The Williamsburg Nerd is on Hiatus

2009-11-25T02:36:59Z

Above: The old movie theater that was at Rodney and Broadway in 2006 — sadly this palace was torn down during the real estate boom that followed, however in the immediate recession that followed no new building went up and is now an empty lot. This was the first blog that I ever started — and in 2006 both blogging and Williamsburg were new to me. After living in Manhattan for ten years I moved to the Burg in November of 2004 into a new world. Knowing that you should write about your passion I picked my new hood and combined it with my old interests. Some 200+ entries however this trip has come to an end. In my hearts-of-hearts I'll always be The Williamsburg Nerd, but for now I want to refocus my creative efforts. At some point in the future I'll reinvent this website — but for now if you want to find me the best places to look are: Fanboy.com: Where I do most of my nerd blogging. twitter.com/michaelpinto: My Twitter account where I often mention what I'm doing in Williamsburg. I'd like to thank all of the folks who supported me over the years: My friends on Flickr who encouraged me to document what I saw, the gallery owners who didn't mind me taking photos of their exhibits and the podcast Live from the WB which is now faded into history (but inspired me a great a deal).

An Illustration of the Recession in Williamsburg

2009-11-15T14:54:13Z

Suddenly the shop seemed empty more often than not. I found that I was able to get an unobstructed view of the interior due to a lack of people inside, which isn't a good sign. Then suddenly not to long ago I noticed a construction project going on inside the shop: They were about to split it into two. One one level this made sense to me because paying half of your rent in a recession is a pretty good idea, but then the businessperson in me had my doubts if the plan would work. After all the space was tiny to start with so how would you find another new tenant in a down economy to take up the slack in such a small space? Enter Dory's Hair Salon! Up the block just a bit on the opposite side of the road was another local institution; Dory's Hair Salon was a ladies version of the local barbershop. Except that Dory's was twice the size as the barbershop and seemed much larger. So as soon as I found out that the Dory's signage was going up, my assumption (being an optimist) was that this was some sort of annex for Dory's which was overbooked. Much to my shock I was wrong: For within a few day's of this mini-annex opening up the huge haircutting mecca of Dory's closed! In other words not only had the barbershop shrunk by 50% but Dory's shrunk to 30% of their former size. On one hand this real estate strategy was brilliant as it allows both shops to survive, but on the other hand you can see the physical evidence of the devastating effect of the economy right on my block.

Green Depot: A Bit of Green on the Bowery

2009-11-01T17:04:04Z

Recentluy I had a chance to stop inside of Greendepot which is located at 222 Bowery in Manhattan and had a great time looking around the shop:]]>

Yes This is Williamsburg!

2009-10-16T02:36:00Z

Believe it or not this photo was taken in Williamsburg, not it's not a local park — but in fact is an empty yard on Broadway. For the most part they have it fenced off, but one day it was open so I took some shots:]]>

Dawn on Broadway

2009-10-02T02:32:16Z

Sadly during the Summer I had to pull an all nighter or two, but getting to see the sunrise can be a nice end to a day. This shot was taken at dawn at the Marcy subway stop looking east on Broadway.

Summer Ices on Keap Street

2009-09-16T02:26:42Z

One thing that you find in Brooklyn but really don't see in Manhattan are folks selling shaved ices during the summer. I took this shot around August on Keap Street. Below is a fax Polaroid camera version of the same shot for the retro look:]]>

NYC Primaries in Williamsburg

2009-09-15T20:02:05Z

This election day was very different than the last time I voted for the Presidential race in 2008. Up for grabs is the local city seat and while voting was light the get out of the vote effort from the candidates was huge (much more intense than the Democratic primaries for President by the way). Seen here is a campaign worker for Diana Reyna who holds the seat, Maritza Davila who is a challenger.]]> Reyna voted with Republican Mayor Bloomberg to end term limits without a public vote, however because she's one of the few Dominican politicians support is heavy in the district. The photo with Obama is a bit dishonest as she didn't support him in the primaries when it mattered. Maritza Davila was backed by politician Vito Lopez when Reyna turned his back on him. However Maritza is Puerto Rican so she has support from that ethnic base within the community, although the Dominicans are on the rise in the hood as the Puerto Ricans are moving out to the burbs more and more. Sadly my candidate Jerry Esposito didn't do as well with his get out the vote effort, although he did do a good job with fundraising. To me he was the real candidate of change, however lacking the support from the machine or getting the local ethnic vote (his family is from Argentina) I fear that the odds are against him. I also had the shock upon entering the voting booth to realize that as a citizen of Brooklyn I was not allowed to vote for the Manhattan DAs race!

Sunset on Marcy

2009-09-02T02:19:10Z

I took this photo during the summer on one of those rare days where I made it home before sunset. This shot shows the sun setting from the Marcy train station, in the distance you can see the Williamsburg bridge. Below is a faux polaroid version of the same shot:]]>

Mizu

2009-08-25T03:27:53Z

I've always walked by Mizo on Bedford Avenue, but never quite gave it a try — so recently after seeing Planet Thailand become totally packed I knew it was time to try something new. The first thing that will hit you is that the place looks great, which really ads to your dining experience if you're hanging out with friends. When I went there they had the front windows open to the street which gave the place a nice hang out feeling:]]> Mizo Japanese Cuisine 192 Bedford Avenue Williamsburg Brooklyn 11211 (718) 782-6666/6665

Spoonbill & Sugartown is Kid Friendly

2009-08-16T03:09:09Z

I always tend to think of Spoonbill & Sugartown as more of an arts bookstore, but as small as it is there's a section in the back (near the inside mall entrance) which has nothing but children's books. It's a small selection, but all the classics are there. If you had a kid I wouldn't say that it was "destination worthy" because of it, but on the other hand it makes the place a bit more friendly than most places on the Bedford strip which are aimed more at twentysomething hipsters.]]>

Curioso: Almost Respectable Slices

2009-07-13T05:02:43Z

The white slice was a bit better than the veggie slice, but again it was average. The staff was friendly (although slightly disorganized) and the space was huge. Although I should add that he prices were very reasonable for what you got. So my thinking is that if you live close by (i.e on the east side of the BQE) Curioso would be good for a fast slice. Although if you're not near by I wouldn't say that it was "destination worthy". But if you're wandering around the Burg and aren't far away it would make a good slice stop. Curioso 227 Roebling, between South 2nd and 3rd Brooklyn, NY 11211 (718) 388-2133 Open 7 Days a Week (no hours given) Free Delivery

Gerry Esposito: An Endorsement for City Council

2009-07-05T03:23:17Z

The other candidates running aren't bad apples, but what's badly needed in the city council race for Williamsburg is good old fashioned change — and that's why the Williamsburg Nerd is endorsing Gerry Esposito for the seat. ]]> his Facebook profile — he was a member of Brooklyn for Barack so you know he's the real deal, but better yet he's a supporter of the Williamsburg Gallery Association, the Brooklyn Animal Resource Coalition (the BARC shelter) and an alumni of the Peace Corps. So on September 15th please vote in Democratic primary for Gerry Esposito.

Maritza Davila: She's the Choice of the Machine (Which is Why You Shouldn't Vote for Her)

2009-07-05T02:37:49Z

The first time I ever heard of Maritza Davila running for city council was when I got the above letter from New York State assemblyman Vito J. Lopez. This was a somewhat unusual roll out for a candidate which quickly left a bad taste in mouth. So of course I did some research to get the inside scoop: Lopez was backing Davila (who was part of his staff) for the seat because he had some kind of falling out with current councilwoman Diana Reyna (who also use to work on his staff). ]]> assemblyman Vito J. Lopez feels like he owns the seat which is wrong. No don't get me wrong I haven't found anything that's really horrible about Maritza Davila, but the entire idea of political music chairs strikes me as being corrupt. While I'm certainly not a fan of Diana Reyna (because she voted down term limits) I don't see a strong case for supporting Maritza Davila. Now this isn't to say that Maritza Davila isn't a good person, in fact it looks like she has been doing good things in the community, but what worries me is that if she wins the office that it's just adding to the Vito J. Lopez machine which isn't a good thing.

Diana Reyna Isn't Working For You

2009-07-05T01:16:38Z

Well the good news is that Diana Reyna has broken free of the Vito Lopez machine but the bad news is that just means that she's an independent hack who isn't doing anything of value for Williamsburg. The main problem with Council Member Reyna is that she voted the end term limits for both the mayor and herself — that was really a decision that should have been given directly to the voters to New York City. ]]> Her campaign website doesn't even feature an issues section so one can tell where she stands. Even if you wanted to contribute money to Diana you can't do it online, you have to download a Microsoft Word doc and mail her the check. But my gut feeling is that this inability to use the net isn't a mistake as one gets the feeling that Diana Reyna doesn't care what you think. But if you do look at the issues here is what she's done (or more to the point hasn't done}: - She claims to have secured over $20 million to create local jobs, but frankly I don't see the results. In fact during her stay in office the Pfizer plant closed in Williamsburg and those jobs aren't coming back. - She claims to have spent money on "anti gang programs" but these are just payoffs to local church groups who in return show up on primary day to vote her back in. - She talks about going after greedy landlords and while this may be the case in Bushwick I haven't seen any evidence of this with the luxury building boom in going on Williamsburg. - I get the feeling that Reyna doesn't know that Williamsburg exists because her main focus is on Bushwick. For example her campaign literature is in Spanish but not Hebrew or Yiddish to reflect the full diversity of the district. Endorsements for Diana Reyna come from Congresswomen Nydia M. Velázquez who didn't endorse President Barack Obama when it mattered (by the way that hurts this district when it comes time to fund projects). Her main "union" endorsement come from the Teamsters who have a track record of backing Republicans at the wrong time. Is she the George Bush Jr. of Williamsburg? Hell no, in fact aside from being a political hack (which is not a crime) she isn't the "worst person in the world" — but I think Williamsburg deserves better. Therefore I ask everybody to not vote for her in the primaries to send a message that she should have allowed voters to have a voice in term limits.

Three Ways to a Sunset

2009-05-04T06:24:18Z

A series of photographs that I took of the sunset with my iPhone on April 18, 2009.