Further Proof That People In Brooklyn Are Physically Incapable Of Resisting A “Farm-To-Table” Restaurant

That’s how you work with the neighbors:

A once-embattled Park Slope sports bar will open with a new name and a strikingly different business model in hopes of becoming a slam-dunk for community foodies — not arena crowds.

Woodland, a farm-to-table eatery with an outdoorsy motif, will start serving food on Feb. 1 in the storefront at Flatbush and Sixth avenues that was slated to become Prime 6, a music venue and watering hole that sparked neighborhood controversy without ever opening amid concerns it would draw rowdy basketball fans and a hip hop scene.

. . .

The menu at Woodland includes “Napa Valley-style” new American dishes such as bison burgers and fresh fish — a far cry from the planned menu at Prime 6, which featured bottle service and bar food.

Fight For Your Right To Party In The Backyard

Community Board overreach has brought Williamsburg business owners together to hopefully marginalize the committees of busybodies:

Williamsburg’s tavern and restaurant owners are in open rebellion against a new booze-license policy approved earlier this month by the local community board that will make it more difficult to open a bar with an outdoor space.

The new Community Board 1 rules require license-seeking bars with a rooftop or backyard space to have “seated food service” from a full menu — an onerous new hurdle that bar owners say hinders their efforts to quench the public thirst.

In The End, What’s A $60 Ticket Worth To You?

Here’s what happens when a retired police officer tries to get his 91-year-old aunt’s Sanitation ticket dismissed. I think David Lynch could make a movie about it; think “Straight Story II; Fighting The Law.”

In short, the Sanitation Department gave his aunt a ticket for not having lids on her trash cans. The problem was that she didn’t use trash cans. A bizarre journey to prove the non-existence of something that never existed ensues:

“I had to get letters from the neighbors attesting to the fact that my aunt never has garbage cans in front of her house. I had to take pictures of the house to show that there weren’t any cans there,” [the man] said.

. . .

More instructions followed. La Torre was told to obtain letters of support from Community Board 10 and from local elected officials.

There’s Something Almost Existential About The Idea That “There Is A Fine Line Between A Shopper And Someone Who Is Up To No Good”

Block watch initiatives can sometimes be imperfect:

Tony stores on Atlantic Avenue in Boerum Hill stretch are policing themselves — fending off hoodlums coming from Fulton Mall to rob their shops.

Surveillance cameras went up Wednesday, along with buzzer systems, a new policy of locking front doors — and quizzing potential customers about what they are looking for before they are allowed inside.

There are 10 signed members of B-MAC, Brooklyn Merchants Against Crime, and about ten more in the pipe line. Managers say they are most wary of men shopping for ladies clothes without a woman in sight.

“There is a fine line between a shopper and someone who is up to no good,” said [a manager of a store] on Atlantic Avenue.

. . .

[One shopper], 52, was turned away at [a consignment store] on Atlantic Avenue Tuesday afternoon.

[The angry shopper], a black man wearing canvas sneakers and a hip military coat, walked down the block to the [ . . . ] boutique complaining to the owner that the salesgirl wouldn’t buzz him.

“When you take off work to do some shopping and they don’t let you in, yes it is confusing,” said [the shopper], a teacher, after the owner explained the concept of BMAC and their new policy of turning away men not accompanied by a woman.

“It’s New York, so I totally understand,” said [the shopper]. “I just needed someone to explain this to me.”

Location Scout: Atlantic Avenue in Boerum Hill.

If “Year-Round” Isn’t Already A Verb We Should Try Making It One

Kind of an interesting backstory to the weird ice skating rink down at Coney Island, an early attempt to “year-round” the place:

At the opening, the city had purchased 120 tables and chairs for the later upper boardwalk frontage dining room, facing the huge ocean — that has never once been used.

The vast upper level dance floor has never been used. And the last time that I could get in to inspect it, there were 50 folded wooden tables stacked up top near the Boardwalk, most never opened.

We know of just two conventions, the widow of Martin Luther King, Corretta Scott King came some 20 years ago to a Saturday packed house audience and, earlier, the Kings County Democratic Club, held a borough convention meeting there.

The Parks Department’s local office did nothing whatsoever to operate it, other than to let one of the few spokespersons who had testified against its location — he got the concession to sell or lease ice skates — and to bring Nathans in to sell hot dogs. The Boardwalk tables were never set up.

The Abe Stark Arena is a tribute to the neglect of Coney Island.