The cooling centers are open again, and this week, they’re sure to be hopping. Here’s what we found last summer, one hot August afternoon:
Today’s the first day this year that the city has opened its cooling centers, the specially designated air-conditioned havens where heat-addled New Yorkers can go for a breather. On this 92-degree day, our family seemed to be hitting the limits of a no-AC summer—inspired by equal parts cheapness, bravado and child cruelty—so my 6-year-old son and I packed up bag lunches and headed to the nearest chilling station. 
We prowled four of Brooklyn’s majors—ShopRite, Key Food, The Met and Associated—to find out. 
Getting good health care can be tough for the uninsured. That, we don’t need to tell you. There are no statistics for Brooklyn alone (that we know of), but with all its artists, writers, freelancers and other like-minded non-9-to-5ers, we’re pretty sure the borough has more than its share of New York State’s roughly 2.5 million… medically-alone, let’s call them. You know—the ones limping around, trolling for black-market insulin or playing Craigslist Russian Roulette for spare amoxicillin. But what choices do we have for cheap medical care, short of taking a handsaw to every hang-nail? Luckily, quite a few, and they’re (mostly) right here in Kings County. 
Double features may be a thing of the past (at least official double features—we do know people who routinely do the DIY version) but the matinee is alive and well in Brooklyn. A handful of theaters sell single-digit tickets at off-hours, while others, like the Kent theater on Coney Island Avenue, offer bargain seats all the time: $7.75 no matter when you go. (The Ziegfeld, it ain’t.) Here’s a list of cheap and discounted tix at theaters around the borough: 
When it came time to shampoo a few rugs, why not just call Sears? Here’s why: the last time they came, they left the carpets soaking wet, filling the joint with a musty not-so-freshness for several days. Plus they always try to push Scotchguard and use detergent that smells like dog shampoo. We’ve tried renting our own gizmo but got lawn stripes on the floor. This time, we decided to shop around—and were amazed at the price differences quoted by various companies that service Brooklyn.
