Greenpoint
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Culture on the Cheap
An Ugly Incident At Greenpoint’s New Park
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic
Some of you no doubt recall how long it took this park (which is located at the end of Manhattan Avenue) to happen: just shy of two years. After an inexcusable series of delays it is open now, much to the pleasure of Greenpointers new, old, or simply passing through.
Like these EMT workers taking a much needed break on a Sunday afternoon.
Unfortunately where are others who not only are treating this sorely needed bit of open space as their own beer garden, but when confronted they became belligerent.
Laura writes:
Mike & I have been going to the new park at Manhattan Ave, practically every day. It’s beautiful. Sunday evening, we were there with some family members. There was a group of young Slavic guys & gals drinking beer and tossing the beer bottles onto the lawn and in the high grass. My son sensed that I was upset and went over to pick up any visible bottles. He said to the group, “There’s a garbage over there, you know.” One of the guys responded with a few sarcastic comments and the group continued to drink and litter there. I was looking at the group, hoping they would feel uncomfortable and leave, but that didn’t happen. I proceeded to call the police. Then the same sarcastic guy hollered over “Are you calling the F%#@@ Police on us, you bitch?”. I replied, “Yes”.
With that, the same guy started to approach us with threatening motions. He was clearly trying to start a physical confrontation with my family. ( My granddaughter was there. ) My son, of course stood up ready to defend us. I didn’t want a fight to break out so I stood between the guy & my son & continued to call 911. The guy started to make threatening motions toward my son. He threatened to hit my son & Mike ( cane & all! ). I pulled out my camera. And he moved away. Mike took the phone to complete the call. The others began to scatter. I started to take photos of their vehicle & license plates. One of the guys tried to block the photo. With that, they scurried out of the park ( still holding the beer bottles)…
while I continued to take pictures. One of the guys and one of the girls, came walking back.
The girl was cursing and coming toward me until she realized that I had two daughter in laws with me. They left. There’s a witness… She gave me her name & phone number…
As previously stated Laura called the police— and guess what? After taking an hour to show up they didn’t seem to care!
The police got there over an hour later. The PO ( Ferguson ) said that we couldn’t make out a report. He did however give me the precinct phone number (after some push from me) so I could call in the license plate number when I enlarged the photo. I enlarged it and did leave that message… I don’t believe that I couldn’t fill out a police report just because the offenders left. I feel that I was denied a police report. Technically, there’s nothing on record at the 94th about this incident. And that’s how the precinct likes it. I called 911, so it’s in their system… I’m really tired of not getting help from the 94th Precinct. These youths know my family’s faces. And they are evidently a nasty group. The last thing we need is a nasty group of drinkers at that park. The lack of police interest makes me feel like we’re in the position to defend ourselves…
Welcome to life in the 94th Precinct.
Miss Heather
New York Shitty Day Starter: From Gowanus To Ditmas
Today’s slide show will take us on a venereal journey from the alpha:
The Gowanus Canal as seen above, replete in its septic, aromatic and Gonohorreaic glory, to Kensington, Ditmas Park, Flatbush (the shots of the old Loew’s Theatre are my favorites) and back again to Kensington for the omega:
S.T.D. Wines and Liquors at 89 Church Avenue.
Enjoy!
Miss Heather
P.S.: For more information about the fetid state of the Gowanus Canal watch this. And take note that our very own David Yassky— the ostensible chair of the Newtown Creek Monitoring Commitee— and frequent “no show” (he sends his P.R. hack Rami Metal instead) is against super-funding Gowanus. If Gowanus goes will Newtown Creek be next? I wouldn’t rule out the possibiliy. Ours is the best government developers can buy.
Introducing The Newtown Pentacle
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic, Long Island City, Maspeth, Newtown Creek, Queens, Sunnyside
Last night I had the damnedest time falling asleep. At 2:00 a.m. I found myself tossing and turning so I decided to get a glass of milk and poke around on the computer. I am glad I did because I came across a pingback from a new site called The Newtown Pentacle. Intrigued I checked it out. Although only a handful of posts strong I have to admit this site looks very promising. As for what it is about I’ll let the author, Mitch Waxman, do the talking (from his inaugural post dating from May 29, 2009):
The colonial era towns of Green Point, Brooklyn and the Queens towns of Astoria, Ravenswood, Hunter’s Point, Bowery Bay, and Middletown were called Newtown in Dutch and English times. In the early 19th century, the Queens villages combined to form Long Island City. The industrial center of the area was and still is Newtown Creek. The most polluted body of water on earth, this ancient inlet was once home to the Maspaetche Indians. Dutch Orchards and English farms gave way to Yankee rail and then Standard Oil as time went by. Today, its waters are a curious shade of copper green, and the largest oil spill in history gurgles back and forth through deep subterranean channels between Green Point and Long Island City. The architecture of the place is disturbingly heterogeneous. A rough tumble of styles are represented in this area — 19th century wrought iron row houses predominate, but 18th century warehouses are still on active duty in some places. Near Hunter’s Point and in Old Astoria, Antebellum mansions abut hideous Le Corbusier-influenced modernism. To the south and the east can be found some of the most interesting stone work in New York City as one explores the cemetery belt along the Brooklyn and Queens border.
Three million New Yorkers lie in Calvary cemetery alone. In this, the Necropolis of New York City, the living population of Queens is outnumbered three to one.
After a health scare a couple of years ago, my doctors recommended a course of clean living and regimen of physical exercise as the best curative. An amateur antiquarian and connoisseur of odd information, I elected to use my prescriptive exertions as an opportunity to explore and record. I toured crumbling Long Island City, the tree lined lanes of Victorian Astoria, and rusty coastlines of foetid Newtown Creek. Headphones on, camera in hand. The journey has taken me to many odd and forgotten places, and led me to discover a fascinating group of people. Follow me on these long walks, I promise you’ll see something amazing.
The previous isn’t just a bunch of verbiage either: Mr. Waxman delivers. Do give this site a whirl. It’s fascinating.
Miss Heather
Photo Credit: Mitch Waxman
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 Photo Du Jour: No Wading, Please
This public service announcement comes from the Newtown Creek Nature Walk. You can more snaps from my recent trip to Greenpoint’s most (in)famous park by clicking here.
Miss Heather
Citypoint Photos Du Jour: From Newtown Creek With Love
From north Brooklyn’s (or southwestern Queens’s) Seine.
When I look westward to Manhattan I do not see a pretty skyline. Rather, I envision an infinite number of bowel movements, vomit and detritus that will soon find their way two blocks from my home.
Stand up and be counted, Greenpoint, for the shit you are about to receive!
Nobel prize winners, diplomats— PRESIDENTS— and Joey Arak* have graced my neighborhood with the by-products of their respective genius. Maybe I’ll pick up a fraction of their gifts via schnozmosis? I can only hope so. It’s been especially stanktastic of late.
The bigger the stench = the bigger the brain?
Miss Heather
*This is not necessarily sarcasm.
The Waterpod Cometh
This item comes courtesy of Laura Hofmann of GWAPP. What is the Waterpod, you ask? Here’s a description from its brand-spanking new web site:
Waterpodâ„¢ is a floating sculptural living structure designed as a new habitat for the global warming epoch. It is currently scheduled to launch in New York in May, 2009, from the Newtown Creek between Brooklyn and Queens, navigate down the East River, explore the waters of New York Harbor, and stopping at each of the five boroughs it will dock at several Manhattan piers on the Hudson River, then beyond.
As a sustainable, navigable living space, Waterpodâ„¢ showcases the critical importance of the environment and serves as a model for new living technologies. It illustrates positive interactions between communities: private and corporate; artistic and social; aquatic and terrestrial. Built from recycled and found materials, Waterpodâ„¢ is structured as a triple-domed island for: (i) community and artistic activity; (ii) eco-initiatives including food grown with purified water from the Hudson River; and (iii) living space…
You can read the rest by clicking here. Those of you who have ever wanted to live on Newtown Creek* (and you know who you are) this might be your golden opportunity!
Miss Heather
*albeit briefly
Image Credit: thewaterpod.org
Greenpoint Photo Du Jour: Ice
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic
From the Greenpoint Manufacturing & Design Center.
Miss Heather
Best. Christmas. Card. Ever.
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic
As it would happen I bumped into my buddies Mike And Laura during last week’s snowstorm. Just like myself, once they saw the snow they immediately thought of our very own waste treatment facility. However, they were more adventurous (or impervious to hypothermia) than I. Upon noticing the first hint of the white stuff our power couple (or double trouble) proceeded to Greenpoint’s nature walk without delay to capture the wonderland that is our newest park.
I got a nice picture of some yellow snow for you.
Laura said. This choice morsel has yet to find its way to my inbox. But the following, what is perhaps the finest Christmas e-card I have ever seen, has. I loved it so much I simply had to share with you. Enjoy!
Is it me or does that reindeer bear more than a passing resemblance to Mr. Hankey the Christmas turd?
Miss Heather
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