Open Thread Wednesday 3/9/11

Riverside Tenants BHA Award/Photo: Homer Fink w/Baby Fink

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

Watch Comment of the Week #2 after the jump!

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  • Y

    Does anyone know what the grey boxes are that are mounted on some of the light poles on intersections, e.g. Henry @ Pierrepont? The particular light poles have an extenstion that almost look like an antenna.

  • Ari

    ^ @Y

    I was once walking home early one morning and ran into a crew installing one of those things.

    They claimed it was signal booster for a mobile network company. They would not say which company it was for. I can tell you it wasn’t AT&T, boosters or not, their signal sucks in this neighborhood.

  • bklyn20

    This morning. c 6:00 am I awoke to the sound of a bicycle bell outside my building. A man on a bike was carefully going through my building’s garbage. He was wearing a white bike helmet, a yellow safety vest with black trim, and did not resemble any of the usual can collector people (and today is not recycling day on my street anyway.) Most important, he wasn’t carrying a bag to collect any garbage finds. When I came out to ask what he was doing, he sped away very quickly.

    To the best of my knowledge, no one in my building is a covert operative. Could it be that the days of the city relentlessly ticketing trash violations are back again? (No ticket was left at the house.) Although this guy wore no official insignia that I could see, I’m wondering if this was the reason for the secret trash inspection. Your thoughts, anyone?

  • http://www.valeriefrankel.com val

    @bklyn20 It was the Adjustment Bureau

  • http://www.foodartforkids.com Michelle Thaler

    I have posted a few weeks ago asking about old fashioned message boards in the vicinity of Brooklyn Heights. I received very good advice: public libraries, some playgrounds and supermarkets, all have boards.
    I also found two highly visible boards: Met Food on Smith St. and Christ Church on Clinton and Kane. You need permission to post on the church’s board (located on Kane at the corner of Clinton), but they usually give it no problem.

  • MARTINLBROOKLYN

    Subject: Fassss-Cahtti – A fine and well-deserved tribute to a neighborhood standby. I once asked Mr. Fascatti about how many pizzas did he throw in a day. Then I calculated that since his opening, about 1972, he must have thrown one million pizzas. Too bad he’s not still around so that our viideographer could do a nice story on him.

    Subject: PET PEEVE OF THE MONTH, NOISY FRESH DIRECT TRUCKS – The refrigerator units on the Fresh Direct truck are very, very noisy. This is almost certainly unnecessary. The annoying sound can be heard from 300 feet away. When on Monroe Place, the front windows vibrate with that loud, low roar. I sent the Mayor a report on this and hope that others will do the same.

  • Pete

    Ok, here’s my pet peeve of the month. Every morning I walk through the park by Cadman Plaza on my way to the subway and I see about 10 or so dog owners letting their dogs run free. According to a sign posted nearby, apparently this is fine until a certain time.

    In the afternoons I see school kids playing in the same area that these dogs have been using and who knows what’s being cleaned up by the owners.

    I find it quite disgusting. There’s a perfectly good dog-park two blocks away from that park. Why they’re allowed to use this space is beyond me…

  • bklyn20

    Sadly he did no resemble Matt Damon.

  • dog

    @ Pete: There are perfectly good play grounds and a “soccer lawn” in the neighborhood including BBP. Why kids need to play in that dirt is beyond me.

    The dog park is full with wood chips and molt to which some dogs are allergic.

    its called sharing with and tolerating others… Otherwise I might opt for having a lot of my neighbors being removed from a 3000 ft radius around me…

  • GHB

    Anybody been to the new dog run by Pier 6? It’s nice, but the groundcover (some kind of red clay) leaves a residue on the dogs. My dog’s white feet always look a little pink after he plays there. And if it’s wet, he’s a real mess!

  • Pete

    @dog – really? Are we equating dogs’ needs for a place to play with that of school kids’?

  • GHB

    He’s just saying that the kids have plenty of places to play. We get it… you hate dogs.

  • Topham Beauclerk

    I saw a sight last Saturday which greatly disturbed me.

    As I was walking along Remsen St between Henry and Clinton, I noticed that attached to every parking meter – and there’s a forest of them on that stretch of Remsen – was a sign that read: “No Parking Saturday – Police Department.” And yet despite these signs there were many cars parked. I looked more closely at the signs and I saw written by hand the following: “Hannah Bat Mitzvah.” Yes, the Jews at the Remsen St synagogue put up fake no parking signs – and they were fake – so that Hannah’s guests might find parking nearby easily.

    Outrageous conduct.

  • GHB

    You say “the Jews” with real bile

  • Non JAP

    @Topham – your words are in bad taste. Next time, try to take a deep breath before writing.

  • Tony

    The infernal chimes at 77 Joralemon St. continue to clang away throughout the night, disrupting my sleep. I’ve left notes in the vestibule politely asking that the chimes be taken down, to no avail. This is the building on the northwest corner of Joralemon and Hicks. It is an apartment building with a backyard. I would appreciate anyone’s help or advice on this matter, because I find these chimes to be a major annoyance.

  • Topham Beauclerk

    GHB and NON JAP: shooting the messenger are we?

  • El

    @bklyn20 – the paranoid side of me says he might’ve been looking for documents he could use for identity theft, but I suppose if he didn’t have a bag for them, it’s unlikely.

    @Topham – the general sense of entitlement to personal use of public space by church-, synagogue-, etc-goers in the neighborhood no longer surprises me. I saw the flyers you’re talking about and on the next day, I also saw tons of cars parked up on the sidewalk near the Lady of Lebanon church right around the corner (as usual) as well as in front of other churches in the area as well. Seems like it might be a Brooklyn Heights thing as I never noticed this happening in my previous neighborhoods in Manhattan (more people with cars here?)

  • Non JAP

    @Topham – please don’t start with me. You have climbed the tree yourself and I am not going to help you come down. The use of “Jews” annoyed me as it was unnecessary at all. You could have said “people”, “congregants” “parishioners” whatever … but you chose not to!
    At any case, although I am PMSing today, I don’t want to start a fight with you.
    Have a great day.

  • Tony

    Anybody who goes by the name “Non JAP” shouldn’t be so touchy.

  • Non JAP

    @Tony – read the second to last line. That will explain it!

  • north heights res

    Same thing w/parking happened last summer? spring? fall? with a wedding at the Heights Casino – no parking on Montague between Hicks & Promenade. Can’t imagine that you could actually get
    ticketed for parking there.

    And I second the irritation about the Fresh Direct trucks. Intolerable.

  • Topham Beauclerk

    It seems to me the very height of Japiness to blame one’s rudeness and irrationality on one’s mensrual cycle. Is this what the sisterhood fought for?

  • bklyn20

    @rl, not only did he not resemble Matt Damon (@Val), he was being very quiet and surreptitious. I called Sanitation and they said there are no inspection sweeps going on in the neighborhood Anyway, maybe it will turn out that my neighbors ARE Blackwater employees — although I wonder where they’re hiding the rocket launchers…

  • Anonymous

    Not those JEWS again! First they take over the media, they make 9/11, and now they … MAKE FAKE NO PARKING SIGNS? So JEWISH of them. Jews!

  • David on Middagh

    @bklyn20: Maybe your trash-peruser was a private investigator?

  • Topham Beaujerk

    @bklyn20, I have it on good authority it was the Jews who sent the non-Matt-Damon trash picker to your curb.

  • TD

    I was stunned by the Heights Books give away on Smith St. This was once a very good store for used books but I guess high rent forced their closing. However, if they needed money how could they give away all their stock. Very bizarre!

  • Bon Scott

    THE CHIMES …. haha
    I know the ones you are talking about
    They are so so loud — especially because our neighborhoods proximity to the water and he subsequent wind coming off it.
    I’ve gotten used to it though.

    Has there been a week yet where there hasn’t been a robbery at Planet Fitness?

  • PJL

    quiet and surreptitious? didn’t his bicycle bell wake you up bklyn 20?