Open Thread Wednesday

By on April 3, 2018 11:45 pm in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • Andrew Porter

    I just scanned in two pieces from the campaign to try to prevent Pillsbury from opening a Burger King on Montague Street in the 1970s. The first is the flyer we did. I created the type at the top, using LetraSet dry-transfer lettering. Bernard Atkins did the sloppy hand-written lettering below it:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/98f6a76f07b14a65462bef78b24340b2774441f65dd16bcac026f7d7958875df.png

  • Andrew Porter

    Here’s the other piece, from Congressman Mike Pesce’s newsletter, showing the photo of us picketing Pillsbury in front of Madison Square Garden, in whose office building Pillsbury was headquartered. I’m in the photo, 4th from the left:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8b003ed33b2f5a5e607a0cb76e46eed825139ca6f7b007263113d21cae30f07d.jpg

  • AndyHeights

    The protesters were called “The Whopper Stoppers”. I on the other hand had just moved into the neighborhood and was thrilled to have a Burger King right on Montague Street.

  • DIBS

    I would have been torn between a McDonalds and a BK as I prefer a Whopper a few times a year over a Big Mac but McDonald’s sausage biscuit beats any BK breakfast. But neither of them had either of those in the 1970s.

  • Jorale-man

    Fascinating. And that was before most people knew about all the bad stuff involving Burger King and its fast-food ilk – i.e. the use of inhumane factory farming methods, or all the detrimental effects of its food one’s health.

  • Chris Bastian

    BH is getting another kitchenwares store. WHISK, a Williamsburg-based shop is opening a branch in the Atlantic Avenue space vacated by A COOK’S COMPANION. A sign says they expect to open in May.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Twenty years ago I’d have chosen Burger King over McDonald’s in a heartbeat. Now I just feel out of the loop.

    Like a niche group of America-dwellers I sometimes pine for the devilish goodness that is Taco Bell, which has unceremoniously been becoming relatively healthy (for fast food). Just grateful for the Five Guys across the street, the Western Hemisphere’s greatest cheeseburger.

    Three cheers to fast food and casual dining. Next to jazz, lunar landings, and baseball, cornerstones of American ingenuity.

  • CassieVonMontague

    How do you feel about these protests now that it’s 44 years later?

  • DIBS

    The tacos are great. Never had anything else there.

  • SodaStreamHeights

    that’s interesting to know! I was just about to ask this group where people have been going to get Soda Stream cylinders replenished. I had gone to Cook’s Companion in recent years. Please advise if there are other good alternatives in the neighborhood. Should I just being doing the delivery version instead? That appears to be $15/cylinder. I recall that perhaps Cook’s was charging a higher price. Hrmmmm….

  • Banet

    Key Food on Montague now does SodaStream

  • Andrew Porter

    Everyone misses the point. They wanted to destroy the front of the building, put up a big bright plastic sign, really deface the neighborhood. It wasn’t about the food: it was about the Landmarks Laws, which at the time were still fairly new and weak.

  • Andrew Porter

    An alert from the BHA:

    In recent months, there has been a raft of mail being illegally removed from street corner mailboxes in Brooklyn Heights, which has led to stolen identities and bank and credit card accounts being compromised.

    The NYPD has issued an alert to warn residents that if you are mailing checks, money orders, or tax returns, to protect yourself from mailbox fishing and check fraud by taking these precautions:

    • Drop mail containing checks inside the post office
    • When writing checks, use permanent ink that cannot be erased
    • Check your bank account balance frequently to ensure that the proper amount is debited, and
    • Call 911 immediately if you see anyone tampering with a street mailbox.

    The NYPD is working with the appropriate U.S.P.S. authorities to apprehend the responsible individuals.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/598f61eb483b1de0ab68106291f1bfcbe6696d5d5853bd505ba1ee0f04726697.jpg

  • CassieVonMontague

    if alterations to the building were the point of the protest, why wasn’t that mentioned in your flyer?

    Nevertheless, Burger King eventually moved in. Do you think the protests accomplished their goal? How do you feel about the chains on Montague now? Could you see such protests happening today?

    Anyone remember Blimpies?

  • Eddyde

    My mom was one of the “whopper stoppers”, I remember the campaign, well. Yes, the main opposition was to the proposed red plastic facade that BK wanted to cover the entire front of the building. The other arguments were made to bolster the fight. Once BK agreed to put a flag instead of the facade, the opposition pretty much ended. Yes, it was generally considered a success.

  • winchell’s cavanaugh

    My friends and I still call the R train “the train across from Blimpie’s”

  • bpelle

    Are they affilliated with the Wet Bandits?

  • Roberto Gautier

    Heartening to read of protesters concerned with past fast food establishments in the Heights. Look forward to contemporary protests against fast real estate developers. Videos presented on the Humanscale.nyc website is a good primer for a campaign.

  • PierrepontSkin

    It’s 15 w/ tax wherever you go. Same at Best Buy, Staples, etc.

  • Eddyde

    My mom still calls it the “double R”

  • Eddyde

    Yeah it’s a hell of a markup. You can buy CO2 for less than $1 a pound. Soda Stream charges $15 for less than one pound.

  • gatornyc

    Food grade CO2? And how are you going to get it?

  • Eddyde

    Yes available from several gas suppliers around the city. You just need a 20 lb. CO2 tank, a regulator and some commonly available fittings. All in under $200 for the setup and first tank of gas that will equal 22 soda stream tanks, which would cost over $300. After that, it only cost about $20 to refill the tank. Many instructions online to show how.

  • Roberto Gautier

    Just read the 4/8/18 NYT piece on the fire in Trump Tower. No sprinklers on the residential floors. During the Guiliani administration, Trump fought the proposed requirement to install sprinklers in residential towers on the basis of cost. Yesterday, he twittered that his property is “well-built.” There was one fatality.
    Wondering about the fire safety guidelines for the mega towers in our neighborhood?

  • James Morgan

    Because of Trump, Guiliani buckled and put a 15 yr exemption grandfathered in to the new 1999 law specifically so Dump Tower would be exempt. Also the NYT reports today that while 200 firefighters fought the huge 50th fl fire, NO EVACUATION order was given to residents in his “big beautiful tower” and nobody answered at the front desk, BUT if you were friends with Trump’s personal attorney, you deserved and got a text message personally, from the atty for the “President” telling you to “get out ASAP!”.
    What a perfect metaphor for where this country is at under Putin’s Puppet.

  • Roberto Gautier

    We should receive assurances that our local towers are safer than Trump’s “big beautiful tower” and that they have more caring doormen than those at Trump Tower who remained mum while a fire raged.