Open Thread Wednesday 6/22/11

Photo by C. Scales for BHB.

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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

    It’s all downhill from here, length of daylight wise.

  • David on Middagh

    …and then it’s uphill… and then it’s downhill again…

    I think I’m going to be season-sick!

  • Flo

    We live on the water side of Columbia Heights and have experienced a lot of vibrations and noise lately–more than usual. We drove the length of the Promenade on the BQE recently to explore what was making the noise. We expected to find steel plates or trucks going too fast–something large and obvious. But that wasn’t the case. Southbound, the deck has many tarred seams that don’t appear very large or bumpy, but even at low speeds every truck that hits a seam bounces loudly. The northbound deck doesn’t have the seams (or has many fewer). There are no steel plates, just the seams running across the roadway. No one was driving very fast (lots of traffic that day). Is anyone else troubled by increased noise and vibration?

  • sunshinebk

    Clark street station by the elevators smelled like pure sh*t.. and maybe that was because there was a pile of human sh*t right there in the clear… totally freaking gross.

  • Alanna

    @SUNSHINE: Good God! I wonder if the large homeless fella is making the staircase his home again.

  • sunshinebk

    Alanna- he most definetly is. and honestly I feel horrible for anyone who is without a home and is forced to make the subway there make shift house but if you had gotten a wiff of this load you may of thrown up… and it seems as if it had been sitting there a while or that someone tried to kick it into a cornor as there was “skid marks” on the grounds. toally foul.

  • Billy Reno

    What was the occasion for the fireworks last night?

  • Billy Reno

    Please disregard the above. I read the post regarding the matter.

  • Van

    @sunshinebk: I smelt it too. But I was not the one who dealt it. I was scared to look on the ground.
    Did you report it to the ladies who work in the booth? I have found them to be quite helpful – and they seem to like the station and the neighborhoods. With that, found earing flyer they posted a few months back.

  • nabeguy

    Now that I’ve survived a tortuous closing on my house, I’d like to publicly thank and recommend my mortgage broker, David Fallarino of Sterling National who stood by our side through the long ordeal and who worked his tail off finding us the best financing. If you’re shopping the market, give him a call at
    212-575-6522

  • Tony

    I went to Vineapple the other day and was disappointed. The place is spacious and the coffee and bagel I had were adequate, but it was intolerably hot. I asked the barista if the place could be cooler and she told me she had turned the air conditioner off. Is keeping cafes muggy and stale the latest trend? (In fairness, the a/c was turned on after I complained, but why did they complaint have to be registered at all?) Also the music was all wrong for an afternoon — banal pop music, often too loud. Not fun trying to read with electric guitars and drums crashing near my ears. Why oh why can’t places like these realize that they should play music that can be ignored? And because the music came from an iPod, it would be barely audible one minute, blasting the next. I’m not ready to write off Vineapple, but the place needs work.

  • Riley

    Anyone know a good place to get a good massage in the area? No Happy Endings please.

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Providence Day Spa on Atlantic Avenue may work for you. I especially like their sauna before the massage.

    http://providencedayspa.com/

  • Mickey

    Karl, any suggestions for someone who DOESN’T mind a happy ending?

  • Wrennie

    Riley, I’ve had success with the art of natural beauty, in cobble hill.

  • chris

    Flo:
    The vibrations — oh yes! They have been with us for decades, not just on Columbia Heights but also on nearby side streets. They have become much worse since the Bureau of Bridges (in charge of this part of the BQE) must have opened the roadway to take a look at and/or work on the struts that hold it to the Heights behind. Since they are located at regular intervals, the trucks seem to get into a kind of jumping rhythm that you can hear on the Promenade, even when they are not driving all that fast. Heaven help us when the BoB has to really work on these roadways…

  • Monty

    @Tony, last time I was there it was like a meat locker.

  • Robert

    Has anybody been ticketed for a street cleaning violation while parking in the Montague Key Food loading zone during off hours? I’ve done that for 8 years without incident, then got a ticket – which I’m protesting – two Saturdays ago, and then, after several days of no problems, another ticket this Monday – written at 7:35AM. My understanding – and the signs, which I’ve photographed next to my car, indicate that street cleaning regs (7:30-8:00AM M-Sat) only apply to the metered spaces, not the loading zone – or the one beside the Bossert.

  • San

    @Flo

    We too live on Columbia heights on the water side and have definately noticed the building shaking and vibrating more of late. In particular our glass and metal sliding doors shake and rattle, and are way noisier then they ever were before.
    I wonder what is different? The sinkhole?

  • gc

    Yes, lots more vibration near the BQE. Can’t be good for the structures in that area. Who should be addressing this issue?

  • Just A Neighbor

    Tony, I think I saw a suggestion box in front of the counter if you’d care to drop one in.

    It appears they are first-time owners and seem open to suggestions. I for one would love to see them succeed. Let’s do our best to help them out!

  • PierrepontSkin

    Just wanted to say that the comment I made last week about the hooded man was not meant to mock or offend anyone and I am sorry if it did, especially after hearing how someone was followed by said man.

    I did see him last night close to the bus stop at the corner or LICH. I drove by with a couple friends and noticed him acting very strange. A few minutes later after we got gas at the Shell station, we drove back towards him and noticed a couple women who were at the bus stop walking up the block towards the gas station. He was standing in the bus stop staring into the streets and it looked like there was something in his hand. Not making any assumptions, but I definitely regret my whole “give it a rest” comment from last week.

  • Matthew Parker

    @Riley:

    I’d recommend the Tui Na massage place at 194 State Street near Court called Five Element. (massage is their strong suit, not grammar).

    You can read my Yelp review here: http://mattparker.yelp.com

  • sunshinebk

    pierpontskin- thats where hangs out… and I do accept your apology…. When I first started seeing him it was back in the winter he was in the same outfit but he wore a black puffy jacket… now it’s just the grey sweatsuit.. what scares me the most is that wears his hood so tight that you can hardly see his face… the majority of his face that I have seen does not seem to be disfigured or have any markings which would make him want to cover up.. I think he simply hiding his face for the reason that he is plotting somthing… He has literally stayed in that very place for months.. occasinally traveling up a few blocks. I was the person that he followed.. I was leaving urban outfitters and he was walking in the direction toward the Y I was walking toward the water… he changed direction as soon as I exited the store and stared at me.. I crossed as quickly as I could to wear keyfood is.. He crossed too… I walked even faster ( thank god a lot of people were around) and almost broke into a run toward tazo… he then dissapeared.. I have heard from others of him following them but never doing anything.. eithor way this ” stalking” tactic he has is harrassment and puts a bad feeling in my stomach. I have thought of telling the police but i’ve been told by so many people that ” they wont do anything”, bc this person hasn’t ” done anything”.

  • GHB

    Sunshine, I mentioned previously that a call to the local precinct would be a good idea to make sure that this guy is on their radar. Did you (or did anyone else?)

  • Anon

    I’ve seen the hooded man several times on Atlantic Ave near LICH. I’ve heard from several people that this gentleman is a long term resident at LICH and possibly has some mental disorders (nonviolent).

  • sunshinebk

    anon- who did you hear that from?

  • Biffadonk

    agree on Vineapple. It was much better when it was a construction site for a decade.

  • bornhere

    Claude — That is a beautiful picture, by the way.

  • BH

    My fiancee and I went to dinner at Seasons last Friday night and really didn’t enjoy any aspect of it. We each had a beer, an entree, and split a dessert and it was around $80 with tax and tip. Everything was okay, but not worth that amount of money particularly when you can spend a similar amount of money at Henry’s End, Noodle Pudding, Jack the Horse, etc and get a much, much higher quality meal and service. The menu is pretty boring but with some inexplicable ingredients listed — seafood juice, for example. My rib eye and her short ribs were both extremely fatty and pretty low quality meat, presentation was lacking, and portions of the sides was small. The sorbet dessert was fine, but no better than something you could get out of the freezer aisle at Gristedes. Bread and Butter was better — stay away from Seasons until it’s replaced by a higher quality establishment.