The Downtown Brooklyn Thread

I might look in Ditmas Park, cuz I really don't want to stay in the Kensington basement.

its nice there morbs!

yeah, i love it to pieces. i might be leaving my place after our lease is up but i'd love to stay in the area if i can

There's an interesting article on Ditmas Park in the book: The World in a City by Joseph Berger. The author was also featured on WNYC this morning.

Does anyone live in flatbush/lefferts by the Parkside Ave Q train?
I'm looking at apartments there but I don't know anyone who lives there.
It seems okay, a little scruffy I guess.
Would love to hear if anyone knows much about it.

who wants to play tennis? i'm in ft. greene near BAM.

or if you don't wanna play, maybe you can tell me where there's a wall where i can go hit some balls.

walk down through Boerum Hill on Nevins st untill you're in Gowanus and behind the housing projects next to the municipal pool are several paddle-ball courts that are often deserted. And around dusk, crack and/or trannie hookers show up and truckers park their for the night, so it's usually a good idea to leave before that.

omgosh ha

thx

dude its 33 degrees out

i know but i don't give a flying fig. i play with my friend Ryan over at Pratt on those indoor courts which is nice, but he's like not around. he's SO FUCKING LUCKY cuz he can just go there anytime and hit on one of the walls. i should get a fake Pratt ID.

Is that neighborhood any better? The last time I went there I saw a huge fist fight on Bedford Ave around dusk.

do they still have the bubble courts on the other side of prospect park? you have to pay but it's CLAY (sort of), so nice

There are some walls/courts for handball on Park Place between Washington and Classon, but that's probably kind of far...unless you take the B48 bus.

theres handball courts on adelphi between dekalb and willoughby

thanks guyz ur the best! now, with the handball courts, is it "allowed" to play tennis there? or do u have to be playing handball?

Why don't you ask the guys playing handball?

do whatever you want until somebody tells you to stop is my rule with all public park facilities

u could do what u want prob - somtimes people play the handballesque game w/the paddles too

no one will be using that shit anyway cause ITS TOO COLD

squash

xpost to "hanballesque game with teh paddles"

There's a whole Prospect Park Tennis Center indoors on the far side of Prospect Park, closer to Kensington/Ditmas Park then Park Slope. You can take, I think the Q train?

I live in queens now (as often mentioned) and there are outdoors clay courts in this quaint little park in Sunnyside, otherwise I can take the train to a little place in Flushing where they play tennis sometimes.

I used to go to the paddleball courts and hit a tennis ball with a tennis raquet all the time. And by all the time, I mean at least 3 times. You can do whatever you want so long as nobody else kicks you off. I was actually serious about those courts near the projects, they're always empty. I don't mean the courts IN the projects on wyckoff, playing there would be kind of offensive and you'd likely get beaten up, but the courts next to the pool in gowanus were mostly empty.

geez. why would that be offensive? i hate mean people.

dan, my dentist is in sunnyside -- i'm going there tomorrow! i've always really enjoyed playing on clay.

Mean people: harshing the buzz.

i think its called paddleball dmr - its w/paddles not raquets

oh aiiight

hahaha

i just want one of you to be like, oh, i work at Brooklyn College and they have courts there and i'm free in 2 hours. let's hit.

can't that just happen? is that too much to ask?

I should try that tennis center, if it's off the Q .... I thought it was in the part of the park that's a crazy far walk for me or like near the F

kept trying to play w/ v1c and yerac at the williamsburg courts in the summer but it was impossible

the ft. greene park courts in the summer are good, especially for me because i live so close -- i run over there an hour before i want the court, sign up and come back or watever. it works out well.

also i hear early morning is really good there, cuz no one's even there and u can get on.

okay but for the tennis center off the Q, is there like a membership required or something? how does it work?

paddle ball = wooden paddles, small hard green ball, 1 wall
squash = long-handled racquets, not sure what kind of ball, 4 walls
racquet ball = short-handled racquet, squeezy big blue ball, 4 walls
tennis = long-handled racquet, furry yellow ball, no wall, 1 net
wallyball = 1 volleyball, 1 volleyball net, 1 racquet-ball court, 1 fun kids party
quadruple volleyball = 2 volleyballs, 2 volleyball nets set up in a cross, 1 basketball court, 1 drunk gym teacher

Funny you come to Sunnyside to go the dentist, I go to Brooklyn Heights.

hahaha! right near me. well, i had to find a dentist that was on my insurance (Guardian), and this office seemed pretty cool. i like it.

the ft. greene park courts in the summer are good, especially for me because i live so close -- i run over there an hour before i want the court, sign up and come back or watever. it works out well.

here's what i started to do last summer cuz i got stressed about it as well: i bought the individual play permits, that are good for one hour. i think they are 7 dollars. and i think they sell them at pentagon sports or something -- a good friend of mine works near there. i actually have a few left over from last summer, i hope they're still valid.

the season permit is expensive and the season is not that long.

so you just keep em until you are asked for them i guess?

well, when you sign up on that clipboard, there's a place where you can put your individual play permit number.

a lot of the time there'll be like a clipboard attendant. if there is, you show them the permit, but they didn't take mine, for some reason! so i don't know how easy it would be to reuse them...

but yeah if the clipboard is just on the fence, u just put your number down and if they ask you for the actual permit, u show it.

i tried getting a permit for the handball courts on the puerto rican side of mccarren park.

"ahem, excuse me sir, i bleieve I have a permit to use that handball court"

"beat it"

"well, I assure you gentlemen..."

"what part of beat it don't you understand?"

" Iguess that would be the "it", I'm not really sure to waht it refers..."

*ow* gunshot to the groin

AAAHHH my worst nightmare

Magnetic Field closing, end of March.

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2008/02/brooklyns_magne.html

Why are you reading a vegan mouthpiece, Morbs?

Yeah, depending on who they get for those blow-out shows, I may be camped out on the doorstep for that week.

I have never read any veganganda there.

RIP They will be missed.

never been, maybe I should get over there

oh no!! the mighty Lynne K made magnetic fields her home for years. she's such a good DJ.

does anyone have a trust mechanic in south brooklyn? specifically one who is good with brakes and will not rip me off?

yes, I'm trying to remember though...I think it may have just been a meineke, way down Atlantic Avenue, not so far that I couldn't walk back the Atlantic Center area (or my house in Boerum Hill). The guy was really nice, gave a good guarantee, and I had this other thing wrong with my turn signal, he put some gloop on it for free and said if that doesn't fix it come back in a few days and he'll replace it. It worked for a while then I later replaced it for real myself. Still, the guy was trustworthy. Don't know if it was "cheap" though. I'm googling meineke and atlantic and the only one that comes up is way further down and probably no it. Maybe it wasn't meineke at all.

wait, bell labs has a car?

ok i took my car to that meineke today. they were really nice and i don't blame them for the $1300 that is wrong with me brakes. but i just have to say OH FUCK $#%*(@#$5@)(#$@ $1300?!