Hey De Blasio, Can You Fix This?

"In Ecuador, for example, it takes about 56 days and 13 separate procedures to get all the legal paperwork done to start a new business. In the United States, it’s an average of six days and six procedures. But if you want to open a mobile-food business in New York, it’s essentially like starting a business in Ecuador — and that’s if you can somehow arrange a permit."

A D.J. School for Babies Is Something that Exists in Bushwick

"When I visit, we keep warm next to a roaring fire pit. His friend who runs a D.J. school for babies has fetched him a takeout burrito, and one of the gallery’s owners is outside chopping shipping pallets into tinder. The Platters’ 'Only You' plays longingly in the background. On a cot in the shack are half a dozen persimmons. Are they free? For sale? Just decoration? Traynor shrugs. 'I just think there’s something interesting about people wanting stuff, thinking that they need stuff, things being offered to people for sale. There’s so much stuff being sold to people for no reason other than just to sell. I’m not trying to convince anybody that they need anything there.' So those persimmons are exactly what they appear to be: pieces of fruit sitting on a cot in a shack in a backyard in Bushwick. 'If someone wanted to buy them, or have them,' Traynor says, 'that would be cool.'”

Two White People Light Fires in Their Backyards, Times Declares it "All the Rage"

A British lady in Carroll Gardens used the oldest tool known to man to entertain guests.  Another writer for the Times noted that he had recently been to a home near Fort Greene that used the exact same form of illumination.

Carroll Gardeners Commemorate the Crucifiction of Christ

Filming on Union Street

The FX show The Americans was shooting again on Union Street last night in the Columbia Waterfront District. Cars from the 80s lined the street and they hung an awning over one of the older-looking storefronts and illuminated it to make it look like an Italian restaurant. This stretch of the block is largerly preserved from what it looked like 30 years ago during the Regan administration where the show is set, or even 70 years ago if you compare it to the old tax photos taken by the city. 

David Warren Brubeck (1920-2012)

“Once when asked how I would like to be remembered, I answered, ‘As someone who opened doors,’” Brubeck said.

Lingering Effects of Hurricane Sandy in Red Hook

The Statue of Liberty visible in the distance beyond the debris that collected on
the shoreline after the water receded on the end of Conover Street beside Fairway.

Antique furniture beyond repair left on the curb on Bay Street.

Not sure if the extra "closed" is for emphasis.

Three storefronts side by side on Van Brunt Street were largely ruined.

Brooklyn Crab, known for its summertime crowds, was offering free lunch
to those in need.