Open Thread Wednesday

Right, but who will chase them off?

Owls are an important occult symbol among many secret societies throughout history. Just look at their use at Bohemian Grove….

if you have a car, and a reason to drive to New Jersey, Metropolitan Plant Exchange in Fort Lee is the SPOT – not cheap, but the best plant and flower store ever. Also, Lowes on 9th St has decent stuff

It looks like the B.Good restaurant is getting ready to open in the former Grand Canyon restaurant space on Montague. Apparently, it’s the first one in NYC. The Eagle reported on it last year: http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/2015/7/21/bgood-eatery-human-touch-replace-grand-canyon-restaurant-brooklyn-heights

Interesting…that’s before my time in the Heights but it looks like the trend of rising rents pushing out mom-and-pop stores was happening back in the ’80s. (At least this new place isn’t another Duane Reade or Citibank.) From 1986: http://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/22/nyregion/retailers-rents-on-montague-st-taking-a-toll.html

Yeah…this thread is old news. But good effort coming from a clothing store!

Either way works for me. lol

Yep that’s when Montague St started its decline.

Well, I finally caved and looked it up. From skimming the first several non-promoted google hits for “causes of homelessness” it seems we’re both right: more than half of the homeless are families with children–in their case they tend to have been rendered homeless by sudden changes in their situations for which they were unprepared. These are the unseen majority making their way from shelter to shelter or huddled in train station tunnels. But in the case of the people encamped on the outskirts of the neighborhood, the lone men, more likely other factors such as mental illness.

Ban the urinators and defecators – baaan them all!!!

As we enter a new phase of heavy-duty construction in our neighborhood, we should be aware how the closing of the DOT’s Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center due to budgetary constraints will affect us. The LMCCC’s role was to provide oversight of construction activities. Now, there will be less. All neighborhoods that are “blessed” with condo construction, particularly those with after-hours variances, require careful scrutiny and supervision. By leaving a void in this area, the city of New York is negligent in protecting its citizens. Its long-time practice to waive the NYC Noise Code is another of the city’s failings to protect its citizens. So, we propose a genuine Construction Command Center for Brooklyn.

Well a big problem is people actually bring them in as pets! There is sort of a culture of ‘more interesting’ pets in parts of park slope and Williamsburg type areas. Part of the urban hipster thing. Of course they escape and they promptly find how MUCH food there is in the average American home’s trash. /Hey, In parts of Park Slope there are block associations telling neighbors not to put out any remaining milk in the trash because of the fast growing population now of racoons!!!

Personal note; a family member yells for me one night, there on the fire escape is a big opossum! The is like six,eight storys up! He or she sees up and in a flash find he’,s up the ladder to the roof and is gone!!!
This is of course right on Willow. You had to see the SIZE of it! Fat on garbage or some crazy who has it as a pet!!

I think the decision to remove the signs was unnecessary and wasteful. Let’s say it’s true that they had no direct effect on motorists’ behavior; they still provided a legal precedent in the event that an officer felt like doing his or her job once in a while and issuing a citation to a horn-blower. During the taxi rides I referred to I would point out the signs to my driver as we’d come down Henry. And how much more money did the city spend on removing the signs, when it would have cost nothing to leave them there?

Sadly (or maybe this is a good thing, as signs are ultimately a visual intrusion, especially if you happen to appreciate architecture), I don’t think signage should be used to direct cultural behavior and it’s clearly not effective in doing so anyway. If we want to stop people from honking we can either ramp up enforcement (costly, and a step in the direction of a police state), or we can just start telling our kids that the horn is only for emergencies, and that they shouldn’t be passive about it when they see others honking out of childish impatience, or boredom.

Good points, SB.

dirty is just fact. we can sugarcoat it anyway we want but they are dirty. as in lacking hygiene. nothing privileged about making an objective point visible to anyone who can see, annoying is subjective. i get his viewpoint. i think ppl tend to think of the heights as a little nirvana that is and should stay free from city problems. there is nothing wrong with wanting that. the reality is we can’t have it. the homeless ppl i see around here are not victims of the housing crisis. they are like category 5 street dwellers. i am sure at some point they have been offered help. i’m also sure some of them do not want help. this is their lifestyle and as much as they are entitled to their lifestyle others are entitled to not want that lifestyle in their environment. let’s stop defaulting to this basic generic game of victims and villains.