Two years ago, the NYC Department of Transportation began conducting a Traffic Study to assess street safety conditions in North Brooklyn. The study focused on issues like street design, traffic flow, public safety and environmental impact, and was funded by Councilman Stephen Levin’s office. To complete their findings, the DOT solicited community input, and received over 400 unique comments and suggestions from North Brooklyn residents. Now, the DOT is back in our part of town with suggestions gleaned from the study. The agency presented its findings to BK Community Board 1 on April 10th. Continue reading →
Dealice Fuller (Chairperson) and Simon Weiser (First Vice Chair) at the Community Board 1 meeting, March 13, 2018.
It’s a frigid Tuesday night in March, currently breezy, but there was a Nor’easter in the morning. The day and the commute hasn’t been easy. You probably feel like parking yourself on the couch, ordering a giant pizza and throwing back a few glasses of red wine. Well, a handful of Greenpointers staff did just that AND we watched the livestream of tonight’s Community Board 1 meeting. Every month, the CB1 meeting livestreams on YouTube via PBS Thirteen, and if you’re a little late or you miss it entirely you can watch it after the fact, from your damn couch. Our neighborhood is one of the lucky ones around town—not all Community Board meetings get the YouTube treatment. We’ve writtenbefore about how entertaining the meetings are—if the idea of a “real life episode of Parks & Rec” doesn’t hook you, then check out the cast of local characters and issues below. Continue reading →
The MTA has seen protests in Brooklyn due to its laissez-faire relationship with the impending L-pocalypse. In response, they’ve promised to make community engagement a “central priority” as the March 2019 L train closure nears. Part of that community engagement was on display last week, when the MTA and the DOT appeared before Brooklyn Community Board 1 to offer a joint presentation to this neighborhood offering new information regarding their plans for alternate service during the transit shutdown. In a word: Ferries.
While the proposed direct ferry route between North Williamsburg and Stuyvesant Cove isn’t technically new (it was part of the MTA’s original L-pocalypse mitigation strategy ominously entitled Planning Ahead for the Crisis), the agency offered new details on the route at last week’s meeting. During the presentation, transit honchos noted that ferry service along the route would run 6:00am-12:00am Sunday through Thursday, and that service may be extended until 2:00 am on Friday and Saturday nights. Continue reading →
Talk to the hand! Chairperson Dealice Fuller raises her hand at the CB1 Meeting on December 5, 2017
Last night, the Swinging 60’s Senior Center (211 Ainslie Street) hosted the final CB1 meeting of 2017, and despite the crummy weather and end of year throwaway vibe, the room was fairly full. If you’ve been following our lighthearted coverage the past few months, you are probably aware of how fun these meetings can be to watch, especially for neighborhood nerds who don’t feel like schlepping a few blocks to attend. And that’s also because you can watch the livestream from the comfort of your couch via PBS Thirteen on YouTube while you pop in a frozen Roberta’s pizza and down some nice wine from Dandelion (just me?) while yelling things at the screen like, “That man’s head is too big for his body!” (also, just me?). This particular meeting had a whole 26 people tune in to the livestream, and I have to say I’m thankful that Thirteen disabled the chat feature—a few meetings ago there was a troll on there typing in dirty words at random intervals, in a display of truly demented deference for locals getting organized and actually giving a shit about where they live.
Chairperson Dealice Fuller is one of the main reasons you should be watching the CB1 meetings, because she throws some amazingly timed shade. Last night was no different, so here are a few of her best gems:
“When I don’t see faces that often, I don’t remember names that well.” –Dealice Fuller (regarding a person in the audience who she didn’t quite recognize, and then an 80s sitcom-type “Ooooohhhhhhhhh….” [as in ‘Damn, that was cold’] went through the crowd)
“Please. How are you gonna have a meeting when people are talking in the middle of the floor?” – Dealice Fuller (to people chitchatting in the audience)
“Marty, we can’t have that, you know better.” –Dealice Fuller (Get ‘im!)
“We don’t know if we’re gonna wake up tomorrow and find the world still here.” –Dealice Fuller (on whether unexpected world events will interrupt future committee meeting dates)
The NYC Department of Transportation is getting ready to release the results of a Transportation Study for Brooklyn Community Board 1 (That’s us)! The study, focusing on issues like street design, traffic flow, public safety and environmental impact, was funded by Councilman Stephen Levin’s office. While North Brooklyn residents have already contributed over 400 unique comments and concerns to the study, Levin’s office is now inviting community members to submit last minute input “to make sure this process reflects everyone’s voices.”
The North Brooklyn streetscape is not the first to be surveyed by the NYC DOT. For example, the department assessed conditions on Jay Street in 2016. Past studies like this one have analyzed existing issues on the street, then offered solutions based on public input, so your ideas are essential to the process. Continue reading →
Dealice Fuller at the CB1 meeting on November 14, 2017
As we mentioned last month, the regular CB1 meetings are a great opportunity to support our local community (or at least know what the hell’s going on around here) from the comfort of your own couch—so make some popcorn, throw back a few beers and throw on the livestream. Between committed neighborhood busy-bodies, awkward and often inane comments from the peanut gallery, and Dealice Fuller’s formidable facial expressions, the CB1 meetings are thoroughly entertaining. You can watch last night’s meeting (11/14) in full, here on YouTube. The agenda can be viewed as a PDF here. The next CB1 meeting will be held on December 5th at the Swingin’ 60s Senior Center (211 Ainslie Street) at 6pm, and will also be livestreamed via Thirteen.
Here are the highlights:
Neighbors are concerned that the crowds from Painting Lounge (309 Roebling Street) could be a boon for “drug peddling and mayhem,” and that perhaps applying for a liquor license is a clever way for the humble-seeming business to disguise its true motive of actually operating as a bar. Others brought up that there are already two liquor stores nearby, and, citing prohibition, questioned whether the community is being too harsh: “Is this 2017 or is this 1917?” And:“Am I in some lala land where this quiet little place where women come and paint is the thing that’s gonna wreck a whole community?” A motion was passed to recommend denial on the lounge’s application for a beer and wine license.
The question was brought up and not resolved… Should CB1 be recommending name changes to businesses with potentially offensive names?Xixa (241 S 4th St) is Yiddish for a non-Jewish woman, Traif (229 S 4th St) refers to non-Kosher food, and now there’s Greenpoint newcomer Ramen Mafia (opening at 208 Franklin Street).
Dealice Fuller, throwing some full on Maya Rudolph level sass.
The monthly Community Board 1 meetings are highly entertaining if you have even a passing interest in local goings-on, and as we’ve previously reported, if you don’t want to attend in person you can watch them from the comfort of your own home livestreamed via public channel Thirteen on YouTube. At the meetings, you get to find out who’s applying for liquor licenses, which block association has beef with which developer, and watch bright-eyed millenials with new business ideas get torn a new one (pass the popcorn). One of the most enjoyable parts of watching the livestream of the CB1 meeting is the closeups on chairperson Dealice Fuller’s face—this woman does not play. She’s badass and amazing. You can watch last night’s meeting in full here.
Here are the highlights from last night’s meeting (which ran over by about an hour): Continue reading →
Applications for affordable housing ($596 for a studio!) at the Domino Sugar Factory reached a whopping 87k—only 104 are available, with half designated to go to residents of CB1.
Will makeup giant Sephora be coming to Williamsburg? It’d probably look right at home next to the Apple Store, Levis Store and Whole Foods.
Following two pedestrian deaths, neighbors are speaking up about making Grand Street a safer place to walk.
If you thought the pilot composting program was good idea for Greenpoint then wait until you hear the latest news coming from the Department of Sanitation. The agency has officially upped its own ante by announcing that Greenpoint and Williamsburg streets will be getting nearly 200 new solar powered trash compactor bins in just a few short weeks.
Dubbed Big Belly Solar Compactors, these trash bins will be replacing the traditional green wire cans-a common fixture on nearly every major street corner in the neighborhood. So what makes these new compactors so great? A peek on the manufacturer’s website boasts Big Belly Solar’s trash bins can compact over 150 gallons of garbage compared to only 35 gallons of the standard-issued green trash can.
The company says Big Belly cans are aimed at reducing fossil fuels and are designed to be used without the use of hydraulic fluids. To date, Big Belly Solar Compactor bins have been such a hit they can be found everywhere–including 13 US cities, Scotland, the rest of the UK, and Sweden. Soon enough Greenpoint will be added to that growing list.
McGolrick Park is a hidden gem on the other side of McGuinness Blvd (#OSOM) but many local residents feel the park needs some major love, like updates to the playground and repair to the pathways. It doesn’t help that neighborhood punks have no respect, either; last year they set fire to benches and vandalized the statue.
Residents of #OSOM have come together and formed the McGolrick Park Neighborhood Alliance (like it!). Last week they pleaded with the Community Board 1, “requesting that fundraising efforts for the Park be made a major part of their next fiscal agenda with a particular focus on improving its playground,” as reported in the Greenpoint Gazette.
