Open Thread: Who Should Make the 2011 BHB Ten?

By on December 4, 2011 8:12 pm in Brooklyn Heights

Bumping this post back up top as we near the publication of this year’s list on Monday.

In 2008, we started compiling a year-end list of the most interesting/influential/fascinating folks in Brooklyn Heights.

The first BHB Ten was topped by our then newly elected NYS senator Daniel Squadron. Elected the same year as President Obama, we noted that he brought us our own “face of change.”

In 2009, Doug Biviano led the field due to his campaign for NYC Council that we called a “mash-up of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Al Pacino’s performance in And Justice For All .”

In 2010, Preservationist Martin L. Schneider was first on our list due to his continued preservation efforts and passion for Brooklyn Heights. Schenider chronicled that fight in his book Battling for Brooklyn Heights.

So, who should make the list this year? Comment away!

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  • Homer Fink

    Great suggestions , however many of them have already make the list – including Tk, Heather and Claude. We try not to repeat so check the links above to review years past.

  • Master Of Middagh

    Hey. Listen. I like Steve Buscemi too, but Mayor Doomberg was never actually going to close down that firehouse. It was nothing but an empty threat for political purposes. Lending your star power to a fabricated cause doesn’t really qualify in my book.

    If he’s nominated, then I want to be nominated for complaining about the price of pancakes at Jack The Horse, an equally significant act and at least I’m a resident! :)

  • MARTINLBROOKLYN

    A hearty second to Karl J. for making a serious video contribution to the recording of our daily lives, businesses and history. Karl’s work must represent hundreds of hours of toiling with shooting, editing, writing and narrating. There is no way we could ever have paid for so sensitively and respectively documenting our neighborhood the way he has.

  • http://www.wilkloworchards.com/ Animals oh Animals

    I second the Wilklow Orchards guy (Fred?), who still looks as young as he did back in 1989, should be a sure winner, but only, AND ONLY, if he brings back the small farm animals that he used to bring every week. How I loved seeing the baby pigs, goats and lambs on the pre-refurbished (and less ugly, but still very urban) Borough Hall area and how I vowed my kids would love this each week. When I had kids. Which was decades later. By which point Wilklow stopped bringing the small, lovely, beautiful farm animals. To watch and pet, but not to eat (sorry Michael Moore, no pets OR meat). I miss them.

    Rosebud.

    But really. He and his business have been the mainstay of the green market in Brooklyn Heights for a long, long time (since about 1989 or so). Year in and year out his business, and wonderful produce with free samples, have supported the neighborhood and its residents, and brought healthy and nutritious food. Plus, he’s a nice guy and he used to bring his kids to Brooklyn Heights to work on the stand (in a good non-child labor way). If only he would pay the insurance to bring back the animals. Seriously. First it was the removal of the Easter eggs and hatching chicks in the glass windows of Brooklyn Union Gas on Montague St. Then I don’t see the horses anymore from the Brooklyn cowboys who used to ride on Court St (and park by Cousins at Amity and Court St for a brewski since HWI [horsing while intoxicated] wasn’t yet a crime). And then the baby animals. I think it’s a fair trade: a BHB 10 award if he brings back the baby animals. Deal?

  • Willow St. Neighbor

    Bjork? Really?
    I say yes to Peter Hedges. I saw him on the street shortly after reading his book and I stopped him to let him know how much I enjoyed it. He was very gracious and very nice. Although the book is fiction, I enjoyed reading about the Heights and the different locations that were mentioned in the book.

  • Buddy Holly

    How about acknowledging some of the important local preservationist. With development encroaching on the Historic District, about a tip of the hat to Otis Pearsall and Joe Merz for their work.

    Also Ben Bankson, of the Willowtown Association for his dedication to a real park, and preserving the Willow Town area.

  • carol

    I suggest our Promenade Gardener, Jonathan Lanzman, who has made the gardens so beautiful and his team of the local volunteers who work along with Jonathan, mulching, planting and pruning.

  • carol

    Oops Homer. Jonathan got an award on 2010 – I should have looked first. Didn’t have the second cup of joe yet!

  • Robert Perris

    Homer, thank you for explaining the residency requirement. Now I will never have to suffer hurt feelings again.

    Thanks for the nomination, Buggs; the check is in the mail.

  • BronxKid

    Karl J. gets my vote. I so enjoy his videos of our neighborhood. Lots of work go into those clips.
    And Jonathan Landsman for all the work keeping the promenade so beutiful.
    And Judy Stanton for years of dedication to the Heights

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

    Second Ben Bankson, Otis Pearsall, and Joe Merz.

  • nicky215

    yes to Joe Merz.. No No. to Judy Stanton.. Yes to Tony Manheim

  • stuart

    I say no to the Ancien Regime. They’re really just mostly annoying.
    Let’s thank the young parents who are making PS8 better, the leaders in the PTA. bravo to them. Bravo to the young couple who just restored the formerly ugliest house on Hicks Street number 51 I think it is. Or the young volunteers for the BBP Conservancy. Someone un-octogenerian.

  • WillowtownCop

    Steven and Vanessa.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    Alfred E. Newman

  • http://bivforbrooklyn.com Doug Biviano

    How about Lisa Kopel for all of her tireless work as PS 8 co-pres through two years of budget cuts and for truly being the driving force behind the PS 8 middle school expansion.

    She made it all happen with grace and effectiveness. My hat goes off to Lisa for impacting Brooklyn Heights in a most positive, direct and local way.

    Thank you Lisa.

  • Hello Brooklyn

    I like and agree with the Karl J. vote. He’s a cool dude, and quite the champion of the nabe.

  • jeb1023

    Andrea from Rocco and Jezebel for always taking time from her busy day to help lost or injured pets find their owners and or get medical help.

  • bklyn20

    Tony Manheim, definitely. Lisa Kopel has done a lot of hard work for PS 8. Ben Bankson is still working hard for the Willowtown Association. And what about the Overtures guys, Gerry (Jerry?) and Michael? .

  • Andrew Porter

    Judy Stanton, for doing so much with so few resources. Her connections and knowledge of local politics benefits all of BH, not just those who are members of the BHA. Though pilloried for the stand the BHA took on St. Ann’s and the Tobacco Warehouse, she showed that once again, we are a nation of laws, not men, and the ends do not justify the means.

  • Freddie

    Lisa Kopel for all the hard work on behalf of PS 8

  • fred

    Karl Junkersman for his clear informative and beautifully documented films about our neighbors and neighborhoods.

  • Homer Fink

    Because the rule can be broken when appropriate!

  • stuart

    it would make sense to think about this in categories. For instance,
    an outstanding person in Education, Politics, Real Estate, Culture, Civil Service, Architecture, Law, Medicine, Retail, Religion.
    People come to mind that way.
    these should be broad categories. for instance you don’t have to be an architect to be honored in that category.
    This way it isn’t always the same ten people that come to mind.

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