NYC's Best Ice Cream is in Brooklyn, Rent is up 27%, and other news

This past week has been rather slow in the news, with most of the local outlets picking up the same press releases, crime reports, and celebrity spotting. NYT focused on features like Where is Pete Panto? or How Dan Perlman, of ‘Flatbush Misdemeanors,’ Spends His Sundays (both good reads), and BKMag checked out Soul Summit.

So what's new in Brooklyn?

As promised last week, we're doing our bit with more original reporting and wanted to see how well our new crop of council members is serving their constituents. CouncilStat was established by a previous Administration in an effort to bring more transparency to exactly this question. However, if garbage goes in, garbage comes out, as one council staffer put it.

The data in the official tracker shows a marked decrease in cases recently, and it seems to be not because people need help from their council members less, but because many of them are choosing not to record the cases the way they are supposed to, with Inna Vernikov (R, Sheepshead Bay) possibly a lone standout.

I should note that the map below is accurate as far as data entered into the system, if not representative of what is actually going on.

We heard just about every excuse for not recording in the "arcane" system, and yet not one office could instantly provide accurate, easily retrievable, much less - public - data to back up claims of processing hundreds, thousands of cases based on their alternative tracking systems. You can read the story here.

Celebrity

Tony Sirico's funeral mass took place at the Basilica of Regia Pacis in Bensonhurst yesterday and was broadcast live. Sirico, of Bensonhurst, famously played Paulie in The Sopranos. The New York Times wrote his obituary, and the show's creator David Chase talked to Variety about the only actor who ever asked to change his lines. Born Gennaro Anthony Sirico Jr., he died on July 8, aged 79.

Politics

Streets

Glori B #2

Real Estate

Just about everyone is talking - still, again - about the rents that only seem to be going up. Well, that and the food prices, which are also only going up (10% from last summer), but that is still not as fast as rents.

"Overall, average rental pricing in Brooklyn is up 26.95% from this time last year. Year-over-year, rental prices are up across the board with studio, one- and two-bedroom prices up by 23.73%, 26.65%, and 29.28%, respectively," reports MNS looking at the June rental market in Brooklyn:

Brooklyn Overview

Over the past month, the average rental price in Brooklyn has increased by 3.52%, from $3,385.05 to $3,504.15. 

  • The average rental price for a studio unit increased by 1.85% from $2,691.83 to $2,741.63. The average rental price for a one-bedroom unit increased by 2.80%, from $3,527.99 to $3,349.17. The average rental price for a two-bedroom unit increased by 6.99%, from $4,132.88 to $4,421.65.
  • Neighborhood with the largest month-over-month decrease: Bushwick. Studios in Bushwick are down by 4.0%, from $2,569 to $2,466 in June 2022.
  • Neighborhood with the largest month-over-month increase: Cobble Hill. Two-bedroom units in Cobble Hill are up 17.5%, from $4,591 to $5,395 in June 2022.

Of the 16 neighborhoods tracked by MNS’ report, 15 saw their average rental price increase month-over-month:

Bay Ridge (+5.77%), Bed Stuy (+3.44%), Boerum Hill (+8.14%), Borough/Sunset Park (+3.36%), Brooklyn Heights (+2.61%), Clinton Hill (+2.24%), Cobble Hill (+0.60%), Crown Heights (+5.36%), Downtown Brooklyn (+2.58%), Dumbo (+3.26%), Fort Greene (+3.92%), Greenpoint (+4.84%), Park Slope (+2.89%), PLG/Flatbush (+7.81%), and Williamsburg (+3.32%). Bushwick rents dipped slightly this past month with a 0.73% drop.

Neighborhood Trends

  • Dumbo: June’s most expensive studio, one- and two-bedroom units with prices averaging $3,521, $4,880, and $7,057, respectively.
  • Bay Ridge: June’s least expensive studio and one- and two-bedroom units with prices averaging $1,553, $1,926, and $2,501, respectively.

Schools

Poly Prep in Bay Ridge is in the spotlight over intrusive diversity questionnaires, while some would like Judge Jill Epstein to revisit spelling.

Food & Drink

And now to more fun stuff:

  • The 30th NYC Restaurant week starts in a few days, and you may want to make a reservation at one of the 50+ Brooklyn spots offering specials. Or there are over 500 more restaurants to try between July 18 through August 21, where two-course lunches and three-course dinners will be $30, $45, or $60, depending on each restaurant's price point. So it's really more of a delicious month.
Malai specializes in South Asian flavors and also has kulfis. 
  • Our favorite restaurant reviewer at Grubstreet zeroes in on the best ice creams in NYC, and Brooklyn melts the competition (the only two non-Brooklyn spots mentioned are in Queens). Check out the reviews and peppermint chip at Davey’s (Greenpoint), Cremelata ice at Dolly’s Ices (Mill Basin), Sorrel-rum-sorbet lemonade at Island Pops (Crown Heights), or Strawberry–and–sake-kasu soft serve at Rule of Thirds (Greenpoint). You could try banana ice cream at Bar Blondeau (Williamsburg) or Rose With Cinnamon Roasted Almonds at Malai (Carroll Gardens), and, of course, Coney Island Custard at Coney’s Cones (Coney Island).
  • Two new restaurants are heading to Bed-Stuy - a version of the Fort Greene staple Brooklyn Public House, likely to be named "Bedford Avenue Tavern," and an expanded location for Greedi Vegan, formerly of Ralph Avenue, Patch reports.
  • Global Citizen checks in with Emma's Torch, the wonderful little spot on Court Street that apprentices refugees and asylum seekers.

Arts

The Laundromat Project, the community-based public art/culture nonprofit, was visited by the NYT in their new Bed-Stuy home on Fulton Street.  

Disasters

Seven Brooklyn businesses across Bay Ridge, Dyker, Sunset Park, and Carroll Gardens selling cannabis without a license received cease and desist letters from the state, Patch reports. "There are no businesses currently licensed to sell adult-use cannabis in New York State," Tremaine Wright, chair of New York's Cannabis Control Board, stated.

Oh, and as if hurricanes and flooding were not enough to worry about. This nuclear preparedness PSA ... leaves one with so many questions. Back in the USSR, school drills instructed us to hide under the desks. This sounds similar.