- Max Abelson

On Sept. 19, the Landmarks Preservation Commission will be considering the designation of a Crown Heights North historic district. Tucked between Eastern Parkway on the south and Atlantic Avenue on the north, this neighborhood is smack-dab in the middle of Brooklyn's Caribbean-immigrant enclave. It's also got a rich history, according to the L.P.C.'s monograph on the 'hood:

Originally a rural area tucked inside the village of Bedford, at the eastern reach of the city of Brooklyn, most of the land was owned by the Lefferts family and worked by the family's slaves. The Leffertses started to sell their holdings in the 1850's, and by the 1870's wealthy folks started to move to St. Mark's Avenue.

After the Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883, a large influx of people started to transform the rural area, and large-scale development started in the early to mid-1880's.

Having lived in the area ourselves, we can attest to the beauty of some of the large mansions in the area. We've got no pictures for as of now, but let's see what happens over the weekend.

-Matthew Grace

Here are a few randomly selected interviews that show, if nothing else, the radically different priorities of voters in different parts of the district.

Brem Hyde

I'd like to see the the new congressman stop the futility with the war
in Iraq. On a more local level, I'd like to see the new congressmen
become involved with city and state energy issues and social issues
like Healthcare.

-- Brem Hyde, 39, landscape designer, corner of President and 7th Ave,
Park Slope

Danielle Martinelli

We need to be more resourceful with saving energy and doing anything
that has to do with that Al Gore movie. Especially because I'm a mom
and this resonates on a deeper level to me. Oh, and stop all the fear
shit too!

Any local issues that concern you?

I can't think of any local issues.

-- Danielle Martinelli, 28, Park Slope, interviewed at the corner of
7th Ave and Berkeley

Dave Wallen

Police, yeah, but I don't want police here who don't know the
neighborhood. I've called the police many times for people in this
area and they never know anything about the neighborhood. Then the
moment the crime activity is over, the police are gone. I want to see
a police officer who walks down the street and who has a sense of this
community.

-- Dave O. Wallen, 38, Brooklyn College student, interviewed from at
the corner of Bedford and St John's in Crown Heights

Michelle Vaughn

We need to fix the rent. It's extraordinary and it's jumping more and
more! We live in shoeboxes. Ever since the white folks started
moving in -- and they make more money -- the rent just keeps getting
higher.

-- Michelle Vaughn, 40, custodian, interviewed at the corner of
Franklin and Park in Crown Heights

Clarence Bishop

We need more police in the area. The crime, drugs, prostiution,
robbery is all over the place. There are drug deals right on the
corner. I don't care what Bloomberg says, he doesn't live here.
It's bad. Bloomberg isn't going to do anything about it, so maybe the
federal government can do something.

-- Clarence Bishop, 65, retired, former welder, interviewed on his
front step on Park Place, near Bedford Avenue in Crown Heights

Michael Robertson

It's sketchy here. I hate worrying about getting jumped or robbed
whenever I get off the subway. I want at least two to four police
officers on every corner instead of none. The closest cop they have
is three blocks away at the subway station and those are long blocks.

-- Michael Robertson, 18, in construction, interviewed at corner of
Bedford and Lincoln in Crown Heights

On Friday evening, the impossible happened: The Bedford Village Inn was indeed struck by lightning. Initial reports out of Bedford, New Hampshire, stated that the historic barn where the reception would take place had burned down as a result. A knife in my heart.

Apparently, a bride was arriving at the inn's grand circular drive via limousine just as the lightning struck. She was whisked from the scene before she could be traumatized by the sight of the flames. Online news photos of the inn revealed nothing but billows of black smoke and buildings reduced to ash.

Fortunately, early reports exaggerated the damage. It was a small storage barn that burned down, not the historic barn! The smoke and dust have settled, and my reception venue still stands in all its glory.

-Tom McGeveran

As the city rather melodramatically girds for riot over the Teitelbaum succession in the Satmar section of Williamsburg, police found themselves having a job of work handling the neighborhood's hipster population Saturday Friday night*.

Onlookers at a bar across the street from 184 Kent Street, the waterfront loft building cleared for conversion into luxury condos, said a crowd of thousands had made their way into the building to party through the building's last night of occupancy.

But come midnight, they were trespassers. So a passel of police cars and fire engines showed up at the scene to clear them out.

Neighbors have objected to the conversion, and lost a battle to get the building landmarked last year.

At one point, an exodus of hipsters could be seen filing down the street from the building, but some were more stubborn.

One large group of them took up residence atop the canopy hanging over the building's loading dock.

As police moved in to clear out the building, there was some vague fist-pumping in the crowd. Mostly, though, the mood seemed merry as the hipsters filed out of the building and towards the L train under an almost full moon.

We've got a call into the police to ask what their account of the evening was. Write in! Send pictures!

We were safely ensconced at the outside patio of Check Cashing, watching the proceedings from a distance and without a cameraphone.

* Apparently your correspondent had a bit too active a weekend to be precise the first time about which night the party took place.

- Tom McGeveran

Our friend Will Rahilly, one-time Observer web-programmer extraordinaire, writes in with this report: