Greenpoint
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Culture on the Cheap
From The New York Shitty Inbox: Catch Of The Day
A chap named Erik writes:
Hi Miss Heather!
I’m Erik, a Huron Streeter and avid fan of NYS.
First things first, thanks for posting on the Green Sweep from this past weekend. My wife and I were captains on the cleanup, and I originally found out about it from the blog.
So thank you for publicizing that. Felt good to participate, even though we wound up being just sort of co-captains of each another on the clean-up. We hauled off many shits! I felt I should have said ‘hello’ at Red Star Sunday morning, but I guess I was a little under-caffeinated.
…Attached is a quick follow-up on your 6/5 post New York Shitty Photo du Jour: Gone Fishing
As I approached the site of the photo in your post, these Polish gentlemen were wrestling the line – they had a nibble! It was actually pretty vigorous. Eventually, after climbing all around the smashed concrete blocks, the older man pulled in a large fish which he identified as striped bass. These fisherman are evidently regulars, and have marked out inch-long hashes in sharpie on the top of the bulkhead /barricade, and they measured the beast at 36 inches. They were clearly planning to eat this thing. I left before the fileting began.
In a shared a moment of revulsion and incredulity, an onlooker wondered about the pollution, if the fish was safe to eat. I later learned that the bass are migratory, and only come into these ‘fresh’ water estuaries to spawn. They spend a lot of the time out at sea. so you never know. For more info on this fish, check this out.
I too have seen this chap fishing on the waterfront.* In fact I have seen him use the housing for the feral cat colony on India Street as his butcher table. Although he struck me as being a rather nice chap I could not bring myself to question why he would eat something culled out of the East River. Then again, I doubt whatever “added-value” this bass sports can be as terrifying as the crabs I have caught men catching at the Newtown Creek Nature Walk and the Manhattan Avenue Kayak Launch. (Yes, I really have seen this.)
Thanks for passing along this bit of Greenpoint goodness, Erik— and helping to make our neighborhood a little bit cleaner!
Miss Heather
*Last weekend one off his companions fired up the stereo in his pick-up truck and cranked ‘Wham” for everyone’s enjoyment!
From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Archives: This Old House
As many of your are aware I took my buddy Kevin Walsh around our fair neighborhood. One block both he and I enjoyed was Huron Street. I made sure to point out to him the above house which I particularly like. This house (located at 109 Huron Street) is among yours trulys personal favorites. On a lark this weekend I researched it on the Brooklyn Daily Eagle archives. Not only did a find a couple of news items but they were of a decidedly shady variety! Kicking things off I present for your entertainment this tale of a disputed inheritance which dates from the September 12, 1896 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Enjoy!
So how did it end? Well, I could not find anything in the archives but if the next item (which comes four years later) is any indication, everyone was sent packing. It became the residence of one Mr. Mooney. He was looking for a fight and guess what? He found it.
Who knew such a cute little house had such a sordid history!
Miss Heather
New York Shitty Photos du Jour: West Street
Today yours truly had the pleasure of showing the inimitable Kevin Walsh of Forgotten New York around our fair burgh. It was on the corner of West and Huron Street that we bumped this festively dressed group of people. I was told by one of them they were filming a music video for a band called “She Say’s She’s Ms. Blat”. The more curious among you can check out their Myspace page by clicking here!
Miss Heather
Spotted At 984 Manhattan Avenue: WPIX
Filed under: 11222, Asshole, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Plagiarism
Today yours truly decided to take it easy and knock around the Garden Spot. You can imagine my surprise when I spied a television crew on Manhattan Avenue between Huron Street and India Street. It was Greg Mocker from Channel 11, and yes, he was interviewing people regarding the “beeping” fliers yours truly wrote about yesterday. For shits and giggles I decided to hang around and watch him at work. Hilarity ensued. (TEASER: Those of you who are fans of our Community Board’s Public Safety Chair— and you know who you are— will be pleased to know he makes a cameo appearance at the very end!)
Here’s the deal, folks:
1. Aside from flat-out lying to a chap he was interviewing about the provenance of the story he was “reporting” I find it rather sad that this is the kind of “new item” that apparently merits the professional media’s attention nowadays. There a lot of great stories to be found in Greenpoint. This is not one of them. So much for the media being the “watch dogs” for the people.
2. Those of you who live in the area know (as I do) that the gentleman he is interviewing is not normal. He is very nice, to be certain but I do not know if he is merely learning disabled, has a speech impediment or is struggling with addiction (as many people hereabouts are)— or all of the above. For this reason I find it utterly reprehensible that Mr. Mocker would consider subjecting this man to media attention (and therefore ridicule). This chap cannot help being what god made him. Therefore, it would seem to me that the responsibility falls on Mr. Mocker— as a human being— not to exploit this gentleman’s shortcomings. But this seems to be what he was up to and as such he is putting a “face” on this community that is not only highly inaccurate, but quite frankly also insulting. We come in all shapes and stripes here.
UPDATE, 10:24 p.m.: I have word from my buddy Kevin over at Forgotten-NY that yours truly was given props (albeit as “thatgreenpointblog”) from Mr. Mocker himself! In addition our Public Safety Chair makes a rather amusing appearance. See for yourself:
As you can imagine I am very pleased by these developments. However:
1. I doubt I would have been credited had the above exchange not taken place.
2. I would be really, truly grateful if Mr. Mocker would cover more substantive issues in my community moving forward. And believe you there are plenty of those to be found!
Miss Heather
Spotted On Manhattan Avenue: A Query
I happened upon a number of these fliers while walking down Manhattan Avenue this morning. I must have encountered at least eight between Huron and India Street alone. Clearly this person is annoyed. Believe you me yours truly feels his (or her pain); several years ago I had the misfortune of having a neighbor who was seemingly unaware that smoke detectors require batteries in order to function simply jettison it out the window in a fit of pique. As a result we had to listen to its dulcet mating call for 24 hours straight. This made me very unhappy.
The good news is methinks I have located the source of this sound! Last night as the Mister and I were walking down Manhattan Avenue we were rather mystified by a strange beeping sound originating from the pay phones located in front of Ott Restaurant. Feeling cheeky, I answered both pay phones with an enthusiastic:
Dobranoc!*
I was met with silence— and the beeping kept right on going! If the author of the above missives is reading this methinks this is where you’ll find your culprit. Good luck!
Miss Heather
*This means “Good Night” in Polish.
From The New York Shitty Inbox: NAG Needs Your Help!
This item comes courtesy of the folks at NAG (Neighbors Allied For Good Growth):
Everyone in North Brooklyn knows that McGuinness Blvd. is dangerous, especially for the most vulnerable road users: pedestrians and cyclists.
NAG is currently continuing a traffic monitoring effort started last year by NAG volunteer Les Brown, at the intersection of McGuinness Blvd. and Nassau Street. (Check out this article for more). We’ll be using Transportation Alternatives’ Traffic Monitoring Kit to tally egregious traffic violations and will need two people/shift for the following shifts:
Tuesday 4/19 am (one hour of 7:30-8:30 or 8:30-9:30);
Wednesday 4/20 am (one hour of 7:30-8:30 and 8:30-9:30) and pm (one hour of 4:30-5:30 or 5:30-6:30) shifts;
Thursday 4/21 am and pm;
Friday 4/22 am.Below are some videos of pedestrians crossing, showing lack of pedestrian refuges and, in the second video, the heavy truck traffic volume. With long wait times between traffic signals, many pedestrians cross against the light and then are stuck in the middle of McGuinness without a proper refuge. According to crashstat.org and recent news, there have been at least 12 fatal crashes between 1995 and 2010 on McGuinness Blvd. and the street is part of the DOT’s “focus areas” under its Safe Streets for Seniors initiative. This data collection will help NAG in its continuing effort to advocate for traffic calming measures on this dangerous street.
To volunteer, please contact Summer Greenstein at summergreenstein (at) gmail (dot) com.
For more information about McGuinness and this project see:
and videos of pedestrians crossing McGuinness at Nassau:
Follows is my favorite bit of McGuinness Death Race 2010 goodness. It hails from the intersection of Green Street and was shot by yours truly. I call it “30 MPH?”. This was shot May 12th of last year.
And then of course you have this, which was shot by Kitchen Prof on 27th of January this year.
Here’s the deal: anyone who lives in Greenpoint knows this thoroughfare is very, VERY dangerous. Speeding along this stretch has gone virtually unchecked and some of our fellow Garden Spotters have been hurt— or have died— as a result. Those of you, dear readers, who have the ability to volunteer for this study please contact Summer at the above-listed email address. Thanks!
Photo Credits: The photo gracing the beginning of this post was taken by Jay Lombard.
Greenpoint Feral Furniture Watch: Huron Street
Filed under: 11222, Feral Furniture, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Greenwood Heights, Street Furniture
It would appear our Modern number has made some new friends over the last two weeks!
Miss Heather
NYS Flickr Pool
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