The Day: A Disaster Simulation at the Barclays Center and DeKalb Avenue's Restaurants and Bars

Check out this snapshot of street art in Fort Greene. Do you have a favorite street art display in the nabe? (Photo by Jodi Wallace)

Good morning, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill.

The National Weather Service reports cooler temperatures for the weekend, following the heat and humidity in the nabe earlier this week. You might have seen some showers early this morning, but the sun is shining now and highs are expected to climb into the upper 70s by this afternoon. How will you spend the weekend, locals? Tell us about your plans in the comments. Don’t forget to share photos of your weekend activities on The Nabe’s Flickr group.

The New York City Fire Department and U.S. Marine Corps is conducting a disaster simulation at the Barclays Center from 8 p.m. today until 2 a.m. tomorrow. Military vehicles and personnel in hazardous materials suits, as well as volunteers in disaster simulation make-up, will be present near Dean Street between Flatbush and Sixth Avenues. Notify NYC would like locals to be aware that this is only a drill.
Fort Greene’s DeKalb Avenue has become a hub for food and drink businesses, The Wall Street Journal reported. Most recently, The Great Georgiana, a cafe-restaurant-bar establishment replacing the Tillie’s of Brooklyn – a former coffee shop – opened last week. A Mexican restaurant is under construction on the opposite corner, the paper reported. Charles McMickens, who owns the 15-year-old General Greene restaurant, opened a new business, Heritage Wines, on DeKalb Avenue between Clermont and Vanderbilt Avenues this spring, according to the article. He told The Journal that he has watched the neighborhood welcome more and more restaurants and bars over the years, motivating him to launch his wine business. “A lot of the restaurants were there before there was a viable market,” McMickens said. “You saw there was a certain degree of confidence and that continued for a period longer than I would have expected. Wine in particular seemed to be a niche we could take advantage of.” Yet some locals are concerned that too many of these businesses are popping up in the nabe. For that reason, Community Board 2 at first voted down the Great Georgiana’s application for a liquor license.
One Fort Greene resident, up-in-arms about movie and TV shoots in the nabe, left a note on a filming notification demanding that the crews never return, Gothamist reported. “This our neighborhood,” the note reads. “We live here. We are real people. With real lives. Please finish your shoot and don’t come back. You’re not welcome here.” The crew was most likely from “Taxi: Brooklyn South,” a new TV series about an NYPD officer and cab driver solving crimes together, according to the post.