Open Thread Wednesday

By on August 4, 2015 11:52 pm in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • miriamcb

    Nice picture, Claude!

    In CVS news, the one on Love Ln/Henry is getting a makeover and the signs went up on the new CVS yesterday on Montague.

    Also, we walked past FDNY outside the building on Monroe/Clark that is just being redone (the eyesore). There were 4 fire trucks and lots of firemen assessing the building. They told us that they were called due to possible building stability issues. Anyone hear anything about it?

  • Willow Street Watch

    From what I understand, a group of REAL Clinton St/Monroe Place residents is quietly forming to address the Slab being put up above the new library. Problem is, they’re doing so slowly due to the number of households away on vacation.

    Also, you’d think that with the stakes so high, you would see picketing and other more visable forms of protest. Really, a couple of flat bed
    Trucks driving around with angry residents or something. So far groups opposed to the RE tulip craze have, using poor judgment, largely limited their protests to public hearing events. Really we should have a truck with a good enjoyable music and then public speakers.

  • BrooklynBeBop

    Please show your support for the Brooklyn Bridge view by attending the next round of court arguments for SaveTheViewNow.org this Thursday at 10:30 at 360 Adams St., Judge Knipel’s courtroom on the 7th Floor. (Link to details, below.)

    As you may have read, we discovered new evidence that shows Brooklyn Bridge Park Corp and Toll Brothers have misled the public and the Court about the Pierhouse complex rooftop. While they say that they are only building, “mechanical equipment,” on the rooftop, the building plans for the rooftop show an enclosed kitchen, food prep areas, an “outdoor” shower, six (6) separate elevators, several vestibules (which exceed the permitted square footage for vestibules), and a separate room for, “pool equipment,” among other rooftop structures that violate the zoning regulations that BBPC says they used to construct the rooftop bulkheads.

    The leases between BBPC and Toll Brother Toll Brothers show the maximum height limits for both buildings – 100 ft. for Parcel A, inclusive of, “mechanical equipment,” (not Parcel A’s current height of 130 ft.) and a 55 ft maximum height for Parcel B. (We got the defendants to reduce the height on this building from 67 ft. to 55 ft.)

    On a different note, most people don’t seem to know that the Mayor is the only member required for the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corp. The Mayor then appoints most of the board members and can remove them for any, or no, reason, and has done so when they didn’t, “go along”. Also, at least 2 of the board members, who were supposed to represent the community, recused themselves from votes so that they could buy a condo in the Pierhouse. (I kid you not). So the question would be, “Who was representing the community when these 2 board members recused themselves?”.

    This project is loaded with conflicts of interest, self-serving parties and government corruption. Again, please show your support by attending the courtroom arguments this Thursday at 10:30am. Details: http://us11.campaign-archive2.com/?u=c17596f4d0db779cae072c000&id=23515c725e&e=a5964eecf1

  • Willow Street Watch

    Certainly, everybody SHOULD how up Thursday. Take a personal day, or half day, put aside your scheduled events and GO. Make no mistake: Judges DO watch how many “observers” show up in a courtroom. Just
    the investagative work this organization has done and what it has revealed appears very important. The BBP always was total scam to build luxury real estate… Period.

  • Peter Loibl

    Oh no! I hope they don’t change their stellar self-checkout procedures, where 2 of the 3 kiosks are broken, and the one “working” keeps blinking the words “WAIT FOR CASHIER.” Flawless …

  • miriamcb

    Haha. I asked about that…and originally, they were going to get rid of them altogether. Now the manager says he’s not sure what the exact plans are. At least we can hope for working ones :)

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Gotta love their weirdly low cereal prices. I think one of their vendors might be a bandit.

  • MonroeOrange

    You constantly act as if they do what you say, there were be REAL results…you can protest as much as you want but big REAL estate will always win. Unless the governor and mayor stand up to them, and we both know that isn’t going to happen.

    Im all for protesting, but you constantly are writing blaming other people who are protesting about their methods not being good enough.

    and since you have all these good ideas…how about YOU lead the protest…or are you not REAL enough to do it?

  • Lady in the Heights

    Excellent addition to Montague Street! Check out the new Emack and Bolio ice cream store in the old Connecticut Muffin. Great ice cream, super nice staff, and it’s clean! Time to give old Haagen Daaz a run for its money.

  • gatornyc

    They are the “loss leaders” to get you in the store. Works on me!

  • Poplar

    Is there seating?

  • SongBirdNYC

    There is likely seating upstairs but I didn’t see any when I walked by with my son this afternoon. There is room for one or two bistro tables on the street level but that might cause a bottleneck if the shop is really busy, particularly if multiple strollers are inside.

  • StoptheChop

    I love the Boston store. So happy to have it here!

  • StudioBrooklyn

    The moon, yesterday, through a viewing machine on Pier 2.

  • MaryT

    Good photo, Claude. So many great sunsets from this side of the estuary, lately. Off to the PierHouse hearing today. 10:30 am, 360 Adams Street, 7th floor, Judge Knipel.

  • Ben W

    We are selling our Bloom Alma Mini Urban Crib in Coconut White for $400 obo. In addition to the crib frame, we are including:

    Bloom Alma Urban Mini Spring Crib Mattress
    Bloom Alma Mattress Protector Natural Wheat
    Bloom Alma Fitted Mini Lollipop Sheets, Rosy Pink, 2 Sets
    Bloom Alma Mini Lollipop, Rosy Pink Crib Bumper

    Its 4 months old and in perfect condition. On Middagh Street.

    Please email me: gbjammin@hotmail.com

  • Andrew Porter

    An Urban Crib. Is that where hipsters hang out?

  • BrooklynBeBop

    STVN Supporters,

    Yesterday was our hearing before Judge Knipel. We asked him to reject the Defendants’ motion-to-dismiss and to re-consider the Preliminary Injunction based on new evidence. We left the courtroom encouraged.

    Why are we encouraged? Entering the court room we knew we would have to fight hard to convince Judge Knipel to change the views stated in his earlier decision denying our preliminary injunction request.

    Our legal team lead by Jeffrey Baker, did an excellent job in advocating our position. They stressed the new
    facts revealed by the lease and the bulk head plans, which show that the
    defendants not only mislead the community, but the Court as well.

    The misleading continued even as we sat in Court today. Jonathan Marvel (the architect for Toll Brothers) in his affidavit states the bulkheads are consistent with the permitted obstruction section of NYC Zoning resolutions. We have often heard from the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corp (“BBPC”) that the bulkheads will
    comply with NYC Zoning, despite the fact that we do not agree that NYC Zoning is applicable. Nevertheless, once we pointed out that the bulkheads, in fact, do not comply with NYC Zoning resolutions, the lawyers for the defense back peddled, stating that NYC zoning rules are merely guidelines and do not need to be precisely followed. This is outrageous.

    At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Knipel informed the Court room that he came to the hearing expecting that he would be ruling today from the bench. Instead he noted that after hearing the oral testimony, he needed one to three weeks to further review all the relevant evidence and arguments before making a decision.

    We can only hope that Judge Knipel is as outraged as we are. We will post an update once a decision from the Judge is received.

    Thank you for your continued support and we want to remind you that we have been granted tax-exempt status (501c-3) from the IRS. All contributions are tax-deductible and are appreciated.

    Please sign the petition: SaveTheViewNow.org

    Or contribute to our legal fund:
    http://www.gofundme.com/savetheviewnow

  • Andrew Porter

    The car-service at 76 Henry Street, which has been there for decades under a variety of names—the classy one with the toilet planter out front—has closed and moved to somewhere on Atlantic Avenue, a nearby merchant told me.

    Back in the 1960s, this was the first location for Beastly Bite, now in its second location on Court Street south of Atlantic.

  • Roberto Gautier

    With the rising volume of commentary about de-parkification in our Brooklyn Bridge Park, urban deforestation takes on greater meaning. A friend recommend that we consider the health of less well-appointed trees in very often shabby and thirsty tree pits outside the superfunded park.

  • Andrew Porter

    These are the views I’m used to; they’re paintings from the late 1940s by Chesley Bonestell:

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Love it! Why don’t I know about this artist? Totally up my alley. Did he do the illustrations for Bradbury or Clarke?

  • Willow Street Watch

    We should start a trees in need/adopt a tree index volunteer effort. I try to report trees with problems to the parks dept. But it would be a LOT better to directly help trees on an individual basis like the woman on Livingston Street between Clinton and Court. There a series of trees and tree box areas she helped whiich were awful and are now in great condition because of her. That kind of individual based effort should spread over entire Heights.

  • Andrew Porter

    He was a brilliant artist who had a first career as an architect, helping design the facade of the Chrysler Building, and other buildings, then had a second career as an astronomical artist, starting in the late 1940s. More about him here:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesley_Bonestell

  • Andrew Porter

    There is a tree committee at the BHA, which recently coordinated the tree survey in the Heights. When I renew my BHA membership, I always add something extra for the trees.

  • Willow Street Watch

    There’s a “tree committee”. Really? Then why are the trees and the tree boxes in the condition they are…These efforts work well ONLY when a concerned citizen or small group of.individuals get together and decide to take action. Otherwise it becomes a branch of some entrenched beauracracy and is politicized.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Any chance of a sex change for all the female gingkos in the neighborhood? I’m still curious as to what degenerate decided that was a good idea.

  • Andrew Porter

    I think you’d best ask one of Tolkien’s Ents about that…

  • Andrew Porter

    Yes, it’s shamefully true. There are millions of dollars being siphoned off by the BHA’s “tree committees,” to fund such projects as a solid gold keyboard for Claude Scales.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    This just in

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