Open Thread Wednesday

By on March 31, 2021 7:41 am in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • Cranberry Beret

    Haagen-Dasz is still there for now, but the building has a “retail with garden” for-rent sign…

  • Jorale-man

    Bummer. That must be the last ice cream place standing. There were a couple of frozen yogurt spots on Court St. that closed not long ago. Do people not enjoy a tasty cone anymore?

  • meschwar

    If anyone had an upcoming vaccine appointment at Science Skills Center High School, that location is moving to City Point. Your appointment will be changed to City Point. This has not been suitable publicized. I know people with appointments tomorrow hadn’t received an email.

  • AEB

    This is the third time the local HS vaccine hub has been relocated; I had my first shot at George Westinghouse and my second at “Science.”

    It was only by reading an alert here that I learned that the switch from the first location to the second had occurred. Even city vaccine information hadn’t heard of the change.

    So thanks BHB–and fie on the inability of the city’s right hand to know what was going on with its left.

  • CassieVonMontague

    Quick! Someone call the BHA and get them working on landmarking the interior! It’s the first-ever Haagen-Dasz store!

  • CassieVonMontague

    Last Thursday, the four mayoral candidates answered what to do about the BQE:

    Watch (at 1:40:07): https://youtu.be/EAiUg9vpEEA?t=6007

    Eric Adams called the original plan “a terrible idea” and wants to look at a regional approach to the BQE, not just how it affects Brooklyn Heights, and possibly using the area for park space.

    Art Chang agreed with Eric Adams. He says the first plan was “top-down” but wants to consider how trucks get around the city to preserve the industrial waterfront. He wants more parkland and broad community input in the final BQE design.

    Scott Stringer has “the Stringer Plan” for the BQE. He says he has experience with these issues. He says we need alternatives to superhighways.
    Link to Stringer’s plan: https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-proposes-new-vision-for-bqe-reconstruction/

    Joycelyn Taylor says its great to have a plan that enhances Brooklyn Heights and the BQE, but we first need to look at the needs of communities that are struggling with so many different things. She said she is not sure that this is this “the most immediate need at this moment.”

  • Heights Neighbor

    I am supposed to have my second shot at Science Skills on Saturday. I thought that the HSs might be going to weekends only. Is that possible? I have no idea what to do. No one to call, right?

  • Dan Coe

    Happy to report that Park Plaza is open again! They were working on the outdoor seating area too.

  • meschwar

    You should get an email the morning of your appointment. It will say where your appointment is. Also, the locations are only a few blocks apart. Just show up with a bit of time to spare in case there is some confusion.

  • Banet

    Last standing… in Brooklyn Heights. But there’s Blossom in Cobble Hill and Van Leewuen off Smith Street. And the Oddfellows in the park at Pier 5 and Ample Hills AND Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory AND the place across from the Tobacco Warehouse AND Jacques Torres in Dumbo (how did they get 4 places within 1 block when we’re on the verge of zero?)

  • Banet

    Also, on the topic of ice cream who remembers these 3 blasts from the past: Blue Pig on Henry Street in the Fruit Streets or so back around 2010… A Ben & Jerry’s on Atlantic near Sahadi’s for a year or two around 2004 until it closed when the owner found themselves gagged and tied during a mid-day robbery… and the best of all — Peter’s Ice Cream Parlor on Atlantic, also on Sahadi’s block. Was there about 20 years I think until it closed circa 2001. Man, they had the BEST whipped cream and the FATTEST cat I’ve ever seen (no doubt from licking up all the spilled ice cream). Great pie too!

  • CassieVonMontague

    Anyone hearing the Amazing Whistling Building of Cobble Hill?

    https://www.brooklynpaper.com/whistling-luxury-condo-tower-cobble-hill/

  • CassieVonMontague

    Peter’s got a write-up in the New York Times.

    An Ice Cream Parlor to Close; Sad Patrons Vainly Protest (2001)

    https://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/04/nyregion/neighborhood-report-brooklyn-heights-ice-cream-parlor-close-sad-patrons-vainly.html

  • Banet

    Yep. And according to this article, tomorrow, April 1, will be the 20 year anniversary of their closing:

    https://nypost.com/2001/02/09/latest-scoop-booming-bklyn-losing-its-flavor/

    On a related note, does anyone know who bought the neon sign out of their window? I wanted to bid on it at their closing auction (my name is Peter and I’m known among family for making homemade ice cream) but I was out of town the day of the auction. I asked a friend to bid but he forgot to attend. I have visions of it collecting dust in someone’s basement around here and I’ll find it out on a trash heap one day.

  • Banet

    From the NYPost article on the closing of Peter’s Ice Cream Parlor 20 years ago:

    https://nypost.com/2001/02/09/latest-scoop-booming-bklyn-losing-its-flavor/

    “Word is spreading that the shop is about to go the way of the old man who, until a couple of years ago, used to walk these streets selling fresh flowers off the back of a truck pulled by his pony.”

    WHAT??!? Can anyone verify that such a flower seller was here as recently as the 90s? Selling flowers from a “truck” pulled by a PONY?

  • CassieVonMontague

    Never heard of a flower seller in the 1990s. I’ve heard stories about Jim the Peddler in what is now known as Cobble Hill, but he stopped horsing around in the 1970s

    https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/cobble-hill-peddlers-death-marks-the-end-of-an-era/

    https://www.nytimes.com/1971/11/21/archives/brooklyn-peddler-has-a-3horsepower-stable.html

  • TeddyNYC

    I remember seeing that guy and his pony/horse during the 80’s and 90’s when I was a kid.

  • Jorale-man

    Thanks for the good tips. I forgot about the ones in BBP. I’ll have to try some of those in Dumbo and Cobble Hill too. Hopefully they’re surviving the pandemic.

  • AEB

    You can go here and reschedule your appointment for the new location, if you’re too anxious to wait for an email. I did:

    https://vax4nyc.nyc.gov/patient/s/

    There’s also a hotline to call if City Point isn’t listed as a vaccination option:

    877 829-4692

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    Yes there was a old Italian guy who sold fruits, vegetables and flowers from a wagon pulled by a Donkey. Mainly in Carrol Gardens, Cobble Hill area though occasionally venturing into the Heights. Last seen sometime in the 90’s…

  • Andrew Porter

    There was also Coup de Glace on Atlantic Avenue, with a branch on Henry Street in the space at the right of the St. George Residence entrance. There, the owner was shot and killed during a robbery. That branch closed and then the original store did as well.

    Does no one remember that the Haagen-Dazs store on Montague was their very first retail outlet? It opened on November 15th, 1976.

  • Andrew Porter

    Can’t remember if I posted this photo here or not. One of the most iconic images of how BH has changed.

    Captioned the demolition of the Fulton Street El and Sands Street Station, Nov 4, 1941. The uprights that held the Fulton El march along toward the Brooklyn Bridge in the distance. The girders for the station are above, soon to be taken down.

    The white building at left remains, now at the foot of Henry and Old Fulton Streets. All the buildings at the right were demolished for the BQE a decade later. The building at the far left was torn down and replaced by 140 Cadman Plaza W. There are also streetcar tracks in the cobblestones.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/44f422aaf7d2abd497cb71820286445e6b611e860bfe1a70e383075115e45fe1.jpg

  • Steve R.

    Stay with me here while I lay out a possible way to find out who got the neon sign. Peter was also the original owner of Waterfront Ale House (referenced in that NYT article as the place one of the ice cream makers would now go work) and sold it to Sam. Sam still has the other Waterfront Ale House in Manhattan &, last I heard, was still in touch with Peter, who moved to Seattle years ago. At any rate, if you talk to Sam, maybe he can get you in touch with Peter and, if Peter’s memory is still relatively intact, maybe he’d remember (or have records) of who bought the sign. Hey, I had some time this morning & my mind tends to wander.

  • Banet

    Wow. Quite the trail. It never occurred to me that Peter’s Ice Cream Parlor could be related to Pete’s Waterfront Ale House!

  • Bornhere

    There was one man who sold produce and another who sold potted marigolds. I’ve been in the Heights forever, and I remember both from the time I was a child. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/575dc95352d37cdc83b0f00e5eb1b51e8f56a3942267bb9b391461193875e4b4.jpg

  • Mattyp11

    Van Leeuwen is still going strong as far as I know. But Blossom on Court St. appears to have gone out of business, another victim of the pandemic (sad, although it wasn’t my favorite). If you’re up for a walk, try Malai on Smith. Flavors a bit more exotic but absolutely delicious.

  • Andrew Porter

    The news has now made the TV. Covered last night in the ABC-TV local news show at 6pm.

  • Pierrepont

    I still dream about their cinnamon ice cream in the autumn. Every year, it pops up in my mind. I think Peter’s was THE BEST!

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Just got a citizen’s alert that someone was shot on Poplar and Hicks. That is on my block. Does anyone have information?

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Update:
    Police report that shooting event was unfounded. There was no shooting.

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