Machetes

The new weapon of choice. One kid was arrested last week brandishing a machete in a bodega on South 4th.

The Williamsburg Murals

Fascinating – in 1988, a group of abstract murals were discovered in the basement of the Williamsburg Houses. The murals, which “are thought to be the first and among the most important abstract wall paintings in the United States”) according to this Times article), had been painted over numerous times and were being used as bulletin boards. In 1990, the murals were rescued and restored and put on display at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. BMA has just moved the murals to a new location on the first floor of the museum.

The murals themselves were painted as part of a WPA project by Ilya Bolotowsky, Paul Kelpe, Albert Swinden and Balcomb Greene – all of whom were founding members of American Abstract Artists. Williamsburg Houses is (are?) a New York City Landmark.

Bulletin boards!

To Do List

04/14/2009 | Comment

Based on the recent flood of emails, community organizing is blooming this Spring. Here is a rundown of what is happening the rest of this month:

April 25 – Greenpoint-Williamsburg Housing Forum (Boricua College, all day)
April 27 – Williamsburg Walks Information Meeting (211 Ainslie Street, 7 pm)
April 28 – Benefit Concert for the North Brooklyn Story Project (Union Pool, 8 pm)
And next month:
May 16 – Where’s My Park? Day (details to come)

More details as they become available…



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BCUE Shuts Down

I missed this last week – Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment, a 30-year-old environmental education organization, has shut down and laid off all of its staff. Beyond the immediate loss for the employees of BCUE, this is a major loss for the Borough. BCUE’s core focus was environmental issues, but they defined their mandate broadly to include all aspects of creating a sustainable city. In addition education programs on the natural environment, including running environmental education programs in public schools, BCUE also ran education programs on the built environment, including sponsoring walking tours throughout the borough, and even being a regular contributer on Gowanus Lounge.

BCUE’s website is closed too.

Kent Solution in the Works?

04/06/2009 | Comment

In the past week or two, there has been a petition circulating in the neighborhood opposing turning Wythe Avenue into a truck route – a solution first proposed here. Is DOT up to something constructive? Maybe – if so, hopefully they are doing it right this time.

Running Kent Avenue one way makes a lot of sense for reasons other than making room for the greenway (as Congresswoman Velzquez has said). It will mean a spillover of traffic onto Wythe Avenue, but done properly, it should not mean a reduction in quality of life on Wythe. The big thing is that DOT needs to make the changes to Wythe and Kent in conjunction with larger changes to the neighborhood overall. In a nutshell, DOT needs to recognize that Williamsburg and Greenpoint have been zoned away from manufacturing (ideally, they would have done this in 2005, when the rezoning actually happened, but I digress). DOT also needs to enforce the existing rules, and get through truck traffic off the streets of Williamsburg and Greenpoint.



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