Year of the Tiger This Saturday at Sunset Park, the Park

This Saturday there will also be a celebration of Chinese New Year at Sunset Park starting at 12 PM @ 43rd street & 7th Avenue. If you can't make the one on Sunday where thousands of people show up, make this one and bring your camera...

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Year of the Tiger Chinese New Year Celebrations This Sunday February 21

This Sunday February 21, 2010 at 1 PM The Brooklyn Chinese American Association holds it's annual Chinese New Year celebration this Sunday at 50ths street and 8th Avenue. It is certainly one of the largest. There will be a parade up along 8th avenue. Lots of dignitaries visiting. If you have seen past celebrations It's a site to behold. Bring you cameras, it's one of the most photogenic events. Bring your kids, they will remember this for years to come. The pictures below are from the celebration that I shot in 2007, enjoy!

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Brooklyn Paper Does Bay Ridge

A short piece on our neighbor to the south of which southern Sunset park was once a part of makes for interesting reading..


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Happenings: Game Night At the XO lounge Bay Ridge

No reason why some single urban professionals from Sunset Park should not participate, after all, we're right next door.

For single professionals who want to network and have a little fun.

Saturday February 20, 2010 @ 9 PM

The XO LOunge
7712 Third Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11209

Drinks only $5 from 9PM to 10PM with snacks
Sponsored by The Young Jewish Professionals of Bay Ridge

For more info contact Rev. Temah Garbaty @ 718.745. 2009 or 917.297.7901



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Happenings: Fastelavn (Danish Mardi Gras)

Celebrate Danish Mardi Gras

Dress in Costume,hit the barrel, eat delicious Danish Food, cream buns for dessert.

All inclusive price. $25 for adults, $15 ages 7-17, $10 under 7

Sponsored by the Scandinavian East Coast Museum.


WHERE: Danish Athletic Club
735- 65th street


WHEN: Sunday February 7, 2009 From 3 to 7 PM

For more information call: Victoria 718.748.5950 or Reidun 718.748.7844




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900 coats to be given away this January 30 for needy SP residents

Just got this email for distribution with attached flier. This will take place at the Sunset Park Recreation Center at 7th Avenue and 43rd street..

We are giving away 900 coats on Saturday, January 30, 2010, from 12 to 4 p.m.
Health Plus will be giving away gloves.

So please let your friends and families know so that anyone that needs a coat can get one.

Thank you.

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Christmas Caroling in Sunset Park December 21

It appears the art of Christmas Caroling is not lost in Sunset Park. According to the Daily News;

Our Lady of Perpetual Help will be caroling on Monday, Dec.21, at 7:30 p.m. around Sunset Park. Carolers will meet at the rectory, 526 59th St., for a night of singing traditional Christmas carols. All are welcome to join. For details, call (718) 492-9200.

To see where Caroling is taking place in other parts of Brooklyn click here.


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Bush Terminal gets rated best post office by the Daily News

In an assessment of the best post offices in New York City our Bush Terminal Post office was rated at the top of the list By the New York Daily News.

According to the News;

THE Brooklyn News found these were some of Brooklyn's better post offices:

# Bush Terminal, 900 Third Ave., Sunset Park

When a reporter visited this remote branch on Thursday morning, there was no wait. "It's quiet here," said Katie Ward, a fit model from Sunset Park who came to mail a package. "No lines."

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New Green-Wood Cemetery blog!

Brownstoner informs us that our beloved Green-Wood cemetery has a blog hosted by it's historian. I am looking forward to reading, not just because the cemetery is practically my neighbor. My parents and my aunt and Uncle are buried there at the Hillside Mausoleum. I am a frequent visitor to the cemetery. Battle Hill is one of my favorite spots. It is here after all one could say this country was born at the Battle of Brooklyn. Had Washington been captured there, well, history would certainly have been different..


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Because it's Christmas time, that's why !!

I have an affinity for this piano piece of Christmas music. If you're not familiar with George Winston. Well, all I can say is that I am glad to introduce him to you. Enjoy!

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Christmas makes a comeback?

I don't know if I am the only one who has noticed that there is a greater abundance of Christmas lights on the houses this year than in previous recent times. Especially in our adjoining neighborhoods of Bay Ridge and Dyke Heights. It just seems that more people have decided to decorate their houses. It's almost as if they are giving the finger to the secular humanist movement that would like to eradicate all these pesky non-muslim holidays. I suspect the secularists will not be derailed. I wonder when the city council will pass legislation making the display of Christmas lights and anything related to it as a form of hate speech expression and we will be fined if we violate it. What the heck, you get fined for everything else in this town. What the Feds don't take , the sanitation police and traffic agents will have..

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New Billiards Hall has Opened

100 fun KTV the Karaoke Bar located on 60th street between 10th Avenue and Fort Hamilton took over the old billiard hall next door and built a new poolhall from scratch. The Grand Opening took place in late November. The place boats a large cavernous hall with a large number of tables. For more info you can go here. Goes to show you that even in a rather questionable economy new places are opening all over the neighborhood. It should be interesting if the clientele at the Pool Hall turns out to be other than Chinese.















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Polish Deli closes

As I was walking along 8th avenue I came across the for rent sign in one of the oldest stores that has been around as long as I remember. The Polish Deli on the corner of 47th and 8th Ave. probably signifies and symbolizes the difficulty of staying in business with changing demographics and and a diminishing Polish population in the neighborhood whose members have been slowly either returning to Poland or moving out of state. It will be sorely missed and we will now have to depend on only one other delicatessen on 8th Avenue for Polish products. You have to wonder if being the only survivor left of a once vibrant but almost invisible Polish community in the nabe is any solace to having your last competitor close..







The only Polish Deli and Meat market left in the neighborhood on the corner of 48th and 8th..

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Finally we're back in business

In our last post we had planned to make a return to blogging, but alas things did not work out that way. First my laptops were stolen right out of my truck and I had to since postpone my plans. It wasn't just the my laptops were stolen it's that all my backups software etc. were stolen with them. Needless to say the whole episode has become a learning experience and an expensive one at that. We have mostly replaced the stuff and have begun to get back into the swing of things. We have also gotten a new mobile camera to carry around and use to snap shots of the nabe. Hopefully the lessons of the stolen laptop episode will be taken to heart and we will be able to once more post some stuff of interest..

Time to get back to blogging

Time to get back to blogging about the nabe. I had anticipated returning a while back, but in early June my laptop was stolen and it delayed my return a bit. I had to change all my passwords and replace the laptop.

The economic situation is something we should be watching. There have been many changes in our neighborhood. In particular many businesses have closed and many of the ones that are left standing appear to be suffering. Yesterday I was having a conversation with the owner of a local furniture store who informed me that he had an 80% drop in sales as compared to last year. More than a few restaurants have closed their doors and the rest are struggling. One of the regional FED directors exclaimed that the real unemployment rate is closer to 16% since we no longer count people who have given up looking for a job. So what does that portend for our neighborhood and the nation? We will have to see how things develop. It is clear that the stimulus package passed last year only benefited the Big Banks. Will the small banks in our neighborhood survive? The bailout of the car companies did not do much for government owned GM and Ford. The biggest gainers were the Japanese car makers via the cash for clunkers program. Are we going to see 3 and half more years of misguided policies? We will have to stay tuned and see what happens. In the meantime we will have to clip out coupons save money, spend less and hope for the best.

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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