Dung Of The Day: Special Bloomblight Edition

You can always leave it to 32 India Street to keep things on our gold coast, um, interesting.


Miss Heather

Greenpoint Street Art Du Jour: Exophytic

September 12, 2010 ·
Filed under: 11222, Bloomblight, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic 

From India Street.

Miss Heather

Southside Street Seating Du Jour: Tete a Tete

July 22, 2010 ·
Filed under: 11211, Bloomblight, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Brooklyn 

This is not “street seating” per se but it merits attention nonetheless.

For starters, this al fresco arrangement has a rather nice view of the Williamsburg Bridge.

Secondly, it’s easily accessible via the collapsed (but nicely painted) construction fence!

Miss Heather

From The New York Shitty Photo Pool: Bloomblight With Benefits

When I saw this nondo in my photo pool I recognized it immediately: it graces (?) the corner of Herbert and North Henry Street. What I didn’t know is this hulking eyesore— despite its decrepit condition— has a resident. So it goes in the smash-jaw world of north Brooklyn real estate.

His name is Monkey and he wants it to be known he is not a stray. Special thanks goes out to Lisacat for sharing this important news with us.

Miss Heather

Found On Scarano’s Shoebox: Toddler?

As many of you have probably observed as you have read this blog yours truly has a “thing” for derelict construction sites (such as the above eyesore which comes courtesy of north Brooklyn’s good friend, Robert Scarano). I also spend a great deal of time documenting street art. So you can imagine my delight when I discovered the following.

A work by Dan Witz on said rusting hulk. I wasn’t the only one who was tickled by this toddler. A woman who had just exited the BQE and was waiting at the light shouted:

The kid’s cute, isn’t he?

To wit I replied:

Yes, he is. That’s about the best thing that can be said for this building.

She laughed and we parted ways.

Perhaps this is the beginning of a trend, e.g,; derelict sites replacing milk cartons as awareness raisers for lost children? I suppose only time will tell.

Miss Heather

From The CB1 Yahoo Group: What’s Up At 236 North 10 Street?

May 26, 2010 ·
Filed under: 11211, Bloomblight, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Brooklyn 

When I found this item in my daily summary of the unofficial Community Board 1 Yahoo group today I simply has to pass it along here. M writes:

This was in my inbox this morning, and have taken the liberty to repost it here. For those of who walk to the L on Roebling, you’ve likely noticed the blocked off sidewalk on the south side of the street between North 9 and North 10. For at least two years, a construction fence has enclosed the sidewalk at this location. It presents an especially unsafe condition when there are trucks
loading and blocking the sidewalk at the feather warehouse across the street. Pedestrians are forced to walk in the street to pass this block. From what I can tell, there seems to be no movement to develop the lot in question, so I am unclear how long this unsafe condition will exist or why it was created in the first place. I inquired about this to our councilmember Steven Levin, and was informed by his community liaison that I (and many others) should file complaints to 311.  That’s where you come into play.

Follows is a reply from a chap named Hunter. Please give it a read as he gives some excellent advice and appears to have volunteered to be a point person regarding this problematic property.

Filing a complaint to 311 takes about three minutes and can be achieved online (which is simpler than calling, in my opinion). Here are the steps: I’ve created this link to skip a few steps for you. From there you can select “sidewalk blocked by construction” and insert (or modify) the following description: “a construction fence has enclosed more than half the sidewalk on Roebling. It is impossible to walk on this side of the street without walking in the street. There is a warehouse and loading dock opposite the site on Roebling, and large trucks often block the sidewalk. It is impossible to walk on this section of Roebling without entering the busy street. It’s very unsafe.

The site address is 236 North 10th Street. From there you record your name (which is not required) and your email
address. The most important detail is to keep track of your service request number. Please send it to me, and I will share it with Levin’s staff. The more complaints they receive, the more likely they are to address the unsafe condition. If possible, please do so in the next few days because I plan to follow up with Levin next week.

Thanks.

Hunter

I myself have seen men entering and exiting this property through the various holes in the fence on a number of occasions. I seriously doubt these gentleman can possibly be up to any good. I also fear this site (given the presence of a number of derelict automobiles) is being used as a place to dispose of hazardous materials (as if the ‘Burgh needs more toxic stuff underfoot). If you too have seen this kind or any other kind of suspicious activity, object to the deplorable state of this lot or simply take issue with the manifold safety issues this unsecured property presents please call 311 and contact Hunter at: hfa99 (at) hotmail (dot) com

Thanks!

Miss Heather

Photo Credits: Miss Heather & Miss Mousey Brown. You can see her Flickr set documenting this eyesore by clicking here.

Daily Bloomblight: Roof Out

This has to be a north Brooklyn first: ordinarily when I see a “roof out” symbol on a building it is being razed to build a turd like this (which hails from Scholes Street). I suppose the East Williamsburg building boom has come full circle.

Miss Heather

New York Shitty Slide Show Du Jour: Along The Waterfront

Taken May 14, 2010.

Miss Heather

Daily Bloomblight: Orient Distress

Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.

No Dot, you’ve arrived in one of the coolest ‘hoods in New York City: East Williamsburg, May 12, 2010.

Dorothy:

Do you suppose we’ll meet any wild animals?

Scarecrow: Mm, we might.
Scarecrow: Animals that eat… s-traw?
Tin Woodsman: Some, but mostly lions, and tigers, and bears.
Dorothy: Lions?
Scarecrow: And tigers?
Tin Woodsman: And bears.

The Garden Spot has raccoons, skunks and even a dolphin! The only wildlife I, dear child, have spotted here is this kitty. She strikes me as being harmless. Perhaps Toto should make her acquaintance?

She holds court next door: 55 Orient Avenue.

I have written this twice before and I’ll write it once again:

I strongly believe people respond to the environment around them. This is why I am a big fan of public art especially in our subway system. Gestures as grand as a mosaic or as simple as keeping public facilities neat and clean send a positive message. The vigilance (or this case, lack thereof) with which our municipal government enforces the laws put in place to preserve our, the citizenry’s, quality of life speaks volumes about their attitude as public servants.

This is unacceptable. No one should have to live with this.

Miss Heather

Reader Comment Du Jour: Halden Speaks

May 11, 2010 ·
Filed under: 11211, Bloomblight, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Brooklyn 

I like to bust Brooklyn11211‘s chops. A lot. It’s nothing personal. It is simply something I have to do. As the ombudswoman of the Garden Spot I feel it is my responsibility to remind Halden—and the world at large— that the Eastern District does, in fact, include Greenpoint. Halden’s sense of humor is pithy. As is mine. It’s a game we play. We’re friends and it’s in good humor.

But on occasion we disagree— or get flippant. This is one such case. Halden writes in regards to this post:

As bad as these are, they all look like fencing failures around empty lots. Not to belittle the danger of that, it was a bit scarier further south. Curbed has a picture of a wall collapse at the building going up on North 4th and Wythe (a project that always looked a bit tenuous, structurally). And on Kent between North 1st and Grand, a construction fence went down exposing a 15? deep foundation pit. It was a pretty crazy wind for well over 24 hours, so I’m sure there was more and worse elsewhere.

To wit I replied:

Better, worse, it doesn’t change the fact this unacceptable. If you want to see something downright scary go to 94 Bedford Avenue. It is all too obvious a great deal of the sidewalk is not adequately supported. It is buckling. This is especially true of the area around the B62 bus stop. I envision in my mind’s eye 10-12 people getting swallowed into that cess pit some day. As if public transportation patrons do not suffer enough indignities already.

Not content to let this pissing match be, I asked one of my Williamsburg moles to get shots of the fence in question. Here they are.

I like the sand (?) propping up (tipping over?) the fence while the sidewalk is sinking. This is one class operation.

Miss Heather

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