Trees dropped off at Transmitter Park. Someone left theirs in a plastic bag – please don’t do this!
As of last week, we started seeing trees pile up at McCarren Park, some with lights and stands still attached, which is a big no-no. Here’s what you need to do to get your tree ready for recycling!
The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, the New York City Department of Sanitation , and GreeNYC are hosting the annual MulchFest this Saturday and Sunday January 7th and 8th, where trees are turned into mulch for the city’s parks and plantings. You can drop off your Christmas trees to recycle them into wood chips. These wood chips are used to nourish trees and plants on streets and gardens citywide. Or, take home your very own bag of mulch to use in your backyard or to make a winter bed for a street tree. More than 30,000 trees were recycled last year.
You can bring your tree to McCarren Park at Lorimer and Driggs on January 7 and 8 from 10am to 2pm. They’ll chip your tree, and give you your very own bag of mulch! McGolrick Park (at Monitor and Driggs) and Transmitter Park are both operating as tree drop-off sites, so you can bring your tree there but it won’t be chipped there (so no free bag of mulch). Please remember to remove all lights, ornaments, tinsel, stands and netting before bringing the tree to a MulchFest chipping or drop-off site. Bags will be provided if you wish to take some free mulch home. Continue reading →
As Christmas 2016 approaches, Greenpoint is prosperous. Hundreds of people are out in the neighborhood shopping and restaurants and bars are doing a brisk business, yet Christmas was not always a time of wealth. During the holidays in 1932 the neighborhood’s atmosphere was totally different. It was the third Christmas of the Great Depression, and by some estimates fifty percent of Greenpointers were out of work. But the Christmas spirit was not dead and there was one man who wanted every family to celebrate Christmas—that man was Peter McGuinness, the “first citizen” of Greenpoint.
McgGuinness born on Eagle street in 1888, and as the third of fourteen children from a working class family he knew poverty and was determined to fight against it. As a teen he had seen Big Tim Sullivan, the leader of the “Tammany Hall” political machine in the Bowery who threw a big Christmas bash for the poor in his area and thousands of the Bowery poor came and received a free meal and a basket of Chirstmas food. McGuinness was so impressed with Sullivan’s Christmas that he later revived this Christmas tradition in Greenpoint. Continue reading →
They say it’s the most wonderful time of the year—but between self-embarrassment at work parties, getting the XS condoms at the white elephant gift exchange, forced family hangouts, and blowing your paycheck on gifts and flights, you might need a little help getting into the holiday spirit. Luckily, North Brooklyn has an abundance of seasonal flicks to bring you some of that Christmas cheer. And at most of these places, there will be booze. Listings after the jump! Continue reading →
Donna Siafakas, the owner of Peter Pan Donuts & Pastry Shop (727 Manhattan Ave.) and Nick Giannios, owner of The Greenpoint Floral Company (703 Manhattan Ave.) are two long-time local residents and successful Manhattan Avenue merchants who are trying to give back the community at holiday time, but they’re learning that things ain’t the way they used to be.
Siafakas loved the holiday lights that used to signal the start of every holiday season on Manhattan Avenue. She related to me how local merchants used to all chip in and collect money for the lights as a thank you to customers who supported local businesses. In those days, Manhattan Avenue business owners were locals with families and had deep ties to the community. Years ago a civic minded local Jewish merchant used to organize the lighting drive and collected the money, which most local store owners were only to happy to contribute.
Giannos and Siafakos have tried to keep the tradition alive, but times have changed and so has the willingness of merchants to fund the holiday lights. Siafakas said that she was shocked by the resistance to contributing for the avenue lights. She does not want local shoppers to chip in, and feels that it’s a way for store owners to show their love for the community; but fewer than half the businesses have contributed so far, and some shop owners told her outright that they would not contribute because they did not celebrate the holiday season. Continue reading →
We bought over 1000 white christmas lights to decorate our Holiday Market and we hope to use them for a long time. When they finally die and we recycle them, they may end up in Shijiao, China, the “Christmas Light Recycling Capital of the World.” This interesting video by Adam Minter, of the blog Shanghai Scrap, shows how the process works in order to recover valuable components like copper and insulation. In the USA this insulation would end up in a landfill, but in China it is reused as slipper soles.
When I was a kid my Titi Pat, whom my Dad called “the Irish woman,” (her real name was Patria) would drop off a big bottle of Coquito during Christmas. My parents don’t know it but I took swigs of the stuff. It was like coconut vanilla ice cream and made me feel so – funny.
Coquito
Coquito is Puerto Rican, coconut flavored, rum laced eggnog. It is creamy, tropical and still promises that happy rum feeling.
It takes about 10 minutes to make and it’s the perfect drink to bring to any holiday party – especially when it’s presented in a mason jar with sharpie scribbled on it. Thats the good stuff, your alcoholic friends will think. Warn the fearful ones, it’s just rum but take small sips. Continue reading →
PUPPIES! SANTA! Puppies wearing sweaters…with Santa! It’s all going down Saturday in the garden right next to the McCarren Park dog run. Dress your pet(s) in their winter best and get a holiday photo that will make your entire extended family jealous, because A) your pet is super stylish and B) their family photo was taken at a mall.
Oh, and it’s FREE.
Tomorrow – Saturday 12/21 from 12:30-2pm
Instagram your merry Dog/Cat/Santa photo and tag us @greenpointers and @gpointvet. We’ll re-gram our favs.
If you live in Brooklyn, then at least one person on your gift giving list has a tattoo and you know once you get one – you can’t stop!
Maybe your roommate needs one more tat to complete his sleeve or your sister needs to cover up that butterfly on her shoulder she got on her 16th birthday. Greenpointers’ gift guide can help!
Our favorite local tattoo shop,East River Tattoo is offering 20% Off Gift Certificates for Greenpointers readers. Do the math. That’s $100 Gift Certificates for ONLY $80! Just mention Greenpointers and this deal is yours!
Founded in the summer of 2000 by Duke Riley, East River Tattoo is located on Brooklyn’s historic Greenpoint waterfront. The artists of East River Tattoo specialize in high quality custom tattoo designs in a variety of styles, heavily influenced by maritime folk art and 19th century traditional tattooing often evoking antique nautical charts, woodcuts, engravings and scrimshaw.
East River Tattoo
1047 Manhattan Avenue (between Freeman and Eagle)
(718) 532-8282
Follow East River Tattoo on Instagram @eastrivertattoo
(sponsored) Attention little and big kids! Take photos with Santa in a true winter candy land!
Jellio.com, makers of fun, childhood-inspired furniture and home decor items, is welcoming Santa to their new Greenpoint shop, this Thursday, December 12th from 3-7pm, and Sunday, December 15th, from 1-5pm. The Jellio Shop is located within The Flying Squirrel (87 Oak Street) in Greenpoint.
Let’s face it you can’t take Christmas photos with a drone. Plus, Santa is giving out candy and FREE GUMMY BEAR TOYS!!!
• Grand Street Holiday Window Display Competition @ Grand St (btwn Lorimer & Humboldt) SATURDAY (12/15) – 1-4pm, FREE, vote for your favorite window display created by local high school students, and enjoy santa visits, free face painting, and a scavenger hunt for the kids, and enter to win $100 local gift certificates, More Info
WEDNESDAY 12/11 •Hoodoo + Conjure 101: American Folk Magick Series @ Catland (987 Flushing Ave, Bushwick) 7-9pm, $10, learn about the history of hoodoo in this lecture from Khi Armand, a neo-traditional shaman and hoodoo “rootdoctor”, RSVP ♥ Love Actually Trivia @ Trash Bar (256 Grand St) 7:30-10pm, FREE, I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toesssss, winner gets a $20 bar tab and a romantic dinner with Hugh Grant (one of these is not a real prize), RSVP • The Experiment Was This @ 155 Freeman St, 7:30pm, $5 suggested donation, a reading and conversation with poet Ada Smailbegovic and photographer Sylv Hardy, investigating the material qualities of natural substances, written language, and the photograph itself, More Info, RSVP * Bad Movie Brooklyn Presents: Jingle All the Way @ Berry Park (4 Berry St) 8pm, FREE, Watch a pregnant Schwarzenegger punch a reindeer in the face, and then remind yourself that he was actually the governor of California, RSVP ♫ Bashdown @ Matchless (557 Manhattan Ave), 8pm, $8, December birthday celebration, featuring performances from The Planes / Onesie / Golden Bloom / Orca Age, RSVP Continue reading →
