Alright, as I mentioned earlier I’ve been missing Brooklyn lately, and another reason is tomorrow’s Harvest Festival at the Added Value Farm in Red Hook.   So, once again, I ask all of you New Yorkers to head down to the festival and let me live vicariously through your experience at this amazing urban farm.   My college friend Caroline Loomis helps run this remarkable, formerly-concrete-now-verdant oasis, which teaches kids from the community to grow and sell their own produce.   Beyond providing a much needed nutritional resource for the community, the Added Value programs provides

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Having just moved to L.A. from Brooklyn, there are many things that I miss about my hood, and up at the top of the list is BAM.   Demonstrating the institutions usual prowess as arbiter elegantarium of cultural awesomeness, this season’s Next Wave Festival promises not to disappoint.   So, do me a favor and go check out as many shows as you possibly can, and report back.   Just don’t rub it in too much.   I really wish I had the chance to see (and told you sooner about) last week’s Sunken Red, a solo show about a man interned in a Japanese prison.   Maybe they will remount it!

In New York and free tomorrow night?  Well, get free and go see Woyzeck.   An acrobatic, sometimes underwater, Icelandic drama with a score by Nick Cave and The Dirty Three?!   How could you go wrong?

The Next Wave Festival, and BAM in general, provide access to

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The famed Red Hook Ballfield Food Vendors are back in Brooklyn after a lengthy civic battle with various city agencies. The Latin American food vendors had been a staple on the sidelines of the soccer field in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn for over twenty years, providing the mostly Latino spectators of the semi-professional soccer games and the community with fantastic food including tacos, huaraches, pupusas, ceviches, fresh fruits and fruit juices. Everything was rolling right along without a hitch…until food blogs entered the picture. Suddenly the relatively isolated Brooklyn community began to get visits from Internet enhanced chowhounds (including the author, a confirmed gentrifier in his own right) searching out authentic Latin cuisine in a far flung neighborhood of the Big Apple.

As the crowds continued to grow the vendors, almost entirely Latin American immigrants finding their own corner of the American dream around the ballfields, soon learned that success came with a price. The New York City Department of Health and Parks Department, which for years had turned a blind eye to the activities in the park, suddenly became very interested in making sure all of the vendor’s permits were in order. As most of the vendors had little understanding of the labyrinthine bureaucracy of obtaining permits in New York City this incursion by the City agencies into the ballfields looked like it could be the end of the weekend tradition as threats to shut down the food stands became the norm and a cloud seemed to hang over the vendors’ future at the park.

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Nicole Hughes:

Should Drive-Thrus Be Banned?

Eco-Moms Mad About “Greenwash” Barbie

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Andy Kondrat:

Home Depot Will Recycle Your CLF Bulbs for Free

Department of Energy Predicts 50% Energy Increase By 2030

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Jon Popham:

NYC Waterfalls Installation Starts This Week

Capt. John Smith Is Back…and Running for President

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Giulia Rozzi:

Yoga Across the Border

Emile Norman: By His Own Design

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Gina Telaroli:

Silverdocs 08: A Post-Fest Wrap-Up

Human Rights Watch 08: Letter to Anna

The New York City Waterfalls, a new public art installation by Olafur Eliasson, starts in the Big Apple tomorrow. The installation features four waterfalls in the East River and New York Harbor in the following locations:

• Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage - Brooklyn side (seen left)
• Governors Island
• Between Piers 4 and 5 in Brooklyn
• Pier 35 in Manhattan

Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, best known for “The Weather Project” at the Tate Modern where he made made realistic representations of the Sun, sky, mist and wind, had this to say about “The New York City Waterfalls” in his artist’s statement for the exhibition:

“When water flows down the East River, we tend to see it as a simple surface, framed by a neutral urban waterfront. By elevating it into waterfalls, I wish to amplify its physical and tangible presence while exposing the dynamics of natural forces such as gravity, wind and daylight. My idea is to encourage people to identify more with the waterfront of New York City; this is a call for the revitalization of areas that until recently have been under-utilized as creative and recreational spaces because people have focused primarily on the interior grid of the City. There is a huge unrealized potential waiting to be explored and this is located right at our feet.”

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Brooklyn’s annual Mermaid Parade added a new twist to an event known for its costumes and fantasy: politics. Perhaps its just these troubled times we live in or maybe its the looming threat of development looming over the seaside boardwalk section of Coney Island where the event is held. But one thing was for sure, this year’s crop of Mermaid Parade performers had more serious issues on their minds than in years past.

If it wasn’t clear from the banners and costumes dissing development in the historic Astroland Amusement Park, home of the Cyclone Rollercoaster, and and surrounding Boardwalk area, then the choice of this year’s Neptune King of the Parade certainly drove the point up. Wearing the crown of the parade, The Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping (seen above) spearheaded the preservation message of the festival with his soothing message of community preservation that caused at least one or two spectators to start speaking in tongues.

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The New York Times building was scaled by another climber late yesterday afternoon. Following the lead of French stuntman Alain Robert, who climbed the Old Gray Lady’s digs yesterday morning, Renaldo (Rey) Clarke of Brooklyn, USA started his 40-minute ascent up the skyscraper starting at about 6:00PM yesterday afternoon. Clarke had reportedly been planning the climb for more than a year and had left work yesterday angry that Robert had stolen his thunder, heading straight to the site of the building to begin his own stunt.

The green design of The New York Times building, by world famous architect Renzo Piano, utilizes ceramic tubes running horizontally (seen in photo) up the entire building to regulate the amount of light and heat absorbed into the workspace. These tubes were used as a makeshift ladder by both Robert and Clarke in their barehanded climbs up the side of the structure both without a rope or net.

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We talk about trash a lot here at TakePart - mostly how we can have less of it. So I thought I’d take a different spin and showcase a little project that explores how different New Yorkers have different trash:

How does the trash in your ‘nabe measure up to the rest of the city’s? NY Moon and Last Night’s Trash documented different neighborhood’s garbage, and while there’s no trash-tallying competition, the discarded items speak volumes at times.

The now endangered Lower East Side had “rocker clothes,” Bushwick had a smashed guitar, Flushing sported a “Met’s Suck 2X” sign, and Park Slope had a badly stained mattress. What was in your neighborhood?

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Coney Island could very well be opening for the very last time this Thursday, May 22nd. It’s difficult to write and even more difficult to believe, but the venerated New York City seaside amusement district has been slated for demolition in order to - you guessed it - make way for condominiums.

New York Real Estate Development firm Thor Equities has been embroiled in a classic NYC real estate development war with the community of Coney Island by its purchase of properties up and down the Coney Island Boardwalk in South Brooklyn and subsequent shenanigans trying to get the area rezoned for residential towers and a Bellagio-style entertainment complex to replace the current classic carnival style beachfront atmosphere. Their efforts have already shut down many amusement vendors in the area and are now threatening to squeeze out the beloved Astroland amusement park.

You can by logging onto the Save Coney Island Myspace page to found out about the planned rally this coming Thursday, May 22nd, scheduled to coincide with what could be the last opening of Coney Island for the summer 2008 season.

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The Brooklyn Flea is reviving an endangered species in New York City: the affordable flea market with worthwhile merchandise. In keeping with the regional residential real estate market, the decent, affordable flea market has been priced straight off the Isle of Manhattan and has found a new home in Brooklyn.

Organized by the good folks at the Brownstoner blog, the Brooklyn Flea turns the schoolyard of Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Fort Greene, Brooklyn into an outdoor bazaar filled with both new and previously owned clothing, furniture, arts, crafts, knick-knacks, books and other media. Plus there’s plenty of food concessions for when your stomach starts growling after a morning filled with hardcore shopping.

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