Comments on: Mr. Junkersfeld and the Evolution of Cadman Plaza

By: Pete & Irene

Pete & Irene — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:37:51 +0000

Wow! What a great video – and very professional. Karl, we really did enjoy it, but more importantly, we enjoyed meeting you on one of our visits to Brooklyn. As you might remember, my wife and I were passing time one Sun. morning when our paths accidentally crossed and you gave us a very personal, first-hand tour of BH that was unbelievable and very educational. Thank you very much! Your love and pride in BH history was obvious and truly admirable. Keep that spark alive, Karl, and we will continue to follow your work on the blog.

Hope to run into you again in the Spring.

Pete & Irene, Naples, FL
Mahwah, NJ

By: Brian Merlis

Brian Merlis — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 14:58:57 +0000

Hi Karl:
Nice job on the film, but I’m a bit surprised as a number of the early dates and a couple of locations were not quite on base…yet very informative and entertaining!
I have some excellent images of the west side of Fulton Street – 1940s and 1950s for your next project.
Feel free to give a call: 516-808-1214
Best Holidays,
Brian Merlis

By: Brian Merlis

Brian Merlis — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 14:54:15 +0000

I sent it to friends to enjoy!

By: Karl Junkersfeld

Karl Junkersfeld — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:51:35 +0000

I hear you anon, concerning directionality. I’ll try to do better. This is an accepted practice with pictures that I unfortunately ignored. One consideration I had at the time was i didn’t want to distract the viewer with too much verbiage. Many frames already had some sort of written detail and due to ephemerality of each frame, of which you were cognizant, there is only so much I can write. What I will do in the future is keep southern view pictures together. That way you wouldn’t be looking north one frame then south the next then back north again the next frame. Good point. Thanks.

Unfortunately, as far as duration of each frame, my2cents made same observation, I’m working with certain constraints. YouTube limits the total duration of a film posted to their site and Homer already thinks my films are entirely too long. It is a tradeoff, limited duration of picture or less of them. I’d opted for more pictures at lesser duration considering, as you said, the ability of the viewer to freeze frame if necessary.

By the way, I used the post office as my frame of reference or beacon with northern shots and Boro Hall for pictures that were more south.

Thanks for your kind words.

By: anon

anon — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:02:36 +0000

Reading my post I just wanted to clarify that the street info and locations, and direction may be obvious to you but not to newbied like me. If this is for history then the more detail the better. Still a great video but having watched your other videos but never commented I thouight I’d add my thoughts, especially when I read above that you’ve revised the video in reponse to other comments.

By: anon

anon — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:51:57 +0000

Karl, loved, loved, loved the film. Didn’t know the history, which made the joy of dicovery quite fun. If I may, since I (and perhaps others) get turned around a bit and the photos move kinda fast for my personal taste, is to better identify the street names, with relevant cross streets, and if the view shown is north, south, etc. I kept stopping the video to try and identify the direction, using Borough Hall as my beacon. Still a great film, and well researched, so bravo.

By: Karl Junkersfeld

Karl Junkersfeld — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:01:37 +0000

North Heights res,

I don’t believe I mentioned Cobblestones or to be more accurate “Belgian Blocks’ once in the piece.

By: melanie hope greenberg

melanie hope greenberg — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:48:14 +0000

Excellent! How fascinating. Looking forward to the next film. I love the Brooklyn Public Library and Brooklyn Historical Society, too.

By: my2cents

my2cents — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:33:31 +0000

Nabeguy,
Ratner’s stocking is going to be chock full of coal. and that coal will have bed bugs in it. and the bed bugs will have swine flu.

By: North Heights res

North Heights res — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:46:11 +0000

Mr. Porter, I appreciate your attention to details and accuracy. This is at least the second time that inaccuracies have been discovered in Mr. Junkersfeld’s work. As a writer myself, I understand that sometimes mistakes creep into work, despite one’s own best intentions. What is more disturbing to me than the mistakes is Mr. Junkersfeld’s rationale for them.

By: nabeguy

nabeguy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:40:36 +0000

Point taken, my2. I was just trying to be a little too clever for my own good. Love the coal metaphor, especially given the season. I wonder what Ratner’s getting in his stocking?

By: nabeguy

nabeguy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:35:18 +0000

Bald, huh? Been to Starbucks lately?

By: Karl Junkersfeld

Karl Junkersfeld — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:19:30 +0000

nabeguy, you never miss a thing. Potter from Pottersville. You don’t see the resemblance?

Was it a Freudian slip or another poor attempt at sarcasm? Only my hairdresser knows for sure. Oh yea, I’m bald. Never mind.

By: nabeguy

nabeguy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:19:33 +0000

Karl, was your reference to Mr. Potter another example of bad spelling or did you just happen to watch “It’s A Wonderful Life” before you posted?;-)

By: my2cents

my2cents — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:21:29 +0000

Hi Karl, my only constructive criticism is to actually linger on each photo a little longer before fading to the next one. I was trying to drink in all the wonderful details! Great job!

By: Karl Junkersfeld

Karl Junkersfeld — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:14:26 +0000

This morning I had the fun experience of reviewing some of the articles I read prior to putting the film together. Articles date to 1890 and 1891, the year cable cars were introduced to Montague.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtL-kgaGFD8

Nabeguy, a voice of reason, made an excellent suggestion that we should all work together and produce a collaborative effort that would make the Brooklyn Heights Blog proud. Some day, someone will look back at the articles, pictures and video’s we are producing today and hopefully use them as a resource to better understand what happened back in the good old days of 2009. We all can appreciate the dearth of information out there from prior generations though I am appreciative for what little there is.

Right now even, if one does research on Brooklyn Heights, this fantastic blog shows up time and time again as the ultimate authority of happenings in BH.

None of us get paid for our contributions. We do it out of a love for Brooklyn Heights and the people that live in this great neighborhood.

Lastly, Mr. Potter, your criticism was very helpful and I made the necessary corrections but it is the way you dispense this great wisdom that is a real turn off. It is very condescending in nature. Gotcha politics is very unattractive.

As an editor, you don’t want to berate someone who is trying their very best to produce a fine product. Constructive criticism is very welcome and as I said earlier, your criticism was very much appreciated and help make this film that much better and i thank you for that.

By: BklynJace

BklynJace — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:08:30 +0000

Enjoyed this hugely — since watching it I’ve found myself lingering on my walks back from Borough Hall, trying to picture in my mind what had been. Having since the film, you really get a sense of the old Els and how they shaped the street grid. Thanks, Karl!

By: my2cents

my2cents — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:36:23 +0000

Yes Nabeguy, the towers between henry and cadman plaza are another omlette that is less than delicious to the eye and killed the streetscape on Henry, but those were probably made without the need for eminent domain. I didn’t mean my post as an endorsement of atlantic yards though. I was just pointing out that change in the city is inexorable and sometimes in the long term yields gems that started as lumps of coal. Other times you just get coal…

By: bornhere

bornhere — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:16:36 +0000

Thanks, nabe, I’ve seen that one and others of that church; it’s a good thing I wasn’t yet born when that came tumbling down — I probably would have thrown myself in front of a surrey. Your dad’s pictures are still probably the best I’ve seen of the more recent good ol’ days.

By: nabeguy

nabeguy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:55:27 +0000

Sorry, try this:

http://tinyurl.com/yapbb9f

By: nabeguy

nabeguy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:49:27 +0000

bornhere, I found one from 1900 that’s interesting:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/y9anr6

By: nabeguy

nabeguy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:30:19 +0000

If Atlantic Yards isn’t an example of modern-day egg breaking, than I don’t know what is. The only difference is that we end up with something closer to a zabaglione than an omelette.

By: bornhere

bornhere — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:26:07 +0000

I think this is one of Karl’s best BHB postings. I had seen the pictures before, but the montage, music, and narration created a wonderful package.
I, too, wish there were someone who could post pictures of Clark Street and the rest of the area from the 50s (I guess that, as a kid, I should have asked my parents for a camera instead of a pony). THE BPL does have a great online collection, but there are so many gaps.
And my edge about the Cadman buildings and what was lost to allow for their construction is always dulled when I see that Supreme Court thing — what were the architects thinking? It still looks like it’s a temporary, the-real-building-will-be-built-soon nightmare.

By: my2cents

my2cents — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:45:52 +0000

First of all, thanks Karl for this very interesting and informative effort! It really shows how dynamic the cityscape has been throughout the 20th century. At the risk of opening a can of worms here, I just think it is interesting to ponder the pros and cons of Robert Moses’ actions. When the plaza was first created, he presumably must have used eminent domain to tear down several square blocks of buildings, and the final result was pretty unspectacular (looks like a parking lot surrounding a wasteland of sod and framed by an elevated train.) But in the end, over time the park was expanded, memorials added and trees matured, and the elevated train was removed leaving us with the pleasant place we enjoy today. And we can thank Mayor Bloomberg for improving that park yet again by adding the false turf and cleaning it up. I guess what I am getting at here in a roundabout way is that we are enjoying an delicious “omelette” today, but a lot of eggs were broken to get there that might not have been broken in this day and age.

By: Karl Junkersfeld

Karl Junkersfeld — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:37:45 +0000

nabeguy, thanks for defending me. I appreciate it.

Andrew has been a bit tough on me in the past but I’m a big boy. I corrected the misspelling. Thanks Andrew.

For example, when I was being sarcastic about not knowing Paul Giamatti in a prior film on restaurants, Andrew was quick to point out that he lived in Brooklyn Heights and starred in HBO’s John Adams. For the record, I saw the series twice and read the book soon thereafter. Paul is one of my favorite actors and I also have a tremendous respect for his father.

My source about Montague cable cars was none other than the Brooklyn Heights Blog:

http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/262

By: nabeguy

nabeguy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:06:41 +0000

Andrew, your faint praise of this film as a “worthwhile effort” betrays an academic background. Karl’s a film-maker first, historian second, so cut him some slack on whatever inaccuracies that may pop up. Or better yet, reach out to him and share your own archives and knowledge to fact-check his work. Being a self-proclaimed historian of the area myself, I’d relish the idea of collaborating on a project that would kick the dust off the Heights history in as vivid a way as Karl’s films have done.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:38:22 +0000

Andrew, not true about cable cars in Brooklyn. The train running up Montague Street from the Wall St. Ferry to Court Street was a cable car, not a street car. Very useful for climbing the hill from Furman up to the Heights.

By: Andrew Porter

Andrew Porter — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:32:55 +0000

There is one verbal, and two picture references, to cable cars. Cable cars use a moving cable under the street as their motive power. There were no cable cars in Brooklyn; they were all streetcars, and indeed in the photo showing the “cable cars” in front of the Fulton Street ferry terminal you can see they are actually drawn by horses. Horse drawn street cars were eventually electrified.

The fact that initially the terminal was primarily used by the streetcars which went over the Brooklyn Bridge, terminating in Manhattan in a station which occupied the plaza in front of Manhattan City Hall, is not made clear.

There’s also a bad typo, showing steel “disgarded”; please correct it to say “discarded”.

Overall, this was a very worthwhile effort which uses many rare photographs from their day which I’d not seen before.

By: benita berman

benita berman — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:46:42 +0000

I really enjoyed watching this – the transformation was amazing as well as the level of your research. I grew up in Brooklyn Heights and my family owned two greek revival townhouses on Clark Street between Henry and Fulton that were destroyed to make way for the high rise now on Clark. I am an artist and use memory images of Brooklyn in my work. I am eagerly awaiting your next film and hope you will include photos of Clark at the time of the destruction. I am always searching for them in hopes of seeing our buildings. Would it be possible to contact you directly to see what you might have? I am the one who put out the word about the destruction of the St. George Pool mural – my email is benitaberman@mac.com.

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:57:27 +0000

wow I enjoy watching that. thanks Mr.Junkersfeld