Flatbush Says Bishop’s Crooks Stink!

By on September 22, 2009 7:02 am in Government

The NY Daily News reports today that Flatbush residents have a huge hate-on for the old timey Bishop’s Crooks streetlamps that have been installed in the area in the last few months.   Montague Street is lined with the retro streetlamps and more are planned for Brooklyn Heights:

NY Daily News:  “It’s ridiculous,” said Kent Thomas, 24, of Flatbush. “The lights we have work fine. There are hungry people in this neighborhood who need help; we need shelters and soup kitchens.”

The antique lights, which are called bishop’s crooks, cost about $10,000 to purchase and install. Standard streetlights cost about $4,000.

About 250 of the 500 antique lights have been installed since this spring on Ditmas Ave., Westminster Road and Beverly Road.

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  • AEB

    Well, of course!

    And from the aesthetic POV, my experience is that the installation of such lampposts when new result in a Disneyland-like effect.

    As St. Augustine said (not to me, but….), the high and low together is greater than the high alone.

    I think I got that right.

  • nicky215

    Let us remember it was our councilman David Yassky who gave 200.000 to the BHA ( whose members I am sure gave much more to him) to put up these poles is the Heights. This goes on while folks are being evicted from their homes and more and more go to food banks.
    This is a man who is running for controller and says he will watch every penny of our money. Is something wrong here?

  • nicky215

    Oh I forgot how much of our money was spent to put his name on garbage cans all over the district. This free advertising he got should be reimbused to the taxpayers.

  • Curmudgeon

    I too vote, pay taxes and live here and I want the lights.

  • nicky215

    Does it raise your property values

  • nabeguy

    Personally, I hate these lights from an aesthetic standpoint. If you want to install lights with historical integrity, go for gas-lamps, a la Poplar Street. I realize that some folks may think I’m missing the point here, to which I respond that maybe it’s time to put away your copies of Das Kapital and stop trying to fan the fires of class-warfare. I agree that, given the current economic environment, this has all the makings of a self-aggrandizing and utterly wasteful ploy on Yassky’s part to firm up votes. However, as a resident of this fair neighborhood, I’m not going to look a gift-horse in the mouth either.

  • the banned

    I agree with nabeguy, fancy-shmanzy streetlights suck. Give us good old down home ugly streetlights. they’re good enough for us. Use the money for world peace, love, and group hugs. I’ld like to see….the world to sing……in perfect harmony…..
    i want to see…..a world of love…and Coca-cola……it’s the real thing…..nabeguy is……what you’re hoping to find….in the back of your mind….the real thing…..nabeguy and coca-cola.

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

    The banned: your reading of nabeguy brings to mind this exchange:

    Blackadder: Baldrick, do you know what irony is?

    Baldrick: Oh, sure. It’s like silvery, or coppery, or goldy.

  • Smarty Smarkowitz

    The banned how do you feel about landmarks conservation?

  • DAB

    Why is it only “class warfare” when people criticize the rich? How is using the powers of the state to foreclose people out of their homes not class warfare? Or the drug war?

    /rant