Happy December, Everybody! Despite the glorious lights on Manhattan Avenue, it seems not everybody is in the holiday spirit. In fact, there has been some gross nonsense going on around here: on November 21st, a man began masturbating outside The Lot Radio coffee shop (17 Nassau Avenue) while staring at a 20-year-old female employee. Then, he entered the shop and attempted to raid the cash register. This whole episode went down before noon, proving that it’s never to early to be a creep.
Unfortunately, the crime wave continued this week. On Tuesday, a Greenpoint woman was the victim of a violent robbery. The 63-year-old woman was punched in the face in the lobby her building; the assailant made off with her purse and cellphone. The NYPD asks the public’s help in identifying the perpetrators in both these crimes. If you have information about either case, call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS or for Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or texting their tips to 274637(CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential.
If the news seems a bit bleak right now, here’s something brightening: Greenpoint Artist Sto Len makes beautiful prints out of the polluted waters of Newtown Creek.
Speaking of making beauty out of a mess: New York City Transit. The organization Friends of the BQX, the proposed Brooklyn-Queens Street Car stretching from Astoria to Sunset Park with stops in Greenpoint, has been reaching out to public housing residents along the project’s route. The plan received positive reception in Red Hook, a public transit desert long cut off from the rest of Brooklyn, where residents want better transit options.
And, it turns out, one very influential transit option was proposed just yesterday. The Regional Plan Association, a group made up of some of the most respected engineers and urban planning experts in the country, released its Fourth Regional Plan on Thursday. The Plan recommends ending 24-hour subway service in order to undertake a system-wide overhaul during the night.