Greenpoint
Lorven Pharmacy
Culture on the Cheap
Greenpoint Photos Du Jour: Huron Street
Filed under: 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Stuff That Makes Miss Heather Happy, Stuff The Makes Heather Sad
When is a stripped, abandoned car that’s been left on the street for over a month not a stripped, abandoned car that’s been left on the street for over a month?
When it is called art! Note this is located across the from the defaced sex toy ads of infamy. You know folks, priorities.
UPDATE, 8/21/19, 2:54 PM: I have received word this hilarious item has been removed. I went out and checked personally and IT WAS! See folks:
- If you make an abandoned car art, the police will remove it.
- Shaming WORKS!
Audience Participation Time: Lipstick on a Pig
I concluded the yesterday’s postage with a rather lengthy screed about derelict construction sites in Williamsburg and our city’s inability and/or unwillingness to police them. As you can probably deduce from said post, I have been stewing over this phenomenon for some time. I will not lie to you: it felt good to finally “get it out”. What’s more, I really enjoyed one of the comments left on the aforementioned post.
Xris of Flatbush Gardener writes:
It’s not a sidewalk, it’s a promenade.
It’s not graffito, it’s a fresco.
It’s not a vacant lot, it’s an atrium.
It’s not an abandoned foundation, it’s a sunken garden.The real estate moguls just need to turn that thing around and put lipstick on that pig!
I have given Xris’s proposition considerable thought and have decided that we, the residents of north Brooklyn, should lend a hand in this sterling endeavor. Which brings me to this.
I found this “enhanced beverage” at North 12 Street between Bedford and Driggs Avenue yesterday afternoon. I find many such specimens in north Brooklyn— usually at failed construction sites. They are known in some circles as “trucker bombs”. Per the Urban Dictionary:
A plastic container (could be a milk jug or a water bottle) that a trucker pisses in while he is driving his truck. Then he throws it out of the window so that he does not have to stop to relieve the call of nature. Can also be a plastic bag and feces may be involved. “Don’t get hit with that trucker-bomb”
This terminology may suit middle-America but it simply too pedestrian for the upscale haven that is Williamsburg (which, it should be noted, has reduced truck traffic). A neighborhood where a one bedroom apartment can run you anywhere from $2,000 a month and up deserves better. So far the best re-branding I have come up with for this human by-product is “McCarren Kombucha”. Certainly a better name can be found. This is where you come in: can you think of a snappy new name for this urban artifact? If so, please leave it in the comments.
Thanks!
Miss Heather
Williamsburg Video Du Jour: Sunday Afternoon On Manhattan Avenue
Today’s example of developer blight comes courtesy of a smallish lot on Manhattan Avenue just north of Grand Street. What initially caught my eye was the “gate” to this site gently listing back and forth in the breeze. Having had a considerable amount of experience with illegal weekend construction I figured there would be workers busy hammering, sawing and riveting. As you will see this ended up not being the case.
Public safety hazard or a new jungle gym for neighborhood youth? I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions.
Miss Heather
Presenting “Rapey Alley”
Filed under: Williamsburg
After hearing about the armed robbery down at North 11 Street and Union Avenue that went down last weekend I have been jonesing like a lab rat to get down there and behold the scene of the crime personally. More specifically, I wanted to take in the splendor that is what my colleague Bad Advice calls “Rapey Alley”. On February 16, 2009 she writes:
Call me a wuss, but scaffolding is creepy. At least they’ve finally added lights to ours, but so far I have found lurking: a sofa (okay, not creepy, just large), a man’s jacket (obviously torn off his body), and a backpack that someone had helpfully emptied of its contents. Maybe it belonged to the jacket-owner, who knows. But by far, the creepiest thing I’ve found in Rapey Alley lurks after the jump—
Not only did I manage to locate the underwear which accompanied the bra Bad Advice found but I happened upon a lot more neat stuff (like the freshly painted but inoperative call box gracing the beginning of this post). Follow are some highlights.
Somebody’s leftover sandwich.
Scaffolding which appears to have been rammed by a motor vehicle.
Some loose electrical wires.
This. Whatever the hell it is.
Evidence of Williamsburg Nazis.
Of course if you want to see some old school developer blight you should head over the North 9th Street between Roebling and Havemeyer.
I like to call this shot “Progress”.
No parking.
The graffiti on this fence reads:
No more condos. Fight gentrification.
Mission accomplished.
Miss Heather
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