Brooklyn’s biggest stories this week: Spike Lee and BAM announced a new Brooklyn festival for November; Clueless drew a sunset crowd to Brooklyn Bridge Park; Celebrate Brooklyn! filled the Lena Horne Bandshell; Third Avenue shut to cars for Summer Stroll; Greenpoint threw a rooftop wildflower party; a private club at Riis Beach drew a boycott; Prospect Park marked 250 years since the Battle of Brooklyn; two giant bears took up permanent residence on the Gowanus Canal; rip currents and bacteria advisories complicated a hot weekend at the beach; City Hall put a 30% discount on the city’s future grocery stores; the mayor put $43.2 million behind coastal resilience as storms rolled through; the city loosened its preschool curriculum mandate; a new education panel took its seats; a Brooklyn teenager died on an e-motorbike coming off the Brooklyn Bridge; an oyster bar, a Chinese-American homecoming and an Atlantic City–themed cocktail bar all opened their doors; Greenpoint said goodbye to Wasabi; Lidl set a date in Williamsburg; the MTA named Brooklyn’s worst subway choke points; a 1,500-home complex with a new public school entered public review near the Navy Yard; Gowanus broke ground on 125 apartments and Clinton Hill filed for 30 more. Read on for the latest!
Events & Entertainment
Spike Lee and BAM announce a Brooklyn festival
Spike Lee and Clara Wu Tsai, who owns the Nets, the Liberty and Barclays Center, announced Playback: The Brooklyn Watch Party, a two-day festival at BAM on November 6 and 7. Screenings and talks on the Friday, then a free afternoon block party outside on the Saturday, with a Crooklyn screening to close. Tickets go on sale in September. Details.
Clueless draws a sunset crowd to Brooklyn Bridge Park
Movies With A View screened Clueless on the Harbor View Lawn at Pier 1 on Thursday, with the lawn opening at 6 p.m. and the film starting at sundown. The free Thursday series continues through the summer — Jurassic Park is next, on August 6. Full schedule here.
Celebrate Brooklyn! fills the bandshell
CARRTOONS and Hailé Supreme headlined a free BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! bill at the Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park on Friday, with Sofía Valdés and Julia Zivic opening. Doors opened at 6 p.m., music at 7. The 47th season runs through September 19. Season lineup.
Third Avenue shuts to cars for Summer Stroll
Bay Ridge closed Third Avenue between 68th and 82nd Streets on Friday evening for Summer Stroll on Third, with music, sidewalk dining and open storefronts from 6 to 10 p.m. Two Fridays are left this season, on August 7 and August 14.
Greenpoint throws a wildflower party on a rooftop
The Kingsland Wildflowers green roof at 520 Kingsland Avenue held its tenth annual festival on Saturday afternoon — live music, art installations, native plants for sale and environmental groups on hand, all free. One of the more unusual family afternoons in the borough. More here.
A private club at Riis Beach draws a boycott
The Rockaway Ocean Club — a members-only clubhouse going into the 1930s Art Deco bathhouse at Jacob Riis Park, the closest ocean beach for a lot of Brooklyn families — missed its July opening and was still a construction site this week, with backers now aiming for early August. Membership runs $750 to join plus $1,500 a year under 30 and $2,000 over. The Riis Beach Bloc Association, tied to the beach’s long history as a queer haven, has called for a boycott over the privatization of public space; founding partner Ursula Damani says 60% of the restored building will stay free and open. The City Reporter has the full story.
Prospect Park marks 250 years since the Battle of Brooklyn
Lefferts Historic House ran a free hour-long walking tour to the park’s Battle Pass fortifications on Wednesday afternoon, marking the 250th anniversary of the first and largest battle of the Revolutionary War — told partly through the perspective of the people the Lefferts family enslaved. The tour repeats through the summer, and the outdoor exhibit “Black People and the Battle of Brooklyn” is free in the Lefferts yard. Upcoming dates.
Two giant bears settle in on the Gowanus Canal
Artist Jen Lewin’s sculptures Ursa Major and Ursa Minor were craned over the Union Street Bridge on Saturday and installed permanently in the public park in front of Nevins Landing, at the new Gowanus Wharf campus. Ursa Major stands 26 feet, Ursa Minor 13; both are named for the navigating constellations, and Ursa Major is built from reclaimed ocean plastic. They debuted at Burning Man before coming to Brooklyn. Free to visit, and very hard to miss. More about the work.
Rip currents and bacteria advisories complicate a hot week
The National Weather Service kept a high rip current risk in place for Brooklyn’s ocean beaches on Tuesday and Wednesday, and issued another one Saturday morning. Separately, elevated bacteria left roughly a dozen area beaches under swimming advisories on Thursday, Sea Gate among them. Check the city’s live beach status map before you pack the car.
City Hall
City-run grocery stores will cut prices 30%
Mayor Mamdani announced Monday that the city’s planned municipal grocery stores will discount all fresh produce, meat and seafood, plus some 20 categories of pantry staples, by 30% — with prices locked monthly instead of shifting week to week. City Hall put the savings at roughly $90 a month for a typical household. Five stores are planned, one per borough; the Bronx opens first, and Brooklyn’s site has not been chosen yet. Read the announcement.
Storms roll through, and $43.2 million goes to flood defenses
Emergency Management issued a travel advisory ahead of Tuesday night’s storms and a flood watch ran into Wednesday morning, though the heaviest rain landed on Staten Island and New Jersey rather than Brooklyn. Days earlier the city committed $43.2 million to grow its Bureau of Coastal Resilience from six staff to roughly 75. Among the projects in line: 1.5 miles of flood walls and gates in Red Hook, due in 2028. Details.
Childcare & Schools
The city loosens its preschool curriculum mandate
City-funded early childhood programs — about 140,000 children under five, in home-based, community and public-school settings — no longer have to use The Creative Curriculum. Under guidance issued this spring, providers can apply to switch to one of eight approved alternatives, Montessori included, with parent and teacher input required. The GOLD assessment system stays mandatory. Chalkbeat has the details.
A new education panel takes its seats
The mayor named 13 members to the Panel for Educational Policy on Tuesday — the board that signs off on school closures, mergers and major contracts. Brooklyn ties include Maddy Fox, a Brooklyn College professor with two children in city schools. The panel met for the first time Wednesday, with declining enrollment and possible school mergers on the horizon.
Police Blotter
A Brooklyn teenager is killed coming off the Brooklyn Bridge
A 17-year-old Brooklyn boy riding an unregistered e-motorbike was killed Wednesday morning in a collision with an SUV at Chambers and Centre Streets — the first intersection riders meet coming off the Brooklyn Bridge bike path. He was not wearing a helmet, and the driver stayed at the scene. The crash renewed pressure over illegal high-speed e-bikes. More.
A Williamsburg robbery ends in a stabbing
Two men approached a 30-year-old on Boerum Street between Lorimer and Leonard on Thursday night, stabbed him in the abdomen and took his phone, police said. He was taken to Kings County Hospital. Both men were still outstanding.
Openings & Closings
An oyster bar lands in Prospect Heights
Zig Zag Oyster Bar opened Tuesday at 406 Prospect Place, from the team behind Hart’s and Cervo’s, in the old Bar Meridian space. East Coast oysters, seafood towers, peel-and-eat shrimp and a short island wine list — and most of the roughly 50 seats are held for walk-ins.
Kings Co Imperial comes home to Park Slope
Kings Co Imperial opened its third location Monday at 357 Third Street, next door to Stone Park Cafe — which the same owners opened on that block back in 2004. Soup dumplings, sesame shrimp toast and Beijing street noodles, plus a Sichuan crispy duck made just for Park Slope.
An Atlantic City–themed bar opens in Gowanus
Shania’s Max Bet opened Wednesday at 317 Third Avenue, in the former Dirty Precious space, from three colleagues who met behind the bar at Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club. Shock-pink walls, a mirrored ceiling and a bar panel set with some 20,000 dice. It is named for a racehorse that came in.
Greenpoint says goodbye to Wasabi
Wasabi served its last dinner Monday at 638 Manhattan Avenue after 26 years, its owners announcing the closing on Instagram. The neighborhood sushi standby lost its lease.
Lidl sets a date in Williamsburg
The German discount grocer will open at 573 Grand Street on Wednesday, August 26 — its fifth Brooklyn store, open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
Transit
The MTA names Brooklyn’s worst subway choke points
The MTA’s first systemwide bottleneck study, released Wednesday, flagged 70 congested locations and singled out two in Brooklyn. At Nostrand Junction, 3 and 5 trains would swap tracks east of Franklin Avenue. At the DeKalb interlocking — where the B, D, N, Q and R all cross at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge — crews still work with 1930s-era technology and, in places, paper maps. Money would come from the capital plan starting in 2030.
A weekend without the 3 train
The 3 train was suspended all weekend, Clark Street closed and 2/3 service skipped Borough Hall — a rough couple of days for Brooklyn Heights and Downtown Brooklyn riders. Normal service is due back Monday morning.
Real Estate & Development
A 1,500-home complex near the Navy Yard enters public review
The city opened public review this week on 240 Nassau Street, a four-building plan on the Downtown Brooklyn–Vinegar Hill edge: about 1,500 apartments, roughly 300 of them income-restricted, plus a new K–8 public school, a community centre and open space. Construction would begin in 2027. Read the proposal.
Gowanus breaks ground on 125 apartments
Earthwork began this week at 601 Union Street, an eight-story, 125-unit rental designed by Morris Adjmi Architects for developer Avdoo, on a 40,000-square-foot site running through to Sackett Street and Third Avenue. Ground-floor retail is planned, and completion is expected in 2027.
Clinton Hill files for 30 more homes on Myrtle Avenue
Permits were filed Thursday for 475 Myrtle Avenue, an eight-story mixed-use building with 30 apartments averaging about 1,210 square feet, ground-floor commercial space and rooftop terraces on the top two floors — a block from the Clinton–Washington Avenues G stop.
An affordable housing deadline lands Monday
Applications for 20 apartments at 283 Flatbush Avenue Extension in Downtown Brooklyn close Monday, August 3. Columbia Commons in Red Hook stays open through August 19. Income limits and unit details are on NYC Housing Connect, and our roundup of open Brooklyn lotteries has the rest.
Sports
On the Court
The Liberty outscored the Sparks 113–109 in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Breanna Stewart with 29 points and Sabrina Ionescu with 27, then pushed the Aces to the wire in Las Vegas on Thursday before falling 104–99, Stewart finishing with 26 points and 11 rebounds. They sit at 16–13 and are back at Barclays Center on Monday, August 3 against the Seattle Storm, 7 p.m. The Nets released their preseason schedule Monday; their one home tune-up is October 8 against Philadelphia.
On the Diamond
The Cyclones hosted Winston-Salem for six games at Maimonides Park. Brooklyn took Wednesday’s matinee 8–6 and rolled Thursday 8–1 behind Gutierrez and Obispo, with the Dash taking Tuesday and Friday; the series ran through Sunday afternoon. Friday night fireworks over the Coney Island boardwalk went ahead as usual.
On the Pitch
Brooklyn FC’s women locked in two players for the fall — founding player Jessica Garziano, who scored the club’s first-ever goal, on Wednesday, and Kiki Marković on Thursday. The Gainbridge Super League season opens August 15, and the home opener is Friday, August 21 against DC Power at Maimonides Park. The men played at Charleston on Saturday.
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