Shushing The Shushers

And somehow it still comes off as priggish:

In at the Brooklyn Public Library: rock concerts, children playing and singing, adults talking.

Out at the Brooklyn Public Library: getting shushed by librarians.

That’s because recently-appointed Brooklyn Public Library Executive Director Dionne Mack-Harvin views libraries as community centers — places where people are expected to talk to each other, not sit in silence.

Mack-Harvin is so determined to end the shushing that librarians from all 60 branches have been attending training sessions to get the word out about her approach.

“We’ve moved away from what some consider the ‘shushing library’ model of the past, from being a sterile, educational place that’s somewhat elitist,” she said, “to being a community space where everyone walking in the door can find a place for themselves.”

I Have One Word For You, Adrian: Plastics

But short of that, you know that’s what BIDs are for:

City officials estimate fixing Coney Island’s dilapidated boardwalk will cost $200 million, and they’re turning to the feds, the state — and even private landowners in the amusement district — to help pick up the hefty tab.

“We’re looking at all levels of funding for what is a very costly, but important, project,” said city Parks Department spokeswoman Abigail Lootens, regarding plans to replace nearly three miles of Brooklyn boardwalk from Sea Gate through Coney Island east to Brighton Beach.

Coney Island’s amusement district — with its decaying, wobbling wooden planks and exposed nails — is in especially bad shape as the city looks to rezone the area to spur future development.

. . .

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who helplessly witnessed a man injure himself after falling through the boardwalk a few months ago, is working with the Bloomberg administration to devise a plan to secure federal funding for a project that would get matched locally, said his district manager, Robert Gottheim.

The congressman also believes landowners along the amusement district — such as developer Joseph Sitt, who is proposing a controversial $1.5 billion entertainment complex — should be asked to help pick up the tab since they stand to benefit most.

The department currently has a $1.5 million annual budget to fix all of the city’s boardwalks.

Creating a local business-improvement district could set up a mechanism to help property owners maintain the boardwalk and the rest of the neighborhood, said Gottheim.

New York Is Not Salvageable As A Unitary State

109 years after Brooklyn was ignominiously and unnaturally bound to greater New York, a de facto partition seems to be setting in:

One byte-sized rumor about an Apple store coming to Brooklyn sparked a borough-wide fit of drooling as iMac lovers fantasized about caressing Steve Jobs’s latest products without having to leave the borough.

. . .

The stir began on Sept. 13, when Racked.com, a retail Web site, posted an “exclusive,” claiming with certainty that Apple was going to open its fourth New York City location in Brooklyn.

“Brace yourself,” read the hyperventilating post. “Apple is scouring Brooklyn, seeking a home in the 718 area code.”

Gothamist followed with an ensuing post from a woman calling herself “Dana Hemphill” and claiming to be an “Aplle Northeastern Representative for Retail Sales.” (The misspelling was hers, not ours, so take her post with a grain of silicon.)

“We are currently in negotiation to open our 1st retail location in Brooklyn, NY on Atlantic Avenue, not far from Court Street,” wrote the poster. “I am not located in NYC, but hopefully our store should up and running by the second quarter of 2008.”

Alas, a call to Apple headquarters turned up no Hemphills (and no Aplle representatives of any kind). A spokeswoman for Apple scoffed at the notion that anyone should take a posting on a blog seriously.

“People do interesting things all the time, but if I were you, I wouldn’t be taking that as confirmation,” said Amy Barney, an Apple (not Aplle) spokeswoman.

Even so, in a city where Manhattan already has an Apple store in SoHo and another on Fifth Avenue — for God’s sake, even Staten Island has one! — the rumors have credibility.

Indeed, one former Apple store employee, who would only speak on the condition of anonymity, told The Brooklyn Paper that there’s been talk of a Brooklyn shop for at least a year.

“A lot of the higher-ups were asking us ‘cool kids’ what area of Brooklyn we thought would be best [a year ago],” she said. “I thought either a small store on Bedford Avenue or a store in Park Slope.”

It’s Not The Start Of A Bad Joke . . .

The Newtown Creek Nature Walk really will open at the end of the month:

It doesn’t look like much, but come next weekend, Greenpoint residents will be able to walk past a geologic marvel, down a concrete path, through a shiny metal gate and up some steps to find themselves at the very first greenway on Newtown Creek.

Years in the making, the nature walk was one of the community benefits that the Newtown Creek Monitoring Committee (NCMC), a group comprised of local residents that meets regularly with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), was able to negotiate as part of the massive Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion and upgrade.

Visitors will enter the park at the end of Paidge Avenue near the intersection of Provost Street. In addition to being an oasis on a creek that has for decades been an ecological whipping boy, the nature walk will also feature many activities for children that will teach them about the creek.

The 1980s Need To Be Stopped

As Astroland leaves, perhaps forever (“We just couldn’t find the right fit”), there’s something even better about to take its place at Coney Island:

A skateboard park could wheely be coming to Coney Island, the Daily News has learned.

In addition to restoring the historic B&B Carousell, the city is considering including a brand-new skateboard park at the anticipated Steeplechase Plaza, the public park slated for the area underneath Coney Island’s iconic Parachute Jump.

“There’s a number of components. We have a really ambitious program,” said Coney Island Development Corp. President Lynn Kelly. “The city’s making a real tangible investment in bringing Coney back.”

The design for Steeplechase Plaza could also include concessions, a performance space, water fountains, gardens and special lighting.

The ideas are being incorporated into plans for the Steeplechase Plaza by consultant teams who responded to the city’s 2007 request for designs for the public park.

Although several skateboard parks are in the works in other areas of Brooklyn, only one in Bay Ridge is currently open.

Already, some Coney Island fans were cheering the idea.

“It would be a very big thing for the young people here and for kids from all over,” said Community Board 13 District Manager Chuck Reichenthal. “It’s a very popular activity for young people right now.”

Location Scout: Parachute Jump.