There’s a scandalous new measurement controversy sweeping the NYC beverage world, and this time, we can’t even blame Bloomberg.
According to the weights and measures sticklers over at The New York Post, a number of city bars are shortchanging customers by serving pints in twelve to fourteen ounce glasses, instead of Read More
“It costs a lot of money to look this cheap,” Dolly Parton famously said. Well, nowhere is that more true than in Hipster Brooklyn, a magical land that The New York Times seemingly “discovers” once every five weeks. In today’s Style section, the Times sent intrepid middle-aged Manhattanite reporter Henry Alford to Williamsburg to live like the locals do (which, coincidentally, is also the way one would live if one were living one’s life according to trend stories in the Times Style section).
So how much did Mr. Alford’s long weekend of living the artisanal life actually cost the newspaper, which confirmed that it covered Mr. Alford’s expenses but, citing policy, declined to share costs? Read More
Ach, we really thought The New York Times was finally starting to get the picture with its April 28th piece, “Turning the Tables on the News Media Tease.” In it, Noam Cohen finally acknowledged the Twitter feed @NYTOnIt as being “prompted when a trend article from The New York Times seems too obvious or too generic.” Examples given in the article included “the arrival of fall, the use of staplers, and how night stands are becoming more crowded.”
Point duly noted, the Times seemed to be saying in this piece, showing that it was not above poking fun of its history of non-trend trend stories. But it turns out that the Grey Lady was merely blowing her media audience a raspberry, as Thursday’s Style section cover story is about…one man’s observations about Williamsburg. No, no catch, no angle: Just one guy, checking out the ‘burg to see what the big deal is and trying to blend in with the natives at Roberta’s. (Which still counts as Williamsburg, you know, metaphysically.) And yes, it’s supposed to be funny, which is probably the saddest part about this sad attempt that begins with–wait for it–the title: Read More
Several Jewish homes in Williamsburg were targeted in an incident on Monday in which religious objects attached to residents’ front doors were set on fire.
The burnings, which are being investigated by the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Department, took place on Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom Hashoah, though police remain unsure of whether the day of Read More
Poor Williamsburg. It’s now suffering a terrible fate known to but a handful of pert prom queens and high school football hunks—it is not only possible to be popular, but to be too popular.
While many of the newcomers who have recently washed up on Williamsburg’s luxury condo-strewn shores are no doubt aware that the neighborhood is “changing” and that that change is part of what makes it attractive to so many new, well-heeled residents—would they have been able to buy artisanal chutney there back in 2005?—they’re apparently more than a little uncomfortable with the fact that it continues to, well, change. At least, they hate the construction, according to DNAinfo. Read More
He’s no gouda!
A 51-year old man with $55 worth of cheese hidden in his pants was arrested last week in a Brooklyn supermarket after a store clerk tried to stop him, according to the Brooklyn Paper.
The man was stopped in a market in the heart of Williamsburg (Broadway between Hooper and Keap) at Read More
As Vishaan Chakrabarti, a principal at SHoP Architects, was unveiling the Southside Williamsburg master plan they designed for Two Trees, he evoked the image of Manhattan’s skyline. “Just like in the dead center of New York,” he told the assembled group of reporters, “we have this parabolic moment—there’s this moment of exuberance that happens” as Read More
In the midst of yesterday’s frenzy of Domino Sugar Refinery-themed press coverage, squished L train riders could be forgiven for asking: how much more development can Williamsburg handle? With only two tracks in a largely quad-tracked system, the L is not as well-endowed as some lines—so how much more Williamsburg can the L really take?
As it turns out, quite a bit. Read More
When Two Trees Management bought the old Domino Sugar site from CPC Resources and a reluctant Katan Group, a local developer told The Observer that Jed Walentas would be “crazy to go back to ULURP” for a rezoning of the site, which had already been approved for thousands of high-rise apartments.
But going back to to everyone’s favorite acronym (to pronounce, at least) is exactly what Mr. Walentas intends to do. He and SHoP, the New York-based architecture firm that Bruce Ratner tapped to design the Barclays Center and Atlantic Yards after Frank Gehry proved too expensive, called a group of reporters to SHoP’s offices near City Hall on Friday to show off their plans for the site.
The first thing Mr. Walentas spoke about was Two Trees’ desire to expand the amount of parkland included in the project—adding two new acres—and to make it more accessible to the public.
He criticized the open space in the old site plan as something that “felt very much like a privatized front lawn for people who lived there,” and spoke about his desire to pull the buildings back inland to make more space for the quarter-mile-long waterfront park, as well as add a new public street between his buildings and the waterfront. Read More
Things got a little nutty in Williamsburg last Sunday around 4 p.m., when Juan Ayala, 35, attempted to steal 75 lbs. worth of almonds from the back of a delivery truck on Bedford Avenue.
Unsurprisingly for a 5’8”, 180 lb. man trying to carry nearly half his weight in almonds, Mr. Ayala didn’t make it Read More
