Greenpoint is the northernmost neighborhood in the
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
boroughNew York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of
BrooklynBrooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. It is bordered on the southwest by
WilliamsburgWilliamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint to the north, Bedford-Stuyvesant to the south, Bushwick to the east and the East River to the west. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 90th ...
at the Bushwick inlet, on the southeast by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and
East WilliamsburgEast Williamsburg is a name for the area in the northwestern portion of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, United States, which lies between Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Bushwick. Much of this area has been and still is referred to as either Bushwick, Williamsburg, or Greenpoint with the...
, on the north by
Newtown CreekNewtown Creek is a estuary that forms part of the border between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, in New York City, New York, United States. It derives its name from New Town , which was the name for the Dutch and British settlement in what is now Elmhurst, Queens...
and
Long Island City, QueensLong Island City is the westernmost neighborhood of the borough of Queens in New York City. L.I.C. is notable for its rapid and ongoing gentrification, its waterfront parks, and its thriving arts community. L.I.C. has among the highest concentration of art galleries, art institutions, and studio...
at the
Pulaski BridgeThe Pulaski Bridge in New York City connects Long Island City in Queens to Greenpoint in Brooklyn over Newtown Creek. It was named after Polish military commander and American Revolutionary War fighter Kazimierz Pułaski because of the large Polish-American population in Greenpoint...
, and on the west by the
East RiverThe East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
. Originally farmland (many of the farm owners' family names, e.g., Meserole and Calyer, still name the streets), the residential core of Greenpoint was built on parcels divided during the 19th century, with rope factories and lumber yards lining the East River to the west, while the northeastern section along the Newtown Creek through East Williamsburg became an industrial maritime reach. There has been an effort to reclaim not only the rezoned Greenpoint/Williamsburg East River waterfront for recreational use, but to extend that effort to include a continuous promenade into the Newtown Creek area. The neighborhood is part of
New York's 12th congressional districtNew York's 12th Congressional District is a congressional district for the United States House of Representatives located in New York City. It includes parts of Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan...
, State Senate Districts 17 and 25, State Assembly District 50, City Council District 33, and
Brooklyn Community Board 1Brooklyn Community Board 1 is a local governmental body in the New York City borough of Brooklyn that encompasses the neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Greenpoint. It is delimited by the Newtown Creek and Queens Borough line on the east, Flushing and Kent Avenue on the south, as well as by the...
. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 94th Precinct.
History
Early colonization & agricultural era
Greenpoint, was originally inhabited by Keskachauge (Keshaechqueren) Indians, a sub-tribe of the
LenapeThe Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
. Contemporary accounts describe it as remarkably verdant and beautiful, with
Jack pineJack pine is a North American pine with its native range in Canada east of the Rocky Mountains from Northwest Territories to Nova Scotia, and the northeast of the United States from Minnesota to Maine, with the southernmost part of the range just into northwest Indiana...
and
oakAn oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
forest, meadows, fresh water creeks and briny marshes. Water fowl and fish were abundant. The name originally referred to a small bluff of land jutting into the East River at what is now the westernmost end of Freeman Street, but eventually came to describe the whole peninsula.
In 1638 the
Dutch West India CompanyDutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...
negotiated the right to settle Brooklyn from the Lenape. The first recorded European settler of what is now Greenpoint was Dirck Volckertsen (Dutchified from
Holgerssøn), a Norwegian immigrant who in 1645 built a -story farmhouse there with the help of two Dutch carpenters.
http://www.fulkerson.org/1-dirck.html It was built in the contemporary Dutch style just west of what is now the intersection of Calyer Street and Franklin Street. There he planted orchards and raised crops, sheep and cattle. He was called Dirck de Noorman by the Dutch colonists of the region,
Noorman being the Dutch word for "Norseman" or "Northman." The creek that ran by his farmhouse became known as Norman Kill (Creek); it ran into a large
salt marshA salt marsh is an environment in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and salt water or brackish water, it is dominated by dense stands of halophytic plants such as herbs, grasses, or low shrubs. These plants are terrestrial in origin and are essential to the stability of the salt marsh...
and was later filled in. Volckertsen received title to the land after prevailing in court the year before over a Jan De Pree, who had a rival claim. He initially commuted to his farm by boat and may not have moved into the house full time until after 1655, when the small nearby settlement of Boswyck was established, on the charter of which Volckertsen was listed along with 22 other families. Volckertsen's wife, Christine Vigne, was a
WalloonWalloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...
.
Volckertsen had periodic conflicts with the Keshaechqueren, who killed two of his sons-in-law and tortured a third in separate incidents throughout the 1650s. Starting in the early 1650s, he began selling and leasing his property to Dutch colonists, among them Jacob Haie (Hay) in 1653, who built a home in northern Greenpoint that was burned down by Indians two years later.
http://www.fulkerson.org/1-dirck.html The Hay property and other holdings came into the possession of Pieter Praa, a captain in the local militia, who established a farm near present day Freeman Street and McGuinness Boulevard, and went on to own most of Greenpoint. Volckertsen died in about 1678 and his grandsons sold the remainder of the homestead to Pieter Praa when their father died in 1718; the name of Norman Avenue remains as testimony to Volckertsen's legacy.
http://www.fulkerson.org/greenpointmarker.html
Praa had no male heirs when he died in 1740, but the farming families of his various daughters formed the core of Greenpoint for the next hundred years or so. By the time of the Revolutionary War, Greenpoint's population was entirely five related families:
- Abraham Meserole, a grandson of Pieter Praa, and his family lived on the banks of the East River between the present day India and Java Streets;
- Jacob Meserole (brother of Abraham) and his family farmed the entire south end of Greenpoint and built a house between present day Manhattan Avenue
Manhattan Avenue is the name of two streets in New York City.-Brooklyn:Manhattan Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Greenpoint and Williamsburg. It is the major shopping street in Greenpoint while it is mostly residential in Williamsburg...
and Lorimer Street near Norman Avenue;
- Jacob Bennett, son-in-law of Pieter Praa, and his family farmed the land in the northern portion of Greenpoint and built their house near present day Clay Street roughly between present day Manhattan Avenue and Franklin Street;
- Jonathan Provoost, son-in-law of Pieter Praa, and his family farmed the eastern portion of Greenpoint, and lived in the house built by Praa;
- Jacobus Calyer, a grandson-in-law of Pieter Praa, and his family farmed the western portion of Greenpoint, and lived in the house built by Volckertsen.
Throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries, the farms were quite isolated from the rest of Brooklyn, connected only to one another by farm lanes and to the rest of Bushwick Township by a single road, Wood Point Road. The families used long boats to travel to Manhattan to sell their farm produce. Little historical information exists about this period of Greenpoint's history other than the personal papers and recorded oral history of these five families.
The
British ArmyThe British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
had an encampment in Greenpoint during the Revolution, which caused considerable hardship for the families; Abraham Meserole's son was imprisoned on suspicion of revolutionary sympathies.
19th-century industrialization
Greenpoint first began to change significantly when an entrepreneur named Neziah Bliss married into the Meserole family in the early 1830s after purchasing land from them. He eventually bought out of most the land in Greenpoint. In 1834 he had the area surveyed, and in 1839 he had a public turnpike opened along what is now Franklin Street. He established regular ferry service to Manhattan around 1850. All of these initiatives contributed to the rapid and radical transformation of Greenpoint.
In the years that followed Greenpoint established itself as a center of shipbuilding and waterborne commerce; its shipbuilding, printing, pottery, glassworks and foundries were staffed by generation after generation of hardworking immigrants. Germans and Irish arrived in the mid-19th century and large numbers of Polish people began arriving before the turn of the century. The homes built for the merchants and the buildings erected for their workers sprang up along streets that lead down to the waterfront. Today, this area is on the National Register of Historic Places as Greenpoint's Historic District.
Greenpoint's East River waterfront holds the maritime history of the community. The buildings which formerly manufactured the ropes for the shipbuilding industry are still there. Long a site of shipbuilding, the neighborhood's dockyards harbored the construction of the
USS MonitorUSS Monitor was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She is most famous for her participation in the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862, the first-ever battle fought between two ironclads...
—the
UnionDuring the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
's first ironclad fighting ship built during the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. It was launched on Bushwick Creek. The
Monitor, together with seven other ironclads, was built at the Continental Ironworks in Greenpoint. In 1866, the largest wooden ship ever built up to that time,
The Great RepublicLaunched on October 4, 1853 the Great Republic is noteworthy as the largest wooden clipper ship ever constructed.-Construction of the largest wooden clipper ship:...
, was built along Newtown Creek.
Charles PrattCharles Pratt was a United States capitalist, businessman and philanthropist.Pratt was a pioneer of the U.S. petroleum industry, and established his kerosene refinery Astral Oil Works in Brooklyn, New York. An advertising slogan was "The holy lamps of Tibet are primed with Astral Oil." He...
's
Astral Oil WorksAstral Oil Works was founded in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, New York by Charles Pratt. Pratt was a pioneer of the petroleum industry who formed Charles Pratt and Company with Henry H. Rogers. The Pratt interests became part of John D...
also opened on the Greenpoint waterfront in the 1860s. Pratt sold his interest to
John D. RockefellerJohn Davison Rockefeller was an American oil industrialist, investor, and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of...
's recently-formed
Standard OilStandard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...
Trust in 1874. The
Astral ApartmentsAstral Apartments is a historic apartment building located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York, New York.The Astral was built in 1885-1886 as affordable housing for employees of Charles Pratt's Astral Oil Works. It is a massive brick and terra cotta building in the Queen Anne style. It features a...
were built as affordable housing for workers at Astral Oil in 1885-1886.
20th century to present
After a long history as a working-class neighborhood and immigrant haven, but with declining small industries and working population, Greenpoint began to see some of the effects of gentrification by the 1980s.
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
noted extraordinary rent increases and displacement as early as 1986, mirroring the pattern of residential conversions of industrial buildings seen in nearby Williamsburg, as well as the similar formation of a much smaller art community. New construction is prevalent on streets where most buildings date back up to a century. Despite its location close to Manhattan, the subway and bus connections with Mass Transit (G Subway line; B62, B43, B48, B24 Bus Service) were very poor and unreliable after working hours until they were gradaully improved in the late 1990s. Mass-transit improvement; clean up of highly polluting industries and municipal facilities; the spillover from increasingly expensive Williamburg; promotion by the New York Times; and the wholesale "return" of the middle class to Brooklyn; all combined to help spur plans to build public parks near the waterfront and thus to increase the real-estate values that make the location more expensive each year.
The
Greenpoint Historic DistrictGreenpoint Historic District is a national historic district in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York, New York. It consists of 363 contributing commercial and residential buildings built between 1850 and 1900...
was listed on the
National Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1983.
Rezoning of 2005
On May 11, 2005, New York City's Department of City Planning approved a rezoning of 175 blocks in Greenpoint and
WilliamsburgWilliamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint to the north, Bedford-Stuyvesant to the south, Bushwick to the east and the East River to the west. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 90th ...
. According to the project's
Environmental Impact StatementAn environmental impact statement , under United States environmental law, is a document required by the National Environmental Policy Act for certain actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment". An EIS is a tool for decision making...
, the rezoning is expected to bring approximately 16,700 new residents to the neighborhood by 2013 in 7,300 new units of housing. 250000 square feet (23,225.8 m²) of new retail space are projected, along with a corresponding loss of just over 1000000 square feet (92,903 m²) of existing industrial capacity. The rezoning also includes a 28 acres (113,312.1 m²) waterfront park. Included in its requirements are provisions for a promenade along the
East RiverThe East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
, built piecemeal by the developers of existing waterfront lots.
An inclusionary housing plan was included in the resolution and provides height bonuses along the waterfront and in Northside Williamsburg for developers providing apartments at rates considered affordable for low-income households (below 80% of the area's median income); on the waterfront, these bonuses could allow for up to seven-story height increases.
The rezoning was a dramatic change in scale to a previously low-slung, industrial neighborhood. The proposed changes were the subject of much debate, including a letter written by
Jane JacobsJane Jacobs, was an American-Canadian writer and activist with primary interest in communities and urban planning and decay. She is best known for The Death and Life of Great American Cities , a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s in the United States...
to
Michael BloombergMichael Rubens Bloomberg is the current Mayor of New York City. With a net worth of $19.5 billion in 2011, he is also the 12th-richest person in the United States...
criticizing the proposed development.
Other organizations, including the city government and various developer-friendly advocacy groups such as the right-wing Manhattan Institute, argued that residential construction in underused manufacturing zones is essential to meet growing housing demand. Rezoning promised double-digit percentage growth in the number of housing units, leading these groups to claim that it would help to alleviate the city's housing shortage and possibly slow rent increases. Critics argue that the existing community's character will be changed as existing residents are forced to move, and, further, that public transportation and public safety infrastructure will be unable to accommodate the projected 40,000 new residents.
A boom in construction followed the rezoning, leading to complaints from neighborhood residents and their elected representatives. The zoning plan was modified on March 2, 2006, to include anti-harassment provisions for tenants and add height limits in portions of upland Williamsburg. Neighborhood organizations made differing opinions known: the Greenpoint-Williamsburg Association for Parks and Planning expressed approval of the proposal (with reservations), but many neighborhood residents and members of
Community Board 1Brooklyn Community Board 1 is a local governmental body in the New York City borough of Brooklyn that encompasses the neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Greenpoint. It is delimited by the Newtown Creek and Queens Borough line on the east, Flushing and Kent Avenue on the south, as well as by the...
continue to voice their objections.
The subsequent real-estate crash has left many projects stuck in mid-construction.
Demographics
Greenpoint is largely working class and multi-generational; it is not uncommon to find three generations of family members living in this community. The neighborhood is sometimes referred to as
"Little PolandLittle Poland is an informal name for part of a neighborhood in Greenpoint, in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The name "Little Poland" came to be applied to it following an influx of Polish immigrants after 1900...
" due to its large population of working-class
PolishPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
immigrants, reportedly the second largest concentration in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
after
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. Although Polish immigrants and people of Polish descent are present in force, there is a significant Latino population living mostly north of Greenpoint Avenue, and Greenpoint has a significant number of South Asian and North African residents.
As of the
censusA census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 39,360 people, 15,865 households, and 8,744 families residing in the 11222
zip codeZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
, which is roughly coterminous with Greenpoint. The
population densityPopulation density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 23,221 people per square mile (8965.7/km²). There were 16,949 housing units at an average density of 9999.3/sq mi (3860.8/km²). The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 80.3% White, 1.6% African American, 0.4% Native American, 3.8% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 9.4% from
other racesRace and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 4.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 19.5% of the population. Another 43.6% of the residents claimed Polish ancestry.
There were 15,865 households out of which 26.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.3% were
married couplesMarriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 12.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 44.9% were non-families. 30.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.15.
In the neighborhood the population was spread out with 19.9% under the age of 19, 8.2% from 20 to 24, 35.7% from 25 to 44, 24.9% from 45 to 64, and 11.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36.6 years. For every 100 females there were 102 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101 males.
The median income for a household in the neighborhood was $33,578 as compared to Williamsburg's median household income of $23,567. Males had a median income of $32,019 versus $26,183 for females. About 17.7% of the population were below the poverty line, as compared to Williamsburg's 41.4% and Kings county's 22.4% below poverty.
Transportation
Greenpoint is served by the
Greenpoint AvenueGreenpoint Avenue is a station on the IND Crosstown Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Greenpoint and Manhattan Avenues in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, it is served by the G train at all times....
and
Nassau AvenueNassau Avenue is a station on the IND Crosstown Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Manhattan and Nassau Avenues in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, it is served by the G train at all times....
stations on the
IND Crosstown Line-External links:*...
( train) of the
New York City SubwayThe New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...
. It is served by the B24, B43, B48 and
B62The Crosstown Line is a public transit line in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, running along Van Brunt Street and Manhattan Avenue between Red Hook and Long Island City, Queens. Originally a streetcar line, it is now the B61 and the B62 bus routes...
bus routes.
NY WaterwayNY Waterway, or New York Waterway, is a private transportation company running ferry and bus service in the Port of New York and New Jersey and in the Hudson Valley...
operates service to points along the East River from its India Street
ferry slipA ferry slip is a specialized docking facility that receives a ferryboat or train ferry. A similar structure called a barge slip receives a barge or car float that is used to carry wheeled vehicles across a body of water....
.
Environmental difficulties and litigation
Greenpoint community residents and activists have periodically banded together, sometimes with the aid of their local representatives, to fight highly polluting facilities and practices situated in this working-class and immigrant neighborhood. Such organization led the city to close the huge Greenpoint incinerator, which was out of compliance with all state, city, and federal regulations. In the late-1980s, after an increasing series of highly odorous releases from the Sewage Treatment Plant which served a good portion of Lower Manhattan, a local group formed calling itself GASP (Greenpointers Against Smell Pollution) that compelled the city to control the outflows and to plan a vastly expanded facility that took 20 years to build. The mid 1980s saw a great vast in the number of trucks transiting through the neighborhood with municipal waste, often toxic waste, to be held at "transfer stations."
In 1950, in what was then considered to be the worst
oil spillAn oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially marine areas, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is mostly used to describe marine oil spills, where oil is released into the ocean or coastal waters...
in United States history, 17 to 30 million gallons of oil spilled into
Newtown CreekNewtown Creek is a estuary that forms part of the border between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, in New York City, New York, United States. It derives its name from New Town , which was the name for the Dutch and British settlement in what is now Elmhurst, Queens...
. Oil is believed to have been seeping into the groundwater since then. Groundwater in this area is not used as drinking water, as all of New York City's drinking water presently comes from upstate reservoirs. local activists have been campaigning ever since to clean up the spill. In January 2006, state and oil company officials asserted that to date half of the spill has been cleaned up.
According to page 42 from an Environmental Protection Agency study, "the American Petroleum Institute (2002) indicates that 40% to 80% of a product spill may be retained in soils as residual product."). The Department of Environmental Conservation's website states that petroleum companies participating in the cleanup have used a Free Product Recovery System for groundwater, rather than the soils.
On October 20, 2005, local residents within the area of the oil recovery operation, which is located in the predominantly commercial/industrial eastern section of Greenpoint near the
East WilliamsburgEast Williamsburg is a name for the area in the northwestern portion of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, United States, which lies between Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Bushwick. Much of this area has been and still is referred to as either Bushwick, Williamsburg, or Greenpoint with the...
Industrial Park, filed a lawsuit against
ExxonMobilExxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas...
,
BPBP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
and
Chevron CorporationChevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation headquartered in San Ramon, California, United States and active in more than 180 countries. It is engaged in every aspect of the oil, gas, and geothermal energy industries, including exploration and production; refining,...
in Brooklyn State Supreme Court, alleging they have suffered adverse health consequences. Such claims from residents have been resisted by oil industry supporters through references to apparently conflicting data and deferrals of legal responsibility, among other strategies. For example, a New York State Department of Health study, completed in May 2007, was able to find no evidence that vapors were coming from the spill into people's homes. Although ExxonMobil has been slowly removing oil from its former facilities in the area under two 1990 agreements with the state, they have denied liability for the oil leaking into Newtown creek and suggested fault lies instead with the former
Paragon OilParagon Oil was an American oil company, founded in 1925 in New York City by the Schwartz family, and sold to Texaco in the late 1950s.- Founding of the company :Paragon Oil was founded by brothers Henry, Irving, Robert, Benjamin, and Arnold Schwartz...
, now
Chevron CorporationChevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation headquartered in San Ramon, California, United States and active in more than 180 countries. It is engaged in every aspect of the oil, gas, and geothermal energy industries, including exploration and production; refining,...
.
However, the
Environmental Protection AgencyThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
's (EPA) "Newtown Creek/Greenpoint Oil Spill Study Brooklyn, New York" states that vapor concentrations in "some commercial establishments" were found "above the Upper Explosive Limit" (page 7). Simply put, that means there was so much vapor, no explosion could ignite. In addition, the same EPA study said, "A review of the data collected by the NYSDEC shows that, in general, chemicals were detected at all locations in each home, but not in a pattern that would typically represent a vapor intrusion phenomenon."
A recent Department of Environmental Conservation report that tested residential blocks above the spill area concluded that there is no evidence of either oil or dangerous vapors seeping up into people's homes.
Brooklyn Paper columnist Tom Gilbert wrote, "This stands to reason, as the spilled oil tends to lie deep underground, capped by a nearly impermeable layer of clay."
In the early 1990s studies showed that the incidence of certain types of cancers was much higher in Greenpoint than in the rest of the city. This may be dropping as a result of the closure of highly toxic small industries such as electroplating.
The cleanup of the extremely polluted Newtown Creek is being pursued as part of the effort to improve Greenpoint livability and real-estate values.
Landmarks and attractions
Parks include
McCarren ParkMcCarren Park is a public park in New York City, USA. It is located in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, and is bordered by Nassau Avenue, Bayard Street, Lorimer Street and North 12th Street...
(formerly known as Greenpoint Park), the neighborhood's largest green space, and the smaller
McGolrick ParkMonsignor McGolrick Park is located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, between Driggs Avenue to the south, Russell Street to the west, Nassau Avenue to the north, and Monitor Street to the east.-History:...
(formerly known as Winthrop Park), which contains both the landmarked Shelter Pavilion (1910) (
NRHP) and an allegorical monument (1938) to the
USS MonitorUSS Monitor was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She is most famous for her participation in the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862, the first-ever battle fought between two ironclads...
ironclad ship.
The Greenpoint Historic District (
NRHP) roughly bounded by Kent, Calyer, Noble, and Franklin Sts., Clifford Pl. Lorimer St. and Manhattan Ave.
Of architectural interest in Greenpoint are: The
Episcopal Church of the Ascension-Delaware:* Church of the Ascension , part of the New Castle Parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware-Florida:* Church of the Ascension , part of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida-Kentucky:...
(
Ascension Greenpoint) (1853) the oldest church in Greenpoint on Kent Street, The
Astral ApartmentsAstral Apartments is a historic apartment building located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York, New York.The Astral was built in 1885-1886 as affordable housing for employees of Charles Pratt's Astral Oil Works. It is a massive brick and terra cotta building in the Queen Anne style. It features a...
(1885) (
NRHP) on Franklin Street, the Saint Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church (1875) on Manhattan Avenue, the Eberhard-Faber Pencil Factory on Greenpoint Ave at Franklin St., the
Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our LordRussian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord is a historic Russian Orthodox cathedral at 228 N. 12th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, New York. It was built between 1916 and 1921 to the designs by Louis Allmendiger. The plan is based on a Greek cross and is designed in...
(1921) (
NRHP) on North 12th Street, the
Oliver Hazard PerryUnited States Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry was born in South Kingstown, Rhode Island , the son of USN Captain Christopher Raymond Perry and Sarah Wallace Alexander, a direct descendant of William Wallace...
School (
http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/14/K034/default.htm) (1867) on Norman Avenue (the oldest continuously operating public school building in New York City); the Capital One (formerly Green Point) Savings Bank (1908), the Saint
Stanislaus KostkaStanisław Kostka S.J. was a Polish novice of the Society of Jesus. In the Catholic Church as Saint Stanislaus Kostka....
Roman Catholic Church (1896)(
http://ststanskostka.org/wordpress/) on Humboldt Street, which serves as a Catholic shrine for the Polish community, and the synagogue building of Congregation Ahavas Israel (1903) on Noble Street
http://www.greenpointshul.org (the sanctuary, with stained glass windows and a torah shrine with turn-of the century wood carvings, is currently open only during services on Saturday mornings).
Additionally, St. Cecilia's Roman Catholic Church and School, on Monitor Street between Richardson and Herbert Streets, has served the community since 1871. The school which dates to 1906 was closed June 2008. The current church dates to 1891.
Elected Representatives
Greenpoint is represented in Congress by
Nydia VelázquezNydia Margarita Velázquez is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes residential areas of three boroughs...
(D-NY12), in the State Senate by Daniel Squadron (D-25) and Martin Dilan (D-37), in the State Assembly by
Joseph LentolJoseph Lentol represents District 50 in the New York State Assembly, which comprises Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Fort Greene, among other neighborhoods located in the northern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn....
(D-50), and in the City Council by
Stephen LevinStephen E. Levin is a former Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.He was elected on November 8, 1977. He later serves as a Judge of Common Pleas in Philadelphia County.-References:...
(D-33).
In popular culture
- Some scenes in the movie The Departed
The Departed is a 2006 American crime thriller film, fashioned as a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. The film was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan...
, including the scene where Jack NicholsonJohn Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...
's character first meets Matt DamonMatthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
's character, were shot in Greenpoint across from McCarren Park. The diner and grocery store scenes were both shot in the Park Luncheonette. Several scenes in the movies Donnie Brasco (where Dominick Napolitano portrayed as "Sonny Black" by Michael MadsenMichael Søren Madsen is an American actor, poet, and photographer. He has appeared in more than 150 films, most of them small independent films, though he has starred in central roles in such films as Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, and Kill Bill, in addition to a supporting role in Sin...
was born), SleepersSleepers is a 1996 legal drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 novel of the same name.-Plot:...
, Dead PresidentsDead Presidents is a 1995 American crime film written by Michael Henry Brown and also written, produced and directed by the Hughes brothers , starring Larenz Tate, Keith David, Chris Tucker, Freddy Rodriguez, N'Bushe Wright and Bokeem Woodbine...
, Romeo is BleedingRomeo Is Bleeding is a darkly comic 1993 crime film starring Gary Oldman and Lena Olin, directed by Peter Medak. The film's title was taken from a song by Tom Waits....
, In the MixIn the Mix is a 2005 American crime-comedy film starring R&B/pop singer Usher. It was released in the United States on November 23, 2005, the film being targeted at the traditionally large Thanksgiving weekend audience....
, and The SiegeThe Siege is a 1998 American thriller film directed by Edward Zwick. The film is about a fictional situation in which terrorist cells have made several attacks on New York City...
were also filmed in Greenpoint. The television series Rescue MeRescue Me is an American television drama series that premiered on the FX Network on July 21, 2004, and concluded on September 7, 2011. The series focuses on the professional and personal lives of a group of New York City firefighters in the fictitious Ladder 62 / Engine 99 firehouse.The show...
and The Black DonnellysThe Black Donnellys is an American television drama that debuted on NBC on February 26, 2007 and last aired on April 2, 2007. Thereafter, NBC began releasing new episodes weekly on until the series was officially canceled. The Black Donnellys was created by Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco...
are also routinely filmed in Greenpoint, as are the television shows Third WatchThird Watch is an American television drama series which first aired on NBC from 1999 to 2005 for a total of 132 episodes, broadcast in 6 seasons of 22 episodes each....
, Boardwalk Empire, Lipstick JungleLipstick Jungle is an American comedy-drama television series created by DeAnn Heline and Eileen Heisler for NBC Universal Television Studio . The hour-long series was based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Candace Bushnell, who also served as executive producer alongside...
, as well as FringeFringe is an American science fiction television series created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The series follows a Federal Bureau of Investigation "Fringe Division" team based in Boston, Massachusetts under the supervision of Homeland Security...
, Life on MarsLife on Mars was a science fiction crime drama television series which originally aired on ABC from October 9, 2008 to April 1, 2009. It is an adaptation of the BAFTA-winning original UK series of the same name produced by the BBC...
, Lie to MeLie to Me is a 2009-2011 American television series.Lie to Me may also refer to:* Lie to Me , a South Korean drama series* "Lie to Me" , an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer...
, and Law and Order Special Victims Unit
- The lead singer of Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand are a Scottish post-punk revival band formed in Glasgow in 2002. The band is composed of Alex Kapranos , Bob Hardy , Nick McCarthy , and Paul Thomson .The band first experienced chart success when their second single, "Take Me Out", reached #3 in...
lived for a time in Greenpoint, and the neighborhood is mentioned in the song "Eleanor Put Your Boots On"Eleanor Put Your Boots On" is a song by Scottish indie rock band Franz Ferdinand, and is featured on their second album, You Could Have It So Much Better. The band recorded a new version of the song in Benton Harbor, Michigan during their 2006 tour with Death Cab for Cutie...
."
- Notable individuals born and/or raised in Greenpoint include actress Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
, children's book author Margaret Wise BrownMargaret Wise Brown was a prolific American author of children's literature, including the books Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, both illustrated by Clement Hurd.-Biography:...
, actor Mickey RooneyMickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
, pop singer Pat BenatarPat Benatar is an American singer and four-time Grammy winner. She had considerable commercial success particularly in the United States...
, bank robber Willie SuttonWilliam "Willie" Sutton was a prolific U.S. bank robber. During his forty-year criminal career he stole an estimated $2 million, and eventually spent more than half of his adult life in prison...
, writer Henry Miller.
- Some notable inhabitants of Greenpoint, Brooklyn are Joshua Topolsky
Joshua Topolsky is an American technology journalist. He is also a record producer, drummer, and DJ under the stage name Joshua Ryan. Topolsky is the co-founder and founding editor in chief of the technology news network The Verge. Before The Verge, he was the editor in chief at Engadget...
, the editor-in-chief of the technology website dubbed The Verge
- An early cultural reference to Greenpoint is found in the first minutes of the film On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront is a 1954 American drama film about union violence and corruption among longshoremen. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb and Karl Malden. The soundtrack score was composed by Leonard...
, in which a minor gangster, after holding back money from Johnny Friendly, is told to "go back to Greenpoint".
- Comedy Central's series Stella
Stella was a short-lived television series that originally ran from June 28, 2005 to August 30, 2005 on the American television channel Comedy Central, created by and starring Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain, the three members of the sketch comedy troupe of the same name and...
was filmed primarily in Greenpoint.
- Many secluded spots in Greenpoint are the hot spot for video and movie recording. Underground hip hip group Jedi Mind Tricks
Jedi Mind Tricks is a hip hop duo with Vinnie Paz from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Jus Allah from Camden, New Jersey. The group was founded by two high school friends, rapper Vinnie Paz and former producer/DJ Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind...
featuring Ill BillWilliam Braunstein, better known as Ill Bill, is a American rapper and record producer from Brooklyn, New York. Having gained notoriety in the underground hip hop group Non Phixion, Ill Bill is known for his hardcore lyrics and as the producer, founder and CEO of Uncle Howie Records...
filmed their music video Heavy Metal KingsHeavy Metal Kings is a group featuring veteran rappers Ill Bill and Vinnie Paz . In 2006, Ill Bill was featured on the single "Heavy Metal Kings" by hip hop duo Jedi Mind Tricks, released through Babygrande Records...
near a notable water tower and burned warehouse located near Kent Street.
External links