Sunday, February 22, 2015

Reporter murders Ridgewood history


I had the misfortune of watching this last night. Toni Senecal really needs new researchers because she got just about every fact about Ridgewood wrong.  You can watch the entire disaster here.

  • Ridgewood was never part of Brooklyn. Yes, there is a section of Bushwick that locals refer to as "Ridgewood" but the Queens section has never, ever been located in Brooklyn.
  • Note the way she pronounces "Arbitration Rock"...
  • She visits 2 foodie locations that are just barely in Ridgewood and considers a third one to be Ridgewood although it's most definitely in Bushwick.
  • The "English" did not "name it Ridgewood after the area's green and hilly terrain". The area was named after the Ridgewood Reservoir, which itself was named after its sourcewater in Massapequa.

How do you "tour" Ridgewood without hitting Myrtle Ave, Forest Ave or Fresh Pond Road?

If you want to do a Bushwick piece, do a Bushwick piece.

Someone please make these people stop.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Arbitration Rock" disappeared sometime during the Revolution - what we see was actually Stan Cogan with a backhoe hitting some landfill - and leaving half in the ground. Evidence was never produced proving his claim.

And yet more "food porn" - do you find it creepy like I do that people take pictures of food?

ron s said...

"Abitration Rock" is enough for me. She is a moron and lazy too. At least learn the big words.

Kent said...

Still trying to figure out how so much idiocy was packed into 1:11!

Anonymous said...

Does Toni Senecal think hipsters are tuning in to her show? (It's on at 5:30 am) I don't understand pandering to them. Most of Ridgewood is nowhere near the Brooklyn border and has many decent restaurants to visit that appeal to a wider demographic.

Anonymous said...

She's a self-absorbed egocentric ignorant cow. in other words a hipster wannabe. I believe "Shows" like this are instruction manuals for hipsters/yuppies on where it's OK to move.

Anonymous said...

But the thing is that she doesn't even tell you where these places are. No address, no website info given for these restaurants. This really is a badly produced show outside of the fact that she doesn't know what she's talking about.

Anonymous said...

She's a self-absorbed egocentric ignorant cow. in other words a hipster wannabe. I believe "Shows" like this are instruction manuals for hipsters/yuppies on where it's OK to move.
----
http://www.nytimes.com/video/realestate/
100000003496696/block-by-block-
astoria-ditmars.html

Well look at those nitwits in Astoria that went wild cause they were noticed by the NY Times in a clip. What is wrong?

1. Don't get George Delis, with his (ahem) past with the ladies to promote your community. Just do not go there.

2. Don't get semi-literate Greek landlords to talk about how great the dining experience is (translate: go to my nephew Spiro's restaurant) while they don't give you things like heat or repairs.

3. Do not mention the word 'Steinway'. Not at all. It is a word that the Times is angling to blow up in your face. Badly.

4. Do not position yourself as a place of culture while singing praises of the mobbed-up starting with Tony Bennett and on down.

5. Do not help with any community promotion - all it does is bring in more bedbugs, party-town transients, and higher rents.

Anonymous said...

Reporters are not really reporters these days. They are blow dried stars performing a role of news gatherer. Facts slip through their fingers like shit through a goose. As long as their coiffure is up to par for the camera, all is OK.

JQ said...

"But the thing is that she doesn't even tell you where these places are. No address, no website info given for these restaurants. This really is a badly produced show outside of the fact that she doesn't know what she's talking about"

All apologies for copy and pasting,but I begrudgingly disagree,although I share your justified rage and fury.


This is an infotainmentmercial. A video primer for gentrification. Which I think confirms my suspicions, and hopefully others, of the local news media's complicity with the predator developers and government appointed sociopathic city planners.The nexus of gentrification if you will

Useful Idiot Douchehag Toni and her producer do a splendid job reinforcing the lies in their segment and the meth fueled enthusiasm when she describes and eats all that food that no middle class person would eat or even afford.

The worst offender is that antique shop. Something tells me they couldn't sell shit so they got a liquor license and became a bar,mixing drinks with ingredients normal people never use or buy and can't afford to drink.

Of course the hipsters can afford it,as they will in the near future.This confederacy of douches is the constituency of Mayor Big Slow,he made this clear with his promise to subsidize housing for them to be creative. That way they will be able to afford to frivously spend on high end dining.

I also think that faux bar is in brooklyn,as is the pretentious pizzeria and the bullshit cowboy bar.(Cowboy Cuisine-what the fuck is that? I don't recall John Wayne walking in a saloon and demanding octopus loaf and wild boar meatballs)

As for the locales and the negligent way they operate without any identification, that's what twitter and facebook is for. I think they are going for a speakeasy vibe, a way to vicariously feel like they are living on the edge even though these places havde permits. Kind of like that Lamesky Street art you see on various walls that's allegedly in the area.

If there is an omission, and it's a big one, is how she missed the hilariously named bar after one of the founders of the town Onderdonk and Sons. That opened last summer, I assume it's not doing well. I certainly hope it's failing.

In light of the recent arrests of a posse of city building inspectors and thug landlords, there should be some digging on the local news and the daily papers and their role in exacerbating the uncontrollable pestilence of generation gentrification, the greed of developers and landowners, and the unethical legislators that continue to ruin this city and are trying to end the middle class and run families and the working poor out of town.

This really has to stop. these are towns not brands. and fucking shave for chrissakes.


Anonymous said...

Media people are clueless when it comes to local geography. In the recent HBO documentary on Banksy, the piece that was done just around the corner from the 69th St 7 train station in Woodside was listed as Astoria, Queens.

The film company is based in NYC too so no excuse. They're just sloppy, lazy and ignorant.

Rick D said...

My impression from watching this video?

Ridgewood is Graffiti Central.

Anonymous said...

When Toni Senecal used to be the "entertainment" reporter on the 10pm news on Channel 11, I thought she was the stupidest, most annoying person on television. That was probably before reality television exploded, so now she has more competition for that title.

Anonymous said...

JQ is my favorite commenter on here. I wish more people used initials, etc. (remaining anonymous if they want to) so that some voices of reason might be distinguished from "Anonymous 12" or what have you. I always read what he has to say in good faith.

Anonymous said...

Her introduction of ridgewood is taken completely from Wikipedia. Word for word

Troll said...

That is funny! It is like she just read the Wikipedia article.

To call any of these people 'reporters' is an insult to the old time reporters who used shoe leather and tracked down stories and followed leads. This generation just sit on their a$$e$, use their phone and make up a story.

They are more like Brian Williams than any of them will admit.

And this poor dear can't even pronounce 'Arbitration'. Where was the segment producer? Whatever happened to check's and balances?

Anonymous said...

Many "local" reporters these days are out of towners who know little about our neighborhoods. They get their jobs through Missouri, Columbia or Syracuse connections.

Chester the Dog said...

ooh ridgewood, its new, it is happening, it is hot!

duh it has been there for 100 plus years.

let us live in peace. go away, tv people.

Anonymous said...

"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

Anonymous said...

Didn't Ridgewood have a Brooklyn Zip Code until the 1980's?

Anonymous said...

Being served by a Brooklyn post office didn't make it part of Brooklyn. It was always part of Queens.

Anonymous said...

Who really gives a damn shit about a rock? Got rocks in your head?

Anonymous said...

There is that. malcontent still picking on the late Stan Cogan. Even the departed cannot seem to rest. How about driving a stake through his heart, buddy? Will that please you? Honestly, some people need to get a real life.