Class & Co. (260 Ainslie St) just opened their roof deck on time for summer and built out 3 new private office spaces (2-person, 5-person and 10-person) available June 1st and is looking for creative entrepreneurs to join their boutique sized co-working community.
Ample cozy sitting room at Class & Co
Sun-drenched with all the amenities like coffee, weekly breakfasts, and events free to members, this is a space where you will feel inspired and won’t have to worry about anything except building your new project or business. For more details about what Class & Co has to offer, check out this post we did when they first opened!
Drop by for a tour and mention “greenpointers” to save on one security payment. Simply pay the first month and enjoy your new office. No commitment. Continue reading →
This May 2-12, raise a glass and celebrate the neighborhood! Hang out at your favorite Greenpoint watering hole with 25% off. Bring a friend (or two, or three) and discover a new cuisine, try out a new wine pairing, or enjoy a local craft brew, all within walking distance.
Here’s how it works: From May 2-12, use code TOAST25 when you pay with the Cinch app at local Greenpoint bars, restaurants, and wine stores. With Cinch, you can explore your neighborhood and find cool experiences and great deals. New to Cinch? Download the app here.
Check out these participating businesses (Full list when you open your rewards tab in Cinch) :Continue reading →
BBBBB (Buket’s Bunny Boy Beach Bed), 2017, oil on canvas, by Buket Savci
These are dark times, there’s no denying it. From political unrest and environmental crisis to smaller gripes like seasonal allergies and MTA woes, it’s easy to get bogged down in this concrete jungle we call home. But Buket Savci, this week’s featured artist, is here with a salve in her magnificently colorful and fantastically buoyant works. Buket’s paintings, along with Jacob Hicks’, will be the inaugural works at Wrong Side of the River (67 West Street, Suite 312) now through May 3. Their exhibition, Wonderland, is a welcome balm to our times and a stunning exercise in collaborative creativity. Below, we get to know Buket and her work, but most importantly her contagious and relentless optimism.
Greenpointers: How long have you been in Brooklyn?
Buket Savci: I live and work in Brooklyn; I’ve been in Bushwick for a little over three years. Before that I lived in Astoria for almost 10 years. But I’ve had my studio in Greenpoint since I received my MFA from New York Academy of Art in 2012. I also studied painting at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
Your Wonderland series is so fun! What was the inspiration for that at Wrong Side of the River?
I am so glad to hear you enjoy our title for the show. I have been working on these series of paintings for a few years now, which are about the fleeting moments of pure joy and happiness. I create paintings addressing the ephemerality of happiness while using objects like balloons as a metaphor for our short lived contentment.
I really enjoy using saturated vivid colors, and I think everything else is so negative and dark so at least my paintings should be colorful and fun. That’s why I use the colors that makes me happy, and I enjoy including humor in my art. But actually I am not that joyful. Life is not easy and I had my share of traumas. Unfortunately a few years ago I had a major depression and even my psychiatrist was constantly telling me that my art will save me. Painting is my passion, and it is this wonderland where anything can happen, so I choose to make it fun and colorful like a playground.
Passengers, 2018, oil on canvas, by Buket Savci
There is this profound quote from a Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet; he asks to Abidin Dino, who was a famous Turkish artist. “Could you make a painting of happiness?” So all these led me to question what is real happiness, when and how we feel real joy, and how do I express this through painting.
Painting lets me live these fleeting moments in detail and throughly over a course of weeks even months. I want to create a niche of fantasy, where both the figures and I as the painter can be just like a child — innocent and playful, carefree and bold. A visual playground far away from all the darkness enclosing us outside and inside, blossomed through sincerity and trust.
Spring into peace, love, and local business! Our sensational Flower Power Spring Market returns to the Greenpoint Loft (67 West Street, fifth floor) on Sunday, April 7 from 1 to 7 PM.
This far out event will spotlight local vendors, indie artists, and neighborhood artisans of all stripes. Thousands of neighbors and guests flock to buy and see the fruit of these artists’ labors.
The Greenpoint Loft will transfigure into a floral kingdom of hippy love and neighborhood harmony. 60+ highly curated vendors will be hawking their wares, and an exciting lineup of FREE dreamy activities awaits:
As always, our Flower Power Photobooth will be donned with an art installation made in collaboration with artist Colleen Blackard for professional photos shoots by Gustavo Ponce Photography. It’s going to be as gorgeous as the roses in our last market, so stop by, throw up the peace sign, and say, “Groovy!” Continue reading →
Starting this Friday, March 15th through Sunday, March 24th, feast at over 15 local restaurants while supporting a local cause! Whether you want to help abused and abandoned animals find their forever homes or support early childhood education & more, “Dine and Donate” makes it easy – All you have to do is eat delicious meals for a discount!
The deets: Go to a participating restaurant and pay using the Cinch app. 10% of your bill will go to a local non-profit and you will also get 10% or more off their bill. Not a Cinch user yet? Download the Cinch App here
Oh and if you are snapping shots of your meals “for the gram” no judgment here cuz Cinch is also donating an extra $5 every time you share your experience and tag @cinchwallet + the restaurant you ate in or the non-profit you donated to. Be selfie to be selfless, y’all.Continue reading →
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney is hosting a “State of the District” presentation on Sunday, March 10, at Hunter College W714 (E. 68th Street and Lexington Avenue) from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. “Join me at my State of the District presentation this Sunday at 1pm! I’ll be discussing my legislative work in Washington, infrastructure investments in NYC, and the status of ongoing projects in #NY12. Hope to see you there,” Maloney posted on Facebook.
Maloney represents NY’s 12th Congressional District including parts of Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, Long Island City, Astoria, the East Village, Midtown East, and the Upper East Side.
We know the public debate that followed the announcement of the Long Island City project was rough and not very welcoming. Opinions are strong in New York—sometimes strident. We consider it part of the New York charm! But when we commit to a project as important as this, we figure out how to get it done in a way that works for everyone.
The highly contagious measles virus, which was eradicated two decades ago in the U.S. with an effective vaccine, has returned with a surge of 90 diagnoses (mostly children) in Brooklyn, with most of the confirmed cases centered in the Orthodox Jewish community in Williamsburg, where 15 people were diagnosed since last October. There were 349 confirmed cases of measles in the U.S. in 2018, according to the CDC.
Since October 2018, approximately 225 New Yorkers have contracted measles, tracing back to a traveler to Israel, according to the NY Times.
Update: Measles outbreaks in the Orthodox Jewish communities in Rockland County and Brooklyn have officials urging parents to get their kids vaccinated. @BurrellTV is on the story. pic.twitter.com/EsVyCf4Qyr
According to the NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene:
As of February 19, 2019, there have been 90 confirmed cases of measles in Brooklyn since October. Most of these cases have involved members of the Orthodox Jewish community.
The initial child with measles was unvaccinated and acquired measles on a visit to Israel, where a large outbreak of the disease is occurring. Since then, there have been additional children from Brooklyn who were unvaccinated and acquired measles while in Israel. Children who did not travel were also infected in Brooklyn or Rockland County.
The neighborhoods that are affected include:
Bensonhurst: 1 confirmed measles case (no new cases since November 2018) Borough Park: 41 confirmed measles cases (2 new cases in the past week) Midwood/Marine Park: 1 confirmed measles case (no new cases since November 2018) Williamsburg: 47 confirmed measles cases (15 new cases in the past week) If you plan to travel to Israel, protect yourself and your family against measles and get vaccinated with the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine at least two weeks in advance of your trip. If you have traveled to Israel and you have a fever, cough, red eyes, runny nose and body rash, contact your doctor. You should call your doctor before going to their office to prevent exposing other people to measles.
The measles virus can live for two hours in rooms lacking ventilation and is spread through casual contact. Symptoms include a rash that can spread across the body along with white spots in the mouth, high fever, runny sinus, and a cough. A 95 percent immunization rate is ideal to shield the general population, but immunization rates are as low as 60 percent in New York regions according to the NY Times.
For perspective, a worse outbreak occurred in 2014 when 667 measles cases were reported, with nearly 400 cases in an un-vaccinated Amish community in Ohio.
Children should have their first dose of the measles vaccine by one year of age and a second dose between the ages of four to six. According to the city:
All children enrolled in pre-kindergarten, nursery school, daycare programs, and Head Start are required to receive one dose of the measles vaccine. Children enrolled in grades K through 12 and college students must have two doses of measles vaccine. Health care workers are required to receive two doses of a measles-containing vaccine, or have a blood test showing that they are immune.
In December 2018, the City Health Department began cracking down on un-vaccinated schoolchildren, banning children from school until they receive proper shots.
Grand Street Restaurant Week is back and starts TODAY (Monday, February 18)! Through Sunday, March 3rd, diners can enjoy discounted prix fixe menus with special offerings at 15 Grand Street restaurants!
Long-time neighborhood favorites like Desy’s Clam Bar as well as neighborhood newcomers like Thompson Brooke are participating as well as local favorites including Le Barricou, AmmazzaCaffe, and Forcella. Two-course lunch offerings start at $10 and three-course dinner offerings are all less than $35 per person. For a full list of participating restaurants and their menus, visit grandstreetrestaurantweek.com. Continue reading →
The Shell gas station at 2 Bushwick Ave. in September 2017 (via Google Maps)
A shuttered Shell gas station at 2 Bushwick Ave. where five spills were reported from 1989 – 2006 is being identified as the potential source of the L train petroleum stench that has resulted in multiple sick passengers and workers since last week, NY Daily News reports.
The Dept. of Environmental Conservation received the spill reports from the former gas station owners whose business operated directly above the L train between Grand Street and Graham Avenue as recent as 2017.
The Shell gas station at 2 Bushwick Ave. in 2018 (via Google Maps)
The DEC is not officially placing the blame on the former gas station for the L train oil smell, the NY Daily News explains:
Transit officials said the tank was abandoned for more than 20 years after DEC officials opted not to remove it, citing its proximity to the subway tunnels. But their timeline may be off — fuel was sold at the gas station as recently as 2017.
DEC spokesman Sean Mahar said Monday that the agency had not yet identified a single source of last week’s disturbing odor, and that a comprehensive investigation into the issue was ongoing.
City Councilman Antonio Reynoso, whose district includes the vacant station, said his office received very little communication from the MTA on the source of the L train stink.
“To make matters worse, the information we have received is conflicting and leaves many unanswered questions about the gravity of the situation and its impact on the health of the riders and residents,” said Reynoso. “This is especially angering and adds insult to injury when considering that north Brooklyn has a history of experiencing environmental injustices, specifically oil spills.”
Seems like the @NYCTSubway has brought in some extra fans to place on top of the L train tunnel in order to vent out the diesel fumes.
Not really helping much as I’m standing on the platform.
