Greenpoint
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Culture on the Cheap
Greenpoint Photos Du Jour: Hallelujah!
On April 21, 2009 I wrote (in regards to the waterfront park slated for northern terminus of Manhattan Avenue):
I’ll believe this park’s for real when my ass is firmly planted on one of those futuristic park benches!
Well here’s my fat ass planted on one such bench. This photograph was taken today, May 2, 2009, at approximately 2:30 p.m.
Although the Brooklyn Paper reported that this park would be open in either June or July.
It very much appears to be open.
TODAY.
Get down there and check it out!
It’s amazing how effective one news story the New York Times did NOT find fit to print (and as a result found its way onto a “neighborhood blog”) and one leaked Parks Department memorandum are at motivating our municipal entities to quit making excuses and get the job done. Looking at this couple enjoying their new park even warms the cockles of my cynical, jaded heart. Congratulations Greenpoint, you at long last have an honest-to-god (if still a little rough around the edges) waterfront park! Enjoy it.
Miss Heather
A New York Shitty Public Service Announcement
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic
(and a long overdue one at that!)
It has been almost a year since I posted the above photograph of this park slated to grace the northernmost tip of Manhattan Avenue. It looked almost finished April 29, 2008. A press conference was conducted there last July. A friend of mine saw two officers from very own 94th Precinct citation a chap for catching crabs at this location shortly thereafter. Ones of the eating— non-venereal— variety, mind you.
“Almost finished” this park has remained for almost two years now. Unlike the little train that could, this humble patch of land hasn’t. This is probably in large part due to the fact that the guard rails designated for this park were stolen and sold for scrap by some of our more enterprising, if criminally inclined, fellow citizens.
Today, April 12, 2009 I have some very good news:
Our new guard rails have arrived…
and they do not appear to be going anywhere anytime soon! (Note the “footprints” of the old ones)
Anyone care to guess when this park will at long last be open to the public?
If anyone reading this post knows the answer please speak up via comments or email me at:
missheather (at) thatgreenpointblog (dot) com
In the time it has taken to build this park thus far:
- Children have been born, learned to walk and have been potty-trained.
- I have seen, at long last, rents in Greenpoint start to drop. Hopefully to find their way to fair market value. $2,900 for a two bedroom apartment in this neighborhood is ridiculous. (Yes I’m talking about you, Viridian.)
- An African American gentleman has been both elected and assumed the office of the President of the United States.
Now that I think about it the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation and United States Constitution were each respectively knocked out in less time than this park. Now throw in a (not so) minor colonial conflict commonly known as the American Revolution and you’ll get a notion of where I’m headed with this.
Were our founding fathers made of better stuff than us? I doubt it. What’s more, we are not operating under duress or the threat of British occupation. There is no legitimate reason I can think of as to why completing one tiny park in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, U.S.A. is taking so damned long.
Thoughts anyone?
Miss Heather
Greenpoint Photos Du Jour: Along The Waterfront
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic
Late Sunday afternoon the Mister and I braved the blustery weather to explore some of north Greenpoint’s waterfront. Our persistence paid off: the fog provided a certain “mood” which rendered our experience thoroughly enjoyable (if a wee bit chilly). Follows is a Flickr slide show I created featuring my favorite shots. Enjoy!
Miss Heather
Life In Dangertown
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic
On Thanksgiving Day of this year I wrote:
What constituted “Dangertown†here in 11222, you ask? I’m saving that for an extra juicy post!
Well, that time has come.
Although the above image did not accompany the following article from the July 18, 1886 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle I felt it illustrated perfectly the grinding poverty that was once commonplace in the fair burgh we call home. Believe it or not this see-saw was considered plush by contemporary accounts. Greenpoint at the turn of the century was rife with crime, filth and gangs with colorful noms de guerre such as the “Dangertown Slobs”, “Jolly Four”, “Sons of Rest” and the “Undertakers”. The latter most moniker is my personal favorite, as the members purportedly called themselves as such because they completed everything they undertook —but make no mistake about it: the young Republican’s Glee Club these gentlemen most decidedly were NOT.
Two things haven’t changed over the last 124 years in Greenpoint; the watering holes are still quite plentiful and there’s plenty of hideous architecture to go around.* You can read the rest of this article about “Dangertown” (and its numerous shenanigans) by clicking here.
Miss Heather
*Karl Fischer
NYS Flickr Pool
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