Skyline Drive-In NYC (1 oak St.), Greenpoint’s new East River waterfront drive-in cinema has launched ticket sales for screenings of movies scheduled through July 2nd.
The drive-in held a test-run at the end of May and is now open to the public. Screenings through Sunday include “Footloose” (6/17), “Dreamgirls” (6/18), “Anchorman” (6/19), “Grease” (6/20) and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” (6/21).
Happy Weekend Greenpointers! On Friday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a crackdown on crowds in NYC parks with the NYPD now limiting the number of visitors to Domino Park.
The first distribution of the Food for Brooklyn food pantry is Saturday (today) from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. at the First Polish Baptist Church (55 Sutton St.).
Beloved restaurants and cafes continued to reopen this week with limited hours for the first time since the start of the pandemic, including Adelina’s (159 Greenpoint Ave.), Bakeri (105 Freeman St.), Ovenly (31 Greenpoint Ave.), Vamos Al Tequila (162 Franklin St.), Five Leaves ( 18 Bedford Ave.) and Jimmy’s Diner (577 Union Ave.).
On Sunday, the McGolrick Park Farmers Market is open from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. for those looking to find a ‘fresh’ last minute gift for Mother’s Day. Homecoming (107 Franklin St.) is also taking Mother’s Day orders for contactless pickup and delivery.
The 94th Precinct remains on the trail of the suspected storefront window smasher after a series of Greenpoint businesses were targeted.
Stay safe out there, or preferably in there, and in the meantime, catch up on this week’s headlines from around the neighborhood: Continue reading
UPDATE: The owners, YD Development, responded to Greenpointers stating that a retail conversion is not planned and all current tenants can remain. From YD Development: “The property has no plans to be repositioned for retail (maybe in the past there had been such a plan we don’t know).”
An assemblage of four residential buildings on Greenpoint Avenue with 52 apartments total face ground floor retail conversions and the addition of penthouse units.
A current tenant at one of the 105-115 Greenpoint Ave. buildings contacted Greenpointers with new Cushman & Wakefield marketing materials showing the plans to convert the ground-floor units into commercial use: “In addition to performing high-end renovations to the apartments, current ownership has secured approved plans to add a fifth floor to each building,” the ad states. “The plans are slated to create five four-bedroom, two-bathroom penthouse units and one two-bedroom, two-bathroom penthouse unit by duplexing the fifth floor down to the existing fourth floor units.”
The four buildings 105, 107, 111, and 115 Greenpoint Ave. total 38,560 square feet and out of the 52 residential units two are stabilized.
(Via Cushman & Wakefield)
105 – 115 Greenpoint Ave. (Via GoogleMaps)
A sign in McGolrick Park was vandalized by a man who wrote out a racist conspiracy theory last Friday, as hate crimes against Asians in NYC soar since the start of the coronavirus crisis.
The man, who is described by a tipster as an “older guy with wispy gray hair, wearing a beanie with a blue mask,” was spotted writing a coronavirus conspiracy theory on a social distancing sign in McGolrick Park last Friday afternoon. His screed, complete with misspellings, roughly reads (warning offensive language): “CHINESE BASTARDS STARDED [sic] THis AND CNN + OTHER LIBERAL BROADCASTS COVER FOR THEM!…BECAUSE THEY HATE TRUMP THEY WOULD LET US DIE! THEY ShOULD ROT in hell!!!” Continue reading
Greenpoint resident and Dusty Rose founder Maresa Ponitch started a campaign this month to raise money for the North Brooklyn Angels‘ mobile soup kitchen through online sales of pennants, but an increasing amount of what she says is incorrectly processed mail via the Greenpoint Post Office (66 Meserole Ave.) has her worried that customers will not receive their packages.
Ponitch began mailing out the pennants two weeks ago and has received three returned envelopes in the mail marked as having an “insufficient address,” all of which she has verified as having correct adddresses.
Many more returned envelopes are likely waiting Ponitch at her studio where she receives mail: “I’ve also gotten a ton of DMs and emails from people, saying that they haven’t received their pennants yet.”
As the U.S. Postal Service struggles nationwide with a $13 billion revenue shortfall during a public health crisis, Ponitch says that she understands that the staff are overworked. “I’m all for the post office,” she says, adding that alternative mailing services are much costlier when mailing something that fits inside a standard envelope. “I don’t know if someone made a choice when they put the “insufficient address” on the envelopes,” she said.
Staffing shortages due to the coronavirus pandemic caused the Greenpoint Post Office reopened this week with limited hours (closing Mon. – Fri. at 3 p.m.) after canceling window service for all of last week.
Ponitch says that she uses bulk shipping via UPS and FedEx for Dusty Rose’s regular clothing shipments, but other local retailers such as the Brooklyn Record Exchange are expressing the importance of the U.S.P.S’s affordable rates: “Working from home” means packing and shipping discogs orders. As I prepare to haul these to the post office I can’t help but think about how essential the USPS is to our business and any record (or book) stores in the US that rely on mail order for some of their income. ”
The North Brooklyn Angels launched a new initiative this week to help laid off restaurant workers and front line health care heroes. The “Neighbors Feeding Heroes” crowdfunding campaign began accepting donations on Wednesday morning with more than $650 raised so far.
The non-profit, volunteer-powered soup kitchen regularly serves freshly prepared meals for free throughout Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Bushwick in the “Angelmobile” with help from a production kitchen at Our Lady Mount Carmel Church (275 N 8th St.).
The new initiative provides workers at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens with breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days per week during the coronavirus crisis, with a kitchen team operating out of Jimmy’s Dinner (577 Union Ave.).
“The great thing that we’ve done is to put restaurant workers back to work in a safe way and we’re starting with 100 meal three times per day, Manny Howard spokesperson for the North Brooklyn Angels said. “And then, as their capacity to accept these meals grows and our capacity to produce grows, we’ll definitely put that number up. And with any luck we’ll be able to hire more restaurant workers.”
Today is officially Census Day, “the nation’s once-per-decade, constitutionally-mandated count of every American, regardless of their citizenship status,” and it has never been more important to get counted as Kings County the lowest response rate for a county of its size in 2010.
The Census helps to determine how much federal funding localities will receive for infrastructure, public schools and housing and many other important programs.
You have likely received a Census 2020 form in the mail by now, but the Census can also be completed at: my2020census.gov. Remember to count everyone who is living in your house or apartment (except for temporary guests who should be counted at their primary residence).
Continue reading
A vintage clothing store has moved a few doors down from its former location and a new Korean bistro has come to N. 6th Street in Williamsburg, among other local business changes.
Manhattan Avenue vintage shop Fox & Fawn closed their 570 Manhattan Ave. location last month and as of last week are now open at 599 Manhattan Ave. just across the street. Continue reading
Affordable housing lottery options in Williamsburg continue to roll out this month with 312-314 Keap St. as the latest buildings to apply for via the NYC Housing Connect website.
At 312 – 314 Keap St. there are five total affordable apartments priced at 130% of the area median income, and the application is open through March 4th. Continue reading
Happy Phil Collins Day Greenpointers! For the first time since 2015, the “In The Air Tonight” singer will be celebrated in a revived local tradition (complete with live cover sing-alongs) at Greenpoint Beer & Ale Co. (1150 Manhattan Ave.) starting at 3 p.m. today.
But first, neighbors and environmental advocacy groups will rally this morning from 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. at the intersection of Manhattan Avenue and Moore Street to call on Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio to halt the pipeline’s construction.
In other local news the monthly Brooklyn Community Board 1 meeting was Tuesday (full video here) and a jam-packed agenda revealed that the proposed development in the Greenpoint Historic District at 171 Calyer St. was denied as were the proposed renovations to the McCarren Park House, although both projects could still move forward if changes are made to the respective designs that suit CB1. Other presentations from the CB1 meeting include plans for the Franklin Street protected bike lane and the proposed change of traffic on N 14th Street.
For fans and patrons of Humboldt & Jackson (434 Humboldt St.) you have two more days to visit the restaurant and bar before it closes forever.
For more weekend fun checkout what’s happening and in the meantime catch up on this week’s headlines from around the neighborhood: Continue reading
