Greenpoint
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Culture on the Cheap
From The New York Shitty Inbox: Much Ado About 65 Commercial Street
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic
The following comes courtesy of the headmistress of the McCarren Dog Run group. She writes:
It’s Rebecca11222. When I am not discovering Lifetime Achievement Awards in shrubbery, I serve as Email Maven for the McCarren Park Dog Run Association. This crossed my desk & pissed me off. The people should know.
Hello McCarren Park Dog. On behalf of Council Member David Yassky, I have attached two letters that we are going to deliver to the Mayor and the MTA on behalf of the community residents and organizations concerning 65 Commercial Street.
As part of the 2005 rezoning of Williamsburg/Greenpoint, 65 Commercial Street in Greenpoint was to become a waterfront park for the
community. The MTA has been using the lot and had promised the Administration that they would vacate the lot once a suitable alternative was found for them. Yet four years after the rezoning the MTA remains on the site.We are asking community groups to sign on to the attached letters and we hope that you will lend your name to this cause. We will be doing a press conference about this in the coming days as well and I will certainly keep you posted about that.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Rami
This seems all well and good until you ask the question:
How will this park be paid for?
You could ask Rami (who can be reached at rmetal (at) council (dot) nyc (dot) gov) but I’ll answer it for you:
By selling the air rights so as to build yet more “luxury condominiums” Greenpoint neither needs nor wants. High rises no less. The last I checked they are to be designed by north Brooklyn’s architect of choice and author of the unfolding atrocity at 200 Franklin Street…
none other than Karl Fischer! Don’t believe me? go to Karl’s web site, look up “60 Commercial Street” and see for yourself!
Miss Heather
Greenwick Photos Du Jour: Never Forget
Commercial Street
Harrison Place
Miss Heather
P.S.: In related news Construction Safety Week is cometh— and soon!
Just in time for Pa Heather’s visit to our fair city! Boy is he in for a treat.
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
Post Blizzard Wrap-up Part II: A Walk Around The Garden Spot
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic
As promised here is a slide show featuring highlights from my jaunt around Brooklyn’s one and only 11222 yesterday. Enjoy!
Inasmuch as I gripe about the snow I have to admit it has does have its charm— as does Greenpoint!
Miss Heather
Reader Contribution Du Jour: Greenpoint In Black & White
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic
Yesterday I received an email from a gentleman named Kris. It was entitled “some photos of greenpoint” and its body contained a Flickr link with the following commentary:
nothing particularly interesting… no story, no nothing.
Intrigued, I ventured over to Flickr to see these “not particularly interesting” photographs. The work I discovered was anything but dull; it was quite beautiful. Enough so that I had trouble deciding which photographs to run so I decided to simply embed the whole set below. Enjoy!
If the previous strikes Kris as being nothing special I can only hope he will share some “extraordinary” shots of the Garden Spot with us in the future. Thanks for bring these shots to my attention Kris, they made my day!
Miss Heather
Call For Entries
This item comes courtesy of a lady named Diana. She writes:
Inspiration and Interpretation’ is a juried show looking for ceramic work along with the initial inspiration (sketch, photograph or an object). A one-of-a-kind opportunity to showcase the process by highlighting the inspiration and exhibiting its interpretation. The show will feature both the inspiration as well as the work that was produced.
To get the application form and guidelines point and click your way over to Clay Space 1205’s web site (the application can be found at the bottom left hand corner). Top three artists will be invited back to the gallery for a three person show at a later date. NOTE: all entries must be received by March 13th, 2009.
Good luck!
Miss Heather
NYS Flickr Pool
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