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.
The Lot Radio (17 Nassau Ave.), an independently owned and operated internet radio station across from McCarren Park, can resume selling drinks and snacks from its neighboring kiosk after the Dept. of Health shut it down last January.
Beer, wine, espresso drinks, and snacks will once again be available at the Lot Radio (with a few new items like sake) starting May 1st. “The kiosk is there to support the radio, so we’re excited to welcome people back,” owner Francios Vexelaire said.
The Lot Radio (kiosk on the right)
“Since the shutdown, we had [a] constructive and positive conversation with the Department of Health to get some code modification approved by them,” Vexelaire said, adding that the Office of Nightlife was a major help during the process.
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 7pm.
WEDNESDAY 3/27
☺ The Nerds on The Wall. @ Muchmore’s (2 Havemeyer St.), 7pm, FREE, Stand Up Comedy, RSVP ♫ Hereyouare Launch Party: Social Experiment 1 @ Good Room (98 Meserole St.), 7pm, $6-10, drink, dance, get a tattoo, do some Karaoke, Buy Tix ♫ Tank/ Sabine Holler/ Steph Chrysalis/ Breakaway @ Secret Project Robot (1186 Broadway), 8pm, FREE, RSVP ♫ Funk You: 2 Year Anniversary @ House of Yes (2 Wyckoff Ave.), 10pm, FREE, RSVP
THURSDAY 3/28
# Ovenly Studio ONE54: Intro to Cake Decorating @ Ovenly Studio One54 (154 Franklin St.), 6:45pm, $105, learn how to decorate Ovenly’s Brooklyn Blackout Cake, Buy Tix ♦ Neotenic Design – Closing Night Conversation & Panel Discussion @ A/D/O (29 Norman Ave.) 7pm, FREE, RSVP ^ Meet Josh Frank, author of Giraffes on Horseback Salad @ WORD (126 Franklin St.), 7:30pm, $5, A graphic novel about the true story of Salvador Dali, the Marx Brothers, and the Strangest Movie Never Made! Buy Tix ♫ Alien Trilogy / 1980Special Twin / Mez Swimmers / 2uarm / Alex C @ Secret Project Robot (1186 Broadway), 8pm, $7, More InfoContinue reading →
Pratt’s Astral Oil Works on the East River at Bushwick Inlet (Scientific American 1872)
Walk alongside the western Greenpoint waterfront and you’ll eventually hit a jut of water bordered by a weathered fence, marsh plants, and a lingering stench of seawater. Unlike the mammoth Hudson or Superfund-famous Gowanus, Bushwick Inlet is easily lost in the hierarchy of remarkable city waters.
This humble inlet, however, joined the limelight this past Thursday, thanks to Sergey Kadinsky, an analyst at the New York City Parks Department and adjunct professor at Touro College. Speaking at A/D/O, a design hub and workspace on Norman Avenue, Kadinsky gave a wide-ranging talk exploring the “hidden waters” across the metropolitan area.
Kadinsky took the stage as the final speaker in a series on water and design. Once a tour guide on Gray Line double-decker buses, he channeled that same brio as he barreled through the five boroughs, pointing out disappeared bodies of water at a blistering pace.
Suffice to say, the city hasn’t been kind to its ponds, streams, creeks, or lakes. Take the now-defunct Collect Pond, which used to be Manhattan’s main source of freshwater. As the city grew, so did the surrounding industry. Contaminated wastewater from breweries, tanneries, and slaughterhouses seeped into the small lake, leading officials to fill it in.
1924 NYC Map aerial survey of Bushwick Inlet to McCarren Park (via Hidden Waters blog)
Bushwick Inlet had a similar history. Fed by the disappeared Bushwick Creek, it had an illustrious career, home to a notorious rumrunner during prohibition and was also the launch site for the first ironclad warship constructed in the United States.
City officials then filled in Bushwick Creek in the 19th century, which ran through north Williamsburg and present-day McCarren Park, leading to the contraction of the inlet.
While there’s little hope for the resurrection of Bushwick Creek (its path was projected to run through the location of A/D/O), Kadinsky argued that this doesn’t prevent us from “daylighting” previously forgotten waters.
Bushwick Inlet Park. Photo by Megan Penmann
For example, Collect Pond is gone for good, but city officials named a park in the same location in lower Manhattan Collect Pond Park, connecting past geography to present.
Bushwick Inlet has fared better than Collect Pond, but by all accounts needs a facelift. Luckily, it projects to be part of the northern extension of what will eventually be a complete Bushwick Inlet Park, a move to put the inlet “back on the map.”
♫ Bateria with Toribio, Mickey Perez and Djoy de Cuba @ Good Room (98 Meserole Ave), 9pm, FREE, 
THURSDAY 5/30
THURSDAY 3/28
