The Day: Oscar Parties, Spike Lee Clarifies and National Parks

Good morning, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill.

Bundle up, locals – this weekend is getting a bit brisk, thanks to the Polar Vortex. The high is 19 degrees today, but the wind chill could get as low as -9, according to the National Weather Service. And the white stuff also returns, blanketing the nabe by weekend’s end. If you do head out to celebrate the Oscars, bundle up and tell us what you did in the comments.

• If you’re looking for a place to walk the red carpet and be judged like a star, head down to Mullane’s Bar and Grill at 71 Lafayette Avenue for its fifth annual Academy Awards watching party. The bar will have its own red carpet and prizes will be awarded for “best dressed,” “best ballot” and more. Stop in on Sunday by 7 p.m. and be ready to fill out your ballots.
• Director Spike Lee went on CNN with Anderson Cooper yesterday to explain his expletive-filled gentrification rant he made during a Black History Month lecture at Pratt Institute on Feb. 25. He stressed he doesn’t “hate anyone” and everyone is “entitled to live where they want,” and he asked people who move to neighborhoods such as Fort Greene to “have some respect for the history, for the culture” and “be humble.”
• The often-unnoticed Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park will be considered for incorporation as a National Park Service site, according to the New York Daily News. The legislation, introduced by Rep. Hakeem Jeffreis and backed by Park Service officials at a hearing on Thursday in Washington, calls for studies to determine if it should become a national monument. The site already appears on the National Register of Historic Places, but National Park Service recognition would bring federal upkeep and national prominence to the park.