Greenpoint Photos Du Jour: 958 Manhattan Avenue

958 Manhattan 1172016 cropped nys

teddy bear 958 manhattan 1172016 cropped nys

At long last our fair city has gotten a long overdue dose of the white stuff (snow). It is a perfect day to curl up with a book and perhaps take a tipple. However I would advise you, gentle readers, to please do so indoors.

P.S.: Note that our prodigal Teddy seems to be also enjoying a fair number of books. Perhaps this lot has become a library of sorts? If so, I have a humble suggestion as to whom it should be dedicated!

And Now This Word From Our State Assemblyman

Assemblyman Lentol Calls on Attorney General to Investigate Pop-Up _Rave_ Parties Plaguing Brooklyn_Page_1nys

So there have you. You can view this letter in its entirety by clicking here or here. Thanks Joe Lentol! That said, I have to wonder where our State Senator, Martin Malave Dilan, stands on this matter? Anyone care to ask him?

Greenpoint Photo Du Jour: DOB’d!

October 17, 2015 ·
Filed under: 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic 

callforinspectionNYS

It would appear the Department of Buildings would like to have a look around 981 Manhattan Avenue. One has to wonder if the recent visit by the Fire Department 981 4 cropped nyshas anything to do with this. I suppose we’ll find out soon enough. As some of you may recall 981 Manhattan Avenue is where the Salvation Army, which has been closed since October 1st, was located. The premises proper has been for sale since September 15th. All of this is apparently news to the folks at Brownstoner. Go figure.

Cheers!

The Word On The Street: Special North Brooklyn Development Edition

Baggie haul August 22 2015 39 total nys

Many of you have undoubtedly noticed that I have not been terribly prolific on the blog. This should not be construed as a lack of interest in the affairs of this community (or this city in overall). Quite to the contrary: I have been quite busy. About a month ago I had a revelation: why not tap into what is the Garden Spot’s most renewable resource? This, of course, is garbage.

Think about it, gentle readers: litter is not only free but by making regular “collection” runs I am, albeit in a small way, making this community a cleaner place. What’s more, by (tongue firmly in cheek) “up-purposing” Greenpoint garbage I am raising awareness about the problem here. And we most assuredly have a problem.

Presently my focus is on drug baggies. These, as I have discovered, come in an array of colors and designs. The working plan is to fill the following 5 1/2 inch diameter snow globe with them.

Taste the rainbow! nys

The working title for this piece is “Taste the Rainbow” (for obvious reasons).

Taste the rainbow top view nys

Playgroudn rules WNYC Transmitter Park nysAs you can see it is still in progress. Very pretty if I may say so myself! Over the last month I have acquired no less than 181 182 baggies. These were “sourced” exclusively in Greenpoint/11222. I felt parameters needed to be established. What’s more, Williamsburg probably would have proved to be too easy. But I digress.

This project has led to a number of fascinating discoveries. For starters, most of the baggies I have found were discarded (and presumably consumed) in our public parks. I have long suspected this was/is the case— now I have some numbers to back it up. Playgrounds are not spared either. The item to the left was found in the playground at WNYC Transmitter Park. I also found five on the premises of the Vincent V. Abate Playground. One specimen had the Superman logo emblazoned on it. Regardless of one’s position on the “war on drugs” you gotta appreciate that kind of wiseassedness.

Magic carpet ride 2 cropped nys

This piece’s working title is “Magic Carpet Ride”.

Magic Carpet ride cropped nys

The other location I have found a significant number of baggies is development sites. Especially those which are stalled and/or sport sidewalk sheds. Sidewalk sheds = privacy. Makes sense. Drug paraphernalia is not the only thing I have found at them, hence the (ostensible) purpose of this post. I have spied a few sullen utterances of revolt scrawl on them during my rounds. I am not the least bit surprised by this. Follows is a curated selection of those I found especially compelling and/or entertaining. Enjoy!

1. India Street

India Street Screed nys

This one is somewhat indecipherable but the rage come across nonetheless.

2. 26 West Street

26 West Street nys

NO FUTURE nys

Yuppie Shelter nys

There are not less than three churlish missives on this one. Two are plainly visible. Follows is the third one. It is located to the left of “No Future”.

Bunch of fucking losers live here nys

And last, but hardly least…

3. Orient Avenue at Olive Street

Orient Avenue 1 nys

As you can see this property had been served a Stop Work Order. Let’s go in for a closer look!

Orient Avenue 2 nys

Great stop more of these bastards.

If the Department of Buildings is paying attention someone is very appreciative of your work. Happy Monday!

BREAKING: 249 Norman Get’s DOB’d

February 10, 2015 ·
Filed under: 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Wow, WTF 

DOBBIS249norman

As I write this post the Department of Buildings is vacating 249 Norman Avenue (a loft conversion located between Monitor and North Henry Street). The Red Cross has been brought in to assist residents with temporary shelter, etc. This is all I know at this time.

To be continued…?

P.S.: On a somewhat-related note (this being the Department of Buildings) it would appear the Manhattan District Attorney’s office along with the Department of Investigation and NYPD has announced arrests and criminal charges regarding the bribing of Department of Buildings and Housing Preservation And Development personnel. Not surprisingly, it would appear some of the properties involved are in Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Bushwick. See for yourself. Here’s a teaser:

…bribes in the form of approximately $200,000 for home mortgage payments, a Nissan Rogue SUV, a GMC Terrain SUV, and a Royal Caribbean cruise, as well as cash for airline tickets, home renovations, and other personal expenses…

Reading is truly believing, folks…

Today In Illegal Hotels: 5 West 31st Street

Yesterday I had the pleasure of sojourning with some good friends of mine. One fellow— we’ll call him “Q”— took me on a tour of Inwood. Simply put, it was awesome.

5 West 31 Street nys

In return I showed “Q”, being a good host, a not terribly unfamiliar sight in our fair city…

5 West 31 Street door nys

I speak of none other than a Vacate Order!

5 West 31 Street Red Cross nys

It is accompanied by a Red Cross notice. This is getting interesting!

Restraining Order nys

A “restraining order”? This a whole new game. One which I felt compelled to investigate when I got home.

DOB BIS 5 West 31 street

Behold the copious number of actions (94) and violations (103). Impressive!

illegal conversion 5 31 nys

Converting a three bedroom apartment into a five bedroom apartment with two bedrooms twhich sport no windows. Nope, our Bravest ain’t gonna like that one bit!

complant1

 

No sprinklers either? Oh boy.

illegal conversion nys

 

So they converted three floors of residential space— seven, nine and ten respectively– into hostel space and were in the process of converting floors six and four— without permits naturally. That nonsense is for rank amateurs and these urbanoasisnyc.com folks are superstars!

review

However their clients seemed to have liked them enough. You can see reviews, photos, etc. of this super-sized and quite illegal former hostel on Trip Advisor. Obviously they have not heard the news yet…

Spotted At 230 Bogart Street: Vacate Order

December 22, 2013 ·
Filed under: 11206, East Williamsburg, East Williamsburg Brooklyn, Wow, WTF 

Today, being the second day of winter and unseasonably warm, yours truly decided to go out for a bit. The original purpose was to secure foodstuffs for Christmas dinner. This did come to pass, albeit with a number of detours— and detours from the aforementioned detours.  I had a hankering to check out our local Industrial Business Zone. More specifically: I wanted to check in on my favorite feral feline: Callie. This I did, as you can see. The guys at SGI, Peter in particular, pamper this pussy to no end. I love those guys! But I digress.

En route I happened upon this curiosity.

It would appear that Christmas came early to 230 Bogart Street in the way of a Vacate Order. WAIT— make that a PEREMPTORY Vacate Order.

You know what they say:

Life is a cabaret!

Except when said cabaret is bereft of a permit and adequate fire protection— in an Industrial Business Zone in Brooklyn. Whoops.

Brooklyn Beast, the business which graced the first floor of this edifice, has posted a notice on the door…

and online. Yours truly is particularly intriqgued by the following (which dates from December 16th):

We are deeply saddened to announce that due to unforeseen circumstances we were forced to close our doors at 230 Bogart St. We have had an unbelievable year that changed all of our lives. The friends and families we’ve met over the year have continuously encouraged us to further spread our mission to inspire others through movement…

Families? This would suggest there were children on the premises. Nice. But the piece de resistance is this:

Special thanks goes out to Queens Crap for helping me research this. Ho! Ho! Ho!

This post is dedicated to the lovely ladies I had the pleasure of waiting— and waiting— at the B43 bus stop at Cook Street for ~40 minutes.

FBscB43bus

A bunch of pissed off “old” ladies with bags of groceries in tow and a ladder company of New York’s Bravest make for a heady mix.

As Discovered On The Department Of Building’s Web Site

September 19, 2013 ·
Filed under: 11222, Criminal Activity, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic 

powerofscourIt’s a long story— one which I care not, will not go into in great detail. Let’s just say it starts with the New York Daily News’s puff piece: The Power Of Scour (as seen at left). Therein a manifold number of politicians and “community leaders” posed for the camera and were quoted. Such things happen when elections come around.

I linked to this tome. Follows was my analysis:

1. Instead of making Greenpoint “look” safer perhaps it should simply be made safer?
2. If Greenpoint and Williamsburg are, in fact, among the dirtiest neighborhoods in the city, exactly what does this say about our elected officials? I mean, haven’t they kind of allowed this to happen?
3. Why are we asking folks to pledge to do what they should be doing already?
4. This is a shit show. Plain and simple.

Believe it or not I exercised considerable tact at the time— and now I will not.

NYDN597manhattanavenue

For example: this graffiti-ed door. It belongs to 597 Manhattan Avenue— which used to be the Greenpoint Gazette’s Headquarters.

nydnscJM

Here you see Mr. Mann, the President of the Greenpoint Chamber of Commerce and various other members of the community, looking despondent over the matter of graffiti.

Now let’s look at what the Department of Buildings has to say about 597 Manhattan Avenue. More specifically: the “No Name Bar”.

DOB BIS No Name Bar

Partial Vacate Order. Hmm…

DOB BIS MARCH Operation

Oh my!

Complaint

NYstateLiquorAuthoritysilkroadcorp

www.nyc.gov_html_mancb3_downloads_sla_2012_04_27- 176 Delancey Street_Page_6

Perhaps we should take care of troubles in his own proverbial backyard before trifling with graffiti? Fire code rules and regulations are no joke. In any case, you can’t say this came out of nowhere…

From The New York Shitty Inbox: Greetings From 239 Banker Street— Once Again

NYSscSome of you might recall that I recently received a piece of correspondence from an individual who called this place home. He/she was none too happy about it too.   This is why he/she was moving out. As you can imagine, gentle readers, I had a number of questions for this person. WTFsmallToday I am pleased to announce I not only got some answers— but some visuals to accompany them! One is the charming image at right. But I am getting ahead of myself— without further ado, here we go! NOTE: I have excised some material so as to preserve some semblance of anonymity for the parties involved.

Hi Heather, I stupidly did not take any photos of the piss/shit fiasco- I opened the camera to do it but immediately thought “no- this is fucking vile! I’m leaving” and the SMELL! yikes I’m out of there now, but I came to live there because I was moving back to NYC (had been in SF for a year) and my friend who I was looking for a place with had said “hey, I found this spot in Greenpoint with two rooms open”… I went with it… I have some more photos ill send over as well. sorry for so many emails but I can’t attach via the mail app and have no computer access for a couple days. Also made a clip, hope it helps to convey the space better.

bathroom1 bathroom2

…so these first two are the bathroom tub and what is almost certainly mold growing- along w/ Shitpissgate (Apparently the first floor of this building had to be vacated after Hurricane Sandy due to flooding— this included a back-up of raw sewage. Yummy. — Ed. Note), there was an incident with the bathtub backing up dirty water full of black specks up to the brim (last photo- however it only depicts minimal drain, it was a photo I took to send to the super in a “THIS STILL EXISTS HOURS LATER”! message)

WTF

the third is the wood rising up after Shitpissgate, and the fourth is an example of all the arbitrary holes in the deplorable re-flooring job.

floor1

floor2

Now let’s proceed to the “bedroom”, shall we?

photo 3nys

photo 2nys

photo 1nys

Yeah, the photos do not do much to describe this space. As the video footage makes all too clear: this is because there isn’t really much space to describe!

I know what you’re thinking:

How much does such a closet room cost?

Well, prepare to be amazed. I certainly was.

$925. And the bigger rooms (slightly, but you know as well as I do how sometimes that extra six inches of a room helps) with windows were $925. Again, against my better judgment, shame on me, etc. but I’m glad I found the legal hurdle.

Those of you who are wondering what this hurdle/loophole was— or simply care about such trivial matters as fire code— will undoubtedly find the following passage from the “Loft Law” (Thanks NAG!) quite illuminating:

…Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs (i), (iii) and (iv) of subdivision two of this section, but subject to paragraphs (i) and (ii) of subdivision one of this section and paragraph (ii) of subdivision two of this section, the term “interim multiple dwelling” shall include buildings, structures or portions thereof that are located in a city of more than one million persons which were occupied for residential purposes as the residence or home of any three or more families living independently from one another for a period of twelve consecutive months during the period commencing January first, two thousand eight, and ending December thirty-first, two thousand nine, provided that the unit: is not located in a basement or cellar and has at least one entrance that does not require passage through another residential unit to obtain access to the unit, has at least one window opening onto a street or a lawful yard or court as defined in the zoning resolution for such municipality…

Whoops. Now if you don’t mind I have some bunk beds to install in my tool shed… 

From The New York Shitty Inbox: Greetings From 239 Banker Street

May 29, 2013 ·
Filed under: 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic 

A person we’ll “X” writes:

Hello Heather,

I love and applaud your coverage of 239 Banker Street. I have been living in this dump for the past five months and am eagerly awaiting my leave next week. I share your disdain for the illegal occupation of this building, and the complete disregard of the laws and stop work order violations by the management company. Perhaps you’re already aware but I figured I’d share a couple things with you-

Windowless rooms are being rented as bedrooms, which is a fire hazard/illegal.

Secondly, there was recently a backup of plumbing on the first floor, and several apartments were flooded in the bathrooms out to the kitchen area, this water containing REAL HUMAN SHIT AND PISS (Emphasis mine— Ed. Note). Sorry, but it was atrocious. As a result the floor has buckled up and I can say with certainty that since the post-Sandy re-flooring job was done lazily (spaces as large as 3/16″ in certain parts of it), I am positive there is mold growing. I’m feeling extra spiteful of the building today so figured I’d shoot you an email.

Thanks— I honestly do not know what else to say (that I haven’t said many times before)…

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