Welcome to the weekend Greenpointers! Catch-up on the local headlines from this week below and find out where to venture out this weekend.
New York eliminated the religious exemption for vaccinations this week. The U.S.’s largest measles outbreak in decades is centered in Williamsburg, where approximately 75 percent of NYC’s 588 confirmed cases have stemmed from. (ABC News)
Greenpoint’s newest upscale restaurant, Madre, is now open inside Franklin Guesthouse. (Bedford and Bowery)
Greenpoint’s artists opened their studios for GOS 2019 last weekend and there was an overwhelming amount of art to see and experience, demonstrating the thriving community of local creators. (Brooklyn Eagle) (Hyperallergic)
Greenpoint’s second petroleum vapors townhall so far this year happened this week at the Polish and Slavic Civic Center (176 Java St.), where residents expressed concern over vapor testing methods, and city and state agencies confirmed the petroleum build up in Greenpoint’s sewer lines has been flushed and air qaulity has returned to safe levels. (Greenpointers) (Brooklyn Eagle( NY1) (News 12 Brooklyn)
Williamsburg and Greenpoint restaurants Mason Premiere and Sauvage, which are owned by the same restaurant group, have racked up approximately $5.2 million in debt and filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. (Eater NY)
Bogdan Piasecki, a 47-year-old Diamond Street resident was arrested for allegedly punching an eight-year-old boy in Greenpoint. (Greenpoint Post)
There’s a shortage of strong arms to hoist the Giglio in Williamsburg this July for the 100+ year old tradition in honor of the Italian Saint Paulinas of Nola. (CBS New York)
Adam ‘Babyface’ Kownacki (courtesy of Adam Kownacki)
Recently, heavyweight boxer Adam ‘Babyface’ Kownacki has generated a lot of local excitement. The Polish-born, but Greenpoint bred, Konwacki is 19- 0 in his professional career. A huge contingent of locals showed up to support Kownacki in his last match in the Barclay’s Center. Kownacki continued to climb up the heavyweight rankings by earning a second-round TKO victory over former title challenger Gerald Washington (19-3-1, 12 KOs). The talented Kownacki is only the latest in a long tradition of excellent North Brooklyn boxers. The first local champion boxer dates to the era after the Civil War when prizefighting was still illegal.
Local boxing champ and Medal of Honor winner Sam Collyer (courtesy of Wikipedia.)
Williamsburg Civil War hero and bare-knuckle fighter Sam Collyer won both the Medal of Honor and a lightweight world championship in the days after the War Between the States, but Collyer was a puncher and not a boxer. He won a few title defenses in the 1860s, but was later embarrassed in the ring by perhaps the greatest local fighter, McAuliffe in an 1888 match staged in a local theater, in which McAuliffe humiliated the former champ with his technical boxing prowess. Continue reading →
Pennsylvania-based developers Rubenstein Partners are seeking to build a 583,000 square-foot commercial development with office space at the site of Acme Smoked Fish at 30 Gem St., the Wall St. Journal reports.
Acme would not have to relocate as the development would include an 80,000 square-foot manufacturing facility for the production of their popular smoked fish. Acme’s current facility measures approx. 65,000 square feet.
Rubenstein Partners previously negotiated with the Dept. of City Planning to build dual eight-story commercial/light manufacturing office buildings known as 25 Kent Ave., where the original zoning allowed two stories, according to the Commercial Observer.
A special land use framework would once-again have to be negotiated for 30 Gem St. to rezone the area from manufacturing to commercial use. Continue reading →
