Sahadi’s in Brooklyn (187 Atlantic Ave.) is a New Yorker’s favorite for a never-ending selection beans, dried fruits and nuts, olives, hundreds of cheeses, breads, and prepared foods. Today it earns a place among America’s Classics, with the 2017 James Beard award announced this morning. Sahadi’s joins Bertha’s Kitchen in Charleston, S.C., Gioia’s Deli in St. Louis, Mo., Schultz’s Crab House in Essex, Md., and La Taqueria in San Francisco in receiving an award. Founded in Manhattan in the 1890s, the shop moved to Brooklyn in 1941. This location had been run by Charlie Sahadi for 50 years until he retired at the age of 71 in 2016. It’s now run by his children, Ron Sahadi and Christine Whelan.

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This 3-D map shows what construction will do to every neighborhood’s skyline to help you see how you could be affected. Click on the link below and enter Brooklyn Heights or other neighborhood.

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Trips from 140 to Fairway/Trader Joe’s scheduled monthly. See lobby posting for dates and times.

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-COMMUNITY AFFAIRS

Cobble Hill’s last remaining video-lending joint Video Free Brooklyn is leaving its Smith Street home of 14 years at the end of the month, and will relocate to the lobby of Downtown’s newly opened Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. The store’s owner insists there’s still a demand for physical video cassettes and discs, but says the nabe has become too pricey to keep his niche business there open.

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Last Sunday, our friends at Cadman Park Conservancy asked for volunteers to come help with a Fall clean up! Lots of folks from Cadman Towers and Whitman Owners showed up to help as did our own Board Member Roberto Gautier, seen here! Thanks, Roberto!

Downtown may be getting a little too suite for travellers’ tastes! A 196-key Hilton just opened its doors on Smith and Schermerhorn streets — the fifth hotel to open in the area in the past two years, and the neighborhood could soon hit its capacity if the lodge-building frenzy doesn’t slow down, according to an expert. “I definitely think there’s a saturation of hotels,” said Colby Swartz, the managing director of hotel advisory firm Suzuki Capital. “I don’t know if [Brooklyn’s] the best locations for a new hotel site — yet alone a destination point to actually draw clientele.”

Between them, the new Hilton, Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn, Dazzler, and Even hotels have added 934 rooms to the area in the past two years, joining existing chain inns the Marriott, Hotel Indigo, Sheraton, Aloft, and, of course, the Brooklyn House of Detention-adjacent Nu Hotel. Read the full article here

It wasn’t a facade. The developer building a massive housing complex on the site of the former Long Island College Hospital filed plans for two towers on Wednesday, dashing some residents’ hopes that its earlier threats to build a high-rise over the Cobble Hill Historic District were just a bluff to push residents into supporting a rezoning. But, just as promised, the plans show builder Fortis Property Group is planning a 15-story residential structure on a low-rise brownstone stretch of Henry Street, confirming locals’ worst fears that their brownstone-lined nabe will soon be overshadowed by tall buildings.

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New trees arrived this dreary week courtesy of the NYC Parks Department. They planted two trees in the two new tree pits on Middagh Street and replaced the empty tree pits on Henry Street so we are now green all around! Can’t wait for Spring!

The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is getting a massive facelift. The city’s Transportation Department says it’s pumping $1.7 billion into repairing part of the highway. A one-and-a-half mile stretch in Brooklyn, between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street is slated to get the upgrades. Key parts include the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, a walkway with views of Manhattan, along with the two levels of traffic below — that go to Queens and Staten Island.

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