On any given night Molasses Books, the tiny bookshop/bar in Bushwick, draws a colorful crowd to readings and other happenings– really, on any given night of the week you are bound to find cool characters. But on Tuesday, an especially great group made it out to Chess Night, a newish event popping off once a month at the shop. At one point, my friend who had invited me to the casual, come-and-go-whenever get-together, looked up from his chess game and remarked, “I’ve heard, like, five people mention polyamory tonight.”
Parks & Rec.
Watch This New Show to Find Out What the Dogs of Tompkins Really Think About You
Something strange is happening in the American psyche right now. Just a few years ago, the heroes of New York City-centric comedy TV were disconnected 20-somethings with suspiciously fancy apartments who wandered the earth clueless as to why no one wanted to date their flawless Tinder profile/soulless body. Now, they’re much tinier creatures that we rarely notice IRL and if we do, we’re like gagging and pointing and screaming: “Gawwwwd, I think that rat is bubonic.”
Hot on the hoofs of Louis CK’s The Secret Life of Pets, and HBO’s Animals (which just returned for season two), a new animated feature from Brooklyn-based animation company Cartuna offers a peek at what these city-dwelling creatures see in us humans. Obviously, it ain’t pretty.
No Spin Zone: When Will the Cube Be Uncaged?

(Photo: Michael Garofalo)
The Cube’s return to Astor Place has been glorious and all, but have we basked in the glow long enough that we can now address the elephant in Alamo Plaza? The Cube is back, yes, but the sculpture is imprisoned behind a crude cage of orange barricades. It’s downright inhumane (incubane?). It’s time to uncage the Cube and let it spin free, the way it was meant to. More →
With City’s Offer Expired, Sun Might Be Setting on Bushwick Inlet Park

(Photo: Matthew Caton)
After 60 days on the table, the city’s offer to pay the former CitiStorage site’s owner $100 million for the final parcel of the long-promised Bushwick Inlet Park has officially expired. With Norman Brodsky’s default rejection of the offer (less than half the $250 million he was hoping for) questions emerge as to whether the Williamsburg waterfront park—which was first promised in 2005 as part of a rezoning deal that allowed for more high-rise developments in the sought-after neighborhood—will ever be completely finished.
Some Pieces Still Broken, But Mosaic Man’s Work Returns to a New Astor Place

(Photo: John Ambrosio)
Jim Power, working out his makeshift studio at the 6th Street Community Center, is busy getting ready to leave his mark on the new Astor Place Plaza, using the same creations he’s been planting around the East Village for the last 30 years: mosaics. With the help of his assistant, Julie Powell, he’s scraping, chiseling, and tiling new poles. The product of all this work is something that he and the rest of the East Village are quite used to seeing at this point, so much so that Power’s earned the nickname “Mosaic Man” for the dozens of colorful, chipped tile pieces he’s congealed together, then cemented onto light posts over the years.
Citistorage Site Owner Sets Offer Deadline as Park Pushers Plan Sleep-In

The homepage of 1n11th.com.
Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate company that’s handling the sale of the property, has set up a website to collect offers for the land between now and 5 p.m. on July 20—two weeks from today—after which Brodsky will presumably make a decision on the matter. More →
Countdown Clock Tells Land Owner It's Time to Sell Bushwick Inlet Park Land to City
Elected officials and neighborhood activists brought the contest over the long-promised Bushwick Inlet Park to the Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront this morning when they publicly posted their ultimatum notice for the developer hanging onto the would-be parkland.
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Your Guide to This Summer's Outdoor Film Series

(Photo: Courtesy of N. Charles, via Films on the Green)
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The Cute, Forgotten Bathhouse in the Middle of Allen Street Is Becoming a Cafe
If you haven’t heard, the old Allen Street bathhouse (called “comfort station” in polite parlance) may be getting a long overdue facelift. The poor thing had a short life– built in the 1930s, it was closed by the ’50s once the Second Avenue El closed down. Since then it just sits there, an odd sentinel on the Allen Street Mall, reminding passersby of a bygone era– and perhaps teasing them when they really need to go.
Lowline Selection Rumbles Forward, Despite Community Board’s Misgivings

(Photo: Daniel Maurer)
The city’s move to activate the abandoned trolley terminal under Delancey got off to a rocky start last month. The space has long been discussed as the ideal location for the Lowline‘s subterranean park and some felt the city was moving full steam ahead, without involving the community enough (an ongoing issue for the project).