The North Brooklyn Community and Elected Officials at the steps of City Hall
“The city can’t just rest on its laurels and say it made an offer,” said State Assemblyman Joe Lentol on the steps of City Hall, where the North Brooklyn community alongside elected officials turned up the heat on an already sweltering summer day for Bushwick Inlet Park. It’s because the $100 million offer that the city made to acquire the last remaining parcel of prospective park land expired yesterday, Monday, August 8.
This puts the future of all 28 acres of open space in a precarious position and Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park is not taking it lying down. With impassioned chants of “Where’s our park?” and a series of speeches by community leaders and elected officials, they demanded that Mayor de Blasio does what it takes to deliver the waterfront park that was promised 11 years ago. Continue reading →
Crowd watching a film in Transmitter Park, last summer.
One of the area’s brightest summer events, Films on the Green will be returning to Greenpoint’s WNYC Transmitter Park to project two films ‘en plein air’.
An initiative of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the US, the FACE Foundation and the City of New York Parks & Recreation, Films on the Green Films is unique among the myriad of free movie screenings attracting cineastes to NY green spaces every summer, as each year the series presents a free and fresh sampling of French films around a given theme.
This year, as part of the Tandem Paris-New York, a cultural partnership between the cities of New York and Paris including a music festival, film, art, and other events, running between June and October 2016, Films on the Green presents classic and contemporary films that, “present the diversity of Paris, its inhabitants, landscapes, and cultures”.
Greenpointers can view two classic French films projected alongside an unmatched East River view of Manhattan, when Luc Besson’s ‘Subway’ screens June 24th and François Truffaut’s ‘400 Blows’ on July 1st. Continue reading →
Ughhhh, is it iced coffee weather yet? It’s no secret that we New Yorkers aren’t blessed with a great climate. Winter = grey snow piles for days. Spring = rain, like we’ve had all week. Summer = sweat, gross smells, and sometimes you can fry an egg on the sidewalk. So what are outdoor sport-loving folks to do when NYC weather is THE WORST? Hit up The Pitch, NYC’s only indoor soccer-focused space, which just opened a few months ago in Williamsburg. Continue reading →
Look, it's a park...overshadowed by a GIANT BUILDING (rendering of 77 Commercial St)
The notion that not one, but two parks, are coming to Greenpoint as early as 2015 may SOUND like good news. Who doesn’t love green space?
But, don’t forget to read between the lines.
On 5/2, Crain’s reported: Construction on the first of two long-awaited parks along the Greenpoint waterfront is set to begin in 2015, spurred by money from the developers of two massive residential projects on the waterfront that were approved last year. Continue reading →
In the latest construction news to hit North Brooklyn, the city approved a McCarren Park expansion that has been in the works since 2010. The plan would expand the park by 33,800 square feet, connecting the section of McCarren Park that holds the dog run and farmers market to the park’s southern end. The chunk of Union Ave. between Driggs Ave. and North 12 Street will be dug up and replaced with a fancy shmancy pedestrian plaza.
Naturally, residents are concerned with how traffic will be affected. Additionally, the expanded green area will remove 34 parking spaces. Gothamist reported, however, that these spaces may likely be recovered nearby.
While the the Parks Department works on securing funding for a permanent design, a temporary design is expected to be completed by summer 2014, giving us all something to look forward to just as the weather starts to turn cold.
This week’s CB1 ULURP hearing focused on the development at 77 Commercial St. which is just up Newton Creek from the Greenpoint Landing project that we covered last week. 77 Commercial street is currently a vacant commercial building that was purchased in 2012 by Manhattan-based developers, Chetrit Group. What makes this development notable is that it sits next to the long promised, but never delivered Box Street Park at 65 Commercial Street. Continue reading →
I can’t tell you how many readers were writing in, “What is happening at McCarren Park? When will it reopen?” I wish I had the Mayor on speed dial!
What happened is that over the winter they spent about a million bucks to fix the drainage issues and repave the paths that were becoming “hipster lakes” during rain storms. And they kept their promise to reopen by Spring. The lawn is freshly cut, there are new park benches and the roses are in bloom. So now go play in the park!
Don’t trash your tree, abandon it at McCarren Park, where it will be slaughtered in a chipper in the spirit of Christmas!
Mulchfest takes place Sat. & Sun. January 12-13th from 10am-2pm, in McCarren Park (Driggs Ave & Lorimer St) where they will chip your tree and give you a free bag of mulch!
Or you can drop if off from Wed. 1/19 – Sun. 1/13 at McGolrick Park (Driggs Ave & Monitor St) or McCarren Park (Driggs Ave & Lorimer St)
Even easier, just abandon your tree curbside for sanitation to pick-up anytime until Sat. 1/12 to be chipped and mulched.
Watch our short video below for a great way to get your tree out the door window without making a huge mess!
Why mulch? According to the city, “all of the trees will be chipped into mulch that will be used as ground cover to nourish plantings across the City.”
Remember: remove tree stands, tinsel, lights, and ornaments from trees before dropping them off or placing them out for collection. DO NOT PLACE TREES IN PLASTIC BAGS.
In a span of a few days we saw some pretty cool birds in McGolrick Park. After we went on an epic birding expedition to Owl’s Head Park in Bayridge, Brooklyn, we took a stroll through McGolrick to pick up veggies at the Farmers Market. Of course, I left the big lens at home.
Yellow Bellied Sapsucker
We call that lens the anti-bird lens because when we don’t bring it we end up seeing awesome birds, like the time in Pennsylvania when we saw the Pileated Woodpecker, which is a giant woodpecker. But I’d rather see the bird than take its picture.
Yellow Rumped Warbler
On Sunday 10/14/12, we saw a Black Throated Blue Warbler pissing off a Yellow Bellied Sapsucker. It seemed as if the sapsucker was trying to stick food into little holes he made in the tree and the little sneaky warbler was just going right up and stealing the food. What a little jerk!
Brown Creeper
Yesterday, 10/17/12, on my morning coffee walk through the park (I have a serious addiction to Variety cappuccinos) I saw a little brown creeper and a yellow rumped warbler.
Keep your eyes open and let us know what interesting birds you spot around Greenpoint this Fall.
WNYC Transmitter Park is open and you have shared some great Instagram snaps with us! Continue to add by tagging #transmitterpark and @greenpointers. Have a great day!
