisers, and it looks like neighborhood-by-neighborhood custom advertising is part of the plan. The question, of course, is whether its neighborhood-by-neighborhood journalism will be as responsive to readers' needs...if I click on "Midwood" right now I get news about Sheepshead Bay, which is where Courier-Life HQ is.

Brooklyn College hires consultants to explore more dorm options

Brooklyn College has hired a consulting firm, Brailsford & Dunlavey, to help plan for their future residential housing needs, according to an email sent out to select students last week by Steve G. Little, Vice President for Administration and Finance at Brooklyn College.

The hired hands created a survey [which I just accessed and took thanks to a reader's tip] that tries to size the survey taker up for just how interested he/she might be in living in a Brooklyn College dorm at some point in the near future, including biographical info, current living situation, and financial situation.

As the survey draws to a close, they drop a couple of juicy bombshells on me, that I relay to you:

1) BC is asking how far is the farthest away I would be willing to commute to school, suggesting they might be looking at multiple locations for new dorms, and not just settling for the one currently under construction.

2) BC is considering constructing dorms that have ground floor retail establishments, asking students whether they would like coffee shops, post offices, take-out food, banks, grocery stores, etc...

3) This may be the juiciest...Lifted from the survey:

The next questions refer to the housing options that may be offered by Brooklyn College in a location adjacent to the college campus as shown in the map below.

But wait a second, careful reader. There's no dorm in that little pink dot there?! Not yet, anyway! Let the record show that the dorm presently under construction is fully two blocks to the NW of that pink dot.

Is there a second dorm already in the works? Where in that pink dot could a dorm possibly go? Is it going to be housed on top of the Target mall? Better yet, in Target itself?

To close, I offer you a look at the floorplan porn they are dangling in front of survey-taking students:


The one above says it's for 2 people to share for $900-$950 per person per month (Why two people would need 4 beds, I don't know. I'll ask the consultants).


This second one is available to students with families and children for only 1600-1650 per month. $1600 a month!?! Wife, baby, pack your bags. Brooklyn College dorm here we come.

Brooklyn College community garden

You say bills, I say balls

Let's call the whole thing off.

Flatbush Pigeon covering Junction mall development beat

Somebody's gotta do it, and it doesn't seem to be me these days. Thanks, Flatbush Pigeon, for an update on the goings on at "Triangle Junction". Fancy, that name, eh? The story is The Pigeon's and so is the pic. Glad to have you on the beat.

A reader recently wrote in to ask what other stores will be in the mall. As far as I know, the list is still the same. Signed leases besides Target include David's Bridal, The Children's Place, Payless Shoesource, and Circuit City (which may be Blockbuster by the time the mall opens and the credit finishes crunching).

Anyone know of any other leases signed? Please advise.

Courier Life, we hardly knew ye

And just like that, all those Courier Life Pubs are gone from cyberspace, or at least transformed. They are now being redirected to www.yournabe.com (thanks reader Richard), which seems to be decidedly thin on the whole content front.

If anyone knows the back story here, please fill us in. Perhaps they're ramping up?

What happened to Flatbush Life (The Courier publication)?

Anyone know? Their website has a dead website url

No one ever accused www.flatbushlife.com of being the most regularly updated website in the world. Coming from me, that doesn't mean much these days. But gone? Say it ain't so...

Brooklyn College Whispers: Roosevelt Hall to face destruction?

I have heard from reliable sources who desire anonymity, that the topic of Roosevelt Hall's fate is being discussed inside Brooklyn College circles these days.

Roosevelt Hall, for those who aren't in the know or have forgotten, is the huge Georgian-style building standing on the south side of the western section of the Brooklyn College campus. That piece of land used to be called the upper quad, and its name seems to be morphing gradually into "West Quad", as construction proceeds on the modern looking West Quad building (seen in the background of the last photo below).

Sources tell me the possibility that Roosevelt will be destroyed rather than maintained have been raised numerous times, including at "an open house for BC Summer Children's Program, which was held in one of the Roosevelt's lecture halls. There it was announced that the building will eventually be coming down."

According to the source, the primary cause being discussed which underlies a potential wrecking-ball rather than repairman's fate: none other than the not-so-almighty dollar. "Apparently it would cost more to renovate Roosevelt than it would to destroy and rebuild."

If all this is true, it raises the question of what would be rebuilt in Roosevelt's place. Judging by the recent additions to the campus, the likelihood that the new building would maintain the Georgian-style of Roosevelt Hall is slim to none. Is Brooklyn College losing it Georgianity?

Indictments of Councilman Stewart's former aides injected into Parker/Stewart State Senate race

That didn't take long. The New York Times got a hold of our incumbent State Senator Kevin Parker to ask him about last week's indictments of City Councilman Kendall Stewart's former aides. Why? Because Stewart is running against Parker for his State Senate seat in a primary this fall. Why else?

Parker had some pretty tough words for Stewart in an interview with the Times:

“At best, he was incompetent in managing his staff and overseeing the resources under his influence,” Mr. Parker said. “At worst, he was culpable in a deeper way. We’ll have to see how this plays out.”

Stewart's response to Parker via the Times wasn't shy either:

“He’s going to try to get mileage out of this, simply because he has nothing to show what he’s done in all the years he’s been in office,” Mr. Stewart said of the man he is challenging in this year’s Democratic primary. “If you look in his State Senate district, he has nothing to show for his time in office. So, they only thing he can do is to associate me with this situation.”

Sounds like an exciting election is a-brewin. Dare I say this one could get ugly? As if we needed anything extra to pay attention to in the political arena this season what with Clinton and Obama entering round 12.

Read the whole Times CityRoom article here for some more juicy tidbits.

New uses for old Target plastic bags, part 1

Perhaps in honor of Earth Day yesterday, some enterprising citizen found a way to reuse a plastic Target bag that is worthy of our attention.

Those who live around here will have noticed that one byproduct of having Target in the hood is their plastic bags end up scattered around the immediate area--sometimes in garbage bins, sometimes in more entertaining destinations.

The one pictured above has been used to correctly identify a broken parking meter. If only the DOT understood the sign language; perhaps through repetition they would.

I have a feeling this may the first in a many-part Brooklyn Junction series: New uses for old Target plastic bags. Stay tuned.

City Councilman Kendall Stewart, in his own words, on why he voted for congestion pricing

City Councilman Kendall Stewart, D-45th, wrote an editorial piece for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which starts:

Though congestion pricing was defeated in Albany, I firmly believe the problem is extremely serious and must be dealt with for the good of New York City’s future.

Read the whole piece here.

The Mansions of Midwood

These houses are quite something to see, especially many of the corner lots. The two pictured are around Avenues I and J in the East 20s.

Mallchitecture

Here's the new Junction mall's Flatbush Avenue facade in 3 photographic parts, appearing north to south. Stitch them together, and you get the full effect of how the east side of the new mall is shaping up to look.

Brooklyn College vacation week

It took me a few moments to figure out why Hillel Place, which is usually bustling at this time of morning, was dead quiet today. I remembered that Brooklyn College is on vacation this week, hence no student or college hurly burly. Then it took me another couple moments to remember I'm currently a grad student at Brooklyn College. After some careful thinking, I realized I'm on vacation!

I'm only half joking.