Celebrating Vinyl and Aluminum in Greenpoint
The enthusiasts over at the Bridge and Tunnel Club recently posted a great photo essay on the aluminum and vinyl siding that is one of the distinctive aesthetic touches of Greenpoint. Viewed in abstraction, the materials have a certain charm. Aluminum and Vinyl Siding [B&T Club]
The enthusiasts over at the Bridge and Tunnel Club recently posted a great photo essay on the aluminum and vinyl siding that is one of the distinctive aesthetic touches of Greenpoint. Viewed in abstraction, the materials have a certain charm.
Aluminum and Vinyl Siding [B&T Club]
Exactly how does one determine that Greenpoint suffers from “mass alcoholism”? Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights are beautiful neighborhoods, & I will not criticize their residents. However to rip Greenpoint as you have shows you have very little understanding of our neighborhood. It has always been a working class neighborhood, and though its not as ritzy as PS or BH, it does have a lower crime rate! Its got the best donut shop in NYC, excellent Polish restaurants and buthcers along with some good diners, plenty of shopping, and a great park. And in a few years, after thew hi-rises along the waterfront are built, I predict a mass exodus from Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope into Greenpoint. You really should get in now, before the prices are too much for you, bro!
If vinyl-siding, pedestrians in the street and Polish restaraunts are our WORST offense in my neighborhood than it’s the LEAST of our worries.
Yes, you’re right — I’ve never seen a single person of African-American or Latino descent in Park Slope or Boerum Hill. As if 4th Ave, Flatbush, Atlantic, Hicks, and…ummm..all of Carrol Gardens is like growing up in Scarsdale. And nice for you to assume that I’m not a person of color — pretty presumptuous. Seriously, spare me the “whitey” defense — that’s pretty stale. And god forbid you saw somebody with a smile on their face pushing a stroller — damn those parents and babies. Nice.
that’s a nice lily-white list you have going there. why not the upper west side or for that matter westchester? greenpoint is a welcoming neighborhood full of working-class folk and small businesses. the polish and hispanic street culture here is thriving, so are the arts for anyone who cares to look, and it’s safer than anyplace i’ve lived. sure, there’s the smell, and the have-to- cover-the-rotting facade aesthetics, and the cuisine issue (which is easily negotiated by patronizing the gems or being willing to travel), and people don’t always speak your language and walk in the middle of the street, but that is life in brooklyn. i’m no fan of dodge the sot, but i don’t care to dodge double maclarens either. we like the laid back and leave it alone here, and are plenty happy that you are not around. czesc.
Try Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, and Brooklyn Heights for starters…
no stank, no overwhelming neg vibe amongst most of the residents nor massive alcoholism, plenty more restaurants and cafes, even a movie theater (gasp!), nice architecture, and a lack of “i don’t give a fuck” zombies crossing major streets and not moving their asses.
Nice work, you just described 90% of NYC. What neighborhood would you recommend that lives up to your standards?
GPT is ugly across the board (except the views), the food is absolutley dreadful outside of Thai/Polish with the exception of Queen’s Hideaway and Blue Drawes, the lone coffe shop can’t even get their shit together to have a good stock of baked goods in the morning that they don’t run out of immediately, there is a high rate of alcoholism, a low rate of education (the 2nd and 3rd generation kids are going nowhere fast, sadly, and seem to be destined for a life on the stoop), most of the Polish establishments/inhabitants exude zero warmth and actually are fond of subtly pushing you if you are on line at The Garden or the butcher, the smell is disgusting in the summer, Manhattan Avenue is just plain pitiful, and let’s not ignore the tendency for GPT pedestrians to blatantly disregard motorists by always walking in front of moving vehicles without a care in the world. Give me a break. Unless you are solely there to save a big buck on housing or you are under 25 and getting bombed every night, GPT is just an exclusionary eyesore full of morose, provincial, sad people.
Nope. Still ugly.
gp representin’. the whole siding thing is a trip, for sure; however, there’s been quite a thriving stucco conversion business brewing in the nabe. 20 years from now, people may become nostalgic looking at these photos.