Greenpoint
Lorven Pharmacy
Culture on the Cheap
Zip112 Back In Business?
Remember my friend whose sister had her reservation canceled by Zip Hostel earlier this week? Well, her tale had taken (yet) another twist.
T writes, April 1:
…Really have no idea what to make of it all at this point – will go check out the place and if it looks OK she will probably stay there with our air-mattress as a back-up. Obviously staying in disputably legal hostels is not ideal but hopefully it will work out OK!
Here’s the email from Zip112 with links to 2 buildings department complaint forms which I thought you might be interested to see.
Dear (excised)..
The problem has been resolved, therefore your reservation is still fine. Here are the city building department link for zip112 5F.
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/OverviewForComplaintServlet?requestid=2&vlcompdetlkey=0001262590
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/OverviewForComplaintServlet?requestid=2&vlcompdetlkey=0001281794If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Thank you.
Young. ZIP112 Zipny, Inc
Hostel+Travel+Arts
Address: 112 N 6th st 5F Brooklyn NY11211
Email: info@zip112.com
Phone: 347-403-0577
http://www.zip112.com
So let me get this straight: this building has no Certificate of Occupancy and this hostel is located on a floor that legally does not exist? Welcome to the smash jaw and arbitrary world of code enforcement in north Brooklyn.
Miss Heather
Williamsburg Street Art Du Jour: Mixed Bag
Taken April 2, 2010.
Miss Heather
P.S.: Special thanks go out to Luna Park for tipping me off to the location of the latter most gem. LOVE IT!!!
Reader Contribution Du Jour: Sweet As Sugar
When I saw this photograph on Flickr I simply had to share it here. It comes courtesy of Luna Park (who was gracious enough to give me permission to post it— thanks!).
Miss Heather
From The New York Shitty Inbox: Canceled
Filed under: 11211, 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Brooklyn
Since I wrote this post there has been a great deal of commentary and speculation about Zip112, better known as Zip Hostel. E.g.; is it legal? Well, I have word from someone whose sister was going to stay there this upcoming weekend that it has been shut down. In fact, it would appear almost the entire building has been vacated. T writes:
…I actually got hold of the owner of Zip112 on Monday evening and he assured me everything was OK with them (that they were legal etc.). Now my sister has had an email saying the whole building is getting shut down and canceling all reservations.
So whether they are legal or not, they are closed!
Thanks for the advice – my sister has had to forsake Brooklyn and get a bed in a hostel in the East Village instead. Oh well!
On a lark, Monday afternoon I searched for “vacation rentals” in Greenpoint on Craigslist. What I found was sobering.
Presenting the Dobbin Street Lofts.
As you can see, they’re doing brisk business. Who knew April Fool’s Day was a U.S. holiday? I thought that stopped after George W. Bush left office. But I digress.
Here is a photo of said “loft”. And here is what I found on the Department of Buildings web site.
No Certificate of Occupancy
“COMMERCIAL OFFICES”
Same song, different verse. This is not to suggest there isn’t humor to be found here. There is.
239 Banker Street (AKA: The Sweater Factory Lofts), a “hotel” illegally pressed into service as living space, is clearly visible in the background of their photo showcasing the roof deck of their illegal hostel. Nice.
Miss Heather
P.S.: For more reading/commentary about the debacle at 112 North 6 Street I strongly recommend you read Brooklyn 11211’s follow-up post.
From The New York Shitty Inbox: The North 11 Street Spycam!
K (who sent the above photo) writes:
Hi Miss Heather,
First off, thank you for your blog — i visit it daily and heart it SO much! I wanted to send you a pic of the toxic construction site on N11 and Bedford – specifically how precarious the sidewalk structure is. I work in a building that looks onto the site and have watched the construction/non-construction go on for what – almost a year now. In any case, a couple weeks ago I was walking on the sidewalk across from Turkey’s Nest and saw that the corner of the sidewalk had essentially fallen in. The resolution to the ‘hole’ was to just fill it up with concrete (geniuses!) and not actually consider the lack of foundation this sidewalk currently has. So, I thought – this is when I will finally make the move and take a picture of what is actually going on on the other side of the blue wall we all see on Bedford. The image is attached to this email – you will see that we are all walking on a falling wall of foundation that is being held up(?!) by metal columns…
If you’d like, I can continue to send you the slow moving construction as I have a perfect bird’s eye view.
As you can imagine, I took up K on her generous offer and I look forward to her bird’s eye view of this unfolding train wreck. In the meantime, you might want to watch where you step Williamsburgers!
Miss Heather
P.S.: Here’s a nice big shot of this wading pool provided by another reader, Langer!
NYS Flickr Pool
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