Happy 4th Of July, 2012 Wednesday Open Thread

By on July 4, 2012 12:43 am in open thread

Enjoy America’s Independence Day, and the freedom of speech granted by BHB’s Open Thread Wednesday. Wave your banner and spill what’s on your mind. (Photos: Chuck Taylor)

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  • WillowSt.Neighbor

    AnnOfOrange,
    I totally agree with you. I am out and about all the time and only once have I actually witnessed someone’s dog pooping on the sidewalk and the owner pretending not to see it and walked away. I vowed that I would keep an eye out for the jerk but I never saw him again. I think that the people who are not picking up after their dogs are most likely doing it at night when they know they can get away with it.

  • Mr. Crusty

    Let me add my agreement to WillowStNeighbor and AnnofOrange and I am NOT a dog owner but I have found that the vast majority of dog owners i BH to be extremely responsible and their dogs remarkably well behaved. If it were not so it would be a veritable mine field. You are never going to get 100% compliance with anything unfortunately so as a result I am always looking down as I traverse the neighborhood.

  • hicks st guy

    @GHB, do you work for Fox News? If you’re going to quote me,
    I said “most” which you deleted from the quote. And just like Fox,
    if you disagree, you start calling names. I won’t stoop to your level in calling you what you are.
    the problem I have in BH is not just picking up, but that the entitled dog owners feel that all the sidewalk plantings, trees, buses, the building walls, and clean sidewalks are there for their mutts to urinate on. and that stinks, but is probably sweet smelling to the owners. whatever happened to curb your dog? that’s all.

  • hicks st guy

    er, bushes.

  • markintheheights

    ….unfortunately there are a number of dog owners, and dog walkers who do not curb their dogs. I personally took one to task for lifting up her dog and putting it in our freshly planted tree pit so it could do it’s business (and since we are a no dog bldng, I knew she was not from the bldng). She actually had the gall to act as if there was nothing wrong with what she was doing….and all of this less than 1/2 block from the dog park. Common courtesy…that’s all people are looking for..

  • resident

    A dog urinating in a tree pit does no damage to a tree, especially when compared to general pollution in the air and trucks that knock down branches/trees. Grass and plants are a completely different story. Also, urine on a tree trunk with an open “wound” is problematic. But, someone has no reason to feel that a dog urinating in a tree pit is going to do any damage, because it won’t. Though, I wouldn’t let my dog go in a tree pit where a tree was freshly planted, need to give those roots time to take hold.

  • Sherlock

    I’ve only ever seen one dog owner not pick up after his ‘charge’ :)

    But, I am suspicious of the dog walkers – I don’t see how they can be herding 5-8 dogs down the street and still clean up after them all

    No proof here, but it would explain the volume and frequency – what your step!

  • BH’er

    So, back to the filthy ice cream truck… on the topic of restaurant ratings – there’s no way this truck would pass inspections just based on the number of flies swirling around the inside of the truck – disgusting!

    Gasoline exhaust over the playground aside, I don’t see how the food in there is clean with all those flies – really gross

    If poppy seeds on the floor dings the bagel place, this guy should be shut down!

  • Mr. Crusty

    Isn’t the ice cream in closed machines and/or wrapped? I know flies are annoying but I don’t think they have developed the ability to pierce stainless steel ice cream machines but what do I know?

  • MonroeOrange

    Lol, how is a dog owner suppose to clean up dog urine! Seriously this is like the 100th time I’ve seen that comment on here! Ill not let my dog pee on newly planted flowers or trees with fences, but if a dog wants to mark his/her spot, it’s part of nature. And ‘most’ dog owners do clean up #2s. So funny that the people on here (and granted there are very few) who complain about dogs seem to hate the dog species (and most likely humans as well) get over it! Let’s all walk our dogs down hicks st and let’s let the pee flow (I’ll let the st George kids know to pee there as well, then you will have something to complain about!

  • hicks st guy

    @MonroeOrange, a very complex solution, read slowly: “curb your dog.” read it twice, remember it when you walk your mongrel.

  • WillowSt.Neighbor

    CURB YOUR DOG! If the dogs peed out in the street we would all be better off. Toddlers wear tiny little sandals in the summer and I am sure they are running through the dog pee that is on our sidewalks morning noon and night. I grew up in East Flatbush in the 50’s and I do not recall anyone letting their dogs pee or poop on the sidewalk. It was totally unacceptable then and it is totally unacceptable now.

  • Mr. Crusty

    Really WillowStNeighbor? I grew up in Brooklyn too (Bensonhurst) and remember a hell of a lot more dog s*** -both in the streets and on the sidewalks. NO ONE ever picked up after their dogs back then. For the amount of dogs I see in BH I am amazed at how little poop I see. But then again my eyesight is not what it used to be.

  • WillowSt.Neighbor

    Mr. Crusty,
    Are you questioning my assessment of poop in E. Flatbush.
    Really???
    We curbed our dogs which meant they peed and pooped out in the street. Apparently you had a different experience in Bensonhurt.
    Well, good for you.

  • Andrew Porter

    I spoke to Judy Stanton of the BHA about the annual problem with people coming to the Promenade—and trashing it—in search of places to watch the fireworks. I wonder if this happens everywhere there’s a place to stand along the shore, for instance in DUMBO, Williamsburg, Greenpoint.

    My feeling is that people are just dumb, nowadays geographically challenged, don’t know the river here is the East, not the Hudson. I remember one car on Hicks stopped me once and asked where the tunnel to New Jersey was…

  • hicks st guy

    @Andrew Porter, seriously?

  • Andrew Porter

    People are dumb all over. Count how many people still drive holding a cell-phone, now illegal. Stop when you reach a hundred, after a few minutes…

  • Bloomy

    @Andrew Porter Speeding is illegal too but everyone does it. So is jaywalking. So I guess every resident of our fair city is “dumb”.

  • PromGal

    @Andrew Porter
    And now you understand just one if many reasons so many residents oppose having fireworks here on July 4 and other holidays.
    This neighborhood is too small, the streets too narrow, to be invaded by hordes of tens of thousands, in 2008, more than half a million people.

  • Mr. Crusty

    Chill out Willow. All I was saying is that there was a hell of a lot more dog feces back then then there is now. People didn’t clean up after their dogs. Do you disagree with this simple statement? I don’t care if dogs are “curbed” it is still in the street where occasionally I do need to walk.

    But kudos to all East Flatbush residents for their civic responsibilities

  • Mr. Crusty

    @Andrew Porter: “No police at all. I tried calling the precinct, and the detectives squad phone rang and rang. Called 911, they didn’t seem interested.”

    You called the Detective’s Squad Room at the 84th Precinct on probably one of the busiest police nights of the year to report what exactly? Non-residents on the Promenade? You are right about one thing you said, “people are dumb all over”.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/13189502@N02/ Eddyenergizer

    Crusty is right, There dog pooh was ubiquitous on the sidewalks until the late 70’s, when it became law to clean up after your dog. There was a lot of other trash as well, broken bottles, cans, bags and thousands of cigarette butts… so to many of us “old timers” the occasional errant turd doesn’t raise much of an alarm. That’s not to excuse dog owners from not picking up after their dogs. I have a dog and always clean up after it, it’s easy to do, no big deal… I can’t understand why some people have such a hard time doing the right thing.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/13189502@N02/ Eddyenergizer

    The “hoards of idiots” that show up for the non-viewable fireworks has been going on for decades… I suspect one of the reasons no one does anything to stop it is the local merchants love to reap the profits from the HOI invasion.

  • hicks st guy

    @Bloomy, do you drive? because if you did, you would agree that cellphone use is dangerous, and worse, the idiots who text while driving. speeding while you are paying attention is one thing, . . .

  • hazel

    July 4 9:30 pm End of Remsen St at Promenade entrance.
    A police officer, one of two. repeatedly puts his had in open window of an illegally parked car an honks the horn.

    Me: Are you trying to call the owner ?
    Officer: Yes, he shouldn’t be parked here.
    Me: I know. If that were my car it would have a ticket and probably be towed away.
    Officer: We can’t . We don’t have our ticketing book with us

  • BH’er

    @Mr Crusty – I’ve never seen a fly pierce stainless steel, but I have seen them fly in under the cover when it opened for a refill, fly into the box holding empty cones, buzz around the many containers of various toppings and grab a bite between the machine and window as he hands you your cone with ice cream, topping and fly

    I also see them swirl around inside landing on the ice cream man himself. Im sure he’s swatted a few dead, too, which leaves some bug guts on the hands that serve cones to children

    But you’re right, why should restaurants be fined for having flies – they’ve never bothered me while I eat. So, they should be fine in the ice cream truck

  • WillowSt.Neighbor

    Eddyenergizer,
    Is it safe to have that many people on the Promenade at all?
    Are there issues with the structure itself? Just wondering how the Promenade can accommodate thousands of people at one time.
    When does it become a safety issue?
    Just thinking out loud.

  • Mr. Crusty

    Flies buzzing around the ice cream truck, disgusting hot dog vendors, dog poop, promenade collapsing, public urination, and hoards of idiots. Ahhhhhh…. Brookyn Heights how we love it so.

  • David on Middagh

    WillowSt.Neighbor, I am comforted to think that the vehicle deck below the Promenade is routinely supporting more weight than _hoi polloi_ bring on July 4th.

    —

    BH’er wrote: “I have seen [flies]… buzz around the many containers of various toppings and grab a bite between the machine and window as he hands you your cone with ice cream, topping and fly”

    Meh. They don’t eat much.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/13189502@N02/ Eddyenergizer

    WillowSt.Neighbor as DoM said, I doubt there is much danger of the Promenade collapsing even if it was completely packed with people. However, there could be a danger from overcrowding, people getting trampled, crushed or suffocated.

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