Neighborhood Threat

I will start by saying that one of my resolutions is to be better with updates, and if my update is less informational and more chatty, so be it.

Last night was a very Greenpoint night. I ran out of work to get back to Brooklyn for my shift at the soup kitchen at the Greenpoint Reformed Church. As I said at the volunteer party this week, getting to the soup kitchen to volunteer is neither easy nor convenient for me, but I always walk out feeling a million times better than when I walked in. Please, if you have the money, donate. Even $5 or $10 can help. Or drop off some food. Or things like sponges, ziplock bags, aluminum foil, dishtowels, cleaning products, paper products, plastic cutlery - those were just the things that I noticed last night that we needed.
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I noticed two weekends ago - when we were all still caught up in Studio B brouhaha - that the shutters were up on the corner of Manhattan and Noble and there was lots of lovely woodwork and other activity going on. It looked like the place was actually going to open!

Which it did, on Monday:

I ate there Wednesday night. The sushi was very fresh and tasty. The prices are fair for the quality and portion. This is a marked improvement over Wasabe and probably a little better than the sushi place on Berry and 5th. Prices are competitive with both of those places.

They have a fairly extensive menu (tempura, teriyaki, etc.) which I didn’t even get a chance to explore.

The best thing is, they are open until 11:30 weeknights. 11:30! What is open that late in Greenpoint that isn’t a bar or a bodega?!

Strong recommend.

On the way to work this morning, we conceded to each other the sad likeliness that the 50% off sale at Harricco Pharmacy was a precursor to the place going out of business. Jokingly, we suggested to each other that a Duane Reade would surely move in - based on my theory that the only people who will be able to afford Manhattan Ave. will be the chains.

Tonight, getting off the G train, we ran into a local couple who were complaining about the same thing we were, and overheard them say, “And Duane Reade, here we come.” They confirmed that it was going to be a Duane Reade, taking over the candy store on the very corner, the upstairs and the downstairs of the building, and that the buildings between it and the corner of Milton (except for the bank-now-medical-clinic) were going to be torn down and a highrise was going in.

This explains the businesses moving around, and the continual empty storefronts - who wants to move in if you’re going to have to close up shop soon?

Confirmations and/or denials appreciated.

Remember George’s?

Now, instead, we have this. Isn’t it an improvement?

They took all the personality out of that old wonderful storefront, stuck a plate glass window on the front, and here we go, the mall-i-zation of Manhattan Avenue continues. The commercial real estate prices are keeping storefronts empty, and I fear that the costs will keep everyone away except chains. That will turn Manhattan Ave. into a bland boring corridor. I know I say we don’t need another 99 cent store, but at least they have some quirkiness and personality and genuinely serve the community.

The Cheeseburger Deluxe, that stalwart lifesaver at the God Bless Deli Grocery, has gone up in price - from $2.99 to $3.25.

It’s been at least four years since the last price raise. I can deal.

The space housing the former XTRA on Manhattan (nearwill be split into two, and will house:

1) A hardware store (useful!)
2) A Washington Mutual.

The best graffiti I ever saw in Greenpoint was on the temporary siding around what is now the Bank of America:

WE NEED A MOVIE THEATER, NOT ANOTHER BANK

With the addition of Commerce Bank (going in down on North 5th and Bedford this summer), we’ve got a full house here. It’s not that I mind another bank - it’s just that it’s clear from the FOR RENT signs up and down Manhattan Ave. that rents are going up and the only people who can afford them are large national concerns, which will turn the neighborhood into just another faceless strip mall.

On the other hand, I discovered yesterday that a Korean BBQ joint had opened up in the second half of the Socrates diner, down on Manhattan near Nassau. Maybe it’s just a phase we have to go through.

Walking down Manhattan from the G Friday night, we notice lights in the former L and A Restaurant space. Now, someone in that space applied for a restaurant beer/wine license under the name Zaika of India, so we were eager to see the progress on the space.

It’s not a restaurant.

It’s another bodega.

The stretch of Manhattan between Milton and Greenpoint has, by my count, at least four bodegas already. I know it might SEEM like we need another one - and this one is huge - but not only am I angry as a resident that we’re getting something we don’t need, but as a businessperson, I question the business plan that made the owners seem like this was going to be a profitable enterprise?

Earlier this winter I joked to a friend that I was going to do a review of the 99 cent stores in Greenpoint. But then one closed, and then another closed, and I was STILL going to do it. But, time, and energy and all that. And I have been focused on finishing my second novel (hence the dearth of posts here.)

But tonight on the bus, I noticed that XTRA on Manhattan has big GOING OUT OF BUSINESS signs in the window and I got pissed. XTRA was a cut above the usual 99 cent crap on Manhattan Ave. The people who worked there didn’t treat everyone like a potential shoplifter, and you could find nicer things than the other stores had.

That’s a HUGE space. I guarantee that whatever goes in there will be 1) two stores, because it’s too big for one undertaking and 2) some kind of crappy-ass chain that we don’t need.

At least it can’t be another bank, because they’re already all here (Commerce is opening on Bedford this summer). I hope.

1) INDIAN FOOD COMES BACK TO GREENPOINT: From the CB1 agenda for next week, we see that a Zaika of India Inc. is applying for a restaurant beer/wine license. I could be dead wrong but it would seem that L and A Italian is being succeeded by an Indian restaurant. I will be VERY happy if this is true (although still sad to have lost L and A).

2) 155 Calyer: The former home of the hapless William Taft Vegetarian Diner is now some type of design studio. Which is a fine use of the space, but gosh we (selfishly) wish it was new commerce.

I was skimming the CB1 mailing list about tonight’s hearing, and as usual, paying close attention to the liquor license applicants. One entry caught my eye:

Sakura 6 - 837 Manhattan Avenue

837 Manhattan Ave. is on the corner of Noble, where the hardware store used to be. There’s still a FOR RENT sign on it, but there is also a handwritten sign (magic marker on bright green posterboard) advertising the coming of Sakura Japanese restaurant, that has a branch in Ridgewood.

:::and there was much rejoicing:::

Now, when I think “Ridgewood” I think that wonderful, cheap, clean yet impossible to get to neighborhood in Queens, just over the border from Bushwick, but in this case, I think it might be Ridgewood, NJ, which is apparently home to a very well regarded Japanese restaurant called Sakura.

In either event:
1) NOT another Thai restaurant!
2) NOT another bank!
3) NOT another check cashing place!
4) NOT another dollar store!

Now, if the Ramen shop would only open up, I’d be in heaven.