Open Thread Wednesday 6/25/08

By on June 25, 2008 8:51 am in Brooklyn Heights

It’s the last Wednesday in June! What’s on your mind? Any events coming up that we should know about? Comment away!

BHB Photo Club pic by madabandon via Flickr

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  • TommyTeacherMan

    Only a month until I move to the Heights. . .can I handle the suspense?!

  • sh

    The water taxi for east river commuters will resume on Monday. Yay!

  • http://www.brooklynbackstretch.blogspot.com BKBS

    Shout to Variety Mart. Over the weekend, I was in a big housing store looking for a kitchen garbage can. Couldn’t find the right size, and everything was in the $100 (!!!) range (it’s been more than a decade since I bought a kitchen garbage can. What the hell happened?).

    Variety Mart had the perfect size, perfect model, for $40. AND the wonderful man who works there spent several minutes cleaning it for me.

    I love that place.

  • Cranky

    I like Variety Mart. It is the only place I can find those cut up sponges on a stick to clean glassware. :-)

  • bibi

    Walking into Variety Mart is like stepping back in history. It is a link to the way we were.

  • Karen

    Does anyone know the latest on St. Charles Borromeo school? I thought it was going to open in September… It’s such a waste of great space in the Heights.

  • lcd

    I love VM too – I found an oil cruet there that I couldn’t find anywhere else, and a turntable type spice rack! Hope they don’t fall victim to rising rents! (hope they read this blog too).

  • LD

    any news on when Tazza is scheduled to pen?
    and has anyone ventured to IKEA yet?

  • bornhere

    One of the best things about VM is the old wood floor. And the smell. And that it’s been there forever. And regarding rent, “they own the place,” and oodles more on Montague.

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

    I’d like Variety Mart more if the owners would take better care of the building they own at the corner of Hicks and Joralemon. Last year they started to have the badly neglected and unfortunate gray paint that covered its bricks removed, but for whatever reason they abandoned the job when it was halfway done, leaving the building even more of an eyesore than it was before.

  • LS

    Does it bother anyone else that the churchgoers on Henry Street between Clark & Love Lane never has to look for parking? They just park right on the bike lane and puts up a sign that says they’re in church service.

    What happened to the parking laws? The other Sunday I saw firetrucks responding to the Montague smoke situation and they had to slow down drastically to fit through the street.

    How about ticketing them for illegally parking? The drivers don’t even attempt to look for a legal spot. What about putting in the lot like everyone else?

  • Heights

    Any word on what’s happening with Gristedes?

  • WU

    I think Claude is on to something as it relates to VM owner’s sense of community responsibility. As you may have noticed there are no sidewalk trees in front of VM. He may be the only merchant/landlord on Montague that is opposed to the quality of life and environmental improvements all other merchants/landlords are on board with.

  • spm

    The British are coming! The British are coming!

    The Royal Air Force aerobatic team, the Red Arrows, will be performing over the skies of New York City on Wednesday night. Similar to the U.S. Navy Blue Angels or the Air Force Thunderbirds, the nine-pilot Red Arrows team is visiting the city as part of a North American goodwill tour. The Red Arrows show begins over New York Harbor at 6:30 p.m. and continues for about a half hour. At 6:58 p.m., the Red Arrows will perform a special flyby of the Statue of Liberty.

    Everyone to the baricades – er, Promenade!

  • beth

    Ugh. Thanks for the warning! At the risk of sounding dramatic, ever since 9/11 any kind of organized flyover has left me in sudden and temporary panic. I’m not sure when I’ll forget the sound of those planes overheard or when these sorts of flyovers will stop bothering me. They did one on July 4th in 2003, and it almost gave me a heart attack.

  • AB

    I’m with you, Beth.

    And, at the risk of sounding like the worst kind of spoilsport, I find protracted fireworks displays, which seem to occur ON my north Heights block–similarly alarming.

    I’m speaking of the ones in which the “bombing,” apartment-rattling noises goes on and on and on…..

    …and on.

  • AliG

    Is there any law about construction early in the morning? There are two brownstones on our street undergoing major renovations and they start at 6:30am! 8am on weekends. They have 12 little dumpsters that get emptied every other day and the NOISE from the garbage trucks is atrocious. Why can’t they have one big dumpster? One loud noise instead of 12…

  • beth

    Oh Ali I am with you. I was just typing the same complaint. Those dumpsters and garbage trucks are HORRIBLE. I imagine we are talking about the same corner construction but who knows. When I want to sleep in on the weekends I have been using the a/c JUST to keep the noise out.

  • AliG

    I know! It’s Remsen & Hicks..
    And with these landmarked bldgs it’s like pulling teeth to get new windows that can drown out the noise. ; )

  • beth

    gah! Mine is on a different corner!

  • yo

    I believe that work cannot start on weekdays before 7:30AM and work on weekends requires a special permit, and cannot start before 8AM. Check with the building department and report any violations….

  • french

    ran into someone at the ‘new’ tazza – informed me that it may be open as soon as end of next week

  • http://www.thecomicscomic.com Sean

    If this hasn’t been mentioned yet, the Red Pepper Chinese place on Atlantic (a couple of doors down the hill from the late Magnetic Field) has closed and is being turned into a BBQ joint. Should be open in six weeks or so. At least that’s what the guy inside the joint told me earlier this week.

    A block up Atlantic, between Henry and Clinton, saw guys working on the outside of a building that’s planned to be a pizza place. That joint had to have a public hearing because of a planned liquor license. Anyone go to that hearing?

    Oh, and also pleased to see the “Burn After Reading” trailer with Clooney, Pitt, Malkovich and all includes neighborhood scenes I saw and reported on last year for the NYDN. Yay.