The Doe Fund is bringing its clean up crews to Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. City Council Member Bill de Blasio is making the announcement today; he arranged for $34,250 in the city budget for the project. The clean up will take place from Fourth Street south to Prospect Avenue. (Sorry, Third Street and north…)
The Doe Fund also works Church Avenue between Dahill Road and Coney Island Avenue and they’ve been doing work in Coney Island among many other places. It’s a non-profit that “empowers people to break the cycles of homelessness, incarceration, and welfare dependency through paid-work programs, supportive services and housing. Ready, Willing & Able their residential, work and job skills training program which helps homeless individuals in their efforts to become self-sufficient.”
We caught Dondi the Elephant at the Dumbo Art Under the Bridge Festival yesterday. We were transfixed. Dondi is a very, very smart creature and pretty darned cute too. Someone asked the guy who lays down under her at the end of the vid if he was afraid to do so, and he said, “I trust this elephant more than any person.” Watch Dondi in Dumbo.
Workers were busy yesterday lifting the black shroud that has surrounded the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building all year. The black netting was supposed to have been down by July 4, but there was a bit of a delay. Nonetheless, netting and scaffold removal was in full swing when we stopped by. This photo was shot around 3PM and there was significantly less netting than Friday evening around 7PM. So, who knows, there’s probably even less right now on Sunday morning.
Here are a few photos we took at the Dumbo Art Under the Bridge Festival yesterday. It continues today and is very, very much worth checking out. We’ll have more pics and a full flickr set tomorrow.
September 30th, 2007 · Comments Off on Disconnected in Brooklyn on Craigslist: Trashpicking Disco Balls on Flatbush
It’s time for another Brooklyn Craigslist Missed Connection. This week’s top choice isn’t long, but it is certainly to the point. It’s also the first Missed Connection we’ve seen that has to do with trash picking:
you gave us your discoball although you took scene it. we told you we planned to put the discoball to good use — send us your phone number so we can invite you to the party.
ps we won’t tell anyone that you took the tuna. even though it was for your ‘cats’.
Was it a sealed can of tuna?
Comments Off on Disconnected in Brooklyn on Craigslist: Trashpicking Disco Balls on FlatbushTags:Missed Connections
We’ve poked some fun at the new park on Newtown Creek at the massive sewage treatment plant in Greenpoint, but if the truth be told we think it’s cool to have public access to that long-suffering body of water. Yes, there is irony in a nature walk at a sewage treatment facility and craziness that there’s a fishing area (we feel that any fish that lives in Newtown Creek should ever have to face a hook, even if it’s a catch it and toss it back situation…leave those fish alone). Regardless, New York Shitty paid a visit to the opening ceremony. You can check out her post her here and the excellent flickr set that she posted here.
Comments Off on Newtown Creek Nature Walk OpensTags:Greenpoint
September 30th, 2007 · Comments Off on Get Frantic at the Atlantic Antic Today
In case you’ve been out of borough for months or in a place without internet access, today is the famous Atlantic Antic. The 33rd edition of the Antic stretches for 1.5 miles down Atlantic Avenue, from Hicks Street in Brooklyn Heights to Fourth Avenue. It runs from 10AM-6PM. There is food. There is drink. There is entertainment galore. And, yes, there are tube socks. Also, The New York Transit Museum’s 14th Annual Bus Festival coincides with the Antic, on Boerum Place. A collection of vintage buses dating all the way back to 1917 will will be on display and ready to board, and there’s also free admission to the Transit Museum, which is a block away on Schermerhorn Street. For all the info you need, click here.
Comments Off on Get Frantic at the Atlantic Antic TodayTags:Events · Street Fairs
September 30th, 2007 · Comments Off on GL Sunday TV: Brooklyn Heights
A few vids from the YouTube of and from Brooklyn Heights, including one of Richard Thompson and David Byrne performing Psycho Killer at St. Ann’s in 1992.
Paying attention to the rampant violations of work hours and stop workers can be a rich and rewarding endeavor, although not necessarily for the victims. Take the case of 53 Java Street, a project designed by Brooklyn architect Robert Scarano, in Greenpoint. What you are looking at is a photo of a truck that tipped over into a house while workers were pouring concrete at the site yesterday evening in violation of a stop work order on the Scarano building. Our Greenpoint correspondent captured this scene as it unfolded, phoning in a report and, then, writing:
As the fine chaps at 53 Java Street were violating a stop work order today (pouring cement), the truck turned overturned and bruised up the front right-hand corner of its neighbor, 51 Java Street. As of 6:42 this evening they were still busy extracting it.
Per the owner of 51 Java (who I spoke to this evening), this is the second time they have hit his property. This time he fears there might be structural damage. The first time (these people hit his property) was 3 weeks ago. That time it was an earth mover. They destroyed 1/3 of his garden.
CALLER STATES THAT THE BOTTOM CORNER OF A BUILDING AT THE ABOVE LOCATION, WHERE THEY WERE CONSTRUCTION GOING ON THE CONSTRUCTION TRUCK OVER TURNED AND HIT THE BOTTOM OF BUILDING CAUSING STRUCTURAL DAMAGE.
Can’t wait to see how this one does, or doesn’t, turn out. A pretty sunset shot of the house damaging truck, below.
That was fast. Yesterday the New York Post reported that the Stop Work Order at The Modern on N. 7th Street–a development that we’ve chronicled extensively–had been lifted. We also blogged about it over at Curbed. The Modern (205 N. 7th Street), you might recall, had problems with damaging a building next door, busting a sewer line and, possibly damaging the L Train tunnel that runs along the property. Activist Phil De Paolo emailed us yesterday to say:
I was amazed when I noticed last week that the stop work order at 205 N 7th st was lifted when the violations that the stop work was issued for were not fixed. This is the second stop work order that the DOB has lifted at this site with the violations not being fixed. My greater concern is that there is a crack at 203 N 7th and the DOB is going to allow drilling and pile driving while the violation for failure to shore up this property is unresolved! The residents of 203 N 7th are seniors and their daughter and have lived at 203 all their lives. Something has to be done.
September 29th, 2007 · Comments Off on Translating the Miss Brooklyn Naming Story from Japanese
So, how would Frank Gehry’s story about naming Miss Brooklyn–his Atlantic Yards tower–read if it were translated from its Japanese version back into English by an auto-translation program? No Land Grab did and the results are funny. A sample:
All these motley colors, all these sincere Victoria type construction, took his starry night recollected a monochromatic background will be very wonderful. [Gehry] rides in a carriage along the urban district seeks the inspiration, and not only pays attention to a block or a resident organizes, moreover pays attention to a bride, in a movie slow motion. In the lid, this building domain movie direct, had found the lead which he imagines. He calls her to be called “Miss Brew Kelin” (Miss Brooklyn), and uses in an architectural complex central construction wave shape this name to do by the white glass the wall surface the tall building. In the Brew Kelin, the picture in Los Angeles, in the lid is designing a medium city.
“In the lid,” for some reason, is how Mr. Gehry translates from Japanese back into English. Click over for a full read about In the Lid, Mr. Ratner and Miss Brew Kelin.
Comments Off on Translating the Miss Brooklyn Naming Story from JapaneseTags:Architecture · Atlantic Yards
September 29th, 2007 · Comments Off on The CB7 Waterfront Festival, Today in Sunset Park
The 9th Annual Brooklyn Community Board 7 Waterfront Festival takes placer today on the 58th Street Pier, off First Avenue, in Sunset Park. It runs from Noon-6PM and includes food, music, art, peformnces, boat rides and more. Here are some of the listed activities: Music / Art / Dance, Refreshments / Food, Canoe trips / Free boat rides, Community information, Health / Dental screenings, FDNY smokehouse, Historic buses…and more. You can find more information here at their website.
Another test well was drilled yesterday on N. 11th Street across the street from the Roebling Oil Building. One of the technicians working on the project–who is very familiar with the spill area–called the underground spill “huge,” according to a resident who had a long conversation with the workers. “It’s much bigger than just a tank of oil,” he reportedly said. The workers, who are with a firm called Envirotrac, are drilling test wells for the Department of Environmental Conservation. The resident who watched the drilling noted that the soil became “as black as charcoal” as the crew drilled deeper.
Here is some of the report we received:
[The technician] explained that he thought this oil spill was “huge.” He gave me some of his opinion. He said that the developer/owner of McCarren Park Mews opposite first started his own investigation which is why the initial test wells were put down. The DEC then took over at state level to continue the investigation because they realized it was much bigger then a few test wells. He believed that when the building opposite started digging they went well below the water table to start their structure and in doing so started to pump the water. When pumping the water, it pulled up the oil from the subsurface and it kept coming as they kept pumping. The guy said to me that it’s much bigger then just a tank of oil. They are even putting wells on Union and N 11th for this one. He said they have got work in the area almost everyday.
Here is what the worker is reported to have said about obtaining test results, which many people have complained have not been available to the public:
When I asked if we could get test results, he said “No, I can’t give you those.” I said, “not from you of course, but would they ever be published in such a way that we(residents) could get them? Like from the DEC?” He said, “You could try but the DEC would never give you that either. They can be difficult most of the time.”
We have always been very restrained in characterizing the extent of the underground oil at the Roebling Oil Field because we don’t know how much is there or its source, nor have any of the documents we have seen shed light on the mystery. We do know that when people in the field that are doing tests–who are employed by a major player in the environmental testing field–call a spill “huge” and say that it is “much bigger than just a tank of oil” that it tends to set off some alarm bells. Or, at least, creates a strong desire for state environmental officials to fully disclose every bit of information about what is under the ground near the Roebling Oil Field and the potential scope of the oil contamination. Hundreds of new residential units are planned in areas that could potentially be impacted by a “huge” underground contamination issue. The source who had the conversation with the worker concludes by saying this of the lack of information:
It’s like sitting on a mine field with nowhere to turn. No one will help us poor residents. Clean up could take decades. And by then we will all drop dead from cancers! What do we do now?
September 28th, 2007 · Comments Off on Brooklyn Nibbles: Huge Ricky’s Greenpoint Special
So, what Brooklyn neighborhoods won’t have a Ricky’s outpost by this time next year? The big news out of Greenpoint yesterday–proclaimed in photos of signage–was that Ricky’s is opening a store on Manhattan Avenue. Our friends at Racked conveyed the news, noting that it will be a Halloween store and then open up as a regular Ricky’s by December. The inimitable New York Shitty, meanwhile, welcomed Ricky’s with open arms. She calls Ricky’s “a godsend to all Greenpointers who wish to shop for adult novelty items,” and said something about plugs. And, she wasn’t talking about earplugs. Just think of all the Brooklynites who won’t have to go to Manhattan anymore to buy, you know, whatever it is they were going there to buy that will no be on sale in Greenpoint. Interesting days in the world of North Brooklyn retail, people.
September 28th, 2007 · Comments Off on Say What: Gold Medal Award Winner
Let’s just say this wasn’t like this a couple of weeks ago. The photo was emailed to us by Williamsburg blogger INSIJS and is of the corner of Wythe Avenue and N. 6th Street where the old National Sawdust building is being demolished. He emails:
That’s a “stop ahead” sign almost entirely engulfed in the shed, warning drivers about the equally-obscured stop sign at the corner. Ironically, that’s a notorious intersection for both stop-sign blowers, and NYPD stings of said blowers. PD sits at that corner often in the morning, pulling over drivers who coast through the crossing….lets hope there’s not a heinous accident because of this.
Excellent, excellent work. Anyone up for a Music Hall of Williamsburg Pedestrian Fatality Betting Pool?
September 28th, 2007 · Comments Off on Cruise Ye Olde Gowanus on Sunday
Ever wanted to see the Gowanus Canal from the water? Of course, you can always do that in a canoe courtesy of the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club, but here’s a chance to do it in a boat. The Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment, which sponsors many great tours all year long, is offering its Gowanus Canal Cruise on Sunday, Sept. 30 from 9:30AM-12 Noon. The tour will be led by Dan Wiley and the boat will leave from the Fulton Ferry Landing, opposite the River Cafe, where the New York Water Taxi stop is. You have to pre-pay and pre-register and can do so my calling Ruth Edebohls at 718-788-8500 at Ext. 208. You can also email edebohls (at) bcue (dot) org. They write:
Join us as we cruise the Canal and introduce newcomers and old fans alike to the secrets of this now legendary waterway. See the changes in the Canal and its neighborhood and hear tales of the area’s environment, history, industry and planning. Check-in will take place at 9:30 am, with the vessel departing promptly at 10:00. This is the rescheduled summer tour that was canceled due to Hamilton Ave Bridge construction, now complete until next summer.
The L Train, which is the lifeline of an awful lot of people living in North Brooklyn got a mixed set of marks in the latest NYC Transit report cards filled out by riders. While they’re far from stellar grades, they’re a lot better than you’d think, given service disruptions, overcrowding and the like. Here’s a bit from the story in today’s Daily News:
Riders who filled out NYC Transit report cards have graded the line a C. More than 4,000 straphangers completed the report cards, rating the line in 21 categories, including room at rush hour, lack of graffiti in subway cars and sense of security on trains…
“The line has also seen unprecedented ridership growth, growth we didn’t fully anticipate and have been unable to respond to as quickly as we would have liked,” Roberts added.
Riders didn’t give top marks to the line in any category but gave it a B-minus rating in five areas: onboard signs that help riders find their way; lack of graffiti inside trains; comfortable temperature in subway cars; ease of use of subway turnstiles and the availability of MetroCard vending machines.
No F grades were issued, but the line did receive a D for lack of room onboard trains at rush hour.
Straphangers doled out C, C-plus and C-minus grades in the bulk of the categories, including sense of security on trains and in stations, working escalators, station announcements and helpfulness of staff.
