From The New York Shitty Photo Pool, Part II: Transmitter Park
Your ads will be inserted here by
Please go to the plugin admin page to paste your ad code.
Taken by Miss Mousey Brown.
Contribution Du Jour: Transmitter Sunset
Your ads will be inserted here by
Please go to the plugin admin page to paste your ad code.
Taken by Maya Marzolf.
Miss Heather
From The New York Shitty Inbox: Dog Run?
Your ads will be inserted here by
Please go to the plugin admin page to paste your ad code.
M writes:
Hi Heather
I’ve been following your blog for over a year now and I absolutely love it! I wanted to leave a comment on your recent post about Transmitter Park. I registered, but I still cannot figure out how to leave a comment? Help?
Basically my comment is this : Do you know if there are plans to include a dog run in the new park?
Thanks!
I will take up the matter of comments with this person directly. However, I will answer her second question here and now. No, there will not be a dog run at Transmitter Park.* However, one is slated for Bushwick Inlet Park. It will be located near Bushwick Inlet. The completion date methinks is 2012. In other words, it looks like Greenpoint dog owners (at least the ones up north) will have to schlep for awhile.
Miss Heather
*You can see the latest plan by clicking here.
From The New York Shitty Inbox: Confirmed!
Some of you might recall I recently stated there will be a groundbreaking ceremony for Transmitter Park August 3rd. Well, dear readers, this morning I received confirmation! Note: the time has been set at noon, not 11:30 a.m. as I originally reported.
WNYC Transmitter Park Groundbreaking Ceremony
August 3, 2010 at noon
Greenpoint Avenue and (roughly) West Street
Brooklyn, New York 11222
In the meantime you can peruse the updated plans for Transmitter by clicking here.
Miss Heather
Greenpoint Photo Du Jour: Transmitter Park
While hardly the most comely of open spaces (although has attained some popularity with a certain segment of the population, as seen above) I have it on very good intelligence WNYC Transmitter “Playground” could be shuttered as early as next Tuesday, August 27. Why, you ask? Because they will need time to make preparations for the ground-breaking ceremony that will come to pass August 3, 2010 at 11:30 a.m. Who knew wood chips needed so much fussing over?
WNYC Transmitter Park Groundbreaking Ceremony
August 3, 2010 at 11:30 a.m.
Greenpoint Avenue and (roughly) West Street
Brooklyn, New York 11222
In closing it has been brought to my attention that a fig tree graces this site. For those of you who are not in the know (I didn’t) apparently fruit-bearing trees are not allowed on city park land. If you are interested in giving this tree a forever home please shoot me an email at: missheather (at) thatgreenpointblog (dot) com. I will forward it to the appropriate parties. Thanks!
Miss Heather
Reader Comment Of The Week: WNYC Transmitter “Playground”
d writes in regards to this post about Greenpoint’s public lavatories— or more accurately the lack thereof: Gross. And people think Transmitter is a dog run because of the chips, it’s not a dog run, yet people let their dogs poop in there and don’t clean it up. Now, I love dogs, but I haven’t forgotten last summer when the heel of my shoe ended up in poo.
The chips do lead to a certain ambiguity as to whom this park services: humans or canines. To my recollection the only place in our public parks are to be found are in the dog runs. If you go to the dog run at McCarren you’ll see it’s at least one full foot deep with the stuff. What I find curious is how this “interim” public space is “categorized”. Initially it was referred to as a park— but once it was pointed out that it did not meet the Parks Department’s own specifications of what constitutes a park it has been deemed a playground. Once again, this is curious given there is no equipment for children to play on/with so, as d has observed. It has been employed as a dog run. This would be fine and dandy (god only knows Greenpoint needs one) if people would be more considerate about scooping up their poop. It should be noted that in this respect the Parks Department has made their stance very clear.
Or have they? Let’s look more closely at the sign to the left.
Here’s the deal: there is no “designated area” to let one’s dog run without a leash— but it is not completely clear that dogs are not permitted to go off-leash either. It is not unreasonable to presume that the wood chips do lead some to believe this is a dog run. Then again, you’ll always have people who— for reasons only known to them— will not follow the rules. Case in point: consuming alcohol.
Here’s the deal: I personally don’t care if people imbibe in our parks— provided it does not pose a problem to the other users. Let’s face facts: we all know this is going on.
Rather, what I want to know is exactly what these people are doing? Staging a re-enactment of Cool Hand Luke’s infamous “50 eggs” sequence perhaps?
Oh wait, you need a permit to do that!
Miss Heather
Greenpoint Street Art Du Jour: True Love
Taken June 1, 2010.
Miss Heather
From The New York Shitty Inbox: Locked Out
T (who sent the above image) writes:
Attached you’ll find a pic of our lovely new park at the end west end of Greenpoint Ave. I have no idea what this park is called, so I can’t be more specific but I’m pretty sure you know the park pictured. I’m sure you’ll also note that the gate to this public park is padlocked and that the sun is still shining. What you might not know is that this gate has been padlocked for three days straight with no notice as to why. I have been by this park with my lovely canine companion Kenneth twice a day for the last three days – morning around 6:30 and evening around 6:30 and never has it been accessible. Is there something I don’t know about the park schedule that would cause it to be closed? Also, if it should in fact be open, do you have any idea who I should complain to? I called 311, but as I mentioned this park is not marked with any name from without and the 311 operator had no record of a park at the location so did not know who to call. I filed a general complaint. Is this something I can send on to our assemblyman friend? Thoughts? As this is pretty much the only unpaved park in my area, it’s pretty friggin annoying that I can’t get into it.
This public space is called WNYC Transmitter Interim Park— or something to that effect. Of course this information is not of much use if the 311 operator has no idea this park (if you can call it that) exists. But I’ll leave the semantics and philosophical stuff to the city. Here are four people/entities I would recommend T contact about this (or any other neighborhood) problem (in order of relevance):
- The New York City Parks Department
- Community Board 1 (I go into more detail about how to go about this here)
- Our City Councilman: Steve Levin
- Our State Assemblyman: Joseph Lentol
I hope this has been helpful, T!
Miss Heather
UPDATE, March 18, 2010; T has some exciting news to relay! He/she writes:
I am extremely pleased to report some actual good news on this. This morning, as a result of my 311 call, the District Manager responsible for this park called me back. We were both on cell phones so I did not 100% catch his name but I believe it was Harmon or Carmen. First, how’s that for promptness?!? Awesome! Second, he was not only beyond polite but also clearly interested in this and concerned. We spoke for about ten minutes, the result being that he had already spoken to the employee responsible for that park who reported he had been closing it at 5:15 every day. Harmon/Carmen explained to me that their employees are still on winter hours and that within a month, as dusk officially becomes 7 or 8 o’clock, they will switch to summer hours.
I feel it’s important to commend our public servants in this or at least note that everything functioned exactly as it should in this case. There was the kind of promptness, concern, respect and knowledge on display that should characterize every interaction between citizens and the city apparatus.
Thanks Harmon/Carmen!!
Greenpoint Photos Du Jour: Hey You!
As many of you are undoubtedly aware next weekend is Valentine’s Day. I imagine a number of you are looking for companionship— albeit even of the interim variety— to celebrate this very special day. If your idea of romance is a rendezvous at a interstate rest stop (and why shouldn’t it be?) worry not, my fellow north Brooklynites. Now only do I have you I have you covered— but you don’t even have to leave Greenpoint! So put on your sneakers kids— we have a date to meet!
(still waiting)
Miss Heather
FRIDAY: Greenpoint Open Studios
This is a quick reminder that the Greenpoint Open Studios extravaganza kicks off Friday, September 25, at 7:00 p.m. at WYNC Transmitter Park. More detailed information (including the above itinerary, list of participating galleries and a handy map!) can be yours for the download at Greenpoint Open Studio’s web site. Check it out!
Miss Heather
NYS Flickr Pool
