Bushwick Photo Du Jour: Troutman Street

May 1, 2013 ·
Filed under: 11237, Bushwick, Bushwick Brooklyn, Gentrification, Street Art 

troutmanstreet

Taken May 1, 2013.

Greenpoint Photo du Jour: STOP

April 3, 2012 ·
Filed under: 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic 

A number of questions come to mind when I see something like this (as I did yesterday while knocking around the Garden Spot). For the purposes of this post I’ll leave them to two:

1. Has the intersection from which this piece of municipal property has been commandeered received a replacement sign?

Given the article in question is a stop sign I think this is a very pertinent question. But alas, there is no way I can find this out. And…

2. Should this item be in the possession of one of our scrap metal establishments?

This is luckily much more easily answered. I asked someone in the know and his/her answer was as follows:

No.

New York Shitty Day Ender: Hitting The Road

January 24, 2012 ·
Filed under: 11211, East Williamsburg, East Williamsburg Brooklyn 

From Maspeth Avenue.

From The New York Shitty Inbox: Ingenuity

January 2, 2012 ·
Filed under: 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic 

A person who calls him/herself IPFreely writes of the above trio (in an email entitled “Missing a Fence?”):

Hi Heather,

We spotted this while walking right past the Shit Tits on Greenpoint avenue this Friday. At first I thought they had stolen a bike which was still chained to a fence. But since this was on Greenpoint avenue, just a block down from Scrap King, I think it’s safe to say that these guys came up with an ingenious method of transporting this heavy piece of scrap metal. Happy New Year!
Who knows for certain? Nonetheless, Janette Sadik-Khan would be proud!

News You Can Use: The Man Hole Report

November 3, 2011 ·
Filed under: 11222, Criminal Activity, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic 

As many of you have undoubtedly noticed, I have been quite intrigued about the disappearance of public property hereabouts lately. This is not mere idle curiosity either; when walking down the sidewalk I’d like to have some semblance of assurance that there is, in fact, something upon which to walk. I am not alone in harboring this sentiment. Jay (who forwarded me the photo to the left) writes (in an email charming entitled “another hole”):

Here’s another case of a missing metal plate on mcguinness near driggs. I’m sending another photo of a missing plaque in Father Studzinski Sq at the same intersection.

And sure enough, he did. But still, I could not get this image off my mind.

Exactly how many such covers have been commandeered so as to be “repurposed” by our local scrap metal establishments?

I asked to myself. Well, gentle readers, yesterday morning I found out! I walked from one end of McGuinness Boulevard to the other in search of plundered holes. And find them I did!

Upon heading out on my mission I bumped into my friend Chris at The G Spot. He too had noticed that these sidewalk/street covers have been disappearing at an alarming rate. So much so, he could not recall what they looked like anymore. I vowed to find out and, fortuitously enough, at the beginning of my survey (and at a location I will not disclose) I found one!

As you can see it reads “WSNY”. This means “Water State of New York”. In other words, it is state property. Or soon to be was. Now on with the show!

McGuinness Boulevard, west side, between Ash and Box Street

McGuinness Boulevard, west side, between Clay and Box Street

Some kind of canister has been used to close the hole. Resourceful!

McGuinness Boulevard, west side, between Dupont and Clay Street

Here a more customized solution has been found. As it would happen, I had the pleasure of meeting the chap responsible for this. He told me this is the second time he has had this plate stolen, he has called 311 to no avail (“they don’t care”) and he asserted quite stridently that he knew the man responsible for both thefts. He is allegedly a resident of the 3/4 house on Clay Street. Good times!

McGuinness Boulevard, west side, between Dupont and Eagle Street

Here we encounter our first (but hardly last) novel use of a traffic cone. Note how it has been pressed into service as a trash receptacle. Genius!

McGuinness Boulevard, west side, between Eagle and Freeman Street

Another block, another hole. Beginning to discern a pattern here?

McGuinness Boulevard, west side, between Huron and India Street

Someone has been very busy!

McGuinness Boulevard, east side, between India and Java Street

McGuinness Boulevard, west side, between Kent Street and Greenpoint Avenue

And then as I crossed Greenpoint Avenue the thievery stopped. I have a theory about this which I would like to posit here. Aside from proximity to the Greenpoint “Hotel” and 3/4 house, I observed that north of Greenpoint Avenue these plates were invariably to be found adjacent to fire hydrants. On the south side of Greenpoint Avenue this is not the case. Thus, I would posit that the reason the plates are intact “down south” is because they are not as easy to locate.

McGuinness Boulevard, west side, at Bayard Street

For the most part.

So how many missing covers did I find along our community’s solution to the Champs-Élysées, gentle readers? The grand total (including Jay’s find) comes out to ten. It should be noted that I later found three ones MIA in Williamsburg. In closing I will leave you with an interesting, if unrelated, discovery from my investigation (as spotted at Nassau Avenue).

It would appear that someone is a Jack Daniels fan.

 

 

From The New York Shitty Inbox: Missing On Monitor

November 1, 2011 ·
Filed under: 11222, Criminal Activity, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic 

Jay (who took the above photograph) writes:

Saw your post yesterday regarding removal of street covers (or whatever they’re called) by metal scrappers. This hole on monitor has appeared not once but three times over the past year thanks to the practice of selling ‘scrap’ for $. My question is why are the scrap metal dealers taking a variety of objects that are obviously NOT scrap? I’m sure you’ve seen the memorials that have been stripped of bronze plaques. I won’t even get in to the copper wire thief who started the Great Greenpoint Terminal fire of ’06. That’s a whole ‘nother ball of molten metal.

The culpability (or not) of the man charged for starting our (not so) little barbecue aside, Jay makes a good point: these items would not be stolen (and resold) if someone wasn’t buying them. Then the becomes question is who— and what do we do about it?

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