Open Thread Wednesday 8/27/14

By on August 27, 2014 7:26 am in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

Also: See news about Brooklyn Heights on the internets? Have other nabe news? Post a link below!

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Photo: Mrs. Fink

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  • GHB

    Anyone have any idea when we’ll get the Squibb Park Bridge back?

  • KumquatStreet

    This neighborhood used to be so nice, but now it seems like it’s going to h*ll in a hand basket. I can’t walk five feet without seeing graffiti everywhere. Just this morning, I was on Columbia Heights and Clarke and the sidewalk and street are covered in bizarre and threatening (and possible racist) gang symbols.

    Look at this! http://i.imgur.com/sp6gsxv.jpg

    This is a disgrace and the police and/or DOT should get off their duffs and crack down on this menace so we can once again have an ideal community!

  • SidneyGirl

    Has anyone heard of the new delivery person in the Heights? His name is Seamus and he does personal deliveries to your home or office. I hear that he has a pick up truck and he’s making a name for himself. He has business cards at Housing Works. From what I hear, he provides a much needed service for our neighborhood. Thoughts?

  • Jazz

    Those are for gas lines and other construction planned on that street. You are a troll.

  • DIBS

    And a moron.

  • SidneyGirl

    Has anyone heard of the new delivery person in the Heights? His name is Seamus and he does personal deliveries to your home or office. I hear that he has a pick up truck and he’s making a name for himself. He has business cards at Housing Works. From what I hear, he provides a much needed service for our neighborhood.

  • BeanieW

    LMAO.. STOP IT. HAHAHAHA ” possible racist”.Doesn’t seem you have been living here that long as these markings are nothing new.

  • Theraminimum

    Hello– I live in a rear-facing apartment, behind St. Ann’s Church. For over a month, contractors have been grinding mortar and paint off the back of the parish house, using no dust containment. DEP regulations are explicit that this type of grinding requires a thorough wetting of the material. NONE of this work is visible from the street sides of the building. I have looked for permits at the 157 Montague St address and there are none posted that I could find.

    Despite keeping my windows closed from M-F, 7am-5pm, my kitchen and living room have been repeatedly contaminated with whatever is contained in this dust and grime (lead? asbestos?). It has also covered my neighbors’ yards, including the courtyard of the school. Speaking directly to the foreman on the job (who assures me that the dust is contained properly and that wetting would be “too hard”), to Father Denaro, to 311, and to CB2 have all failed to get the contractor to contain the dust as per DEP regulations . I understand that wheels turn slowly, but I’ve been cleaning and breathing this for over a month and, with all the trees and various surfaces in the surrounding area covered with dust, it looks as if everyone in this area will be exposed to this for weeks to come, unless it is properly remediated.

    Here are a couple of videos I’ve taken. These were not taken with a zoom lens– the work is only 10-12 feet from my windows:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYQV6aiDXXA
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOjlHpiZ1Ik

    If anyone has an idea as to what more I can do, please feel free to post. Thanks in advance.

  • DIBS

    You didn’t mention whether you called the DOB.

  • Doug Biviano
  • gerrymander

    Has anyone heard about progress with the rollout for Verizon FIOS? I had a door tag left indicating that Verizone wanted access to the back yard to lay cable, and someone I ran into on the Street (Sidney Place) said he’s heard they would begin doing hookups in the next two weeks.

  • Thereminimum

    Yes, I called the DOB, but they said that dust was a DEP issue.

  • DIBS

    You could have the dust tested for lead and use it as the basis for a lawsuit.

  • MonroeOrange

    Shilll….vote NONE OF THE ABOVE!

  • miriamcb

    I’m not sure exactly what you mean by rollout since they provide service in BKHeights now. When we lived in North Heights we had Verizon Fios (maybe 3 years ago?) and we have Verizon Fios now in our new building. Are you asking about a specific section of BKHeights or when they will have full coverage?

  • Lucky Neighbor

    Here’s a nice story about Brooklyn Heights that you’ll enjoy, esp. in the context of the occasional Police Blotter stories…

    Last Friday, it was our 3 year old son’s birthday. We were leaving in the morning to visit his grandparents. I parked the car briefly in front of our building to load the bags in the trunk. As I was about to put the last bag into the trunk, a fire truck approached. My son was already dressed in his favorite firefighter costume, and I thought he would faint with glee as the firefighters waved to him and said happy birthday…this was basically the highlight of his life to date. However, our car was blocking the firetruck, so we loaded our son in the car quickly and drove away…two hours later, upon arriving at the grandparents’ house, we were missing that last bag. It dawned on us that we must have left it on the sidewalk by accident. This was bad, because the bag contained my wife’s iPad, most of her jewelry, and a lot of our son’s clothing. We called a few friends in the neighborhood to ask them to check that intersection, but the bag was gone.

    Two hours later, my wife’s office received a phone call. A kind neighbor had noticed the missing bag, taken it home, and pieced together my wife’s identity after reviewing the available clues in the bag (e.g., some post-it notes on her iPad with the titles of plays that her theater is producing). We are treating him and his wife to dinner at their favorite local restaurant as a small way of saying thanks.

    So, the good neighbors are out there!! Of of respect for his privacy, I won’t mention his name, but he’s a longtime resident of Brooklyn Heights and works nearby. Thank you!!

  • poster

    LOL nice, kumquat

  • dos tres

    the replacement parts will be delivered via the renovated 2/3 Clark St. station elevator, which is due to open any day now…

  • Jane

    For those of us with celiac’s – two nice developments – Sociale offers Gluten-Free pasta and Tazza now has gluten free bread and pancakes. They joy of getting ‘just a sandwich’ for luck was really nice!

  • DIBS

    With all due respect to anyone who has celiac diseae….

    Read all the way to the end…

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-vetri/im-gluten-intolerantintol_b_5614463.html

  • Kenji Takabayashi

    Please say you’re kidding, yes?

  • Kenji Takabayashi

    Yes, definitely get it tested!

  • Kenji Takabayashi

    I’m at 55 Poplar – and I saw a fios truck on my way to work on middaugh. he said the building/owners are the ones slowing down the install pace. We are a time warner building, but I cant IMAGINE they wouldn’t want to upgrade. Check with your building management….

  • Kenji Takabayashi

    Thats awesome!

  • Rick

    How high is that hotel in Brooklyn Bridge Park going to get?

    I thought it had reached it’s maximum height, but I was just on the Promenade (at about Pineapple/Orange Street), and saw that yet another floor has been added.

    So it now blocks a big chunk of the Brooklyn Bridge from view on the Promenade.

    Then I looked at the condo construction, and drew an imaginary line at the top of where they now are, and saw that when finished they could block the entire Brooklyn Bridge, the East River, and a significant part of the skyline.

    I took photos, and on one of them, I took a guess at the perspective of where the roof line would be. If this is right, it is terrible how much they’d block.

    Now I’m not an architect, so maybe someone else more knowledgable can chime in and tell us how close or far off this estimate is.

    But keep in mind I’m using the top of the condos as of today, and I don’t actually know how much higher they will get.

    So, three questions come to mind:

    1) Is the hotel higher than what was approved?

    2) Will the height of the hotels and condos block more than what was approved?

    3) And this is a big one … In the event that there has been a height or size violation, does the city have the nerve to make the developers fix the problem?

  • DoBro84

    Verizon is supposed to finish wiring NYC by the end of 2014. However, there are different points of view about what this deadline actually means.

    Here’s a 2013 article from dslreports.com that’s got some details

    http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Verizon-Accused-of-Lagging-on-NYC-FiOS-Promises-124089

    For what it’s worth, it took our coop board about 12 months to negotiate with Verizon and actually get our building wired—Verizon finished the wiring in July. Now, of course, it’s up to individual unit owners to contact Verizon if they want FIOS.

  • Quinn Raymond

    Doug, what exactly would you do as assemblymember to address this situation? Please give details.

  • Solovely

    Dear rick, just thought I’d add another question of mine. It is my understanding that mechanicals often go on top of buildings, and add significant height. Anyone know if this will be the case here?

  • NYcorgi

    The south building is only going to be 5 stories, so it won’t block as much as you blocked out in the photo. So far, it doesnt look like they are violating anything that was approved. The top piece of the hotel is for the rooftop bar. It won’t be any taller than that. The mechanicals will be on the roof, at the northern-most portions of the two buildings, but they won’t be that big… Hope that helps!

  • Rick

    The white area I blocked out on the photo actually is from the height of one of the south buildings as of today.

    So unless the perspective line I drew is faulty, that is how big it will be, and how much it will block.

    And even if I am off by a bit, it would still block the East River view.

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