Open Thread Wednesday

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  • Willow Street Watch

    The ‘wild driver on the promenade’ near disaster aftermath continues with police promising to request security camera tapes in the area between 8:55 and approx 9:15 PM Sunday Night. Question is if they will request and be given access to the JW’s network of cameras..Council Steve Levin’s office is looking into the apparent total breakdown of 9-11 in the incident and at least one civic group in the north Heights is in the process of printing up flyers asking for the public’s help…while calling public attention to what happened.

    We’ll see if the identity of these bums turns up. But the basic reality is that this incident is the capstone in a worsening trend over the last year of longer and longer system response times and increasingly wrong or missing information being given by 9-11 to police.. (Try listening to a scanner after you’ve called the police) also the degradation of quality of information and far slower system response is NOT in any way limited to this area. Reports from very credible sources across the city show far slower response times and at least partially incomplete information given to police repeatedly at critical moments.

  • Jorale-man

    Perhaps I missed something here but…a car on the promenade? How is that even possible?

  • Jorale-man

    Speaking of the promenade, the indie rocker Ted Leo tweeted this about Pierhouse to his 56K followers:

    The Brooklyn Heights Promenade is amazing public space w/best views in entire city & multi-million $ condos blocking it is just straight BS.— Theodore F. Leo (@tedleo) July 29, 2015

  • Eddyde

    Simply drive a car onto it, all but the two end ramps are easily drivable. The police used to cruse the Promenade in patrol cars regularly back in the day (60’s- 80’s), before they got the “Cop-in-a-Box” scooters.

  • Jorale-man

    Well, I guess you’re right in principal. The idea of a “wild driver” on it surprises me a bit!

  • Eddyde

    I’ve seen a few of those too, over the years…

  • StudioBrooklyn

    WSW posted about this in last Wednesday’s thread. And yes, police regularly cruise the promenade every time the Prez flies in across the estuary (it’s an estuary, right?).

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com ClaudeScales

    I think it’s a strait, but could also qualify as an estuary.

  • Sen. Bob Forehead

    Taking us back to the 70’s, one crime at a time…

  • Willow Street Watch

    I was always taught in earth science that its a tidal canal.

    But the basic reality of what I reported is that response times are now often a half hour(!) and that’s not certain, and that it’s not at all certain that any effective action outside of what individuals take will ever happen in this matter.

    The OTHER very major reality here is that when large numbers of people feel they are unprotected, and this is most certainly what this incident shows, they will seek to protect themselves. This is exactly what happened in the 70’s in the Heights. This is a normal and very healthy response to danger and official irresponsibility.

  • MonroeOrange

    was the driver driving erratically or was it just someone who drove down the ramp and then realized their mistake? more details are needed, not just nonsensical ranting about total breakdown of policing infrastructures!

  • Rwsident

    I hear that an Asian noodle place is taking over the old Siggy’s on Henry. Booo.

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

    Perhaps you should call the FBI, get the governor to declare a state of emergency, mobilize the National Guard. Clearly these heinous criminals must be caught at all costs, so they can be issued a traffic violation…. LOL

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

    I second “Strait” as it connects Long Island Sound with New York Bay,

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

    A canal is artificial, so whoever taught you that was wrong.

  • Willow Street Watch

    If you go back to last wed open thread and look at the full story, you’ll see the details. But anyone who at this point tries to diminish or dismiss the reduction in protection we are now experiencing is removed from reality or is just being dishonest.

  • Willow Street Watch

    This was a very serious incident and it deserves a serious treatment. Not some “casino humor”

  • David Salpeter

    Anyone know when the meadow area in pier 6 of BBP will open? I know they said August but wasn’t sure if they’d gotten more specific. It looks like it will be really nice, park controversies aside.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Come on. This incident, even if it’s as you described or worse, was clearly isolated. Nobody wants to live in a neighborhood where police are stationed at every intersection on the off chance that someone does something incredibly stupid. And even if we were all hot for fascism, do you have any idea what kind of manpower that kind of police presence would require? Something like 1 in every 50 people would have to be a cop!

  • StudioBrooklyn

    The East River is actually a salt water tidal strait (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_River). As I’m referring to the heliport across the water from our beloved promenade, the only term for the connecting point between the East River and the Upper New York Bay is the East River’s “mouth” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_New_York_Bay), which doesn’t seem accurate if it’s not really a river.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Please keep us posted. Asian noodles can be spectacular. Ever been to Chinatown in Queens, or watched Mind of a Chef? Here’s to hoping it’s real cuisine and not just some dormitory-cottage-business slop kitchen.

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

    Your constant attempts a insult or what whatever you’re “Casino”Jabs are trying to accomplish are frivolous As I have nothing to do with the place, nor do I directly associate any of its members and that goes for the BHA as well.

  • Bongo

    A good Japanese udon/ramen place would be most welcome in that location.

  • MaryT

    From what I’m seeing, wheeled traffic has increased a lot in the past few years. Trucks, motorcycles, cars, bikes, all impatiently competing for our narrow streets. No end in sight. DOT needs to implement comprehensive calming measures. It’ll take years, most likely, so I vote for getting started now!

  • StoptheChop

    something like the ramen places in the East Village would be great

  • Willow Street Watch

    There are several muddled concepts in your “treatment” of this subject; no one is uadvocating oppressive or overreaching law enforcement. Only a reasonable ratio of public safety personnel Police, fire, ems, to the size of population. I am only advocating the “J” rule:… if you increase the population you want more safety personnel- cops, fire and ems Period.

    But what the real focus of the article is what 911 is doing;

    In the last year speed of response, one of the most critical measures of public safety and govermental performance had tanked…we are simply less safe and while the flippant and rain puddle deep thinkers may represent this as somehow not important the basic reality is that if the public feels unprotected they (always quietly) 1) look for somewhere else to live and/or 2) look for a ways to protect themselves. Want to know what that means? Back to the Sonny Crockett approach to urban social matters…..

  • StudioBrooklyn

    You’ll get no argument from me that the 911 service and response times are in desperate need of improvement. But you’re also very trigger happy at advocating more policing as the solution to every problem you attribute to our neighborhood, which you lament as being in unmitigated decline and seem to hold its residents in such contempt. It begs the question: why do you stay? Surely there must be some place you’d rather live. I’m not saying that to be hostile, by the way, I’m honestly wondering. I don’t mean to suggest that you should do this or that.

  • Andrew Porter

    So that makes a birth canal a…

  • Andrew Porter

    Because the three other Japanese places on Clark Street aren’t enough for the north Heights?

  • Andrew Porter

    I’m happy to report that now that Pineapple Street has been repaved, it’s been marked up by, I think, National Grid, for new excavations. You’d think someone could coordinate digging and repaving schedules, but I guess that’s too much to ask for.