Brooklyn

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz

Adam J. Schwartz, who has a really interesting looking exhibit up at the Brooklyn History Society called Up From Flames, sends along this rather intense photo of a bike crash in Bushwick. As one commenter noted after seeing the photo, "Looks like a faulty bicycle."

In the Gowanus section of Brooklyn, a group of teenagers is transforming a drab, cinder block wall into a three-story mural to memorialize three children killed on dangerous Third Avenue and to remind motorists to drive safely. The mural is being organized by Transportation Alternatives and Groundswell Community Mural Project and painted under the guidance of acclaimed social activist artists Christopher Cardinale and Nicole Schulman.

Graffiti at the Metropolitan Ave. subway station on the G line.

Mary-Powel Thomas is President of the Community Education Council for School District 15 in Brooklyn. Back in June Thomas organized a pedestrian safety forum for schools, community groups and others who live and work along Brooklyn's dangerous Third and Fourth Avenue corridors where numerous pedestrians, kids and elderly people in particular, have been injured and killed by motor vehicles in recent months.

A knowledgeable tipster submitted this gem to UncivilServants, the web-based watchdog for government parking abuse in New York City. The yellow Porsche Carrera, above, was spotted parked in front of a fire hydrant on the east side of Seventh Avenue, in Park Slope, Brooklyn, between Sterling Place and St. John's Place at about 7:30 pm on Sunday, July 29. On the dashboard, a Dept. of City Planning placard ensures that the windshield of this little beauty is unlikely ever to have a parking ticket placed upon it. A Patrolmen's Benevolent Association card sits atop the parking placard for good measure.

Streetsblog tipster Geoff Zink reports "this morning there were two friendly DOT guys on the Brooklyn side of the Manny B handing out flyers regarding the reopening of the north side bike lanes. Gotta love the new DOT!"

On a broiling hot day, the McBrooklyn blog spotted a half dozen people standing motionless at the corner of Smith St. and 2nd Pl. in front of a small news stand. Was it performance art? A zombie invasion? A protest over out-of-scale development?