“The Way of the Cross” parade and reenactment by the local church St. Anthony of Padua – St. Alphonsus (862 Manhattan Ave.) began on Dupont Street around 1:30 p.m. today and proceeded South on Franklin Street with an impressive cast of costumed actors. The procession marks the Good Friday Christian holiday, or the Friday prior to Easter. The annual procession is one of the most interesting and theatrical events to catch on the streets of Greenpoint; see the footage we captured from today’s festivities:
P.S. 34 Green Team Parents describe the show in a statement:
The Eco-Fashion Show raises awareness about the environmental impacts of consumption and waste, and involves the students in designing and then debuting their designs made out of recycled and upcycled items. The kids spend several months learning, designing, and creating their costumes, and the program is supported by the National Wildlife Foundation. The theme of this year’s show is wildlife, and students have selected species and have written narratives that explain how their species impact their environment and how humans impact the species (e.g., poaching, habitat loss, pollution, water scarcity, etc.).
Manhattan Avenue, like the rest of New York City, has seen a lot of changes since 1940, and here we’ve compiled a ‘before and after’ series of the northern stretch of the Avenue (past Greenpoint Avenue) using the 1940s NYC tax photo archives. Did you know there was a synagogue where C-Town now stands? Check it out:
903 Manhattan Ave. in 1940 (via NYC tax photo archives)903 Manhattan Ave. in 2018 (via Google Maps)897 Manhattan Ave. in 1940 (via NYC tax photo archives)897 Manhattan Ave. in 2018 (via Google Maps)921 Manhattan Ave. in 1940 (via NYC tax photo archives)
Enid’s (560 Manhattan Ave.) held its final brunch ever last Sunday and is now officially closed (yes, we’re still sad), but today you have a chance to own a piece of the restaurant in a sale to clear out the building. Enid’s is letting go of the rest of their belongings, and you can drop by from approx. 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. today; Enid’s sent us a quick description of what to expect:
“We have folding metal chairs Folding wooden chairs A metal locker setup w 8 lockers, basically lots of odds and ends relating to kitchen life, pans, plastic containers, lots of bar glasses, some tables, the booths, It’s all first come first serve and it’ll be making a reasonable offer.”
Two large swastikas were discovered painted on the sidewalk on Newel Street at Norman Avenue in Greenpoint on Monday, in an incident that has been reported to the NYPD’s 94th Precinct.
A swastika discovered on Monday on Newel Street
The two swastikas were painted in black with arrows pointing away on Newel Street. This follows a rise in hate crimes in NYC and the spread of hate graffiti in the North Brooklyn area.
A “hands-on” garden design workshop will take place this Saturday, March 30th, at Bushwick Inlet Park (86 Kent Ave.) at 1 p.m. to help plan gardens to be planted this spring; RSVP here.
The gardening workshop is happening with the support of NYC Parks and Recreation, Partnerships for Parks and North Brooklyn Parks Alliance: Continue reading →
80 Ainslie St. rendering (via NYC Housing Connect)
The NYC Housing Connect has another “affordable” housing lottery open at 80 Ainslie St., where five units are up for grabs with an April 12th deadline to apply.
The four-story mixed-use building from developers Parkview Management has 16 apartments averaging 712 square-feet each with over 4,000 square-feet of commercial retail space on the ground floor. The development is just a short walk from the Metropolitan L/Lorimer G subway stations.
Two one-bedroom units are available for $2,320 per month for one to two occupants with an annual household income between $79,543 – $108,550 per year.
Three two-bedroom units are available for two to four occupants earning between $95,829 – $135,590 per year.
80 Ainslie St. in 2011 (via Google Maps)
The former one and two-story warehouse buildings at the site were razed to make way for the new mixed-used development.
The amenities at 80 Ainslie St. include a laundry room, bike storage, rooftop access, and an elevator.
The Greenpoint YMCA (99 Meserole Ave.) will host its annual campaign kickoff event tonight (3/21) at 6 p.m. at the Early Childhood Center (176 Java St.). Donations can be made here.
In 2015, the Greenpoint YMCA expanded its early childhood center to include 5 classrooms (up from two) and doubled student capacity to 135 students from 65 students.
A monthly live jazz night for local musicians and jazz-appreciators launched last month in Greenpoint hosted by keyboardist Jesse Lynch. The second session happens on Wednesday, March 20th, at Warsaw (261 Driggs Ave.) from 9 p.m. – 12 a.m.
Lynch, a Greenpoint-based pianist began hosting live jazz sessions at a Greenpoint loft last year under the name Brooklyn Vortex. With the Warsaw Series, he hopes to bring together local jazz players to exercise their improv skills.
Henry Miller is not only one of the greatest writers Brooklyn ever produced, but also a chronicler of the now vanished North Brooklyn before the building of the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903. Honestly, there are times when I do not like Miller’s writing: it can be macho, self-obsessed, vain and highly egotistical, but when writing about old Williamsburg he approaches literary genius.
Henry Miller (via Carl Van Vechten collection at the Library of Congress)
In 1971, the New York Times (PDF) invited the then 80-year-old Miller back to Williamsburg to recollect on his childhood. Though he had been away for five decades, Miller had a crystal clear memory, recalling many fascinating stories from that vanished world of his childhood. Miller was born of German-American parents in Manhattan in 1891, but moved to the area as an infant, living at 662 Driggs Avenue, a house that still stands.
The Henry Miller House (662 Driggs Avenue vias Google Maps)
His fondest memories, which occupy much of his writing, concern his boyhood friends from the neighborhood. He said, “As I walked the streets the names of my boyhood companions, or better said, my idols, came back to me: Johnny Paul, Eddie Carney, Lester Reardon, Jimmy Short, Tim Buckley; Matt Owen, Gus Fowler, and last but not least, my first real chum, Stanley Borowski. With Stanley I maintained a friendship until I left for France in 1930. Like myself, he wanted to be a writer; I doubt that he ever made it however.”
Reading Miller’s writings, the neighborhood comes into focus through the eyes of a mischievous young lad who would later be censored by the United States Post Office for his shocking prose. Miller recalled first being rebuked for his language at the police station at Bedford Avenue where he was dragged by the arm one afternoon by a babysitter at the age of 6 or 7 years old; the crime he had committed was to use dirty language in her presence – the first of many times Miller would shock people with his language.
Miller’s writing later shocked another, more prominent Williamsburger, Presbyterian Minister John D. Wells. Today John D. Wells Middle School on S. 3rd St. is named for the preacher Miller knew as a child. He recalled, “Later, on some crazy impulse, I sent this rather pompous and aristocratic minister one of my first pieces of writing from Paris. He replied that he had thrown it in the garbage can; he wondered, he said, how one of ‘his boys’ could ever have conceived such filth.” At 7 years of age, Wells had presented Miller with a handsome little New Testament, his name inscribed in gold letters, for reciting by heart the 23rd Psalm. Continue reading →
