Entries from Gothamist tagged with 'Williamsburg'
October 9, 2008
You may have heard something about that TV show Life on Mars. Based on the BBC show, it tells the story of present-day NYPD Detective Sam Tyler (Jason O'Mara) who wakes up in 1973 after a car accident and has to adapt to 1970s policing techniques, as exemplified by Harvey Keitel. To promote tonight's premiere of the series, The Daily News has dug up a bunch of stories from 1973 is hosting them on a......
Continue Reading "Daily News Turns '73 Stories Into Life on Mars Ad"October 3, 2008
Roadside tacos have become a common Williamsburg fixture, with Endless Summer parked on Bedford, El Diablo behind Union Pool, and the Authentic Mexican taco truck on the southern edge of McCarren Park. Now La Superior gives Mexican road food a stationary kitchen, dishing out teeny tacos high on flavor, homemade salsas, gorditas and flautas—both staples of the street—and much more. Portions are tapas-sized, so order extra, and start with the ezquietes: roasted corn kernels cooked......
Continue Reading "Camera in the Kitchen: La Superior"September 29, 2008
Has the saga of the Eternal Sunshine crackhouse ended? The abandoned residence, used in the Michel Gondry film and located at 59 Orient Avenue in Williamsburg, had recently turned into a squatter's paradise--something neighbors were not too keen on. The Brooklyn Paper is reporting that the druggies and prostitutes residing in the house and lurking in neighbor's yards, have departed. The paper is patting themselves on the back, saying that once their "reporter questioned building......
Continue Reading "Eternal Sunshine House Evicts Squatters"September 26, 2008
Our sources are telling us that Apple has purchased the building that currently houses the Salvation Army located at 176 Bedford Avenue (on the corner of Bedford and North 7th) in Williamsburg. Rumors have been floating around for a year as to where the company may set up shop in Brooklyn (with most guessing it would be Downtown), and more recently it's been rumored that it would be in the new Edge complex. In the......
Continue Reading "Did Apple Buy the Bedford Ave Salvation Army?"September 24, 2008
A rendering of the lobby of Cassandra Cinema. Except for the avant-garde Ocularis screenings in the old Galapagos, North Brooklyn has been a dead zone for movie theaters for years. Why, just the other day the Greenpointers blogger could be heard begging the world to open up a movie theater near her: "I know it will take you years and hundreds of thousands of dollars, but I promise you I will go every Sunday......
Continue Reading "Williamsburg Cinema Projects Spring Opening"September 23, 2008
Williamsburg art rock quintet TV on the Radio has just released their third full length album, Dear Science. It's an upbeat, danceable departure from their last opus, Return to Cookie Mountain, but listen closely to the lyrics and you'll find them as troubled as ever with life under the Bush occupation. Of course, main lyricists Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe are smart enough to favor the evocative over the polemical, and it continues to work......
Continue Reading "Kyp Malone, TV on the Radio"September 16, 2008
Northside Car Service, the dominant livery cab company in Williamsburg, has become the target of a boycott after an accident with a cyclist last week. In a widely circulated email, a friend of the unidentified cyclist—who himself called for a boycott in a Gothamist comment Friday—says that on September 10th the driver made an “irrationally fast turn” from Kent onto North Seventh, forcing the cyclist to "slam on the brakes, flip completely over the handlebars,......
Continue Reading "Cyclists Demand Boycott of Williamsburg's Northside Car Service "September 14, 2008
The NY Post has a follow-up to yesterday's story about a man in Williamsburg who found himself surrounded and detained by a group of two dozen Hasidics after going into a store and yelling at the shopkeeper that he "hated Jews" and that they "should all die." The paper released the name of the man, Ben Kircher, who was not arrested because no charges were pressed and spoke to his father, Ben Kircher Sr. His......
Continue Reading "Dad Says Anti-Semite Was Just Drunk"September 13, 2008
An unusual incident occurred in Williamsburg yesterday when a man was surrounded and detained by a group of two dozen Hasidics after causing a disruption in a local store and knocking the hat off a 13-year-old boy. In an article in today's NY Post (titled "Vigilante Oyz in the 'Hood"), the paper reports that the man allegedly came into Division Mini Mart on Clymer Street, threw two watermelons to the ground and began cursing at......
Continue Reading "Unorthodox Street Justice in Williamsburg"September 12, 2008
Leaders of South Williamsburg's Hasidic community are pressuring the city to paint over the newish bike lanes on Bedford and Wythe Avenues because they're appalled by the immodest attire of female cyclists pedaling through their neighborhood. Simon Weisser, a member of Community Board 1, tells the Post, "I have to admit, it's a major issue, women passing through here in that dress code. It bothers me, and it bothers a lot of people." The DOT's......
Continue Reading "Hasids Say Cyclists Too Sexy for Bike Lanes"September 10, 2008
Remember the Mr. & Miss Williamsburg Pageant? Well, it happened, and one contestant reports back that the winner was victorious by drinking a PBR and simultaneously taking her panties off from under an American Apparel romper. Also...this crowned hipster jewel was from New Jersey. But wait, the scandal goes even deeper! She notes that Misha Calvert, head of the pageant (pictured), "instructed us not to tell anyone from the press that the whole applicant process......
Continue Reading "Williamsburg's Beauty Pageant Unironically Turns Ugly"September 8, 2008
This weekend marked the beginning of the 3rd annual NY Clown Theatre Festival at the Brick Theater in Williamsburg. Festivities began with clowns taking to the streets with a subway parade. Clowns such as Lord Oxford and Graspy McTakeItAll led a crowd of about 100 strong onto a rush hour L Train where they sang along as a marching band played standards such as "Come On Eileen" and "Groove is in the Heart." After marching......
Continue Reading "Clowns Take Over the Streets of Williamsburg"September 1, 2008
The utterly unnecessary return of 90210 to the small screen tomorrow means the arrival of giant billboards displaying the new cast. The Brooklyn Paper reports on one in which teens wear swimsuits and lounge in pools in the form of the 90210 numbers. The image can be seen from the BQE and hangs above Williamsburg--specifically in the Hasidic Jewish area. Rabbi David Niederman says, “In Jewish law, it is forbidden to see any part of......
Continue Reading "90210 Not Cool in the 11211"August 28, 2008
All has been silent on the stabby front in the South Side of Williamsburg. Metro now takes a look at the incidents, which have been going on since April of this year, and have often involved machetes (possibly wielded by the gang called Trinitarios). The paper reports that the 90th Precinct has "experienced the sharpest rise in crime since last year of any neighborhood in Brooklyn," coming in at 13.49% (as a comparison, the 94th......
Continue Reading "Williamsburg's Stabbings, Spike in Crime"August 27, 2008
Sure, there's a lot of prefab housing on display at MoMA right now, but have you seen any of the modular structures inhabited in New York? Design*Sponge points out a Kithaus in Williamsburg, whose "location required each module to be carried, by hand, through a 3 story brick rowhouse. The builders then added custom decks and wedged it in between warehouses and light industrial buildings to create this compact urban oasis." Prepare to be jealous......
Continue Reading "Prefab Pops Up in City Backyard"August 27, 2008
The pigeon keepers of New York have been in the spotlight recently, and now a new JL Aronson documentary, Up on the Roof, looks at the gentrification of Williamsburg through their experiences.Up on the Roof follows several devoted pigeon breeders in one predominantly Latino section of Brooklyn through the rigors and rewards of a quintessential New York tradition. All along the waterfront, and throughout blue collar Brooklyn, pigeon fancying has been an active pastime for......
Continue Reading "Williamsburg's Pigeon Keepers"August 27, 2008
On a few blocks of Keap Street in Williamsburg yesterday it was 1973. No it wasn’t a highly localized distortion of the space time continuum, but the US version of Life on Mars filming. The show, based on the brilliant BBC show of the same name, will follow NYPD Detective Sam Tyler (Jason O'Mara) who wakes up in 1973 after a car accident and has to deal with 1970s policing techniques and an old style......
Continue Reading "Life on Mars Found in Williamsburg"August 21, 2008
The charges have been dropped against four people arrested at last Saturday's massive "Costumed-Roving-Street-Party-Apocalyptic-Dance-Rock-Battle" flash mob in Williamsburg, the Brooklyn Paper reports. The event was intended to lure party people into a direct action 'take back the streets' protest, but Capt. Dennis Fulton, commanding officer of Greenpoint’s 94th Precinct, wasn't impressed: "They said they were protesting high rent — and I guess ‘the man’ — but really, they were just individuals in their twenties that......
Continue Reading "Charges Dropped Against Pandamonium Revelers"August 21, 2008
Earlier this year, vintners Paul Wegimont and Greg Sandor opened Bridge Urban Winery, an offshoot of their North Fork vineyard. Nestled by the Williamsburg Bridge in a blossoming artisanal corridor that includes Marlow & Sons and Diner, their sleek yet cozy wine bar specializes in strictly New York State wine, as well as food pairings prepared with all locally-sourced ingredients. On Sunday Bridge will host a seasonal, three course Bloody Mary brunch (made with farm......
Continue Reading "Paul Wegimont, Bridge Urban Winery"August 20, 2008
Michel Gondry may have just moved to Orient Avenue in Brooklyn, but certainly not to #59, which was briefly in the limelight when it appeared as Kate Winslet's apartment in his film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Four years after the cameras stopped rolling, The Brooklyn Paper takes a look at the house in its current state--and it's in no way ready for its next close-up.Squatters, junkies, and prostitutes have turned the vacant building......
Continue Reading "Eternal Nightmare on Orient Avenue"August 19, 2008
Vlad at the Glass Bead Collective let us know about another video taken during Saturday night's Pandamonium in Williamsburg, where a roving street party (with a panda theme) was deemed too much by police, who tried to clamp down on festivities. He writes "the basic story here is that after the panda party was broken up, people started assembling on street corners and chanting," which is when the clash started to become more aggressive......
Continue Reading "Another "Pandas" Vs. Police Video"August 19, 2008
The police are reporting a 10 5-year-old fell to his death down an elevator shaft in a Williamsburg apartment building this morning. The boy, who was apparently with a friend, fell from the 11th floor (at 70 Clymer Street), which is about 110 feet. The boy was pronounced dead at Brooklyn Hospital; according to WCBS 2, "sources believe the boy may have been trying to escape from the elevator after it became stuck." UPDATE: Apparently......
Continue Reading "Boy's Fatal Fall Down Elevator Shaft"August 19, 2008
Free Williamsburg posted this photograph of some cops restraining someone during Saturday night's Pandamonium. There's also some video of the confrontation and one witness account that questions the force used by the NYPD, "Then a cop grabbed the guy with the boom box by the back of his arm and yanked him into the street, pushing him to the ground and making him [lose] grip of the stereo...The stereo fell, batteries flying everywhere, and when......
Continue Reading "Black-and-White Panda Clash Update"August 17, 2008
Last night, Pandamonium--the self-described "Costumed- Roving- Street- Party- Apocalyptic- Dance- Rock- Battle" event took place. And it did cause quite a pandemonium! The group only announced its start location yesterday (via websites and Twitter)--Union Square at 8:30 p.m. After converging, some in white-and-black face paint and masks, the panda group headed to Williamsburg via the L at Union Square. But little did they know the police do not take kindly to pandas. Or at least......
Continue Reading "Police Unhappy with Pandamonium in Williamsburg"August 14, 2008
The NY Post discovered Williamsburg today, twice! The articles contradict one another, however, and read as though they're describing two different neighborhoods instead of one in flux. One states that today's "Williamsburgers are families, established professionals" while the other says "young hipsters still rule." Well, which is it? The former declares that "as new luxury condos roll out along the waterfront and flank McCarren Park, upscale businesses are opening to attract an ever more well-heeled......
Continue Reading "Williamsburg is Hip, or Family-Friendly, or...Something"August 12, 2008
Earlier this year Williamsburg resident Misha Calvert found herself being arrested for stealing two 40-oz Colt 45 bottles at a bodega in the neighborhood. Embarrassing! The 25-year-old took it in stride and somehow successfully pitched her own community service idea to the judge: a Mr. and Miss Williamsburg Pageant. No, really. FreeWilliamsburg reports that it'll all go down at Supreme Trading on September 5th, and there's still time to order your Bedford Avenue scarf, iron......
Continue Reading "Girl Steals Colt 45, Plans Williamsburg Beauty Pageant"August 8, 2008
Last year 43% of readers voted that that NYPD's Sky Watch was useless. Now Animal New York reports on the retractable 20-foot-tall watchtower and now it's popping up in more and more neighborhoods (they name Crown Heights, Harlem and DUMBO as a few). More recently one of the temporary watchtowers has been erected on Graham Avenue and Moore Street, which they pinpoint as "the Bushwickish section of Williamsburg." Allegedly this one is for some robberies......
Continue Reading "Sky Watch Over Williamsburg?"August 6, 2008
In a city with an abundance of Italian and Latin flavors, it's surprising that these cuisines don't intermingle more often. At Miranda, on North 9th & Berry in Williamsburg (across from Hotel Delmano and Silent H), the husband-wife team of Sasha Rodriguez and Mauricio Miranda fuse mixed heritages and culinary experiences into grains, appetizers, and entrees with sauces both ragu and mole. The dining room is cozy, with a moderate sound level and low light......
Continue Reading "Camera in the Kitchen: Miranda"August 2, 2008
A Williamsburg high school teacher is filing a federal discrimination complaint against the Department of Education. After three years of complaining about students fondling her, calling her a "b-- licker," and flinging condoms at one another, the only response the NY Daily News says social studies teacher Theresa Reel got was a scolding from the Department of Ed for wearing a "low cut, V-neck, lace top" that was deemed "inappropriate attire." Reel claims that she......
Continue Reading "Students Harrass Brooklyn Teacher, Board Blames Her"August 1, 2008
This year Williamsburg has seen its fair share of stabbings and shootings, and in light of that "a number of local politicians and churches are sponsoring a prayer rally and concert to protest the recent spate of violence in the Southside." One of the latest crimes took place over the East River recently at the daylight drenched hour of 4:45 p.m. The Brooklyn Paper reported that "a gun-toting thug tried to mug a 28-year-old man......
Continue Reading "Rally Against Violence in Williamsburg's South Side"
