Wednesday sporadic post links

The gang's all here.

Transmitter Park opened for a day (before closing again for 18 months), but what a day! Kids with shovels! A toxic fig tree! Vegetarian sandwiches with real cheese from the Parks Department! Marty Maher! It's the biggest news this week.

The downside is you won't get to enjoy the park for 18 months as construction of the pier and a water park inside the property has commenced.

While you look for another place to take your dog and/or kid at the edge of Greenpoint (India Street maybe?) let's take a look around the horn to catch up with some other news.

*The District Leader race rolls on, as District Leader candidate Hope Reichbach picks up endorsements from Borough President Marty Markowitz, Councilman Steve Levin, and Peter Olyer, owner of Calexico Restaurant. Not to be outdone, Jo Anne Simon, the current District Leader, says she makes her own tacos by grinding corn through a seed grinder and pressing tortillas with an iron plate. So there, I guess.

*Meanwhile, Brooklyn Based (the holy antithesis of diehipster) takes a break from profiling do-it-yourself foodie enterprises to offer a glowing if slightly myopic profile of Lincoln Restler and Kate Zidar for that elusive hipster-foodie vote. If only Lincoln and Kate launched a vegan baked goods line, they'd totally getBrooklyn Based's endorsement.

*On the other end of the neighborhood, Greenpoint Renaissance Enterprise Corporation (read: St. Nicks Alliance plus Jan Peterson and the Cianciottas) is trying to make wine with grapes leftover from the loss of the Greenpoint Hospital to a Queens-based group. As always, politics is involved.

*Dude, let's go to a party that goes until 9 am, maybe TheDanger party dude?
Dude, TheDanger is, like, really crowded and Meserole Street sucks. Is there anywhere closer to the waterfront?
Dude, I got you, bro. 66 N. First Street. The developers don't even know about it.
Sweet.
Dude.
Bro.
Sweet.
Dude
Bro
etc.

*Alternatively, if you don't like brews, bros, and nitrous oxide, you could go to those Tuesday night dance parties, No Lights No Lycra, in Greenpoint frequented by Greenpoint Food Market's Joann Kim. THIS JUST IN: No Lights, No Lycra has been raided and shut down by the Department of Health.

*There's a new handmade denim store (oooh!) in Greenpoint. I'll have to check this out once the temperature gets under 90 degrees again.

*What's it like to play football in high school where you have to practice on the McCarren Park kickball and concrete softball fields and play your home games at a rival high school's field more than a mile away? It sucks, that's what it's like.

*It's almost time to go back to school, and that means education features! The best of the crop is WNYC's visit to Governor's Island brought to you by Beth Fertig. Nice job Beth. This is how to do a podcast.

*Finally, back to the park, whose namesake is WNYC Transmitter Park because it housed two public radio transmitters since the 1930s and because Leonard Lopate has made his home in this charming gray brick structure since 2005, subsisting entirely on woodland squirrels, roasted pigeons and figs from a nearby fig tree.