Open Thread Wednesday

By on August 25, 2021 7:26 am in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • CassieVonMontague

    Brooklyn transit booster and tunnel aficionado Bob Diamond dies at 62

    https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-bob-diamond-brooklyn-transit-booster-dead-20210824-m5zqferkprhgdfq4ng2y7oeopm-story.html

    The eccentric lifelong New Yorker became a local legend in the 1980s when he rediscovered an abandoned 19th century rail tunnel beneath Atlantic Ave., and spent the following decades leading tours of the abandoned space. The tunnel was build in 1844 — and is the world’s oldest subway.

    He is also responsible for the vintage trolleys that were in Red Hook

  • Andrew Porter

    Article disappeared behind a very aggressive Paywall, but thanks for the news. Also in The Brooklyn Paper.

  • Andrew Porter

    Two more photos of old downtown Brooklyn: the first, Fulton Street in the 1950s, showing the Automat (and a bus of the day), and, in reply, the same scene in the 1970s (with a newer bus):
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dbbcf1994e8923531d85436376ae3b11dbdf771250d511b0a20c387333671bde.jpg

  • Andrew Porter
  • Red Leader

    I think I had a Spotted lantern fly sighting on Hicks between Montague and Remsen. Tried to smash it but it flew away.

  • Andrew Porter

    1938 Hagstrom Redlining Map shows parts of BH were supposedly not worth saving:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0e3bb1a7a02dc660885b1e0230f1180bd127e8915240f8c0660c5540b82401f0.jpg

  • CassieVonMontague

    I saw five today at Flatbush and Willoughby. I killed two and the others were already dead. I’d never seen any before. The security guard at CityPoint thought I was killing wasps.

  • RickP

    You know you’re getting on when you look at historical photos comparing different eras and you remember the older one better. I remember putting nickels in the Automat coin slots. I also recall that they served Postum along with coffee and tea. It was developed by the Post cereal company and became popular during WWII when coffee was rationed. I believe it was a carryover from that era. Post stopped making it in 1967. Not exactly Heights history, but I hope it might be of some small interest.

  • Sweeties

    Fascinating. So, basically, Shore Drive was the only prime plot?

  • Red Leader

    I hadn’t seen any before today either. I tried to kill it with a plastic cup I found on the street, probably not the most effective method lol. Note to self – bring rolled up newspaper with me at all times!

  • CassieVonMontague

    Here’s a closeup of our neighborhood.

    https://i.imgur.com/i5gtFNn.png

  • CassieVonMontague

    Here’s a picture of Poplar st from 1979 from this article about DUMBO

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/nyregion/the-most-instagrammable-neighborhood-in-america-before-it-was-cool.html

    https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/09/12/lens/12Dumbo-AST-6/merlin_159568350_113c337f-e1c2-417d-b619-6f0e76c3a9e4-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp

    With Dumbo in the background, architects and planners convened on the steps of a boarded-up building at 55 Poplar Street in Brooklyn Heights to discuss the renewal of nearby Cadman Plaza. Old Fulton Street, which runs along the backside of the building, traditionally marks the boundary between the two neighborhoods. Oct. 7, 1979 Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

  • Andrew Porter

    I remember putting those nickels in, too. What I especially remember are the gargoyle-like coffee/hot chocolate spouts, and the sound the windows made when you opened them.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3af12d67d8ac9e934280c95cedd5d86b90a9f43657e41891a89ba3d1ca996ad5.jpg

  • CassieVonMontague

    https://nyc.gov/bqealert

    BQE Alert

    Beginning August 30, 2021, NYC DOT will reduce the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE), Atlantic Avenue to Brooklyn Bridge, from three to two lanes in both directions. This change will:

    – Immediately reduce weight on the roadway and help extend the use of the structure
    – Promote safety by providing dedicated entrance and exit lanes
    – Provide an adequate shoulder, minimizing the impact of incidents

    Drivers, prepare for new traffic patterns. There will be substantial delays on the BQE.

    – Drivers of private vehicles are always encouraged to take public transportation
    – Trucks and other essential vehicles should take alternate routes; maximize the use of the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel and New Jersey Turnpike

  • CassieVonMontague

    They are spraying mosquito pesticides in Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens tomorrow night from 8pm to 6am. The spray area is south of Baltic Street and east of the BQE. Close your windows if you live down there.

    https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/wnv/2021/wnv-notice-20210823.pdf

  • RickP

    https://www.pinterest.com/pin/72409506481573691/

    I couldn’t isolate the pic, but the site has it up first. Oh, the spigots of our youth!

  • disqus_NCsPYOIlUl

    So for a year plus, traffic is going to exit the BQE at Atlantic to avoid the 2-lane stretch – and turn left onto Hicks or Clinton, clogging BH streets with traffic, honking horns, and spewing pollutants? Really?

    They should ban left turns off Atlantic – and force cars to take Atlantic to Adams, where they can access the bridge or return to the BQE

  • CassieVonMontague

    A year plus? Try the next forty years!

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

    I clearly remember Postum being available in the 1970’s early 80’s as my. mom and grandparents drank it. I doubt it was the same jar…

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

    This will be an absolute nightmare. de Blasahole at his “finest”…

  • ykwthis

    We were just at the Thursday food distribution on Henry and me and a friend loudly reminded everyone there, and a few yupo’s nearby to make sure they get Vaxed……

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

    I knew Bob casually he was a good soul. His colorful accounts of the tunnel’s history were quite entertaining. RIP

  • MaggieO

    likely to spill over onto Furman and Old Fulton as well – a lot fewer traffic lights down there. i hope we don’t see an increase in pedestrian incidents at the entrance to the park by Barge Music. It’s a mad house down there. And yeah, this isn’t just for a year or two, this is for the foreseeable future.

  • Andrew Porter

    Which is why when Robert Moses rammed the BQE through the Heights, he went around some of the streets (hence the Promenade), but obliterated the northern edge, including Vine and most of Poplar.

    I posted lots of photos of the lost part of the northern Heights here over the last couple of years.

    And you can see where/why he tore down the parts that became the Cadman Towers.

  • Andrew Porter

    One of the few photos I have of Poplar is evidently from that NYT article.

    When I moved here, that entire block was fenced off, with several empty lots. You could look into the buildings along Henry and see lots of tiled walls.

    From the Municipal Archives, here are the buildings from Fulton to Poplar in 1961:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a017b9b05b5aafbd74114fde5e93047007f2f3adbef3a87a7bd4e511dab9b43f.png

  • Andrew Porter

    Don’t forget they’re going to be actively policing overweight vehicles on the BQE, whixh will likely move those trucks Somewhere Else.

    Meanwhile, congestion pricing is back on the table, so…

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    if interested in seeing what Vine Street and parts of northern Heights looked like before construction, this old film may provide a clue.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLYbIxoABNg

  • Andrew Porter

    I’m a member of a rail/transit group, “The 3rd El,” from the Jack Finney story, and I’ve posted his obituary to them.

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