Tag: greenpoint

Suicide in Park Enforces Need for Local Shelter

The Greenpoint Gazette’s Jeff Mann nails it:

The tragedy strengthened the calls of many Greenpointers to establish a shelter in the neighborhood to deal with its unique homeless population… Greenpoint’s indigenous homeless population consists, for the most part, of Polish speaking, chronic alcoholics. Unfortunately, the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) does not offer a solution for people who need permanent housing, alcohol counseling and a Polish speaking staff. In fact, their alcoholism often disqualifies them from housing, raising fears that the neighborhood could see more fatalities as winter approaches.

The recent suicide in McGolrick Park cruelly emphasizes the crux of the issue over the proposed homeless shelter at 400 McGuinness Boulevard – Greenpoint has a homeless population that needs help, but the help they need would not be available at the homeless shelter that the City wants to put in the neighborhood.

Liu Looking Into Greenpoint Shelter Plans

08/22/2011 | Comment

Things seem to be heating up over 400 McGuinness Boulevard, the loft building that keeps trying to be a homeless shelter. The Brooklyn Eagle reported last week that a “hotel developer” had acquired the property. The quotation marks are there because, while the developer does build hotels, he also builds a lot of homeless shelters – something Aaron Short of the Post reported on over a month ago.

Now, Short is reporting that City Comptroller John Liu is, at the request of Council Member Steve Levin, investigating the relation of the Department of Homeless Services with this particular developer and others. Levin’s contention is that DHS is using third-party developers to acquire properties for use as homeless shelters, a process that would allow DHS to circumvent the public review process for such property acquisitions. The developer, for its part, says that it has no “contractual relationship with DHS”. Liu’s office is promising to “hold the Department of Homeless Services accountable to a fair, transparent and equitable siting process”

[Via The Real Deal]

City Sues Gutman Over Street-Blocking Fence

The City is suing Joshua Gutman, owner of the former Greenpoint Terminal Market site, over the construction of fences blocking city streets that are supposed to provide access to the waterfront.

the site’s owner, Joshua Guttman, […] built two fences in 2009, even though he knew they were on a public street, ignoring the city’s repeated requests to remove them… [Councilman Steve] Levin had asked Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan to have workers tear the fence down — but the city chose to fight in court in order to keep the street open in perpetuity.

This is the same part of the same property that has multiple unresolved fines and violations over the owner’s failure to maintain the bulkheads along the waterfront. And part of the same property that partially burned down in a massive fire in April, 2006. And part of the same property that caused the closing of American Playground on Noble Street earlier this year when parts of a building started falling onto the playground.

Clearly we are dealing with a very civic-minded ownership here.

For Whom The Bells Toll

04/19/2011 | Comment

They toll for no one, actually.

As NY Shitty reports, the bells at St. Anthony of Padua on Manhattan Avenue have been silent for some weeks now. According to the church, the mechanism to operate the bells is in need of repairs, to the tune of $10,000 to $25,000. To fund the repairs, they are devoting the proceeds of their annual raffle. For details on the raffle, and any other efforts to raise money for this, stay tuned to Ms. Heather.

Transmitter Park Before It Was a Park

04/15/2011 | Comment

WNYC_aerial.png

WNYC Transmitter, 1937
Painting by Alan Gordon Lorimer
Source: WNYC


Once upon a time, there was an actual transmitter at Transmitter Park (the park to be at the base of Greenpoint Avenue). The transmitter was for WNYC, which was then a City-owned radio station. The station still exists (AM 820, FM 93.9 and online), though it is no longer owned by the City and it no longer uses the Greenpoint transmitter site.

WNYC’s Archives & Preservation project has a post about the Greenpoint transmitter, including two paintings by artist and architect A.G. Lorimer (no mention of whether or not he was related to the Lorimers of Greenpoint). The image above shows Lorimer’s gorgeous map of the transmitter site, complete with distances to five local airfields (all of which, with the exception of North Beach (aka LaGuardia Airport), are now closed). The second painting, a view of transmitter building and towers, can be seen on WNYC’s site.

65 Commercial Street Update

04/08/2011 | 2 Comments

Below is a copy of the letter from MTA Chair Jay Walder to Deputy Mayor Robert Steel, confirming the MTA’s acceptance of alternate sites for the Paratransit and EMS vehicles currently located at 65 Commercial Street. Of note is the MTA’s commitment to use the Maspeth Paratransit site for vehicle storage only, not as depot. In other words, vehicles won’t be going in and out on daily basis, which should make the use of the site (which, after all, is zoned as parking lot in a manufacturing zone) less of an issue to local residents.

BTW – if there is an unsung hero in all of this, it has to be Rami Metal, who, as the Greenpoint rep for CM Yassky and his successor CM Levin, has kept after this issue for years.

LetterfromWaldertoSteel.pdf

MTA Ready to Leave 65 Commercial

04/08/2011 | Comment

In a letter to the Mayor’s office, the MTA has finally agreed to move the operations currently housed at 65 Commercial Street. The sticking point on the move – which the MTA agreed to almost exactly 6 years ago – was the MTA’s refusal to accept the compensatory sites offered by the City. Today, the MTA finally agreed to move part of their operations to a site on the Southside beneath the Williamsburg Bridge, and the remainder to a lot in Maspeth, Queens.

So Greenpoint is one step closer to having the new park that the City (and the MTA) promised in 2005.