The nabe’s king of sidewalk art, Ellis G., is profiled in the Village Voice this week:

Village Voice: Runnin’ Scared: As he crouched down on the Cobble Hill sidewalk, Ellis Gallagher used a piece of chalk to outline an elegant shadow cast by a streetlight. The 34-year-old artist is known in Brooklyn for his chalk outlines of mailboxes, fences, bicycles, and the like. On this October night, he was accompanied by a cameraman filming a profile of him for Channel 13′s New York Voices (online at thirteen.org/nyvoices). Soon after the camera started rolling, Gallagher received his harshest review. A cop car rolled up, and the film crew caught bits of the conversation between two officers and Gallagher:

“What’s that for?” a female officer is heard asking.

“I was going to write my name,” Gallagher responded.

“So, you were going to write your name on the pavement?”

“Yes.”

“Like graffiti?” she urged.

“No, no—I sign my pieces.”

The officers arrested him for making graffiti. When Gallagher protested, saying that he didn’t understand why he was being taken in, one of the cops told him: “We’ll make you understand when we get to the precinct.” [Full story]

Ah! The steel drums, the calypso dancers… Marty! That was the dreamy scene SIX MONTHS ago when a friggin PARADE announced that Trader Joe’s would open at the corner of Atlantic and Court.. you know in that old bank building. Well here we sit and still — NOTHIN’! The folks at Racked, who don’t have day jobs, have started diggin’:

Racked: Contacted for comment, Two Trees’ PR informed us that they were unsure of when construction on the grocery store would begin. In the meantime, the natives are getting restless, and angry at the speed that Two Trees’ huge luxury rental building is rising behind the TJ’s site. Look, the people need their frozen Biryani curried rice and their chili-lime white corn tortilla chips. How much longer will they be made to wait?

Flickr photo by leslieannprice

Nabe resident and author Will Leitch, known for being one of the sports nuts at Deadspin.com, has a new book out called God Save the Fan. He’s profiled in this week’s Brooklyn Paper:

 

Brooklyn Paper: His other home — where he works from — is Cobble Hill, where Leitch has lived for three and a half years (with a brief exile to the Upper West Side). For Leitch, Brooklyn “is the most beautiful place in the world in the summer” when he hits up outdoor Cobble Hill spots like Trout and Pacifico or catches a Cyclones game in Coney Island. “The community feel reminds me of the Midwest,” said Leitch. When the thermostat plummets, he ducks into Floyd on Atlantic. “I’m the guy in the corner with a crossword and a vodka tonic,” Leitch said. “Sometimes I write.”

Unless they’ve got the cure for cancer or a hot tip on today’s 8th Race at Aqueduct, we could care less what animals are thinking.  Alas, the CHB braintrust is in the minority here and therefore we bring you Christine Agro, the Animal Psychic of Cobble Hill:

New York Times: Christine Agro’s career as a pet psychic to the stars started, as so many auspicious events do, with a particularly open chakra. The chakra in question did not belong to her, but to a young woman who happened to pop into one of Ms. Agro’s yoga classes in upstate New York five years ago, and thanked her at the end of class for freeing up that center of spiritual energy.

When Ms. Agro moved to New York to join a boyfriend in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, a few weeks later, she had barely unloaded her Jeep when she noticed a familiar face coming down the street: It was that same yoga student, who, it turned out, worked most of the time as a dog walker for the famed fashion photographer Bruce Weber…

“Animals don’t really have the ability to tell their people what’s going on,” said Ms. Agro, a young-looking 42 (which she attributes to diligent managing of her energy, just as others attribute that good fortune to smart managing of their diets). “This is a way for them to have someone advocate for them.”

Ms. Agro doesn’t need to see the pets to talk to them, just a land line — she communes with the pets while simultaneously relaying the conversation to their owners by phone. She reasoned with the Weber family’s dogs as she might her own 3-year-old son, explaining the basics of compromise, occasionally using her training, she says, to remove some negative energy along the way.

Photo: NY Times

Brooklyn Beep Marty Markowitz wants the worst preschool ever investigated by NY State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the Brooklyn Paper reports:

Brooklyn Paper: Probe Hill Preschool…: Borough President Markowitz is asking state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to probe a shuttered preschool that may owe parents thousands of dollars in prepaid tuition.

The Brooklyn Children’s Academy Preschool was closed by the city, which cited numerous violations, after it moved into a new facility on Dean Street, between Boerum Place and Court Street, in November. The city permitted the preschool to reconvene temporarily in a church in Brooklyn Heights, but it soon ceased operations.

The Brooklyn Paper reports this week that City Councilman David Yassky (D- Brooklyn Heights) is supporting a plan to add a middle school to the Brooklyn House of Detention development plan:

Brooklyn Paper: Lock ‘Em Up: As a result, Corrections Commissioner Martin Horn told a group of local pols and community activists at a Jan. 2 meeting that he is considering housing a new middle school in the jail.

Councilman David Yassky (D–Brooklyn Heights) strongly supported the idea, according to people who attended the meeting at Borough Hall.

Yassky’s support for a jailhouse middle school follows his opposition to a plan by DUMBO developer David Walentas to include a middle school in his proposed Dock Street apartment tower because part of that building might block some views of the Brooklyn Bridge.

“David’s position has always been that we need a new middle school in the general Downtown area,” said Sam Rockwell, Yassky’s spokesman, adding that the councilman would certainly consider the school-in-a-jail concept.