Open Thread Wednesday 8/27/08

By on August 27, 2008 8:06 am in Brooklyn Heights

BHB Photo Club pic by fkuffel via Flickr

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • E G

    The weather is turning cooler and there is the opportunity to turn off the AC and open the windows wide to bring the fresh autumnal-like air into my home. Ah but just at this time they decide to break out the F-ing Jackhammers! There is no worse nor torturous a sound in the ensemble of city noises. When will they come up with a better solution to cutting up the roads!? I am no engineer, but it seems a solution to that endless racket should be possible at this point.

    They at least should be required to publicly post the times that they will be using them (of course, if it is planned) so that people in the area can anticipate this disruption of peace and make the proper alteration in their schedules, sleep or otherwise.

    But I, now, propose a more drastic solution… which I will not say because I will then be branded a terrorist. Then maybe I should get the hell out of this brownstone so close to the street and take residence in a high rise.

  • eric

    Today is my last day in BH!
    Ive lived here about 3 years and really enjoyed my time here… met good friends, met my fiance, etc.
    But now its time to move on… Work is sending us to Frankfurt for a few years.
    Homer, this blog has been great for local news, thanks alot.
    Auf wiedersehen, Brooklyn Heights.

  • mike

    I’ve been looking for a nice place in the area to where i can go to focus and get work done… someplace relatively quiet with tables. Any ideas?

  • hezekiah pierrepont IV

    Oh, I can top the jackhammering. They’re painting our building’s fire escape, but before they begin, two workmen are chipping off all of the old paint with hammers and chisels. The clanging is unbelievable–it’s like the whole six-story structure is some sort of diabolically resonant percussion instrument.

    Anyway, on to the open thread discussion. Am I crazy, or did I see a SECOND fruit guy parked next to the Corcoran office yesterday?

  • yo

    Anyone know what’s going on with the St. Charles Borromeo school on Sidney Pl.? I know there was a fire there last year, and it looks like some work has occurred periodically since then, but is it ever opening up again?

  • Andrew

    Tazza has a section in the back for laptops? They also have a sign on the door forbidding laptop use.

  • Monty

    Mike, maybe a long walk, but the Starbucks on Court St in Cobble Hill has a basement seating area that is pretty much a study hall for local grad students. Everyone down there is using laptops and reading books and staring at you if you make a noise.

    On another note, I can’t believe no one has commented on the pending “Dimple Kid Spa” coming to Montague. Kid spa? Is this a welcome addition to the neighborhood? A sign of the apocalypse?

  • AliG

    Eric, best pizza in Frankfurt is at a hole in the wall called Da Benitos on Dornbusch!! Auf wiedersehen

  • my2cents

    Has anyone else noticed a major uptick in tourists that get off the subway at High Street to walk across the bridge this year? Not just in August but all year. I feel like some European tour guide has listed this as a “must do” walking tour. Seems like every day I come home to find some Euros wandering around forlornly looking for the footpath to the bridge. I have lived here for 3 years and this year it seems like “the thing” to do.

  • No One Of Consequence

    I think it’s long been listed as one of the few free things you can do in NYC, along with the Staten Island Ferry.

  • Biff Champion

    my2cents, it’s the Euro (currency) effect. It isn’t just the Bridge. Lineups at all tourist attractions appear way longer than they were a mere 5 years ago and the traffic in areas such as Times Square is way up, from what I’ve observed. The tourists in Central Park seem to have doubled or tripled in the past two years. My family was visiting and went to Ellis Island this summer and waited 2.5 HOURS just to get on the ferry.

  • nabeguy

    Uptick, you say? If I had a nickel for every time I’ve directed tourists to the bridge, I could probably buy it by now.

  • IHeartTheFruitGuy

    Yes, 2nd fruit stand was up at Corcoran. I stopped to buy a banana and asked if it was related to the first. The guy said they’ve got 4 in (2 in Manhattan and 2 in Brooklyn Heights). Yay for more fruitguys! So much better than the awful produce at P&P or Key Foods.

  • Monty

    There is, indeed a surge this year: http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/nyregion/16tourism.html

    I’ve lived here for a few years now, but I never had to dodge historic homes tourists on my way home from work before this year.

  • Pierrepont

    The very idea of a kids spa is just repulsive! And here I thought Edible Arrangements on Clinton was the most useless business in the Zip Code! Sheesh!

  • ratNYC

    Tourist are definitely up in the Heights. Has anyone else been surrounded by the group of 50 tourists on Montague Street being led by a guy holding a bottle of water up in the air en route to the promenade? How about the permanent line outside Grimaldi’s?- there used to be lines on weekends but now it’s just ridiculous.

  • AliG

    Yup and how they all line up on doorsteps of brownstones on Remsen to have their pictures taken…
    Has anyone else noticed that in the last year Grimaldi’s pizza has not tasted the same?

  • yo

    i know how to solve the tourists on the stoop problem – water balloon launcher

  • AliG

    Yo, funny you should mention that. This was my solution on an earlier blog to the annoying “Gossip Girls” shoots in the area.

  • JJD

    AliG: Yes, the pizza at Grimaldi’s has taken a turn to the worse. I noticed that as well during last year. Also, the guys working there seem to have changed back then and I was a kind of wondering if they changed ownership. Wait for the cold wintermonths and the lines outside Grimaldi’s will actually disappear magically.

    As far as tourists go: Yes, they are annoying like hell, but then they pay sales, hotel and some other taxes. I rather deal with them than a tax hike.

  • my2cents

    Yeah Grimaldi’s isn’t as good as it used to be. Try Sam’s restaurant on Court Street! They have great pies!

  • my2cents

    Also, if you live in the North Heights, the best policy is to phone Grimaldi’s ahead and pick up the pie to go. You can feel like a freakin movie star as you bypass all the hungry foreigners in line and just walk right in. Brooklyn 1 Tourists 0

  • AliG

    My2, they won’t let you do that anymore. You have to stand in the line with everyone else, they won’t even let you walk in, place your order and then wait outside. Rockstars 0, Tourists (don’t know any better).

  • Henry&State

    A million tourists. Forget about walking the bridge at night! I find most of them down by the WTC where I work. Between the construction & tourists – its chaos.
    How about the library on clinton st for quiet?
    St Charles school is being rennovated, cleaned up and will be a Head Start School or something similar to that – I believe thru Catholic Charities

  • Just a Neighbor

    What was going on by Union Square and the downtown subeways today (4/5, A/C)? Looks like cops are EVERYWHERE and they looked a little more tense than usual.

  • my2cents

    Ali G, I did it 2 weeks ago. You have to phone ahead. You can’t walk in and order. But maybe they changed the policy this week?

  • http://nowhere@nowhere.com Sleestack

    Is Gristedes ever coming back?

  • BHGIRL

    Anyone see the naked guy at Clark Street Station yesterday? Odd?

  • sleepy

    Has anyone else noted the abudance of dog poop in the nabe that is not being picked up by owners? I walked down 2 blocks on my street and noticed at least 4 different spots.

  • No One Of Consequence

    Here we go again…

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