Vines & Voices 024: Someone Wrote a West Brooklyn Ditty

Plus, holiday cheer, Gowanus’ ‘luxury wellness mecca’ and more.

Welcome to Vines & Voices, your weekly look at life across West Brooklyn. Curated by CSJ, this free newsletter brings together the local news and goings-on shaping our neighborhoods, plus a few extras worth knowing. Have a tip, a story idea or something you think deserves attention? Write to us. Your voice helps shape the story.

What Paid Subscribers Got Last Week

A protected bike lane along Court Street has sparked a legal battle between small businesses and the Department of Transportation. Illustration by Tim Le

We attended and reported on the Court Street bike lane hearing. At stake was not whether the bike lane is good or bad, but whether the Department of Transportation conducted enough meaningful outreach to local businesses. The question remains — did they?

Separately, all subscribers received CSJ’s first-ever Holiday Gift Guide, featuring a variety of goods from local businesses. One reader even booked a visit to Tres Belle Spa after spotting it there.

The Weekly Edit

• Ward 6 wrote about Shiny Sparkle Labs and Studio and the two Red Hook artists specializing in glass fusion who run it. Get the full story here.

• The deadline to make a public comment about the Brooklyn Marine Terminal’s draft scope of work has been extended to March 31, 2026.

• A Carroll Gardens high schooler and his classmate created a website that helps people find below-market and rent-stabilized apartments throughout the city.

• Large trucks are routinely driving through narrow neighborhood streets, taking down trees and damaging parked cars as they go, as documented by the @columbiastwaterfront account.

• Life Time is building a 98,000 square-foot wellness center in Gowanus. The “luxury wellness mecca,” as NYPost put it, will include three indoor pickleball courts, a rooftop pool deck and a “wet suite” with a sauna, steam, infrared and cold plunge.

• Ingas Bar is opening a second location in Boerum Hill where Cafe Kitsune used to be.

• Ugly Baby is reopening, this time in Williamsburg.

• The NYTimes wrote about just how badly the BQE needs fixing.

• Restaurateur Danny Meyer’s events company is expanding its headquarters to Industry City.

Goings On

• Carroll Park’s Holiday Tree Lighting takes place tonight at 6pm.

• Tatter Blue Library’s annual holiday market runs today and tomorrow and includes complimentary gift wrapping.

• FAD Market’s Holiday pop-up returns to 51 Bergen Street tomorrow, Dec. 6.

• Children can take a picture with Santa on Atlantic Avenue tomorrow, Dec. 6 from noon to 3pm.

• Union Max Vintage is having a holiday pop-up tomorrow, Dec. 6 from 4pm to 7pm.

• June Wine Bar is hosting a wreath-making workshop on Tuesday, Dec. 9.

• Public Service, the team behind Public Records, and NYCEDC are reimagining a Sunset Park warehouse as a design-driven cultural space, set to open next year.

One Last Thing

A local songwriter penned a ditty about our little corner of West Brooklyn. My husband sometimes calls people who live here “BoCoCa cowboys,” even though “BoCoCa” hasn’t caught on. The closest we get to the wild West (Brooklyn) is the Lucali line!