Art in the Hood: Rite Aid Mural on 4th Becomes New Local Landmark

The mural on the Rite Aid store at 63rd street and 4th Avenue is well on it's way to becoming a new local landmark. The completed mural depicts scenes of Brooklyn but none of the neighborhood. The manager had told me that they were discussing doing a mural  on the Rite Aid on 5th and hopefully that will include scenes of the neighborhood such as the gate at Greenwood Cemetery or Battle Hill where an important engagement of the Battle of Brooklyn took place. Whatever turns out the mural on 4th is a nice piece of  mural art which has evolved from graffiti.  As time goes on and more people in the neighborhood become aware of it the more it will become known. Below are links to our previous postings on the mural since it's inception. Of note is also the fact that this Rite Aid becomes one of the few pharmacies in Brooklyn that is now open 24 hours..

Related Link: Art in The Hood: Rite Aid on 4th gets a new paint job

Related Link: Changes on the wall...

More photos below..

Chinese Funeral in Sunset Park

As I was walking down 8th Avenue this morning I stumbled upon a Chinese funeral. You don't often see them for some reason in Sunset Park. In front of what once was a Norwegian Funeral Home until recent times a band dressed in Chinese style military dress uniforms was playing in front. A priest apparently not Buddhist was in front making motions and it appeared they were about to exit the parlor. One is used to mostly Christian funerals in Sunset Park but this was a rare occasion. The Norwegian Funeral Home that used to be there closed when at some point it appears they ran out of customers. Now it is Chinese and since the changeover  I never saw a funeral taking place there. It looks as if business may pick up. After all, a lot of new potential customers have moved into the area and I suspect we will see more funerals coming out of that place.

New Bar: Super Collider Bar

Located just inside our border at 4th Avenue and 17th street in what Realtors have dubbed the Greenwood Heights section of Sunset Park is the Bar Super Collider which opened a few months ago. At first I thought that it was named after the CERN Linear Accelerator in Europe but the owner of the bar Robert explained to me that the name stems from a meeting of coffee and beer drinkers and their colliding tastes. Robert is not new to the bar business. His previous bar was "RIFIFI" from 1998 to 2008 it was a popular watering hole in the East Village in Manhattan. The name I suppose was taken from the classic French film of the same name.  In any case, he sold that bar and moved into our area. I guess he missed the bar business because he decided to open this location. They do have music and at the moment it is acoustic open mike stuff on the weekends. Oh, and by the way, they also serve coffee. Drop in and check the place out and tell them we sent you.

Sunset Park Does The New York Marathon

The spire of Saint Michael's Church rises in the background in this shot of a sea of people running down 4th Avenue in today's marathon.

Wall to wall runners along 4th Avenue seen from 39th street in the direction of Park Slope..

Running past McDonald's, not time for a burger..

Entertainment was available all along the avenue for the runners. This band is named Platinum Mustache. You can find out more about them Supremacy Entertainment.

Another band entertaining the runners was The Love Button Band. It turns out that the bass player is also one of the owners of our renowned Tabla Rasa Gallery on 48th street.  Visit their websites to learn more about them..

The street is littered by 23rd street at a water station handing out Gatorade and Poland Spring water..

Openings: Envios and Internet Services Hailey

There is a new cellphone and computer repair place on fourth Avenue and 42nd street that has opened up recently to serve the underserved western side of the nabe on the other side of 3rd Avenue. There are few places on the other side of 5th avenue serving the mostly Hispanic community as you go towards the western side of the nabe. It was started by a young guy who felt there was a need for someone who knew both the language and the culture of that part of the neighborhood which has a heavy concentration of Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, others from Central America as well as Colombians. The place does laptop and computer repairs as well as fixing cellphones. Things like broken screens which are quite common these days on the new smartphones we all carry. Soon the location will carry services by the major phone providers and will also offer wire money transfer services with many of the immigrants in that part of the neighborhood needing those services to send money back home to their families in their impoverished countries. If you're in that side of the neighborhood drop in and say hello to them and tell them we sent you. They can also be found on the cyber mall on our website here..

Art in the Hood: Bansky strikes in Sunset Park

The celebrated UK street artist who has been playing a hide and seek game with the NYPD Graffiti squad has hit our neighborhood. A crew from the Gothamist went down to take pictures. But why a truck? Don't we have enough empty walls in the nabe? Should we consider it an insult that he painted a truck which could drive away rather than a wall which would be more permanent? In any case, which so much negative stuff happening in the nabe these last few days it makes for a bit more lighthearted happening. The question is. Is thee above art or vandalism? I rather opine for the latter. Nothing artistic about the above. A third grader could have painted that. Common Bansky! If you're going to invade our neighborhood paint something more "artistic".

Related links:

Gothamist

WPIX 11

Crime: More Murder In The Hood

Police respond in Sunset Park (NBC New York)

Sunset Park was in the news again and not in a good way. It seems the stories coming out of the neighborhood involve violence or murder lately and no ethnic group in the nabe has been left untouched. This time both the perp and the victims were Chinese. Gothamist has the best story on the incident so far. Something is up in the neighborhood. Maybe it's my perception but after a period of relative low crime there seems to be an uptick of  murder and tragedy. It seems to be a citywide problem but you tend to pay attention when it's in your back yard in streets and parts you are very familiar with. Something is up and perhaps we should investigate what's happening and why. Let's hope for better days ahead free of violence and mayhem and hope that stories coming out of neighborhood in the news have a more positive note.

Related Links:

Gothamist

CBS News

NBC News

Daily News

ABC Channel 7

Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)

Openings: Tommy's Famous Cheesesteak and Pizza in Park Slope

Tommy's Cheesesteak and Pizza is a relatively new eatery just over the border in Park Slope and the newest addition to our cybermall in our website. Their page allows for ordering online and has links to their own website. The guy who owns the place is of course named Tommy and is originally from Philadelphia, thus the reason for the cheesesteaks. The place is set up more like an upscale pizzeria which fits the template for Park Slope. Tommy has a branch in Philadelphia and had another pizzeria in another part of Brooklyn before selling it and moving to his current location in Park Slope. It's located just off the corner of 9th street and 5th Avenue. Their specialty item is of course Cheesesteaks and they do good pizza too. It's an Italian owned and run place which may be bucking the trend with all these pizzerias run by non Italians that have proliferated in the city. Besides their regular pizzas and great cheesesteaks try their Grandma's pizza which is made with marinara sauce. It's worth the visit and nice to get out of Sunset Park every once in a while. You can see their full menu here. They do deliver so if you are in reasonable proximity you can order online or by phone. If you do stop in and try their stuff tell them you found out about it here and that I sent you....

Art in The Hood: UPROSE mural 25th street and 4th Avenue

This mural on the corner of 25th street and 4th Avenue done last year by the same crew from Groundswell that did the mural on 7th Avenue takes the whole side of the C Town supermarket located on the same corner. It's on the section of Sunset Park which real estate agents for marketing reasons have dubbed Greenwood Heights. It's a rather impressive mural to see and rather than being done by a professional crew it is even more impressive for the fact that it was done by volunteer students..

Store of the Day: Frankel's, serving Sunset Park since 1890

Located on the corner of 40th street and 3rd Avenue Frankel's is probably the oldest business establishment in Sunset Park by far. I can't think of any long time resident in the nabe who isn't familiar with Frankel's and hasn't met it's current owner and family caretaker Marty Frankel. The business was founded in 1890 by Adolph Frankel. It was on the other side of third Avenue but moved to it's current location when the Gowanus Highway was built. The  store is ever changing with the times and fashions. When I first moved into the nabe in 1970 I was into cowboy boots and Frankel's was the only store in Brooklyn at the time that carried them. I still have a pair of lizard skin Dan Post boots that I bought from them. I visit the place often and I suspect that if I live another hundred years the place will still be there. Son Erik Frankel is based in Vietnam these days running factories and computer programming facilities among other things. If you've never been there it's worth the visit. It's like going back in time and you will step into an institution that is almost as old as the neighborhood. When you go there tell Marty I sent you..

The view from another blog: One More Folded Sunset: Frankel's

Art in The Hood: Tacos El Bronco 44th and 4th Ave.

Commissioned by the restaurant of the same name located on the corner of 44th street and 4th Avenue this mural is Mexican themed as reflecting many of the residents of the area. You'll have to visit the location to see the mural in full. It seems the neighborhood is becoming a center of urban wall art..

Coming: An Arch to Sunset Park and it's not McDonald's

Somehow I missed this story last April as I am sure so did many other Sunset Parkers. Sneaked under the radar by our wanna be comedian borough president. The arch is apparently a gift from the Communist Chinese government and we are taking it because apparently we can and it's free. Hey, you get what you pay for. The arch is at this time slated to be built between 64th and 65th street on 8th Avenue. There is the full story at The Brooklyn Paper. Be sure to read the comments section as they make for interesting reading. In the meantime, the Manhattan Chinatown is bitching and moaning that they don't have their own arch. Maybe all those Falun Gong people who protest Chicom oppression every weekend at 60th street will move up and protest under the arch. Now that would be ironic.. If anything it's a sign that this change to Sunset Park is becoming rather permanent. Chinatown is here to stay. We may find to our chagrin that the arch may become a tourist attraction. Someday we'll see a German tourist wearing socks with sandals in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt having his picture taken with the arch in the background. Oh well, there goes the nabe..

Making movies in the Hood: Person of Interest Season 3

New York City has become Hollywood East and a lot of stuff is being shot on the PASUBA (park slope, sunset, bay ridge) strip which runs along 4th and 5th avenues. This morning I stumbled on a crew shooting scenes for season 3 of a tv program entitled "A Person of Interest'. Not being a boob tube watcher I have no clue what it is. There have been quite a few films shot in Sunset and the adjoining neighborhoods. The last one I can think of off the top of my head was "Cop Out". And most people forget that epic with Travolta "Saturday Night Fever" was partially shot in Sunset Park as well. Anyway it's good to see the industry moving in. BTW, how many people know that there are film and television studios located on the other side of third avenue?

Food setups for the crew. They weren't offering passersby any :-(.

Loads of film equipment offloaded from the truck.

Film trucks and vans line up fifth Avenue near the main entrance to Greenwood Cemetery.

Art in the Hood: Mural Southwest Corner 32nd Street

Located on the Southwest corner of 32nd street and 4th Avenue this mural appears to have been painted sometime in 2012 by a guy whose tag is Vers. He has a website at VERSGRAFX.COM where he showcases his other work.. There are two other works on this intersection done by other artists. I will be posting those in the coming days.