Open Thread Wednesday 6/15/11

By on June 15, 2011 12:58 am in Brooklyn Heights

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

BHB Photo Club pic by BC&TC via Flickr

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  • Heightsman

    Hi Everyone. Happy Wednesday!

  • MARTINLBROOKLYN

    Fresh Direct. All this pitiful hollerin’ about how noisy FD trucks are. Indeed, they make a racket which you can hear a full half-block away and even feel through the windows on the street.
    The cause is the incredibly noisy ThermoKing Cooler on the truck. The complaint should be directed at that cooler. This is a mechanical engineering problem.
    Remember, the City made air compressors get quiet. The City has anti-noise regulations aimed at exactly that kind of avoidable mechanical noise.
    Our anti-noise Mayor should get on this. A technical review is needed and then plans for do-able change in design. But we need a leader for this to get through. Who should that be?

  • Linda

    Noise Complaints,

    Google “NYC Noise Code”
    and you will be directed to nyc.gov and their new policy on noise.

    Personally, I think if a delivery truck is idling and waking people up at 6:30AM it should be considered a noise complaint.
    Last week I wondered why a helicopter was circling overhead for a half hour until I looked out the window and low and behold it was not a helicopter circling but a Fresh Direct truck idling!!!!!
    They sound the same to me.

  • Montague

    I am so tired of Fresh Direct and the way they ignore complaints. It’s such a shame that there is nothing that can be done. Complaints lead to just more frustration – we are at their mercy. If I recall a recent article correctly, Fresh Direct once replied when prompted with the idling law, that they were not idling but it’s their refrigeration making the noise, therefore that law does not apply….

  • cat

    Dave, I know of a 2 bdrm. walkup in Cobble Hill with w/d. The owner was handing it over to a rental broker on Monday. Not the Heights, but maybe better than downtown?

  • Dave

    Hey cat! Sounds intriguing. If you have any further details, can you send them my way? acedmb@hotmail.com Thanks!

  • AmyinBH

    PierrepontSkin, The hooded guy intentionally walk at most 6 inches past me as I was standing looking out at the street and not all the men standing under scaffolding last week during the rain storm. There was almost the entire sidewalk empty in front of me, but he chose to come in close. He walked a good two feet away from the men. But, I shouldn’t complain that a man intentionally tried to make me uncomfortable. He was just enjoying the sites of BH and particularly my old personage.

    Good news: The blue tarp is gone from Remsen and Clinton.

  • Jeffrey j Smith

    Well, Fresh Direct is part of the whole yuppie culture. They have
    an attitude to match.

    The ONLY way this kind of thing stops is if one or more persons purchases or rents a Well calibrated (to legal standards) sound level (Db) meter aand takes the time and effort to go out to the street, they stand at the legal distance for measurement and take
    sound level readings. Of course, for a long series of legal and security reasons you have someone taping this of at least have on you a running HD body recorder….if they either the steady state noise or noise peaks are over legal limits, you need to have your city councilman or other elected officials (the more the better) “present” (read yell at) whatever agency/agencies are responsible for “noise polution” your evidence.

    But if you just want to complain, and ask offficials to go out on thier own and fix the problem, the prospect of victory is slight.

    YOU have to go out there, YOU have to spend some personal funds, in an intelligent way, and YOU have to make the effort to produce good, solid, embarrassing evidence.

    (Is this “a rant” or is careful, through presentation of what is likely
    to yield some positive progress in a long standing problem…which
    is now certainly getting worse.)

    Then strongly consider putting the abuse on you tube.

    (what would happen if I got in a cut merc and rap my straight pipes, er, thats cause my exhausts to become highly audible at early morning hours…guess how fast I would get a ticket.)

  • LISA

    EG- WINDOWCLEANER highly recommended

    ACE WINDOWS – They come to the neighborhood often, are
    very nice & don’t break the bank..

  • north heights res

    Serviceberries in Brooklyn Bridge Park, to pick and to eat: http://goo.gl/R0ebF

    Serviceberries? Who came up with that name?

  • BC

    Bicyclist going the wrong way down one way streets!

    @Wrennie Thanks for your comment on my photo.

  • sunshinebk

    amy- I HAVE tried to get it across that he is no good.. but everyone tries to tell me he is enjoying the sights, that he’s a jogger, that there is something wrong with his face and that’s why he wears the hood. HE GLARED at me and then followed me from urban outfitters to the new island deli… i finally walked in tazo and waited for him to leave. why does everyone want to defend this guy if SO many people are uncomfortable by him.

  • cat

    Dave, I emailed you.

  • AmyinBH

    sunshinebk, I don’t scare easily. I used to live in much rougher neighborhoods and take the subway at hours that scared my family. The fact that he didn’t go anywhere near the men made it obvious that he isn’t just a wandering soul. If he were making dogs or babies uncomfortable there would be total outrage on the blog. I guess my safety doesn’t matter. And, I can assure you he is not disfigured because I saw his face clearly. My only hope is if he does try something maybe he’ll trip over his baggy pants and I can escape.
    Perhaps he just likes to scare women, but the next time I see him I am going to get away.
    I posted my experience as a warning. If I read one day on the Police Blotter he did harm someone and I didn’t say anything I would feel awful not having put out the warning.

  • Van

    For those who continually squawk every week about the helicopters and fresh direct trucks: newsflash you live in New York City. Albeit a beautiful, more quiet part of New York City. But the city nonetheless. So if you don’t like the urban noise, this country offers thousands of suburbs that you might wanna lend your ear to.

  • bornhere

    I have yet to see the sweatshirt guy — but I really think a simple 911 call about a “Suspicious Person” should be made if he makes anyone antsy. This is a very simple call to make — you might have to meet with the cops, but if this guy is as permanent a fixture as he seems to be, having PD talk with/assess him should be easy.

  • epc

    @Van That’s incredibly naive.

  • Jeffrey j Smith

    I had a neighbor stop me today and say that either a push-in or a kick-in happened Wed. to an elderly couple ay 245 Henry St on the first floor. Does any one have Confirmation of this?

    There are a number of reports over the last two weeks of Perps slipping into apts when people briefly step out to a neighbor or whatever And don’t lock their door.

    Sources report that commanders in other precincts can down-
    grade 10-30’s to 10-22’s To keep the compstat figures down.

  • malanga es malanga

    Alright, my great appreciation to everybody that played along. There were a great many topics presented, but a few went above and beyond. And for that, I am proud to share a community with you. AEB, travy, and Clark Street Resident, please stand up and be congratulated. Outstanding work, and a fine sense of humor.

    Perhaps next week, we can tackle such themes as:

    1. Prices at Gristedes (with the requisite Grosstedes reference)

    2. People from other neighborhoods walking through the Heights to the Promenade/BBP, and bringing crime with them.

    3. Something about Paul Giamatti.

  • AEB

    I’d prefer to recline, but thanks, anyway.

  • http://www.melaniehopegreenberg.com melanie hope greenberg

    Thanks for all the free publicity BHB! Any time someone mentions my name I get a Google Alert!

  • GHB

    bornhere, really? 911? For a possibly suspicious individual who makes you uncomfortable? 911 is for emergencies. Sunshinebk, why don’t you just call the local precinct and see what the cops know. He must be on their radar, as he’s been a fixture in the neighborhood for months. But 911 when he hasn’t done anything? No…

  • Lee

    @van, do you live facing street side? if you don’t you have know idea what it’s like and 10 yrs ago there were no FD trucks.

  • sunshinebk

    amy- I could not agree more, there are jus too many people on this blog that feel the need to tear other’s down because they think that there complaints are stupid. I don’t think a suspicous person is a “stupid” complaint. As for mom’s with strollers…well that’s another story. It really does baffle me why so many people are so offended by women posting there expierences about being around this guy. I too have seen his face.. NOTHING is wrong with it. He is sketchy..

    GHB- I will definetly be calling the precinct.

  • Regina

    bornhere, do you really think the issue warrants tying up 911 resources? that number is for emergencies only not, the guy glared and walked 6 inches away from someone. these women are clearly suburban bread and have absolutely no “street” in them.

  • Van

    @Lee, yes I do live facing street side. And I have lived in the area for 10+ years. I moved to Brooklyn with my eyes totally open to the fact that, I was in fact moving to a New York City neighborhood. And with cities, comes noise. And people on cell phones, who don’t clean up after their dog, and order items that are dropped off on trucks that are loud. I continue to read everyone’s gripes about the aforementioned, and it kills me. Guys, get real, it’s New York City! There are trucks and subways and policeman and fireman and hellicopters. It’s a concrete jungle.

    @epc How am I being naive? I don’t pretend that I live in an isolated quiet neighborhood. It’s Brooklyn! It’s New York City! get real.

  • Wrennie

    Van, the fact that you keep saying “New York City” screams that you’re not from here. Aside from tourists and Carrie Bradshaw (who is actually from New Jersey), I don’t think anyone bothers tacking “City” onto the end of the name. You forgot to write “big apple” somewhere next to “concrete jungle.”

  • Van

    @Wrennie. Ok how about, It’s New York; It’s Loud.
    Arguing about the noise level of a neighborhood in “The City’ (is that better?) is like arguing with winter? It’s cold. Deal with it.

  • weegee

    “Suspicious Person” calls are a legitimate (and routine) entry in the 911 system. These end up ranging from fixture homeless people, someone looking at parked cars while walking down the street, to tourists taking pictures of public buildings and locations, but either way, the communications technician isn’t going to laugh you off the line.

  • sunshinebk

    Regina- I grew up here, here in brooklyn heights. I am 23 years old.. so excuse me if I get intimadated that a strange man who choses to cover his face FOLLOWS me 3 blocks. So sorry that offends you. I am not this weak little scared ” white chick”, I work in social work as a case worker at rikers island.. I know intimadating when I see it. as for having “street” in me.. , I wear tory burch shoes I live in a brownstone I carry a longchamp bag.. I don’t think most residents have any “street” in them including yourself as you write on the brooklyn heights blog probably drinking a starbucks. get over yourself.. I don’t try to be somthing im not. I am a strong woman who has her wits about her.. if that offends you im sorry, if that makes you want to lash out on me and tell me that im being silly. I am allowed to express myself.. this is an open forum.. I obviously hope all he does is follow people and not harm anymore but part of me wishes he would because maybe then you’d eat your words.

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