East & Creek, the Greenpoint newsletter | No. 38
What’s up in Greenpoint?
The Dept. of Buildings approved construction permits early this week for a planned six-story, ten-unit apartment building at 996 Manhattan Ave. YIMBY first shared the project’s renderings late last year.
North Brooklyn Neighbors will lead a session on how to report idling trucks — for $$$ — on Tuesday.
A local artist profile: “For someone who has ricocheted from one medium to another long before it was fashionable — installations, photography, collages, performances, films — the Polish artist Piotr Uklanski sure has a lot of different kinds of paintbrushes in his Greenpoint, Brooklyn, studio.” (New York Times’ Ted Loos)
An unabashedly leftist assessment of the Democratic primary in New York’s 12th congressional district: “Representative Carolyn Maloney was one of a record number of women elected to federal office in 1992 in the wake of Anita Hill’s testimony. She has remained popular, and won every race for reelection to date, in spite of primary challenges. Maloney was already up against three candidates in the 2020 primary: 32-year-old lawyer and advocate for sexual harassment survivors Erica Vladimer, 30-year-old JPMorgan Chase project manager and comedian Lauren Ashcraft, and 36-year-old housing activist and urban planner Peter Harrison. Then, former Obama campaign staffer and lawyer Suraj Patel, 35, who in 2018 mounted a strong challenge to Maloney, announced last week that he would run against her again in 2020. The way the race for her seat has evolved reflects a broader shift in our politics—one that, aided by New York’s infamously anemic turnout in primary elections, could end Maloney’s career in 2020.” (The Nation’s Raina Lipsitz)
And then there’s this: Just trust me. (New York Shitty)
Meanwhile in New York City…
Gowanus combined sewer overflow (CSO) fix nixed by the feds: “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has rejected a city proposal that would have swapped two long-planned tanks with a massive tunnel to divert raw sewage from the Gowanus Canal, capping a months-long debate over how the city should ensure the waterway remains clean after its costly federal remediation.” (Curbed’s Caroline Spivack)
(Note that the city has also proposed a tunneling CSO system for Newtown Creek; the EPA expects to make a decision on that proposal within the next month.)
Private carting reform nearly in the can: “The years-long effort by elected officials, union leaders and environmental advocates to reform the commercial carting industry is moving toward a conclusion. But while a vote on a bill could be weeks away, it is still not clear what sort of compromise will bridge the gap between a City Council bill introduced in May and the original plan developed by the Department of Sanitation.” (Crain’s Matthew Flamm)
Meeting of bike lane opponents turns nearly as dangerous as an unprotected bike lane: “A neighborhood meeting in Park Slope descended into a belligerent free-for-all on Wednesday night, after the event’s invited speaker spewed conspiracy theories about a pedophile-linked bike lobby, then shoved a well-known cycling advocate.” (Gothamist’s Jake Offenhartz)
Cuomo approves extended voter registration period: “Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation Thursday that gives New Yorkers until February to register for the state’s presidential primaries — a fourth-month extension on the previous deadline. . . Previously, voters would have confronted an Oct. 11, 2019 deadline — which some progressive activists said would have prevented new voters from registering in time.” (New York Post’s Bernadette Hogan)
City ignored lead flags: “Mayor Bill de Blasio often boasts of his “robust” effort to eradicate lead poisoning in public housing, but a new report shows the city failed to check thousands of private apartments where nearly 12,000 children had elevated levels of lead in their blood. A report released by City Comptroller Scott Stringer found that, from 2013 through October 2018, the city Health Department was aware that 11,972 children registered blood-lead levels that the federal Centers for Disease Control says should warrant and inspection.” (The City’s Greg B. Smith)
No excuses for icy jail cells: “The fire and partial power outage in January at Brooklyn’s federal jail did not cause the heat failures that left incarcerated people in the cold for weeks, a new report from the Office of the Inspector General found. . . The report found that the heating issues existed before the fire, with federal Bureau of Prison records showing that temperatures dropped as low as 59 degrees in one housing unit the week before the blaze. Temperatures remained as low as 64 degrees during the outages — and in some housing units, temperatures soared above 80 degrees.” (Brooklyn Daily Eagle’s Noah Goldberg)
Your Subway Weekender
G - Normal service.
L - No late-night service between Broadway Junction and Lorimer St.
Thus concludes this September 27, 2019 edition of East & Creek, the twice-weekly newsletter about Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Read the full archives here.
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See ya around the neighb,
Jon Hanrahan
Author, e&c