Results tagged “williamsburg”

At around 1:15 this morning a report came in over the newswire that a male had fallen down an elevator shaft at Broadway and Berry Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. A reader sent in photos shortly after, and the building the incident took place in is actually at 338 Berry, between South 4th and South 5th streets — a former noodle factory converted into various multi-use spaces, including residential lofts. Though it is still unconfirmed if the victim was at a party in the building, there was an event held by the Uniform Project there last night. Our tipster said he believed it was a girl who fell, and that she had been at a party inside. After the fall the victim was in serious condition, unconscious and unresponsive. We'll update when we get more details.

The brazen drive-by shooting in Williamsburg yesterday apparently started as a dispute between motorists. A gunman in a green Nissam Maxima fired at 38-year-old Ramon Blas, hitting the victim once in the side as he sat inside his car sometime after 2:30 pm. Wounded, Blas managed to drive his gray BMW SUV a few blocks before colliding with a parked car at the corner of Lorimer and Ten Eyck streets. He then "staggered into the driver's compartment of a slowly moving UPS van," the Post reports. The UPS driver ran into a nearby packaging store, shouting: "Someone just got shot inside my truck," according to the Daily News.

A gunman in car shot and killed a 38-year-old driver on Lorimer Street between Ten Eyck and Maujer streets in a shockingly brazen slaying in Williamsburg this afternoon. The perp pulled up beside the victim — described by police as a Hispanic male — at around 2:30 pm and fired into the his car, hitting him in the side, according to police. The wounded driver crashed his car and exited the vehicle before being transported to Woodhull Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

If you've been looking for the silver lining in the recession, here it is: Thanks to plummeting industrial real estate values, the Brooklyn Brewery will be able to stay in Brooklyn. Just last summer, the Williamsburg-based lager-makers feared they couldn't afford to stay in their increasingly costly neighborhood when their lease expired, but dwindling property values and receding interest from non-manufacturing interests allowed the Brewery to sign a 15-year lease.

Last year around this time we got word that the East River State Park in Williamsburg would be shutting down for the winter months to save up some money. This year shows less signs of a stalled waterfront park, as the Daily News reports that a playground is being constructed and will open in Spring.

       

Nestled between a Williamsburg condo construction site and another building occupied by a battalion of fashion models, the swank new tapas restaurant Bar Celona seems poised to cash in on (and advance) the neighborhood's steady drumbeat of gentrification. At first glance, one might assume this chic place is just a tad out of step with the still slightly scruffy South Side, but let's not forget that the well-appointed Dressler is just a few blocks away, and Aurora isn't exactly a dump, either. Bar Celona's interior design may be seductively or surreally luxurious, but that doesn't take anything away from the stellar cocktails or chef Jordy Lavanderos's first-rate menu. Also: fireplace.

Thanks, Government! Last week the state gave Brooklyn Brewery a grant for $800,000 to help their $6.5MM expansion through Williamsburg. They money will go towards converting 13,500 square feet of vacant distribution space into a fermentation facility, and upping their production from 8,000 to 50,000 barrels a year. Brooklyn Brewery Founder Steve Hindy tells the Post “Support like this is vital to growing manufacturing jobs in New York City. These funds will enable us to complete a six-fold capacity expansion, adding 15 full-time jobs with benefits, and further expanding the Brewery’s green initiatives.”

If you spend enough time in Williamsburg, sooner or later you'll be passed by a man driving a red Subaru, blasting oldies and singing along at the top of his voice. That's just how Anthony Delia, aka Subaru Dude, rolls. Filmmaker Russel Fong recently rode around with Delia for Free Williamsburg, and the guy is exactly as ebullient as we always hoped. Take a look at Hipsterville through his happy eyes:

This weekend there were reports of a bomb going off on South 3rd Street in Williamsburg, during the early morning hours of Sunday. Now the Daily News has more details, confirming that the block between Roebling and Havemeyer was the stage for an explosion around 12:30 a.m. on Sunday.

A little bit before 1 a.m. word came across the newswire that at 221 South 3rd Street, at Roebling Street in Williamsburg, there was a search in progress for "secondary devices" in regards to an explosion. There was a bomb squad on the scene and a staging area set up for EMS at South 5th Street.

   

Click on the images for details on Scarpetta's new five course tasting menu, The JakeWalk's new fall food and cocktail menu, and Dokebi's Korean tacos and weekend brunch.

Are you ready to hear 16 hours of Beatles tunes live... on the ukulele? Well, you have over a month to get ready. This December 5th and 6th, a two-day benefit for Yoko Ono will take place, featuring 185 Songs (the entire Beatles catalog), 60 Singers, 40 Musicians and 16 Yokos.

According to this Twitter update, farm animals are super in right now amongst the skinny jean set. The witness twote, "I just saw a hipster walking a sheep on Bedford Ave. So hot right now!" People, please take photos next time.

The largely successful campaign to slow the proliferation of bars in downtown Manhattan has spread to gentrifying Williamsburg. Last week a small but insistent group of Brooklyn residents gathered at a Community Board 1 meeting to fight enemy #1: the owner of Custom American Wine Bar, who is seeking liquor license approval to open his establishment at Driggs and Metropolitan. Some locals have actually argued that the presence of a wine bar will increase gang activity. Also, those obstreperous oenophiles will keep them up at night with their cacophonous quaffing.

Unsubstantiated! However, one Twitterer recently twote that she "Just found out cops in Williamsburg call hipsters marshmallows because we are white and soft." Whether or not this is true, we would like to recommend that everyone use "marshmallow" going forward — it is much less amorphous than the H word.

Move over, Colonial Williamsburg; the tourists are now flocking to Brooklyn's 'Burg to see what all the fuss is about (what is the all fuss about again?). A tipster sends us this photo, saying, "This was a tour group that got off the subway at Driggs and North 7th. There was a person directing them and explaining where they were. The tour guide gave instructions to meet back at the subway entrance at a specific time and directed them to Bedford Avenue." Oh the things they must have seen!

Adding to the mix of venues and restaurants in the neighborhood, a new (gorgeous) space combining space focused on food has opened in Williamsburg. The Rising Tide is a new culinary and events loft that was built over the summer and is now open to the public. This is the same space that will soon be seen on IFC's Dinner with the Band (starring chef Sam Mason). "The Rising Tide is a unique production and events studio, located in a two story loft in Brooklyn." Measuring in at twelve-hundred square feet, if you aren't looking to film a show (because, you probably aren't), it can even host dinner parties for up to forty people.

Cops were breaking out the heavy machinery again and revving up the chainsaws—it's bike removal time once again on Bedford Avenue. Greenpoint resident Ben Running started shooting video of the cops removing bicycles in another fiery scene on Bedford and North 8th in the heart of Williamsburg. Police make it clear that they don't want him shooting because as Running says, "They don't want you to videotape and put it on the internet." So like any decent citizen journalist, Running did just that.

The drawn out saga of the Williamsburg Power Plant may be coming closer to an end; Curbed notes that TransGas Energy Systems lost its latest bid for the "right to build a new power plant on land earmarked for Bushwick Inlet Park." While the company can still appeal, it does look like gentrifiers will be suntanning on the former Bayside Oil site soon enough! (For those keeping track, that's on Kent and North 12th.) More fine print here.

Since it would be a shame if you missed this and walked around Williamsburg like a fool without a coconut, here's the latest NY Times style piece about walking around Williamsburg with a coconut. Although we share NYMag's apprehension of this "trend," as we've actually never seen anyone doing it, and even if we did, there's allegedly no alcohol in these coconuts; we are simply not interested in your virgin trends, Gray Lady.

Good news Williamburg: crime is down! In fact, you are one of the safest neighborhoods in New York City, surrounded by a shield of shiny luxury condos. But while the machete slashing may have cooled off for now, "police officers remain vigilant about incidents involving a roving homeless population." Could the Post be speaking of the gutter punks?

The saga of the Kent Avenue bike lane continues! First the Orthodox Satmar Jews in South Williamsburg objected to the old bike lane because of the influx of immodestly-dressed female cyclists, then local merchants complained that customers and delivery trucks had nowhere to park. Barricades were threatened, fake detour signs were put up, and clowns rushed to the scene. Responding to the whining, the DOT ripped up part of Kent and changed it to northbound-only traffic, creating a dedicated bike lane buffered by parking spots. And everyone was happy some were placated!

Doesn't everyone in Williamsburg know that drinking out of a plastic water bottle (or a dated Sigg bottle) will lead to certain death*? One water consumer ordered a case of Poland Spring to the mailroom recently (is this something that people do?), only to have it stolen. The bisphenol-A has clearly gone to their head, as they skipped right over passive-aggressive and penned an aggressive-aggressive note to the thief, wishing them to choke. A ransom note, declaring the water was "fine," was posted in reply. One tenant in the building says, "This goes a long way to explaining my love/hate relationship with my neighbors."

              

Park(ing) Day always goes by so quickly! One minute you're swimming in a ball pit in SoHo, and the next minute the tyranny of parked cars has returned to our city's streets. Viva la Park(ing) Revolution! Here are some more photos of yesterday's whimsical fun, which transformed over 50 spaces usually occupied by motor vehicles into imaginative urban oases.

Williamsburg Waterfront, you are growing up so fast! The area, drowned in luxury condos, will soon have its first chain store grand opening! Brownstoner recently spotted the shiny, new Duane Reade, "one of the three businesses signed up for retail space at Northside Piers on Kent Avenue, set to open on Saturday. Word of the ubiquitous drugstore chain's arrival on the Brooklyn waterfront first broke over a year ago; signage confirmed the news back in June." Their first space in the neighborhood is located at North 5th and Kent, a grueling 15 blocks from the closest Chase Bank. Meanwhile, just four blocks away is the current establishment hipsters get their Adderall refilled at, King's Pharmacy. Will their customers remain loyal?

Brooklyn Bowl has been open for a while now, and for the most part receiving favorable reviews... until Bloomberg News paid a visit, that is. While the establishment has fancy foods and couches, unlike the still-preferable Gutter, their writer points out that it may just be the ESPN Zone of Hipsterburg, complete with "barbecue-sauced balls." Being draped in leather couches and flat screen televisions comes with a price, of course, and the piece focuses on what they call lazy comfort food with a Times Square price tag. One menu item that isn't really fit for this economic climate is the $13 milkshake; it contains whatever a normal milkshake would, with the added ingredients of Nutella and whiskey (what, no truffles and gold flakes?). Sounds good, tastes good, but as the writer points out, "a $13 milkshake can’t be right. Leave my junk-food prices alone." Okay, so maybe Fred Flintstone wouldn't bowl here, but would you?

A nine-year-old boy on his way to the temple in Williamsburg yesterday was struck and killed by a driver who was operating her vehicle on a suspended license. The accident took place as 54-year-old Novella Bilkerdyk made a left turn onto Wallabout Avenue off Bedford, striking 9-year-old Joshua Ganzfried with her Honda Accord and dragging him under it for a few feet. Police in Brooklyn charged Bilkerdyk with driving with a suspended license after having it taken away from her in 2007 for multiple insurance lapses. The Post talked to a witness who did not want to be named but told them, "The driver got out and started screaming hysterically," as he says Bilkerdyk screamed, "A Jewish boy! A Jewish boy!" Ganzfried was one of seven children from an Orthodox family, dressed in traditional garb as he headed to Saturday services. Neighbors tell the News that the corner the incident took place is notoriously a dangerous spot.

Eurotrash: In the old days, eurotrash did key bumps at Kokie's; now Eurotrash serves meatballs by the Levee (which replaced Williamsburg's aforementioned cocaine bar). Eurotrash isn't a restaurant, but when you're getting your drink on—either at the Levee or Radegast Hall across the street—a starchy bargain food truck in a parking lot sure beats a fussy restaurant, with all their RULES about keeping your voice down and calculating gratuities. Opened about a week ago in a lot next door to the Levee, Eurotrash serves Belgian fries ($3 or $4), Swedish Meatballs ($5) over rotini with gravy and cranberry preserves, Fish and Chips ($5) consisting of 4 oz. Corona-battered cod and Belgian fries, and Bangers and Mash (Irish sausages served over mashed potatoes with gravy). North Third Street and Berry, Williamsburg

Stuck somewhere in purgatory, with luxury condos stalling mid-development and local gangs slashing hipsters with machetes, Williamsburg might as well just be opening up its gutter punk track-marked arms to religions of any kind. And it is!

As promised, a coalition of Brooklyn community groups filed a lawsuit against the city yesterday over plans to turn a 31-acre area zoned for manufacturing on the border of Williamsburg and Bed-Stuy into 1,895 low-rise apartments—905 of which would charge below-market rate rents. Opponents say the housing complex would be racially and religiously discriminatory because it features too many three- and four-bedroom apartments, which would "disproportionately accommodate the Hasidic community's large families." Critics also want the buildings to be much taller, and accuse the Buildings Department of capping them at eight stories to accommodate Orthodox Jews who can't ride elevators on Shabbos. A lawyer for the Broadway Triangle Community Coalition tells the Daily News, "This process was dramatically racial. It acquiesces to the needs of the Hasidic community." But Councilman David Yassky, a supporter of the development plan, dismisses the allegations, explaining, "I want more housing, but I don't want skyscrapers in the middle of Brooklyn." The City Council will vote on the plan after the City Planning Commission casts their vote, and like other big projects, the use of eminent domain is becoming another heated issue.