Good morning, Greenpoint! It’s Friday, and time for the Hook-up. Sometimes, I think we should just rename this column “Another Week, the Same MTA,” since it seems that most of the things that get a line here are subway-related. That’s true as ever this week. Punch, Pepper-Spray, Hardware and High School are all, in their myriad and sundry ways, subway stories. So, step in, stand clear of the closing doors. Continue reading →
In other L-train news, Wired took a look at “The Dreamers of the L-Train Shutdown,” noting how the impending L-pocalypse has really spurred some quixotic creativity in New York, inspiring such proposals as gondolas, pontoon bridges, and inflatable bridges.
Meanwhile, the Village Voice asked, “Is the Rest of the Subway Ready for the L-Train Shutdown?” focusing on the impact that service changes will have on our beloved G train. For example, “No station illustrates the scale of the challenge, or raises questions about whether the MTA is doing enough to mitigate the impact of its own planned work, better than Court Square in Long Island City, where internal MTA documents warn that corridors could be “crush-loaded” once erstwhile L riders crowd onto the G.” Get ready for the crush, Greenpoint. Continue reading →
One of the paintings stolen from the Crozier Fine Arts Warehouse in Williamsburg via Brooklyn Paper
Happy Friday, Greenpoint, and welcome to the Da Vinci Code. There’s been an art heist on Bayard Street, and the NYPD has made an appeal for information from the public. The thief broke into the Crozier Fine Arts Warehouse in Williamsburg, and made off 6 Hudson River School landscape paintings worth a combined 1.7 million dollars.
Pinball is a fast-paced, high stakes enterprise. New York’s urban planning and infrastructural changes are much slower beasts. And so: the Brooklyn-Queens Connector (BQX), also known as the gentrification express. This is The Streetcar Not Everyone Desires. With more and more funding necessary, but less and less actual money secured for the project, theBQX is stalled behind schedule, and seems, for now, to be more of a pipe-dream than a real possibility.
As we brave a blizzard, and begin to close out the opening week of 2018, the news itself was full of openings and closings.
While we reported earlier this week on the uncertain future of Bar Matchless, which will stay open until it is forced to shut its doors, Baoburg (614 Manhattan Avenue) a celebrated Asian Fusion staple by McCarren Park, temporarily closed over the holiday, following a health inspection, then reopened with an A rating.
A merry, mini, holiday at the Queens Museum via Artsy.net. Photo by Max Touhey
Happy Holidays, Greenpoint! Greenpoint’s festive lights, abundance of holiday markets, and glorious array of bakeries has us all set for merry making. While we have some great ideas for last minute gifts, the news this week points to one big ticket item: if all you want for Christmas is a condo… you’re in luck. Two more properties in the area have been acquired by development firms.
Meanwhile, the waterfront esplanade promised in front of The Greenpoint, a 40 story development still in progress, is beginning to take shape. Private developers are required to create public park land, and to cede that land to the city, as part of the 2005 rezoning agreement. The esplanade should be complete by the spring.
If all this redevelopment is getting you down, here’s something that might bring a little cheer: the Queens Museum has a stunningly accurate 1:1200 scale model of New York City. The model was first commissioned by Robert Moses for the 1964 World’s Fair, and has been updated over the years. In order to maintain the model, the Queens museum is “selling” the miniature properties. For $100, you can buy any apartment you like, and even get a deed in the mail.
Move over, Pizza Rat, there’s a new celebrity rodent in town. This week, a subway rat went full “Brooklyn” and jumped on the avocado craze. While waiting for the G at Greenpoint Avenue on Tuesday, filmmaker Jessica Edwards captured a video of a rat hauling a slice of avocado along the tracks.
Speaking of riding in style, the first prototype of the Brooklyn-Queens Connector, or BQX, was unveiled on Monday. Also known as the Gentrification Express, the proposed streetcar would run along the waterfront from Astoria to Sunset Park.
