Results tagged “bushwick”

Police are searching for the three men who robbed a Bushwick bodega on Jan. 11. The perps — one of whom was carrying gun — entered the Evergreen Avenue grocery at around 4:30 am and assaulted a clerk and a customer, the Village Voice reports. They also disabled a security camera, but not before two of the suspects were caught on film. The camera-breaker and his accomplices are described "as Hispanic and between 5'6" and 5'9" and 20 and 30 years of age." Here's the video:

Fire officials believe that a two-alarm fire that left a teenager dead and many others injured was caused by arson. The Post reports, "Investigators found a large red gasoline canister at 55 Harrison Place," which is on the Williamsburg-Bushwick border, and the NY Times says, "A surveillance video showed a man entering the three-story building shortly before the fire began, and the man was shown leaving as the flames began to erupt."

A two-alarm fire broke out at 55 Harrison Place in Bushwick, Brooklyn around 4:48 a.m. this morning. According to WCBS 2, one person, who was "one of two people trapped by flames on the second floor," died while "Four other people were injured; three with minor injuries and one with more serious injuries."

City Council approved a residential rezoning plan for the so-called Broadway Triangle — a largely industrial swath of land on the border of Williamsburg, Bushwick and Bedford Stuyvessant where developmental interests have pitted neighborhoods, religious groups, and ethnic groups against each other. The Council voted 36 to 10 with four abstentions in favor of the rezoning, which will allow the construction of low-rise buildings containing 1,851 units of housing, more than 800 for people with low and moderate incomes. Courier Life reporter Aaron Short captures some of the drama from inside City Hall on his blog.

It feels like this idea already happened when everyone was drinking PBR and wearing trucker hats, but it appears the hipsters of The Aughts weren't committed enough to actually l-i-v-i-n' the dream all the way to the trailer park. However, with a new decade, comes a new breed: the Bushwick Trailer Park Artist. Add them to the evolution chart.

Oh you Bushwickians and your tent cities. The latest in neighborhood tent news comes by way of a Craigslist posting, written by some younger folk who possibly have Where the Wild Things Are fort envy:

A Mexican day laborer is hospitalized with brain damage after being attacked somewhere in Williamsburg or Bushwick by three black men shouting "wetback." Mario Vera was riding his bike back home to Bushwick with groceries from a lower Manhattan food pantry when the young men hit him in the back of his head "with something hard" while yelling anti-immigrant slurs. The assault happened on September 23rd, but wasn't reported until last Friday, because Vera is an undocumented immigrant afraid to go to the police. (NYPD policy prohibits officers from sharing law-abiding immigrants' status with the Feds, but it has been known to happen.)

Cyclist Armando Cruz was arrested after throwing a bottle through the window of a NYC bus, raining shards of glass onto the driver. Cruz had been riding down Flushing Avenue in Bushwick when police officers ordered him to pull over due to his "unsafe manner" of biking. He attempted to pedal away, but was cut off by the bus; he then threw his bottle through the bus driver's window. That must have been one hell of a throw, one hell of a heavy bottle, or one hell of a cheap bus window. Cruz was charged with "assault, menacing, and criminal mischief."

This boat is reeeeaaaaaal. In a city where privacy is all but extinct, New Yorkers relish being in on a secret, even if hundreds of other people are in on it too. The Bushwick Boat parties offer the same degree of clandestine exclusivity as PDT or Milk and Honey, which is to say not very much.

The NYPD has lost its first officer to swine flu after a Brooklyn cop died following a seven-week fight with the virus. 27-year-old Officer Ryan Johnson of Brookhaven on Long Island died yesterday after weeks in a coma following his diagnosis on June 17th. He was a five-year veteran of the force out of the 83rd precinct in Bushwick. There is some debate as to whether a preexisting condition exacerbated the H1N1 virus—health officials said that Johnson had long suffered from asthma, but his mother denied that. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that Johnson "fought valiantly over many weeks, often expressing his desire to return to the job." As of the Health Department's most recent report a month ago, the swine flu death toll in New York City was at 47.

A police officer was shot early this morning in Brooklyn. The officer was shot in the chest around 3:30 a.m. in the parking lot of the 81st precinct stationhouse near the corners of Ralph Avenue and Quincy Street in Bushwick. The officer was taken to Kings County Hospital and released soon after since the bullet was absorbed by his bulletproof vest. Cops are saying that the weapon was either a pellet gun or a low-caliber firearm, as police are still investigating.

Summertime really sets the stage for street fights, and BushwickBK points us to one they say recently took place between two men in their 60s (though they look younger to us). The weapon of choice: aluminum rods.

Police have arrested 24-year-old Terrance Villanueva and charged him with second degree murder and weapons possession after a shootout in Bushwick Friday led to the death of an innocent bystander, 44-year-old Jesselle Page. Villanueva allegedly has prior gun and drug arrests and police are searching for the other suspect who shot back at him. Jesselle Page is said to have immediately leapt up to protect her 8-year-old grandnephew when the gunfire began and amazingly kept running with the boy in her arms after she had been shot and was badly losing blood. The News calls her "an absolutely magnificent figure amidst the total horror that so suddenly invaded a perfect summer afternoon." The paper goes on to tell about the 8-year-old calling his mother on the way to pick him up and leaving the message, "Auntie dead!"

A shootout in Bushwick yesterday afternoon left a woman dead—an innocent bystander who was watching her 8-year-old nephew play nearby. 44-year-old Jesselle Page was shot in the upper torso around 4:45 p.m. when two men began firng at one another as she was walking into her housing project on Moore Street. A neighbor told the News, "The blood was all over the floor." Page was rushed to Woodhull Hospital where she was pronounced dead. The Post reports that in nearby South Williamsburg yesterday another shooting at a children's birthday party at South Second and Havemeyer streets left a young mother injured.

British Airway's High Life publication is pointing their passengers towards... Bushwick. Their big sell includes mentions of "local heroes the Vivian Girls" (who are clearly writing for this in-flight publication on the side), the Todd P venue Market Hotel, Goodbye Blue Monday, Ad Hoc and, you know, bars and stuff. (They missed the new mini golf course!) They note that all the previously dubbed "cool spots" in the city have already lost their "hip currency" after being found out, so this time they hope to be ahead of the curve. Will the Brits be sold? Once that plane lands and they're so over the Manhattan scene, the article notes that "Bushwick is just nine stops on the L train from Union Square, but it’s a 20-minute time warp to a golden age of New York cool... capture some of the adventurous spirit of the Manhattan galleries of the 1980s." [via BushwickBK]

It was bound to happen: three recent NYU grads have taken up residency in a Bushwick backyard. For $100 each per month the men get their own 5-by-8 plot of land where they've set up tents. They say it's not only financially practical, but it's a "badass thing to do." Keeping their expensive belongings (aside from the Tempurpedic mattresses) in a hallway in the 2-bedroom apartment which houses six others, they say "the most challenging aspect of their living situation is not sleeping outside as much as sharing a single shower among nine people." Overall they seem to be enjoying the adventure, even if the rain can be a downer at times. Note to outdoorsy ladies: they're single! Houseboat living, tent living...what will these crazy kids think of next? And will we all be knocking on their tent flaps when the economy finishes imploding?

The Putting Lot will be opening up in Bushwick the weekend of June 6th, bringing miniature golf to an otherwise vacant lot in Brooklyn. The team is still hard at work, and you can track their progress here. While the exact location is still under wraps, we recently got some answers out of one of the 30 organizers of the course, who told us more about how this whole thing came to be, and their overall vision of transforming the neighborhood's vacant spaces.

Bushwick, you're getting so spoiled. First a mini golf course, and now Beauty Bar is opening in your 'hood. This weekend the shiny, new establishment will unlock its doors at 921 Broadway, many subway stops away from its East 14th Street location. They'll host two free parties for the grand opening, Friday and Saturday, which will include a ton of deejays, bands, and an open vodka bar each night from 9 to 10 p.m. (RSVP here). As for the space, it has 600 more square footage than the Manhattan one, a possible garden in its future, and fixtures from a Lancaster, Pennsylvania beauty salon that the owner purchased for $1,500. The L has some more photos, and Grub Street reports they'll also be serving up cheaper drinks ($3 to $5 beers, $5 to $7 mixed drinks), and “retro finger foods."

The vacant lots of Bushwick are, according to Bushwick BK, both a scar from '70s and '80s as well as an opportunity for rebirth in the neighborhood. In an effort to give one of these lots a new lease on life, a mini-golf course called The Putting Lot will be sprouting up later this month.

Today's Post reveals for the first time that there was a third man in the SUV with the Keith Phoenix and Hakim Scott the night of the attack on the late Jose Sucuzhanay and his brother Romel last December in Bushwick. The paper says that the unnamed man did not participate in the attack and is now under police protection since he will testify against his friends. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has unsealed the indictments against the two men charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and assault—all as hate crimes. Hynes said, "The acts which we charge this morning are no less despicable because the victims Jose and Romel Sucuzhañay were not gay.” The DA says that Romel was putting a jacket around his brother on the cold December night when they were spotted by the pair of Bronx men who then allegedly beat Jose with a bottle and a bat. Both Scott and Phoenix are expected to plead not guilty to the crimes that could land them 78 years to life in prison—the maximum sentence.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly released a chilling account of yesterday's police interrogation of Keith Phoenix, the second man arrested this week in the hate crime murder of an Ecuadorian immigrant in Bushwick. While his partner in crime Hakim Scott was reported to have been shaken up by the death of Jose Sucuzhanay when brought in, Phoenix expressed no such remorse. Instead he asked cops, "So I killed someone—that makes me a bad guy?...What's the big deal? The guy's dead."

The police announced the arrest of Keith Phoenix, the second suspect in the murder of an Ecuadorian immigrant late last year. The NYPD had released a photo of Phoenix taken at the RFK Bridge toll, "giggling to his heart's content - just 19 minutes after he allegedly beat a man to death with a baseball bat," and offered a $22,000 reward. His suspected accomplice, Hakim Scott, turned himself in on Wednesday. The suspects attacked the late Jose Sucuzhañay and his brother Romel when they saw them walking arm-in-arm along Bushwick Avenue and believed that they were homosexuals.

Police have arrested and received a confession out of one of two suspects in the hate crime killing of an Ecuadorian man in Bushwick this past December. Police picked up 25-year-old Hakim Scott at his home in the Bronx and quickly got a full confession out of him. Police Commissioner Kelly said, "He said he had seen the news reports and that they had troubled him. He said he wanted to get it off his chest." Cops had used eyewitness accounts along with RFK Bridge surveillance footage to track down a vehicle driven by the other suspect, Scott's friend Keith Phoenix, a 28-year-old Bronx man (pictured) still being searched for. The assailants attacked the late Jose Sucuzhañay and his brother Romel when they saw them walking arm-in-arm along Bushwick Avenue and believed that they were homosexuals. A spokesman for the family said, “With anything, you are going to be appalled by any type of hate crime, whether mistaken as gay individuals or as immigrants, I think.” Mayor Bloomberg emphasized that "there is no such thing as a second-class citizen," giving remarks on the arrest in both English and Spanish.

Last Monday night, Daptone Records in Bushwick was robbed and the details of the break-in were released shortly after in an email to friends of the studio. The email stated, in part, that "there was a lot of equipment stolen and damaged. And, no, we did not have insurance. We had been shopping around with different companies earlier this month but had not signed a check." They had been in the building for 7 years, and, despite not having an alarm system, hadn't been robbed until last week.

26-year-old teacher Hwi Wu died last night after she was struck by a city bus while crossing the street. The accident took place near the end of the line for the Q58 bus outside the Myrtle-Wyckoff subway station, right on the border of the Bushwick section of Brooklyn and the Ridgewood section of Queens. Wu was crossing Palmetto Street when the bus struck her and trapped her underneath it. A witness told NY1, "The bus was turning, when it was turning, it hit her first on the left and she stumbled and she fell on the floor, and it ran over both her legs." The spot of the accident is a complicated one, six-way intersection where the elevated M train meets the underground L train and more than one bus line terminates. The Q58 in question appears to have been out of service and no charges are expected for the driver. Wu came over from China in 2002. had graduated from LaGuardia College last year and was working with autistic children at a Queens day care center.

Two families mourned together in Ecuador yesterday, both having lost native sons to hate crimes that took place only a few dozen miles away from each other up here on the same island, but a hemisphere away from where they were born and are now buried. As hundreds gathered to pay their final respects to Jose Sucuzhañay, the man murdered in Bushwick last week, they were joined by relatives of Marcelo Lucero, who was murdered on Long Island last month. While teens have been arrested in Lucero's murder case, police are still searching for who was behind the attack on Sucuzhañay. His brother told the press, "I am thankful for the time that I had with my brother. This was a crime against all of us, it was a crime against humanity. May it never happen again."

Authorities and activists are offering a $27,000 reward for information leading to the arrests and convictions in the brutal beating of an Ecuadorian immigrant. A waiter turned business owner, Jose Sucuzhanay was walking in Bushwick, arm in arm with his brother because they were drunk. A group of men yelled anti-gay, as well as anti-Hispanic, epithets at them and used an aluminum bat and broken bottle to beat Sucuzhanay, who was declared brain dead but remains on life support (his family is awaiting his parents). WCBS 2 reports, "It's a black-on-Hispanic hate crime that has alarmed leaders from both groups. " The Reverend Herbert Daughtry, who contributed to the reward money, said, "It is profoundly painful. I don't know what the reasons are. People just motivated by hatred, by a sense of despair." The incident, already considered a hate crime, is now being treated as a homicide.

The NYPD's Hate Crime Task Force is looking for suspects who attacked and beat two Ecuadorian brothers in Brooklyn, as one brother was declared brain dead. He remains in life support as relatives wait for his parents to arrive.

Earlier this year balloon art was popping up all over the place, courtesy of artist D.Billy. Above is a new piece from him sans ballons: "a rusty welded metal cover for a window air conditioner turned into a TV set." Again, something you'd think Michel Gondry would be putting up all over Orient Avenue.

Just as we were patting ourselves on the backs for our top shelf tap water, a Bushwick local went and tested their own H2O after it began stinking up shower time and dish duty with chlorine fumes. BushwickBK used a water testing kit to analyze pH levels, alkalinity, chlorine, total hardness, iron, copper, and nitrites. The results? "My tap water scored a 4 out of 10 in total chlorine content, which is safe according to Pro-Lab pamphlet, but the water in the Brita pitcher recorded a 0.2 out of 10 total chlorine content." However, the test showed that it was acidic (or “soft”) which can mean there are heavy metals and/or lead present (a lead test costs $30 and wasn't performed). They report the test "recorded a pH of 5, the level of acidity in coffee...and my Brita pitcher only increased the acidity in the water, pushing it down to a 3, the level of orange juice and vinegar." Yikes! If you want to perform your own tap water test, there are kits available for $10. And if you're in the beer-making biz, note that low pH levels are good for it, "The German immigrants that dominated Bushwick in the mid-1800s got filthy rich off the water acidity."