George Weber 1961-2009 Fellow blogger, fellow Brooklynite RIP

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Not too long ago in a former life I had occasion to be the webmaster for Steve Malzberg when he was a radio host at WABC AM Radio. I had occasion to meet George when I occasionally visited WABC radio studios to speak to Steve. I only knew him by sight as he did me. I was an avid listener and would remember his voice. In person like all the rest of the crew there, everyone was personable and friendly. George also lived in Brooklyn since moving here from Denver to work at WABC and became like many transplants a true New Yorker dedicated to the neighborhood in which he lived. His tragic death at the hands of a murderer is even more poignant to a life cut short. His Blog made for some good reading on the local goings on in his neighborhood. He will be dearly missed, he had a particular voice that one does not easily forget. He got to love his nabe and was well involved in it. I can only hope they catch the mutant who killed him. The blogging community has lost another great blogger and human being. Condolences to his family and close friends.


UPDATE 3-25-09: An arrest was made on the murder of George Weber. It appears that the private life of mr. Weber was rather strange and dangerous to say the least. I would rather remember his public life and the good works he did. However, it is impossible now to avoid the fact that his image has been tarnished quite a bit and must add considerably to the sadness his colleagues and those who knew him well must feel. That is why one must live one's life as if people are always watching, that way you don't disappoint your loved one's even in death.


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Sunset Park t-shirts, a bit different than usual shameless plug

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One of the things that has always bothered me about this nabe is that getting a t-shirt to show proud in the nabe has always been difficult. The only shirts that seemed to be available were simple lettered shirts that weren't in any way stand outs. I finally decided to design my own and since cafepress has the ability to turn design into product I took advantage of it. This is the first of a series in what I hope are shirts and logo designs that are unique to our nabe. I may end up using the same theme to make t shirts and stuff for our neighboring nabes as well. I got the idea while at the subway station while looking at the map with that arrow indicating where I was, as if I didn't know. So, all my fellow sunset parkers and ex-parkers are welcome to partake if you wish a unique shirt and products with a one of a kind exclusive Sunset Park design. Enjoy !! Oh, you can find them Here.








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Happenings: Free Pre GED program for 17-24 year olds

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The Brooklyn Public Library is offering free pre-GED classes for dropouts and other youth who are out of school and want to get their equivalency diplomas. Registration will be held on two days, March 16th and April 7th.

When: 10 AM to 2:00 PM

Where: Sunset Park Library
5108 Fourth Avenue
Brooklyn NY 11220
Tel. 718-567-2806


Update for  September 2010 Click Here


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Rupert Murdoch buys Brooklyn Paper

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Over at the Gothamist they are reporting the acquisition of the Brooklyn Paper by the News Corp. owned by Rupert Murdoch. I have been an admirer of the Brooklyn Paper for some time. It's distribution has been lacking in our neighborhood. The paper distributed for free and printed in full color format has done a relatively decent job of covering the borough. As a recipient of their daily e-mail called updates I kind of hoped that it would survive in these rough economic times. The economics of running a print newspaper however, makes one wonder how much longer print newspapers can last with competition from the Internet. Murdoch has a tendency to restructure his properties and perhaps change their editorial policy as well. With the steep decline in advertising and advertisers looking for greater efficiencies and more bang for their buck you have to wonder if purchasing the Brooklyn paper was a savvy move. Of course only time will tell. I certainly hope that this means we will have the resources of the News Corp. behind it. So does that mean we will see more copies distributed here in Sunset Park? After the demise of the Sunset News we need some kind of replacement. Time will tell if the paper survives the coming depression.

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Kings Hotel of Brooklyn is Ready for Prime Time

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Without much fanfare and by stealth of night Kings Hotel opened it's doors to the public last week and is already doing a brisk business. I was invited by the people running it to come on over and take a look as they wanted me to include their hotel on the mall I run on the Sunset Park website. I have to say that I was impressed. This is not a slapped together building reminiscent of most motels, rather it reminded me of one of the top notch Hotels I stayed at while I was in Hong Kong. Lots of marble can be seen everywhere. The quality is more in keeping for a hotel in Manhattan. But one thing I learned about the Sunset Park Chinese is that they like to do things with flair and class. The lobby is pleasing and inviting and though not grandiose in size is rather comfortable.


The hotel is designed to be a basic place to stay without frills. It does offer wifi on every floor and HDTV in every room making it a comparatively inexpensive place to stay that just happens to be 30 minutes from midtown Manhattan due to it's proximity (1/2 block) to the 9th Avenue D train station. It is also ideally located to nearby Maimonides Hospital and the Lutheran Medical Center. So if you are visiting patients there from out of town, it's the place to stay. It's also four blocks from the exits on the Gowanus Expressway. All in all if I were going to pick a spot for a hotel in Sunset Park this would be it. It's proximity to Brooklyn's Chinatown with it's abundance of restaurants specializing in asian cuisine makes that an added bonus. It's also three blocks from the Sunset Diner and fifth avenue which rates an abundance of Mexican and other hispanic restaurants. The Sunset Park area has an bundance of restaurants of every culinary taste.



The rooms are standard sized hotel rooms. Being that everything in the place is brand new it gives a very fresh look and appearance. The hotel has a total of 50 rooms with the usual mix of singles and doubles. The bathrooms are brand new and standard fare.



What surprised me were the hallways. Most hotels and motels are usually very carpeted and spartan in appearance, not Kings. The hallways have marble floors and mahogany doors and trimmings and a classic looking green wallpaper.


There is also the Karaoke lounge on the ground floor. Like many karaoke places it has a nightclub spacey look with lot's of neon at the bar. This should do well for visitors from China as that is a popular pastime among the Chinese. It was after all, built to serve the Chinese community of Sunset Park.



All in all we are hopeful that it's a resounding success. If it's marketed right, it can get some tourists and people who need a place to stay within easy reach of midtown Manhattan. If you just need a place to put your head on a pillow at night and want to see a different part of New York City besides Manhattan but want to get to the theaters in short order this place is it. In times when we have to watch our spare change the economy of staying in Brooklyn only a short jump from midtown then this is a good deal. All in all it looks like the Kings Hotel is off to a good start.

You can check out their rates at Expedia, calhotels.us, Hotels.com

Got relatives and friends coming to visit you here in Sunset Park? Tell them to stay at the Kings.


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Robert Guskind of Gowanus Lounge RIP 1958-2009

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Just happened to be scouring the web and while at Outside.in learned of the passing away of Robert Guskind whose blog the Gowanus Lounge was a favorite of mine. He was a diligent blogger, posting not just every day, but several times a day. Indeed, it was his blog that inspired me to start this one for Sunset Park. I never met him, but I was always grateful when he would link to something I wrote on this blog and felt deeply honored at that. I can say that I will miss his posts. It merely shows that life is fleeting and as we get older the fragility of life becomes even more apparent. It particularly hits home since he was six years younger than me. I would like to think that I have many years yet to go. But it's moments like this that remind us that we can't take anything for granted and we must live every day as if it's our last one. Accomplish what you can now and try to leave nothing unfinished.

Brownstoner, OTBKB and New York Shitty pay tributes to him and have a picture, so now I know what he looked like. RIP Robert and hope you're still blogging on the other side.

Addendum 3-9-09 Flatbush Gardener Has a tribute thread with links to all the tributes that he located on the web including this one.

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More Gloomy news for Brooklyn Hotels

The DailyNews has a story on Brooklyn's Hotel's that mentions the Days Inn here in Sunset Park. It's interesting that this should be the second story in as many weeks giving a gloomy outlook to the Brooklyn Hotel business. The Kings Hotel which was slated to open last month has finally opened it's doors a bit late. According to the DailyNews story;

Prices have plummeted as vacancies have spiked, experts and hotel managers said.

In Sunset Park, a hotel room now can be had for the bargain price of $50 a night, or $1,500 a month — cheaper than many rents.

“The owners, they are crying,” said an employee at Days Inn, where rooms fetched up to $199 a night just last summer. “Prices are down a lot. It’s crazy.”

Let's hope that with our messianic president in charge things will get better. On the other hand we could market the cheap rooms to tourists who would otherwise use Manhattan hotels to stay in. If handled right it could create a mini boom. Just imagine, the Manhattan hotels would have to stay competitive. Imagine renting a room for $50 at the Waldorf or at the Grand Hyatt. Now that would be something to see.

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