Suspicious Scalfolding Going Up Around Original Dodgers Stadium on 3rd Avenue.

I don't want to be an alarmist but there is some suspicious scalfolding in the process of going up around the building owned by Con Edison on the corner of 3rd Avenue & 3rd street. I hope to God it is not getting ripped down. This is a HISTORICAL building! This structure was the original home of the Brooklyn Dodgers before they moved to Ebbets Field in 1913! This stadium was called "Washington Park" and it's left field wall is the wall that you see on 3rd Avenue Between 3rd and 2nd Streets.You can see in this photo the shape of the stadium style windows which might of been open back in the day.

A distraught friend of mine has been calling around to no avail to find out what the deal is. The landmarks commission is on vacation this week and apparantly this is a popular time of year for things to get ripped down that shouldn't.

Please comment or email me if you know anything.

*Read more about the history of Washington Park at Forgotten New York blog.

The "Fightin' Freddy's" Declare Eminent Domain Smackdowns!

Freddy's is not going down without a fight!

F.I.B passed by Freddy's as a 9 foot guillotine constructed of Pabst Blue Ribbon cans symbolically decapitated Eminent Domain in a suit. Manager Donald O'Finn spoke as did the grim reaper who questioned the cold war and called Bruce Ratner a "traitor to the country" by collaborating with one of the richest men in Russia to "take Americans from their homes". A dapper Gangs of New York style Undertaker declared "bar vs. banks" smackdowns coming to a "corner near you" before the decapitation.


Stay tuned for smackdown schedules

Subway Lights

The Obama's in Bloomingdale's Window

Found in Manhattan

One of the stranger Christmas windows. The theme is great couples or something like that. Obama and Michele are in the window with Batman & Robin, Anthony & Cleopatra and I forget who else. I have to say, President Obama looks like a stand up comic.

Angry Santa Appears at Freddy's "Chains of Justice" Installation

An irate Santa made a suprise visit to Freddy's Bar & Backroom during the installation of the "Chains of Justice" to the bar. The atmosphere in the neighborhood was a tense as while this action in the bar was going on, two doors down, tenants were being evicted due to their landlords' building violations, one of them being no heat.

Scrooge DOES live.

Chained to the Bar * !Freddy's Bar Patrons Revolt Against Ratner * Sunday at Noon!

This is what eminent domain looks like.

This just in from Freddy's Bar and Backroom.

Due to ever increasing threats to the stability of Freddy’s bar in light of the Arena project, recent court decisions, an overwhelming number of Freddy's patrons desire to chain themselves to the bar if Scrooge Ratner and Grinch Paterson's Atlantic Yards Project attempts to shutdown and demolish Freddy's Bar and Backroom.

This Sunday, we are installing chains & shackles onto the Bar itself for just such a purpose.

We are hoping for a big turn-out from the press and TV when these puppies go on @ NOON on Sunday the 20th. I know you might be hung over...but please try to be in attendance to show your support, NO ONE will be chained yet since the threat is impending but not immediate. If you do have an extra set of hand-cuffs you can bring and donate PLEASE DO SO (for potential future use and to show that we are serious) we’ll even put your name on them.

With the coming of this Christmas everyone should be concerned with New York State and Governor Paterson’s capacity to hand privately-owned property over to corporations for profit. It is a disturbing trend that casts an ominous shadow over all of our futures in this country. Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, or the Ghost of Christmas Future, is intended to represent the uncertainty of the future:

Scrooge queries the ghost: “answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?”
Still the Ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood.
“Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead,” said Scrooge. “But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!”

What is it that the Courts are showing us regarding the power of our own Scrooges?
In light of the recent decision against Columbia University and the Empire State Development Corporation’s attempt to steal properties by eminent domain, and the confusion in the Courts that seems to allow taking Brooklyn properties for Ratner, but not Harlem properties for Columbia…we are angry. We are giddy for the victory against Columbia, but angry that our neighborhood can be taken, that our bar can be taken. We will stand in support of the Prospect Heights neighborhood, and the extended neighborhood of 5000+ supporters who have donated time and money to fight against eminent domain.

We believe the links of the chain represent all the individuals unbreakably locked in a chain gang seeking fair rights for the individual in the contemporary flurry of land-grabbing corporate greed.

The Backroom at Freddy’s Bar was the birthplace of this particular rebellion for fair treatment, the front room is where we bring out the hardware to back it up.

The Chain will officially be installed on Sunday, December 20th at 12:00 noon.

So while we install the chains, trying to fend off the mess that afflicts New London, Connecticut because of the abuse of eminent domain, we look to New York’s courts to rectify these injustices.

Afterall, ‘tis the season, and judges must enjoy the holiday spirit like the rest of us.

We invite you to this….THE INSTALLATION OF THE CHAINS OF JUSTICE.

Freddy's Bar is located at the corner of 6th and Dean Streets.

Be there Sunday at noon, bring handcuffs if you have them!

Atlantic Yards Year 6 - Christmas Special Tonite on BCAT

From the folks at Freddy's Brooklyn Roundhouse:

Freddy's Brooklyn Roundhouse has updated it's perennial Christmas TV Special for year 6 of Bruce Ratner's attempt to take a Brooklyn neighborhood. It will be on BCAT Tuesday at 8pm on BCAT channel 1, Time Warner channel 34, and on MNN in Manhattan Time Warner 56, this Thursday at 8pm. Also available on Youtube.


Condemned For Christmas 2009 - The Mittens Are Off
Christmas # 6 of Bruce Ratner's attack on Prospect Heights for his Atlantic Yards project. The lawsuits against Ratner's use of the ESDC and MTA for his private benefit continue in full force. And the neighborhood is making it clear they are not going to be evicted. The recent court decision against the ESDC's attempt to seize property for Columbia University has revealed a pattern of Eminent Domain Abuse on the part of the ESDC. A new law has passed specifically prohibiting the ESDC and MTA favoritism toward Forest City Ratner. Can it be applied to this case? After a long battle there is renewed hope, and anti-Ratner activism is on the rise.

Should New York State take homes and businesses, at Christmas, and give them a connected Cleveland billionaire and his new partner, another billionaire from Russia? The billionaires, Bloomberg included say, "yes!" The neighborhood says "nyet!"

Starring The Prospect Heights Action Carrollers, Chris Owens, the Hagan sisters, Scott MX Turner, Daniel Goldstein, Velmanette Montgomery, and many others.

Special holiday activist messages at the end of Condemned for Christmas 2009 - The Mittens Are Off, include a message from Reverend Billy about the "Fracking" threat to New York State's drinking water. And another about a man who is being tortured just blocks from City Hall under Obama's justice department. The last piece features Wallace Shawn, Cathleen Chalfant, and Bruce Ratner's not-evil brother, Center for Constitutional Rights leader Michael Ratner. How could the Ratner family have one brother who is soooo good, and another who is soooo very bad? This hasn't happened since Cain and Abel.

Have a very happy and very activist holiday season!

Phones of the Brooklyn Public Library Part 2

Care About NYC's Water Supply?

Friends of F.I.B, Sabine Aronowski and Steve DeSeve continue to cover fracking, an gas extraction process which endangers our reservoirs and watersheds where we get our drinking water.

The filmmakers' description:

"Freddy's Brooklyn Roundhouse (FBR) presents excerpts from several recent NYC hearings and rallies on the controversial proposal to allow Gas Drilling in NY State using the highly toxic "Fracking" gas extraction process. The show focuses on New Yorkers asking the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Governor Patterson to scrap their plans to allow Hydraulic Fracturing in NY State, especially since the gas extraction process endangers our reservoirs and watersheds. Given the environmental track record of "Fracking" in other states, there are many calls for a Statewide ban. The show includes interviews with Carl Arnold of Chenago Delaware Ostego Gas (CDOG) and Laura Sheinkopf of SWiM (the Safe Water Movement), and footage from the NYC City Council Hearing and the DEC's NYC Hearing on their Environmental Impact Statement on proposed gas drilling in the NYC watershed and beyond. Additional footage from Manhattan Borough President, Scott Stringers' "Kill the Drill" rally."

The filmmakers urge everyone to go here to sign the petition, deadline is December 31!

Phones of the Brooklyn Public Library Pt.1

E.P.A Gowanus Canal Info Meeting Recap

Over at Pardon Me For Asking!

"Occult Gathering" : The Day After...

As I mentioned my cape was at the dry cleaners so I couldn't attend the occult gathering in Brooklyn Heights last night. It ends up it was raining with intense wind speeds but despite that my "informant" John M. checked out the scene and sent me this follow up photo. This is what he had to say;

"I went down to the promenade circle to see if there were any burned crosses or sacrificed goats... didn't find evidence of anything too sinister, but there were some loose pages scattered around... some writing about moon symbolism, all waterlogged. i gathered a few copies to read over... kind of a nice text actually."

And I might add done in the same font as the original flyer.

We have another full moon on the Winter Soltice in 3 weeks, will there be another "Occult Gathering"?

Stay Tuned!

Brooklyn Heights Occult Gathering Tonite!

Sorry for the short notice (it is now 6:00 pm) but I just HAD to spread the news about this cryptic occult gathering happening at midnight on the Brooklyn Heights promenade.

Thanks to John M. for sending F.I.B this notice. He says that he has seen them around Brooklyn Heights and was wondering if I knew what this is all about. While I know nada about this particular coven convergence, I do think that they are usually more secret affairs which is what makes this flier a wee bit suspect. I did find out some details about the power of the full moon via the Occult 100 website, which says that " the moon in it's fullest phase reflects all the light sent to it by the sun. The earth is completely out of the path between these two bodies and the energy of the moon is at it's most potent. The full moon is the most potent time of the entire month and the time when many traditions of witchcraft hold their esbats, or ritual gatherings or celebrations."

My cape is at the dry cleaners so I won't be making it, but if anyone goes, put out the positive energy because any negative is particularly potent tonight (put that voodoo doll of me away!).