Red Hook: Ikea will open its Red Hook store on June 18, the home-furnishing powerhouse announced on Wednesday, giving eager shoppers a date to circle on their calendars, but starting a doomsday countdown for foes who say the store will ruin the neighborhood. Comments (5).

Boerum Hill: Vandalized parking signs near a Boerum Hill school touched off a brouhaha last week over one of the city’s scarcest and most vital resources — parking spots. Comments (4).

Red Hook: To some, Red Hook is best known as a hard-to-get-to neighborhood that prosperity forgot. But it is also the birthplace of America. Comment.

Carroll Gardens: David Walentas has won permission to finish his hotly contested Atlantic Avenue apartments with possible rooftop cabanas, despite concerns of local preservationists that it skirts height limits in the Cobble Hill historic district. Comments (2).

Gowanus: The city has chosen a developer to turn a contaminated Gowanus property into hundreds of apartments and a waterfront esplanade — and the winning bidder is already looking to expand the scope of the project. Comment.

Gowanus: Here’s yet another park that’s being proposed for the banks of the Gowanus Canal. Yes, parks along the Gowanus. Comments (1).

Fashion: At the bi-level Urban Outfitters, which opened on Atlantic Avenue last month, summer is already in full swing. Comments (1).

Brooklyn South: Local bar-restaurant pioneer Jim Mamary wins his battle with his Hoyt Street neighbors. Our columnist has one word: Good! Comment.

Carroll Gardens: A boy was robbed of his cellphone by four punks in some after-school misbehavior on West Ninth Street on April 11. Plus all the crime news from Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and Red Hook’s 76th Precinct. Comment.

Books: In the decade that she lived in Red Hook, Maureen McNeil collected plenty of stories about the neighborhood — it was the mid 1980s, after all — and on Saturday, April 12, she celebrated the release of “Red Hook Stories,” a book comprised of them. Comment.

Cobble Hill: To be or not to be? Shakespeare’s Sister, a Cobble Hill gift shop, has gone with the latter and will close this month after a 15-year run. Comments (1).