The Look Book Goes to the RockawaysWe set up outside Locals Surf School on Beach 69th Street to talk to the surfers, many of whom are there every morning, year-round.
In the Rockaways, Safe Swimming Is a Luxury, Not a RightNasty razor teeth in Chelsea, bank-on-biker discrimination in Windsor Terrace, lifeguard inequality in the Rockaways … and other bad tidings to make you angry and anxious in today’s bitter boroughs report.
neighborhood watch
Joshua Kushner: Jared 2.0?Jared Kushner’s developer bro rocks the East Village shul crowd, the waterfalls installation is killing the trees at River Café, barges are rotting in Jamaica Bay, and scruffle venue Studio B in Greenpoint is shuttered. In today’s hood roundup!
neighborhood watch
Red Hook Residents Already Groaning Over ‘Real World’ InvasionThe disingenuous denizens of Red Hook, the doomed views of the West 15th Street co-op dwellers, and the junk food–craving office gals of Long Island City, all wrapped up into our daily boroughs report like the contents of a vegan burrito!
neighborhood watch
The Golden Rule, Graffiti-StyleEast Harlem’s incoming big-box mall, Rockaway’s unexpected turn, Gramercy’s strange tenements within a condo, and even more, in today’s boroughs report.
neighborhood watch
Hipster Influx Already Affecting Bushwick Community BoardRoosevelt Island may not get its ferry so soon, the Rockaways may get a $19 mil library … and Union Square Park–goers will still get free hugs! Even more gets in our daily boroughs report.
Art Deco Icon to Be DemolishedBrooklyn Heights: They’ll tear down the landmarked 1936 Purchase Building — a classic, WPA-style structure — as part of the construction of Brooklyn Bridge Park, which may begin next month. [NYDN via Gowanus Lounge]
Fort Greene: All the shabby-chic vendors of choice are lining up for the Brooklyn Flea Market, coming here Sundays starting in April. [Brownstoner]
Governors Island: Plans released today for the isle’s redo into a pomo eco-asis reveal that multiethnic children will frolic while seabirds fly overhead at dangerously low altitudes. [Queens Crap]
photo op
Surfin’ NYC
Sure, if you want to be a snob, you could insist on Waikiki Beach on Oahu or Kirra Point on Australia’s Gold Coast. But you can’t get to either of those with a MetroCard — and today the city’s Parks Department opened New York’s second surfing-only beach in the Rockaways. Until 2005, a musty law banned surfing anywhere within the five boroughs. But that year a stretch of seashore at Beach 90th Street was opened to surfers and closed to everyone else, and, well, it was gnarly, dude. Today, after the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation cleaned the area and a Parks commish Adrian Benepe led a small ceremony, the strip of sand at Beach 67th Street was also turned over to the boarders. It’s just an A-train ride away — and, on that note, we think we’ll call it a week. Catch you Monday.