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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Bushwick shout outs to Obama. Here, here, and here (meaning me).

Reviving Cinematic History. A review of Cinema 16 at Starr Space as part of the Bushwick Film Festival from the Queens Ledger.

Who is merchandising the hell out of Bushwick on Cafepress! Show yourself! You’re wild! You’ve taken over google searches! Are you making money?

Tales from Bushwick. A series of sorts on YouTube.  “About abstract and real: an artist’s life. What and who is a philosopher and a student of sciences? Home schooling by own system.”

Labor Day already? Where has the time gone??? Luckily there’s plenty of awesome stuff to do this weekend to take your brain off the impending end of another Wickity summer.

Tomorrow, Sleep When Dead brings you Slingshot Dakota, Small Arms Dealer and Street Smart Cyclist at Silent Barn.

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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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“Death trap” Market Hotel, by Zach Stern

Plus ça change…

This article from nearly 120 years ago in the Brooklyn Eagle describes with typical reformist horror all the moral degradations to which young people, especially ladies, subject themselves to in the name of fun. Degradations such as imbibery and hatlessness. Though the bars were supposed to be closed on the “day of rest,” the author notes with shrill prudishness that there is not a cop to be seen and when there is, why, he’s watching the show!

Brooklyn nightlife of the 1890s could be confused with that of today — except the cops now actually do bother shutting down venues. But those venues would still be considered “death traps” by the patrons’ mothers, and with the latest style of hipster dress, you might actually see a young man in a bowler hat.

Enjoy the old-timey Puritanistic press lingo. My favorite quote is, “It is in direct violation of the law, and is consequently wrong…”, but there are lots of great ones in here — which ones make you laugh?

Cornelia Street, by brandi66

A Pot Farm Grows…: For once, comments in a New York tabloid we can get behind: Legalize it already! The cops took advantage of a house fire to break into a neighboring building and steal 80-100 pot plants.

Stop Kenneth Cole: Now the Kenneth Cole blog extends its gratingly lame social commentary to hipsters and condos in Bushwick? But props for mixing such tired observations with the Hipster Olympics and a Make the Road anti-gentrification protest. One note: hipsters don’t “make an appearance” in the MTR video — the camera specifically sought them out. Look, white people existing! White evil knows no bounds, I tell you. Bonus: o noos, the projects r gross!

Another Domino: A Westchester developer snapped up a large property on Stanhope near Wyckoff, citing nearby condo developments as a draw.

The Violence Continues: Another victim of the ongoing mayhem in Bushwick.

from color me in.

Inspiring spaces. I love that old blue filing cabinet. I just got something similar from the junk shop on Starr. This space makes me want to make pretty things.

Coming soon to a theater near you. A preview of what’s to come this weekend at Cinema 16 at Starr Space on the Williamsburg is Dead blog.

The show I should not have missed. Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings at Summerstage. If you were there, share.

Maximum Perception. Photos from last week’s opening at English Kills from hragvartanian.

Bushwick Caprese salad

The other day Jessica asked me a very serious question: what do you do when friends are coming over and you want to serve them a little snack, but only have time to run to the Associated around the corner for supplies? She likes to buy frozen shrimp, defrost it and serve it up with cocktail sauce. My favorite thing to make is the always satisfying Caprese salad. This week, I’m offering that up as my best solution, along with a quick home-made onion dip for veggies, and a very simple avocado toast. I’d love to hear what you serve when entertaining in a pinch.

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It’s starting to feel a bit like fall in the evenings. Time to get outdoors while the getting’s good…. BBQs, romantic strolls through Maria Hernandez Park, perhaps a pizza in Roberta’s fabulous backyard. It’ll be a good weekend to do all that AND take in some serious cinematic magic right here in Bushwick.

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1117 Jefferson Avenue is one of those homes in this area which kept its second-floor entrance, instead of chopping it off and having the entrance on the garden level. Inside, there are some modern touches but built-ins and some other details seem to have been left intact. This property is listed as a single family but the records show it as a legal three-family — I don’t know if this is just poorly described by the agent or it’s actually been turned into an eight-bedroom home for one family. Either way, it’s a great deal by square footage, and it’s on one of those shady tree-lined blocks off of historic Bushwick Avenue.

1117 Jefferson Avenue | $599,000
3600sqft | 20ft-wide | 3-family, 8br/3ba | frame
Gates JZ