“We recently found a confirmed bed bug in your child’s school,” the letter reads. “Finding a bed bug does not mean that our school is infested. Bed bugs are often unknowingly brought into schools by building occupants and as a result we may have future sightings.” The notice also includes a description of the symptoms of a bed bug bite.

Patch contacted the school, where a source acknowledged that “a single bug” had been identified on a child and that a technician will be coming in for a second time later this week to check for a potential… second bed bug.

Venues include Zombie Hut (273 Smith Street), Knit Lit (253 Smith), People’s Republic of Brooklyn (247 Smith), BookCourt (163 Court Street), Last Exit (136 Atlantic Avenue) and the After Party at 8 p.m. at 61 Local (61 Bergen Street).

Special events include: * Armchair/Shotgun enacts a live old-timey radio show. * The Liars’ League NYC acts out the latest story by Mark Haddon, author of “The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Nighttime.” * The Cambridge Writers Workshop presents Literary Cabaret.

The inaugural NYC Lit Crawl took place in September 2008. Last year’s event in Manhattan drew more than 1,200 crawlers, enjoying 70+ authors at some 20 events. This is its first extension into Brooklyn. The full schedule is here, with all info here.

“Brooklyn is so literary, it seemed like a no-brainer,” founder Suzanne Russo tells the Brooklyn Paper. “There’s so many friendly venues and so much going on in the literary sphere there, we thought it’s really the place we should be. The venues are smaller, there’s an energy in Brooklyn, a creative spirit that’s more of a go with the flow, we’ll-do-whatever kind of thing.”

(Photo: Pardon Me For Asking blog)

A secondary piece showcases Brooklyn’s best “brewers, bakers and beef-jerky makers,” and includes Carroll Gardens’ own By Brooklyn, at 261 Smith Street near Degraw. Featured is its Binxgoods Genuine Vanilla, with the descriptor: “How to arrive at vanilla extract as fresh and pure as Binxgoods? First travel to India and befriend a bean farmer. Then let your imported beans steep for six weeks in your South Brooklyn kitchen.” The By Brooklyn website is here.

The piece, headlined “Gentrification Has Made This Old Brooklyn Neighborhood Unrecognizable,” discusses how these nabes have evolved, with a good deal of history on Cobble Hill’s Smith Street.

Here’s one breakaway quote:

By the 1960s, the area just south of Brooklyn Heights (known as South Brooklyn to that point) began to fill up with spillover from Brooklyn Heights, and new names were given to revitalized areas. “Cobble Hill” was one, “Boerum Hill” another, and “Red Hook” included the slab of land that is now “Carroll Gardens” (Red Hook can still be found on the other side of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway). Each neighborhood began to take on its own identity, while they remained close enough to one another to foster a larger sense of togetherness.

The Business Insider article is smart, detailed and an exceptional read about the neighborhoods. Highly recommended reading. (Photo: Business Insider)

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, or Kwanzaa, come join us as we celebrate the Holiday Season at the 5^th Annual Columbia Waterfront District Tree Lighting Event. The festivities start at 5:00 pm on Friday, December 9^th, 2011 at the Human Compass Garden, located at the corner of Sackett and Columbia Streets. This year’s event will feature live Holiday Jazz Music by the Less Magnetic Band and an assortment of free refreshments from local restaurants and businesses.  Santa Claus will also spread more cheer by handing out toys to children at the event.

NY Post: “This is the neighborhood where the mob puts their mothers,” a friend explained to me recently. So the nice, friendly men playing cards in the social clubs on Henry Street? Don’t ask, I was told. I’m still the newcomer.

But as certainly as real-estate climbs to dizzying heights, the Carroll Gardens I learned to love disappeared overnight. Strollers took over the sidewalks, along with kids’ trophy-wife moms and investment-banker daddies, while Heath Ledger and seemingly half of Hollywood took up residence in next-door Boerum Hill. Residents got priced out, or sold their homes at a tidy profit to make way for sushi bars, Starbucks and American Apparel.

Now, it seems the old days never really went away. They just went to sleep.

Earlier this month, in an incident straight out of the Brooklyn of old novels, fancy pizza man Mark Iancono got into a knife fight on Carroll Gardens’ posh Smith Street. In broad daylight. With mob-connected ex-con Benny Geritano, whom he’s known for decades. How could this happen in 2011?

As one neighbor told me, “Kids were coming out of school. They had to huddle in the doorways of stores to escape.”

All of a sudden, gossip, the neighborhood’s currency, has dwindled. A man I’ve known for years told me, “I’m not saying anything.”

Others say the beef was over a dame. Though I’ve heard that the fight may not have been over Annette Angeloni, a card-store owner who’s been named as the femme fatale in this piece. (Was it over a Geritano relative?)

Meanwhile, Geritano’s family, including an uncle who owns nearby Bagels by the Park (yummy schmears), are said to be furious that he’s bringing shame on a nabe that’s gone legit.

But Geritano is not saying much of anything. Nor is Iancono, who twirled pizzas at Lucali, a celeb-friendly joint where I’ve waited in line for a table. But cops are discouraged from eating there because of alleged mob ties. Both men have been charged with attempted murder.

Photo: Janice Pullicino

The storefront that formerly housed Naidre’s (502 Henry Street at Sackett) has transformed into Maybelle’s Cafe. Maybelle’s food offerings are vegetarian-focused, and the cafe will offer Intelligentsia coffee, daily specials and free Wi-Fi. For now, the signage and decor definitely feel like a work-in-progress.

The class ran drop-in style. From 2pm to 7pm, participants could stop by and tune in to presentations every 30 to 60 minutes. All ingredients were provided, but if you wanted to bring your kimchi home, you had to BYOC (bring your own container).

Missed today’s class but want to learn from Brooklyn Brainery too? Sign up for the next class– “Bee Night,” complete with a movie, Q&A session, and honey tasting on January 25th at 7pm. For more details, visit this link.

Earlier today, work on Court Street between 1st & 2nd Place caused a partial street collapse, closing the block off to traffic. A water line was ruptured, causing flooding in several basements. One lane for traffic was cleared at 6pm and will remain open until 7am tomorrow. At that point, the street will close between President Street and 2nd Place so that Con Ed and National Grid can fix the problem. After their work is complete, city agencies will begin discussions on resurfacing the roadway and sidewalk. Traffic Agents will be on hand to control the flow of traffic tomorrow.

South Brooklyn Post: On windy days–of which there are many in the Red Hook/West Carroll Gardens/Columbia Street Waterfront District, when tarps are removed from the pile for city Department of Sanitation trucks to fill up, the salt blows over the neighborhood. Residents, families, businesses, cars, plants and wildlife face a salty deluge that leaves a film on everything.
The mound, covered with tarp and weighed down with bags of salt, has been an eyesore in the most literal sense since February 2009.
“It started two years ago. It was a little hill, and now it’s a mountain,” said Freddy Saint-Aignan, who owns Sugar Lounge, directly across the street from the salt pile. The city uses the salt to spread on roads when the ice and snow come.

South Brooklyn Post photo

So what do you, people of the internet with day jobs and stuff to do think should be done to fix the ditch?

We’re so totally convinced Google already has time travel technology not to mention the fact that they’re thisclose to getting Skynet off the ground that it’s totally do-able to send Terminator back in time to whack Robert Moses. Whack Bobby, no ditch. What? Too much?

Comment away or tweet @cobblehill_blog with hashtag #fixtheditch .

What do you think?  Is it a good idea, or just a dream?

The full story, and more renderings, can be viewed on Curbed.

To view the flier click here.  RSVP to BQE@nycedc.com.

via Cobble Hill Association

On Thursday, November 4th, P.S. 58 The Carroll School will unveil its newly renovated playground at a ribbon cutting ceremony.  Special guests and local officials will be honored, including Borough President Marty Markowitz and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.  Festivities are open to the public and will begin at 9:45am at the corner of Smith and Carroll Streets.

The reconstructed schoolyard has new courts for basketball, tennis, roller hockey and track.  There are multi-color play grids, chess tables, and an outdoor stage for performances and improvised games.  The schoolyard was designed through a collaboration with Out2Play, a non-profit organization that refurbishes playgrounds in New York City.  Financial support was given by Markowitz, de Blasio and the Barclays Nets Community Alliance.

October 9th, 1pm- Italian Cheese I- Mountains $25/$60

October 10th, 1pm- Cheese 101 $25

October 16th, 1pm- Italian Cheese II-Rivers $25/$60

October 23rd, 1pm- Italian Cheese III- Islands $25/$60

October 30th, 1pm-Dessert Wine and Cheese $40

November 6th, 1pm- Cheese and Wine $30

Visit the shop’s website for full class descriptions.

There wasn’t a dry eye at dinner tables in the New York City area tonight as a tearful Carmen Ojeda addressed the WABC-TV cameras. She told the officer responsible for fatally delaying her daughter’s chance at survival and treatment at LICH, “show your face, can’t you just apologize… I don’t want anything… Everybody makes mistakes.”

NY Post: An 11-year-old Brooklyn girl died after her mom was detained by a man in uniform as she tried desperately to rush her to a hospital.

“She was my angel. I cannot believe my baby is gone,” the devastated mother, Carmen Ojeda, said of daughter Briana.

The NYPD is trying to determine whether the man was a cop, auxiliary officer, traffic agent or private security guard.

The tragedy happened after Briana suffered an asthma attack at 5:15 p.m. Friday at a playground in Carroll Gardens.

“We have all the equipment in the car but nothing was working. Her eyes started to get really, really big,” Briana’s heartbroken dad, Michael, told The Post.

Carmen Ojeda called 911 but couldn’t wait for the ambulance and took off in her car.

To break free from heavy traffic, Ojeda turned the wrong way on a one-way street, and hit a parked car.

She then flagged down a marked car and the uniformed man got out and screamed, “What the f–k are you doing going down the wrong way?” Michael said.

“My wife screamed at him, ‘Help! My daughter needs CPR.’ ”

The man “smirked” and responded, “I don’t do CPR,” Michael said.

CGD: I’m going to call Smith Union Market (on, you guessed it, the corner of Smith and Union) our very own “corner store.” You can’t miss it. That red and white lettered sign and storefront – iconic, in my opinion – has been doing business for 65 years now. (Some items in the store have been there for 65 years, too.) It wouldn’t win the prize for “most inviting,” especially compared to the shinier places that move in and attract the buzz, but there really is no denying that this corner’s got character. And that’s with or without the actual characters loitering outside day in, day out.

This is Vinny Taliercio’s corner.

It wasn’t always though.

Placido Scopelliti was Vinny’s mother’s father. He and his family lived on Cheever Place in Cobble Hill, but he was from Reggio Calabria in Southern Italy and he specialized in wholesale meats. Big into real estate at the time, he bought three corner buildings in Brooklyn. It was 1945 and all of them would begin operation as meat markets. There was a store on Rogers Avenue in East New York, Henry and Degraw in Cobble Hill, and Smith and Union in Carroll Gardens. He had seven butchers employed, delivering all over, as far away as Staten Island. Business boomed.

Using Carroll Park as their only set and eliminating elaborate costumes, Smith Street Stage hopes to put emphasis on the language by having it spoken by classically trained actors. The cast consists of locals from NYU Tisch, UConn Drama, and Yale Grad Acting.

Fore more information, including cast info, albums, and directions to the park, visit www.smithstreetstage.org.

NY Daily News: Walking along Court St. between Degraw and President Sts. in Carroll Gardens is a feast for the senses, in all the right ways.

“The whole street smells of brewing coffee, the smell of croissants, of freshly made dough. It’s an amazing mix,” said Maria Vasquez, 73. “But there’s one problem: It makes me hungry!”

With D’Amico’s coffee shop, Sal’s Pizzeria and Caputos Bake Shop, folks never seem to be in a rush as they amble by.

“This block is one of the best-smelling places in the city,” said UPS delivery man Matty Ianelli, 24. “This place smells homey. Like your mom just made a fresh pot of sauce.”

USA Today: Based on a count of lists on Google and Yahoo, they seem to be more an urban than suburban phenomenon. “You live in New York City, you’re one of 8 million people, but yet you can feel all alone,” says Sheryl Braun, who founded the Bococa parents list for the neighborhoods of Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn.

Parents tell Braun that they felt isolated and disconnected. But then they joined the list, which has 2,500 members, “and it made those things go away.”

Are you a parent? What local online resources do you use?