Open Thread Wednesday

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  • Roberto

    With health care policies spoken about daily, thoughts of food and health always come to the fore. One of our most delicious little fruits are under the microscope – strawberries! https://www.aol.com/article/lifestyle/2017/03/21/strawberries-pesticides/21904539/

  • DIBS

    Not the ones I get in Bucks County. I’m sure there are farmers markets you could get them at. Besides, they aren’t very good out of season anyway.

  • Jorale-man

    On the closing of Housing Works: I wonder how it is that the fortune teller in the same building can continue to pay the rent but a citywide thrift shop chain can’t. I’m sure the upper floors (where the fortunes are told) don’t fetch nearly the same rent, but it still strikes me as odd – they can’t be doing *that* well in the face of Montague St. real estate prices.

  • William

    I live in this building you photographed. Here is my version from Christmas. I think it looks straight out of a Charles Dickens or Henry James novel. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5992e02ca4def554020a17d668ab1b7fc493ca1aaabe55cf4abb730d96f3f641.jpg

  • redlola

    <3

  • Cranberry Beret

    What’s up with the Sanitation Department? There’s still lots of snow and slush in the middle of our streets…8 days after the storm, even after some warm days in the middle. Haven’t seen a plow in days to fully clear the roadways — the streets continue to be a hazard. Hicks Street (just south of Atlantic) has a HUGE mound of snow/ice smack in the middle of the left turn lane that requires cars to swerve out of their lane to avoid. The city can’t be bothered to clear it??

    And if they’re not clearing the snow, then what exactly are they working on? They came once over the weekend to pick up trash, other than that trash and recycling has been sitting out on the curb for every day this week without a truck in sight.

    They did a much better job when we had twice as much snow in February.

  • DIBS

    It does!

  • gc

    If they’re not on some type of job slowdown they might just as well be.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I pondered this same question in the comments of the article that broke the news (on this blog, anyway). It led me to this article in Vice: https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/how-do-psychics-survive-in-new-york-city-311

    The takeaway: there’s actually sufficient demand for their services, and they can earn upwards of $10 in a few minutes.

    That said, I remain baffled. Once–in the countless times I’ve walked by at all hours of the day, only once–I actually saw someone walk in to patronize that business or walk out from having just done so.

  • StudioBrooklyn
  • MaggieO

    Not that this excuses it, but it certainly doesn’t help that folks cleaning off and shoveling our their cars often throw all their snow into the middle of the road. It’s one thing to do this during the storm when the plows are running through regularly but once the storm is over doing this just creates hazardous driving conditions.

  • DIBS

    I don’t think one has anything to do with the other. Fortune Teller space is a fraction of the retail store’s. Lease terms most likely far different. Fortune Teller c/b independently wealthy.

  • Cranberry Beret

    Agree on the cause but that’s what you’re supposed to do with the snow (move to street). And the city’s job is to clear it from the street…if snow keeps ending up there then they need to keep clearing it.

  • MaggieO

    I thought you were supposed to clear it to the sidewalk side. Apparently you can request re-plowing via 311: https://www1.nyc.gov/apps/311universalintake/form.htm?serviceName=DSNY+Snow+Street+Replow+Spread

  • MaggieO

    so it’s clear that the DSNY prohibits you from shoveling snow from your sidewalk into the street, but nothing seems to be said about snow from your car. There is a STATE traffic law prohibiting the placement of snow and all kinds of other stuff into the right-of-way though.

  • DIBS

    Basically half gets cleared to the street side and half gets cleared to the curb side. Not sure how one would clear it all to the sidewalk side.

  • ColumbiaHeightster

    Seems like the Bucks County Blog would be a better forum for you.

  • DIBS

    Yeah, a lot of places will ticket you for that.

  • DIBS

    They know that sort of stuff down here. It’s common sense. Besides, I’m only in Bucks County part of the time since you’re so interested.

  • Jorale-man

    Very interesting. I missed your original post but will take a look at the Vice story. I’d read before in the NY Times that at least some of them have are linked by a shady, mafia-like business structure. You have to wonder though in a largely well- educated neighborhood like the Heights how such a business survives. Maybe the gullible travel from distances to meet with these people?

  • Jorale-man

    Yes, I’d buy the independently wealthy part. They’re still probably paying what, $2000-$4000 a month for even a little space on Montague? That’s a lot of palms to read…

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I always just assumed they were fronts for money laundering. They operate cash only businesses and they don’t seem to have discernible business models. But who knows? It seems almost unknowable!

  • CookieGuggleman

    Has anyone met the fortune teller? I always figured it was a front for something.

  • CookieGuggleman

    I assumed that as well. Has anyone actually met the fortune teller?

  • Teresa

    And homeowners who do clear their sidewalks do not look kindly on people moving the snow from their car anywhere near the sidewalk. I’ve had people come out of their apartments to watch me as I’ve cleared off my car to make sure that I don’t put any of the snow on/near the sidewalk.

  • Teresa

    Lovely soundtrack to this morning at around 6am…the repeated back-up beeps from an 18-wheeler that couldn’t negotiate the turn from Clark onto Hicks.

  • Kit

    I was walking through the neighborhood the other day, and a plow passed by spinning salt on the relatively clear street. Only snow around was what was piled into mounds along the curb.

  • gc

    Probably delivering all the crap that everyone seems to need so badly. Give it a few months and it will be out on the curb and new crap will be arriving in another 18-wheeler.

  • Cranberry Beret

    Well I’m not sure if there’s a law or not on whether to clear the snow from cars into the street or onto the sidewalk (noting the pros/cons above), but it doesn’t seem like a stretch to assume after a big storm, the roads will continue to get snow thrown on them for various reasons. And therefore the Sanitation Dep’t can’t just stop X hours after the storm, but actually needs to continually evaluate the roadway conditions until they’re all clear and look to stay that way. THIS last part is where I think they fell down on the job after this storm. E.g. as of Wednesday evening, there was STILL a 10-foot mound of ice and snow blocking the left-turn lane of Hicks St right before Atlantic Ave. (And that’s not some minor sidestreet but a main artery as the BQE service road…three lanes wide at the intersection and they’re usually full of traffic, which is why one lane blocked is a real hazard.)

  • Cranberry Beret

    Well, A for effort, F for effect :)
    To their credit, the Sanitation Dep’t did come through the North Heights last night/this morning and collect both types of recycling and the trash