The shocking thing about Diner isn’t necessarily that it helped to usher in a whole new generation of restaurants across New York and the country that were serving grass-fed beef and local cabbage; it’s that Diner, despite the influx of condos and salad chains to its neighborhood, is still cool — and not just cool, but also nice about it.
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The Scrappy Brooklyn Restaurant That Forever Changed New York’s Food Scene
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DOE Says School Will Be Built Near Greenpoint Toxic Site
The Department of Education has told Laura Hanrahan at the Greenpoint Post that they are moving ahead with plans to construct a K-5 school at part of the Greenpoint Landing site that sits next to a Superfund spill at the NuHart Plastics factory. This comes as news to CM Steve Levin and local advocates who have working to find a less potentially toxic place for a grade school.
What the article doesn’t make clear is that the developer of the NuHart site has no plans to clean up the part of the spill that sits under the intersection of Franklin Street and Dupont Street. That part of the plume has been slowly migrating towards the school site, and based on the most recent data is now within a few feet of the school site.
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McCarren Park Track Reopens
Looks great, and ahead of schedule, I think. (But not sure if this opening includes the soccer field, which was the major focus of the renovations.)
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335 Grand Street
I’ve always been curious about 335 Grand Street – one of the buildings involved in a partial collapse that I linked to earlier today. It’s design is – odd. Clearly Italianate in design, but the unibrow swag lintels are unique, and the relationship of the lintels to the undersized windows is awkward at best.
Looking at the 1940s tax photo, it does appear that something changed on the facade. The brickwork at the front appears to be toothed in, and the windows have a brick enframement, all of which may be an indication of alterations.
335 Grand Street
(NYC Municipal Archives) -
Mother Carrying Baby in Stroller Dies After Falling Down Subway Stairs
Only about a quarter of the subway system’s 472 stations have elevators, and the ones that exist are often plagued by malfunctions.
“Plagued by malfunctions” is an understatement. Another reason why the greatest transit system in the world isn’t.
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Partial Wall Collapse Leads to Evacuations in 3 Buildings in Brooklyn
Wall collapse between 331 and 335 Grand Street (Havemeyer and Marcy), leads to evacuation of three buildings. It sounds as though the party wall failed or was compromised between 331 (a three-story building dating to the 1830s or 1840s) and 335 (a four-story building dating to the 1850s).
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Green Roofs to Be Installed at Broadway Stages
1.4 acres of new green roofs coming to Greenpoint/East Williamsburg – an expansion of what was started at Kingsland Wildflowers.
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Retail Vacancies Abound near the Bedford Avenue L Stop
Does “L-mageddon already has a prime span of Williamsburg’s Bedford Avenue in its grip”?
A lot of the examples shown around Bedford and North 7th have been vacant or under-rented for ages. Add to this the long-standing shittyness of this stretch of Bedford and the insanely high rents, and I’m a bit skeptical that this is all about the L train. But it sure doesn’t help.
(Special bonus for long-time Northside denizens – a cameo appearance by Kenn Firpo!)
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Six-Story Building Coming to Williamsburg’s Grand Street
This building probably dates to 1850 or so. It is in remarkably good shape, given its age and location. Drip, drip.
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DOT Recommendations for North Brooklyn Streets Face Community Opposition
These seem like pretty basic solutions to pretty basic problems. But I am curious – after years of agitating for a comprehensive, district-wide transportation study, is this all there is? All our problems are solved??