Open Thread Wednesday

By on May 9, 2007 12:45 am in Brooklyn Heights

 

Are you checking out the Heights House Tour? No peeking in the medicine cabinets!

It's a SkyHouse! 

Hoax on Henry. Tragic and sad or brilliant? 

Is outdoor tennis worth converting for? 

And please help this guy find a drink. 

…and whatever else is on your mind. 

BHB Photo Club pic by Claude Scales

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  • nabeguy

    $2 for a double whiskey and Coke!?!?! This guy will be lucky to find just a Coke for $2. Welcome to New York!

  • must go outside today

    Wow!– that’s a nice photo.

  • http://www.cheekyshideaway.com CroutonBoy

    I haven’t had a $2 drink of ANY kind since I left Spokane 15 years ago. I’d suggest crashing weddings with open bars, or paying the money at Henry St. Ale House…

    Does anyone know what’s going on on Pineapple Walk?

  • must go outside today

    gunchucks is asking way too much. the only way to drink alone and cheep in public is to bring your own bottle to an alley.

  • nabeguy

    Re: Pineapple Walk: Probably the same thing that’s been going on with those towers since the day they were built…
    repairing the horrible construction that went into them. Amazingly, they got shoddier with each new one. The first one built on Middagh has had the least problems (although a walkway from the building to the parking area across the street pretty much collapsed after 5 years). The one on Clark had to be completely repointed not too long ago, and we all know what’s been going on with the Orange St. one. At least witht that fiasco, they realized how bad the construction was 1/2 way through and re-did it. Lest one forget, these buildings are no more than 30 to 40 years old and are already falling apart. Amazing when you think there are houses in the area that are still standing after 180 years.

  • above average joe

    Thanks to Robert Moses and the BHA, these towers got built in the first place.

  • http://www.brooklyndojo.com Brian

    They are replacing all of the windows in the tower at 101 Clark St.
    The building department required that the sidewalk-shed cover the entirety of Pineapple Walk.
    I was told 10 apartments a week. 31 Floors starting at the 3rd floor (I forget how many units per floor).
    Through the end of October, at least.

  • http://adsformyself.blogspot.com Tim N.

    Joe… explain. I didn’t know those were Moses projects. I did hear they knocked down what was Walt Whitman’s house/print shop to build them.

  • nabeguy

    I don’t know how much Moses had to do with these monstrosities, but I do know that if it wasn’t for the likes of preservationists like Otis Pearsall, the neighborhood stood to be decimated. In fact, the LPC really grew out of the fights of such activists over projects like this; no small wonder that the Heights was the first landmarked neighborhood.

  • Homer Fink

    I think he’s talking about this:

    Pearsall and his wife were part of a new generation of Brooklyn Heights residents — young professionals interested in preserving the neighborhood’s history and beauty. Inspired by Boston’s Beacon Hill Historic District, he proposed what was a radical idea for New York City at the time — instead of landmarking buildings, landmark an entire neighborhood. How he and the Brooklyn Heights Association arrived at the borders we now know was the product of a difficult decision — not to stop the construction of the “new” Cadman Plaza (the BHA did successfully lobby for “larger, family size” apartments to be built on the site). “I made a judgment that we dare not risk this whole new idea and the possibility that we could actually get the preservation of Brooklyn Heights officially in place through a designation. I didn’t want to risk that by dragging in the future of Cadman Plaza.”

    http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/213

  • nabeguy

    Tim N. – your’e absolutely right. My father, along with others, waged a bitter fight to have Whitman’s print shop on Cranberry Street (where he printed “Leaves of Grass”) designated a National Landmark. It was a last ditch effort to stop the towers but was ultimately rejected. The big concession on the developers part was to name the townhouses on that area as “Whitman Townhouses”. The “Song of Myself” ended up a dirge.

  • http://adsformyself.blogspot.com Tim N.

    Do any snaps of Whitman’s shop or Cadman Plaza pre-project exist?

    Thanks, everyone, for filling in the blanks.

  • nabeguy

    Perhaps my negative perspective is based on the fact that I can remember what the neighborhood was like before those towers went up and how it’s nature and scale was effected by them. I’m not commenting on the poeple who live in them, by the way, just the buidling themselves. I think even you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who would call them attractive.

  • http://adsformyself.blogspot.com Tim N.

    BTW, amazing picture!

  • MBF

    Anyone have any news on Oven? Wasn’t it supposed to open last week?

    And yes, outdoor tennis just might be worth converting for.

  • Here too long

    No words about Oven, but has anyone enjoyed what they’ve tried from Busy Chef? I’ve been there a few times now, and have tried different entrees & appetizers each time… so far it’s all much too spicy for me, and nothing special. Last night they even gave me the wrong dessert & that might’ve been the last straw for me. Especially when I compare it to Fresh Direct …

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

    “must go outside” and Tim N. – thanks for your kind comments. I was walking across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan a couple of days ago, glanced to my right and saw I was looking straight down at the Promenade and BQE, with the Verrazzano in the background, so I popped my little Canon Power Shot out of my pocket and used the 6X optical zoom to full effect.

    ma – I take issue with your characterization of nabeguy as “negative”. He’s one of the most thoughtful posters, and his many years’ living here gives him great perspective.

  • Cranky

    Oh for the person looking for a drink. I always liked the Henry Street Ale House and you may find some college age people in there (it’s a mix). Little higher than $2 a drink though. Eamons (on Montague) is good for drinking too.

  • GHB

    I agree…beautiful pic. But it makes it look like 160 Columbia Heights is right across the street from One Brooklyn Bridge Park!

  • nabeguy

    Thanks for the support Claude. And I was wondering how you got that incredible pic, short of converting to the Jehovah Witnesses and taking it from the Watchtower roof! You sure you weren’t up there looking for those fabled tennis courts?

  • Cranky

    Mma I like nabe guy. I think he is interesting.

  • Just me

    New sign for a fake business on the newsstand door at 5:15 … VERY cute, you guys. A kid’s mexican playspace cigar bar & mah-jong parlor. 2 people looked at me strangely after I read the sign & started giggling.

  • BP

    picture?

  • BP

    oh, should have included this in the previous post.

    How about a Chevy’s in the “Meet me at Clark St.’ space?

    I know, it’s a chain, but I like it.
    Good mexican food, a good bar with good margaritas.

  • nabeguy

    Ma-I’m sorry that you find my perspective negative, as it’s not my intent to offend anyone. The fact is I’m as frustrated as everyone else with the dearth of services in the area. Having lived here for over 50 years, I can remember a time before real estate was the new oil and landlords the new robber barons, when there were local butchers and bakers and fishmongers and you could buy fruit from the back of a horse drawn cart. Perhaps I’m a nostalgic old fogey, but all I can say to those who confuse the word gentrification with progress, you missed a hell of a neighborhood by 30 years.
    P.S. In case you think I’m just a landlord-basher, I happen to own a commercial-residential building in the Village, so have a fairly personal idea of how important it is to work with businesses to help them to survive.

  • BP

    Cadman Plaza Park (aka The Dustbowl; Toxic Turf(?)) is open.