Greenpoint
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RightRides
Filed under: 11101, 11206, 11211, 11222, 11237, Astoria, Bed-Stuy, Bronx, Brooklyn, Bushwick, Clinton Hill, DUMBO, East Williamsburg, East Williamsburg Brooklyn, Ft. Greene, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Long Island City, Manhattan, Navy Yard, New York City, Park Slope, Queens, Sunnyside, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Brooklyn
Yesterday upon learning the horrible news about the rape which came to pass at Nassau Avenue and Diamond Street earlier this week I posted it here on New York Shitty to make you, dear readers, aware. Later in the day I was reminded (by buddy d of pointgreen) of a service unescorted women (and many more— as I learned) out late at night can and should use. It is called RightRides and I am going to dedicate this post to giving you the 411 about this organization.
To get the ball rolling, here’s an excerpt from their “About” page to give you a general idea of their mission:
The mission of RightRides For Women’s Safety, Inc. is to build safer communities by ending gender-based harassment and sexual assault. We work towards this by community organizing and offering direct service, safety education and advocacy programs.
In our RightRides program, we offer women, LGBTQ and gender nonconforming individuals a free, late-night ride home to ensure their safe commute to or through high-risk areas.
In our Safe Walk program, we offer walking escorts for any one who doesn’t want to walk alone.
We are also a founding member of New Yorkers for Safe Transit, which will pursue coalition building and policy change work to increase safety in mass transit…
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Very simple: if you are out and about Friday and/or Saturday night (11:59 p.m. – 3:00 a.m.) and am in need of a safe ride (or escort) home you call either of these two telephone numbers
- (718) 964-7781
- (888) 215-7233 (SAFE)
and they will dispatch a driver to pick you up. CAVEAT/POSSIBLE CATCH: your person and destination must be within their “service area”. Follow are their service maps for Friday and Saturday.
SATURDAY
As you can see I have not included the key for this map. This is because it is too extensive for me to screencap and publish here. You can view this map (along with the key) by clicking on the above image or clicking here.
HOW CAN I HELP?
RightRides welcomes donations, fund raising events and volunteers. You can learn more about how you can help this wonderful organization by clicking here. On that note, the peeps at RightRides will be hosting a series of fund raisers at the Parkside Lounge starting this evening at 8:00 p.m.
Professor Von Awesome’s Traveling Caravan of Cautionary Warnings
October 23, 24, 30, and 31, 2009 starting at 8:00 p.m.
Cost of admission: $15.00 (a portion of the proceeds go to Rightrides)
Parkside Lounge
317 East Houston Street
New York, New York 10002
In closing (and for those who are interested) you can receive a quarterly e-newsletter from RightRides by clicking here.
Stay safe!
Miss Heather
Introducing The Newtown Pentacle
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic, Long Island City, Maspeth, Newtown Creek, Queens, Sunnyside
Last night I had the damnedest time falling asleep. At 2:00 a.m. I found myself tossing and turning so I decided to get a glass of milk and poke around on the computer. I am glad I did because I came across a pingback from a new site called The Newtown Pentacle. Intrigued I checked it out. Although only a handful of posts strong I have to admit this site looks very promising. As for what it is about I’ll let the author, Mitch Waxman, do the talking (from his inaugural post dating from May 29, 2009):
The colonial era towns of Green Point, Brooklyn and the Queens towns of Astoria, Ravenswood, Hunter’s Point, Bowery Bay, and Middletown were called Newtown in Dutch and English times. In the early 19th century, the Queens villages combined to form Long Island City. The industrial center of the area was and still is Newtown Creek. The most polluted body of water on earth, this ancient inlet was once home to the Maspaetche Indians. Dutch Orchards and English farms gave way to Yankee rail and then Standard Oil as time went by. Today, its waters are a curious shade of copper green, and the largest oil spill in history gurgles back and forth through deep subterranean channels between Green Point and Long Island City. The architecture of the place is disturbingly heterogeneous. A rough tumble of styles are represented in this area — 19th century wrought iron row houses predominate, but 18th century warehouses are still on active duty in some places. Near Hunter’s Point and in Old Astoria, Antebellum mansions abut hideous Le Corbusier-influenced modernism. To the south and the east can be found some of the most interesting stone work in New York City as one explores the cemetery belt along the Brooklyn and Queens border.
Three million New Yorkers lie in Calvary cemetery alone. In this, the Necropolis of New York City, the living population of Queens is outnumbered three to one.
After a health scare a couple of years ago, my doctors recommended a course of clean living and regimen of physical exercise as the best curative. An amateur antiquarian and connoisseur of odd information, I elected to use my prescriptive exertions as an opportunity to explore and record. I toured crumbling Long Island City, the tree lined lanes of Victorian Astoria, and rusty coastlines of foetid Newtown Creek. Headphones on, camera in hand. The journey has taken me to many odd and forgotten places, and led me to discover a fascinating group of people. Follow me on these long walks, I promise you’ll see something amazing.
The previous isn’t just a bunch of verbiage either: Mr. Waxman delivers. Do give this site a whirl. It’s fascinating.
Miss Heather
Photo Credit: Mitch Waxman
COMING SOON: Fund Raiser For Sunnyside Shorts
The 3rd Annual Sunnyside Shorts Film Festival may be six months away but they’re kicking it into high gear this upcoming Monday, March 30, with a fund raiser at 11104’s new watering hole: Claret Wine Bar. Promised at this event are a screening of select clips from last year’s event, a chance to meet some of the filmmakers and a raffle with prizes from such local businesses as The Kettle, Pure, April Glass, Bliss St. Station and much, much more.
This event starts at 7:00 p.m. and will run until 9:00 p.m. Check it out!
Sunnyside Shorts Fund Raiser
March 30, 2009
Claret
4602 Skillman Avenue
Sunnyside, New York 11104
Miss Heather
Calling All Shittites: Contributors & Tips Wanted
Filed under: Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, Bushwick, Greenpoint Magic, Long Island City, New York City, Sunnyside, Williamsburg
Now that my life has resumed some sense of normalcy (or at least as close as it gets with yours truly) I can finally get around to doing a few things I’ve been meaing to do but have gotten lost in the shuffle. Soliciting tips and contributors is foremost among these things.
Over the last few months I have increasingly come to the opinion that New York Shitty would be augmented with the addition of some other, new “voices”. Recent events (such as the untimely passing of Bob Guskind and the impending demise of the Greenpoint Courier) and my growing acceptance of the fact that I am only one person have made me realize that expanding the content on this site and providing a large forum are much more important than I had previously thought.
So here’s the deal: if you are interested in being a contributor to this site please email me at missheather (at) thatgreenpointblog (dot) com. But before closing this post I would like to make my criteria/preferences/”plan” known:
1. I do not consider New York Shitty to be exclusively a “place blog”. However, there are some geographical areas I tend to focus on more than others: Greenpoint (obviously), Williamsburg, East Williamsburg, Bushwick, southwestern Queens and to a more limited extent: Bedford Stuyvesant and the East Village. Here’s a map to give you a general idea of what/where I am talking about.
The previous having been written I want to make it clear that I am open to material from outside this area. I simply do not want it to override the north Brooklyn-centric nature of this site.
2. What kind of content am I looking for? I’m pretty open to suggestions. One thing I would really like to have happen is feature an adoptable pet once a week. If this sounds like something you are interested in doing, let me know. Otherwise I want to make it clear what I do not want: schmaltz. If you are going to write about your children it better be fucking good. Family Circus (and its ilk) put me in a blind rage. It also goes without saying that racist, sexist, classist, anti-Semitic, homophobic material, etc.— in other words hate speech— will not be published.
3. What’s in it for me? New York Shitty is not a for profit site, therefore I cannot afford to pay you. However, plans to convert this site (along with a redesign!) are in the works. So perhaps some day compensation will be involved. For the time being, however, a little publicity and/or link love is all I can offer.
4. Please be literate.
5. Unless you have sustained a serious brain injury or have multiple personalities please refer to yourself in the first person. Which brings me to my final point…
6. Please do not be insane. The world wide web has enough crazy people posting crazed missives on it already. I have no intention of adding to this problem.
This is pretty much all I can think of. I want to leave the possibilities for this site as open as possible.
Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.
Miss Heather
Map Image Credit: Google Maps
Great Minds Think Alike: Forgotten NY Does Greenpoint…
AVENUE, that is. Shortly after I took a jaunt down Greenpoint Avenue here in the Garden Spot my buddy Kevin over at Forgotten NY decided to write a “Street Scenes” feature about the wonderful things to be found on this thoroughfare both in its namesake ‘nabe and beyond! I was particularly moved by his coverage of what we Greenpointers fondly call the “Shit Tits” (as seen at left):
Anaerobic Digestion Boobs
Well, we’ve seen the udders … here are the boobs …These somewhat disturbing objects at North Henry Street are called digester eggs. Through a process called anaerobic digestion they reduce the volume of sludge (what’s left of sewage after debris and liquid are removed) by nearly half. The egg shape is a space-efficient and minimal maintenance European design. The green thing in between the eggs is an elevator, in case you want to see what’s going on up there.
I never, EVER thought I would see the day Kevin Walsh would use the word boobs on Forgotten NY. I suppose I am rubbing off on him. This may or may not be a good thing but I can state with 100% certainty that this post is well worth reading. Check it out!
Miss Heather
P.S.: For more information/infotainment about the Newtown Waste Treatment Facility check out my piece over at the Poop Report.
Queens Photos Du Jour: Sunnyside Shots
My pilgrimage to Sunnyside for delish Mexican food earlier this week might have ended in failure*, but you know what they say about life: it isn’t about the destination it’s about how you get there. Courtesy of rush hour gridlock and some on the worst drivers this fine city has to offer I had plenty of time on my hands while riding the B24. After noticing the evening sun was bathing everything in sight in a gorgeous fiery hue I decided to while away the time by taking a few pictures. I have entitled this set of photographs Sunnyside Shots. Yes, I am aware some of these images do not hail from this neighborhood per se— but I like the sound of this title and I am sticking with it. Besides, its all about the pictures anyway. Enjoy!
A little Bronx on Greenpoint Avenue in Queens.
Calvary Cemetary.
I love the crazy reflections in this one.
Those of you who are in the know can attest that this building (which is located on Greenpoint Avenue) is one very ugly one indeed. Somehow I managed to make it look nice. No worries, I’ll run it on Fedders Friday soon enough!
I finally got around to taking a photograph of this Greek Orthodox Church (which I love) after getting off the bus.
Empire State.
And that’s all she wrote!
Miss Heather
*Sort of: we went to Arriba Arriba on Queens Boulevard. It was pretty tasty. Enough so I would go back.
Yet More Foodie Frustration: De Mole
Okay, I’ll admit it: I’m on my period. Earlier yesterday I had my monthly sweets craving thwarted. I did not complain— not much, anyway. But when the Mister gets off work early enough to make riding the B24 bus to Sunnyside (and into the dining bliss that is De Mole) feasible I get excited. VERY EXCITED.
Enough so that I even deem it tweetworthy. So you can imagine my disappointment when we hopped off the bus to discover this.
Shuttered. But like the disappointed spinach enchilada* craving wench I was (and am) I pressed my face up to the door and gawked. A worker inside met my gaze and pointed to his right (my left). Then I figured it out.
De Mole is not dead. It is expanding its dining area. On the one hand I’m happy to see they’re faring well (their vittles are wonderful). On the other I was really looking forward to enchiladas and flan last night. Seriously.
De Mole
45-02 48th Avenue
Sunnyside, Queens 11377
Re-opening date: Unknown**
Miss Heather
*And coconut flan. Theirs is the BEST. Hands down!
**If anyone in in the know about their re-opening let me know. I miss my De Mole!
NOTEWORTHY: Somewhere In Queens
Filed under: Astoria, Clinton Hill, Ft. Greene, Long Island City, Queens, Sunnyside
xdoobiex (the gentleman who tipped me off to the following item writes):
…first, this is a little promotion for my friend.. i am not sure if you want to post it.. but he needs exposure… see attachment…
Granted, this is still a little ways off. But I am very excited about checking out this show (which, amusingly enough, is located in in the county of Kings).
Somewhere In Queens, Alex Segreti
Opening Reception: March 9, 2009 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Pratt Institute Media Arts Gallery
Steuben Hall, 3rd Floor
200 Willoughby Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11205
Miss Heather
Reader Submission Du Jour: Calvary Cemetery 20 Years Ago
This image was generous provided by New York Shitty reader (and former Pastor of the Greenpoint Reformed Church), Bodmin. He writes:
I developed the film on Thursday, 15 December; it was probably shot either that afternoon, or on the 12th or 13th. The image is absolutely straight; I never manipulate, except in traditional terms like choosing when to shoot. I’d cased the location after seeing it used in Midnight Cowboy and Shaft (Shaft II, I think); when I saw the sky that afternoon I knew it was now or never for this shot, hopped in my car and drove over the Greenpoint Bridge and got it, somewhere between 4 and 4:30, as the sun set through the magenta murk. It became part of my Cemetery Series, which was put together as a personal memorial to a friend and fellow Greenpoint photographer, Bill Vetel, in that first wave of artists in the 1970s, who had rebuilt an old flophouse down on the block of Greenpoint Avenue between West and the pier/radio mast, and who had died of a heart attack at age 43 earlier in 1983. It kind of shook me; I was the last person to have seen him alive, and he was the first person more or less my own age to go.
Firstly, I would like to thank Bodmin for sharing this lovely image with us. It should also be noted that Bill Vetell’s widow, Barbara, is alive, well and very active in matters of Greenpoint interest. Including Friends of Transmitter Park!
Miss Heather
Peace, Love, Understanding And All That Slop
In case the tone of my humble soap box hasn’t made it clear: I hate hippies. As a teenager the whole idea of “peace”, “love” and “understanding” made sense. Then I came of age and entered the workforce; many of my supervisors were former hippies. Baby Boomers.
I suffered a Communication Breakdown. First it was the way I wrote the number eight. I did not write the number eight like an infinity symbol. Rather, I scribed VIII by making two discrete circles atop each other. “Cindy” said it looked too much like the number 3. I was written up. I didn’t smile and say “Hi” every morning when “Cindy” came into the office. This too was noted by Human Resources and I was taken to task. As was the (second) time I brewed coffee (given to me by “Cindy” for Secretary’s Administrative Professional’s Day), noting that I would like the office vultures to leave me a cup. Then I was admonished for not fostering a “sense of community”. So much for shiny happy people holding hands.
The age old hippie argument seems to be if people can/will communicate with each other better everything will be hunky dory. I disagree. I am a firm believer in smiles and nod school of diplomacy. When someone screams at you in a foreign tongue (and you’re not standing in front of a moving bus) put on a grin, shake your head and look like you understand. Or feel really bad. Guilt becomes Americans.
Simply put, if everyone— everywhere— was better able to communicate with each other we’d be in a helluva lot more trouble than we’re already in. The U.N. would be a diverse chorus of “fuck yous” in every language imaginable with stenographers running for cover.
What is my reasoning for the previous, you ask? Very simple: 1105 Manhattan Avenue.
El Encanto Mexicano.
More specifically, what graced its front door. In Greenpoint this is tantamount to wearing your aunt Tillie’s 300 thread count white sheets at the Million Man March: highly inadvisable.
Amusingly enough, another missive was scrawled in front of Papasito’s.
Mexico Sucks!!
Papasito’s fare is very tasty, but I would not call it Mexican. When I want Oh my god where have you been all my life south of the border vittles I go to…
But did I choose to take up the matter of why Poland sucked, Mexico sucked, or Papasito’s being Cal Mex (as opposed to being more traditional) fare? No I didn’t; I simply smiled and nodded.
Miss Heather
*Very honorable mention: Taco Bite, right here in north Brooklyn. Not only do they serve up “Jamaica” (sweetened hibiscus tea) but they are the damned nice to boot. Check them out!
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