This afternoon the New York Department of Education will be releasing records of teacher evaluations. This is virtually unprecedented in New York education. News organizations will make the records which will include teacher’s names public records and parents will get to see whether or not their children’s teachers are considered effective at their job.

Brooklyn schools will be considered along with the other five boroughs and the results could send shock waves through the entire New York public education system. The teacher’s union not surprisingly attempted to stop the publication of this information but were unsuccessful.

Getting ahead of the potentially controversial records School Chancellor Dennis Walcott has suggested that the records are old and inaccurate. The information is based on the school year which took place from 2007 to 2008, suggesting that many of those evaluated poorly have likely gone through retraining, been reappropriated within the system, or in some cases have simply improved their performance in one way or another.

Many outlets have highlighted the huge margin of error present in these evaluations and have publicly questioned their validity and the use in releasing them. That said, the cat is about to be out of the bag and it is sure to be big Brooklyn news!

The radio is the pits. Unless you are a Hot 97 devotee there is not really much good radio going on in New York. Rock radio is virtually non-existent save for the getting the Led out school of classic rock, pop radio is whittled down to less than twelve songs at any given time, talk radio is strangely conservative given the general liberal nature of the city.

If you want high quality radio there is but one place to turn in Brooklyn. That place is WFMU. The only freeform radio station seemingly in the world anymore. There is a wealth of quality programming on the station. There is old timey anthropologically excavated records on the Antique Phonograph Music Program. There is high quality rock from DJ’s Even “Funk” Davies and Terre T. There is globe smashing dance music with DJ Rupture. There is also a number of exceptional comedy weirdness from 7 Second Delay and Shut Up Weirdo.

The show’s best contribution to our culture is an unironically titled program called The Best Show On WFMU hosted by Tom Scharpling. It is a boundless three hours of “mirth, music and mayhem.” The channel is completely listener sponsored and offers it’s programs and their whole back catalog for free. They are currently offering premiums for donations. It is their sponsorship marathon and they are worth any money you can spare.

DONATE HERE!

Brooklyn is burning to the ground. There is a war breaking out on the streets of Flatbush. The people of Williamsburg have organized a gang of roving mobs to try and handle the two headed rat problem in MacCarren park. Park Slope moms are using their babies as weapons in dealing with the invading Canadian pirates. Somewhere in East New York a single violin plays reminding everyone why they are so desperately trying to stay alive.

Pretty eventful week in Brooklyn huh?

Actually it wasn’t. This week was all about morning Whitney Houston, fashion week, Jeremy Lin, the Santorum gushing from this week’s primaries and of course the stuff that happened on this week’s episode of New Girl. Look much as it’s hard to admit Brooklyn is not the center of the universe. Sometimes Brooklyn news is just going to be lost dogs and new bike lanes meaning who cares. Sure the dog owners and specific neighborhood cyclists but who cares about them? Sure their respective families but really who else?

Brooklyn get over your selves. This is some tough love from a Brooklyn events blogger who understands why you feel so superior but would just prefer it to stop. Get off your high horse.

This weekend I had the pleasure of drinking. Sure, I have the pleasure of drinking most weekends but this past Friday’s binge drinking ended happier than normal. Some friends and I found ourselves in a random dancing/bar space somewhere on North 6th in Williamsburg. We spent some time there swigging Brooklyn Brown Ales and plastic cupped shots of Jameson. We went to Union Pool, the Target superstore of hip Brooklyn bars.

The end of the night however was the highlight. Usually we make our way to the Tex-Mex establishment San Loco but someone had a different idea. We hit up the Meatball Shop, a cool place that was loaded with customers even at the late night hour of 3am. We all dined on meatballs because that is just what this particular place serves. Just meatballs.

You can order meatballs made from a number of meat options dowsed in a number of sauce options. There are also great delicious sandwiches and meatball sliders. Everything though is meatballs! And they were delicious! Even my sober friends were shoveling these balls of meat in their faces like they had the cure to some disease. It mioght not be important Brooklyn news but you should be checking out the Meatball Shop soon!

The Meatball Shop’s Brooklyn location is at 170 Bedford Avenue.

A few weeks ago, I heard about a restaurant in Brooklyn who was beginning a “Pay What You Want” campaign. This was the Santorini Grill on Grand Street. At first I thought, oh wow, how cool is that! Then I thought that this poor woman who runs this great Greek restaurant is going to be taken advantage of.

I try not to be pessimistic when it comes to human actions but I’ve seen enough people try to get something for free to know that this poor lady was going to get swindled out of a few meals.

Paula Douralas the owner of this three-year-old Brooklyn, NY establishment says that yes, some people have left without paying for the food. But what is interesting about this experiment is how the people feel about it.

Apparently some people are skittish about the whole idea. Many ask “what’s the catch?” Douralas says that some of her customers are paying more for their meals than they used to. It seems that people are worried about paying too little for their food. This has prompted the lovely cook to provide two menus to those who ask. One contains the prices she used to charge and one contains no prices at all. But she doesn’t provide that luxury for the check.

Williamsburg in one of the trendiest neighborhoods in Brooklyn, and Bedford Ave. is the heart of the enclave. Bedford Avenue has amazing places to eat, especially between N.5th and N.7th. One such spot is Fabiane’s Cafe and Pastry Shop. Even if you are not really into the Williamsburg scene, you will be into the delicious delectables offered at Fabiane’s. 

Additionally, it is not overrun by hipsters, but is frequented twenty-somethings of all different lifestyles as well as long-time residents and families. The eatery, which also offers a wide selection of desserts and serves breakfast all day, offers a multicultural menu of food that is strongly influenced by the owner’s Brazilian heritage and French culinary training.

This combination inspires a uniquely delicious selection of standard and new world dishes and desserts. For example, if you are interested in a classic French breakfast, you may enjoy a baguette served with fresh jam and butter on the side. Or, you may enjoy ornate French toast with fresh strawberries and freshly made whipped cream.

You may have to wait a minutes to snag a table inside, but it is well worth the wait. Through big bay windows, you may observe passersby on the street as you enjoy your meal. And, in the warm weather, Fabiane’s offers outdoor seating, so you may simultaneously enjoy your meal in the fresh air.

It has been a long time since there was a clear victory for unionized workers in New York. It seems that over the last few decades politicians have vilified labor unions more and more, making  workers less and less likely to vote for unionization even as their wages have done a poor job of covering expenses and benefits have become increasingly scarce.

So any fans of labor unions would be proud of some local Brooklyn news coming in this week. This week Brooklyn Cablevision workers have voted to unionize. 282 workers mostly  technicians and dispatchers voted on Thursday to join the union the Communications Workers of America. The union is the largest telecommunications union in the world and includes 700,000 other workers. Cablevision of course released a statement that they were “disappointed” about the results of the vote.

The effort to unionize apparently began on December 2nd 2011 when more than 70% of the company’s workers submitted union registration cards. The results of this vote could reverberate throughout the cable industry and have an affect on customers prices. For the workers the results will be a leg up in contract negotiations.

Brooklyn will forever survive. That is just the nature of the beast. A loss is never truly a loss because it will be reinvented not long after. That is definitely the case with a soon-to-be tap room.

This bar, called Shady’s Tap Room, is opening its doors this Spring in an old condemned building. Yup, you read that correctly. A decrepit old building was renovated to house a new cozy little bar. The building had once been left in disrepair with water damage and unsafe conditions. Then two people changed that story around. Pat and Brenda Collins became owners of 110 N. Main St. They got a liquor license by the village council and began to change the place.

Whatever concerns there were no longer exist and the owners look forward to opening a comfortable and charming social hub in the downtown. It will have Michigan-brewed beers and traditional Irish pub eats, along with snacking favorites like pizza and sandwiches.

Looks like yet again something in Brooklyn has been reinterpreted and made fresh. You can look forward to going there this spring once the doors open. Keep your eyes peeled for this and other opening establishments in downtown Brooklyn.

It’s Brooklyn! Home of the artists, home of the greatest slice of pizza, home of the newest App… or maybe not…

Sorry, yo, it looks like the next Apple “Staw” is hitting Queens, not Brooklyn. As it stands there are five Apple Stores in Manhattan– on 5th Ave, 14th St, Grand Central Station, The Upper West Side, and SoHo respectively. One exists in Staten Island. The next one is going to be situated in the quaint neighborhood of Forest Hills on Austin Street. Although Brooklyn’s Williamsburg seems like an opportune and appropriate location, it looks like it will have to wait.

This just goes to show that even the borough of Brooklyn gets overlooked sometimes. The borough has plenty of awesome stores anyway so it’s not like you’re missing out too much. Take for example their massive Buffalo Exchange thrift store. You can find designer clothes at a fraction of the cost. Brooklyn also has some of the best restaurants in the city.

It’s pretty much a guarantee that Apple will open a store there soon enough. In the meantime soak up the culture at the art galleries and try your hand at shopping at the Atlantic Center and Brooklyn Flea. That should suffice.

It’s January and though it is once again unseasonably warm here in New York it still feels like prime time for a cool refreshing Winter Ale. I have been spending the last few months doing everything short of binging on the excellent Brooklyn Winter Ale. Wandering around bars and music/comedy venues last week it seemed to be on tap at almost every place we stopped.

Good! I know it can get a little bland to keep getting the same beer at spots with upwards of 7 beers on tap and yet there I was. I think the reason I kept returning to it is the flavor felt full without ever feeling overwhelming and the beer was just heavy enough to allow for long sustained drinking. It may not seem like Brooklyn news at this point since the line started showing up in well stocked delis around October but I think they’ve hit a stride with this particular brew and I thought it seemed worth letting everyone know that now is the time to dive in.

Of course if you aren’t a fan of winter ales or Brooklyn Brewery in general I don’t know that we should even be talking to each other at this point.