Greenpoint
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Culture on the Cheap
121 and 123 Huron Street speak out about Magic’s mischief
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic
Before heading out to the Brooklyn Blogfest (to represent the 17th Ward AKA Greenpoint), I read the following email from a tenant at 121 Huron…
Hi, Heather —
I live right behind the construction site, at 121 Huron Street. I think the woman you overheard talking with Larry is my landlord, Monika. At any rate, the broken glass is from the old ivy-covered brick wall that separates the backyards of two or three buildings on Huron (including ours) from the condos. Monika told me that the construction workers, in advance of knocking down the wall to build the south facade of the new building, have smashed all of its panes into our yard.
It may not be quite as bad as the 7 a.m. pile driver (I bounce in the tub while showering), but it’s certainly not very neighborly.
Hope to see you next week in court!
When I got home this evening, I got an earful from a tenant at 123 Huron:
I am so glad I found your site. Because I have not seen riots in the local streets over the maddening earthquakes that begin at 7 a.m., I had thought I might just be going crazy. Or perhaps that I was the only person on Huron Street that doesn’t have a dayjob and happens to be home. Is it just me or was the pile driver even louder this morning? I live at 123 Huron and I’m beginning to wonder if I should take the advice that I heard from a fireman yesterday – “wear a hardhat while sleepingâ€.
I greatly appreciate your coverage of this, and would happily join in any sort of protest or filing of a complaint. Apparently my whining to 311 does absolutely nothing.
There have you. Unlike the previous two peeps, I do not live adjacent to this site; I live down the block and across the street. Yet even I find the noise excessive. A number of tenants in my building work 2nd and 3rd shift— given that Greenpoint (still) is a working class neighborhood this is not unusual. If anything, it is the norm. Why is our right to comfortable enjoyment of our respective apartments less important than the rights of this developer— or the affluent clientele it seeks to attract?
Classist rhetoric aside, one person displaced by this project’s seeming disregard for public safety (and/or our mental health) is one too many. To recap:
- They poked a four square foot hole in 106 Green 2/13/07.
- They have scattered glass cherds all over 121 Huron’s backyard.
- They may or may not have damaged the residential property at 131 Huron Street.
- That pile driver is insanity-inducing. Whether or not one hold’s a “day job” is irrelevant; we have rights and they have been subordinated to this ‘project’. I call bullshit.
If this situation is left fester (by our goverment agencies/officials), the worst is yet to come. I only hope no one gets hurt.
Miss Heather
131 Huron Street vs. 110 Green Street
Filed under: Area 51
I recently mentioned that the peeps hereabouts are not too happy with the construction going on at
I have yet to speak to a single person in this ‘nabe who approves of this project. Everyone I have talked to resents this obnoxious, ugly, noisy and (very) unnecessary slab of (yet more) ‘luxury development’. But talk is just that: talk.
One local landlord is actually trying to do something about it.
Goliath, meet your David:
131 Huron Street, managed by one Larry Schwab. This humble tenement building has the dubious honor of abutting the 110 Green Street construction site on two sides: east and north. I am certain the fact that 131 Huron’s eastern wall was rendered ‘plumb’ a little shy of 10 years ago is one source of concern to Mr. Schwab (otherwise the building’s record per the DOB and HPD was pretty clean). But I strongly suspect fielding calls from angry tenants is the primary fly in his proverbial ointment. The poor souls whose apartments are located in the rear of this building (or worse yet, the tenants of this garage apartment) have got to be going out of their fucking minds from the noise and lack of privacy.
As it happens, I spoke to Mr. Schwab briefly this evening via telephone and got the scoop. Here is a synoposis of what he told me…
- He has attempted to work with the management of 110 Green in good faith.
- 110 Green told him that engineers would be on hand to ensure that the demolition/construction process would be as unobtrusive as possible to his tenants andthe well-being of his property.
- This did not happen.
- Mr. Schwab’s tenants are going apeshit. Some want to move out (understandably).
- He also has concerns about 110 Green undermining the stability of his building.
- His calls to 110 Green are not being returned, so…
- he is taking the matter to court.
I have no doubt that this is going to get very, very interesting. Per Mr. Schwab, he is getting calls from (other) angry residents who are tired of getting banged repeatedly by Magic Johnson’s crew. Stay tuned!*
Miss Heather
*Or you can read the New York Sun. Mr. Schwab has been contacted by a reporter from this paper, but has yet to be interviewed. NY Sun: you’ve just been out-scooped by the Dog Shit Queen of Greenpoint. Mazel Tov! 🙂
P.S.: I’d like to give a shout-out to my homeboy at The Gowanus Lounge for pointing out the flaccid pile driver in the photo featured in this post. I don’t know much about such devices. Prior to this contraption making my life utter hell I thought the term ‘pile driver’ meant Ron Jeremy’s ‘equipment’.
New York Shitty Day Ender: The Good Neighbor Policy
This week I was pleasantly surprised to find an email from the owner of 131 Huron Street (AKA: neighbor to the Viridian’s backend) in my inbox. He writes:
Thought you could feature the other side[huron st] of 110 green street project [viridian] on your blog. check it out it looks like people park [bums empty bottles and guitars]
hope your well
Larry
I have, in fact, done just this. However, today I did a walk by. I didn’t find any homeless people but the garbage was plentiful, the workers were kind enough to hoot and holler at me (thanks guys) and I found this…
and this.
You have some nerve to park here all dia long. You deserve a double summons. You are lucky the police isn’t doing there job. PRIVATE DRIVEWAY. Next time we’ll make sure you get one. (NO RESPECT FOR PRIVATE PROPERTY)
The rebuttal can be found on the back:
Where is William F. Buckley when you need him? More importantly: why can’t ball point pens come with a grammar and spellcheck function?!?
Granted, painting lines of demarcation on the street is illegal. Then again so is blocking someone’s driveway. A garage is clearly visible in the background, therefore it can be deduced this is an active driveway. This is not rocket science. It is yet another example of how little regard— if not outright contempt— the folks at the Viridian have for their neighbors. It’s been that way pretty much from day one so I guess it would be unreasonable to expect better conduct on their part now.
Miss Heather
For those of you who are tired of getting banged…
by Magic’s pile driver, that is. Tomorrow is the big day.
Brooklyn Supreme Court at 360 Adams Street 9:30 a.m., Part 16
110 Green Development LLC v. 131 Huron St Assoc Inc.
Index number 12594/2007
Per Larry Schwab the goal at this hearing is to:
1. continue or strengthen the TRO now in effect and
2. force the Petitioner (110 Green) to insert piles by open caisson throughout worksite which will completely eliminate banging.
Be there or be square banged!
Miss Heather
UPDATE, 4:26 p.m.: I just received an email from Larry Schwab of 131 Huron. He writes:
Today the Judge cancelled the TRO which allows the manager of Magic’s Project, Joel Schwartz, to resume pile driving.
This is in spite of a letter signed by him back in January stating that he would not pile drive & would employ “OPEN CAISSON”.
I’m down but Im not out.
I’ll be back there again tomorrow. I’ll have all the info there if you want to see it yourself… (this) was supposed to be in Room 561 but check with the ‘concierge’!!
Larry
Postscript
If you’ve read this you might be interested to know what happened later. Here it is.
May 9, 2007
At 2:15 p.m. the pile driver fired back up, albeit 6 doors down from where it was stationed this morning (148 Green Street, the far eastern section of the lot). This lasted maybe 5 minutes, until…
I spied a police car going down Huron. It stopped in front of 131. I walked down there. There were 4-5 people standing out front talking. I went over and asked if this has to do with the earlier fiasco. A middle-aged gentleman wearing a pair of Bermuda shorts and a wifebeater asked me if I was Heather. I said yes. Then he introduced himself and shook my hand. It was the owner of 131 Huron, Larry Schwab. He then proceeded to introduce me to the other people present: the onsite engineer, a woman from 121 Huron, the owner/site manager of 110 Green and “the inspectorâ€.
I immediately asked, “An inspector from the Department of Buildings?”
Larry: Yes.
Me (to the DOB inspector): it’s so nice to have you here.
(Sometimes my natural talent for being a raging cunt even amazes me.)
Then the DOB inspector and the owner of 110 Green wandered next door to talk business. Larry and the engineered dialogued. Nothing was overtly said about building damage, but the engineer offered to place some device on Mr. Schwab’s property. From what I could deduce it would monitor noise levels. Mr. Schwab declined, stating that he didn’t need a machine to know that the noise was excessive; tenants have been calling him repeatedly complaining about it.
The engineer left, leaving me, Larry and the woman from 121 Huron. After a little bantering I learned that she too, had her issues. She had a strong Polish accent (very surprising, I know) so it was hard to for me to determine if she said that 110 Green has taken out a window at 121 OR if they had scattered cherds of glass (from an adjacent warehouse they are demolishing) ON 121 Huron. Not that either one is particularly desirable, mind you.*
Before I left the owner of 121 Huron had arrived. He went over and talked to the owner of 110 Green.
Here’s what I know:
The owner of 131 is at the end of his rope. He is not concerned about the project as he is about his tenants. He is angry at the DOB and is tired of all the noise complaints he has been getting from his tenants.
The woman from 121 Huron and Mr. Schwab told me that a number of residents along construction site are PISSED. As are several of the landlords. This is funny given that the owner/developer (of 110 Green) told the DOB inspector that everyone liked what he was doing.
May 10, 2007
Well, it looks like someone didn’t like what he was doing. A judge, no less. As I learned from the New York Daily News this morning. After being awakened by 110 Green Street’s pile driver at SEVEN IN THE MORNING, mind you.
Miss Heather
*And let’s not forget my favorite bit of Magic mischief: poking a 2′ x 2′ hole in an adjacent property the day before the Valentine’s Day Blizzard. BRAVO!
Magic Johnson’s Latest Victim?
Filed under: Area 51
Remember Larry Schwab, the manager of 131 Huron Street? Well, he has a court date next week to explain why 110 Green should not be granted access to his property. Well, he just got one damned good reason today. Per the FDNY, Magic’s minions probably destabilized one his fucking apartment buildings. I say apartment “buildings” because there is a garage apartment located at the far northeastern corner of this lot.
Here’s 131 Huron.
Here is the adjacent property, owned by 110 Green.
Here are some firemen inspecting 110 Green.
Here are some fire trucks.
Even the NYPD has joined the party.
Way to go, Magic! You’re really helping Brooklyn blossom. If “blossom” means yet another piece of much needed rental property has to be vacated because yet another careless developer fucked it up, that is. I am certain the tenant(s) at 131 Huron (who may very well become homeless because of your actions) will mention you in their prayers.
I swear to god, if this doesn’t make the Department of Buildings WAKE THE FUCK UP, nothing will.
Miss Heather
UPDATE: I have contacted Larry Schwab to get the full scoop about what happened and am awaiting his reply.
Magic Johnson’s Bigass Tool
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic
This evening I had the pleasure of moderating a comment regarding my recent piece about 110 Green Street. Lara writes:
Great site! Thought you might like to see my video of this so called “pile driver” (new term for me as well). And just so you know…yep, I reside directly in front of this hell hole…look right out over it. The video was shot from my window.
Check it out at: http://onesweetworld.wordpress.com
Just in case you didn’t get enough of it already!!
Thanks Lara! Please accept my sincerest condolences.
Miss Heather
NYS Flickr Pool
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