Traffic safety is an ongoing concern after a 14-year-old was hit by a reckless driver on Manhattan Avenue this week. The driver is currently being held on $2500 bail. Community members mobilized and met to discuss safer streets this past Wednesday.
Police are currently looking for two suspects who bought more than ten thousand dollars of luxury goods after stealing a Greenpoint woman’s credit card.
A Williamsburg man has pled guilty to running a heroin ring, and sold the drugs out of his apartment on Driggs Ave. According to Patch, “Twenty-three other people pleaded guilty in the same ring, where they sold heroin under the names, “Knockout,” “Takeover,” “Power Hour,” “Killing Time,” “Pure,” “Gucci,” and “Scorpion.” Continue reading →
There is a famous quote related to English architect Sir Christopher Wren: “If you seek his monument look around you.” The same could be said in Greenpoint of Peter J. McGuinness, the local ward boss who ran Greenpoint from 1923 to 1948. McGuinness profoundly altered Greenpoint and his many achievements are still visible everywhere.
How did you get to Greenpoint? If you arrived by subway it was McGuinness who secured the G train in 1933. The original route of the crosstown train did not go through Greenpoint, but McGuinness complained so loudly the route was changed. Did you drive over the bridge at Greenpoint Avenue? McGuinness also got that for our area in 1929 by being the firmest supporter of Mayor Jimmy Walker. Continue reading →
The NYC-based band Thirdstory teamed up with hip-hop artist Push T on”G Train.” Checkout the video via Fader which features shots of the Greenpoint Ave. station along with heartfelt crooning on your favorite train.
Manhattan Ave’s Cafecito Bogota (1015 Manhattan Ave.) will host a Love Trump’s Hate gathering on Saturday to help you decompress from the presidential election and the disheartening events that have proliferated since. Co-owner Fernrando Verelo tells DNAinfo he “wants to stay visible and for his restaurant to be a welcoming spot for neighbors of all backgrounds.” Continue reading →
In a move that seems like it can’t come soon enough, the MTA has announced that it will start increasing L train service starting next June.
Beginning in June 2017, to accommodate the increased rider trends, the L line will have:
11 additional weekday roundtrips between 9am – 7:30pm.
12 additional Saturday roundtrips between 7am – 3pm.
27 additional Sunday roundtrips between 7am – 8pm.
During these hours, L train service is currently running at more than 100% capacity (or “peak load point”) guidelines. The additional trains should help bump capacity down below 100%. Why it took the MTA this long to increase service on the ever-crowded L train is perhaps one of the great unsolved mysteries of North Brooklyn. Continue reading →
Fun fact: yesterday, August 19, marked the very first day of G train service in 1933. So we’ve decided to present you with a little bit of history about our neighborhood’s most beloved (and often disparaged) subway line. Continue reading →
If the reality of all this transit stuff is too much to grapple with, try escaping into a fantasy Sim City land of sorts where you can design the perfect subway system.
Hey, it gets lonely on the G Track. (Via ReThink Studios)
Though full-size G Trains are very much on the agenda for the coming L Train shutdown, here’s another thought: extending the E to run along the G track to take the pressure off all of us out here.
Because the L Train shutdown is consuming all our thoughts lately, senator Daniel Squadron (plus 32 other officials) are calling on Cuomo, de Blasio, and MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast to start working on better solutions now.
One more G Train thing and then we’ll stop. Apparently a small number of G Trains are being used as a test group for those futuristic digital display screens you see on other trains from the modern era.
Things are changing at Five Leaves and Nights and Weekends — but hopefully only in a behind-the-scenes kind of way. Chef Ken Addington is leaving his post there, but he’s apparently got something else up his sleeve.
If sewage-related podcasts are your thing, check out this DNAinfo reporter’s chat with Zainool Ali, the manager of the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant.
What about urban hikes? Are those your thing? On August 6, Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman will be taking interested parties through our industrial borderlands.
Investors Bank recently cut the ribbon at its new location on Manhattan Ave. However, it’s already made moves in the community by getting in with local advocacy groups like the Greenpoint YMCA and the North Brooklyn Development Corporation.
There’s still time for CitiStorage owner Norm Brodsky to accept the city’s offer of $100 million, but his public auction of the land recently closed, and he’s been playing his cards close to his chest.
The Greenpoint entrepreneurs behind spice savant Greenpoint Trading Company are laying on the heat with an expansion into South Bushwick.
On Thursday, May 5, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) held its first community meeting to discuss two proposed plans for the Canarsie Tunnel renovation, the final step in the MTA’s Sandy Recovery Work plan and a major concern for Brooklyn residents who use the L train daily.
The first plan, which all officials seemed to favor (emphasized by the noticeably longer “pro” list in the presentation), proposes an 18-month turnaround, with work beginning in January 2019 and ending in July 2020, and requires a complete shutdown of the L train from 8th Ave to Bedford Ave. The train would run as normal from Bedford Ave to Rockaway Parkway. This plan would give the agency more flexibility with contractors and would get the work done as quickly and efficiently as possible.
The second plan, which would take three years, would leave one tunnel open, allowing the train to run at 12-to-15 minute intervals from 8th Ave to Bedford Ave: only 20% of the current level of service the L train provides. There would be no train service at all between Bedford and Lorimer, with a shuttle bus as an alternative. Service would run as normal between Lorimer and Rockaway Parkway. Continue reading →
What are you doing next Saturday? If you can stomach planning more than two days ahead, come help clean up the neighborhood with Curb Your Litter and NAG on April 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. If you like your environmentalism with a touch of interactive data, check out this cool map.
What are you doing this Sunday, actually? If you’re single and metal as hell, come to Speed Metal Speed Dating at St. Vitus. This, from the same people who brought you Morrissey-themed speed dating night at Black Rabbit.
Transparency could soon be imposed upon the film industry thanks to a bill sponsored by Councilman Stephen Levin, which would require the city to provide monthly reports detailing when and where filming goes down (as well as the companies involved).
Via MTA
Do we smell another passive-aggressive Cuomo/de Blasio standoff? A state audit found that the MTA fudges its numbers on how often subway trains show up on time, and that service sucked more in 2015 than it did in 2014. But wait! Want to know the real shocker? The G Train performed better than any other line in terms of meeting target wait times: a rate of 81.3%.
Everyone groaned when BMW leased the former Brooklyn Night Bazaar space, but it looks as though the dealership is actually doing something really cool with the space/probably trying a little too hard to do Brooklyn right/might still deserve the benefit of the doubt for now. “Amalgated Drawing Office” will feature a restaurant, retail design store, co-working space, and start-up accelerator. One thing it definitely won’t be is an automotive space, but “design” is apparently an open-ended concept for the time being.
Bioremediation workshops are coming to Greenpoint. Details are still to come, but the Newtown Creek Alliance will be laying down some knowledge on urban soil, harnessing beneficial microorganisms with compost tea, and mycoremediation (that’s using fungi for remediation).
Blooms are blooming, and the Greenway is showing the first signs of life. The two-way bike lane that’s been three years in the making is finally in the construction phase on West Street.
While things are popping, other things are drawing to a close. Verboten just got shut down. Fraud, mismanagement, sexual harassment and racism weren’t the official reasons, though. The government seized the property over unpaid taxes.
Are countdown clocks finally coming to the G Train? Gothamist spotted some suspicious-looking packages at the Classon stop. If you see something, say something.
