As clarified in the comments, the dog statues are Paparazzi Dogs which have apparently travelled the world. They just arrived in Dumbo:
A cheeky play on the ever-present photographers shooting the iconic and picturesque streets of DUMBO and the equally present population of neighborhood dogs, DUMBO makes for an ideal location for this playful art.
They are for sale, $30K each…
Well, not really. I’m actually sitting in Dumbo typing this. But I did move my office out of Dumbo. My office is now in Brooklyn Heights, almost a mile closer to my home. It’s in the middle of much better lunch options and right by my daughter’s school and my gym. So a good thing all around.
But there is something about Dumbo. I love living in Brooklyn because it’s endlessly fascinating. Dumbo takes that to another level. My daughter still takes art classes in Dumbo so I get here a couple times a week. Where else do you see this:
Those seem to be scattered around Dumbo right now. No clue why.
No joke (from the WSJ):
You don’t get to be 500 pounds,” says aquarist Jackie Cooper, “without stealing the other kids’ lunch once in a while.
There is a very small subset of the population who can identify this show. But to that subset it’s obvious. I’m not in the subset, but I was there last night.
Guess in the comments…
I mentioned this a while back, that a 1000+ foot tall skyscraper was being planned near our place. The only obstacle was that the site contains a famous landmarked bank. So plans had to meet the approval of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
It was apparently approved with flying colors. The design does look cool and they will be renovating the interior of a historic building, so that’s clearly a good thing.
But damn, it’s gonna be tall…
Not really, but if I had one, Brooklyn has a new marina super close to me.
Amusingly, the first comment on the linked web page is this:
are a certain percentage of slips reserved for low income mega-yachts?
Might be a Brooklyn joke, but that’s hilarious.
On our block there’s a tiny store front that seems to have bad luck. A business opens there and 6-9 months later it’s gone. But about a year ago something different opened. A sales office for a new luxury condo being built a block away.
I’d never seen that before, but it makes sense. If you are selling 3 million dollar condos, a nice physical presence in the area could work.
Seems to be a trend.
The above picture is 456 Pacific (a block away from us). It’s the closest to being done.
Across the street is now the sales office for The Henrik (another block up).
And around the corner we have one for The Nevins, a few blocks away.
456 Pacific looks entirely sold except the penthouse. Anyone got $3.8 million? Looks gorgeous…
I moved to New York City in 1992. Yes, I’m old. Back then I was a musician. Or rather a struggling musician. To pay rent, I gave trumpet lessons in Westchester (affluent suburbs north of NYC for those unfamiliar).
Driving from 3-6 I discovered WFAN, the NYC sports radio station.
I’ve listened to sports radio in many cities. I’m a huge sports fan, but I find sports radio to be mostly buffoonery. WFAN was a bit different. Mike Francesa and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo hosted “Mike and the Mad Dog” during the crucial evening drive time in NYC. This was 1992, pre iPod, pre Sirius, radio was a very big deal. And then as well as today, lots of people are driving around NYC.
And for a sports fan, they were great. Not stupid sports stuff, interesting sports stuff. As the top NYC sports station, they had all the top interviews. Francesa was the more intellectual sports guy and Russo was the funnier one, but Mike was funny and Chris was smart also. If you liked sports and you were driving, this was what you listened to.
They started in 1989. They worked together for 19 years until 2008 dominating the drive time radio slot. In 2008 Chris Russo decided it was time to go off on his own with Sirius and the partnership was broken. That was big news at the time, but Francesa has done the show solo since then, still dominating NYC radio ratings. He is known as the “Sports Pope” on NYC.
This would seem like fringe news in most cities. Sports in New York are different than in other cities. You’ve heard of Comic-Con or other similar events? There’s an annual FrancesaCon. Not a joke, and no, I have not attended.
Recently, Mike and Chris agreed to do a reunion show. This was non trivial news. Madison Square Garden sponsored it to support their charity and it was hosted at Radio City Music Hall. Tickets sold out in minutes. Every major NY sports figure was a part of it. It raised over a million dollars for charity.
This must seem crazy in other cities. When they announced that that they were splitting up, people cried. Literally, on the air.
Francesa is still the top sports radio guy in the country, but Mike and The Mad Dog is the bar for all sports radio.
Brooklyn is apparently the fourth most expensive city in the US, when you split NYC into the five boroughs.
Not sure that’s a good thing…
Spike Lee’s ad agency collaborates on a Brooklyn branding video:
…one thing is clear: New York City’s most populous borough is now an international brand … and a very valuable one at that.
No man has more effectively served as an unofficial spokesperson for the city within a city than director Spike Lee. And so, his ad agency, Spike DDB, which is based in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood, was the perfect shop to work on a project summarizing lessons marketers can draw from the city’s rise.
I love the visuals of my neighborhood…
Steve Fischer's Random Blog 