Field Trip to Williamsburg

This week is F.I.B's summer vacation and while most people might go to Maine, I do not think I have been to Williamsburg for well over a year and decided to take a little fieldtrip there today. Upon exiting the G train at Metropolitan Avenue I was quickly made to feel like I was at home as the sister building to the "Open Your Eyes" building that I see from my house in South Brooklyn was the first thing I saw as I hit the street! Ironically F.I.B used to rent a space in this building on Keape Street about 5 years ago. It was owned by a company that made Murphy beds. Now it is vacant and window less and covered with grafitti. What's up with that?Then upon crossing under the BQE I saw this! Shout out to Miss Heather!Then I went to this park on Kent Avenue where the skyline was real but unreal.Cliche photo I know but I just couldn't help it!The view may be beautiful but if you want to picnic or sunbath you will be lulled by the sounds of cranes and earthmovers on one side. And this Toll Brothers monolith on the other side. Ewwwww. Can you imagine being one of the numbers living in there? This would fit in better in a business district of a city such as Phoenix or Miami but whatever it's here and they are not selling like hotcakes. Upon skeedaddling out of that park with the bad condo feng shui - where the water, the view and the people playing happy dominoes were the only pleasantries, as well as the sprinklers we ran through which were wasting water to keep the sod dayglow green, I happily came across a rare commidity and FIB's favorite. OPEN SKY! That place on the corner is the Rosenwach's Tank Group which has been making wooden water tanks for over a hundred years!

The day ended at the fab Rolewskie Jadlo restaurant on Nassau Avenue in Greenpoint (you can't miss it, it's got knights in armor outside) where the chef/owner used to work at Nobu and the seasonal blueberry perogies are out of this world and only $5.50!

F.I.B is going to bust out of Brooklyn and head to Long Island for a few days, see y'all on the flipside!

Photography is a Crime? Since When?

Along with the many people, places and things that have been disappearing at a rapid pace here in our beloved City of New York; it seems our rights as citizens of the United States are disappearing too. Although this is no new news about our current society, which uses terms like “Homeland Security” in order to violate people’s privacy, it hit a bit closer to home yesterday. Well-known Greenpoint Blogger Miss. Heather of New York Shitty was stopped and questioned by the police while taking photographs of Christmas decorations!

Here is what happened in her words:

I just arrived home from one of the most infuriating experiences I have ever had in my life. Although I plan to write a tongue-in-cheek post about it after I finish this email, I want to give you a quick rundown because the implications for anyone who takes the Bill of Rights seriously are NOT good.

Today I decided to go out and take pictures. This is something I have done 2-3 times a week for two years. Today, however, is the first time I have been DETAINED BY THE POLICE for doing so. Was I trespassing? No. Was I told why I was being detained? YES. After demanding to be told THREE TIMES: someone called 311 and reported a "suspicious person" taking photographs.

Now I will be the first person to admit that the intersection of Kingsland Avenue and Herbert Street is NOT located in the nicest neighborhood in the world, but does that bar a person (and anyone who has met me can attest that I hardly look like Public Enemy #1) from walking over there and taking photographs? If you were to hear the line of questioning the police "officer" used, one would certainly think so:

P.O.: If you live in north Greenpoint, what are you doing here?
Me: Taking pictures, is that against the law?
P.O.: No.
Me: Hausman Street always goes all-out with their Christmas decorations; I just got done taking pictures of them.

My identification was pored over, recorded and shown to (who I was told) a police Lieutenant (who pulled up in an unmarked police car). Obviously I was let go without a citation (I suppose they couldn't figure out what to charge me with), but my personal information will now grace a file folder at the 94th Precinct.

I have a creeping suspicion a contractor on Kingsland made this phone call--- although my recent drubbing of Ms. Lancaster makes one wonder. Consider yourself warned.

In my opinion these cops would be an asset to the Department Buildings Violations Bureau, imagine if they used that energy to question the contractors on what is going on at the construction sites? Just this afternoon I walked by Scarano’s building on Bond Street which has signs all over it, “Workers must Wear Hard Hats, and guess what? Nobody was! Oh well, it’s their head not mine.

I guess it makes more sense to go after a woman wearing a Sanrio hat taking pictures of Christmas decorations.

But I digress, I have actually been a bit hesitant to take photos of that building myself these days as not only does the building look like a bunker, he has loud barking attack dogs on the premises and they’ve recently put up signs that there are surveillance cameras on the premises. (Who was it that the Italians allied themselves with during WW II again?)

So kids, especially you blogger types that like to take photos and do not have the benefit of a press badge, be careful out there.

Old News to many of us but "New York" Magazine is now on to Robert Scarano.

Everybody's favorite architect, Robert Scarano was written about in this week's issue of New York Magazine, in an article entitled; "He Built This Borough (Badly)".

Most of the information in the article was inspired by all the blogs but especially by Miss Heather of New York Shitty as far as I'm concerned. Miss. Heather has been doing an amazing job being on the case of this city's joke agency called the Department of Buildings.

I am shocked that Scarano ONLY got fined for $1,1180.00 for visually raping the Carroll Gardens horizon with his box sitting on top 333 Carroll Street! That box has been just sitting there for about a year, time to dismantle? Or is this a modernist sculpture for the neighborhood to remember his legacy by?! There is something so WRONG with a city agency that allows someone like him to remain in business. As long as he keeps shelling out the green - death, destruction and lies are apparantly not enough to shut him down.

Just an aside, but the article didn't mention the workers who have died on his building sites OR anything about the public outcry regarding 360 Smith Street (from Gowanus Lounge).

Check out these Carroll Garden blogs; C.O.R.D, a neighborhood blog devoted mostly to his 360 Smith Street project and Pardon Me for Asking for more on what's going on the South Brooklyn end with Robert Scarano.