This weekend — Friday evening, May 3 to early Monday morning, May 6 — there will be no service in either direction at High Street, as A and C trains will be re-routed to the F line between Jay Street-MetroTech and West 4th Street-Washington Square. This means more service at York Street in DUMBO. Other trains should be running normally, except that the 2 will be on a reduced schedule (every twelve minutes) during the day Saturday and Sunday.

The following work week — Monday morning, May 6 to Friday evening, May 10 — late nights Monday to Tuesday through Thursday to Friday the only service at Court Street or at the N/R platforms at Jay Street-MetroTech, will be Brooklyn bound N trains, as Manhattan bound N trains will be re-routed to the Q line between DeKalb Avenue and Canal Street, and R service will be suspended in both directions between 59th Street in Brooklyn and Whitehall Street.

These are the PLANNED service changes for this weekend and for the following week. Always check MTA Info for unplanned service changes that may affect local service or service on other parts of your trip, or for planned service changes that affect stations to or from which you may be traveling. You can also get real time service alerts: register here.

Photo: Borough Hall Station, by Pierre P. Pullis (1907); courtesy the Brooklyn Public Library’s Center for Brooklyn History and Martha Foley.

The Brooklyn Heights Association invites us all to join in “Spring Into Service” activities this Saturday, May 4. You may join with The Service Collective to help to build Ikea furniture for newly arrived asylum seekers, clean up Hillside Dog Park, tend to neighborhood tree beds (photo), tidy up P.S.8, or clean and restock the community fridge. Donations of children’s books, clothing, and toys are also sought, as are money donations to purchase furniture for asylum seekers. There’s more information here.

Photo courtesy of the BHA

If you loved Mark Jason Williams’ delightful and viral New York Times Modern Love essay (and podcast) about his $100 bet with his mother about her not talking about his childhood cancer and him not talking about being gay, you will want to head over to the Atlantic Avenue Barnes & Noble on Tuesday, May 7 for the LAUNCH of  Out in the World, a queer-friendly travel guide for all, co-authored with Amy Scher. The event starts at 6:30 p.m.

Published by travel powerhouse NatGeo (that’s National Geographic, people, like the maps and globes!), OUT IN THE WORLD: An LGBTQIA+ (and Friends!) Travel Guide to More Than 100 Destinations Around the World is for all travelers who want to explore the best destinations around the world where you can find both fun times + welcoming vibes.

This is their first-ever LGBTQIA+ travel companion—and if you don’t find yourself in those letters, then how about in the letters BKLYN, because it is premiering here in our neighborhood. All the details are linked at Barnes & Noble’s event page.

I know Mark personally as a writer and pal and he is a funny and charming character. He is bursting with travel tips to share about his favorite haunts in our neighborhood plus hidden gems from around the country and world that you might not expect. Come and ask him for suggestions about your own voyages or get inspired to plan a new one.  Be sure to call and reserve a book or take your chances at the event. Either way, it’s exciting to get on out in this big world.

See you there on May 7!

More about Mark and Amy:

Mark Jason Williams is an award-winning playwright, essayist, and travel writer who has visited 47 countries across all seven continents. In addition to writing for National Geographic, his work is published in newspapers and magazines in the U.S. and around the world, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, HuffPost, Wired, Clarin, Courrier International, Time Out, the Globe and Mail, Thrillist, Salon, Out magazine, and Good Housekeeping. Out in the World is his first book. Mark lives in New York with his husband and their 15-year-old Yorkie.

Amy B. Scher is the best-selling author of four books translated into 20 languages. As a longtime travel writer, she writes about how exploring our own neighborhoods and destinations around the world helps us discover who we really are. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, CBS, New York Daily News, Good Morning America, Oprah Daily, Thrillist, and more. Amy lives with her wife in New York City.

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These have felt like dark days recently—–so why not shake it all off 1980’s style—and go for the Full Monty. The pop-rock musical about six unemployed Buffalo steelworkers who stage a strip show after seeing their wives’ enthusiasm for Chippendales opens on Friday at the Heights Players.  The show, an Americanized version of the hit movie, is based on the book by Terrence McNally with Music/Lyrics by David Yazbek and directed by Marie Ingrisano Isner. But we’re not in the steel mills of Yorkshire or the rust belt of Buffalo, but in the cobblestone wilds of Willow Street in Brooklyn Heights

I loved the 1997 British classic film so much that when I saw the notice for auditions, I sent my own husband to try out. Brave man! I know the actual cast–which, alas, does not include my beloved–must be something special—because he looks pretty good in his skivvies. I’m looking forward to seeing the cast sing, dance and shimmy us to a good laugh and a warm heart. It’s about friends and change and shifts in the fabric of our society and gender expectations and fathers… and stripping down to what matters.

Will they take it all off? Will we?

One way to find out, people.

I know I’ll be there on opening night to see if we get the “full monty” from six men with nothing to lose. Whatever happens, it’s better than staying home with the newspapers and the talking heads!

And bring your mates, Mates!

The Full Monty will run for nine performances from Friday, May 3rd through Sunday, May 19th at The Heights Players.  Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets ($25, $23 for seniors) can be purchased at www.heightsplayers.org or by calling the box office at 718-237-2752.

Open Streets Montague, made possible by the businesses of Montague Street and by the NYC Department of Transportation, produced by the Montague Street BID, with support by the Brooklyn Heights Association, will be held on Sundays from 10:00 AM through 5:00 PM beginning May 12 and continuing through June 30. On these days from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM there will be no vehicular traffic or parking on Montague between Clinton and Henry or between Henry and Hicks.

There’s a schedule of activities for each Sunday, May 12 through 26, here. Note that on May 19 Montague will “go to the dogs,” with many activities and treats for pooches and their people.

St. Ann’s School’s annual Puppet Parade will take place this coming Tuesday, April 30, starting at 1:00 PM. The Parade goes westward along Montague Street to the Promenade, turns northward along the Promenade, then returns to the school via Pierrepont Street. Photos from the 2013 Puppet Parade are here.

Photo: Chuck Taylor for BHB.

This coming weekend — late Friday evening, April 26 to early Monday morning, April 29 — the 2 (although on a reduced, every twelve minutes, schedule), 3, F, N, and R trains should, barring the unforseen, all be running normally. The A, C, and 4 won’t be stopping at any local stations, so no service at High Street, the A/C platforms at Jay Street-MetroTech, or the 4/5 platforms at Borough Hall (% trains don’t serve Brooklyn on weekends). For those traveling to or from Brooklyn, 3 trains will be making 4 train stops to New Lots Avenue and back.

To make up for the weekend craziness, the following work week — Monday morning, April 29 through Friday evening, May 3 — there are no planned cancellations,route diversions, or station skips directly affecting service at any local stations.

These are the PLANNED service changes for this weekend and for the following week. Always check MTA Info for unplanned service changes that may affect local service or service on other parts of your trip, or for planned service changes that affect stations to or from which you may be traveling. You can also get real time service alerts: register here.

A very big hat tip to readers “Karen and Chad” for putting a link to this New York Times article, co-written by Brooklyn Heights Association President Jeremy Lechtzin and Times correspondent Aliza Aufrichtig, on last week’s OTW. The portrait, from Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, is of Hezekiah Beers Pierrepont (the name was originally Pierpont but Hezekiah changed it to Pierrepont “for added cachet”; yes, J. Pierpont Morgan was a cousin), one of many New Englanders — he was from New Haven; his grandfather, James Pierpont, was one of the founders of Yale University — who came to Brooklyn in the early ninteenth century seeing opportunity in new industries, a seaport, and, in Pierrepont’s instance, residential development. He bought large tracts of land in what is now Brooklyn Heights.

With the opening of Robert Fulton’s steam ferry service between lower Manhattan and Brooklyn at Fulton Ferry, just below the Heights, Pierrepont saw the possibility of selling homesites to well-to-do Manhattanite businessmen and professionals who could commute by ferry to work. “Pierrepont mapped out his land with today’s familiar street grid and filled it with 25-by-100-foot building lots.” Beyond that,

More important but less celebrated, Pierrepont then shifted his pitch to promise that the neighborhood character would be backed up by a legal guarantee. Only dwelling houses would be allowed — no rear-lot cooperages or blacksmith shops mixed in with residential uses. The homes had to be made of brick, with slate or metal roofs — no cheap, fire-prone, wood-frame, shingled-roof houses. They had to be actual (or aspiring) mansions — a minimum of 25 feet wide and two stories tall. All “to be set back 8 feet to form a straight line of fronts the whole length on each side of the streets.

It’s this eight foot setback requirement that has made news recently. In February of last year we noted that St. Francis College had sold its vacated campus to Alexico Group for $200 million. Then, not quite two months later, we noted that the sale had gone through, not to Alexico but to Rockrose Development Corp. with a $40 million haircut to the price. Alexico is now in litigation against both St. Francis and Rockrose, claiming that

after Alexico tried to delay the closing, both defendants breached contracts they had with the plaintiff. Alexico also offered an explanation for their delay: uncertainty over an eight-foot property-line setback requirement that restricted the site’s redevelopment and affected its value.

Insert your favorite aphorism here about the dangers of ignorance of history.

Lechtzin’s and Aufrichtig’s Times article is well worth reading for an abundance of details about Brooklyn Heights history.

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As reported by Women’s Wear Daily, quoted in Yahoo! Lifestyle Canada, Joseph J. Thomas, 85, a resident of Brooklyn Heights, retired Bloomingdale’s executive, and long time advocate for Black people in retail work, died last Sunday, April 14 of natural causes at NYU Langone Hospital. Born in 1938 in Opelousas, Louisiana, he was employed by Bloomingdale’s in 1965 following Army service. He became the first Black buyer for Bloomingdale’s, and later its first Black corporate operating vice president. He was also a member, and later president, of the Black Retail Action Group (BRAG), which advocated for opportunities for and advancement of Black people in the retail industry. He is survived by his wife, Halcyone Bullen-Thomas, stepson Jamal Lanham, sister Elizabeth Lazard, and several nieces and nephews. There will be a viewing and funeral mass Tuesday, April 23 at 9:00 AM at the Cathedral Basilica of St. James, 250 Cathedral Place.

Photo: Women’s Wear Daily

Barring any unforseen circumstances, it’s a “green light” all the way through this weekend (late Friday evening, April 19 through early Monday morning, April 22) and the following work week (Monday morning, April 22 through Friday evening, April 26), as there are no planned cancellations, route changes, or station skips directly affecting service at any local stations. There will be less frequent service from morning to evening Saturday and Sunday at Clark Street and at the 2/3 platforms at Borough Hall as 2 trains will be running on a reduced schedule — every 12 minutes. 3 trains do not serve Brooklyn on weekends.

These are the PLANNED service changes for this weekend and for the following week. Always check MTA Info for unplanned service changes that may affect local service or service on other parts of your trip, or for planned service changes that affect stations to or from which you may be traveling. You can also get real time service alerts: register here.

This coming Monday, April 22, is Earth Day. The Brooklyn Heights Association has notified us of many celebratory activities this Saturday, April 20 taking place near Brooklyn Heights. The Atlantic Avenue BID is having a celebration on Hoyt Street between Atlantic Avenue and State Street from noon until 3:00 PM on Saturday. The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership will host many activities at a car-free Albee Square from 11:00 AM until 3:30 PM. Nearby, at City Point, there will be a Wind Energy Party for Families from 11:00 AM until 1:00 PM. Governors Island will have activities for all ages from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Governors Island is accessible from Brooklyn Heights via ferry, leaving from and arriving at Pier Six, Brooklyn Bridge Park, near the foot of Atlantic Avenue. The schedule is here.

On Sunday, April 21 from 10:00 AM until noon the Cadman Plaza Conservancy will hold a Mulchfest at the Juneteenth Grove, Cadman Plaza West at Tillary Street. Gloves and supplies will be provided.

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One of the many rewarding aspects of living in this neighborhood is that Center for Brooklyn History is at our doorstep.

This Friday through Sunday (April 19 – April 21), CBH is hosting University Open Air, which provides “immigrant teachers, professors, and academics, who were trained outside of the U.S., an opportunity to share their knowledge with the public by welcoming students to enjoy free classes.”

Here are some of the offerings:

Healing: Meditation on the Three-Syllable Mantra. A Simple Method of Healing Oneself and Others taught by Dr. Chok Tenzin Monlam from Tibet.

Makings Music From Our Surroundings taught by Matteo Liberatore from Abruzzo, Italy.

Unlocking Subconscious Potential: Empowering Emotional Wellness and Stress Management taught by Liuba Kostanda from Ukraine.

Chinese Tea Ceremony taught by Julia Adams from Beijing, China.

Sound Map of Salsa Music in New York taught by Marcelo Arroyave from Colombia.

Check out all of the courses and register at this link.

University Open Air is a Brooklyn Public Library program in conjunction with the Prospect Park Alliance.

We have been advised by the NYC Department of Transportation that a single lane of the Queens bound portion of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway from Atalantic Avenue to Sands Street will be closed from midnight to 5:00 AM starting today and continuing each night through Friday, May 10. The Queens bound entrance ramp from Atlantic Avenue to the BQE will also be closed during these times.

The New York Police Department’s 84th Precinct, which covers Brooklyn Heights, will have a Community Council Meeting, to which all are invited, this coming Tuesday, April 16 starting at 6:45 PM at the 84th Precinct, 301 Gold Street. The “[a]genda items include a Cop Of The Month presentation, review of crime statistics to date, and Q&A.” Thanks to Brooklyn Community Board 2 for the tip.

This weekend — late evening Friday, April 12 to early morning Monday, April 15 — the only service at Court Street or at the N/R platforms at Jay Street-MetroTech, will be Brooklyn bound, as Manhattan bound N (late night) and R (daytime) trains will be re-routed to the Q line between DeKalb Avenue and Canal Street. There will also be no 3 train service all weekend, but 2 and 4 trains should be running normally. For those traveling to or from Brooklyn or Manhattan, 4 trains will make all 3 stops between Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center and New Lots Avenue and 2 trains will make all 3 stops between 96th Street in Manhattan and Franklin Avenue-Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn.

The following work week, late nights Monday, April 15 to Tuesday, April 16 and Tuesday to Wednesday, April 17, there will be no service at Clark Street or at the 2/3 platforms at Borough Hall, as 2 service will be suspended in both directions between Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center and Chambers Street, and 3 trains do not serve Brooklyn late at night. 4, A, N, and R trains should be running normally.

These are the PLANNED service changes for this weekend and for the following week. Always check MTA Info for unplanned service changes that may affect local service or service on other parts of your trip, or for planned service changes that affect stations to or from which you may be traveling. You can also get real time service alerts: register here.

Stop the Chop NY/NJ advises us that on Tuesday, April 16 starting at 10:00 AM the New York City Council will hold a hearing on proposed legislation that would ban unnecessary (tourist and charter) helicopter flights, including all such flights to or from the Downtown Heliport directly accross the East River from Brooklyn Heights, and the 34th Street (East Side) Heliport, which generates much traffic that passes above or near the Heights. There will be a 9:00 AM rally in City Hall Park before the hearing. You may testify in person at the hearing, participate by Zoom, or, if work or other commitments prevent it, submit written testimony. Full details on how to participate are on Stop the Chop’s website here.

Photo Credit: Stop the Chop NY NJ

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Theater 2020, the award winning professional stage company under the joint artistic direction of Brooklyn Heights residents Judith Jarosz and David Fuller, will present Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music (see cast photo, courtesy Theater 2020) for a short run from Thursday, April 18 through May 12 (16 performances only) at the Mark O’Donnell Theater, 160 Schermerhorn Street. From Theater 2020:

Inspired by the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, A Little Night Music is a celebration of love and second chances. This Multi TONY Award winning musical is a longtime favorite of Sondheim and all musical theater lovers everywhere. Featuring some of Sondheim’s most beloved melodies, the story follows the adventures of renowned actress Desirée Armfeldt, and the colorful characters in her life. Filled with much emotional churning, soul searching, and comedy, in the end, the plot twists unravel, true love reigns, and the summer night smiles. Best suited for ages 10 and up

There’s a full schedule and you may purchase tickets here.

This weekend — Late Friday evening, April 5 to early Monday morning, April 8 — there will be no 4 train service to or from Brooklyn and, since 5 trains do not serve Brooklyn on weekends, no service at the 4/5 platforms at Borough Hall. 2, 3, A, C, N, and R trains should be running normally. For those traveling to or from Brooklyn, 2 and 3 trains will make all 4 stops beteween Borough hall and Franklin Avenue-Medgar Evers College, and 3 trains will make 4 stops betwween Franklin Avenue and New Lots Avenue. Those traveling to or from the East Side of Manhattan may change between 4 trains and 2 or 3 trains at Fulton Street.

The following work week — Monday morning, April 8 through Friday evening, April 12 — there will be no Brooklyn bound service at York Street in DUMBO, as Brooklyn bound F trains will be re-routed to the A/C line between Jay Street-MetroTech and West 4th Street-Washington Square. This, of course, means more Brooklyn bound service at High Street. Late nights Tuesday to Wednesday through Thursday to Friday there will be no 3 train service. 4 trains will make all 3 stops between Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center and New Lots Avenue. On the late nights Wednesday to Thursday and Thursday to Friday there will only be Manhattan bound service at Court Street and at the N/R platforms at Jay Street-MetroTech, as Brooklyn bound N trains will be re-routed to the Q line between Canal Street and DeKalb Avenue, and there will be no R train service in either direction between Whitehall Street in Manhattan and 59th Street in Brooklyn.

These are the PLANNED service changes for this weekend and for the following week. Always check MTA Info for unplanned service changes that may affect local service or service on other parts of your trip, or for planned service changes that affect stations to or from which you may be traveling. You can also get real time service alerts: register here.

The New York City Department of Transportation has announced that the Queens bound lanes of the Brookyn-Queens Expressway will be closed between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street from early morning Saturday, April 13 to early morning Monday, April 15 to accommodate repair work. During that weekend expect much more traffic on our principal southbound thoroughfare, Hicks Street, and likely more on Clinton Street.

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This coming Monday afternoon, April 8, Brooklyn will be under an almost total solar eclipse (see photo). The Brooklyn Heights Library will host an eclipse watch gathering for teens in the Juneteenth Grove of Cadman Plaza Park, at Cadman Plaza West and Tillary Street. Participants will be given free eclipse viewing glasses. The viewing event begins at 3:00 PM and ends at 4:00. Go early to get a paper plate on which to write your worries. After the eclipse, you can tear it up.

Photo: Brooklyn Public Library

The Brooklyn Heights Association has announced that Jeremy Lechtzin is the new President of its Board of Governors. His President’s Message is here. According to the BHA:

He is an architectural historian and technology lawyer. Jeremy focuses his history work on early Brooklyn, currently writing a data-driven analysis of every house built in Brooklyn Heights and creating a digital map of the lost streetscape of the Village of Brooklyn as it existed in 1816.

He was honored as one of the BHB Ten for 2021 “for his passion for and vast knowledge of Brooklyn’s architectural history.” He also had a guest post on BHB in 2011 opposing construction of a “too massive” townhouse at 27 Cranberry Street. The Landmarks Preservation Commission denied plans for its construction.

Photo courtesy of Jeremy Lechtzin

BHBlogger Caroline Koster has done it again, publishing another beautifully written op-ed in the New York Daily News. It’s a “Lenten essay about free speech and the privilege of listening,” inspired by a recent visit with her mother-in-law who said, “God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason!”

Caroline discusses the disruption of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s speech at the Brooklyn Heights Association annual meeting, and a recent experience at the Public Theater during the play “The Ally,” when two audience members stormed out noisily shouting “Never forget Oct. 7!” An excerpt:

No teapot or stew will heal humanitarian crises that hurt us all. No coat drive will forever warm today’s cold world. Noisy theater grandmas are a far cry from silencing a senator. A disrupted neighborhood meeting is a laughable inconvenience to any community ravaged by death, hunger and war. A shelter night with a poor New Yorker has a short shelf-life. My community curry won’t save a soul. Diapers and sweatpants will be used up by summer.

But as we move through Easter, Ramadan and Passover, we can swap disruption for compassion and listening.

These long Lenten weeks reminded me that any prayer for resolution surely starts with God’s gift — whichever one you worship — of two ears and just one mouth.

Be sure to read the full op-ed at this link.

Photo by Caroline Koster.

This Easter weekend — Friday evening, March 29 to Monday morning, April 1 — should be a “green light” weekend, as there are no planned cancellations, re-routings, or station skips directly affecting service at local stations. Once again, 2 trains will be on a reduced service schedule — every 12 minutes.

The following work week — Monday morning, April 1 through Friday evening, April 5 — late nights Monday to Tuesday through Thursday to Friday there will be no G train service between Hoyt-Schermerhorn and Church Avenue. To get to or from G train stops, use the F train to or from Church Avenue. Coney Island bound F trains will be skipping all stations between Jay Street-MetroTech and Church Avenue. To get to these stations take a Coney Island bound F to Church Avenue and take a Manhattan bound F back to the skipped station.

These are the PLANNED service changes for this weekend and for the following week. Always check MTA Info for unplanned service changes that may affect local service or service on other parts of your trip, or for planned service changes that affect stations to or from which you may be traveling. You can also get real time service alerts: register here.