INTRODUCTIONS! (PART IV)

While explaining to friends who live outside of Greenpoint how wonderful our neighborhood is to live in, I’m often expected to clarify some area folk-lore. Yes there is an oil spill larger than the Exxon Valdez bobbing gently beneath our feet. The live poultry slaughter house a few doors from my apartment does indeed smell worse in the summer than in the winter (when feather covered rivers of chicken tears trickle down the sidewalk). No, the old Polish ladies here are not disdainful of their new younger neighbors—they are, more often than not, polite and welcoming even when I break it to them that I do not speak Polish.

I moved to NYC in 2002 and outside of a few stints back up in Boston, I have made northern Brooklyn my home. I became a Greenpoint resident two years ago with my girlfriend and dog and have already spent time in two different apartments. The first was above a funeral home across from McGolrick Park where I often wondered about but seldom entered The Fireplace bar and grill. The current is on the Franklin Street side of the neighborhood. I consider finding this apartment my most triumphant Greenpoint moment. I can walk a block down the street and eat free pizza with a pint of beer at any conceivable hour, my girlfriend often reminds me that too many brunch options does not qualify as a “real” problem, and my dog has a backyard to run around and dig holes in (this is until she digs one deep enough to reach the aforementioned oil spill, in which case we ride our spewing fountain of riches into one of those fancy new condos on the waterfront, Beverly Hillbillies-style).

As a member of The Greepointers illuminati I hope to address the areas of interest that are most important to me. These include but are not limited to, delicious food, dimly lit bars, K9 matters, afternoon celebrity sightings, laundromat empanadas, and all of the great arts and culture happenings that make this neighborhood one of best in the city. I also hope to clarify any and all Greenpoint myths for the “out-of-pointers” who are not too shy to ask.

I love the neighborhood and am so glad to be a part of it.

– Mark