Open Thread Wednesday

Does anyone know when the Brooklyn Heights kids Halloween parade will be this year?

I confirmed this with the store. The website, for online shopping, is also being closed down.

This is a great shock to me, as I've shopped there for years. Their prices have always been high, but the selection has always been outstanding.

Then there's the name: Perelandra is the second book in C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy set on the planet of Perelandra, or Venus. It was first published in 1943. The other books are That Hideous Strength and Out of The Silent Planet.
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Andrew, as one of the neighborhood’s unofficial historians, can you tell us when the store opened?

I know it was definitely there 15 years ago. I’m almost positive it was there 21 years ago. And I’m pretty sure it was even there when I first came to the neighborhood 27 years ago.

Also, it’s a shame the owners didn’t make their struggles public. I wonder if someone else with an overlapping vision might have bought the business and tweaked the business model. Less of this, more of that. There are quite a few very deep pockets in this neighborhood these days. You never know when someone might be looking for a new challenge and isn’t too concerned with profit. :-/

Knowing the store has been here 48 years, what businesses remain that are older? Off the top of my head, I can only think of:

– Lassen & Hennigs (1946)

– The Women’s Exchange (founded in the 1800s and it’s unclear to me what was for sale but definitely had a store in the neighborhood by 1936.)

Other contenders that I would need confirmation on are:

Haagen-Daz. They also opened in 1976. But which opened first?

Tango. They opened in the “late 70s” so likely a bit younger than Perelandra.

Henry’s End. New owners and new location, but same vibe and menu. They opened in 1973.

Jubilee Gallery. They opened in December 1973 or early 1974 in the Clark street subway gallery before moving to Henry street, where they’ve been for about 50 years.

What am I missing?

I'm not being provocative here – at least not wilfully. Yes, there are some advantages to living in a society where something other than profits pretty much dictates how everything goes.

But this IS the US, and most of us would not rush to trade places with someone in Russia, China or even the handful of "nice" places on earth.

I routinely pass by what was "the Heights Cinema < 20 years ago. I patronized it, as it happens, and I missed it when it closed, but WHO IS to say ("objectively") that the nabe is worse off with that 4-story building housing 15-20 families?

Perelandra probably ceased being a "mom & pop" store many years ago, so speculating that the owners were the founders and are now of retirement age is absurd.

Yes, many customers will miss the store. I miss Teresa's and I could make a long list of other casualties – so could most of you – but the reality is that while MD's and hair stylists are still "necessary," 95% of the Heights' commercial space is – AT BEST – in the "nice to have" realm.

It's only a few years, so I remember the now ludicrous BHA initiative to make Montague St. great again by someone's opening a fish store (yes, I "voted" for that one) and definitely NOT having a 10-30% vacancy rate year after year. Fourth Ave. may be "ugly," but upzoning worked out well there.

Montague & Court are "endangered" species in terms of the current mix. Upzoning is long overdue. Remember, it is often in a landlord's best interest to have a good tenant – supermarket or whatever – occuping the ground floor if there are 4-20 floors of apts above it.

I think you’re wrong on a number of counts.

First, Perelandra is indeed still a mom & pop, owned by the original owner. Not sure how involved he was but it’s not like he sold to Whole Foods or something (which is now owned by Amazon).

I think Perelandra’s prices are painfully high on many things and that sent me elsewhere for a lot. (I honestly wonder if they could’ve become profitable simply by dropping all the fresh produce. It seems like they threw away as much as they sold) but there’s a small handful of items we loved from there that had us coming back multiple times per week (plus, the location was very convenient to us).

I just did the math and we only spent 5% of our total grocery store + farmer’s market expenditures there this year but that still added up to a hefty sum (we spend a fortune on groceries – we rarely eat out or order in).

Second, I too would love a fishmonger closer than Fish Tales, but I do think Montague of all streets can support a lot of “nice to have’s”. Just look at the seeming success of both Books Are Magic and L’Apartement 4F. Both thriving. I think the increase in work from home post-covid will benefit our neighborhood as more of us are here instead of spending all our dollars in Manhattan. I also think all the new apartment buildings on the east end of Montague and Remsen can only help. There are now thousands of additional residents shopping here.

My wife is devastated. She is a big fan of Perelandra. That places makes her happy.

Terrible news.

I meant to check. You ARE right(er than I was) about the # of units at 70 Henry. It's 5, but that was a design decision. It could have been 2-3 times that many.

But think about it – the Hts. Cinema – like the BPL branch on CPW – was so UNDERUSING precious real estate that it couldn't (& shouldn't) have survived much longer.

You're right, too, that there's more WFH, but I'm really not sure HOW much more (or how much longer.) It's GREAT that 4F & Books/Magic have taken root, but you didn't engage with my main point. Leave aside their merits as grocery stores. We need MORE like the one across from Citibank (with dozens of households above it) and say goodbye – for public policy reasons – to height-challenged Key Food a couple of blocks away.

When streets like Henry, Montague & Court have multiple 30-story buildings on them, it's simply stupid zoning that exacerbates our City's housing shortage.

Build, baby, build!

Oh, I missed your point entirely. You're saying that the space in this city is to precious to waste, especially this close to so many subway lines. I agree.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the benefits of living in an historic district wit ha 50' height limit. But agree that the Key Food should have 4 floors of condos above it and the movie theater building was a poor use of space. (I actually wouldn't be surprised if the Key Food closed and became a new condo building. Which would have been devastating a year ago but with Food Town up the street it would be managable.)

And I want Theresa's back, and Pic-A-Deli, though the latter has been replaced by several businesses, the current being the excellent Books Are Magic.

Not gonna happen.

PS: I want my youth back, too!

The Key Food’s rear neighbors have promised scortched-Earth litigation if anything remotely tall is built on that site, and I’m sure the BHA will back them up

The tiny number of units in 70 Henry was not a design choice, it was an economic choice. It was the only way to make money on a height restricted lot where they also had to preserve a brick wall. See also the designs and number of units in 30 Henry and 325 Henry

I know one of those families that backs up to Key Food quite well and I can only imagine the level of wrath they would bring down.

That said, as long as what was proposed for the Key Food lot was under 50’ and was contextually appropriate they may not win.

I understand the desire to keep some of the lower buildings on Montague that have a bit of historical interest to their facade – like the corner with CitiChemist. But the Key Food building, as I recall, is a bland brick facade with very little going for it. That the side of the Bossert is windowless for the 5 stories and then windows appear tells me that a taller building was always anticipated (and may have even existed at one point).