The Park Sloper
Issue #16 · September 10, 2026
Park Slope this week: The Bramble opens on 6th Avenue, the Coop goes to a lottery, and 9/11 at 25
Tomorrow is September 11, twenty-five years on. Last week we wrote about Millie Lamanno, who spent that day at the YMCA taking in strangers who needed somewhere to be. Green-Wood is the final resting place of more than 100 people who died that morning or of related illness in the years after, and on Friday night it opens the Gothic Arch at sunset to watch the tribute lights over lower Manhattan. The calendar starts there.
The rest of the week is the neighborhood getting on with it. A space for babies, toddlers and their caregivers opens Monday at 459 6th Avenue. Roughly 700 people a month try to join the Food Coop, so orientation is now a lottery. La Bagel Delight is on its fourth Seventh Avenue address since 1986.
And if the kitchen has to be done by Thanksgiving, the contractor conversation is now, which is why this week's pick is a kitchen and bath remodeler.
Victor, founding editor
01 · This week
The Bramble opens Monday at 459 6th Avenue
Meg and Arnold Glick's space for babies, young toddlers and the adults attached to them: areas for tummy time, crawlers and wobblers, changing stations stocked with the essentials, coffee and snacks for the grown-ups, and classes and support groups on sleep, infant movement, pediatric nutrition and postpartum mental health. Meg's background is clinical social work and infant and family development; Arnold's is marketing. No membership, but it is not a drop-off, caregivers stay on site. Doors open September 14, and reservations for open play and classes will be recommended once they do.
Park Slope Pulse · 459 6th Ave · opens Mon Sep 14
About 700 people a month try to join the Coop, so orientation is now a lottery
General Coordinator Matt Hoagland told the July 28 general meeting that roughly 700 people attempt to join the Park Slope Food Coop in a given month, more than the orientation slots can take, so since mid-August the slots go by lottery. It was reported as already done, not put to a vote. Also from the meeting: the Plastic Reduction Committee's member survey found people moderately to extremely concerned about plastic, and the Coop spends $15,000 a year on face masks and on TerraCycle recycling for film and wrappers. On the table: more self-serve bulk, alternatives to plastic bags, fewer clamshells. 107 members showed up, and Lisa Pacenza chaired her first meeting.
Linewaiters' Gazette · July 28 general meeting · 107 members
Arts Gowanus wants artists for the empty windows at 4th Avenue and 9th Street
Arts Gowanus, with Council Member Shahana Hanif, Forth on Fourth and the MTA, is filling the vacant retail spaces at the Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street station with art installed inside the window units, facing the sidewalk. The open call is for Gowanus artists and closes September 21. If you take the F, G or R from 9th Street, you will be looking at the results.
Arts Gowanus with the MTA · 4th Ave/9th St station · apply by Sep 21
A Civic Council scholarship, paid back at John Jay
Rasheed Rankine got a Park Slope Civic Council scholarship as a John Jay senior and spent it on the computer he needed; the council also got him from the award event to his prom. He teaches social studies at John Jay now and is its lead college advisor, walking students through the college process, pointing them at opportunities they would not otherwise see, and pushing HEOP, the state's Higher Education Opportunity Program. His line: I don't really believe in lowering the bar. Students can handle more than people assume, but they need structure and support.
Park Slope Civic Council · People of Park Slope
The hot dog may have started at 6th Avenue and 10th Street
Park Slope Pulse makes the case for Charles Feltman, who ran a bakery at 6th Avenue and 10th Street and in 1867 served sausages in buns baked there, sold as Coney Island Red Hots. The brick building is still standing, as a laundromat. Feltman later moved the family to a mansion at 130 8th Avenue, and he is buried at Green-Wood. Read it, then settle the argument at the next barbecue.
Park Slope Pulse · 6th Ave and 10th St
02 · Worth a visit
Linewaiters' Gazette · 106 Seventh Ave
La Bagel Delight, now at 106 Seventh Avenue
There has been a La Bagel Delight on Seventh Avenue since 1986: at 252 (now a Just Salad), then 284, then 22 years at 122 under Mohamed Najar's son Husain, until the building sold in July 2025 and the shop was evicted in March. It reopened at 106 Seventh Avenue, in the Bagel Market space, after that closed on May 23. Husain, 34, kept the bagel rollers his father has worked with since the '80s. The Godfather is on the menu; his version swaps in turkey. The new owner of 122, Oren Lund, is a Coop member planning a sandwich shop, so the block keeps its lunch.
03 · One vetted pick
Best Brooklyn-native firm for a brownstone or co-op kitchen and bath · HIC #1230529 active · from our kitchen and bath remodelers guide
The Brooklyn-native pick for a brownstone or co-op kitchen and bath. Anthony Gaudioso has run the firm out of Carroll Gardens for more than 20 years. It is listed on Houzz as a kitchen and bath remodeler, with a 5.0 across 45 reviews and nine Best of Houzz service awards, and its one city complaint was withdrawn by the consumer. HIC license #1230529 confirmed active in city records through February 2027. Skip it if you want a design-build studio with an in-house architect and a branded process; Gaudioso is a renovation contractor, so bring your own designer.
If the kitchen has to be done by Thanksgiving, the contractor conversation is now. This week's pick is from our kitchen and bath remodelers guide: every firm on it holds a NYC Home Improvement Contractor license we confirmed active in city records, checked against the city's consumer-complaint database and the BBB. Nobody paid to be there.
See the pick →See all three vetted Park Slope kitchen and bath remodelers →
04 · The calendar
The anniversary falls on Friday, and the weekend follows it.
Fri Sep 11 · 7pm to 9pm ET · Gothic Arch at the main entrance, 5th Ave and 25th St · Free, register
Notes of Tribute: the 9/11 memorial lights from Green-Wood
At sunset the cemetery gathers at the Gothic Arch for words of remembrance, live music and quiet, with the tribute lights over lower Manhattan in view. Green-Wood is the final resting place of more than 100 people who died on September 11, 2001 or of related illness in the years that followed. Free, with $10 suggested for the Historic Fund. Registration recommended, names not checked. The weather call comes three hours before.
Sat Sep 12 · 10am to 1pm ET · Long Meadow, Prospect Park · Free, register
Prospect Park Alliance's Park Pitch In for the 9/11 National Service Weekend: three hours clearing invasive and unwanted plants from the park's 9/11 Grove off the Long Meadow. Teens and adults, groups welcome, registration required.
Sun Sep 13 · 9:30am to 11:30am ET at the Old Stone House, 336 Third St, then noon to 2:30pm at 421 5th Ave · Free
BAX turns 35 with an open house at the Old Stone House
Brooklyn Arts Exchange opens its 35th season with a morning of family activities, music and collaborative fun outdoors at the Old Stone House, then free sample fall youth classes at the BAX building on 5th Avenue from noon to 2:30pm. Meet the staff and the other families, and find out whether your kid is a dancer.
Sun Sep 13 · noon to 6pm ET · Lefferts Historic House, Prospect Park · Free, RSVP
The Black Sandwich + Lemonade Showdown at Lefferts
Sandwich chefs and lemonade makers compete for People's Choice and Judges Champion, DJ Dick Burroughs plays the porch, and there is some history on the foods in between. Prospect Park Alliance with Sounds Like Fun. Free, RSVP on Eventbrite. Smorgasburg's Japan edition runs at Breeze Hill the same day, 11am to 6pm, if one food event is not enough.
Thu Sep 17 · 7pm to 8:30pm ET · Old Stone House, 336 Third St · Free
The Civic Council's fall meeting
An open house rather than a hearing: meet the volunteers behind the Super Stoop and the scholarship above, put names to familiar faces, and find out where they need hands. Decades in the Slope or moved in last month, you are invited.