The Brooklyn Rail

200 Bucks to Montauk, and I Really Just Want to Get to Southampton

By Julia Knobloch

We had made it past Babylon without any major confusion, a sublime morning sun shining through the train windows, but now we were being held in Patchogue.

From The Editor

Party at Ground Zero

By Theodore Hamm

There is no reason why instead of an Islamic cultural center, the former Burlington Coat Factory at 45-51 Park Place could not become an interfaith cultural center.

ALBANY’S DNA EXPANSION: A Foolproof Solution?

By Liliana Segura

On June 1st, amid talk of teacher layoffs, hospital closings, and MTA cuts, Gov. David Paterson took to a microphone in Manhattan and announced the All Crimes DNA Bill, which he described as “a small investment in dollars, and a huge investment in the security and safety of New York State."

Brooklyn Housing Court: A Landlord Collection Agency?

By Eleanor J. Bader

First come the metal detectors, swiftly checking the bags and bodies of everyone who enters 141 Livingston Street. Then there are the elevators, crammed with angry tenants, hostile landlords, tired attorneys, and fiery advocates all impatiently trying to get to the building’s 4th, 5th, 6th, and 9th floors. Welcome to housing court, Brooklyn-style.

TAKING (DOWN) the HIGH ROAD

By Dave Kim

There isn’t much to look at under the Manhattan end of the Brooklyn Bridge. A tangle of loop ramps and interchanges hide the original masonry arches, and any bit of ground space that doesn’t have cars on it is fenced off for construction.

CITY NOTES

By Theodore Hamm

With slightly less fanfare than the Constitutional Convention of 1789, the city’s Charter Review Commission has been debating the present and future structure of city government.

Mallets on Wheels

By Marianne Moore

Sara D. Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side has an odd, all-purpose play space at the center. It’s a sunken concrete shell, with markings at mid-court, metal railings, and benches along the tops of its shoulder-height walls. It might be ideal for basketball, kickball, or Tai Chi.

Iris in the Heartland

By Katy Bolger

It’s high noon in central Kansas with cars and trucks flying down Highway 50 as Iris and Alex pedal westward into Hutchinson (population 40,889). Unconcerned by the proximity of the “big boys,” Alex speaks and Iris grins; it’s part of an ongoing conversation, together they have biked half of the 4,500 miles across the country.