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From The New York Shitty Inbox: An Eyewitness Account Of Last Night’s Fire
J (who took the above photograph) writes:
Hi Miss Heather –
Saw the plume erupt just as the regular fire works were lighting up on the Hudson from my friend’s roof and started to count off the blocks north of Metropolitan. Apparently some hipster douchebags were setting off rocket fireworks on Wythe and N.9th and one went into the sawdust hopper of Rosenwach Water Tank. Way to go douchebags! Another Williamsburg institution ruined!!
Cops and Fire Dept are investigating, with probable arrest and incarceration coming soon since it sounds like alot of people know who did it and knowing the wburg gossip train, the city should know within a few more hours once loose lips sink somebody’s yacht. And probably somebody is gonna get their ass beat too, because those guys are working stiffs, and now probably a good dozen of them are out of a job. Thanks a lot douchebags!!
“Oh, we’re sorry, we’re sorry!”
I’m friggin pissed off.
So there have you. For more information check out Brooklyn11211’s update.
Miss Heather
Comments
7 Comments on From The New York Shitty Inbox: An Eyewitness Account Of Last Night’s Fire
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Tony From Kent Street on
Sun, 5th Jul 2009 9:48 pm
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missheather on
Sun, 5th Jul 2009 10:34 pm
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neighborhood threat on
Sun, 5th Jul 2009 10:52 pm
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mikki on
Mon, 6th Jul 2009 1:01 am
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NYC.Is on
Mon, 6th Jul 2009 2:36 pm
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Spanky on
Tue, 7th Jul 2009 8:07 am
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| Now and Then: an American Social History Project blog on
Thu, 9th Jul 2009 5:40 pm
I think the fire is a real tragedy and I hope that Rosenwach, one of only two wooden tank manufacturers left in New York, survives somehow like they have since 1886. The NYTimes did an article & slideshow on them just a couple months ago:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/04/07/nyregion/20090408lens_index.html
I also think it’s childish to turn this into yet another, overdone expression of hate for privileged white people by basically privileged white people. Plenty of Black, Hispanic & Chinese people have damaged and destroyed their neighborhoods homes & businesses through their amateur use of fireworks in Brooklyn and beyond.
Perhaps, but you have to admit it takes an especially STUPID person to discharge fireworks next to a lot containing large amounts of lumber, sawdust, etc.
There are white people who move to New York and move into cheaper neighborhoods and who learn how to fit into the neighborhood. They keep the music down, they say good morning to the old Italian ladies on the corner, they develop a friendship with the guys at the corner bodega, they help the local kids coax their cat out from underneath a parked car, they hold their neighbor’s packages, they sign for UPS when he shows up and no one else is home.
They become part of the neighborhood.
Then there are the white people who move to a cheaper neighborhood and believe that the neighborhood is their personal playground. They shop at Whole Foods or some other store in the city, they walk down their street screaming and drunk at 3 in the morning on a Monday night, not caring that they might be waking people up. They don’t understand that they are part of a city that existed before they got there and will be there long after they leave. They don’t understand that this isn’t a television show.
I hate those people whether they are black, white, green or orange. The fact that they are white and I am white just makes me want to smack them silly. They make ME look bad. They make it harder for me to get an apartment, they increase my security deposit, they reinforce a stereotype that exists because of people like them all over Williamsburg and Greenpoint and the East Village and anywhere else people go to live because it was cheap at one point.
I’ve seen people of all races and ages setting off illegal fireworks throughout Williamsburg.
Probably more of a stupidity issue than a race/gentrification issue, in this case…someone just shared this post on our site along with a breathtaking photo from Flickr. Vote it up if you’d like http://nyc.is/node/2578
I tell you, it’s suspicious. Wooden tank builders in hip area. Very valuable property. Hmmm.
[…] taking part in the time-honored tradition of setting off illegal fireworks), the ugly tone of the commentary suggests that tensions in the now-gentrified neighborhood between longtime residents and newer, […]
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