Open Thread Wednesday 4/28/10

By on April 28, 2010 7:54 am in Brooklyn Heights

BHB Photo Club Pic by laurenjonikphotography via Flickr

BHB Photo Club Pic by laurenjonikphotography via Flickr


What’s on your mind? Comment below!

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  • justaneighbor

    So scary – did anyone else witness yesterday’s near-disaster? A Saudi container ship was headed in the absolute wrong direction. It was barrelling up the East River, only blocks from the Brooklyn Bridge before it stopped short (I was at the promenade on Clark when I saw it stop). The boat reversed, turned around at the tip of lower Manhattan before heading off in the correct direction of the ports at Newark.

    Where was the Coast Guard (or any form of national security for that matter)? Anyone else feel like this crew got a huge laugh at the free rein they had on our open waters?? 1-2 more minutes and they would have struck the Brooklyn Bridge as the back of their boat was high and would have never cleared it. NOT reassuring whatsoever.

  • http://bit.ly/bKFKGu JR Rosen

    Tomorrow from 5-7PM, New York City College of Technology will host its annual Literary Arts Festival in Klitgord Auditorium, 285 Jay Street. Willie Perdomo will perform, as well some students, faculty, and staff. It’s a great event, and we’re hoping for an audience made up of both City Tech community members and those from beyond the college. Join in, Brooklyn and beyond! Check out http://bit.ly/bKFKGu for more info, or follow on twitter @CityTechLitFest.

  • tb

    Is PS 8 really a good school?

  • gc

    for some reason many of the larger container ships leaving from the piers just south of here follow that same route described by justaneighbor … seems odd but that’s how they do it

  • Heightsman

    tb – in short, yes. Just look at the waitlist for out of district families. They are all hoping to win the admissions lotto each year. It has become a very neighborhood school. It was not even close to that 10 years ago.

  • ratNYC

    @Justan. I saw something similar a couple of years ago. Except the road under the FDR by the piers got filled with police cars going crazy with their lights/sirens…

  • Jonny

    Anyone check out the new convenience store @ Montague & Hicks? I did and (at least for now) it’s clean, bright, and well organized. The guy at the counter was very nice too. I was glad to purchase my much-needed half gallon of milk there. Take that, Key Food!

  • bklyn20

    I came home today to see a green-and-white business card from “MOVING 2 MEN 2 HOURS” stuck to my door frame with double-stick tape. After trying to peel it off, some of the card sticks to the paint. If you try hard enough you could probably remove the paint too. I have called them to explain that this is NOT the way to get business around here. (347-455-6066 is their number.) Certainly no great tragedy, but a pain in the … ahem … to come home to.

    My daughter is happy about it though. I’m incentivizing her with additional computer time if she can get the goop off with rubbing alcohol and a rag.

  • AEB

    Talk about cold–or, rather, hot–fury!

    YOU’RE BLEEPING MUERTO, 2 Men and a Truck!

    Took ten minutes to peel-scrape the tape-cardboard combo from the marble wall against which it was stuck in my lobby.

    FEH!

  • BH Lover

    TB – If you want to see the PS8 school community in action, grab your checkbook and come to our spring gala tomorrow night at 6:00 at Plymouth Church: http://ps8pta.org/brooklynite/

    The money raised from the auction will be used so that our incredible arts enrichment programs can continue.

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

    Ships departing Red Hook do sometimes follow the Governors Island Channel route (see here, though not always). My semi-educated guess is that it has to do with prevailing tidal currents. In any event, the crew of the ship would not have been in charge as it moves through New York harbor, but rather a New York harbor pilot.

  • sue

    Any recommendations for volunteering opportunities this summer for a 13 year old boy?

  • tb

    Hey thanks BH Lover!

  • http://bubba B’jorn D’Angelo

    I’m probably going to get blasted for this but here goes………Am I the only one that has an issue with PS8, a public school that happens to be in a very wealthy neighborhood hosting a private fundraiser? When it comes to public schools, it seems to me that schools in Brownsville & East New York and other less fortunate parts of the borough should be just as good as the public school here. As a heights resident with a soon to be Kindergartener, I love the fact that there’s a great public school option here, but on the other hand, many other neighborhoods don’t have anywhere near the fundraising power of the heights. Quite the moral conundrum. I realize inequality in public education is a much bigger social issue but if I were Joel Klein, I’d have serious reservations about this ….and I’m a republican no less! I guess just not when it comes to public education. I may as well be a commie on that issue. What say you?

  • http://www.waterpressurelighting.com Evelyn at WPL

    bklyn20…another business-drumming tactic you’ll see in the neighborhood is crafty locksmiths putting their STICKERS on door locksets and/or intercom systems, so as to give the impression they are the primary contacts to call in the event you have a problem with your lock….very underhanded way of “advertising”…know who your tradespeople are

  • ABC

    B’jorn, I don’t get your concern. Nearly every school has a PTA and nearly every PTA has a Spring fundraising event. PS8’s fundraising prowess is far behind PS29’s (and WAY behind PS321).

    Also, you might be surprised to know that Brownsville has a great public option, Leadership Prep.

    http://www.uncommonschools.org/lpb/home/

    and kids could go from there to Brownsville Collegiate:

    http://uncommonschools.org/bccs/home/index.html

    .. making those kids path a little clearer than kids in Brooklyn Heights who go from PS8 to who knows where.

    And East New York has a new lower and middle school (East New York School of Excellence) that looks really promising.

  • justaneighbor

    Interesting, Claude – that was the same boat I saw! OK..I guess I feel little better now, thanks :)

  • Andrew Porter

    As some might know, NYC has decided that school bake sales can’t include actual home-made baked goods, only commercial junk food. So having a “private sale” is one way to get around this stupid idea.

    Has anyone here heard of “shipping channels”? Ships can’t go anywhere they want in the harbor—they have to stick to channels which have been dredged to accommodate the depth of the ship. Believe me, if a ship had really been in danger of running into the Bridge, there would have been half a dozen military jets overhead in a few minutes.

  • justaneighbor

    Andrew, in light of everything that’s happened in this city over the past 10 years, I’d rather be safe then sorry and just point something out if it doesn’t seem right to me. Yes, shipping channels exist but boats do stray from time to time.