Daily News sez: PLG #1

In their wrap up of the Best of Brooklyn Real Estate, the Daily News named PLG the Most Underrated 'hood in the borough:

On the other side of Prospect Park from Park Slope, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens has stand-alone brick mansions with manicured front lawns and rows of beige brownstones. Because Flatbush Ave., the main retail stretch, is filled with phone-card stores and Caribbean beef-patty shops, the neighborhood gets neglected by upscale home shoppers. That doesn’t bother the people already there. They like being a secret, hanging out on stoops, cleaning their front doors and maintaining some of the best-kept streets in the city. A restored three-floor brownstone costs $1,125,000.

Not surprisinglyWith three-floor brownstones going for seven figures as the nation's economy implodes, the neighborhood wasn't named the best value in Brooklyn; that honor went to Kensington. About Kensington, the Daily News said:

The neighborhood also has its own watchdog. Two friends run www.kensingtonbrooklynblog to monitor growth and highlight such things as local authors, new restaurants and real-estate moves. Like any good blog, it doesn’t take itself too seriously while keeping an eye out for what’s what.

Kensington has a blog? I guess we should post more often.

PLG Voting 101

Election day is finally here, kids. Just so none of us can use the "I didn't know about X" excuse not to vote, here's a guide to the whens, wheres, whos, whats and hows of tomorrow's election.

When: Tuesday 11/4, from 6am to 9pm.

Where: There are a number of polling locations in the Lefferts area. To find your poll site based on your address, click here. Yes, it really varies block by block so don't rely on your neighbor across the street - they may be at a different site.

Who: Most addresses in Prospect-Lefferts (if not all?) are in Representative District 11, State Senate District 20, and State Assembly District 43. You can double check by visiting smartvoter.org and entering your address in the upper right "FIND MY BALLOT" box. Incumbents include Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, State Senator Eric Adams, and State Assemblyman Karim Camara. Want to see how they've voted on the issues? A list of current officials and candidates for 11225 and 11226 can be found here.

What: There is one proposition on the NY ballot for tomorrow, regarding civil service examinations for disabled veterans. You can read it here. For an English translation of the legalese, the League of Women Voters offers an analysis.

How: There may be some unfamiliar voting machines this year, as NYC moves away from the old style lever machines and goes to the new Automark machines (if these things are as clunky to use as they appear to be in the informational video, I'd leave yourself some extra time to wait in line at the polls. And what exactly are those latex gloves for?!).

Happy voting!

Not Enough Styling on Flatbush

Tales of New York has a post about the tough times for hairdressers on Flatbush in the current economy. The increased cost of supplies - from human hair for braiding to hair care products - is coming at a time when the clientele is tightening their purse strings and haggling over price.

It also can't help that there are so many hair salons. The competition probably makes it a lot easier to haggle and hurts loyalty to a favored stylist. The article refers to the stretch between Flatbush Junction and Cortelyou as "Hairdressers Lane." I would have put Lincoln-to-Parkside against any stretch in the city for haircare density - but I would have been wrong:

The influx of Haitian, Jamaican and Trinidadian women skilled in the crafts of braiding, straightening, and sewing in hair extensions in the eighties and nineties revitalized and expanded Flatbush hair industry. The two dozens hair salons and eight hair suppliers crammed on a one-mile stretch from Nostrand Ave. junction to Cortelyou Road have earned Flatbush Ave. the nickname of “Hairdresser Lane.”

But all is not lost on Flatbush Ave. Even if going to a salon feels like an extravagance, that doesn't mean that people will go out looking like hell.

The recent economic downturn does not evenly hurt Flatbush hair industry. Suppliers, who sell artificial and natural weaves, wigs and other hair extensions, might even benefit from the hairdressing slowdown. Because it takes less time, less money and lasts longer to get a wig than a perm, economical customers are inclined to visit hair supply stores rather than hair salons ...

I can't say that I am doing my part. I'm pretty sure I haven't had a haircut in the about three months.

Image via polychrome. For the record, Nass's (67A Fenimore St.) was chosen because I liked the picture, not because I know of any signs of financial distress.

The Wire's Flatbush Connections

Today's New York Times City Room blog had a neat little post about the New York natives on HBO's awesome show The Wire. It turns out that two of them are more local than that: Michael K. Williams (Omar Little) is from East Flatbush and Jamie Hector (Marlo Stanfield) and grew up in Flatbush and Crown Heights.

Chad L. Coleman (Dennis "Cutty" Wise) is living in Flatbush now — and he's member of the Park Slope Food Coop. Celebrities: they're just like us!

PLG is MIA (again)

We need to start collecting maps of Brooklyn that leave off Prospect Lefferts Gardens. Here's one sent to us by Cole James. Designed as part of series of city neighborhoods, it's a hand-screened poster by Ork, currently sold out. (Every one in East Flatbush must have bought a copy.)

Lots of small neighborhoods are left off of this and/or inaccurately labeled, so I don't know that our slight is a great injustice, in the scheme of things. Serves us right for having such a cumbersome, fuzzy name.

(Thanks, Cole!)

Brooklyn walking tour by PLGer

PLG documentarian Samara Smith has created a neato mp3 walking tour, Anyplace, Brooklyn, that chronicles the rapidly changing netherland around Downtown Brooklyn.

Through narration and interviews with area residents, activists and shoppers, this walking tour asks the listener to consider the anti-democratic nature of this urban planning process and the proposed plans effect on street and community life, while beginning to imagine the kind of public space and city they would like to live in.

(Via Brooklyn Paper)