Stay in Brooklyn this weekend, eat well.
The MTA Does Not Want You to Leave Brooklyn
Open Wide for a Taste of Williamsburg & Greenpoint
Speaking of good food – Gothamist has details on this Sunday’s TASTE Williamsburg Greenpoint event, which brings together many of the best restaurants and bars in North Brooklyn. The event is a fundraiser for Northside Town Hall, the conversion of the former Engine 212 building on Wythe Avenue into a community center.
The Brooklyn Restaurant Awards
The L Magazine presents its list of best restaurants in Brooklyn. Plenty to choose from, and to agree or disagree with (I’ll have to try Maison Premiere again – first time around I was very underwhelmed by their oysters, in particular their ability to properly shuck them).
Presumably, the L’s readership is hip enough to know where all of these great restaurants are – the article omits addresses.
Another Williamsburg Cyclist Dies
24-year-old Nicolas Djandji is the second cyclist to die in Williamsburg this week.
Is Brooklyn a Disaster Area?
No.
A hurricane hit Brooklyn dead on, and the damage we suffered was pretty minimal. Anytime you can say that, you are lucky. Brooklyn (and all of New York City) was very lucky.
We planned well and were very well prepared, but at the end of the day, we were very lucky.
Huge swaths of upstate New York, New Jersey and Vermont were very unlucky.
We have ways of dealing with such bad luck. One such way is to declare the affected areas a disaster zone and the Federal government puts money towards alleviating the disaster conditions. The fact that Brooklyn was not declared a disaster area does not mean that we were screwed. It means that we were lucky. I’m as much of a Brooklyn booster as the next person, but let’s just count our blessings and move on.
To review, Brooklyn is not a disaster area.
Upstate NY is a disaster area.
No matter how many sidewalk tree pits in Brooklyn were affected, we should not be clamoring for disaster-zone declarations. We should be thanking our lucky stars that a hurricane hit us dead on and caused so little damage, and then we should be opening up our hearts and wallets to fellow New Yorkers upstate and fellow Americans throughout New Jersey and New England.
A lot of us were lucky, some of us weren’t. Let’s help the people who weren’t and stop trying to score political points – local or national – off of other people’s misfortune.
Cyclist Erica Abbott Killed in Williasmburg
Very sad news. The third cyclist killed in the month of August.
No Longer an Alternative
Not an Alternative, the art space/co-working venue/activist hub at 84 Havemeyer, is closing as a result of a massive rent increase. The people there have done a lot of great things, most notably (for me at least) making the community’s fight against the 2005 rezoning a hell of a lot of fun.
PS – does anyone have a copy of the singing telegram video?
Monster Island to Close
Rumour has it that Whole Foods supermarket may open a branch in its place.
New one on me – it is worth noting that the site (on the west side of Kent Avenue) is not zoned for residential use. So absent a rezoning application, it won’t be a condo. But as far as I know, retail (or hotel, restaurant, club, etc.) are all as-of-right uses.
Monster Island will be holding a farewell block party on Saturday, 10 September.
Divorce Rate Almost 50% Higher in Bible Belt Than in NYC
48% higher for women, 41% for men. And they say we’re ruining the institution of marriage.
Hurricane Irene
The exact track of Hurricane Irene is still a big unknown, but it sure is looking likely that it will dump a lot of wind and water on NYC come Sunday or Monday (or both). The latest tracking (taken with a big grain of salt) even have the eye of the storm going along the Queens/Nassau border.
Source: NYC Office of Emergency Management
So it seems like a good time to dust off this map and remind people in North Brooklyn that a lot of us live in flood-prone areas (you can download the full map here). The areas in orange “face the highest risk of flooding from a hurricane’s storm surge”, and include all low-lying coastal areas. The areas in yellow (which includes just about all of Greenpoint, the industrial areas of East Williamsburg, and parts of South Williamsburg) “may experience storm surge flooding from a MODERATE (Category 2 and higher) hurricane”. Areas in green (mostly on the Northside and just in on the Williamsburg waterfront) “may experience storm surge flooding from a MAJOR (Category 3 & 4) hurricane” making a more or less direct hit on the NYC (“unlikely” according to the City). The areas in white (the Southside and East Williamsburg residential areas) are unlikely to see any storm surge flooding.
You can find exactly which zone you are in – and where the nearest evacuation center is – here, and you can find the City’s Hurricane Guide here.