Green-Wood Photo Contest is Open

It’s time for another Green-Wood Cemetery photo contest. Details have been posted over at the brooklynian site about a contest for photos. (The contest is not connected to Green-Wood Cemetery.) Here are the details as posted:

We are working on the Spring 2008 version of Green-Wood’s bi-annual magazine The Arch. While we have a cache of spring shots of our own from 2007 (and will be taking more), we are hoping to tap into any ambitious shutterbug’s archives on any shots of spring in Green-Wood form your specific POV. Specifically to show the diversity of the horticultural diversity of Green-Wood, and not just the gorgeous cherry trees (though those are fair game as well). We had some great shots in the Fall edition from folks just like you! As per normal, we’ll leave submissions open from TODAY, 03.17.08 through next Monday 03.24.08

This is a no paying gig, but those selected will be featured in the Arch’s “Green-Wood Views: a photographic journal” section and potentially other places in the magazine. You’ll receive full credit (of course) and several copies of the Arch.

The photo here is a selection from a prior year.

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour: Greenwood Heights Edition

Sixth Avenue, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn

Aftermath of a Greenwood Heights Car Roast

The corner of 23rd Street and Seventh Avenue looks bad enough because of the longstanding construction site that was to be the Minerva Building, but the burned carcass of a what might have been a Hyundai Rav 4 has been added to the mix. The car went up on Friday night and, of course, the action video is below. This was the aftermath yesterday afternoon. Here’s a description from Aaron Brashear of Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights, who we normally hear from in the context of development-related issues in the neighborhood:

Last night, Friday 02.15.08 around 8pm. We’re inside making dinner and *POP*, *POP*, *BOOM*! Out the front door, look down the street to see some teenage girls yelling “*Oh, sh*t, that’s our car*!” Look up the block, still dark, but smoky and *BOOM*!

The car, a SUV or Mini-Van (hard to tell now) burst into flames. Corner of 7th Ave and 23rd St. The FDNY and 72nd Pct. were here in record time. No one was hurt, though a resident of 320 23rd St’s car suffered some minor damage due to the explosion. Quite a fire…not being a purveyor of car fires myself.

A long time resident swore it was an “insurance job,” since the car went up so fast…I’ll let the police, fire dept. and the insurance companies figure that one out.

Wild Video: Greenwood Heights Is So Hot It Combusts

This is a video from Aaron Brashear of Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights showing a vehicle that went up in flames on 23rd Street at Seventh Avene on Friday night. The vehicle went up in flames next to the site of the former Minerva Building, which itself entertained with dangerous-looking work a couple of weeks ago.

GL Photo Du Jour, Part I: Green-Wood, Winter

Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn

Buildings Dept. Takes Issue with Big Minerva Building Hole

That was quick. The Department of Buildings pounced on what looked like a very unsafe excavation operation at the Minerva Building site (614 Seventh Avenue) in Greenwood Heights yesterday. We posted photos yesterday sent by Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights. By afternoon, the group had sent word of a Stop Work Order and new photos showing the dangerous hole had been filled in. CCGH writes:

My hats off to DOB’s excavation division/inspectors swooping in on the bad-boys of illegal underpinning before one of the workers was potentially killed (as we all know seems to be the norm with gc’s in this area, sadly). They were ordered to back fill the huge hole and await further inspection…Will they ever learn?

Stay tuned, as this site has already provided years of excitement and more is to come.

More Fun With Minerva: Back to Greenwood Heights

We had some photos of the mess outside the so-called Minerva Building site at 614 Seventh Avenue in Greenwood Heights, but were not going bother with them since the real mess appears to be inside the construction fence. Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights sent out an email last night that seem to show some dangerous work being on the site, where work has resumed. If the name Minerva Building rings a bell, that’s because this is the site where a Roebert Scarano-designed building that would ultimately have blocked the view from historic Battle Hill in Green-Wood Cemetery was ultimately blocked as part of what Brownstoner calls “Greenwood Heights longest-running soap opera.”

In any case, the project has been redesigned, a Stop Worker Order has been lifted and workers are back on the job. Here is some of the email that came with the photos here:

Seems the new way to underpin an existing retaining wall and 6-8 ft. of loose dirt is to dig below it, put up no shoring or bracing and send in “the boys” to do the dirty work…and potentially lose their lives. The attached shots were taken approx.. 2:15pm this afternoon. Just what 23rd/22nd St (heck, Greenwood Hts.) needs…more illegal development!

311 was called immediately, as well as DOB. We were told inspectors were dispatched tout suite (thank you DOB!) and not sure what happened. The site was shut down soon after, but no SWO posted nor nothing on BIS as of yet. We hope DOB’s excavation squad caught them in the act (fingers crossed). And of course we hope no one was hurt.

Damned if it did not look illegal, if not completely hazardous for the workers, let alone the collapsing of the retaining wall and back yard of 2 properties on 22nd St.

Can this property get any worse than it has in the past FOUR YEARS! I guess we can wait and see.

All we will say right now is, interesting excavation technique.

Brand New: The Tear Down & Build Up Gallery

The year is ending and the new year beginning in Greenwood Heights in much the same way that 2007 did: with residents keeping an eye on a new development in their neighborhood and creating an interesting model for other neighborhoods. The Greenwood Heights crew used YouTube vids documenting construction issues on development to great effect this year. In this case, it’s the demolition of a 1900 two-story home on 23rd Street and construction of new condo that is being chronicled by Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights. The “Tear Down & Build Up Gallery” is online. From the email we got:

As many of you know, in July of 2007, our neighbor at 312 23rd Street, Brooklyn, NY sold his circa 1900’s wood frame 2 story home to a local developer. In a nutshell, tear down the old, build up with the new. Here’s to a slightly biased documentation of the demolition of the “old” 312 23rd Street and construction of the “new” 312 23rd Street condos...AND, have photos of your own? Send them to us, and we’ll add them…And as always, if you see something fishy at 312, CALL 311, take a snapshot and let us know asap. We hope this new development site’s documentation will be a treasure to remember and not an bad-boy to forget. So far so good.

There are already a lot of photos of the process online.

Brooklyn Parrots Holiday Hassle: Chased by Hawk

From the good people that bring us brooklynparrots.com and know everything that there is to know about our Brooklyn parrots.

Bklink: Shangri-La by Sealed Bid

It’s too late now to make a bid on one of the condos at Shangri-La on Sixth Avenue between 22nd and 23rd Streets, but one wonders how many developers of marginal Brooklyn buildings will eventually resort to desperation tactics. Fluke or harbinger of things to come?–Brownstoner