Brooklyn In The Summer of '74

Danny Lyon/Kosciusko public swimming pool in the heart of Bed StuyOk, so I have no earthly clue why Business Insider was publishing these pics, but they're so damn cool I don't have time to care.

They managed to uncover a collection of photos from the National Archives and Records Administration that were taken by photographer Danny Lyon in 1974 all throughout Brooklyn. So yeah, 1974: like before the invention of bugaboos!

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Now I Wanna Know Who The Fortunato Family Is Too...

This is not the Fortunato fam, but it could be. Image via Save the Slope

I came across this posting on Brooklynian about some family who used to live in Park Slope, the Fortunatos, and now I wanna find out who the hell they were too. Between gang fights, mobsters and barber shops, they sound pretty damn badass! Anyway, get in touch with this dude Richard if you have scoop.

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Time To Learn Some Park Slope Armory History

Here's a super cool video on the history of the Park Slope Armory from the folks behind The City Concealed: an online video series exploring the unseen corners of New York.

Like did you know that the Armory was deisnged to look "impregnable?!" The dude in the video actually says that. Ironic that the armory was supposed to look impregnable in a neighborhood where everyone gets preggo? You do the math, ppl.

They still didn't answer the ever present question on everyone's mind: why that mofo doesn't have any showers...but it's still worth a watch.

(via Thirteen.org)

Happy Anniversary Of The Plane Crash In Park Slope Day!

image: NYTBelieve it not, back in 1960 something went down in Park Slope that was way the hell bigger than the Great Tornado of 2010, a Gorilla Coffee schoolyard fight or even a makeshift Prospect Park Goose concentration camp: A MOTHERFUCKING PLANE CRASH, PPL!

And today marks the anniversary of that bitch.

On December 16, 1960 a United Airlines Flight en route from Chicago and a TWA flight en route from Columbus Ohio COLLIDED up in the sky above NY, killing all 134 people aboard both flights. The accident, at the time, was the worst in the history of air travel. And the tail of the United flight, landed right the fuck here, in the middle of our leafy, stroller ridden nabe (on the corner of Sterling and 7th Ave):

"On a street of brownstones in Park Slope, Brooklyn — a run-down neighborhood politely described at the time as being “in transition” — one plane, a state-of-the-art jetliner, gouged long-lasting scars. The tail slammed down in an intersection. White-hot engines, smoldering cargo and badly burned bodies fell nearby. A stream of jet fuel touched off a fire that grew to seven alarms and destroyed 10 buildings and a church. Two men selling Christmas trees on a corner and a man shoveling snow were killed."

The NYT City Room blog has been doing a killer series all week, marking the 50th anniversary of this tragic disaster, and I have to say there's some really great shit there. As much of a whiny bitch as I usually am, I got a little choked up reading about all this stuff and imagining our own, sweet little Park Slope thrust into the chaotic mayhem of the aftermath of the crash. And even what it must have SOUNDED LIKE (and how totally scary it must have been) to hear a gigantic plane come flying into the street at a billion miles an hour. 

Read all about it here:

+ Park Slope Plane Crash: A Collision in the Clouds

+ Park Slope Plane Crash: Were You There?

+ Park Slope Plane Crash: The Neighborhood in 1960

+ Park Slope Plane Crash: How It Happened

+ Park Slope Plane Crash: The Lingering Scars

+ Park Slope Plane Crash: Covering the Story

+ Park Slope Plane Crash: Voices of Those Who Were There

+ Park Slope Plane Crash: The Constellation Comes Down