Summer Weekend Guide: Greenpoint
See
It gets a lot of flack for being a polluted, occasionally terrible-smelling underdog of a local waterway (there’s a good reason it got turned into a Superfund site), but really, Newtown Creek is a pretty nice place to visit. And the Newtown Creek Alliance has made fairly staggering efforts to make it this way, hosting regular walking tours (this weekend they’ve got a specific one for the Dutch Kills tributary) or, if you’re a little more adventurous, canoe tours of the waterway.
And, just as outrageous rent hikes in Williamsburg have actually been sort of good for Greenpoint’s record store options, it’s also absorbed a few priced-out art galleries, a welcome addition to an already solid art scene. Yashar Gallery and Greenpoint Gallery are two of the area’s most reliable, and Rawson Projects is hosting J. Morrisons series of “Escape from New York” performances through September first (it’s free, but space needs to be reserved in advance).
It hasn’t gained too much on Williamsburg in terms of venues, but the neighborhood is home to Europa (which doesn’t have shows as often as it should but is worth going to just for a beer and a look at the odd layout), Warsaw, which is a bit more traditional and reliable as a Brooklyn venue, and St. Vitus, which has rightfully become iconic as one of the best venues for metal in the entire country. If you have even the slightest metalhead inclination, worth making the pilgrimage.
Yashar Gallery, 276 Greenpoint Ave.
The Greenpoint Gallery, 390 McGuinness Blvd.
St. Vitus, 1120 Manhattan Ave.
Warsaw, 261 Driggs
Europa, 98 Meserole Ave.