The McCarren Park basketball court (via Google Maps)
The basketball hoops came down Thursday morning in McCarren Park along with 79 other New York City courts to further deter groups from congregating and to help stop the spread of coronavirus.
The basketball court at McCarren Park is now without hoops
“Social distancing is taking hold with New Yorkers — but we’re seeing some issues when it comes to basketball courts,” Mayor de Blasio tweeted on Wednesday. “If you want to go shoot hoops with your kids, that’s fine. But we can’t have pick-up games. If people don’t follow the rules, we’ll take hoops down.” Continue reading →
NYC Parks and Brooklyn Bazaar co-owners Belvy Klein and Aaron Broudo presented two weeks ago at January’s Brooklyn Community Board 1 meeting on the plan to bring a “family-friendly” restaurant to the rear of the McCarren Park house by spring 2021 following $1.2 million in renovations.
McCarren Park House as it looks today
The goal is to maintain and improve the historic brick structure that was originally built in 1911 and was last renovated in 1938 when the McCarren Park Pool was under construction.
“This will still be a parks-use building as well as a public amenity. People will be able to go into this building and see it, and enjoy it for what it is, and enjoy it both either as a patron or not,” Jonathan Chesley of INCA Architecture said during the presentation. Continue reading →
This Saturday, the Art Heart Bus, run by Greenpoint-based art teacher Moira Tuohy, and tie-dye artist Starhawk will have three tables near McCarren Park with activities for all ages! Look for the colorful bus located on Bedford Avenue close to No. 12th Street corner from 1 pm – 8 pm and bring some art supplies and for a small suggested donation create a tie-dye shirt, paint a planter and make a dream catcher.
Starhawk will be sharing his expertise and demonstrating how to make tie-dye clothing.
You are invited to make own tie-dye, just bring your own shirt (they will have extra shirts as well).
It has been a fairly busy summer for McCarren Park hawk sightings. While many Greenpointers refer to the hawk in the singular, there is perhaps a family of hawks that call the park home. A video of two hawks enjoying a bath in a puddle in the park was shared a few weeks ago, and this morning a tipster shared a video of a hawk devouring a rat on a picnic table in McCarren Park. Continue reading →
A fresh batch of ten “affordable” apartments in Greenpoint and Williamsburg is now open for applications via the NYC Housing Connect website.
Located in the bullseye of the on-going sewer petroleum vapor epidemic, 128 Huron Street in Greenpoint offers three one-bedroom apartments in the lottery; two of the one-bedrooms are priced at $1,999 for one to two occupants with an annual household income between $68,538 – $111,020. The other one-bedroom apartment is $2,250 per month for one to two occupants with an annual household income between $77,143 – $111,020.
Amenities at 128 Huron St. are listed as stainless steel appliances and a balcony. Apply here by July 19th.
Yaki Tiki, a new edition to the A/D/O (29 Norman Ave.) outdoor space launched two weeks ago and merges Japanese yakitori-style cuisine and tiki drinks.
The outdoor grill
Yaki Tiki is a partnership between the Sunday in Brooklyn hospitality team (Todd Enany, Adam Landsman, Exec Chef Jaime Young, and bar director Brian Evans), as well as JT Vuong and George Padilla (formerly of Okonomi and YUJI Ramen).
We stopped by last weekend to try some yakitori skewers and boozy popsicles; everything we sampled was delicious, check out the pictures:
Maitake w sansho lime; shishito w nori, lemon; potato salad
♫ Bateria with Toribio, Mickey Perez and Djoy de Cuba @ Good Room (98 Meserole Ave), 9pm, FREE, More Info # Intro to Plant Parenting: Houseplant Fundamentals @ Greenery Unlimited (91 West St.), 715pm, $25, learn the basics of “right plant, right place” to keep your plants happy and thriving! Buy Tix ♫ DigitalArtNight with Duckwrth, Mndsgn & SadhuGold @ Kinfolk (94 Wythe Ave.), 8pm, FREE, an immersive art and live music experience, More Info ♫ Sooner « Absent City « Irrevery « Shop Talk @ Muchmore’s (2 Havemeyer St.), 9pm, FREE, More Info
THURSDAY 5/30
♦ Movies Under the Stars: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again @ Bushwick Inlet Park (50 Kent St. Pop-up Park), 8pm, FREE, movie screening outdoors with the Manhattan skyline as a backdrop, More Info ♫ Tasha Blank’s Bday + Record Release @ House of Yes (2 Wyckoff St.), 6:30pm, $5 – $25, an epic night of surprise guests, brand new music, nonstop art, live performance + plenty of shenanigans, Buy Tix # Family Style PIATTI Dinner @ Archestratus (160 Huron St.), 7 pm, $50, an endless antipasto, a many course family style Italian dinner of abundant platters, served a few at a time, some warm and others at room temperature.Buy Tix ♫ Morgana @ Brooklyn Mirage (140 Stewart Ave.), 7pm, FREE, Serge Devant, Ryan Crosson, Dinky, Connie, More InfoContinue reading →
Does McCarren Park have a lead contamination problem? A new report from WNYC found lead contamination levels above 150 ppm in 87 percent of the 30 soil samples taken in the beloved Greenpoint park.
The report also found soil with lead contamination in Prospect Park and Astoria Park in Queens.
For the McCarren soil testing WNYC focused on the grassy circle near the western entrance at the corner of Lormier Street and Bedford Avenue behind the restrooms:
Our focus was on an oval-shaped plot at the northeast corner that’s typically crowded with picnicking families in warm weather. Historic insurance maps reveal a company that made window sashes, blinds and doors once occupied the site in the 1880’s. Present-day aerial images show large patches of bare soil throughout the park.
Out of 30 samples tested in this one area, 87 percent were above 150 ppm. All exceeded 80 ppm. The average lead level was 201 ppm, making McCarren the most contaminated park WNYC tested.
The map uses color coding to show where the samples measure in relation to differing standards of the current EPA’s New York standard (400 ppm), the proposed New York standard (150 ppm) and California’s standard (80 ppm).
Lead exposure can cause neurological damage and children are especially vulnerable, but the study also notes that the vast majority of NYC children who have elevated lead in their blood were exposed to lead paint in their homes.
A brief explanation in the study as to why the soil in Brooklyn is widely contaminated hints at the manufacturing history of the borough.
Greenpoint and Williamsburg had dozens of manufacturers and industrial businesses emitting toxins as late as the 1990s, possibly impacting the soil in our parks today. A Hunter College study from 1989 entitled “Hazardous Neighbors? Living Next Door to Industry in Greenpoint-Williamsburg” profiles buildings where toxic chemicals were being used and stored for various manufacturers.
The 1989 “Hazardous Neighbors” study from Hunter College summarized the potential sources of toxicity at the time.
♫ Bateria with Toribio, Mickey Perez and Djoy de Cuba @ Good Room (98 Meserole Ave), 9pm, FREE, 
THURSDAY 5/30
