Brooklyn Today May 25: Brighton Beach Bungalows, Burmese Food and K2 Overdoses

May 25, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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***The Brooklyn Daily Eagle office will be closed on Monday for Memorial Day. The next Brooklyn Today newsletter will be sent on Tuesday, May 29.***

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THE LEDE: Happy Friday, Brooklyn! A K2 epidemic hits the borough, a musical instrument lending library arrives at the Brooklyn Public Library, and we explore some Brighton Beach bungalows. Plus, a “special waste” center is coming to Greenpoint, the city is rapidly spending money from a neighborhood fund, and a Burmese restaurant opens in Bensonhurst. Finally, a brownstone rots in Clinton Hill, we share the best bbq joints in the city, and “Movies Under the Stars” comes to Bensonhurst Park tonight. Have a great holiday weekend.

IMPRINT: A star-studded lineup of females grace the May cover of The Hollywood Reporter.

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The Rundown

~COME SEE THE BRIGHTON BEACH BUNGALOWS: Oh, the nostalgia. Beach bungalows. In Brighton-by-the-Sea. Think back to the end of World War I. The Brighton Beach Racetrack had recently shut down. In its place, sweet single-story wood-frame homes were constructed a few blocks away from the shoreline. Folks packed up their worsted wool swim dresses or tank tops and swim trunks and trundled down on the trolley to live in these summer rentals and soak up the sea and sun. Today, a century later, Brighton Beach still has bungalows if you know where to look. (via Brooklyn Eagle)

~BROOKLYN’S NEW MUSICAL INSTRUMENT LENDING LIBRARY A SMASH HIT: A new program allowing patrons to borrow musical instruments at Brooklyn Public Library is an overnight sensation. The library officially launched the Musical Instrument Lending Library at Grand Army Plaza on Wednesday, and all of the instruments — except for a few ukuleles — were checked out by Thursday. Five guitars, four violins, five ukuleles, five drum pads and four electronic keyboards can be borrowed by adults for up to two months at a time. “I’m number six on the waiting list for a violin,” Brooklyn Heights resident Beverly Closs said. “I’ll probably get it in August.” (via Brooklyn Eagle)

~OVERDOSES FROM TOXIC SYNTHETIC MARIJUANA STRAIN K2 CONTINUE TO GROW IN BROOKLYN: The number of overdoses from a dangerous batch of synthetic marijuana has grown to 87 as of Thursday. The drug has affected people in north Brooklyn and is circulating between Broadway and Myrtle Avenue. None of the overdoses have been fatal, but in some cases, people are spewing up blood and bile, passing out, and being transported to the emergency room. The synthetic cannabinoid is sprayed with substances that simulate THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. (NYT via Brooklyn Eagle)

~GREENPOINT TO OPEN NEW ‘SPECIAL WASTE’ DROP-OFF SITE: North Brooklyn will be the new home of a “special waste” drop-off site for New York City residents. The Department of Sanitation of New York announced that the“special waste” site will be a disposal location for batteries, motor oil, fluorescent light bulbs, car tires and other refuse. The site opens June 9 and will be located at 459 N. Henry St. The previous disposal location at 1824 Shore Parkway in Bensonhurst will close its doors on June 2. In 2012, locals had protested the construction of a waste incinerator at the Bensonhurst site, and now they’re seeing the problem move to another location. (BKLYNER via Brooklyn Eagle)

~NYC RAPIDLY SPENDS DOWN NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT FUND:The city has been rapidly spending money from a fund designed in 2015 to improve neighborhoods rezoned under the mayor’s housing plan. Of the $1 billion in the fund, the Economic Development Corp. has spent, or plans to spend, $362 million in East New York, Far Rockaway, East Harlem and the area around Jerome Avenue in the Bronx. Critics charge that if the city spends this much money on four neighborhoods, there will be less funding available for other areas down the road. (Crain’s New York via Brooklyn Eagle)

~BURMESE RESTAURANT COMES TO BENSONHURST: Eighty-sixth Street in Bensonhurst is replete with Asian restaurants of all types, and one of its newest eateries specializes in a type of food rarely seen in New York City – Burmese food. The restaurant Rangoon Spoon, located at 2369 86th St., is presided over by chef Amy Tun. Some of the dishes are similar to other Asian cuisine, but with a difference. Shan tofu, for example, is made not with soybeans but with chickpea flour. The ingredients in Mohinga include toasted rice powder, seminola catfish, lemongrass, ginger, rice noodles and yellow split peas. (NYT via Brooklyn Eagle)

~FOOD NETWORK STAR TED ALLEN WANTS NYPD TO FIX DECREPIT CLINTON HILL BROWNSTONE: An abandoned Clinton Hill brownstone has caught the attention of Food Network star Ted Allen, who alerted NYPD aboutthe building via Twitter on Wednesday. “The house at 177 Waverly St. in Brooklyn burned 5 years ago, vacant ever since. Someone stole iron fence and stoop rails. Now, someone has sawed off window bars and has moved in,” wrote Ted Allen, host of “Chopped.” Police said they responded to the addresson Tuesday after receiving a call about a break-in, but no one was inside. (New York Post via Brooklyn Eagle)

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Staff Picks:

LONG READ: “Will the Fervor to Impeach Donald Trump Start a Democratic Civil War?” (via The New Yorker)

ANOTHER LONG READ: After the worst mass shooting in the history of America, here’s what occured in Las Vegas in the days, weeks and months that followed. (via California Sunday)

WEATHER: 2018 is predicted to be a bad hurricane season. Here’s what to expect. (via Time)

EAT: Here are the 11 best BBQ joints in New York City, including five in Brooklyn. (via Thrillist)

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NATIONAL BULLETIN: U.S. military members were on LSD while guarding nuclear missiles…Here are the 25 richest cities in America…And a border agent kills an undocumented immigrant in Texas. (via CBS News, USA Today and KTLA)

FOREIGN FLASH: President Trump cancels the nuclear summit with North Korea…Deutsche Bank plans to cut 7,000 jobs…And roughly 100 escaped cows take over a town in England. (via CNBC, NYT and Stoke Sentinel)

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ROYAL WATCH: The royal family’s newest addition is a rescue beaglefrom Kentucky. (Don’t tell the Queen it’s not a corgi.) (via WKYC)

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BROOKLYN TONIGHT

12:00PM – 8:00PM — Coney Art Walls at Coney Island. Details.

3:00PM – 6:00PM — Home Front at Old Stone House. Details.

5:30PM — Tot Shabbat at Bay Ridge Jewish Center. Details.

7:00PM — Parlour Room Sessions: Sound Mind Ensemble at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Details.

7:00PM — Movies Under the Stars: “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” at Bensonhurst Park. Details.

7:00PM — Black Conference at Patrick F Daly School. Details.

7:30PM — DanceAfrica 2018 at BAM Gilman Opera House. Details.

7:30PM – 10:00PM — Dreamland Disco at Lefrak Center at Lakeside. Details.

8:00PM — No Escape: Uncanny Mindbenders at The Old American Can Factory. Details.

11:45PM — Eraserhead at Nitehawk Cinema. Details.

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EAGLE SPORTS: The Long Island University Brooklyn baseball team has waited five long years for a shot at an NCAA Tournament berth. The Blackbirds finally punched their ticket back to the Northeast Conference Tournament last Friday afternoon, capping a regular season-ending four-game winning streak with a doubleheader sweep of Fairleigh Dickinson at LIU Field. With a 10-5 victory in the opener of the twin-bill, head coach Dan Pirillo’s third-seeded squad earned the right to take on No. 2 Wagner Thursday afternoon in Norwich, Connecticut, marking the Blackbirds first NEC Tournament game since 2013. (via Brooklyn Eagle)

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MILESTONES

Happy birthday to Jessi Colter, Tom T. Hall, Anne Heche, Justin Henry, Lauryn Hill, K.C. Jones, Jamie Kennedy, Amy Klobuchar, Ian McKellen, Mike Myers, Aly Raisman, Connie Sellecca, Ethan Suplee, Leslie Uggams, Brian Urlacher and Kareen Valentine!