If you have a set of eyes, you see the trucks. On the stretch of Bogart Street, between Flushing Avenue and the “main street” of Bogart (Ad Hoc, Archive, Brooklyn’s Natural), there is a two-block facility, which includes a small parking lot. It’s the Boar’s Head Provision Company. 24 Rock Street is the address. And the street itself is rumored to be owned by Boar’s Head. How they got the city to sell them a street is, well, a statement to the money and power we’re talking about here.

They’ve owned the two square blocks since the late 1940’s, been around since 1905. They’re older than the FBI. A national institution. Provides jobs, caters (ha ha) to NYC’s huge food consumption, and stimulates the economy. So what’s my beef (ha ha ha)?

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Newtown Creek

People living close to Morgan and Johnson Avenues are familiar with a rotting marsh smell. Carried by the breeze and powered by the summer heat, the foul stench coming from the English Kills area is just another fact of life for residents near the Bushwick-East Williamsburg line.

Citing the toxic site as one of the most polluted water bodies in the country, Representatives Anthony Weiner and Nydia Velazquez have been pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to retest Newtown Creek and its connecting tributaries — English Kills, Whale Creek, Maspeth Creek and Dutch Kills. On Monday, the agency agreed to conduct preliminary tests that could qualify the industrial waterway for the Superfund Program, a designation that would accelerate the cleanup effort of the long polluted estuary, the New York Times reported.

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Today I thought I’d focus on the tree-lined, well-kept streets off Irving Avenue on the south side of Myrtle. Most of the homes are quaint bay- or bow-front brick two-families, interspersed with a few larger buildings on the corners and some other interior streets. The area has some of Bushwick’s more intact blocks, likely due to the high owner-occupancy rate. It’s a bit far from the action, but the price makes up for having to ride the train another 3 minutes.

$1500 — 2br: Most Bushwick newcomers have no idea this exists. Down around Covert Street near Irving are a couple of blocks of Tudoresque buildings with cottage-sized apartments full of beautiful old details like herringbone and (old) parquet floors, stained glass windows, and patinaed tilework. The rooms are ample and bright — and the price is right. I can’t vouch for this particular building but I have been in another one and they are just awesome.
Covert and Irving | street view | Halsey L

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I admit to only once buying a bag of fresh, warm tortillas — for a whole buck — directly from the people making them at the Tortillería Chinantla here on Central Avenue. I’m not much of a corn tortilla fan in general. But for the year we have lived here, we enjoyed the toasty smell that wafted through the house when the wind blew the right way. On a quiet night, the sound of the squeaky conveyor belt was comforting in a way I can’t articulate.

A couple of weeks ago, they cranked out their final batch of tortillas and locked the gates for the last time. This week there is a for sale sign on the front and a dumpster full of debris outside. Don’t worry about Chinantla — they have a much larger facility over on Grand and Morgan that they’re probably consolidating. I did hear that the lot they parked in across Central was sold a few months ago, so maybe that affected their decision. For all I know, they sold it.

I wish Chinantla well and will miss their sounds and smells. And now that two formerly bustling commercial spaces there are empty — the party hall next door closed up recently — I’m curious to see what is next in store for my booming little corner of Bushwick.