Crown Heights

The Nostrand Avenue Shop Bicycle Roots Is by Crown Heights Residents, for Crown Heights Residents

Crown Heights is changing. There is no mistaking the churn of gentrification in this central Brooklyn neighborhood as it moves eastward on Eastern Parkway. But it's too easy to write off all the new brunch places and sleek bars as yet more signs that something in Crown Heights has been irrevocably l ... More >>

This Guy Has Robbed a Brooklyn Bank Three Times Since Last Year

Police are looking for a man suspected of robbing two Brooklyn Apple Banks a combined four times since early last year. Officers say the suspect is a six-foot-tall black male with a graying beard who is probably between 40 and 60 years old and between 150 and 200 pounds (and based on that descripti ... More >>

Here's A Fairly Horrifying Photo Of One Of The Stabbings At The West Indian Day Parade

The West Indian Day parade in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn has proven itself to be one of the more popular events in New York City at which to become a victim of violent crime -- and we've come across a pretty gruesome photo to illustrate that fact.Since 2003, the parade has been marred by ... More >>

Only Three People Shot At West Indian Day Parade. This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Crown Heights

Only three people were shot during this year's West Indian Day parade in Crown Heights yesterday, which -- sadly -- is an improvement from last year. However, two people also were stabbed to death during yesterday's festivities, so don't wave the victory flag in the war on Brooklyn violence just yet ... More >>

This Week in The Voice: 'Gay Inc.' and Free Speech

This week in the Voice, out today, Steven Thrasher wants to know whether "Gay Inc." believes in free speech: "Today's movement is quite unlike ACT UP, the Gay Liberation Front, or the Mattachine Society. In their use of confrontation, those groups looked far more like Occupy Wall Street than the Hum ... More >>

Brower Boys Street Gang "Taken Down" Thanks To Facebook And Stupid (Alleged) Criminals

Here's a tip for any potential criminals out there: don't bicker about the proceeds of robberies you've committed on Facebook. Believe it or not, cops also have access to Facebook, and monitor it for dopes dumb enough to announce to the world that they're criminals.That said, more than a dozen membe ... More >>

Teenage Idiots Play Subway Chicken (VIDEO)

Some young people probably won't make it to adulthood because of the stupid, stupid choices they make, as evidenced by this now viral video of teenagers in Crown Heights.

Q&A: Southpaw Co-Owner Matt Roff Talks About The Venue's Closing

Yesterday the news that the Park Slope club Southpaw would be turning into an educational center for children broke, and we got comment from co-owner Matt Roff—whose business interests also include Williamsburg's Public Assembly, Greenpoint's No Name Bar, and Crown Heights' Franklin Park— ... More >>

This Week In The Voice: Lana Del Rey, Japanese Sound Systems, The Lijadu Sisters, And Wheelchair Sports Camp

The Lijadu Sisters.​In this week's Village Voice, out now: Camille Dodero gets the cover with her profile of Kalyn Heffernan, a 24-year-old with the brittle-bone disability osteogenesis imperfecta and leader of the hip-hop outfit Wheelchair Sports Camp; Marlon Bishop gets down with the Japanes ... More >>

Elysian Fields

Scruffy Bank Robber Sought in Crown Heights Stickup

Bank robbery suspect​Cops are looking for a scruffy bank robber who held up the Apple Bank at 318 Albany Avenue, near Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, around noon Tuesday, February 1. The guy walked up to a teller at 12:14 p.m., displaying a silver handgun and handing over a note deman ... More >>

AOL Dubs Bedford Avenue "Safest NYC Neighborhood"

​AOL's WalletPop site has revealed the safest neighborhoods in America's major cities based on neighborhood and FBI crime data. Guess what!? Bedford Avenue has ranked as one of those cozy locales, where your chance of becoming the victim to a crime is but 1 in 500 each year.

Are Black Jews in New York Really All That Surprising?

​In some parts, actually: yeah. Take Crown Heights, for example, where the African-American and Orthodox Jewish communities rioted against each other only less than two decades ago. The New York Times pointed out the seemingly surprising crossover in Crown Heights specifically as a Black Ortho ... More >>

Murders Up 17 Percent, NYPD Crime Stats Show

​Periodically, we here at Runnin Scared take a look at the city's crime statistics. Well, almost three quarters of the way through the year, crime citywide is at about the same level as it was this time last year. But murders are up 17 percent. And, in all, six of the seven major crime categor ... More >>

How Does Last Night's Riot at South Street Seaport Over Drake Show Rank Among NYC Riots?

​So, last night, the typically quiet and touristy South Street Seaport basically went insane when the gimp kid from Degrassi showed up to play a free show. There was a riot, mace was fired, some chairs got thrown, and the show was cancelled. It's the first riot New York City's had in a while! ... More >>

Trinidadian Potato Pie at R&A West Indian Products

A delicious, vegetarian cheap eat​"Best Potato Pie in Brooklyn" proclaimed a colorful hand-written sign outside the storefront on Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights.

Ain't No Bodega Like a Brooklyn Bodega 'Cause Brooklyn Bodegas Might Sell You a Blunt, SON. Also, Jerk Chicken.

​The beautiful thing about New York is that you never have to go too far to find a corner deli or bodega with whatever you need in it: ice cream, laundry detergent, smokes, small-batch beer, sandwiches, cooking supplies, feral cats waiting to be adopted, etc. Which is why today we mourn the si ... More >>

Deborah Blount, 51, Slain in Her Crown Heights Apartment

View Larger Map DATE: Friday, March 12, 2010, 2 p.m. LOCATION: 1518 Eastern Parkway, Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Deborah Blount, 51, was found dead in her apartment at the above address. While the cause of her death has not been determined, her paramour John Brandon, 51, has been arrested on murder c ... More >>

Have You Seen... These Alleged Crown Heights Muggers

These five guys are suspected of attempted robbery. Cops say they mugged a 17-year-old girl in an attempt to snatch her cell phone at 5 p.m. Monday, January 18, on a sidewalk in front of 357 Troy Avenue, in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Cops say the guys approached her, demanded her cell and pushed h ... More >>

Say Goodbye to 2009: Looking Back at the Year in Concerts

Last year's Stupid Party in Crown Heights. All photos by Rebecca Smeyne.​We're closing up shop early today, and getting a head start on the New Year by doing snow angels outside for a while. Last minute guidance on your own New Year's Eve plans can be found here and here. In the meantime, plea ... More >>

Jewish Patrol Assault Trial "Close to Farce"; Messiah to Be Called as Witness

​The Flatbush Shomrim -- a safety patrol of observant Jews -- has been on fire lately. Last week they caught a graffiti artist and a car-breaker, and yesterday they took down a burglar. The Crown Heights Shomrim, meanwhile, has been much busier in court, with six of its members charged with be ... More >>

Rubashkin Trial Opens; Kosher King Accused of Immigration Fraud

The much-anticipated trial of Sholom Rubashkin -- former CEO of the country's largest kosher meat processing plant and a member of a powerful Crown Heights Lubavitch family -- began in at a federal court in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on Wednesday, with a slaughterhouse worker testifying that she fak ... More >>

6th Ave Trains OK Now; Lex Ave Trains Bollocksed

​The Sixth Avenue line delays earlier reported by MTA have been resolved, but there's trouble on the tracks for the Lexington Avenue line: 4 service is suspended in both directions between 149th Street-Grand Concourse and Crown Heights-Utica Avenue, and there are delays on all 4,5, and 6 train ... More >>

Posts of the Week

It's a dreary Friday afternoon, which means it's time to liven things up a bit with a rundown of this week's greatest hits:Our 10 Best Thai Restaurants: Take that, L.A.! Ice cream vendors talked about their plans for the winter. In a shocking Battle of the Dishes upset, Babycakes' doughnuts prevaile ... More >>

Butt-Slapper Terrorizes Subway, Tish James Speaks Out

NY1 says there's a serial butt-slapper riding the trains. Cops say they've received about a dozen reports of the man slapping butts in and around Crown Heights. Councilmember Tish James denounces the assailant as a "lowlife" and a "coward." He is thought to be in his mid-20s, between 5' 10" and 6' a ... More >>

Beaten in Court, Rubashkins Battle to Keep Crown Heights Religious Leadership

Just when you think things in Crown Heights couldn't get any stranger, they do. Last December, we chronicled the tale of the powerful Rubashkin clan -- the Crown Heights Lubavitch family that practically ran the kosher meat-processing business in America, until they were brought down by a huge immi ... More >>

Posts of the Week

It's that time again! Welcome to your Friday afternoon round-up of some of our favorite posts of the week. Maybe we'll see you at the BBQ party this weekend. For now, let's relive the glory, shall we? We got excited about the advent of strawberry season, and got even more excited when a commenter s ... More >>

Housing Collapse Makes Real Estate More Affordable to Millionaires

Brownstoner celebrates the dip in local real estate prices caused by our housing price collapse. The Park Slope brownstone that was going for $2,990,000 six months ago? Slashed to $2.8 million! And there's a building in Crown Heights that you can get for (just barely) under a million. We hope wor ... More >>

Happy Hanukkah, Too!

Sky Watch Returns to Dumbo; Where's Ours?

The Gods Must Be Crazy

The Fall of the House of Rubashkin

As the nation's largest kosher empire implodes, Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox Jews begin to break ranks

Chicken Slaughter on Kingston Avenue: Is Crown Heights Kapporos Cruel?

Midnight Summ.: Violence and Indian-American Politics

W. Indian American Day Parade Hot, Loud, Fun

The Crown Heights Lubavitchers

Ecstatic Jews, a messiah proclaimed, and the consequential divisions

Before Shabbos

Twenty-four years in Crown Heights—lady, will you turn off our lights?

Rebel Yells

Crown Heights—and depths

Machine Age

Doubles or Nothing

Saturday Afternoon on Nostrand Avenue

Close-Up on Crown Heights

A Cancer Grows in Brooklyn

High Prostate Cancer Rates in Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights

Faded Rage

As a Divided Community Begins to Forget, a Court Reopens Old Wounds in Crown Heights

The Crown Heights Quiets

The Black Community: Powder Keg or Powder Puff?

Letters

Who’s Afraid of Carl Thomas?

A Black-Jewish Alliance Stirs Up Racial Fears in Battle for Crown Heights Seat

Letters

Hillary 'Banned' In Crown Heights

The First Lady's embrace of Former Mayor David Dinkins ignites an orthodox Jewish backlash

Hillary's Crown Heights Problem

If Rudy Giuliani plays the race card, he most likely will try to attack Former Mayor David Dinkins's legacy in one of the city's ethnic hotbeds

Holy Daze

Rebecca Segall investigates the problems of young Lubavitcher Hasidim in a world without the Rebbe