The First Man to Wear Bermuda Shorts on Lorimer Street
On a hot summer day in the early 1960s I returned home after being ripped to shreds by the guys I usually played stickball with on the block. I was angry and embarrassed as only an 8 year-old boy can be. I made a wardrobe change to my usual dungarees. When my mother saw me, she understood, smiled, and said, “You know you’re not the first guy to wear Bermuda shorts on Lorimer Street.”
The first man who did was Andrea Ovadia, a dentist from Rome who wasn’t Italian but rather half-Egyptian and half-French. He was my aunt Maria’s, my mother's oldest sister's, first husband.
Maria Aquaro wound up in Rome on the eve of World War II. She met an Italian Army officer during the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair and fell in love. She followed him to Europe, but since he was already married it didn’t work out. And after the unpleasantness at Pearl Harbor she couldn’t come back to Brooklyn either...
Nyles Reed Fitzgerald
May 27, 1980 - May 6, 2007
A Grand Masterpiece or Misuse?
Opponents of mass development in Williamsburg/Greenpoint find themselves in yet another fight, this time against a familiar face. Karl Fischer Architects, designers behind Schaefer Landing on Kent Avenue, the conversion of the Gretsch Building, and a string of luxury apartments on Bayard Street near McCarren Park, have recently received approval for their latest project: the Grand Tower on Driggs Avenue and Grand Street.
The new condominium tower at 227 Grand Street, projected to cost $18 million to $21 million to build, will rise 16 stories and cover approximately 48,000 sq ft. The Grand Tower will loom over Fillmore Place – a series of three-story brick row houses that were constructed in the 1850s...
Greenpoint/Williamsburg For Obama
Not So Much Fear and Loathing, But Still a Campaign Trail
The culture of Greenpoint and Williamsburg does not reek of national politics. Hard-held beliefs and strong opinions are not uncommon, but dedication to “national civic duty” is not the tell-tale characteristic of the neighborhood. And so it was that I was a bit surprised to hear of a grassroots presidential campaign operating out of, for, and by Greenpoint/Williamsburg.
Not that the area itself is a stranger to political movements: the 1970s brought in waves of community activist groups such as The Southerns, the Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation, The Puerto Rican Defense Fund, and the Ad Hoc Committee for the Southside Triangle. And the area has had its sensational affairs with national politics as well – famously being the birthplace of the USS Monitor. Despite the history, though, the fact that Greenpoint/Williamsburg For Obama, a group started only a few months ago, meets weekly in the back room of Peruvian restaurant Pio Pio Riko on Manhattan Ave. is still a deviation from the current local stereotype – and a welcome one at that...
Sweet Release
Domino Sugar Factory Might Melt Away
Everyone noticed the mammoth Brooklyn waterfront staple at one time or another, but now should probably grab a final gaze. The Domino Sugar Factory is one of the last remaining industrial buildings in Williamsburg and, keeping with the current wave of condominium expansion, is up for rezoning for residential development...
Riding to the Occasion
The Bicycle Film Festival
Whether you’ve been in the neighborhood forever, or jumped on board the gentrification train to snag a new condo with a view, you probably have at least one major thing in common with the rest of the diverse population of Williamsburg: your bike. If you ride it for fun, as a mode of transportation, a way to take your toddler to preschool, or as a staunch environmental activist, the great thing about our neighborhood is that it’s still very bicycle-friendly. Combining our love of biking with the prevailing creative spirit of the local community was the 7th Annual Bicycle Film Festival recently held at the Anthology Film Archive on 2nd Avenue and 2nd Street.
Brendt Barbur, who continues to organize the event, started the festival as a way to celebrate bike culture and the many creative, healthy, and fun possibilities the bicycle promotes...
Engine 212 Finally Closes...but is given back to community
On Tuesday, May 16, 2007 the fate of the beloved community firehouse in Williamsburg, Engine 212, was finally settled. The Community Steering Committee, which has representatives from Brooklyn's Community Board 1, the Bloomberg administration, People's Firehouse and other city agencies, reached a long-disputed agreement to sell the firehouse that has been closed (for the second time) since May 25, 2003...
Living with and Leaving the Never-Changing Satmar
While Williamsburg has rapidly become the center of gentrified entertainment for the subculture youth of New York, the now-native Satmar Hasidim Jewish community continues to vehemently reject any assimilation into the rest of the neighborhood. But they can’t keep everyone...
Whose Hamlet is it Anyways?
A review of Ian Hill's Hamlet in The Brick's Pretentious Festival
'Tis the season for Shakespeare as revealed in many forms in the parks, theaters and festivals of New York City. From lavish Central Park productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet to Metropolitan Opera House ballet performances of the same, Shakespeare's timeless themes of the human condition convey as much immediacy now as they did at the turn of 16th century Europe. But then again, today's political environment is comparable to the papal conspiracies and wars that took place over four hundred years ago. When viewing a Shakespeare play today, one does not have to strain to make connections to today's affairs. However, one might struggle to understand ye olde English, which has changed considerably over time, more so than Shakespeare's proverbial mirror to life itself...
Roebling Oil Field
A year ago, Williamsburg real estate developers began digging the foundation for McCarren Park Mews, a new six-story condominium project at 204 North 11th Street on the corner of Roebling. As construction nears completion, the mystery of what has come to be known as the “Roebling Oil Field” underneath the new building remains unsolved.
In November 2006, as excavation for a 12-foot sub-basement was well underway, neighborhood complaints about a strong petroleum odor alerted the state Department of Environmental Conservation to investigate contamination at the site...
