PRAISE (MORE) G's, US!

Photo credit: Zandy Mangold/NY PostAs of yesterday, June 9th, the MTA increased G service by 25%. Don't get too excited—I'm fairly certain that 25% of zero is still zero. Sure, I exaggerate, but the fact remains that the G has been a thorn in the side of many riders since its humble beginnings as the GG on August, 19, 1933. That time in NYC history knew the G as a shuttle from Queens Plaza to Nassau Ave.

These days the unpredictable, zig-zagging, red-headed step child of the MTA may finally be welcome at family gatherings—so to speak. There may just be a light at the end of the tunnel for the little engine that couldn't...and hasn't.

No, they are not increasing length, just frequency—sounds frightfully close to my college years. According to the MTA,  the G train will now operate every 8 minutes, as opposed to every 10 minutes. Hold up! Can we get a fact checker? Has anyone ever known the G to come every ten minutes?

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Mayor De Blasio Pushing for 2016 Democratic Convention at Barclays

Photo credit: Richard Perry/The New York TimesAs FIPS reported last week, Mayor de Blasio has finally moved from Park Slope to Gracie Mansion, five months after taking office. But even though he loves all his children boroughs equally, some boroughs are more equal than others. On June 5^th, he made a proposal to the Democratic National Committee they hold their 2016 convention in NYC, but not Madison Square Garden! Oh, no, not in Bill de Blasio’s NY. His pitch? Park-Slope Adjacent Barclay’s Center, of course! Which is, honestly, a lot better than that shithole Madison Square Garden/Penn Station. I know, I worked atop the Garden for 7 years. Really, one of the worst buncha blocks in NYC. I mean, Phish fans and angry, desperate commuters? 

Ok, last time a National Convention was held here in NYC, there were some glitches – almost 2000 protestors something something unlawful mass arrests etc. etc.  18 million dollars in damages, yada yada yada – but that was in Manhattan, with a bunch of Republicans, and then-Mayor Bloomberg was (ostensibly) one of them. The previous time, it was Dems! And the city kind of went nuts as a guy from Hope, Arkansas, the Come Back Kid, was nominated in our town.

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Floored

The icon – or eyesore, depending on your political slant – called the Kentile sign appears to be headed towards a final downward spiral. That downward spiral is likely to be in a trash chute from the roof of a nondescript building to the bottom of the Gowanus canal, where many other memories of asbestos and bankruptcy relish in the purple funk some believe to be water.

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[Guest Post] Why Did You Slash My Tire?

Longtime FIPS reader, Jon, wrote in to tell us of something that happened to him this weekend: 

I live near the Barclays Center. I don’t write that in a bad or negative way. As a matter of fact, when folks ask me my opinion I universally say “I like it.” While I was nervous about it prior to and when it first opened up, in the end, it hasn’t been a hassle and it’s led to what I consider to be a general brightening up (dare I say “improvement”) of the neighborhood. Parking hasn’t even proven to be a big problem unless I tend to time thing pretty poorly on event nights but I’ve only gotten 2 tickets in 2 years and feel pretty fortunate about it.

Until Saturday… 

I was getting back to my place at about 7:45 pm Saturday night. The sun was starting to go down and a “Best of the 90s Salsa Concert” was getting ready to kick off at 8. There was no parking in sight. This was exacerbated by a block party that had the block adjacent to mine — Park Place between 6th & 7th Ave — closed to traffic and parking for the day.

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Get Ready for a Doughnut Orgasm in Your Mouth

Photo via Doughnut Plant's Instagram

On today, National Doughnut Day, it is important that we all reflect on the brave, historic journey depicted in Homer's Odyssey. There's much to be learned from the classic Greek epic, which centers on the patriarch of the Simpson family returning home from Shelbyville after his quest to find the perfect doughnut. The important lesson? Doughnuts are important. People should die for them.

I'm still on a quest for the perfect doughnut myself. After growing up on Dunkin Donuts, when traveling down South one summer in the early 00's, I came across my first glazed Krispy Kreme doughnut & was all "OH...Dunkin Donuts doughnuts are actually kinda lame." Since then, I've been exposed to Tim Horton's. I skipped Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland, OR because fuck that line but I have no doubt that their doughnuts are good. I read so on the internet. Here in Brooklyn, I've never had a bad doughnut from Peter Pan or Dough.

Now word's come out via Twitter that the much-heralded Doughnut Plant, with one location in the LES & one in Chelsea, is coming to Flatbush Ave in October, taking over the former Yummy Taco space & putting them right in the heart of the food boom around Barclays Center. Twenty years after he started baking in a LES tenement basement, owner Mark Isreal is finally crossing the bridge to cash in on those sweet Brooklyn benjamins.

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