Open Thread Thursday 9/16/10

By on September 16, 2010 9:41 am in Brooklyn Heights

Flickr photo by lumierefl

Adding an Open Thread today with some food for thought:  A “bomb” “scare” at St. Francis College Monday was just some wacky Facebook panic thing says the Brooklyn Paper … 29 Grace Court and its pink rooms can be yours for $6.2 million according to Brownstoner…  The Brooklyn Eagle reports that the MTA is trying out a new payment method at the Court Street station… and whatever is on your mind today.  Comment away!

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  • grrlgeniusbk

    Grace Court- interesting price. There was one on for 5.7 recently (sorry can’t remember the #), but 6.2? Gabriel Bryne’s place was under 5. Is that Pink fabulosity worth that much more?

  • AEB

    Update on the migrating garbage pail drama, see my Open Thread post yesterday: the crossing guard, a Ms.Torres, continues to move the pail daily into Middagh but not return it to its proper place near the SE corner of Hicks and Middagh at the end of the school day. (Returning it has been my self-appointed privilege.)

    Spoke today with Officer Nelson at the 84th, who said she would need to investigate the reason the guard has for moving the pail, but couldn’t understand why it wasn’t returned.

    Further updates, which I hope will be equally compelling, to follow. Should you wish to add your voice to mine (pretty please!), you can get Officer Nelson at 718 875-6811.

  • David G.

    I was really disgusted this morning as I saw a homeless person with his pants down, playing with himself and sprawled out on the Clinton street stairs to the R train. Nothing makes my quality of life in NY worse then moments like those.

  • Big Dave

    Did you try calling 311?

  • EHinBH

    Is it just me, or is The Heights branch of the library really awful? I thought I would walk in and find a really interesting place, but it was actually kind of unseemly somehow. Maybe I need to go again.

  • Anon3

    @ David G

    That’s why I take the elevators…

  • Cranberry Beret

    The guard is moving the garbage can so cars dropping off students don’t try to squeeze into the no parking zone at the corner and block the cross-walk. I can’t speak to why she isn’t moving it back after school starts. Maybe someone can buy her one of those plastic stanchions to use instead.

  • Chill

    @AEB You’re really bothering a police officer over a migrating trash can? Aren’t there bigger things to worry about?

  • Arch Stanton

    AEB or OCD

  • AEB

    Of course there are, Chill–bigger things to worry about, and I DO. But this is the thing that’s preoccupying me now. It’s not either-or, you know.

    By the way, the crossing guard is NOT a police officer–she’s a “civilian” hired to do a job. Don’t let her drag fool you.

    If you’re referring to the officer I contacted–well, part of her job entails dealing with the public over problems just like the one I brought to her.

    And Cranberry, how does a garbage can, stationed on the sidewalk, prevent cars from etc.? If you mean that she’s using the can as a cone once it’s on MIddagh–well, it’s positioned on the downtown side of the street. Wouldn’t parents more logically (attempt to) drop their kids off directly in front of the school. Also, cars DO park on the downtown side close to Hicks regularly, this blocking access to the cross walk.

    Also, the guard has worked this turf for years. Why the sudden can action?

  • Arch Stanton

    @ David G,

    Years ago that kind of vision would be a mere blip a native New Yorkers daily radar…. One such homeless man use to engage himself such, right on the corner of Canal & Broadway. He was there on and off for years. I remember thinking it would be an interesting video, showing the passerby’s reactions; most barely reacting with the occasional one recoiling in horror….

  • AEB

    And Arch, yes, OCD is my middle name. I mean my middle set of initials…

    …still…

  • http://www.danrosenbaum.com danno

    Brooklyn Eagle: first with the news.

    The contact-less payment trial at the Borough Hall subway station has been going on for about three years. (They took six months off to re-tool it earlier this year to include PATH.) This new system will be much cheaper to install than the original Metrocard, since the turnstiles and wiring are all already in place. The major expense will be the readers themselves — and they’re vastly more reliable and cheaper to maintain than the card swipes.

    I’m a big fan of the contactless fare system. I hope they finally move ahead with it in a major deployment.

    There’s a lot to dislike about the MTA, for certain. But I’m happy about this new fare system — and they appear to finally be installing the train annunciators after, what, 10 years?

  • Heights Mom

    David G.
    Did he have dreadlocks and was he dressed all in black? A youngish guy?

  • David G

    @ Arch Stanton – Those elevators take forever, especially if you are running late. And yes, I realize that it was much worse years ago, but damnit, it’s still unacceptable.

    @ Heights Mom – I’m pretty sure he was a scuzzy white guy. No dreads that I could see. He was wearing a white hoodie.

  • El

    I like contactless fare systems as they’ve been implemented elsewhere around the world (no need to fumble in a bag and pull out a card!) but I really hate the idea of using a credit card for it. I don’t really want to wirelessly broadcast my credit card number in a public place like a subway station…

    I think I saw the first brownstone that backs onto the Promenade on the southern end near Remsen was for sale as well.

  • MC

    Wondering when and why we seem to have lost 2-3 more parking spaces in the hood this week. Columbia Heights between Orange/Pineapple. New “No standing” signs have been put up in the last week. Anyone know why? It’s not a fire zone…argh. Enough already…

  • Arch Stanton

    @ David G, For the record; I made no reference to the elevators?

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m not lamenting the loss of those visions… just illustrating that things are now exponentially better then they were…
    As far as it being “unacceptable” not sure what you mean as it is something beyond control.

  • http://www.danrosenbaum.com Danno

    El:

    I agree that the use of credit cards instead of a specially issued card — like London’s Oyster — is sub-optimal. But the range of the reader is really so short that it’s hard to see how bad guys could grab the number.

    My bigger fear is taking my card out of my wallet in the station. I use one of those Paypass dongles on my keyring. I’d rather thieves know where my keys are than my wallet, because there’s no ID on my keys.

  • AEB

    Hey, Karl–are you OK? You don’t write, you don’t call…or at least haven’t recently….

  • Bklynreader

    EHinBH

    Please give the Heights library another chance-changes are being made-though slowly-so it will get better. They have a pretty good collection if you make your way to the 2nd floor. And, Brooklyn Public Library’s website http://brooklynpubliclibrary.org/ has a wealth of databases available to anyone with a Brooklyn Public library card.

    And, no I don’t work there.

  • Clarky

    EHinBH- I hate the library in our neighborhood. Whenever I’ve needed assistance in finding something, the staff could not have been any less helpful. I think the layout is terrible and the selection is poor. I miss having a good library.

  • T.K. Small

    The business library on the first floor has a wealth of information which I could never afford to subscribe to directly. If one does not mind working with “hard copy” materials, I’m sure it’s great. However, for anybody that wants or needs (as I do) materials in an electronic format, public libraries are still behind the curve.