Greenpoint
Lorven Pharmacy
Culture on the Cheap
New York Shitty Day Ender: BaNoNa Revisited
As I have previously noted the triangle created Banker Street, North 15th Street and Nassau Avenue (“BaNoNa” as I have named it) has pressed into service as a location for a film shoot. 
I later learned the film in question is “The Christmas Tree Project” (as seen at right). On March 26th, I spied a wonderful work of art featuring this quote from Ellen Johnson Sirleaf:
If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.
I really liked this. So you can imagine my delight when I happened upon a group of people painting the wall this missive graces with a great sense of purpose and urgency.
Are we getting another mural?
I thought to myself.
Naturally my curiosity got the best of me so asked (the woman in the above image at right) what gives. And she told me.
Apparently our fair city’s anti-graffiti squad, being unaware that apparently this imagery was crucial to this film’s premise, had seen fit to divest this wall of some of its “content”. And the folks at The Christmas Tree Project, in the interest of said film’s “continuity” were restoring it. You just read me correctly gentle readers: today I bore witness to Greenpoint graffiti restoration.
I noted this to the woman with whom I spoke. She too saw the humor in this strange (but very north Brooklyn) turn of events.
On a lark, I asked her if she knew what was going to happen to this parcel of land after they left. She stated that she had no idea— but opined that it would probably go back to being a trash-strewn lot. I told her that I and a number of other residents think it should be a community garden.
You should do that!
She replied enthusiastically.
Yes, we should. And given this film company apparently has the manpower and resources to restore graffiti, I have to ask myself— and this community— why shouldn’t they help with such an endeavor? Inasmuch as the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting likes to tout the revenue and jobs created by the film industry (with no solid figures to back it up) I still have to wonder:
What is in it for Greenpoint?
Little things mean a lot. I do not think asking film companies which elect to film in our community to give something back to our community is unreasonable. Is asking “The Christmas Tree Project” to partner with us so as to develop a community garden at this site it too much to ask?
Or am I just dreaming?
Reader Comment du Jour: An Agent Speaks About 239 Banker Street
CitySlicker24 writes in regards to this post:
I am a real estate salesperson and I just started working for a broker that’s representing the property owner, leasing out the building’s top three floors as residential units. I had not heard anything about this building being illegal until a couple of my prospective clients cancelled on me, citing your website.
A couple of things I wanted to raise with you: Oasisnyc.com shows that this is zoned as an office building, not as a manufacturing facility, as your article claims. Also, you fail to mention that the building was issued a certificate of occupancy in 1930, permitting up to 225 occupants on the upper three floors, though you do allude to the fact that NYC Department of Finance has this building classified as a hotel.
Furthermore, an application for legalization under the NYC loft law is pending, and indeed the building has undergone modernization, including new windows, floors, and fire sprinklers installed throughout each unit. I was in the units two days ago and saw that there have been significant projects intended to make the building appropriate for dwelling use.
Obvioulsy your efforts to keep everybody informed are laudable, and now that this story has been brought to my attention, I have the legal duty, which I will uphold, to advise my prospective tenant clients that the building is zoned as a commercial space, that the legal status of the building has yet to be determined, since the DOB has not yet resolved the active complaints, and that an application for coverage under the loft law is pending. And I will try to get the company’s listing agent to bring these issues up with the owner and the city in order to find out whether I should even be dealing with this property at all.
While I disagree with some of Cityslicker’s analysis, for example:
- the building in question is permissible as a hotel per the Department of Buildings because it is located in an Industrial Business Zone and
- of course there’s the fact this building is not legally allowable as residential property in the first place but is being represented as such
I’ll be very interested to see where this leads.
To be continued…?
Southside Photo du Jour: Wythe Avenue
Filed under: 11211, Stuff That Makes Miss Heather Happy, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Brooklyn
Taken April 9, 2012.
Coming To Bedford Stuyvesant: Williamsburg Winery
During my peregrinations today I stopped by this store in the hope of getting a much needed snack. But alas it was not to be: a winery cometh to Bedford Stuyvesant and its name is Williamsburg. Given the current trend I prognosticate Clinton Hill will qualify as Williamsburg in 2014.
Williamsburg Winery
Open Date: t.b.a
686 Myrtle Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11205
Urban Artifact: Hart Street
In Bedford Stuyvesant they have dinosaurs— and they have middle fingers!
Spotted At 331 Greene Avenue: (Words Fail Me, Pictures Aren’t Much Better)
While I and my walking companion du jour, a really amazing man named Dennis*, took in these missives a number of passerby and even motorists paused to take note. As you can see this fellow (?) has a lot on his mind.
Damn.
*Who was recently the subject of a pretty good article in the New York Times’s City Room. Do give it a read!
NYS Flickr Pool
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