The Viridian Blooms!

January 4, 2009 ·
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic 

Those of you who have read this blog know I have no affection for this development. For reasons only known to him Magic Johnson decided to fund/put his face on this, The Viridian (a fancy word for green, as in Green Street, in Greenpoint and how much “green” are you willing to outlay? $400,000 for starters.), in the name of urban renewal.

Urban renewal suggests blight. When I first moved to this block 110-130 Green Street housed businesses: a bus depot and stone worker’s shop. I can’t honestly say I liked having buses coming and going all hours of the night past my apartment. I didn’t. On the other hand I knew this came with living in an “industrial” neighborhood and with such businesses come jobs and tax revenue. Then came the rezone and shortly thereafter the Viridian.

I never experienced blight until Magic and his funky bunch moved in. Green Street has never been pretty— but it got a helluva lot uglier after Magic razed one third of it. Graffiti, garbage— LOTS OF GARBAGE, junkies shooting up and nodding off (on his illegally parked construction equipment) is what I will always remember the Viridian for. A condominium complex purported to sport such luxe accommodations as a concierge, rooftop cabanas, virtual golf, etc. A testament to progress and and urban renewal.

As of January 3, 2009 here’s what I saw:

A contextually inappropriate, shoddily built and VERY UGLY pile of crap. Let’s have a virtual auction my fellow Greenpointers. How much would you pay to rent a 500 square foot apartment in this dump? I’ll start the bidding at $500. One dollar per square foot.

Miss Heather

Williamsburg Photo Du Jour: Broke On Bedford

January 3, 2009 ·
Filed under: Williamsburg 

From the look of things I’d say this person’s fund raising effort was either successful enough to merit dispensing the signage or he simply gave up.

Miss Heather

P.S.: On a related note when I walked by this encampment (on Berry Street) last night I shit you not they were watching an evening news feature about the economy. And chuckling quite heartily.

Greenpoint Photo Du Jour: Moonlit Sneaks

January 3, 2009 ·
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic 

From Norman Avenue.

Miss Heather

Greenpoint Blind Item: Anti-Semitism For Sale

January 2, 2009 ·
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic 

Before I proceed with today’s blind item I would like to share how I kicked off the New Year with you. I awoke in the afternoon to the sound of Mister Heather babbling on the telephone. I quickly deduced that I was the subject of the conversation after I heard the following:

…she was born the same year I was. She’s older than me. Yeah, we’re closer to 40 now than we are to 30. It doesn’t bother me any though.

He then proceeded to expound upon this upbeat topic by pointing out that we have a few years left before health insurance starts getting expensive. While on the toilet. Wearing the very suit nature provided him. I later learned the Mister was talking to his mother.

Why was my husband talking to my mother-in-law about my age while using the crapper buck naked, you ask? This is an excellent question. One I initially mulled over positing but soon thought the better of it. I had already started off the day on a rotten enough note and —knowing full it could (and probably would) get worse— I saw no need to push the matter.

The way I see it you really can’t do anything about getting older so why bother with it? Besides, I had dinner to prepare. I mention the previous anecdote because when I checked my email this morning I came across an item that made my New Year’s experience seem downright quaint, if a wee bit amusing by comparison. S writes:

yeah, I was at the (excised) St/Manhattan Ave bodega re-upping my 24 oz PBR requirements when I asked the owner if he was staying open later on account of new years eve. He replied that “he’s not a greedy Jew” I told him that it’s not fair to categorize folk and he of course asked if I was Jewish which then led him to change the subject and say “for the 6th time happy new year…

I can think of a number of reasons one could bust S‘s chops over his/her selection of beer: PBR is nasty and over-priced. A six pack of Shaeffer works just as well, is less expensive and doesn’t have all the hipster baggage. But my criticism of S’s taste in beer (to each their own— as long as I don;t have to drink the stuff I don’t care) is not to suggest he/she deserved to be subjected to abuse for asking what was a very legitimate and innocuous question: will you be open late on New Year’s Eve? A simple “yes” or “no” would have sufficed.

I may very well be getting older but for the life of me I still haven’t figured out why people take the time and energy to spout this kind of garbage. We should be using our precious time being nice to one another. Life would be a lot easier for everyone if people would quit fixating on WHAT a person is and pay attention to WHO they are. Seriously.

Miss Heather

Williamsburg Photo Du Jour: Tighty Whities

January 2, 2009 ·
Filed under: Williamsburg 

From North 6th Street.

Miss Heather

UPDATE: 4th Annual Walk & Ride

January 2, 2009 ·
Filed under: Astoria, Brooklyn, Bushwick, Greenpoint Magic, Manhattan, Queens, Williamsburg 

As many of you are aware Ghost Bikes will be conducting their 4th Annual Walk & Ride this Sunday, January 4. It has been brought to my attention by the folks at Ghost Bikes that they are experiencing some problems with their web site. That said, they have been kind enough to forward me the schedule for this Sunday’s event. Here it is:

Bronx/Manhattan Ride
10:45-11:10 gather at White Plains Road and Allerton Ave.
Subway: 2 to Allerton
11:15 Michael Needham Barnes Ave. north of Allerton Ave.
12:30 Faustino Morales Truxton St. and Randall Ave.
1:20 meetup & break NW corner of Central Park at Frederick Douglass Circle
1:35 Unnamed Central Park West at West 110th St.
2:30 Alvaro Olsen West 36th St. and Broadway
3:15 Amelia Geocos East 49th St. and 1st Ave.

Queens/North Brooklyn Ride
12:00 – 12:15 Gather in Astoria Park at the east end of running track (Hoyt and 19th St.)
Subway: N to Astoria Blvd.
12:30 Arturo Flores 27th St. and 23rd Ave.
1:30 Asif Rahman Queens blvd. @ 55th Rd.
2:30 Sze Man (Josephine) Chan Manhattan and Montrose Aves. (this is whose bike graces the beginning of this post —Ed. Note)
3:15 Unnamed under N side of Williamsburg bridge, Brooklyn

Brooklyn Ride
1245-1:00 gather top of Sunset Park hill (6th Avenue between 41 & 44th Sts.)
Subway: R to 45th st.
1:15 Pedro Fernandez-Pacheco 54th St and 7th Ave.
2:15 Jonathan Millstein President St. and 8th Ave.
2:45 Alexander Toulouse Livingston and Boreum
3:30 Jian-Lan Zhang Hester and Allen Sts.

Pedestrian Memorial Walk
2:30-2:45 gather at Bowery and Canal St.
Subway: 6, J, M, Z, R, Q to Canal
2:50 Lai Ho Bowery and Canal St.
3:10 James Dong in front of 106 Bowery between Hester and Grand Sts.
3:40 Josephine LaPlaca Delancey at Allen St.

Convergence of Pedestrian Memorial Walk & Cyclist Memorial Ride
4:00 Rides/Walk convergence Delancey at Allen St.
4:30 Rasha Shamoon Delancey and the Bowery

Gathering of Cyclists, Pedestrians, Families and Friends
Subway: 6 to Astor Place
5:00 Memorial for Unknown Cyclists and Pedestrians  East 10th St. at 2nd Ave.
5:15-7:00 St. Marks Church 131 East 10th st at 2nd Ave.

For more information feel free to contact Ghost Bikes via email at info (at) ghostbikes (dot) org

Miss Heather

Greenpoint Photo Du Jour: Revive

January 2, 2009 ·
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic 

From Meeker Avenue.

Miss Heather

Word Of The Day: Jollification

January 1, 2009 ·
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic, Williamsburg 

I would imagine those of you who are reading this are probably not feeling too hot. You braved the wind last night, went out and one HELL of a good time. Perhaps a little too good. And now you are paying the price.

Before you amble off to have brunch (replete with Bloody Marys) or go back to bed, dear readers, I would like to submit for your approval the following motley crew of north Brooklyn party animals from yesteryear. Broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder (from falling off an ash dump) and a moonlit dip in the icy waters of Newtown Creek are a few of the niceties the local constabulary had to deal with on New Year’s Day 1900 per the January 2, 1900 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Enjoy!

Maybe they were (still) distressed by the City of Brooklyn’s incorporation into New York City?

Miss Heather

Photo Credit: Heather (who will be graduating from medical school this year!).

Happy New Year From New York Shitty!

January 1, 2009 ·
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic 

I can think of no better way to kick off 2009 here in the Garden Spot than with this very special assortment of New Year’s babes. They hail from the junk shop and (I have been told) were used by a performance artist for one thing or another. I for one like the gal garroted by the Ikea I.D. holder.

Miss Heather

Great Moments In Advertising: Mixed Signals

December 31, 2008 ·
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic 

I have been seeing a great many of these posters gracing Manhattan Avenue of late. Speaking as someone who has seen A Christmas Story many, many times (who hasn’t?) I have to wonder what the spin wizards at Samsung are trying to get at here.

In any case I do not associate having one’s tongue stuck to a light pole (or anything else for that matter) as being a good thing.

Miss Heather

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