TOMORROW: Public Information Session Regarding Newtown Creek Superfund

yummy

Tomorrow, December 8, starting at 6:00 p.m. at our very own Automotive High School the Mayor’s office will be conducting a public information meeting regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to designate Newtown Creek as a superfund site. Among the items on the agenda for this public forum are a presentation and “question and answer” session.

Having been to such gatherings before, I prognosticate that one or two agitators/community cranks will show up, shout irrelevant/impertinent gibberish and generally annoy the piss out everyone else in attendance. I have seen this happen before and I see no reason why it will not happen this time around. Suffice it to say, dear readers, you can probably anticipate an evening that is both informative and entertaining.

Public Information Session
December 8, 2009 starting at 6:00 p.m.
Automotive High School
50 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11222

Miss Heather

New York Shitty Day Ender: The Color of Brooklyn

November 29, 2009 ·
Filed under: 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Newtown Creek 

luxuryrentals

viridian

englishkills

How’s that for authenticity!

Miss Heather

LAST GASP: Newtown Creek Oil Watch

The Seine of north Brooklyn was particularly repulsive today. And Laura Hofmann and Christine Holowicz (who shot the above video footage) tendered the bad news to the DEC hotline. Laura has assured me that she has never before received the rude treatment she got today by the operator. The first (and last time) I called the DEP I faced an inquisition.

How do you know it is oil?

I was asked, among similar crass questions. I grew up with gearheads. In my car-owning days I never once had to pay for an oil change— a six pack of beer sufficed. I live in Greenpoint. I know petroleum when I see (or smell) it.

Regardless of what this is, it is GROSS.

Miss Heather

P.S.: On that note, here’s more reading about the Newtown Creek Experience from north Brooklyn’s very own Aaron Short.

LAST GASP: Greenpointer Shows 11222 Gratitude For New Park

October 6, 2009 ·
Filed under: 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Newtown Creek 

(Or, Fat Boy: R.I.P.) Last month at Manhattan Avenue Park we beheld a strapping chap sunning his buns in a pink Speedo. This month it would appear that Greenpoint’s newest park has been pressed into service as a pet cemetery.

FATBOYRIP

fatboy

Love you fat boy

dead2

RIP

Laura writes (in an email copied to North Brooklyn’s Park Poobah):

Well, tonight Mike & I visited the Manhattan Ave street end park. Mike saw some cardboard sticking out of the dirt. Being a good park steward, Mike began to pick it up when he noticed R.I.P. written on top. Turns out to be a final resting place. We weren’t about to throw the dearly departed away. Nor did we choose to bury it. We’ll leave it to the Parks Dept discretion to find a proper burial plot for “Fat Boy”.
R.I.P.

(North Brooklyn’s Park Poobah),
Fat Boys remains can be found to the right of the entrance near the truck yard

I have lived in Greenpoint for ten years. In this time I have seen some seriously strange shit. SERIOUSLY. STRANGE. SHIT. We’re talking people fucking on sidewalks, drunk couples making out and stomping on cars, old Polish women lifting up their skirts and pissing on vacant lots. You get the idea. The previous having been written this makes the top ten. Easily.

Nonetheless it is a touching (if somewhat abject) tribute to Fat Boy. Whatever he was in life, he was clearly loved. And I have little doubt Open Space Alliance North Brooklyn will be pleased as punch to know the new park at the northern terminus of Manhattan Avenue (which they take credit for opening**) is, in fact, being used.

Albeit not in the manner they envisioned.

Miss Heather

*Apparently this is not the case: I have just received word “Fatboy” will be removed tomorrow.

The Poobah writes:

Will be removed tomorrow.

While she’s at it maybe she’ll get someone to find a more appropriate resting place for the dead rats and detritus at Bushwick Inlet?

**This too, is not true: someone (not me) got liquored up and pissed off and tore down the fence. The next day people started using the park— and shortly thereafter it was “opened” by the Parks Department (to save face).

From The New York Shitty Inbox: Everything You Wanted To Know About Those Lines On The Pulaski Bridge

(and I do mean EVERYTHING)

clusterfuck

Rick writes:

I’m a new-ish fan of the blog, 10-year Greenpointer (what I call “outer” Greenpoint — Morgan near Driggs — as opposed to “upper” Greenpoint, meaning along the Manhattan/Franklin corridor), and bike commuter. I’m also a journalist who just finished a year reporting on urban spaces and infrastructure for PBS and public radio.

So after seeing the markings on the Pulaski Bridge path — and reading your posts — I decided to call someone who’d know what was up: Wiley Norvell, Communications Director for bike advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.

I asked him about three things: (1) the “lane” markings on the ramps; (2) the seemingly-superfluous white lines along the main stretch of the path; and (3) the “Stop and Dismount — Walk Bike” signs.

Wiley checked with NYCDOT and got back to me with the following answers:

1. The lane markings at the entrances “are designed to provide guidance,” he said. Every bridge in the city handles cyclists and pedestrians differently: they’re segregated on the Brooklyn and Manhattan spans; pedestrians move counter to cycle traffic on the Williamsburg; and (iirc) they move in the same direction on the 59th. So, Wiley said, “the DOT’s trying to clarify the rules for the Pulaski.”

2. The white lines are an effort to get cyclists to chill out, for lack of a better way of putting it. “That’s typically done for cars,” Wiley said. “They visually narrow the space. That’s intended to get people to slow down and focus. It make it look like the space is only five feet wide, so it’s a visual traffic-calming cue.”

Of course, Wiley says, none of this deals with the underlying problem on the bridge: That the path is simply too narrow for the amount of pedestrian and cycle traffic it’s already handling. And things are likely to get worse: Between the impending completion of the Kent Avenue greenway (which I rode today and is coming along beautifully) and the coming greenway along the LIC riverfront, there’s likely to be a lot more traffic on the Pulaski path. “It’s like the Brooklyn Bridge path,” he said. “We’re running up against the laws of physics.”

The bridge’s roadbed has the opposite problem: It has too much capacity, Wiley said. The evidence: cars routinely exceed the speed limit over the Newtown Creek by 15-20 MPH. “And that behavior continues on McGuinness Boulevard and into Long Island City,” Wiley said.

So there’s a built-in solution that would solve both problems at once: Take a lane away from the roadbed and turn it into a dedicated cycle path. Wiley says Transportation Alternatives supports that idea, but it’s likely a long way off: The Pulaski Bridge was last rebuilt just 15 years ago, so any reconfiguration is likely years in the future.

3. The signs are mandated by a regulation, likely a federal one, Wiley said. That regulation governs how traffic is supposed to behave on drawbridges. The problem, he said, is that the signs are in the wrong place: Cyclists are supposed to dismount and walk their bikes over the expansion joint between the leaves of the bascule (i.e. at mid-span). The signs, however, are hundreds of feet away from the joint. Even so, Wiley said, DOT doesn’t enforce the rule. “They’re planning for the real world, in which cyclists are riding across the bridge.”

Hope this helps… Keep up the good work!

No Rick, thank YOU for taking the time to give us the 411! If anyone has a question for Rick you can leave them in the comments or contact him via email at: rick (at) technopop (dot) org.

Miss Heather

P.S.: Rick was also kind enough to forward me a DOT presentation regarding the Pulaski Bridge. You can view it in jpeg format by clicking here.

New York Shitty Day Starter: Coming At You From Greenpoint

My buddy Larry da Junkman has been involved in a number of very interesting projects lately. Follows is a snippet of one of them. It is part of an ongoing collaboration with the Vole Show and is entitled Think Tanking: Journey To The Newtown Creek Nature Walk Part 2. Larry’s daughter (clad in fairy wings and a tiara no less) steals the show. Enjoy!

I can hardly wait to see what these madmen come up with next.

Miss Heather

People In My Neighborhood: Juan

September 6, 2009 ·
Filed under: 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Newtown Creek 

juan

I’ve seen Greenpoint t-shirts and I’ve seen Long Island City t-shirts; but this is the first time I have ever seen a Newtown Creek t-shirt. Impressed, I asked this gentleman what gives. His name is Juan and as it would happen he works at the Newtown Creek Nature Walk. Among his responsibilities are opening and closing the park. In our brief conversation it became very apparent that he loves his job (and the park for that matter). This post is for you, Juan. Happy Labor Day weekend!

Miss Heather

A Newtown Creek PSA

Today I had the utmost urge to go out for a walk. I did not want to venture too far, however, lest I get caught in a torrential downpour. So I kept my wanderings local…

manavepark

and went to the new park at the end of Manhattan Avenue. It was at this location that I found the following corker.

PHA

OK, I understand the city has to put these signs up. But who in their right mind would want to eat something that once called this home?

Gross.

Miss Heather

P.S.: WTF is this?!?

thing

New York Shitty Day Starter: Polish Paradise

June 29, 2009 ·
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic, Long Island City, Newtown Creek, Queens 

I recently learned that, contrary to popular belief, “Polish Paradise” is not located in Greenpoint. Those of you who are interested in paying this very special place a visit can can find it underneath the Pulaski Bridge in Long Island City.

PP

NOTE: not only is “Polish Paradise” seemingly bereft of Polish people, it also appears to be BYOB.

Miss Heather

Citypoint Photo Du Jour: Pink Pandas!

June 19, 2009 ·
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic, Long Island City, Newtown Creek, Street Art 

ryker

From The Pulaski Bridge.

Miss Heather

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