Open Thread Wednesday

By on November 18, 2015 12:09 am in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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

    Hello, everybody!

  • Teresa

    PSA from our friends at the Brooklyn Heights Veterinary Group: the Department of Health has been putting rat traps out in the neighborhood, and a local dog owner recently saw two dead rats in Cadman Plaza Park. Please be careful! Don’t let your dogs near the traps or the rats!

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Yesterday near Pier 3.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Snuck into one of the Watchtower buildings on the Columbia Hts hill. They have a beautiful courtyard.

  • Brixtony

    I worry about the hawks who might be poisoned by contaminated food as well as the dogs. I’ve cleaned up 2 rats and a pigeon that were hawk kills – seen the hawk twice also.

  • gerrymander

    Just got a call from Sen. Squadron’s office. He’s holding a neighborhood Town Hall meeting on Wednesday, Dec 2nd (6:30 PM) and Brooklyn Law School):

    https://www.nysenate.gov/sites/default/files/squadron_bk_neighborhood_issues_th.pdf

  • alyssabereznak

    Hey guys,

    The latest BK HeightsCast episode is out. In it, we investigate the very low Yelp review of Friend of the Farmer, which does not seem to be faring well in the neighborhood.

    http://bkheightscast.com/13-blabillions-of-dollars/

    Enjoy!

    Alyssa from Pierrepont St.

  • neighboronhicks

    i’ve actually had two meals there that were quite delicious and lovely. you can tell they’re still getting their service sea legs, but the staff were entirely pleasant, and i think it’s worth being less captious than the neighborhood standard in an effort to support local business.

  • alyssabereznak

    that’s one of the first good reviews i’ve heard. what’d you have? seems like it’s still very hit or miss there, but you should give them a nice yelp review to let people know it’s not all bad. those initial ratings might hurt their reputation. especially when all of the what they say is so specific about what went wrong/the chef yelling/entire chunks of the menu being unavailable etc.

  • A Tree

    Looks like the location of the now closed Grand Canyon Diner is going to become a b.good restuarant, which is a chain making “natural”, locally sourced meals. This would be their first restaurant in NYC. In addition to Friend of a Farmer Montague street is becoming a locavore street!

    http://www.bgood.com/

  • Teresa

    Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will be at BBP Pier 1 Thursday at 4:15 with Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon for a tour. No further details released by the Governor’s office.

  • gcarl

    Tuesday night’s meeting to discuss the FIOS rollout was chaired by representatives of Common Cause and Consumers Union, and a representative from borough president Eric Adams’s office, and attended by some 40 people, a dozen or more of whom spoke about their unsuccessful attempts to get FIOS.

    Every speaker was articulate on the subject. It quickly became clear that our struggle to get Verizon even to give us information about getting FIOS — much less actually get it — is a common one. It further became clear that Verizon has breached its agreement to provide FIOS to NYC within the contractually required time frame.

    The neighborhoods represented included Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill, Park Slope, East New York, Williamsburg, and Bedford Stuyvesant. Everyone had had the same experience. A couple of speakers were landlords who have had no better luck getting FIOS for their buildings– or even getting a response from Verizon about when they can get FIOS — than anyone else. (One of Verizon’s excuses for failure to follow up on requests for FIOS has been that they must be made by building owners, who must provide access.)

    A Verizon representative read a statement from the company about how wonderful they are and how hard they’re working. Perhaps more usefully, he asked us to email an address ‘specially created for tonight’s event to ‘find out the status of FIOS availability in your building’.

    That address is: BrooklynFIOS@verizon.com

    Some of us have already sent our requests to this address and have gotten no response, but I suggest we flood them with emails to make sure they know that we will not accept their complacency and incapability to bring 21st century communications to Brooklyn and the rest of NYC. I am ashamed that the greatest city in the world is behind many European, and even some “third world” countries in this endeavor.

    Please email it ASAP, because Verizon says it “will accept status requests until 11/24/15″. In other words, only for the next SEVEN DAYS!

    The Common Cause and Consumers Union representatives said we should also register our complaints about FIOS to the city by calling 311. A city audit has found Verizon hasn’t fulfilled its obligations under its contract with NYC and every complaint is useful in supporting that finding and holding Verizon accountable — especially since the city is about to start negotiating a renewal of that contract.

    For more information, contact Josh Mumm at JMumm@commoncause.org, or Josh Levin at JoshuaLevin@BrooklynBP.nyc.gov

    To receive updates, sign the petition atwww.waiting4Fios.nyc

  • Roberto Gautier

    We are awaiting the result of the hearing at City Hall on 11/18/15 regarding Councilman Steve Levin’s vote on selling the Cadman Plaza library. His vote was a final step in approving or opposing the sale. His decision is critical for the community as well as for his re-election.

  • HereToStay

    Would never go back — horrible owners that do not deserve our money.

  • HereToStay

    HA! Geez – it cracks me up the people who do research. This place is going to fail, fail, fail! LOL. The court workers will not eat this and that is the bread and butter of those on this street. I thought it was going to be a high end burger place; that would have done well.

  • HereToStay

    I hope he votes for the sale. It’s what the neighborhood wants — and needs.

  • CHatter

    Neither of those things is true. The neighborhood does not need a massive residential tower–it lacks the necessary infrastructure to support the additional residents. And I think you’ll find that the overwhelming sentiment in fora like this one is that we do not want one.

    So to sum up, and to clarify: the neighborhood neither wants–nor needs the proposed sale and development of the existing library.

  • CHatter

    Thank you for posting this. I have sent an email to BrooklynFIOS@verizon.com, though I am certain I will receive no response.

  • HereToStay

    It is true – other than some folks on this blog, everyone I talk to is looking forward to a smaller, beautiful library that is more geared to the Heights community. They are also happy to have some residents on that stretch of Cadman Plaza West, where it is desolate and creepy at night. It is only the anti-development crowd that is against the library tower…
    So to sum it up, your opinion is yours and mine is mine. Though I think progress and improvement is a much better reason than ‘we don’t need a tower,’ so I will see you at the new library – it will be great!!!

  • Rick

    Everyone I speak to says you are a palm tree planted on Montague Street.

    The well-established inaccuracy of basing likelihood on personal anecdotal evidence makes my statement as likely as yours.

  • CHASESGILBERT

    My girlfriend and I had a fantastic time, food was excellent across the board. When they ran out of several items, the owner / manager apologized profusely and insisted the meal be comp’ed. They were gracious and we’re going back tomorrow night. Highly highly recommended, at least by us.

  • HereToStay

    LOL. Go commission a study of Heights residents… You will then see the truth.

  • A Tree

    I think you may be overestimating the tastes of a gaggle of lawyers.

  • CHatter

    Update: I received a robo-response from someone called Will Freshwater, which promised a real live person will contact me within ten business days. Spoiler alert / prediction: no one will contact me in ten business days!

  • KXrVrii1

    I emailed as well…

  • Roberto Gautier

    As someone who has used and appreciated our library for over two decades, I watched systematic neglect of the library’s physical shape – the a/c system was allowed to deteriorate, painting and routine maintenance were not done, even cleaning and polishing were left out of the usual checklist for upkeep. The library was allowed to lose its value so that it could be sold for a song. We’ve seen this over and over.

  • Concerned

    THIS!!!!! Roberto is spot on. I’ve seen it happen too many times. There are so many government programs that have been or have tried to be defunded so that a private entity can take over and make billions.
    These are the undercurrents of the world we live in. The lobbying efforts we never see or hear about, the “small” votes in congress that open up opportunities that no one thought of (except the think tanks that have been plotting and lobbying for years), the change of a definition in dicta in a decision in a small state court (that ends up being used in a supreme court decision and becomes law via stare decisis, i.e. corporations are people). No one can keep up with it. It is impossible. And by the time it hits home, the small groups who try to fight it are now fighting an avalanche that is years in the making.
    Then they are called fools, rebels and activists who don’t know any better. When really they are the first and last of a group who finally became aware. But, the avalanche now has laid a path that makes perfect sense to reasonable people (the library needs x, y and z and it will cost millions vs. having private developer build and WE make money). And there is no real paper trail to that path, at least not one that any investigative journalist or lawyer has the time or the reputation to spend on, because God knows there is SO much money behind the avalanche.
    This is the way of our world. I have seen it so many times. Whether it is private real estate developers, the Chamber of Commerce or the NRA. They never sleep…

    That is why I always like to see the civic organizations fight the good fight (especially in the Heights). Sometimes, they actually win. In other parts of the country, people have been so downtrodden and conditioned to such change that fighting such a fight will professionally, politically and personally ruin you. You’re branded a facist, a fool and a trouble maker. In NYC, the fight is still on. Keep fighting!!!

  • BKHLover

    Speaking of research – you do realize B.good is regional chain that sells burgers and sandwiches in the Chipotle fashion right?

  • HereToStay

    I did research it. They are all about quinoa and kale bowls and all natural crap. That will not do well there.

  • gc

    Sorry to say …
    You are soooo right!

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