Open Thread Wednesday

By on April 17, 2018 11:53 pm in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • Banet

    Is it just me or has the plastics and metal recycling crew that’s been coming through on Wednesdays become a lot sloppier? Lots of spilled bags, lots of pieces of garbage just left on the sidewalks and gutters. A major uptick in the last few months. I miss our old crew.

  • KXrVrii1

    Could it also be caused by the growing number of scavengers collecting refundable bottles and other items? I’m not unsympathetic to their activities, but they do seem to be growing in number and not all of them are careful not to rip open the bags (so they rip further when the professional guys toss them into the truck) or simply leave unscavenged trash on the sidewalk,

  • Jorale-man

    I see the sidewalk scaffolding has been removed from the 2-story building at Remsen & Clinton. It looks like they did a nice job – new windows and a cleaned facade, with the Packard school’s name at the top (an expansion, presumably).

  • KXrVrii1

    Yes, expansion, they will move the preschool and kindergarten there.

  • Banet

    It looks like they put the entrance on Clinton, not Remsen. I anticipate a lot of parents dropping off their kids by car will be blocking the bike lane, if not the entire road, with their illegal double-parking.

    I wish the BHA would advocate for 15 minute drop off zones in front of all the schools during school hours.

  • Banet

    Good theory.

  • Cranberry Beret

    Bravo to the impeccable timing of Con Ed’s contractor currently (8:45pm Wednesday night) jackhammering on Hicks St between Cranberry and Middagh. Some of the crew literally were napping in their trucks all afternoon. They decided 8pm was the best time to start heavy construction.

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com/ Claude Scales

    If it’s pre-K and K, their plans have changed. Originally it was to house their middle school.

  • KXrVrii1

    Don’t think so, it has been planned for pre-k and k since the purchase:

    https://www.packer.edu/page.cfm?p=30&newsid=316&ncat=2,9,7,3,15,11,12,8,5,4,13,16,6

  • Banet

    It was always preschool. I didn’t hear kindergarten but that could make sense. The Middle School would NEVER fit in that building. 150 kids? Labs? Theater? Gym? Not a whisper of a chance. Spurious rumor.

  • North Heights guest

    I have to disagree with you on this – parents of preschoolers do not just drive up to the school and drop their child off. They walk their child to school, walk them into the school, and drop them off to their classroom.

  • Banet

    That’s what many do, but more and more parents live further afield in Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill, Fort Greene… many of these parents drive or take an Uber when running late, it’s rainy, super-cold etc. just stand in front of Grace Church or Plymouth Churchany morning at 8:55 AM and see for yourself. This is amplified at a place like Packer — a school that pulls from miles around.

    (By the way, I know this because I have a child in one of our neighborhood preschools and see the cars pull up EVERY single morning. Sometimes just 2 or 3. Sometimes 10 or 15.)

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com/ Claude Scales
  • Andrew Porter

    Here’s one of my photos from the Folk Music Festival at St. Ann’s Church the weekend of April 6th. It’s the duo “The Four O’Clock Flowers,” singing in front of the gorgeous stained glass window. (Among the many groups there was “The East River String Band,” with cartoonist Robert Crumb on the mandolin.)

    Click on the image to see it full size:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d170f0118a9bd218fbed994adf91a3e63dcd4488a72c8c88b30165e90a354f95.jpg

  • Andrew Porter
  • AEB

    I too had the pleasure of becoming aware of the work as I was making dinner last night. And I do mean aware. Fortunately the heavy noise-making dissipated and was done by 10:00 or so.

    But still!

  • Local_Montague_Man

    This is the juiciest of the juicy happenings in the neighborhood? You guys are better than this! Open Thread Wednesday’s have become my “go-to” source for both meaningful and inane arguments (see ride-share parking spot discussion, copyright discussion, etc.), and occasional vitriolic rebuke of one’s opinion, spelling, grammar, breathing, chewing, etc. In all seriousness there has to be something more interesting going on, right?

    I read about the pet shop, good story, but isn’t that just life? Some people lean towards efficiency at the expense of charm and and others do the opposite (not saying which is better in this situation).

    What about the Bossert, anyone have news on that fiasco? What about who bought the Ricky’s building on Montague; what is happening to the existing tenants, and which real estate agency is moving into the ground floor? Matt Damon moving to the neighborhood; good or bad?There have to be other topics up for discussion, please help. I haven’t posted before, but I promise I will continue to read and post in the future and contribute to this beautiful community. Some info about me: Married, 30s, one child, live on Montague, love the neighborhood and love the people that make the neighborhood a nice place to live.

    Also what happened to the guy with the knife sharpening truck? I need him to come back around ringing that bell.

    Oh, and it is totally the scavengers…

  • MaggieO

    i guess everyone’s busy this week :)
    i was surprised to see no mention of yesterday mornings 6am wakeup by horn honking on joralemon/clinton.
    just out of curiosity, if i call the cops about a car alarm can they actually DO anything about it?

  • Joey

    I heard that as well. I was very close to going outside and putting a baseball bat through the windshield.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Realized I had a random photo (I didn’t shoot it and I don’t know who did) of the Johns, Flansburgh and Linnell, who comprise the music experiment known to some as They Might Be Giants, busking on the Promenade. Right here on the Open Thread, two days late, is where it belongs. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ee604607c5328b984758c4c94f98f12bf2ad617526073fbf3afb1eae69995306.png

  • Sally

    I’m desperately looking for a landscaper to plant my yard…

  • ColumbiaHeightster

    Let’s not forget that most of them stop and talk to each other, oblivious to their surroundings in front of the school, taking up the whole sidewalk, and pretending not to see you struggling to get by (even if you are pushing a stroller and have a toddler in tow). That doesn’t happen every single day or anything.

  • meschwar

    Any idea on what year this is?

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I just looked it up…They tweeted the photo in 2014 and described it as being from the “early 80s”.

  • Andrew Porter

    Tried to color correct this, but there wasn’t much there. Here’s the image slightly improved, IMHO:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4efa1c735f38ba545b7f648cb727bd98d723752a424d526c9e1aa040bc1a0ca9.png

  • Andrew Porter

    I’d walk around, note the many gardeners’ trucks esp. in the north Heights. Or check with the people at the Poplar Street Community Garden.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    It’s possible that the version I found on my computer had been run through an Instagram filter or something.