Greenpoint is the northernmost neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bordered on the southwest by Williamsburg at the Bushwick inlet, on the southeast by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and East Williamsburg, on the north by Newtown Creek and Long Island City, Queens at the Pulaski Bridge, and on the west by the East River. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1.

Nestled in the northernmost reach of Brooklyn and surrounded by waterways on three borders, this waterfront neighborhood lies only a short distance from both Manhattan and Queens.

Notable individuals born and/or raised in Greenpoint include actress Mae West, children's book author Margaret Wise Brown, and pop singer Pat Benatar.

History

Greenpoint was founded in 1657 by Dutch settlers and its name refers to a small peninsula of land at what is now the westernmost end of Freeman Street that protruded into the East River, hence the name, Green Point. In the nineteenth century, 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. 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. The launch site of the USS Monitor lies on Bushwick Creek. Long a site of shipbuilding, the neighborhood’s dockyards harbored the construction of the Monitor—the Union’s first ironclad fighting ship built during the American Civil War. The Monitor, together with seven other ironclads, was built at the Continental Ironworks in Greenpoint.

After a long history as a stable, working-class neighborhood and immigrant haven, Greenpoint began to see some of the effects of gentrification by the 1980s. The New York Times 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 smaller art community.^[1] Today, rents in Greenpoint are among Brooklyn's highest, and new construction is prevalent on streets where most buildings date back up to a century.^[2]

Rezoning of 2005

On May 11, 2005, the New York City Council passed a large-scale rezoning of the Greenpoint and Northside waterfront from manufacturing to residential and mixed use with a set-aside (and $100 million in funding) for the creation of open waterfront park space, with a two-mile-long esplanade to be built in segments. The land is being rezoned to permit new housing, where luxury highrises could be developed along with low-rise subsidized housing as part of the plan's inclusionary housing strategy. The rezoned waterfront will also include retail, a 28-acre waterfront park, and a continuous riverfront promenade. The rezoning is part of a continuing process of gentrification in the area, which was once characterized by manufacturing and other light industry interspersed with smaller residential buildings, but now contains over a hundred residentially converted loft buildings and new residential buildings. The rezoning is projected to result in the creation of about 10,000 new apartments in about 10 years.

Critics of the rezoning contend that rezoning will irrecoverably distort the existing community's character ("Manhattanization"), force out existing residents (mostly Hispanics) and lacks adequate provisions for public transportation or public safety infrastructure to accommodate the expected new residents. The advocates of rezoning cite its projected economic benefits, e.g.; a new waterfront promenade and "Inclusionary Housing". Similar set-asides for "affordable" housing have gone unfulfilled in previous large-scale developments, such as Battery Park City.

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 Poland" due to its large population of working-class Polish immigrants, reportedly the second largest concentration in the United States after Chicago. Greenpoint is not only populated with Polish immigrants and Polish-Americans, a significant population of Hispanics (Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Ecuadorans and Mexicans) can be found north of Greenpoint Avenue. Italian Americans and Irish Americans can be found in the southeastern section of Greenpoint.

Greenpoint was originally settled by Dirck Volckertsen (Dirck the Norman, the namesake of Norman Avenue) in 1645. German and Irish immigrants settled after the British took control of New Amsterdam in 1664. Polish immigrants arrived in the late 19th century.

Environmental Litigation

In 1950, the predecessor of the ExxonMobil Oil company spilled 17 to 30 million gallons of oil into Newtown Creek. This is considered to be the worst oil spill in United States history.^[3]. 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.

In January of 2006, State and oil company officials asserted that to date half of the spill has been cleaned up. 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 Williamsburg Industrial Park, filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil, BP and Chevron in Brooklyn State Supreme Court, alleging they have suffered adverse consequences to their health although there has been no proof to date of these claims. In fact, a Dept. of Health Study completed in May 2007, showed no vapors were coming from the spill into peoples homes.^[4] On July 17, 2007 New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil and ExxonMobil Refining and Supply Company to force a comprehensive clean up of Newtown Creek.

Landmarks and Attractions

Parks include McCarren Park (formerly known as Greenpoint Park), the neighboorhood's largest green space, and the smaller McGolrick Park (formerly known as Winthrop Park), which contains both the landmarked Shelter Pavilion (1910) and an allegorical monument (1938) to the USS Monitor ironclad ship.

Of architectural interest in Greenpoint are: The Episcopal Church of the Ascension (Ascension Greenpoint) (1853) the oldest church in Greenpoint on Kent Street, the Astral Apartments (1886) 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 Lord (1921) on North 12th Street, the Oliver Hazard Perry School (P.S. 34) (1867) on Norman Avenue (the oldest continuously operating public school building in New York City); the North Fork (formerly Green Point) Savings Bank (1908) and the Saint Stanislaus Kostka Roman Catholic Church (1896) on Humboldt Street, which serves as a Catholic shrine for the Polish community.

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 was remodeled for its Centennial. The current church dates to 1891.

Trivia

• Greenpoint Hospital, on Skillman Avenue between Kingsland and Debevoise Avenues, was opened in 1914 and was operation through the early 1980s. Interestingly, it is well outside the currently accepted boundaries of Greenpoint.
• A few scenes in the movie The Departed, including the scene where Jack Nicholson's character first meets Matt Damon'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 Madsen was born), Sleepers, Dead Presidents, Romeo is Bleeding and The Siege were also filmed in Greenpoint. The television series Rescue Me and the Black Donnellys are also routinely filmed in Greenpoint, as was the television show Third Watch.
• The streets in Greenpoint are named alphabetically. Walking south along Manhattan Avenue, you will find Ash, Box, Clay, Dupont, Eagle, Freeman, Green, Huron, India, Java and Kent Streets. Then comes Greenpoint Avenue, formerly known as Lincoln Street. Further south one can find Milton, Noble and Oak Streets. All streets were originally designated by letters, not by name; A Street, B Street, etc. Calyer Street comes after Oak Street, was formerly known as "P Street" and is followed by Quay Street.

References

External links

• The Greenpoint-Williamsburg Waterfront Access Plan
• Riverkeeper
• Newtown Creek Alliance
• Greenpoint v. Exxon
• Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Parks and Planning
• Green Brooklyn: Newtown Creek Category
• Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center
• Greenpoint Landmarks
• A.O.H. Greenpoint, Brooklyn
• greenpunkt.com: guide to Greenpoint, Brooklyn
• business map for Greenpoint, Brooklyn
• Landmarks: Greenpoint's Public School 34, The Oliver Hazard Perry School
• - Wiki dedicated to Greenpoint
• Neighborhood Roots
• Block Magazine: A free news and arts magazine covering Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Bushwick Brooklyn
• New York Shitty
• 11222
• Greenpointers

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