Results tagged “williamsburg”

The Williamsburg Satmars rec center bathroom signs seem to have gotten an upgrade, suggesting their bathrooms are only for men with payots and women with lots of children. Though the woman's skirt seems way too short for Satmar standards, the paper cutout additions are pretty spot on. So what other neighborhoods could use bathroom makeovers? Bike helmets in Greenpoint? Bermuda shorts and fanny packs in Times Square? Photoshop contest! [Via Village Voice] more ›

Before the residents of Brooklyn's Williamsburg get drunk on Pickle Backs at The Woods, they (allegedly) hit up BARC, an animal shelter on North 1st Street. According to the NY Post, both hipsters and suits volunteer to hang out with and walk the shelter's 27 dogs during their open hours Monday through Thursday evenings. A manager told the paper, "A lot of people won't admit it because they want you to think they're there because it's a good thing to do. But I hear girls saying, 'The guys are going to love me with this pitbull,' and guys talking about how walking a dog is a chick magnet." Well, at least they aren't dognapping. more ›

The mysterious, black-clad troupe of troublemakers—who most recently smashed a tea shop window on Bedford Avenue—has spoken. Or rather, has emailed. The full press release is after the jump, and attempts to describe the method behind their madness. more ›

Looks like all that bribery actually worked! Despite having a much lower participation average than the country, New York City's census response rate went up to 59%, two percentage points higher than in 2000. That's especially encouraging since the national average dropped a percentage point since 2000. Regional census director Lester Farthing said, “Imagine what would have happened if we did not do all this promotional and advertising stuff." more ›

"Some restaurants are time machines," writes Times critic Sam Sifton in his perceptive two star review of the elegant "modern French, Asian-accented" restaurant SHO Shaun Hergatt, which opened in 2009 down the block from the New York Stock Exchange. "SHO Shaun Hergatt, the strange and occasionally terrific restaurant on the second floor of a condominium building in the financial district, even looks like one, down to the elevator that whisks you up from the lobby. Diners enter this simple metal box in 2010, talking about the beating Goldman Sachs took in the markets on Friday. They emerge in the late 1990s, Goldman still privately held, the economy booming in a city where restaurants reflected the excess. This calls for Champagne!" more ›

Yesterday we got an email about some kids knocking down garbage cans in Williamsburg over the weekend... but it never mentioned ninjas! Over at Free Williamsburg they have a more detailed and intriguing tip regarding the incident:

"I wanted to see if you had heard anything about another vigilante attack on N 6th St last night (Sat 4/17) between Bedford and Berry. I live on the block, and my friends and roommate reported seeing a 'Ninja looking' crew dressed in all black run[ning] down the street from Bedford to Berry and smash[ing] the drivers side window of every car on the block. I saw patches of glass all the way down N 6th."

Click on the images to see Kramer's dream of a DIY pizzeria come to life at Pizza A Casa, Chef Anita Lo's long overdue Annisa comeback, two floors of wine and food at Williamsburg's The Counting Room, and the Sunburnt Calf brings Australian cheer to the Upper West Side.
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Last month Brownstoner reported that a huge housing and retail complex was coming to a plot of land in Williamsburg, by Keap Street, Grand Street and Borniquen Place. Today the Brooklyn Paper takes a closer look at the development, using the dreaded M word—and not just any mall, either: a strip mall. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg posted this chart of neighborhood Census response rates today, and it puts Williamsburg last with just 31.3% participation. In fact, many Brooklyn neighborhoods are among the lowest participants, with Erasmus, Bedford, and Borough Park all ranking in the low 30s. Too bad, Williamsburg; now you'll never get the state funding for all those food stamps. more ›

Williamsburg: of the six Saturdays that were scheduled, you are only getting one weekend for your pedestrian plaza this summer. The good news is, there's someone to direct your anger towards! According to FreeWilliamsburg, A & G Merch's Jill Goldhand is the leader of the movement that took down fest—in fact, she recently told the Brooklyn Paper: "Thank God they’ve cut it." more ›

If you were around Williamsburg's Southside last night and wondering what those giant swirling searchlights were all about, here's the answer: The lights were rented to herald the arrival of a new lounge called Alma on Roebling and South 3rd. As you can see, Alma comes fully equipped with velvet ropes, a red carpet, and what appears to be a thick haze of Axe body spray. Conveniently located near the BQE and the Williamsburg Bridge, the lounge also offers VALET PARKING, and is thus clearly poised to become a definitively bangin' nightlife destination. Our source, local resident Ryan Griffin, didn't have the stones to venture inside (do you?), but tells us, "I always wanted to live near the meatpacking district—particularly a younger, less rich meatpacking district." We'll send an intern over later to get a full report (or lose his/her soul). In the meantime, eat your heart out, Production Lounge! more ›

With lots of loft space and a young population, Williamsburg seems like it would be a perfect place for a youth hostel, and has enjoyed a boom of hostel development in the past few years. (Much to NY Shitty's chagrin.) However, an investigation last week showed nearly a dozen hostels in the area that were operating without a certificate of occupancy. One raid exposed two hostels located in a N. Sixth Street building, closing "Loftstel" but letting Zip112 remain open after the owner argued that a ladder served as a fire exit, according to the Brooklyn Paper. more ›

Yesterday afternoon, a three-story building at 34 Conselyea Street in Williamsburg collapsed, injuring four people—three construction workers and a passer-by who went to the scene to help. A neighbor, Jeff Wilser, said of one worker who was trapped for 20 minutes, "He was in the there up to his neck. I saw his head sticking out of the rubble. We tried to dig him out until [paramedics] showed up." more ›

We hear that a four-story building at on Conselyea Street, between Union and Lorimer, in Brooklyn collapsed around 1:30 p.m. Some workers were trapped, but all have been rescued. There's a little confusion about where the collapse occurred—we were hearing it was either 31 or 36 Conselyea, but, via the Department of Buildings website, there's a complaint for 34 Conselyea today: "NYPD REPORTED A BUILDING COLLAPSED 2 WORKERS TRAPPED." (WABC 7 says it's 34 Conselyea, WCBS 2 reports 31 Conselyea, 1010 WINS doesn't give a street number.) more ›

The first bike part vending machine in Williamsburg—and the first in NYC, for that matter—is now in service 24/7 on South Sixth Street. Stationed outside Baruch Herzfeld's Traif Bike Gesheft (Yiddish for non-kosher bike shop), the machine is stocked with bells ($2 to $10), locks ($5), inner tubes ($6), lights, bicycle tire patch kits ($2), pumps, brake pads, etc. Watch the maiden voyage of the machine, narrated by an exultant Herzfeld, below: more ›

Now that the warm weather is bringing food truck patrons out of hibernation, some brick-and-mortar restaurants have begun complaining about their mobile competition. Brooklyn Paper reports on growing tension on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, a hot spot of truck activity with favorites like Endless Summer and Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream, where restaurant owners are blaming the trucks for bad business. more ›

Obama's gutterballs (and Special Olympics analogy) were a source of embarrassment on the campaign trail in '08, so last night when Mayor Bloomberg hit Brooklyn's trendiest bowl spot he kept his scores secret. Brooklyn Bowl closed down to host the mayor, along with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and several city agency heads, reports the Advance. "It was really a good team-building event," said FDNY Commissioner Sal Cassano, who scored 126 in one game. "We all weren't that good," he joked. When the mayor took off around 10:30, Kelly stuck around, scoring 86 in one game and 106 in another. A spokewoman wouldn't say how the mayor fared, but she did disclose that city sheriff Lindsay Eason was among the evening's big winners. more ›

Apparently, we were all wrong about Eden Pizza in Williamsburg, the weird, late-night joint with the cardboard slices and the brass knuckles. Contrary to popular opinion, their pizza is totally worth flying into a psychotic rage over. Around 3:30 a.m. Sunday, a man impatient over a delay with his pie threw a chair at the store manager and smashed his head through the glass display case. According to the Post's police blotter, Roman Heczko, 31, did about $10,000 in damage, and was arrested for assault, criminal mischief, menacing and harassment. He was treated for his head wound at Woodhull Hospital; sadly, the fate of his pizza remains unclear. more ›

Someone is taking passive-aggressive note-writing to a whole new level. Miss Heather spotted this giant cardboard sign on Kent Avenue and North 1st Street in Williamsburg recently. The note reads: "Dear Medieval Slum Neighbors or Transients, Please buy trash cans. Take it off your rent, or call your parents or servant to clean this up. I hope you are at least using your indoor plumbing. Yours, Your Appalled Neighbor." Sigh, and now they have to recycle that massive piece of cardboard, too? more ›

Cue the Yelpers! After the usual hyped anticipation, chef Zak Pelaccio and his Fatty Crab crew have returned to Williamsburg's Southside, just a couple blocks from where Pelaccio opened his first joint, the now-defunct Chickenbone Cafe. (That space, for those keeping score, seems at last poised to reopen as the small-plates cocktail lounge Dram, which is also across the street from the recently opened and routinely packed Pies 'n' Thighs.) Called Fatty 'Cue, this new triple-decker restaurant "unofficially" opened last night on South Sixth Street. more ›

After receiving a resounding rejection from the local Community Board last week, another blow was dealt last night to an ambitious $1.2-billion plan to turn the landmark Domino Sugar Refinery site in Williamsburg into a residential complex with 2,200 apartments and four acres of public park on the waterfront. At a public hearing held by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, freshman City Council member Steve Levin came out against the project, which could spell much bigger trouble for developers than the Community Board's vote, because Council members typically defer to the local councilmember on land-use issues. At last night's hearing, an aide read from a statement explaining Levin's objections: more ›

In the past year or so, the DOT has made great strides making the cycling corridor between North and South Brooklyn much safer. Besides the Bedford Avenue bike lane expansion (and slight retraction), a large stretch of Kent Avenue along the East River was turned into a cycling oasis: two lanes of bike lanes separated from traffic by parked cars. For a while, cyclists still had to share the road with motor vehicles on Kent, when the bike lane ended at Clymer Street, but a few months ago the DOT turned a wide, sparsely populated sidewalk on Kent into a shared-use bike and pedestrian zone. And then a hairy stretch of speedway on Williamsburg Street West, where cyclists would turn right to hook around the Navy Yards, was made infinitely safer by separating bikes from cars by a cement barricade. Which brings us to the not-fun-to-ride Flushing Avenue, where big changes await! more ›

It's been almost a year since Peter Shapiro, the jamband impresario who formerly operated the beloved progressive nightclub Wetlands during its final years, opened Brooklyn Bowl, an audaciously massive concert, bowling, and dining venue in an old Williamsburg warehouse. Shapiro and his partner Charley Ryan sunk millions into the LEED-certified project, which brings together live music and bowling under one roof, often simultaneously. Visiting Brooklyn Bowl on any given night gives the impression that their gamble paid off; the lanes are packed; the menu, by Blue Ribbon, is comfort-food gold; and most bands seem delighted by the bifurcated space, which provides them with a dancing, general admission crowd at their feet and 16 lanes of bowling off stage left. (The sound is also stellar.) more ›

Which Williamsburg should get the first, much coveted access to Google's new ultra high-speed broadband internet service: Williamsburg, Brooklyn or Colonial Williamsburg? more ›

Remember last week when a menacing group dropped some Project Mayhem action on the Williamsburg American Apparel? Or... so it was rumored. The company has now given us a little update, saying: more ›

First the communists protested American Apparel in Manhattan, and now someone has gone and thrown rocks through the windows of the company's store on North 6th in Brooklyn. FreeWilliamsburg reports that flaming trash was also involved in last night's retail retaliation, and the attackers may currently be armed with blogs (according to employees at the store). A witness told them, "There were about 50 guys dressed all in black, wearing masks, and causing total mayhem all along North 6th St, dumping out trash dumpsters and setting everything on fire in the streets, and then smashing all the windows of the American Apparel." more ›

A judge ruled yesterday that embattled Brooklyn architect Robert Scarano Jr. can no longer file construction plans after he was caught "deliberately overbuilding" and making multiple false statements "so deceptive that they call to mind out-and-out fraud." The prolific builder—beloved by developers and reviled by community groups for manipulating zoning rules to construct taller and bulkier structures—will no longer be able submit documents to the Department of Buildings, "threatening, at least temporarily, his ability to work as an architect in the city," according to the Times. more ›

Members of Williamsburg's Shomrim patrol busted a 12-year-old thief who robs Hasidic women with a cleverly disguised cap gun. "Give me your money!" demanded Shy-kym Samuels at 9:45 a.m. yesterday morning, pointing the toy weapon at his 34-year-old victim. The woman, who had a two-year-old in a stroller, was fooled and handed over her purse. Samuels ran. more ›

With a local Community Board vote expected later this month, the developers behind the Domino Sugar Refinery project invited the media on a tour of the Williamsburg site yesterday morning. While we had hoped that the tour would afford us Wonka-esque access to the vast refinery interior, the almighty insurance companies made damn sure the deteriorating structure remained off-limits. But they sent over some interior photos today, explaining that "the majority of the buildings are filled with large machinery, much of which spans multiple floors. Also, the majority of the buildings do not have solid floors, and instead, machinery is connected to walls and pillars with cat-walks and metal flooring." Enough—can't you see you're torturing Jake Dobkin! more ›

The long-building wave of food blog hype has at last reached the shore of South 4th Street in Williamsburg, where the new location of southern comfort BBQ restaurant Pies 'N' Thighs finally opened today. You may recall that back in January 2008, the original location in the shadow of the Williamsburg bridge was shut down by the Health Department for such infractions as an improper pork smoker. (Our headline, "Pies 'n' Thighs Goes Tits Up," elicited some "fun" comments.) After more than two years of preparation and speculation, the P&T; team has now opened in their new digs, at the corner of Driggs. more ›