Repast Baroque returns to McKinney Chapel of the First Unitarian Congregational Society, Brooklyn, 121 Pierrepont Street (between Clinton and Monroe Place) on Saturday, September 19 at 3:00 pm with “Pigment: Prussian Blue,” the first of a series of concerts, “Color Contrast,” that will focus on the relationship of music and the visual arts.

In 1704, an accidental discovery inspired an obsession. Attempting a red pigment, color maker
Johann Jacob Diesbach produced a vivid, deep blue unlike anything the world had ever seen. It
spread across Europe, changed painting forever, and became known as Prussian Blue.
Alongside vivid watercolor samples from Dutch artist Boogert, Repast traces this pigment’s story
through the intertwined worlds of music, art, science, and commerce with music by Graun,
Handel, Schaffrath, C.P.E. Bach, and Princess Wilhelmine von Bayreuth.

Known for its creative programming, Repast explores new contexts for baroque music through
diverse themes and art forms. Performances often incorporate multimedia elements, from silent
film to visual art, reimagining new ways for audiences to experience the music of the past
through the lens of history.

Tickets are available here.

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This Friday, September 11, marks the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the then twin towers of the World Trade Center. The Brooklyn Heights Interfaith Clergy Association, which includes Christian, Jewish, and Muslim clergy, will present a memorial service for the victims, who included Heights residents along with firefighters and police officers stationed here. The service will take place on the Promenade, near the Montague Street entrance, beginning at 7:15 pm. In the event of rain, it will be held at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church, enter at 157 Montague.

“Open Streets Montague,” presented by the Montague Street BID, the Brooklyn Heights Association, and the New York City Department of Transportation, will resume this Sunday, September 13 on Montague between Clinton and Henry and between Henry and Hicks. This week’s event, presented in cooperation with Brooklyn Bridge Parents, will be a Back to School Party with activities, entertainment, and games suitable for kids up to 12. There’s a full schedule here.

Montague Street between Clinton and Henry and between Henry and Hicks will be closed to traffic from 10:00 am until 7:00 pm; all parked vehicles must be moved from these blocks by 10:00 am Sunday.

As we noted here, the Brooklyn Heights Association’s 2026 Designer Showhouse is the recently restored 1 Monroe Place. It will be open starting Friday, October 2 at 11 am. After that it will be open Thursdays and Fridays 11 am to 7 pm and Saturdays and Sundays 11 am to 6 pm through Sunday, November 1. Tickets, proceeds of which support the BHA’s civic activities, are $50, or $40 for BHA members. Ten packs are available for $450. They can be purchased here.

In other news, the BHA has received a grant of $100,000 from the City’s Department of Small Business Services to collect data to

help the BHA identify the needs and opportunities for public programming and public space activation, merchant organizing, district marketing and branding, streetscape enhancements, business support services, and other quality of life improvements.

This work will be supervised by Devan Paul (photo), the BHA’s new Program Manager, whose specialty will be commercial revitalization.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this long Labor Day weekend (late tomorrow evening, Friday, September 4 through early Tuesday morning, September 8) should be a “green light weekend,” as there are no planned cancellations, route changes, or station skips directly and negatively affecting service at any local stations. On Labor Day (Monday) all trains will be running on their normal Sunday schedules.

The following work week – Tuesday morning, September 8 through Friday evening, September 11 – late evenings to early mornings Tuesday to Wednesday through Thursday to Friday there will be no Brooklyn bound service at High Street, as A trains will be re-routed to the F line from West 4th Street-Washington Square and Jay Street-MetroTech, and C trains do not serve Brooklyn late at night. This means there will be extra Brooklyn bound service at York Street in DUMBO.

These are the PLANNED changes affecting local service for this weekend and for the following week. Always check MTA Info for unplanned service changes that may affect local service or service on other parts of your trip, or for planned service changes that affect stations to or from which you may be traveling. You can also get real time service alerts: register here.

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We’ve posted before several times, most recently here, about 112 Montague Street (photo by C. Scales for BHB), which has been vacant since 2012, when street level tenant Starbucks relocated to 134 Montague.  The latest comes from Sophie Penenberg in The Eagle (note: this may be paywalled for non Eagle subscribers), who notes that the building’s owner, “Nathan Royce Silverstein, a prominent real estate manager in New York, New Jersey and Florida” whose “family has reportedly held the property since 1936,” is holding out for “a national chain with a ‘Triple-A’ or ‘Triple Mint’ credit profile.”

The Eagle story quotes City Councilmember Lincoln Restler,

It is worth us taking a hard look at whether the time has arrived for a commercial vacancy tax … However, it would have to be tailored to go after bad actors who choose to leave their property vacant and not penalize small property owners who are trying to find good businesses to fill their spaces and are struggling.

That sounds like a tough legislative drafting assignment.

This weekend (late tomorrow evening, Friday, August 28 through early Monday morning, August 31) the only planned service change is that on Saturday and Sunday there will be no Manhattan bound C train service at High Street, although A trains should be running normally. Manhattan bound C trains will be re-routed to the F line between Jay Street-MetroTech and 34th Street-Herald Square. This means extra Manhattan bound service at York Street in DUMBO.

The following work week – Monday morning, August 31 through Friday evening, September 4 – late nights to early mornings Monday to Tuesday through Thursday to Friday there will be no service to or from Manhattan at Court Street, as R train service will be suspended and N trains will serve Brooklyn only, originating and terminating at Court Street.

These are the PLANNED changes affecting local service for this weekend and for the following week. Always check MTA Info for unplanned service changes that may affect local service or service on other parts of your trip, or for planned service changes that affect stations to or from which you may be traveling. You can also get real time service alerts: register here.

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As Mary Frost in the Eagle reports, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn have announced a plan to repair the city owned central portion of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, which includes the triple cantilevered part beneath Brooklyn Heights and also includes the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. The plan, which is estimated to cost $4 billion and does not rely on federal funding, will begin with environmental reviews and preliminary work, including reconstruction of the overpass that carries Columbia Heights over the BQE. Major work is not planned to start before 2030.

Good news for Heights residents is that during reconstruction BQE traffic will be diverted to a temporary bypass highway that will run at the level of Fulton Street the length of the triple cantilever, from Atlantic Avenue to Columbia Heights. From there to Sands Street, the northern end of the city owned portion of the BQE, the bypass will follow a route not yet fully determined. These bypasses, which will be in place before reconstruction, mean that traffic should not be diverted to local streets. Also, the BQE will be kept to two lanes in each direction.

Other sort of good news is that, while the Brooklyn Heights Promenade is part of the triple cantilever and therefore must be reconstructed, work on the Promenade will be done in segments, so that parts of the Promenade will be available to the public at all times. This process could last from 2032 to 2040.

The bad news is that this plan envisions a four lane highway, with attendant air and noise pollution, remaining under Brooklyn Heights for some years. The Eagle story notes that activists have “long been pushing for a total rethinking of the entire BQE span” north and south of the Heights, where it has “divided communities” and “has been polluting the air ever since.” A problem is that these parts of the highway are under state as well as city jurisdiction, so any solution would require action by two levels of government. Such a solution could involve the removal of the portion of the BQE under the heights. Still, the Eagle quotes Commissioner Flynn as saying the present plan “does not close the door to a more visionary redesign that would ‘right these wrongs’.”

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this weekend (late tomorrow evening, Friday, August 21 through early Monday morning, August 24) should be a “green light weekend,” as there are no planned cancellations, route changes, or station skips directly and negatively affecting service at any local stations.

The following work week – Monday morning, August 24 through Friday evening, August 28 – late nights to early mornings Monday to Tuesday through Thursday to Friday there will be no Brooklyn bound service at High Street as Brooklyn bound A trains will be re-routed to the F line between West 4th Street-Washington Square and Jay Street-MetroTech, and C trains do not serve Brooklyn late at night. This means extra Brooklyn bound service at York Street in DUMBO.

These are the PLANNED changes affecting local service for this weekend and for the following week. Always check MTA Info for unplanned service changes that may affect local service or service on other parts of your trip, or for planned service changes that affect stations to or from which you may be traveling. You can also get real time service alerts: register here.

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The photo, taken in 2014 by our late founder John “Homer Fink” Loscalzo, shows One Monroe Place, sometimes known as 100 Clark Street, as it was, missing two stories, a mansard roof, and a stoop. Now, as reported by Mary Frost in the Eagle, the Brooklyn Heights Association has made One Monroe, now restored following reconstruction that took ten years (see details here), the 2026 Brooklyn Heights Designer Showhouse. The Eagle story notes that the architect in charge of the restoration was former BHA president Tom van den Bout who, along with his wife and fellow architect Brenda Nelson, is a founding member of the firm NV/design.architecture and of its affiliate, NV/Mx in Oaxaca, Mexico, where they now live.  As noted on the Designer Showhouse web page (linked above): “This biennial event offers a rare opportunity to visit a historic home in Brooklyn Heights while discovering the work of cutting-edge designers who are selected to add their unique touch to their rooms, blending old with new Brooklyn chic.”

According to the Eagle story the house will be open to the public starting October 2 and going through November 1. As in past years, tickets will have to be purchased to tour the Showhouse. We contacted the BHA today and were told that rates for and on line access to purchase tickets have not been established, but should be in a few weeks. We will give you the details when they are available.

This weekend – late night tomorrow (Friday, August 14) to early morning Monday, August 17 – there will be no service at Clark Street or at the 2/3 platform at Borough Hall as 2 train service will be suspended between 34th Street-Penn Station and Flatbush Avenue and 3 train service will be suspended completely, but for those traveling to or from stations in Brooklyn 4 and 5 trains, which should be running normally, will serve Brooklyn stations normally served by the 2 or 3 from Borough Hall onward. For those traveling to or from the West Side of Manhattan, A, N, and R trains should be running normally and transfer can be made between A and 2 trains at Penn Station. The same situation will continue on late nights to early mornings all of the following work week – late Monday evening August 17 to early Tuesday Morning August 18 through late Thursday evening, August 20 to early Friday morning, August 21.

These are the PLANNED changes affecting local service for this weekend and for the following week. Always check MTA Info for unplanned service changes that may affect local service or service on other parts of your trip, or for planned service changes that affect stations to or from which you may be traveling. You can also get real time service alerts: register here.

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I recall years ago reading that someone had predcted that the designation in 1965 of the Brooklyn Heights Historic District meant that we would evetually be surrounded by skyscrapers. We partly were so surrounded before the designation, as was recognized in 2011 by the designation of the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District, which includes buildings along Court Street and some along Montague, Remsen, and Joralemon streets between Court and Clinton, most of them of early 20th century and a few of 19th century vintage. Since then a few tall buildings have been built bordering the Heights. They include Robert Moses’s Cadman Plaza apartment buildings, One Pierrepont Plaza, and several new buildings on Montague; this history was well told here by our late founder, John “Homer Fink” Loscalzo. Since then, another addition has been made with One Clinton, which houses the Brooklyn Heights Library.

Now we are about to get three new skyscraper neighbors. One of these is within the recognized boundaries of Brooklyn Heights but not within the Historic District, a “massive mixed use project” by Rockrose at the former St. Francis College site bounded by Remsen and Joralemon streets between Clinton and Court. The site at the northwest corner of Atlantic Avenue and Court Street, occupied for some time by a Duane Reade and later Walgreens drug store, is now slated to be a fourteen story mixed use building.

The biggie, though, is at the northhwest corner of Montague and Cadman Plaza West (construction site photo above) where, as Mary Frost in the Eagle reports (see rendering of the new building in her article), Landau Properties is developing a 51 story mixed use skyscraper (we initially reported that it would be a 47 story building; Mary Frost’s investigation shows that the building hasn’t grown taller but the way stories are counted has) to stand on Cadman Plaza West between Montague and Pierrepont streets. This is the site previously held by a six story building primarily occupied by a TD Bank branch that has moved to the space at 181 Montague previously occupied by Citibank, which moved to 195 Montague in a game of bank hopscotch. The new building will be named “One Montague Place.”

What’s to say about this new skyscraper? On the downside, it will cast morning shadows over large parts of Brooklyn Heights, and will add population, leading to more crowded subways and schools (OK, many of the residents may be affluent enough to take limousines – more traffic – and to send their kids to private schools – more competition for admission to Packer and St. Ann’s). On the upside, the Eagle story reports that the new building will host a jazz club, and a Brooklyn branch of the “[h]igh end Japanese restaurant BondST.

This weekend – late night tomorrow (Friday, August 7) to early morning Monday, August 10 – there will be no service at Clark Street or at the 2/3 platform at Borough Hall as 2 train service will be suspended between 34th Street-Penn Station and Flatbush Avenue and 3 train service will be suspended completely, but for those traveling to or from stations in Brooklyn 4 and 5 trains, which should be running normally, will serve Brooklyn stations normally served by the 2 or 3 from Borough Hall (4 and 5 platforms) onward. For those traveling to or from the West Side of Manhattan, A, N, and R trains should be running normally and transfer can be made between A and 2 trains at Penn Station.

The following work week – Monday morning, August 10 through Friday evening, August 14 – late nights to early mornings Monday to Tuesday through Thursday to Friday there will be no Brooklyn bound service at High Street as Brooklyn bound A trains will be re-routed to the F line between West 4th Street-Washington Square and Jay Street-MetroTech. This means extra Brooklyn bound service at York Street in DUMBO. These same late nights all week there will be limited service at Clark Street and at the 2/3 platforms at Borough Hall as 2 trains in both directions will run only every 24 minutes between Flatbush Avenue-Brooklyn College and Chambers Street, and 3 trains do not serve Brooklyn late on weeknights.

These are the PLANNED changes affecting local service for this weekend and for the following week. Always check MTA Info for unplanned service changes that may affect local service or service on other parts of your trip, or for planned service changes that affect stations to or from which you may be traveling. You can also get real time service alerts: register here.

As reported by Mary Frost in the Eagle (scroll down), the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has given its 2026 “Greenest Commercial Block” award to Montague Street between Hicks and Henry. As we noted here, the block received the same award in 2019. As then, most of the credit for making and keeping the block green goes, along with the Montague Street BID, to Estela Johannesen, proprietor of James Weir Floral. The Eagle story quotes her: “We are blessed on Montague Street as a commercial block to have a line of beautiful, majestic trees, and our main goal is to protect them and to get even more trees.” The photo above, which I took earlier this year, shows a tree pit with Estela’s lovely floral planting but without a tree. Perhaps Lincoln Restler can help.

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We just learned that a “National Night Out” event, sponsored by the 84th Precinct Community Council, will take place tomorrow (Tuesday, August 4) at the Pier 5 Picnic Peninsula of Brooklyn Bridge Park starting at 5 PM. It will feature “free food and beverages, awards, music and performances by a special guest DJ and the Gowanus Wildcats. There’s more information here.

This weekend – late night tomorrow (Friday, July 31) to early morning Monday, August 3 – there will be no service at Clark Street or at the 2/3 platform at Borough Hall as 2 train service will be suspended between 34th Street-Penn Station and Flatbush Avenue and 3 train service will be suspended completely, but for those traveling to or from stations in Brooklyn 4 and 5 trains, which should be running normally, will serve Brooklyn stations normally served by the 2 or 3 from Borough Hall (4 and 5 platforms) onward. For those traveling to or from the West Side of Manhattan, A, N, and R trains should be running normally and transfer can be made between A and 2 trains at Penn Station. Daytimes on Saturday and Sunday there will be extra service in both directions at Court Street and at the N/R platforms at Borough Hall and at Jay Street-MetroTech, as N trains, which during the day normally run over the Manhattan Bridge between Fulton Street in Manhattan and DeKalb Avenue, will be re-routed to the R line. There will be no G train service between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Streets and Church Avenue, and trains between Hoyt-Schermerhorn and Bedford-Nostrand Avenues will run every 20 minutes.

The following work week – Monday, August 3 through Friday, August 7 – late nights Monday to Tuesday through Thursday to Friday  the only service at Court Street and at the N/R platforms at Borough Hall and at Jay Street-MetroTech will be N trains to and from Brooklyn, as N train service in Manhattan will be suspended, with N trains originating and terminating at Court Street, and overnight R train service suspended. These same late nights 2 trains in both directions will be running every 24 minutes at Clark Street and at the 2/3 platforms at Borough Hall.

These are the PLANNED changes affecting local service for this weekend and for the following week. Always check MTA Info for unplanned service changes that may affect local service or service on other parts of your trip, or for planned service changes that affect stations to or from which you may be traveling. You can also get real time service alerts: register here.

As a bonus this week, here’s a link to Mary Frost’s Eagle story about how the Borough Hall (2, 3, 4, 5 trains) recently became fully ADA accessible.

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pointed to the rising cost of goods which affected sales, plus higher property tax and rent after COVID-19, as making the business ‘unsustainable’ for the past few years.

The Eagle story also quotes former employees of the store, whom the Lees are trying to help find new jobs, and former customers, all of whom regret the store’s closing. Among those quoted are BHB contributor Mary Kim and frequent commenter Andrew Porter. According to Lara Birnback, Executive Director of the Brooklyn Heights Association, as quoted by the Eagle, “It’s always really upsetting to lose a long-standing neighborhood small business, and I know many people in the neighborhood will miss them.”

This weekend – late night tomorrow (Friday, July 24) to early morning Monday, July 27 – there will be no service at Clark Street or at the 2/3 platform at Borough Hall as 2 train service will be suspended between 34th Street-Penn Station and Flatbush Avenue and 3 train service will be suspended completely, but for those traveling to or from stations in Brooklyn 4 and 5 trains, which should be running normally, will serve Brooklyn stations normally served by the 2 or 3 from Borough Hall onward. For those traveling to or from the West Side of Manhattan, A, N, and R trains should be running normally and transfer can be made between A and 2 trains at Penn Station.

The same situation will continue the following week – Monday, July 27 through Friday, July 31 – with 2 and 3 train service suspended late nights to early mornings Monday to Tuesday through Thursday to Friday. The same alternatives should be available.

Word is that 2/3 train disruptions may continue for another five to six weeks as switches are repaired. We’ll keep you updated.

These are the PLANNED changes affecting local service for this weekend and for the following week. Always check MTA Info for unplanned service changes that may affect local service or service on other parts of your trip, or for planned service changes that affect stations to or from which you may be traveling. You can also get real time service alerts: register here.

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Eighteen years ago we posted about an attempt by Pinnacle Group, owners of the historic Riverside Apartments, located on Columbia Place between Joralemon and State streets on the east side and by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway on the west, to build a parking garage on the space occupied by a garden with shade trees that protected apartments from BQE fumes and noise. A year later we posted that Pinnacle had lost an appeal of a decision denying it the right to build the garage. Shortly after that we posted about a group of Riverside tenants who were cleared by a federal district judge to begin a class action against Pinnacle and its CEO, Joel Weiner. That action led to a settlement agreement largely favorable to the plaintiff tenants.

Now, as reported by Mary Frost in the Eagle, Riverside tenants are again up in arms against the now bankrupt Pinnacle Group, saying “they have endured rats, a mite infestation, mold, leakng ceilings, heat failures, water shutoffs and other unsafe living conditions for years.” They also “oppose a steep rent incease affecting 20 tenants.” They have received support from local elected officials, Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon and City Councilmember Lincoln Restler.

Flickr photo by dphetteix

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this weekend (late tomorrow evening, Friday, July 17 through early Monday morning, July 20) should be a “green light weekend,” as there are no planned cancellations, route changes, or station skips directly and negatively affecting service at any local stations.

The following work week (Monday morning, July 20 through Friday evening, July 24) late nights to early mornings Monday to Tuesday through Thursday to Friday there will be no service at Clark Street or at the 2/3 platform at Borough Hall, but 4 and 5 trains will serve Brooklyn stations normally served by the 2 or 3. A, N, and R trains should be running normally.

These are the PLANNED changes affecting local service for this weekend and for the following week. Always check MTA Info for unplanned service changes that may affect local service or service on other parts of your trip, or for planned service changes that affect stations to or from which you may be traveling. You can also get real time service alerts: register here.

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