If you did that, WE WOULDN'T HAVE ANY PROBLEMS. I can see the corner from my window. No one, repeat, no one, has ever moved anyone from the corner EXCEPT US GOING OUT OF THE BUILDING AND DOING SO. I watch stupid white boys peeing on the steps of Budd Woodworking, where people eat lunch every day, in full view of the bouncers, and no one has ever said anything - except us.

Assholes.

Yep. They're sure paying attention to the fact that they have no cabaret license and have no certificate of occupancy for that second floor, aren't they?

Tonight, getting off the G train, we ran into a local couple who were complaining about the same thing we were, and overheard them say, "And Duane Reade, here we come." They confirmed that it was going to be a Duane Reade, taking over the candy store on the very corner, the upstairs and the downstairs of the building, and that the buildings between it and the corner of Milton (except for the bank-now-medical-clinic) were going to be torn down and a highrise was going in.

This explains the businesses moving around, and the continual empty storefronts - who wants to move in if you're going to have to close up shop soon?

Confirmations and/or denials appreciated.

Now, instead, we have this. Isn't it an improvement?

They took all the personality out of that old wonderful storefront, stuck a plate glass window on the front, and here we go, the mall-i-zation of Manhattan Avenue continues. The commercial real estate prices are keeping storefronts empty, and I fear that the costs will keep everyone away except chains. That will turn Manhattan Ave. into a bland boring corridor. I know I say we don't need another 99 cent store, but at least they have some quirkiness and personality and genuinely serve the community.

It's been at least four years since the last price raise. I can deal.

I also find that the attitude of the staff at the restaurant makes a difference to me when I review the DOH rating. If it is someone who I feel like is making all best efforts, I might overlook an infraction or two. I'm not talking about things like not having a choking poster up, I'm talking the more egregious errors. However, if you've been a jerk when I've been in, or less than friendly, or if you appear completely incompetent, I have no confidence at all in your ability to keep things clean. No doubt, it is tough to run a restaurant in NYC. No doubt that the DOH is cracking down more zealously than they used to. I imagine the truth is somewhere in the middle, which is why I'll give some people the benefit of the doubt.

You can look up the DOH results for Greenpoint here.

Given the last paragraph, I have no desire to call anyone in particular out. Just want to make people aware that the results are available to them and they can make their own choices.

We took a walk by the place on the way home from work. The tarps were off the openings at the front of the roof garden and they were attaching something that looked like guy wires to the front of the openings, clearly designed to stop the hipsters from falling out of the openings. That's the kind of thing that strikes me that you do well before the night you open, but what do I know? They look flimsy and completely inadequate and given the kinds of things I've seen DOB refuse to license, kind of shocked me that they would be legal.

Oh, wait.

Now, it wasn't nice weather Friday night, so we had the windows closed, and the baseball game started late, so we had an ambient noise filter. On the other hand, it doesn't start getting obnoxiously loud at Studio B until well after midnight. We are lucky that our building is reasonably well insulated and that we were really goddamn tired, and the windows being closed was a big plus. So the first night of the roof deck didn't seem to be any noisier than your usual Friday or whatever night. However, there was 100% more police presence than any night we have ever seen. We also saw what looked like a fire department official vehicle out front around 1am (Miss Heather says 1:30, I'll trust her report).

But I don't have the worst of it and I know it. So, neighbors, how was it for you this weekend? Oh, and they're going to have another party on Wednesday. From 10-4 am. Because, you know, no one has to actually work - not when daddy's paying the rent on your loft share out at Morgan.

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

1) A hardware store (useful!)
2) A Washington Mutual.

The best graffiti I ever saw in Greenpoint was on the temporary siding around what is now the Bank of America:

WE NEED A MOVIE THEATER, NOT ANOTHER BANK

With the addition of Commerce Bank (going in down on North 5th and Bedford this summer), we've got a full house here. It's not that I mind another bank - it's just that it's clear from the FOR RENT signs up and down Manhattan Ave. that rents are going up and the only people who can afford them are large national concerns, which will turn the neighborhood into just another faceless strip mall.

On the other hand, I discovered yesterday that a Korean BBQ joint had opened up in the second half of the Socrates diner, down on Manhattan near Nassau. Maybe it's just a phase we have to go through.

I thought I would contribute to Miss Heather, but the truth is that there is too much going on and there is too much to say and someone's got to point out that WE'RE GETTING ANOTHER F'ING BANK ON MANHATTAN AVENUE.

I've renamed the blog (in honor of Mr. Iggy Pop). And, I'm back.

It's not a restaurant.

It's another bodega.

The stretch of Manhattan between Milton and Greenpoint has, by my count, at least four bodegas already. I know it might SEEM like we need another one - and this one is huge - but not only am I angry as a resident that we're getting something we don't need, but as a businessperson, I question the business plan that made the owners seem like this was going to be a profitable enterprise?

I'm not sure that being stuck all the way up at Green St. is going to guarantee any flow of clientele. Although it would be fun to see the customers from Tommy's and the Mark Bar head this way.

Death watch anyone?

We don't need another bar. We need: restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores.

When I was planning my move to Brooklyn, 475 Kent was one of the buildings I was considering. I wanted to live in a creative community and I wanted a big open space, but in the end we went the traditional apartment route because while it would have been great for me, it probably wouldn't have been so great for my other half. Thus we ended up in Greenpoint.

But 475 Kent being evicted breaks my heart. This is not one of the loft buildings full of stupid hipster kids from Iowa, like out at Morgan or Jefferson, these were some of the OG's. There was a difference, you could feel it when you walked into the building (and I have been in all of these buildings).

The threatened demise of 475 Kent breaks my heart because we are slowly killing this city of its life and its creativity and the things that makes it tick, the things that made me want to come back, the things that make people dream about this city and spend their whole lives planning how they can manage to come and live here. It is already so hard, it has always been hard.

But this isn't hard. This is just fucking inhumane.

I understand the safety violations and the concerns for safety. Everyone here is pushing everything to the edge: the landlord, FDNY, DOB. But this is a group of tenants who are not whining about entitlement, they are prepared to TAKE ACTION and restore their homes, their community, and their livelihood in most cases.

Listen, I hate hipsters more than the next person. That is not this building.

I just feel like every day I am watching the soul of this city vanish.

much respect to the residents of 475 kent. don't back down.

But tonight on the bus, I noticed that XTRA on Manhattan has big GOING OUT OF BUSINESS signs in the window and I got pissed. XTRA was a cut above the usual 99 cent crap on Manhattan Ave. The people who worked there didn't treat everyone like a potential shoplifter, and you could find nicer things than the other stores had.

That's a HUGE space. I guarantee that whatever goes in there will be 1) two stores, because it's too big for one undertaking and 2) some kind of crappy-ass chain that we don't need.

At least it can't be another bank, because they're already all here (Commerce is opening on Bedford this summer). I hope.

2) 155 Calyer: The former home of the hapless William Taft Vegetarian Diner is now some type of design studio. Which is a fine use of the space, but gosh we (selfishly) wish it was new commerce.

Sakura 6 - 837 Manhattan Avenue

837 Manhattan Ave. is on the corner of Noble, where the hardware store used to be. There's still a FOR RENT sign on it, but there is also a handwritten sign (magic marker on bright green posterboard) advertising the coming of Sakura Japanese restaurant, that has a branch in Ridgewood.

:::and there was much rejoicing:::

Now, when I think "Ridgewood" I think that wonderful, cheap, clean yet impossible to get to neighborhood in Queens, just over the border from Bushwick, but in this case, I think it might be Ridgewood, NJ, which is apparently home to a very well regarded Japanese restaurant called Sakura.

In either event:
1) NOT another Thai restaurant!
2) NOT another bank!
3) NOT another check cashing place!
4) NOT another dollar store!

Now, if the Ramen shop would only open up, I'd be in heaven.