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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  • Eddyde

    So whats your point?

  • rjg

    I found it interesting to read about the technical process NYC uses to evaluate the effects of shadows cast by taller buildings and decided to share the resource.

  • Eddyde

    Interesting yes, but I doubt these “studies” are much more than a formality. I mean who has ever heard of the city not allowing a building due to its shadow.

  • Moni

    Listened for the 1st time and found bkheightscast dull and inane. Since they include “reviews” of local businesses, I thnk it’s fair to review Joe & Alyssa. First of all they need to PREPARE before they bumble though another boring podcast. Both voices tend to drop too often into that annoying raspy low register common to millenials. Alyssa incesantly laughs and chuckles though nothing is particularly funny or entertaining. I couldn’t believe how long they went on with a story about restaurant takeout customers who complained their tartar sauce spilled in the delivery bag. This is so inept and amateurish and vapid, it can only improve — but I have my doubts it will.

  • Jeffrey Smith

    Hey, no one needs semi informed (and semi literate) attacks on the church

  • alyssabereznak

    Me, Joe, and the many other millennials of the world appreciate your feedback Moni.

  • Concerned

    LOL! What a harsh review… Now I HAVE to listen to the BK Heightscast. Never have I seen so many negative adjectives in one paragraph. You sound like a jerk, Moni. But I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and guess that right before this review, you had too many drinks, received the $4,000 vet bill from your cat dying the day before, and found out the man/woman of your dreams slept with your best friend…or maybe you’re just a jerk.

  • Roberto Gautier

    You might like to look at Cruxnow.com’s report on this issue. All institutions and individuals can be improved by honest, constructive airing of problems. That, after all, was the basis of Pope John XXIII’s “aggiornamento” policy of letting fresh air into the stagnant recesses of the church. Sadly, my post was not made up.

  • Jeffrey Smith

    Since this is not a Brooklyn Heights issue, I think I’ll leave the subject without further comment. This entire subject doesn’t belong in a BH forum. But for the record, you are both correct and only treating the most superficial levels of what has occurred; like the skyrocket in these conditions for SOME reason just after 1964….Hmmm…

    But again, this is not a BH matter.

  • Love Laner

    Fingers crossed!

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Ira Glass et al have covered the subject of vocal fry and up talk, as well as the implications of criticism of these inflections, quite sufficiently that repeated criticism of them seems moot, or at least quaint, like indignation about being placed on hold by a mega-corporate customer service call center. From a professional standpoint, not all feedback deserves to be noted, let alone appreciated. Keep up the good work, Alyssa and Joe, I hope your podcast grows into more of an establishment.

  • redlola

    So, I just caught up on like months worth of posts here especially open thread and found the discussion of crime related to BBP on Joralemon so predictable. Why? because there is always some extreme lefty who turns a simple concept into some sociological thesis that has nothing to do with the issue. The issue is this. We have had a spike in crime since this park opened. The perps that have been apprehended to date appear to be the kids using the court. the shooting was people using the court. The issue is not where they come from and all the disadvantages and stereotypes, blah blah. what I’m about to say applies to ANYONE coming here regardless of race, age, socioeconomics. The issue is when you come to a community that is not your own, respect it. Whatever BS you do wherever you are from, leave it there. If noone is bothering you. do not bother them. That is how I act every everywhere I go. Not too much to ask. Enjoy the park amenities in a manner that does not interfere with others. If you cannot, I have no excuses for you. Act like a criminal and get treated like one. Nobody wants a police state but I’ll take that over my safety being compromised by a bunch of disrespectful brats.

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

    Oh Jeffrey, “holier than thou” are we? LOL…

  • Jeffrey Smith

    First of all, a dozen years ago + when the park was proposed, speaker after speaker, predicted that this would lead to a general degration of Heights security (yes, I was the first and strongest, but I was not alone)
    Of course, the response we got was the “R” word.
    Now, this is a fit subject because NOW there’s been an incident thepols and police plaza CAN’T ignore.

    That being said, what do we do now? Well:
    1) Push for really high def NYPD cameras at Hicks
    and Henry along Joralemon.
    2) Demand a Police mobile post the water to Clinton
    on weekends 8 AM to Midnight.
    3) Demand installation of reasonable lighting on
    Joralemon. Higher light levels but focused so as
    NOT to cause light trespass into residences.
    4) Install lights with significant light output OUTSIDE
    of the range of human vision. This to provide low
    to zero lux cameras with daylight or better light
    Levels for high quality images.
    5) As many private home owners and concerned
    citizens need to place high quality cameras on/in
    their property facing Joralemon.
    6) Starting with this incident and thereafter, there has
    to be a well publicised operation court watch when
    these cases come up to trial.
    7) We need a push to higher penalties for crimes like
    What has now occured on Joralemon.

    Just a quick note, since scores of those attracted to the park Have been able to engage in crimes, almost all unreported, including also serious acts of harrass ment, of Heights residents, along Joralemon, we NOW have less reasonable types alone or in pairs roaming all over the Heights…and they’re not here for a higher education.

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

    Doesn’t matter, it’s an open thread.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    “The perps that have been apprehended to date appear to be the kids using the court.”

    Asking without any preconceived ideas: where are you getting your info to substantiate the claim that the crime on Joralemon st is directly related to use of the basketball courts? Have they been publishing statements from police or perps saying things like “perp was found smashing car window at Joralemon and Hicks wearing Jordans, carrying only a basketball and a phone with a text message that read ‘see you for hoops at pier 2′”?

    Or by ‘courts’ did you mean the volleyball courts? Because if so I think we’d be able to detect the trail of sand…

  • redlola

    Like i said, i’m not getting into racial anf and class hyperbole. Most incidents described so far..the rabbi getting assaulted, the two joggers, the deli getting looted have all had kids decribed as the assailants and all have been at the park or on the way to it. Never mind the shooting on the actual courts. Like i said i don’t care if they are on their way to the basketball courts, volleyball or sandboxes, people need to act right. Period. In the summer on the promenade, there are always people smoking weed both during daylight hours and at night and food containers fron places like mcdonalds strewn about (which we don’t have in close proximity). I have seen who is smoking and throwing crap around and it is kids 15-22 who are not from here. In the winter, we don’t have these issues. So if you want to pretend that there is no impact of the myriad visitors to the community, you can live alone in that delusion. I am more interested in reality and the reality is while far from every kid is doing something, some are and that is a direct relation to greater influx because of the park. Also, as someone pointed out, if we don’t take a firm stance, ppl will think this is a patsy neighborhood ripe for the picking.

  • Concerned

    Redlola for mayor!!!!!!!!

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I did not mention race, class, or, for that matter, the basketball courts. You did. I am simply asking that if you make an assertion that you please do so clearly (i.e. Is your problem with the park, its visitors, or just the ones using the park for certain activities?) and substantiate it with facts for the benefit of this discussion. I don’t see how anyone’s interests, including those of our neighbors, are served by making blanket accusations based on anecdotal evidence.

  • Jeffrey Smith

    I swear, I’m getting to feel that AS is a BOT…which is programmed to appear on the second post of anyone using my name or well known handles…well, its amusing anyway…

  • Jeffrey Smith

    Personal arguments/personalities aside, what practical effective steps can we take to control this problem?…

    Basic police presence is the first step. Given the now well proven dangers this new element is, we need a one or two man assignment 2 PM to Midnight Friday Eves and 9 AM to Midnight Saturday and Sunday from Clinton to Willowtown.

    Then, we need really good image capture, both public/NYPD AND by local home owners. If these less reasonable types KNEW that had to pass like 20 high res camera systems to get into or out of the park, and that knowledge filtered back to origin neighborhoods, how likely would our visitors be to try to abuse the Heights?

    Better lighting INCLUDING non visable illumination.

    We need real, effective solutions..not more talk

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

    How about a moat with Alligators?

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

    I’ll confess, having just listened to Ira Glass, that I find vocal fry annoying, as I do uptalk, and, yes, I’m old. I have theories about both of them. Uptalk, I believe, started with flight attendants, when they were almost all young women. I think they were taught to emphasize the wrong words in sentences–THE captain HAS turned on THE fasten seat belt SIGN–as a way of sounding little-girlish and thereby “sexy”. As for vocal fry, in my much younger days it was called “whiskey baritone” and was characteristic of older women (and men) who had spent years marinating their vocal cords in alcohol and tobacco smoke. Perhaps it got popular among young women after some of them watched late-in-career Lauren Bacall movies and thought it sounded sophisticated. It didn’t bother me with Bacall, I suppose because I thought she’d earned it.

    Please note–I still like Alyssa and Joe and their podcast very much. After all, they’re devoted readers of this blog, and have even mentioned my name a time or two. They can talk however they want.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I’ve heard or read a number of theories about how these vocal inflections developed as generational trends, and this is always a fascinating subject. (One annoying thing I sometimes catch myself doing when I speak is starting an explanatory sentence with “So,…”) Claude, I’m not surprised that your theory is as interesting as the rest, and I’ll admit that I also have a limited tolerance for voluntarily listening once I’ve detected such a tic.

    However, at the very least as a neighbor and more so as a proponent of idea-proliferating media, I feel very much in agreement with your last paragraph. They can talk however they want! And for what it’s worth, there are many professional radio broadcasters with vastly more annoying vocal tics.

  • Jeffrey Smith

    It’s amazing how A.I. can make a BOT mimic so closely human behavior…Now if it could producr actual human intelligence.

    Seriously, you’ve often brought me a smile, especially when you mention some of the great old days. We had a lot of laughs in those days.

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

    Those activities on the Promenade have been going on long before the BBP, was built. If anything, the park might actually attract some of those visitors away from the Promenade.

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

    So, I agree.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Yep! Also, as a refutation against those who automatically associate speech inflections with an evaluation of the content of speech, here’s an example from NASA (reasonably smart people, yes?) with plenty of “vocal fry”: https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLgHJYtbt8tY6CdSA8S5cpoXZVZ88RTelQ&v=WCDuAiA6kX0

  • redlola

    Yes, I know. I have lived here a long time. My point is that disputing that issues we have here aren’t in some way attributable to the influx of ppl that aren’t from the community is silly. It has always been an issue. We can parse this all we want but my point remains that I don’t care who you are and what purpose you come to my neighorhood for as long as you respect the community and its residents and I am willing to support whatever measures it takes to enforce that type of basic respect.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I don’t dispute the likelihood that the park attracts people, which means that statistically the incidence of criminal activity will rise.

    But it seems like we, as a neighborhood, are going to have to face some tough questions about the way we interact with the rest of the city, as the “sequesteredness” of Brooklyn Heights diminishes as a natural outcome of inevitable development and change. Nobody wants there to be crime near the home; it lowers desirability and everything that comes with it. But what to do about crime? I can more easily think of things that would not be a good response. I’ve said before, on this blog, that a “police state” (again, your words, redlola) would be unacceptable. Nor do I accept the “Brooklyn Heights entitlement” to divert crime to other neighborhoods by re-routing the through-ways to the park.

    I didn’t live here when the handshakes occurred to create the park, but I certainly benefited from them, as did we all: we now have a beautiful and accessible stretch of waterfront with a great deal of desirable amenities, and from where I sit, that public good collectively outweighs the nuisances we occasionally face, even including the obnoxiously obstructed view. I don’t say that lightly–I realize that for those individuals who have been the victim of crime, especially violent crime, the park seems like nothing more than an injustice, and that’s a position to which those affected have an absolute right.

    One thing I think we can do, as a neighborhood, is take steps toward self-improvement. Our commercial sector could stand to be more robust, we are in dire need of more schools and child-focused public amenities, and I don’t know if your building is like mine but we only have one option for internet service–unacceptable! Another thing we should be doing? Being better neighbors–to each other, and to visitors. The desirability of a neighborhood, in my opinion, has nothing to do with crime, and everything to do with the quality of the people who live there.

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