From The New York Shitty Inbox, Part III: TOMORROW

November 5, 2010 by missheather
Filed under: 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic

This item comes courtesy of Luna Park. She writes:

could be of interest to your readers, should you not already know about it…

What’s this about, you ask? Here’s an excerpt from (v)vital(ny)’s web site:

IN HONOR OF: MESEROLE

On McGuin(n)ess Boulevard at Meserole Ave, Brooklyn.

starting
Saturday, November 6, 2010

[v]vital[ny] is pleased to introduce the first installment of a new public art project, 03_In Honor Of, a series of monuments created in honor of local heroes. This first installment, 03_i_In Honor Of: Meserole, is an homage to the Meseroles, one of Greenpoint’s original farming families, whose name graces streets in both Greenpoint and Bushwick. The installation will appear on McGuinness Boulevard at Meserole Ave, in Brooklyn, on Saturday, November 6, 2010.

Greenpoint in the 1700s was a small farming community, verdant with jack pines and oak forests. The Meserole Brothers, Abraham and Jacob, lived and worked between present day India and Java Streets, and farmed the entire south end of the neighborhood. The quiet farms were isolated from the rest of the city, until industrialization began in the 19^th century, transforming the landscape from farms to factories. Greenpoint became a center of shipping and warehouse commerce, and home to generations of Polish immigrants. In the late 1990s, lured by cheaper rents and quiet blocks, a new generation moved into the neighborhood. The locavore movement inspired some of them to return to Greenpoint’s (and Meserole’s) roots. Today’s generation of urban farmers are creating a new kind of farm, on rooftops and basketball courts, in factories that once made everything from ship parts to bagels, reviving a neighborhood tradition, and creating new, sustainable food sources for the city…