According to the city Department of Transportation, which is sponsoring the initiative with Alta Bicycle Share, Cobble Hill locations won’t be considered for at least a year. The closest locations in the borough are in Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Williamsburg, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Bed-Stuy.

The city’s DOT released a draft map of the first locations in this summer’s rollout of a portion of their 600 Bike Share docking stations. Phase II will debuted in Spring 2013, including Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Prospect Heights and Crown Heights.

The installation of bike docking stations will begin in late July. The solar-powered, wireless docking stations will be located on sidewalks, curbside road space and plazas, and accommodate between 15 and 60 bikes each.

The closet dock to Cobble Hill will be on Fourth Avenue and Dean Street in Boerum Hill. According to the DOT, there will be 27 docks on the sidewalk at this location.

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.”

New York Post: SUNY Downstate Medical Center announced tonight that it will have to perform extensive “financial” surgery to slash jobs and eliminate redundant services at its three medical facilities to stem red ink.

The scalpel will be used at University Hospital in Flatbush, Long Isand College hospital in Brooklyn Heights and its facility at the former Victory Hospital site in Bay Ridge.

However, the Post story says, a task force report to SUNY Downstate noted that LICH is “severely under-utilized” and that SUNY Downstate should “consolidate its inpatient services at the LICH campus and scale back University Hospital.”

The event’s assistant producer Deborah Monlux tells CHB, “It’s like a visit to NOLA followed by some Acadiana without leaving Brooklyn. Bring your dancing shoes!”

Also featured: The Bayou-born sounds of Louisiana native and fiddler of the year winner Al Berard; young rising star Forest Huval; former File’ Darren Wallace; Brooklyn’s own Catahoula Cajun Band and Doctor Zsa’s Powdered Zydeco; Creole fiddler Cedric Watson teaches a tune or two on the fiddle; and on Sunday at noon, Offshore Aces, a rousing mix of twin fiddle, accordion, guitar, bass, frottoir and the opportunity to join in and play. In addition, 2012 event “Cajun Mom” poster artist Eric P. Richardson will feature his humorous paintings along the music hall walls.

The Cajun & Zydeco Music Festival also showcases dancehall bands, workshops, Culture & Community Jam sessions and Gumbo dinner.

Day passes are $15 or $35 for all three days. Children under 12 are admitted free. Workshops are $25. Festival pass includes all night dance hall bands, community jam sessions, art show and “Un-Written Stories” culture session.

The festival is sponsored in part by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and Louisiana Culture, Recreation & Tourism, celebrating 200 years of Louisiana.

For more info and to pre-order tix, click here.

The development is also in the vicinity of a Whole Foods market recently approved at Third Street and Third Avenue, next to the Gowanus Canal; and within walking distance to the 585-acre Prospect Park, with access to numerous subway stations and a five-minute walk from Atlantic Terminal.

“We are delighted to invest in this high-quality, well-located site to develop a luxury rental property in Brooklyn,” said AEW Director Anthony Crooks. “We believe the property will attract young professionals and families looking for affordable, quality housing, good amenities and access to public transportation.”

Residential brokerage aptsandlofts.com is expected to begin marketing the units in Summer 2013.

Naftali Group is also building a 104-unit luxury residential property at 267 Sixth Street, at the corner of Fourth Avenue. That project is also expected to come online next year. The firm currently owns 100 apartments and 20,000 square feet of retail space in Brooklyn.

The show features the culmination of a three-year project on gender selection focused on India, which was first offered to the public in 2011 at the Holy Daughters exhibition in Paris. The multimedia exhibition comprises sculptures, installations, photographs and videos, which will take over the entire ground floor of the Invisible Dog.

Included in the opening night exhibition: Dance curated by Simon Dove (performed by Preeti Vasudevan),sound by Mitchell Yoshida, smell by Olivier Delcour and taste by Michael Hamilton of Kingswood.

For more on the exhibit, which runs through May 27, see here. For more on Prune Noury, look here. Read all about the Invisible Dog here.

“It’s very unique,” manager Ryan Domingo tells the Brooklyn Paper. “People drink beer on ice in Thailand, but not like this.” The machine is reminiscent of those in wine stores that utilize a salt and ice solution around a bottle that chills it to perfection in about 4 minutes.

Pok Pok’s Bia Wun—or jelly beer—is made with low-alcohol content brews like Singha or Chang and served with a straw. The new restaurant, which originated in Portland and was named one of the 25 “Most Anticipated Restaurants of 2012″ in March by Eater, is located at 127 Columbia Street at Kane Street in the Columbia Waterfront District.

(Photo: Eater.com)

Encompassing 416 square feet, the outdoor space has seating capacity for 30 patrons. Current hours of operation are from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m., with food served until 11 p.m. Though it has yet to be officially named, the new establishment is already serving up a menu of tapas devised by Chef Jehangir Mehta, owner of Manhattan eateries Graffiti and Mehtaphor. Offerings include braised pineapple, lamb and pork belly buns and mustard seed shrimp with cucumber and yogurt sauce. A full lunch and dinner menu will be available later this month.

“We’re extremely thrilled to have one of the largest sidewalk cafés in Downtown Brooklyn opened for business and look forward to becoming a neighborhood destination spot,” NU Hotel General Manager Javier Egipciaco told us.

In addition to light fare, the sidewalk café also features an extensive selection of cocktails, thanks to the concurrent reopening of the hotel’s revamped bar space. The drink menu will vary by season, with original cocktail recipes concocted by Master Mixologist Milos Zica, principal bartender at Manhattan restaurant Employees Only.

A drink naming contest is currently being held to coincide with the opening of the café. A tequila-based signature cocktail is the focus of the competition, with a $100 bar tab to be awarded as the prize for the winning drink moniker. More details can be found on NU Hotel’s Facebook page.

NU Hotel Brooklyn is located at 85 Smith Street, on the corner of Atlantic Avenue.

Rides are $2 apiece and an all-day pass is $25, benefitting the non-profit Families First organization, which offers classes for children 0-7, support groups for parents and parenting workshops. Families First is based in Cobble Hill at 250 Baltic Street.

(Photo: Pardon Me For Asking blog)

According to the NYC Private Schools Blog, “That’s a big expansion, but school officials note it is necessary to keep up with growing demand for the Montessori method of education. More parents are seeking out a Montessori education for their children and Brooklyn Heights being one of the most prominent schools in New York City means they are poised to increase their student body in the next few years.”

Brooklyn Heights Montessori School opened in 1965.

A wide variety of annuals, herbs and perennials will be available, as well as geraniums and hanging baskets. For the kids, the Tree Fund will offer the Plant Identification Treasure Hunt in the park, with winners receiving a free plant. Information is also on-hand about the Cobble Hill Tree Fund and composting.

The Fund is also looking for volunteers for Saturday’s event. Contact info is here. Take a look at the event flyer here.

The Fund is dedicated to planting trees, providing education on the care of trees and the ongoing beautification of the community. Over a 50-year lifetime, a tree generates $31,250 worth of oxygen, provides $62,000 worth of air pollution control, recycles $37,500 worth of water and controls $31,250 worth of soil erosion.

Call Georgia Willett, Co-chair of the Cobble Hill Tree Fund with further questions: 718-237-1585.

According to the Serious Eats review, husband-and-wife chef duo Alex Raij and Eder Montero offer “a welcoming vibe for both family meals and date nights alike, with a menu ranging from snacky nibbles to bigger entrée plates.”

Read the full review here, with a slideshow of menu items that will likely have you running in for a taste… So far, it appears the restaurant has no website of its own.

(Photo: Serious Eats)

There was plenty for Smith to celebrate when she discovered the news of her award April 16: It was also the Princeton University Assistant Professor’s 40th birthday. Published by Graywolf Press in 2011, “Mars” is Smith’s third published book.

In its review, The New York Times notes, “Smith is quick to suggest that the important thing is not to discover whether or not we’re alone in the universe; it’s to accept—or at least endure—the universe’s mystery. Publishers Weekly says “Life on Mars” “blends pop culture, history, elegy, anecdote and sociopolitical commentary to illustrate the weirdness of contemporary living.”

The prize-winning collection follows Smith’s 2007 “Duende,” which won the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets and the first Essence Literary Award for poetry; and 2003′s “The Body’s Question.”

(Photo: New York Daily News)

Please come with questions and ideas, so that the committee can discuss interested individuals’ potential for filling one of the seven positions on the executive board.

Reviewer Carey Jones writes in an exhaustively detailed piece: “What did our meal at Battersby tell me? That these chefs have dead-on intuition for how people want to be eating. That they seize on an impulse and cook it well—not just rushing vegetables with a 3-week season onto their menu, but preparing them as well as if they did it every day. And that flavor, balance and execution all seem to matter enormously.”

Read the full review at Serious Eats here.

(Photo: Nona Brooklyn)

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.

New York Post: A 5-year-old boy ran into a Brooklyn street and was hit by a taxi before the horrified eyes of his deaf parents, who then carried his seriously injured body half a block to an emergency room.

The child darted between two parked cars onto Hicks Street…at around 4:40 p.m. yesterday and was struck by the SUV cab, police and witnesses told The Post.

According to the Post story, the boy “was transferred to SUNY Downstate Hospital.” Since LICH is now part of SUNY Downstate, it’s not clear if this means he was admitted to LICH or taken to the hospital’s other campus. The story also notes that the taxi driver was not charged.

The Post located the accident at “Hicks Street in Brooklyn Heights”, but Carroll Gardens Patch states it was at Amity and Hicks, which concurs with the statement that the boy’s parents carried him half a block to the LICH emergency room.

Update: Today’s Post identifies the boy as Timothy Keith, of Washington, D.C., who is here with his parents on a visit. Like both his parents, he is deaf. He is reported to be “on a respirator in very critical condition”.

The webbie bases its “walk scores” on the amount and accessibility of amenities, including restaurants, movie theater and schools. New York City is the most walkable out of 50 cities surveyed, with a score of 85.3 out of 100, which The L Word notes was knocked down by “unwalkable” Staten Island.

In Brooklyn, Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights had scores of 98. Boerum Hill and Downtown Brooklyn scored 97; DUMBO, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus and Park Slope tied with 96. The least walkable Brooklyn neighborhoods are all in the south: Bergen Beach with a score of 58; Mill Basin with 62; Gerritsen Beach with 71; Canarsie with 74; and Manhattan Beach and West Brighton at 77.

Once again, The L Magazine provides the primary info, with supplemental info linked in the article.

(Photo: Chuck Taylor)

Ever wondered why your favorite watering hole doesn’t use its outdoor space or why they won’t let you dance on the bar? Also, why is the trash pick-up always late at night and how does a liquor license get approved?

These questions and more will be answered at the community meeting hosted by Community Boards 2 and 6 on:

April 12, 2012; at 6:00 p.m.
250 Baltic Street
(Court & Clinton Streets) Auditorium

This is a neutral forum designed to clarify questions, and will be conducted as an informal questions and answer session.

Representatives from State Liquor Authority, city agencies and local precincts will be on hand to answer questions in respect to noise, smoking, outdoor usage, garbage and other related issues.

Unfortunately, drinks will not be served.

The website offers access to maps and hand-written info about every known address in all 48 states in the Union, allowing you to find census maps and descriptions to locate an enumeration district, browse census images to locate any household interviewed in the 1940 Census and then save and/or download images. The Search page is here.

Warning: The site is slow, if not clunky, as hundreds of thousands are discovering this fascinating window to the past all at once. It’s also a bit unnerving to navigate. The best tutorial I found is at Gawker.com here.

Happy hunting! Be sure to share anything revealing with all your friends here on the Cobble Hill Blog. We’ll also be scouring for tidbits over the next several weeks.

(Image: Gawker.com)

The pair was interviewed April 5 in the New York Times blog “The Local,” after the eatery’s license was approved by the Community Board 2 Health Committee. The spot will offer 53 seats and a full bar, serving dinner seven days a week and brunch on weekends.

The co-owners told the Times that their venture—the first restaurant for each of them—will offer fresh, seasonal ingredients. “We’ll have a serious menu, but you won’t look at the plate and not know what’s on it,” said Cooper, who was raised in Cobble Hill (on left in photo). The pair added that they chose the location because of their ties to the community: “I live in Fort Greene now and knew this was a great, accessible location. I wanted to be in the kind of brownstone community that I grew up in,” Cooper added.

The Prospect Restaurant at 773 Fulton Street, is between South Portland Avenue and South Oxford Street.

(Photo: Linda Villarosa for The New York Times)

New York Daily News Cruise ships docked in Brooklyn continue to choke Red Hook with their fumes — despite a widely touted deal a year ago that was supposed to solve the problem.

The Port Authority approved $15 million to build a system allowing ships to plug into an electric grid — but costs have shot up another $4.3 million and the agency hasn’t shelled out the extra money, according to local elected officials.

The Daily News story quotes Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez and other local elected officials as noting that “[a]sthma rates among Red Hook youth are high”. Red Hook resident Adam Armstrong, author of the blog A View from the Hook, accuses the Port Authority of “twiddling their thumbs.” A Port Authority spokesman says the agency is “evaluating options”.

On occasion, it’s nice to see that some things remain the same. (Photo: Chuck Taylor)

The location: Public School 261, 314 Pacific Street, between Hoyt & Smith Streets in Boerum Hill. Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Registration for the class and the clinic is advised but not required. Free!

According to Epoch’s research, based on Property Shark stats, Cobble Hill has the No. 4 priciest block: delimited by Warren St to Baltic Street/Clinton Street to Court Street, with a median price of $2.8 million. And at No. 5 in Cobble Hill is Hicks Street to Henry Street/Baltic Street to Kane Street, with a median of $2.7 million.

Overall, the priciest block in Brooklyn is in Midwood, delimited by Avenue I and Avenue J/Ocean Parkway and 7th Avenue, with a median sale price of $4,350,000. The biggest sale there was a single-family home on 935 Ocean Parkway, on Nov. 11, 2010 for $6,130,000. Less than one year later, on Sept. 20, 2011, it exchanged hands again, for a slightly smaller amount of $6,000,000.

See the full article here.

Previous conventions have seen productive discussions on topics of particular interest to Cobble Hill residents like traffic, helicopter noise, schools, Brooklyn Bridge Park (Sen. Squadron is represented on its board of directors), and neighborhood preservation.

There’s more information and a list of topics for this year’s convention, and you can RSVP if you would like to attend, here. You can also RSVP by calling 212-298-5565 or by e-mail to squadron@nysenate.gov.

The couple currently resides in a townhome in the West Village on Charles Street, near West Fourth Street, with their son James Wilkie, 9, and twin daughters Marion and Tabitha, almost 3. A source told the Daily News, “They loved the West Village but wanted something more private, laid-back and discreet.”

When construction is completed, the two adjoining State Street townhouses the actors purchased will create “an urban mansion of 7,000-plus square feet with a suburban-size backyard,” the News reports. Both were an “off-market” transaction, meaning the houses weren’t officially for sale, according to Sheftell. City records show both are owned by Mark and Diane Baker.

Parker and Broderick paid $18.995 million for the East 10th Street townhouse two years ago, and fully remodeled the home, which the News says is now on the market.

CORE senior vice president Doug Bowen noted, “Brooklyn Heights is the city’s first official historic landmark district; that’s how beautiful it is and what it means to New York. The price difference between the West Village and Brooklyn Heights is sometimes two, three, four times the amount. That’s why even big names are deciding to live here. It’s an easier financial commitment.”

(Photo: New York Daily News)

The piece by Joseph De Avila offers a complimentary persona of the nabe’s “tree-lined blocks, stately townhomes and highly regarded schools,” while boasting that it’s become “a tough place to buy a home. Over the past decade, Cobble Hill has become one of the most sought-after neighborhoods in Brooklyn. The arrival of new families into the historically Italian-American community has been followed by scores of new restaurants, bars and boutiques.”

In addition, the Journal reports, “More recently, Cobble Hill’s popularity has led it to become one of the most competitive neighborhoods in Brooklyn to buy residential property. When the rare townhome hits the market, it tends to get bought up quickly. Large three-bedroom condos are also quick sellers.” The current median asking price for Cobble Hill homes is $875,000 according to real-estate site StreetEasy. In Boerum Hill to the east it is $968,000 million, and in Brooklyn Heights to the north, it is $825,000.

The story also describes Cobble Hill’s parks, schools, restaurants, bars and entertainment. Read the piece here.

(Photo: Wall Street Journal)