Hummerpedic

03/29/2009 | Comment

28 March: Grand & Berry.

Condemned Property: Slick’s Bikes

Photo: Dave G.

Another piece of Williamsburg’s character was carted away today. Reader Dave G. passed on these photos of Slick’s bikes tagged for removal by the Department of Sanitation. Without tags and inspection stickers (and seats, controls, tail lights, etc.), the bikes were, of course, illegal. The bikes also seem to have become a bit motlier since Slick passed away last year, and over the past few weeks (or more), they have seemed to be pretty stationary. But for decades, Slick (and Mike) did maintain this small stable of machines, moving them back and forth across the street.

The photo below is a little bit of Williamsburg irony – on the right is 184 Kent, 175 Kent under construction and the 80 Met sales office, and on the left are Slick’s bikes, tagged for towing, and his soaped up storefront.

Photo: Dave G.

Thursday: NAG Town Hall Meeting

NAG is holding a town hall meeting tomorrow night (26 March) to give an update on its 2009 organizing agenda. I’ve posted a few items on one of these organizing issues, the North Brooklyn Story Project oral history project. Other organizing issues are affordable housing, transportation and improving open space and access to the waterfront (check out their seedballs project – a bit of guerilla gardening for the neighborhood).

The response so far has been great, with more and more people joining the various issue projects every week. Each of these groups will be giving an update on their work to date, and hopefully bringing on even more volunteers.

For Rent II: Finger

03/24/2009 | Comment

Another building to get a for rent sign is the Finger Building on North 7th. It will be interesting to see what the new owners have planned for this location (other than 20,000 square feet of retail opportunities).

For Rent I: Slick’s

03/24/2009 | Comment

Slick - 1.jpg

About a month or so ago, a for rent sign went up in the window of Slick’s old shop. Nice location, nice building and a nice corner storefront.

Slick - 3.jpg

Story Project Training

03/19/2009 | Comment

The North Brooklyn Story Project is a project of NAG’s Community Character working group. This group is putting together an oral history project, and will be offering a free training session for volunteers this Saturday morning at the Brooklyn Historical Society. If you are interested in being an interviewer for this project and would like in Saturday’s training session, contact Grégor at g.nemitzziadie [at] gmail [dot] com.

Guerilla Gardens

03/19/2009 | Comment

In an effort to beautify the growing developer blight in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, NAG’s Open Space working group is starting a Guerilla Gardening campaign. On Saturday the Open Space working group will hold a workshop to create seed balls, a land reclamation strategy for derelict, neglected and abandoned land. Volunteers are invited to help the group construct the seed balls on Saturday, March 21st. The following Saturday, March 28th, the seed balls will be distributed and cast into abandoned lots and neglected patches of land all over North Brooklyn at the participants discretion.

Date: Saturday, March 21, 2009
Time: 3:00pm – 6:00pm
Location: NAG Office
Street: 101 Kent Street at North 8th
Contact: openspace [at] nag-brooklyn.org

A Short Story

03/18/2009 | Comment

Aaron Short, of the erstwhile Greenpoint Courier is right back into the Brooklyn/Queens news stream with a new blog. I guess now his work won’t be buried behind a paleolithic web interface. (Plus, he might be the only local blogger with a proclamation from the City Council.)

Aaron starts things out by liveblogging last nights CB1 meeting (doesn’t get more exciting than that). Exciting stuff, but regrettably, very few pictures of the executive committee. Clearly, bloggers have no respect for hierarchy.

I’m not sure if Aaron is going to be doing any investigative pieces, but he might want to start with this: is it possible that there are two Maritza Davilas in the NY metropolitan area, and that both of them are running for City Council seats? What are the odds? 300:1? Also, a tip for Aaron (from one blogger to another) – follow your links, never know where they’ll wind up.

Northside Festival

03/16/2009 | Comment

The L Magazine has just announced that it is staging a Northside Festival. The fist-annual Northside Festival will run from June 11 to June 14, and is being promoted as a four-day celebration of the independent music and art scene that thrives in Williamsburg and Greenpoint.

Robert Guskind

03/11/2009 | Comment

Marc Farre and others have posted a very nice and quite lengthy obituary for Bob Guskind on Gowanus Lounge. A proper obituary, as he deserves.

I am still at a loss for words to think that Bob is no longer with us. He was a tremendous writer, both in terms of quantity and quality. His writing and journalistic abilities were outshone only by his passion for his subject – which for the past few years was almost exclusively Brooklyn. From Coney Island to Greenpoint, Bob was a tireless defender of what he saw as good about the borough, and an even more tireless assailant of all that he thought was evil in our midst. I didn’t always agree with him (though I agreed more often than not), but I always admired his work, his skills and his passion.

I will miss his voice, and I will miss him.