Beloved Brooklyn Bowling Alley in Danger of Demolition

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Maple Lanes Heading for the Gutter?

Maple Lanes Bowling Alley in Borough Park is one of the last its kind. Charging only $4.50 per game and serving simple, old-time bowling alley cuisine like burgers, fries and cheap beer, the lanes attract families and services schools and leagues; but all that may soon be a thing of the past.

The owners of the 52-year old Brooklyn icon have recently filed a zoning change application so that they can take down Maple Lanes and built in its place a synagogue and 182 town house apartments. Co-owner John LaSpina did not directly comment on his group’s decision, but the application states that the proposed project would “provide needed housing for a densely populated” Borough Park and a much needed synagogue with space for events.

Maple Lanes is not just the largest bowling alley in Brooklyn, nor the friendliest to families. According to Mark Goldberg, 50, who was bowling with his 15-year old daughter Jaclyn,

“Maple Lanes is an institution — it’s a cornerstone of Brooklyn. I don’t want to believe that someday it might not be here.”

Bowling leagues and schools would also be hurt by the disappearance of Maple Lanes. The next closest lanes are three miles away, and not large enough to accommodate everyone at once.

“A lot of schools will be affected,” said Ronnie Maiman, coach of the girls’ bowling team at Brooklyn Studio HS. These kids love bowling, and if Maple Lanes is gone, it will be very difficult for them to pursue their hobby.”

Maple Lanes are also budget friendly, allowing families to spend some inexpensive family time together. Other bowling venues in Brooklyn are not geared to families, and are expensive. A night at one of the high-end lanes could end up costing someone upwards of $100.

“Back in the day, people actually cared about bowling,” said Jeremy Kirschner, 25, while at Bowlmor. “Now, all we want to do is drink, dance, party and hook up. Bowling is more of an afterthought.”
 

Gowanus Residents Worried Beloved Neighbor Will be Mixed Up with Crook

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War Vet and Hero Thomas A. D’Alessio

Thomas D’Alessio was a well-loved neighbor and friend to people in Gowanus. He was also a veteran of the Normandy invasion of France during World War II and a person remembered for his good deeds and upbeat attitude.

D’Alessio was also known as “Tommy the Mayor,” and loved to tell stories about his life, and buy ice cream for kids in the neighborhood. According to D’Alessio’s son, pop stayed optimistic even after he was run over by a drunk driver, an even which left him with damaged legs. He always put a positive spin on stories about the Great Depression and the history of the Brooklyn that he loved.

“The people on his block got a much better appreciation of the neighborhood through his stories,” said his daughter Marie D’Alessio.

Mr. D’Alessio lived on Sackett Street for 91 years, until he died in 2008. Now his neighbors want to remember and honor him by renaming part of the street after him.

They have already petitioned the city for the renaming, but they are full of worry that a curious visitor passing through the street might decide to “Google” the new street name, and will be shocked to find that the street is named after a New Jersey sheriff who was caught and imprisoned after he spent campaign funds on real estate and vacations during the 1990s. Unfortunately, Googling the name “Thomas D’Alessio” brings up a different person than the Sackett Street neighbor and war vet. Due to the high news interest of the sheriff’s crimes, the New Jersey “Thomas D’Alessio” trumps the Brooklyn “Thomas D’Alessio” and comes out on top of the Google results. Making for much confusion, and embarrassment for the Gowanus neighbors and Brooklyn’s D’Alessio’s family, they are trying to resolve the dilemma.

One simple way to relieve the confusion is to make sure that the middle initial is included in the street sign. The petition to the city for the new street name requests that the street be called “Thomas A. D’Alessio Way.”

D’Alessio’s daughter believes this should resolve any internet confusion, especially since the jailed D’Alessio’s middle initial happens to be the letter ‘J’. Yes, that’s J for jail.

“People on the block will know it’s him,” D’Alessio’s daughter said.

Residents Protest (Again) As Barclays Center Officially Opens

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Daniel Goldstein of DDDB

Officials were falling all over themselves on Friday waxing poetic on the great boom the new Barclays Center will be for Brooklynites, congratulating themselves on the Atlantic Yards mega-project whose first stage has come to fruition with the opening of the 18,000-seat arena.

Protestors were also on hand, wearing masks, saying that the project was far from beneficial to the residents of the area.

Mayor Bloomberg was there sitting on the stage with developer Bruce Ratner and Borough President Marty Markowitz.

“Brooklyn has arrived,” Bloomberg said. “It’s a great day.”

Ratner spoke to over 100 members of the media on Friday explaining how the new arena would make the lives of Brooklynites so much better, employing them by the thousands, and bringing world class sports and entertainment to their doorstep.

“It’s a defining new model for the role sports and entertainment arenas can play in communities,” Ratner said.

He then took a pair of extra-super large scissors and snipped the purple ribbon that was strewn across the front of the basketball court. Confetti burst forth as Ratner performed the ritual.

Not all Brooklynites feel as warm and fuzzy about the Atlantic-Yards project and the Barclays Center. A small number of protestors performed satiric street theater expressing their frustration and dismay at the promise of jobs developers reneged on.

“They’re ripping off Brooklyn,” said project uber-opponent Daniel Goldstein of "Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn", who accepted a $3 million payoff after the state condemned his Prospect Heights home to make room for the Atlantic Yards development.

Goldstein added that the next phase of the project, which includes residential towers, should be cancelled, and Ratner should be held to blame.

"What was promised wasn't just an arena with luxury suites," said Goldstein. "It was 2,250 units of affordable housing and 10,000 permanent jobs. We don't have a single unit of housing under construction and this arena has created 105 full-time jobs instead of 10,000."

Lawsuits over eminent domain delayed the project several times. Protestors say that private land should not have been grabbed for this project, and they intend to keep on protesting.
 

The Broadway Career of Richard Easton

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Richard Easton

Richard Easton was born in 1933 and hails from Montreal in Quebec, Canada. He was involved in acting from a young age, performing with a children’s theater group until he moved to Ottawa at the age of seventeen to work in a weekly repertory theater there.

In 1955 Easton became a member of the Shakespeare Memorial Theater Company at the Palace. He had the honor of working with John Gielgud, once as Edgar to Gielgud’s “King Lear” and also in “Much Ado About Nothing.”

In 2000 Easton won a Tony Award for his performance on Broadway in “The Invention of Love.” He had other memorable performances on Broadway, including in the plays “Noises Off” in 2001, “Observe the Sons of Ulter Marching Towards the Somme” in 2003, and he played as Henry IV opposite Kevin Kline playing Falstaff and Ethan Hawke as Hotspur.
 

The Ups and Downs of Financial Decisions

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The Consumer Federation of America and Primerica, a financial services firm, recently published the results of a study revealing that two-thirds of middle class Americans have made significant financial mistakes.

In an article for the New York Times, Ann Carrns discusses her money-related blunders, explaining that she was “somewhat comforted” when she saw the results of the survey. Though she feels she has avoided any ‘truly devastating’ occurrences thus far, she too has made some unrewarding decisions.

Carrns explains that she put $2,000 in the Janus Mercury Fund in back in 2000. Janus funds were incredibly popular then- in fact, 50% of money put into mutual went to Janus.

“We all know how the story ended: Mercury burst along with the tech bubble, and so did most of my hard-earned money,” Carrn wrote.

Carrn’s story is probably considered unique, however. Though the survey does not disclose the types of decisions Americans made, Stephen Brobeck of Consumer Federation of America said:

“I would be surprised if many of these decisions weren’t related to credit card debt and subprime mortgages.” He continued, “It is less likely they made poor investment decisions in stocks, because very few of them hold individual stocks.”

Still, many surveyed Americans actually felt they were “excellent” or “good” at making financial decisions.

What do you think?

The Natural Evolution of Baby Strollers in Brooklyn

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A Brooklyn inventor is retrofitting baby strollers with fancy features such as iPod docks, global positioning devices, and flashing lights.

“It entertains the child and uses lights to prevent drivers from injuring mothers,” Fraizer told the Brooklyn Paper.

That's one way to look at it.

Our vision is a little different. How about an armored stroller retrofitted with portable artillery?

Suitable for Brooklyn's mean streets, we could call it "Le Stroller de Park Slope."
Or how about this stroller at left, the Star Wars-themed "AT-AT Stroller" created by Rick Russo. (AT-AT = All Terrain Armored Transport.) According to Wikipedia, The AT-AT -- designed to favor "fear over function" -- is manned by two men to drive the vehicle and can carry up to five speeder bikes and 40 Imperial stormtroopers.

Now you're talking Stroller Wars. (Instructions for building here.) 

Photo by Rick Russo, Creative Commons License

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Businessweek Creams Brooklyn Crab

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Looks like someone's pretty crabby after eating the "sandy, undercooked scallops" and "over-fried crab cake" at Brooklyn Crab in Red Hook.

Bloomberg Businesweek's Ryan Sutton won't be back to the popular seafood shack after an evening of food indignities: lousy marinara, over-salted pollock, and lobster that tasted of iodine and liver.

The turf half of the surf and turf wasn't any better, Sutton said: "The included turf was an inedible gristle-packed strip steak."

To make matters even worse, the bartender confronted them and accused them of not paying their bar bill.Sutton had to produce the receipt to prove he wasn't trying to eat and run.

More reviews at Yelp.

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