Open Thread Wednesday Halloween 2007

By on October 31, 2007 8:37 am in Brooklyn Heights

 

Some stuff to talk about this week:

New York Kids Club is here! 

54 Hicks Street condos, bargain? 

When is a shuttle not a shuttle? When it's not. 

… and don't forget Mr. Swizzle's Halloween Karoke Monster Mash tonight at Magnetic Field (97 Atlantic Avenue)… prizes for best costume.

 

Photo: by Reno1020 via Flickr from the Brooklyn Heights Doggie Halloween Parade

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  • BHBabe

    Newspaper in the windows of former Cincinnati photo and The Greens … work going on there?? And, is VitalDent ever gonna open? What about the Greek Cosmetic place??

  • steve

    What, BHBabe, is VitalDent? I must have missed that discussion.

  • BHBabe

    Steve, I think that’s the name … it’s a dentist/implant/ tooth whitening place supposedly opening where the Greek place was on Montague (right next to Buon Gusto)

  • CJP

    Happy Halloween! First of all thanks to all the residents of Garden Place. You guys to an amazing job every year and your block is the best in Brooklyn Heights for Halloween.

    Also thanks to the merchants of Montague Street. Those of you who do offer candy for neighborhood kids go above and beyond.

    Which brings me to the point I’d like to make about Halloween. Isn’t this a neighborhood event? Every year I’m always stunned by the number of non-neighborhood people who flock to our neighborhood to participate in the holiday.
    I was stunned tonight getting off the subway shortly before 6PM at Borough Hall by all of the kids and their parents/guardians who were heading for Brooklyn Heights. Why not trick-or-treat in your own neighborhood?

    My trick-or-treating years were in Western Massachusetts, Central Massachusetts or living in ex-pat communities overseas. We never went beyond our immediate neighborhood to trick or treat. Which has me wondering about the influx to Brooklyn Heights and whether Brooklyn Heights has become a destination because of its perceived generosity.

    Why not trick-or-treat in your own neighborhood where the tricks are no doubt just as good as the packaged candy we offer here?

    And finally, while I’m ranting about trick-or-treating, what’s with the beautifully decorated brownstones in the neighborhood that put out great decorations, intricately carved pumpkings and pretty lights but there’s no one there on Halloween to hand out candy? Seems like a tease to me!

  • bdm

    CJP, its not just generosity of Heights residents that keep families from other neighborhoods coming here on Halloween, its that so many neighborhoods are un-child friendly or unsafe. Unlike you, I support the influx. Halloween is such a happy holiday for me and I always feel bad that there are so many children in this city that dont get to experience all the fun the way we used to (I have wonderful Halowwen memories from suburban LI). It also makes me proad to be a resident of the Heights when I see the warmth and genorosity of my neighbors toward all. Its a real bonding time on my block and I look forward to it every year. It was extra special this year becuase it was the first one my 2.5 year old could really enjoy – now he’s as into it as Mom!

  • nancy

    I wouldn’t be so anxious for Vitaldent to open. Its an insurance-mill type dental clinic run by foreign dentists. Not the type of quality work that people want for their teeth. I would have much preferrred another restaurant!

  • GHB

    CJP…” Why not trick-or-treat in your own neighborhood where the tricks are no doubt just as good as the packaged candy we offer here?”
    This is not western Mass or Suburbia. I grew up in the burbs and trick or treated nearby, but life is different here. You obviously have issues with the influx of kids from other neighborhoods. I saw a bunch of well behaved kids (usually with their moms) looking for candy and having a good time. Your post reeks of racism. Go back to western Mass!

  • ABC

    I’ve never thought of Halloween as a particularly neighborhood event.

    When I was growing up, lots of black kids (which is what I assume you mean by non-neighborhood kids) always traveled to certain white neighborhoods to trick or treat. This was in the mid-70s in a small city in MI. You know those people you were wondering about who put out pumpkins and then don’t answer the door? Lots of neighborhoods are like that, minus the pumpkins. Not much trick or treating to be had. I wouldn’t send my kids up stoops in a lot of neighborhoods in Brooklyn and I can understand why other mothers feel the same.

    When I was young, many of the houses I trick or treated at had two candy bowls: one for the white kids and one for the black kids. They’d open the door with one bowl of sticks of gum, see a white face and say “oh, wait a minute” and get the bowl with the mini candy bars. Zzzzz. I wish I could rationalize it by saying it was kids they knew vs kids they didnt, but it wasn’t.

    I feel lucky and blessed to live in a neighborhood now that is welcoming to all kids.

  • WNYC

    CJP- I agree wiht GHB. Your post is so racist. So what if non-residents come here for candy? Maybe no one in their hood offers candy or opens doors to strange groups of kids. I’m happy to give some tootsie rolls to whomever wants ’em. Take your white ass back to western mass (but then you may have white, gay trick or treaters. Are they ok with you?).

  • howie

    I am very lucky to live in a neighborhood where it is safe to go trick or treating, there is not better place to raise a family in this city. That said, one of the reason why the heights is such a wonderful place is that parents here care.

    While this is going to get me in allot of trouble, I think that other neighborhoods could improve on their halloween experience if the parents banded together and took that night back!

  • Simon

    Well said Howie. Seems these “others” are just here for another handout.

  • Gunnar Myrdal

    You being ironic? Isn’t the point of halloween to get “handouts?” Of course, when the poor get government assistance it’s detrimental to the principle of the market economy but when industry gets subsidized through federal contracts or brownstone owners get their house prices subsidized by virtue of more attentive policing in affluent areas, that’s the order of things. Next year, no candy for white people! Lessons will be had.

  • JL

    Sorry to change the subject, but did anyone else get stuck this morning waiting for a 2/3 train to Manhattan. I waited a good hour almost until I could finally get on the 3rd train that showed up since the others were totally packed. What annoyed me more was the complete lack of announcements as to what was happening. Usually, you get the announcements when a train is leaving Wall Street or Borough Hall, but now when we need it, nothing. Shame on the MTA again! (Yes, I should have left the station and walked to the A/C or 4/5, so don’t bark at me for being stupid and waiting, I know).

  • nabeguy

    Geez, this thread is taking some weird turns. If the residents of Garden Place want to do what they do every Halloween, what’s the big deal if people from other parts of the area want to enjoy it? Lest anyone forget, the Village H’ween parade that now attracts up to 2 million people, started as a small parade of 20 families marching through the Westbeth complex some 30 years ago. I’m not necessarily saying I’d want to see the same thing in the Heights, but the sprit of community shouldn’t necessarily be confined to the corners of your own street.

  • ABC

    handout? stephen colbert? that you?

  • howie

    Taking your children trick or treating in another neighborhood shows that you do not care about your own. This is part of a much greater problem.

  • http://www.brooklynheightsblog.com annon

    Did anyone notice how much trash was left behind from last night? (Candy wrappers and such) It was a mess. I have never seen it so bad.

  • Gunnar Myrdal

    Yeah, howie, they don’t care about their neighborhoods because they only have to live there every single day. If the problems of the urban poor lie with the people, themselves, then we don’t have to do anything about it except judge them in smug satisfaction.

    Trick or treating involves going to people’s homes. How do you know people can afford bags of candy? Or whether it would be safe to do so? It’s not just the parents. But that’s OK because it’s easier to blame the victim than to give a kid some G__ D___ candy.

  • http://www.brooklynheightsblog.com annon

    But wouldn’t it be nice to be able to walk down a street in your own neighborhood with your children? Get to know your neighbors? We can do help all we can. The government, and churches can help. But if you don’t care about your community at the end of the day nothing will ever change.

  • T.K. Small

    Dealing with extra garbage goes live living in any disposables/materialistic culture. Probably later this month there will be an increase in regular food garbage around Thanksgiving. Does this mean that we should cancel this holiday as well? The benefit of having a creative and welcoming community far outweighs the inconvenience of improperly discarded candy wrappers.

  • ABC

    some people here make me wish the teenagers would put the “trick” back in “trick or treat”.

  • GHB

    For Christ’s sake…Brooklyn kids came to the Heights to get some friggin’ candy! So what!

  • http://www.brooklynheightsblog.com annon

    Do you have kids?

  • T.K. Small

    Are you suggesting that it is bad to expose Brooklyn Heights kids to children from other neighborhoods?

  • http://www.brooklynheightsblog.com annon

    No, but no matter where in the city I have lived, I have tried to take my children out in our own neighborhood.

  • GHB

    annon…yeah. Why?

  • T.K. Small

    We do not own the neighborhood. If we are fortunate enough we own or rent a small piece. To say that “our own neighborhood” is a little too territorial. Should Brooklyn Heights kids be excluded in other parts of the city? Somehow that strikes me as far worse than dealing with kids coming from other neighborhoods on Halloween.

    Although I do not have any children, the lessons of toleration, acceptance and humility are valuable. By seeing and perhaps interacting with kids that might not be as lucky as the average Brooklyn Heights kid these lessons could be instilled.

  • http://www.brooklynheightsblog.com annon

    How about a lesson in supporting and caring about your neighborhood where you live?

  • lady montague

    annon (and howie, etc.), give me a break with your republican “personal responsibility” junk. people take their kids to BH because there are lots of townhouses which makes for good trick-or-treating. i know many people who came from wealthy areas in manhattan who came for the same reason as the “poor folk who don’t take care of their own neighborhood”: trick-or-treating in areas that are predominantly apartment buildings and stores is just not the same. do you know for a fact that people in less affluent neighborhoods of single/two/three-family homes are also not trick-or-treating in their neighborhoods?

  • T.K. Small

    Supporting and caring about ones community is perfectly acceptable. Excluding people from any particular neighborhood is not something that we should condone.

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