Open Thread Wednesday 10/13/10

By on October 13, 2010 1:07 am in Brooklyn Heights

Flickr photo by taylor77

What’s on your mind?  Comment away!

Share this Story:

,

←  Older Comments
Newer Comments  →
  • Remsen

    The staff of Montague Bagel could not find their collective butts with both hands. Gordon Ramsey needs to visit this place.

  • BigDave
  • http://www.tksmall.com TK Small

    Last night at the Community Board meeting, Assemblywoman Millman reported that there was a “compromise” in the ongoing bicycle lane controversy. Apparently, for a two-hour period on Sunday morning, parishioners will be allowed to park cars in the bicycle lane and a police officer will be assigned to such areas to help coordinate bicycle traffic.

  • Arch Stanton

    Oh great, so now our tax dollars are subsidizing the church…

  • north heights res

    A sign on the church a couple of weeks ago read that cars could not park in the bike lane, but that there would be ample parking on Clark St., suggesting that parishioners could park on the south side of Clark St during services.

    Clark St is way too narrow for cars to park on both sides. Emergency vehicles would have a tough time navigating if they had to; I just don’t get that going to church (and I am a church-goer) means that you get some sort of special dispensation for parking. Seems ridiculous to me.

  • drewb

    How ridiculous that our tax dollars are now being spent to facilitate illegal parking for church services.

  • Monty

    At least the orange shirt cult guys don’t block the bike lanes.

  • Arch Stanton

    Millman’s compromise of illegally using police officers as parking lot attendants for the church; clearly illustrates why she needs to be voted out of office forever.

  • XYZ

    Compromise? How is that different than what is currently in place? Go from 2.5 hours to 2? There are parking garages around. Let them park there. That will create tax income for the city. Why do people not living in this neighborhood get special parking privileges? They contribute nothing to the neighborhood otherwise.

    I would like for Mrs. Millman to work on a compromise in order to create a 24×7 parking spot outside my building exclusively for my own use.

    Just let someone die or get hurt because the streets are blocked and it will all be taken care of it by itself. Of course at a cost as the city will be sued for damages as they tolerated this behavior of the church goers.

  • insert cute name here

    Where is the ship/boat/vessel/skiff/barge for Bargemusic? It’s gone.

  • nabeguy

    Eddy, sorry for jumping down your throat, I missed the previous posts. For all our sakes, let’s hope they DO read this blog and pull their heads out of their bagel holes.

  • heightsguy

    Having a very hard time finding a decent major appliance repair co. for dishwasher and stove. The last goons wrecked my stove and charged me $800.00 (did not pay up).

  • heightsguy

    this is really old hat I admit, but at Gristede’s today the house brand of several items (Shoprite) cost literally double that of other, supposedly ritzier brands. Example: dried apricots. And of course everything is way higher than at Key.

  • GHB

    Heightsguy, just dropped in to Gristede’s to buy Smucker’s chunky peanut butter (my favorite.) The price was $3.99 which I thought was high. Went to Key and paid $3.39. It really adds up!

  • my2cents

    Arch, XYZ et al.
    Why is it so bad that someone brokered a reasonable compromise to make bikers and churchgoers happy. Sheesh…
    If you are mad that the police are being used as crossing guards for bicyclists, blame Kaufman, not Millman. But that is why the cops are now there: To prevent a lawsuit and placate a bunch of “concerned citizens”. But for the record,as I pointed out in a previous post, if you look at Crashstat.org (run by Transportation Alternatives) there have been 0 bike incidents on that block EVER, even before the bike lane existed. There have actually been 2 peds injured on that block, and that was back in 1998, and 1999. In other words, the status quo was fine.

  • since47

    insert cute name here: Bargemusic was tugged away last week (very odd to see it being accompanied down river) for a sprucing up. I notice that their schedule is empty until the end of October, so I presume it will be tugged back shortly before then.

  • WillowtownCop

    A traffic post in front of a church is nothing unusual. There are “HOW” (House of Warship) cars in most pcts every week. There are footposts in Hasidic neighborhoods that do “work” on the sabbath. There will be a police car in front of the Ground Zero Mosque at all times. Protecting people and directing traffic, taxpayer funded or not, doesn’t cross the church/state line.

  • nabeguy

    Go on with your bad self, my2. I wasn’t aware that a compromise was in place, and am somewhat abashed that the city actually acquiesced to the point of putting a traffic guard on the scene…at taxpayers expense. But it’s encouraging to see that this issue seems to have moved beyond the pedal-in-place-stationary-bike status that existed before. Of course, nothing short of an all-out ban is going to satisfy the Flying Pigeon devotees.

  • nabeguy

    willow, you beat me to my post, so I defer to your knowledge. But I’m left with nagging question…if a PD car is placed at specific houses of worship that are deemed “targets”, isn’t the church/state line blurred? Does the NYPD consider some faiths more worthy of protection than others? I get the post-9/11 argument that would justify that policy, but I’m left to wonder if it doesn’t cross Constitutional boundaries.

  • my2cents

    It’s common for cops to be stationed outside of synagogues during high holidays. That’s because threats are often made against Jews. it doesnt cross any church/state lines for the police to address threats made against groups of people. I mean, the cops protect KKK ralliers from angry mobs as well. It doesnt mean any endorsing of any religion or point of view to have police protect a house of worship or a march. The constituion forbids state religion, but it also enshrines the protection of religious freedom. I would say a police car in front of a mosque falls in the latter category, no?

  • T.K. Small

    Frequently there is a police presence near the mosque on State Street. Although I cannot independently confirm this fact, I read somewhere that the State Street mosque is the oldest in the US. Another interesting BH piece of information if true.

  • curious

    Is it true that the Brooklyn Heights shooting victim died? A comment on the old thread, which provided a name (heretofore previously undisclosed) made this suggestion,

  • WillowtownCop

    “Does the NYPD consider some faiths more worthy of protection than others?”

    Yes. No one in recent memory has threatened, for example, Episcopalians. It’s just like Brownsville vs. Brooklyn Heights- there are 75 cops on foot posts in about 5 square blocks of Brownsville right now, and none here- not because the citizens of Brownsville are more worthy of police protection (or harassment), but because the crime rates there are still much higher than they are here.

  • Arch Stanton

    @ my2, No I don’t think it’s a reasonable compromise. Transportation Alternatives (I’m a member) fought hard battle against the city to get the bike lanes installed. It sets a bad precedent to start legitimizing excuses for obstructing them. The lanes are an asset to the city by enabling more people to use bikes instead of cars for transportation.

    & @ Willowtown & nabeguy,
    There is a huge difference between police protecting a religious property and its worshipers from potential attack vs. police providing traffic management for the purpose of enabling worshipers to park their cars illegally. In my opinion; the first case is not a violation constitutional separation of church & state, the second case is.

  • bklyn20

    Yes, I heard that he (the Clark Street shooting victim) died very recently. Sad.

  • Eddy de Lectron

    @ nabeguy, RE:
    Montague Bagel. No worries, it’s all good….

    Yes, I hope they do get it together as it was the last place to get a decent sandwich, on Montague.

  • XYZ

    my2: Arent you the one who cried foul when you got ticketed outside 20 Henry when parked there illegally? Maybe you want to work on getting the signs changed outside the church as well. But you probably worship there and therefore see nothing wrong with the current situation.

    I really dont care if there is a cop or traffic guard out there. My issue is that everyone else gets a ticket when they park there and be it for people moving. There is no leniency there for those people when they need to lift heavy items or the content of a whole apartment into a truck which happens not that regularly. But then all out of a sudden every Sunday those rules are not in effect for people who need to drive to church. Why can’t they park legally? There are parking garages close to the churches as well. Yes, it costs money, but that is not my problem.

    I even recall a few years back that there was a guy moving on a Sunday, the truck parked in the middle of the church people’s car. Guess what: He got a ticket, the church people didnt.

    And its the same issue on Poplar. You cant park on the right side of the street, but then if you put a contractor vest on the window in the driver side on your car with mainly PA or NJ license plates its being tolerated.

    Guess I am mad as I am not a member of the privileged parking group and have to pay my monthly parking garage fees out of my own pockets and run the risk of getting ticketed when I am unloading my car after a trip to Fairway.

    I live here, they dont.

  • agdg

    How about an updated article on the Clark St shooting? Perhaps now that the victim apparently passed (see above), more info will by released by NYPD?

  • my2cents

    XYZ, that was a great self analysis
    “Guess I am mad as I am not a member of the privileged parking group and have to pay my monthly parking garage fees out of my own pockets and run the risk of getting ticketed when I am unloading my car after a trip to Fairway.”

    Cry me river. At least you are “privileged” enough to afford monthly parking fees and own a car in the city. That has nothing to do with parking on the wrong side of the street for 2 hours on sundays.

    As far as the church, I sure don’t worship there. I just think people should bike down Monroe place or willow for 2 hours each sunday and STFU. Live and let live. I don’t think it is a completely “fair” situation either. But I think you all need to get your arguments in line. Is it a safety issue or a jealousy issue? You just said it was the latter. And frankly that is your problem, not anyone else’s

  • Arch Stanton

    @ my2cents,
    If you are not a car owner, biker or a worshiper you really have no grounds to make an informed opinion on the matter.
    I own a car and I’m an avid biker.
    Why should people who don’t even live in the neighborhood or anyone for that matter, be allowed to park illegally & obstruct a major bike lane, purely for their own convenience? Why can’t they find a spot on the street, park in a lot or better yet, take public transportation? Especially when (as XYZ pointed out), there is zero tolerance for anyone who needs to park there, even for 5 minutes to unload their vehicle. Why should the police be paid with our tax dollars to facilitate the illegal parking?
    You have not answered these questions with any logical answers and I defy you to do so. my2cents. That is a good moniker for you as that is the value of your opinions… in other words, worthless. It is you that needs to “STFU”.

←  Older Comments
Newer Comments  →