Open Thread Wednesday

By on April 25, 2017 11:45 pm in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • skb

    Any Eastern Athletic Club members out there? (On Clark Street.)
    I’m wondering what people’s experience with this gym is. I’m a longtime member and I have not been satisfied there, but I go because it’s right around the corner from where I live. I’m curious if I’m the only one. Not sure there’s anything to do about it (except for me to go farther afield to another gym!) but I wanted to write.

  • Teresa

    I’ve been a member since 1998. There are things about it that frustrate me, but essentially it meets my needs, and like you, I live really close it, which significantly increases the chances of my going. Over the years I’ve thought about leaving, but I can’t beat the convenience, and basically, it offers everything I need.

    What are your dissatisfactions with it?

  • LDS

    Good morning BHB. Now that Housing Works is gone, is there any place nearby that accepts used clothes? (children’s)

  • bpelle

    You can schedule a pickup with Salvation Army…but it might take a few tries as they have a bad habit of cancelling. You don’t need to be home for the pickup, you can leave it in your doorway. Hope that helps.

  • Daddyo

    Goodwill also 258 Livingston near Fulton Mall…

  • LDS

    Thanks – I’ miss housing works!

  • bpelle

    The problem I’ve had with Goodwill is finding parking – it’s too far for me to walk. I got a $100 ticket by a cop that knew I had run in to drop stuff off. When I said that “no good deed goes unpunished” he got insulted.

  • Reggie

    Does Goodwill collect fabric at the Borough Hall Greenmarket? I know they do at Grand Army Plaza, where I drop off used clothes on the way to the library.

  • Andrew Porter

    I checked out Goodwill because they’re not fiercely religious, like Salvation Army is. You can find information about donating stuff here:

    https://www.goodwillnynj.org/donate-goods

    I don’t drive, so the Livingston Street store is a short bus ride from the Heights. There’s a list of what they do and don’t accept via a link on the site to a pdf.

  • Andrew Porter

    It’s Wednesday, so it’s Old BH Postcard Day! Here’s a view of the original Bossert Hotel, which when built didn’t extend to Remsen Street:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fd5f21819fd930721456159e5f97ff0c38dc46d7966083ba0dbdb1ed8c206705.jpg

  • Andrew Porter

    And here’s a view of the Bossert when it was extended all the way to Remsen:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4f4d8c6cc86b17041968020c242ea64d3e8cf82293918ce31b01fb8f5ba723f5.jpg

  • meschwar

    There is textile recycling at the borough hall greenmarket. It’s not goodwill, and I think whatever you give them is shredded and turned into stuffings and fillers. So that’s really for stuff in poor enough shape that no actual human would want it, but better than sending it to a landfill.

  • Andrew Porter

    Rocco & Jezebel, the pet store on Pineapple Walk, also accepts ratty old towels, which they use for drying the pets they wash.

  • Reggie

    I have the wrong contractor and you are incorrect that all of the material is shredded. From GrowNYC, “Textiles are collected by Wearable Collections and taken to a sorting facility where they are sorted into different grades, with an effort to recover as much usable clothing as possible for distribution to second-hand markets. Material that is not suitable for reuse will go to recycling markets to be used as wiping rags or shredded for low grade fiber products such as insulation.” Borough Hall Greenmarket, Thursdays and Saturdays.

  • meschwar

    Great!

  • NDC

    You can ship to Goodwill for free. You can use old Amazon boxes, too. http://givebackbox.com/works

  • LDS

    thanks, everyone, for your helpful comments

  • Emily Pulaski

    First Housing Works, now Ricky’s. Montague Street makes me sad. Wish they could lower the rents or something. Half the street seems empty now. I better go eat at Galito’s – I don’t want our only Mexican restaurant to close too!

  • wfa

    Love the old BH pictures, but one question (as I’ve only read about it) … Is it pronounced “BO-sert” or “Boss-ert”? thanks!

  • Jorale-man

    Fascinating. That was quite an overhang on Montague Street. I wonder how long that was there?

    Also, you can see the brownstones to the left that bit the dust for the Key Foods building.

  • Jorale-man

    Two little items on the spring cleaning front:
    – I saw today that the building at Hicks & Pierrepont Sts. is finally cleaning up the weed-strewn strip of dirt that surrounds it and appears to be planting some shrubs or plants there.
    – New larger, sturdier garbage cans have arrived at the corner of Joralemon & Clinton Streets. What was there before would habitually make for a mess when the cans got full (which is most days in the summer).

  • Diesel

    The marquee was there till around the mid 80’s. The Jo-ho’s removed it during their extensive renovation of the Bossert.

  • lien49

    Growing up in the neighborhood, I never heard it pronounced other than the latter.

  • rss

    Does anyone know what’s planned for the old Banana Republic store?

  • rss

    Losing Housing Works was a big blow to the neighborhood. Great store, nice folks that staffed it. Montague Street is indeed in a sorry state. I guess the rents are too high for most any unique or quirky stores to afford.

  • skb

    Thanks, Teresa. Mostly it’s that things break and take weeks to get fixed, things like the “pins” for the weights are sometimes missing on the weight machines, a lot of the equipment is old and rundown, the management is unapproachable about any changes, and I feel like it’s very expensive for what it is. BUT, again, I could go elsewhere, but stay because it’s so convenient! I have a secret wish that it would be bought out by another gym….but until then, I’ll keep deciding what to do. Thanks again for the response.

  • Teresa

    The pins are the things that drive me bananas, and I echo everything else you said as well. But–and perhaps this is what they’re banking on–it’s so convenient that I don’t see myself leaving.

  • Kit

    I believe this blog reported that Housing Works had the building sold out from under it, otherwise I think it would still be there.

  • Kit

    I’ve been a member since the early ’90s, and I also continue due to the convenient location to my apartment. I considered changing gyms once but ended up deciding that the other gyms in the neighborhood cost about the same or a little more, and that getting to them would incent me not to go.

    The owner will be sweet to your face but is cheap. Much of the labor used in the big remodeling several years back was really unskilled/learning on the job. [Just check out all the 1/4 inch grout lines in the tile work (the fourth repair job on the men’s steam room may finally be the last) or the many unfinished surfaces upscale gyms–which EAC purports to be–would never allow.]

  • Nomcebo Manzini

    I think that was – let’s face it, BHB is not “journalistic” in the old-school way – a mis-statement. Maybe, some employee had heard (or thought she had heard) that that was the case. Halstead is your 2017-style “ideal tenant” – 6% of million dollar studio sales lets one pay the rent and then some. Presumably, the empty space (5 years? more?) a couple of doors down has an owner who has put all of his/her eggs in the “maybe, Archstone can/will put up another sliver, and I won’t have to spend a day or a dollar getting someone out.” Nuts – and anti-community, but that’s “freedom” for you.

    There’s a “story” re the HW-quick-vanish, I’d bet anything.

    Best guess – an “offer” they couldn’t refuse – $50K “key money” shouldn’t have swayed them if they “netted” $5-10K per month, but non-profits are not all that “transparent” in my experience. (Or smart.)

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