Open Thread Wednesday

By on February 10, 2016 8:08 am in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • Andrew Porter

    Over on Brownstoner, they’ve posted a bunch of hundred year old postcards of the Bossert Hotel which I scanned in. You can see them here:

    http://tinyurl.com/gnhxsxy

    I’ve also scanned in a bunch of postcards for the Towers and Margaret Hotels, which will likely be posted there eventually. These are part of my postcard collection of NYC and Brooklyn Heights scenes, which I’m slowly scanning in and making available to any news site that wants to post them.

  • Love Laner

    Will the old Starbucks location on Montague ever be filled again?

  • Love Laner

    I hope that they try and recreate the lovely interiors shown in the postcards!

  • AEB

    A Marine Roof would be just the thing, wouldn’t it?

  • Roberto Gautier

    Last night at MetroTech’s National Grid hq, Daniel Davidoff, Mayor Bloomberg’s Deputy Mayor and former head of Bloomberg LP, spoke about his new start-up called Sidewalk Labs. The money behind the project is Google. The plan is to wire NYC, site millions of tracking sensors and beacons throughout the five boroughs and create a “platform” to make everything efficient. The presentation raised troubling questions of Big Brother and visions of having Google, major backer of Uber, create an improved “quality of life” for all – supported by ads. This project is already in progress through Plan NYC and should receive greater scrutiny.

  • alyssabereznak

    Another BK HeightsCast episode is out, featuring a rare and exciting celeb sighting. Check it out –> http://bkheightscast.com/19-extra-tartar-sauce/

  • alyssabereznak

    This is really cool. Can’t wait till the renovations are finished.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    An existential question, to be sure. :)

    About a year ago (maybe more?) when I first started posting here I was pursuing info on whether it would be possible to encourage the owners to let me do a pop-up storefront art studio there. My idea was to have an art studio with big windows that passersby could see into and watch art being made, even take classes, maybe have a little gallery space. In exchange, the space would look a lot more desirable and magnetic than it does now, and it would be “on the map”.

    My thinking was that this could maintain the vitality of the space and attract foot traffic that in turn would help the owner attract a tenant. But I was too busy to follow through with the BHA and the Montague Business District Association by drafting proposals, etc., and it was too certain to be a waste of my time anyway, since I couldn’t think of a way to get the attention of the owner, who is obviously holding out for another blue-chip tenant and therefore would probably not listen to bartering offers. But for the record, I still think it’s a good idea, and it received a great deal of enthusiasm from this community when I mentioned it.

  • Andrew Porter

    Construction of a supertall just south of the South Street Seaport, across the river from us, will generate more shadows across BBP and the Heights at sunset, just what we need. Details on TheRealDeal here:

    http://tinyurl.com/zjfea27

  • Jorale-man

    There are so many things that BH residents could benefit from and would actually patronize but never appear on Montague. How about a branch of Union Market or a similar quality grocery store? Or a branch of Bookcourt? Maybe a place that sold decent home products a la Bed Bath and Beyond, but smaller? The street has improved somewhat lately but it definitely has a long way to go.

  • suzanne goss

    Had a really good experience at the NYU Emergent Care center on Pacific and Hicks — excellent, responsive, thorough care — extremely competent and caring staff. It’s a big improvement over Sal’s II, aka the butcher shop formerly known as LICH ER.

  • Diesel

    The word on the street is the owner of that building is a real A-hole. He drove Starbucks away by refusing to make repairs to the building, then jacking the rent way up.
    There is always a reason.

  • CHatter

    Really takes the shine off the Pier 17 residential tower victory, doesn’t it? That’ll teach me to celebrate

  • Concerned

    AP is a wealth of info on BH!!!! Cheers.

  • Teresa

    I had to go there this summer and had the same experience. Didn’t require any major treatment or tests, but I felt like I was in good hands.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Makes me glad I didn’t waste my time barking up that tree.

  • BrooklynCoffeeLover

    I’ve heard the same thing. My wife used to work there a while back and the landlord was ridiculous. The rent is way too high and it will be almost impossible for a “local” store to rent out of there. Only one that could afford it would be a similar chain like Starbucks.

  • Diesel

    Woof!

  • Eddyde

    The interior of the lobby was completely restored by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, during their reign of the Bossert.

  • Eddyde

    Hmm.. I don’t know how that shadow theory works. Wouldn’t the sunlight have to shine through all the other buildings in lower Manhattan first?

  • Roberto Gautier

    For fans of the film “Spotlight,” bad news from Vatican hq: new bishops are being told it is not their job to report sex abusers to the police. Their point is really: protect the institution, not the kids.
    Ask your local priestly figures, rabbis and imams about this.

  • Love Laner

    What a wonderful idea even if it didn’t come to fruition!

  • Love Laner

    I just worry about the new owners (who are the proprietors of The Dazzler Hotel by the Manhattan Bridge…) and their plans for the space.

  • Andrew Porter

    It’s going to stick up above all the other buildings, be the first in the mass of buildings to block the sunlight.

  • Eddyde

    I doubt they would ruin the Bossert lobby. Its a period building, the exterior is landmarked and cannot be changed, to “modernize” the lobby would simply look ridiculous.

  • HereToStay

    I think it would end up being supported so long as you didn’t need any work done to the interior. You should push for it!

  • Eddyde

    How far above? the article didn’t seem to indicate the overall height. Even assuming it would be higher, the suns arc is more to the south at sunset, any shadow would fall more towards Dumbo and be minimal at that. I don’t see this affecting the Heights.

  • Andrew Porter

    In the summer, the sun sets behind lower Manhattan. The only part of the Promenade where you can see the sun set in New Jersey is between Montague and Remsen.

    A super-tall is defined as a building taller than 300 meters: more than 984 feet high.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I think I’d need more convincing that it’s worth my time to put together a pitch and then track down the correct party to pitch to. Getting the right person’s attention is a very labor intensive process these days–one of the first hard truths artists learn in our careers.

  • rjg

    Shadows are discussed in detail in Chapter 8 of NYC’s 2014 Environmental Quality Review Technical Manual.

    Link to the manual:

    http://www.nyc.gov/html/oec/downloads/pdf/2014_ceqr_tm/2014_ceqr_technical_manual.pdf

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