From The New York Shitty Photo Pool: The Maspeth Three

October 10, 2010 ·
Filed under: 11378, Crazy Cat Lady, Maspeth, Maspeth Queens, Queens 

That my friends is a defensive line....

Taken by Carnade.

Miss Heather

New York Shitty Day Ender: Newtown Creek

October 9, 2010 ·
Filed under: 11378, Maspeth, Maspeth Queens, Newtown Creek 

Taken October 9, 2010.

Miss Heather

Maspeth Photos Du Jour: Bob

October 9, 2010 ·
Filed under: 11378, BAD ASS, Maspeth, Maspeth Queens, Newtown Creek 

This evening my buddy Carnade and I went on a quick sojourn around Newtown Creek. It was at the end of 58th Road that we met Bob. He seemed surprised by us and we were certainly surprised to encounter him: a man in a van smoking a cigar and watching the world go by. We explained to him we were taking photographs of the creek. This interested him (a retired DEP employee) considerably and he told us stories about coming to Newtown Creek in the 1950’s a child. Bob then proceeded to explain to us why he happened to be in such a desolate area on a Saturday evening: he is not allowed by his wife to smoke cigars. Period. He clarifies:

So I come down here, have my cigar and turn on Sean Hannity. That gets my anger going.

Your secret is safe with us, Bob!

Miss Heather

Quicklink: Creek Speak

What is “Creek Speak”, you ask? Here’s how the folks at Habitat Map describe it:

Creek Speak is an oral history project that uses online interactive maps to present the stories of people and places near Newtown Creek…

You can check this out by pointing and clicking here. Do it. It’s fascinating!

Miss Heather

LAST GASP: Good Day New York

When I heard my buddy Laura was going to be on Good Day New York I was really excited for her. Naturally she was very nervous— but as you can see she did just fine. You go, girl!

Miss Heather

Have You Ever Been To DUGABO?

Newtown Creek Cruise 5

If not, here’s your golden opportunity! Next month the Working Harbor Committee will be conducting its annual fall cruise of the ‘creek! For more details (or to order tickets) you should contact the tour chairman, Bernard Ente, via email at: bernard (at) workingharbor (dot) org. Otherwise, you can get a sneak peek of what visual (and olfactory) delights await you by clicking here!

Miss Heather

Image Credits: Mitch Waxman of the Newtown Pentacle

New York Shitty Slide Show Du Jour: Newtown Creek Selections

September 13, 2010 ·
Filed under: 11101, 11222, Maspeth, Maspeth Queens, Sunnyside, Sunnyside Queens 

Newtown Creek

When I saw the above photo on Flickr it was love at first sight. So I asked Verbunkos, the person who shot it, if I could post it. Despite being a “two bit blogger” I like to exercise some semblance of professional courtesy. This goes double in regards to photography. As a fellow artist (who has been ripped off) I am very sensitive to this kind of thing. He replied:

Yes, definitely! There are a few more from earlier in the year as well…

Over the last few weeks I tried to visit all the public access points to our beloved creek, though I am sure missed a few. There are some mallards bathing in the shot of Maspeth Creek, poor guys…

Without further ado here they are. The last is my favorite. Enjoy!

Thanks again verbunkos!

Miss Heather

New York Shitty Day Ender: Kosciuszko Bridge

August 13, 2010 ·
Filed under: 11378, Laurel Hill, Laurel Hill Queens, Maspeth, Maspeth Queens 

Taken by Noah Devereaux.

Miss Heather

Night Smelling Committee

Dept. of Heath(er)?

A weekly feature I have inaugurated of late (albeit irregularly to date) is featuring an odd, provocative and/or strangely relevant chunk ‘o’ Greenpoint history for all to savor.

To steal a phrase from my buddy Judy McGuire, Man, oh Manishevitz do I have a fun tale of “Oy vey” before the l’oi ill’splay to share today. Oil spill or otherwise, Newtown Creek stinks… even back in 1892, when the Mayor of Brooklyn came down to inspect the stench personally. The following article is from the August 27th, 1892 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. I have taken the liberty of condensing this VERY VERBOSE article and bold-facing my favorite passages. Enjoy!

SMELLS FOR THE MAYOR

Two Newton Creek Samples Were Quite Enough
His Honor’s Brief Trip Upon the
Slimy Stream With the Health Commissioner, the Corporation Counsel, Alderman Fitzgibbon and a Committee of Citizens— Relief Promised.

Mayor Boody had cold and rainy weather for his visit of inspection yesterday to the much complained of factories on the shores of Newton Creek. The citizens from the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Wards who accompanied him would have been much better pleased over a heavy and sultry day. The smells would then have been at their worst, so far as the daytime is concerned, for after all it is at night that the vileness of Newton Creek odors is most apparent and oppressive. As it was Mayor Boody in a very few minutes yesterday got quite enough of creek smells and was more than satisfied long before the committee of citizens was.

The mayor, accompanied by Health Commissioner Griffin and Corporation Counsel Jenks, was driven in a carriage to Chapman’s docks at the head of Grand Street. He was met there by the committees of eastern district citizens. The only other representative of the city govenment was Alderman Fitzgibbon, who accompanied the Seventeenth Ward delegation and whose home is within the district invaded by the noxious smells…

Alderman Fitzgibbon and other members of the party welcomed the mayor, health commissioner and the corporation counsel and escorted them to the steam propeller Mascot. It was raining smartly then and a stiff breeze was blowing, but the heavy, sickening odor from the neighboring fertilizing factories and from the filthy creek itself saluted Mayor Boody’s nostrils even before he left his carriage. Health Commissioner Griffin bore the smell like a veteran, but Corporation Counsel Jenkins looked unfeignedly sick from the start. The smell seemed a little worse than he had prepared himself to meet.

Through the slimy waters the boat coursed, while members of the committee sitting in the wheelhouse with the mayor told him they were sorry the tide was not low, for then the smell would be many times worse. Mayor Boody, intimated, with a laugh, that the situation as it was seemed sufficiently atrocious. A stop was made at Cord Meyer’s bone boiling establishment on Furman’s Island, only a hasty and superficial examination was made, but the smell was such that Mr. Jenks turned away in disgust and gasped for fresh air. The mayor tried hard to conscientiously sniff all the odors that were to be caught, but began toshow signs of not relishing the task. When the party re-embarked the boat steamed to Andrew Wissel & Co’s place, also on Furman’s Island. Wissel has the contract to remove offal from King’s County, and out of his unsavory stock he manufactures fertilizing preparations. Wissel’s son in law, a young man of pleasing manners and speech, tried hard to convince Mayor Boody that the atmosphere was not polluted, but the mayor’s nostrils were as wide open as his ears, and with a significant sniff and a still more more significant look he started off towards the boat.

A whole creek full of stench producing establishments remained, but Mayor Boody asked to be taken back to the Grand Street dock, where his carriage awaited him, “I have had enough of this,” he said. “I realize that you have a grievance and I want to live to help you.” “It is a crying shame.” said Corporation Counsel Jenks. The he stopped suddenly and listened without comment to members of the committee who explained that the odors which had sickened him were nightly pervading miles of Brooklyn thoroughfares and ruining the comfort and the health of thousands of people. The health commissioner had little to say, but both the mayor and corporation counsel freely promised to do what they could to abate the nuisance. “We will use all the power possible,” the mayor said in substance, “but it is your duty also to exert yourselves. A nuisance exists here and it is for you to prove it a nuisance. Everybody who suffers from this nuisance should be prepared to come downtown and testify against it. The trouble has been that when two or three citizens came down to testify that these smells were a nuisance the other side invariably presented a greater number of witnesses who were willing to swear that no nuisance existed.”

The mayor and his party were cheered by the delegations as they re-entered their carriage. Afterward some of the delegated sailed the length of Newton Creek and paid a brief visit to Rosenberg’s fat rendering and bone boiling establishment near Calvary Cemetary Bridge. At no time during the afternoon, however, was anything like a thorough examination of the alleged nuisances on the creek shore made.

In the evening an executive meeting Seventeenth Ward citizens was held at 101 Monitor Street. Henry T. Steinhaner presented a report of the mayor’s visit to the creek and also reported, with much detail, the result of several night trips which have recently been made by Seventeenth Ward citizens to Newton Creek factories. This report is not to be made public… the intention being to use it in the courts as evidence. Members of the night smelling committee say, however, that their experiences have been quite stirring at times, and that some day they will make interesting reading.

And they have! It is interesting (and a little depressing) to learn that even in 2007 nothing has really changed. Same shit, different century.

Miss Heather

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