Open Thread Wednesday

The street closures and resulting parking inconvenience due to television/ move production is getting out of hand. Who is our local representative, and what is the best way escalate the concern?

At the risk of being accused of blasphemy –
Do we really need to have alternate side of the street parking suspended for a full 30 days every year for religious holidays ranging from the Solemnity of the Ascension to Simchas Torah to 6 days for the various Eids?
To me it just seems like a competition as to how many holidays each religion can get on the books.

Yeah. I never kept a car in Brooklyn but I would think that suspension of ASP would be a GOOD thing.

Not to go all NIMBY but

1. Has anyone else been harassed by the man who has taken up residence under the St. Ann’s Church scaffolding on Clinton St?

2. The skateboarding at Borough Hall on nights and weekends is out of control. I’m sick of dodging skateboarders with a toddler in tow. There’s so much foot traffic in this area, I’m shocked there haven’t been collisions considering how fast they ride and how often they lose control of themselves and their decks.

Sounds like you’ve been looking in the mirror again Archie.

1. My only interaction has been that he commented to me the other day that it looked like it was going to rain, in a friendly way.
2. Definitely unnerving with a toddler, though also simultaneously fascinating TO said toddler, at least in my case, granting me precious moments of calm.

#1 (was the homeless guy at St. Ann’s, Cassie, let’s stay on track here! 😉 ): I’ve noticed him talking to [what must be] people I’m unable to perceive, but I have personally never witnessed him harassing anyone. On the contrary, he seems to be involved in keeping his area clean and has struck up polite rapports with a number of regular passersby.

#3! I don’t/can’t/never could skate so I can’t judge but yeah, they appear to be “learning”, which may explain why they haven’t worked their way up to Skate Park and are mainly just doing little jumps over garbage can lids on a flat surface. Nobody stops them, which I’m guessing is because it’s not a high enough order priority to the 84th, who would rather police crime than prevent gradual wearing down of public stone. My own young child doesn’t seem to mind watching them either, and so far none of us have even come close to a collision, passing by once or twice per week on average.

In most of the neighborhood it seems the sidewalks and tree pits need a bit more TLC than the roads.

Cassie’s points are all well-taken.
After shopping at the Greenmarket, it can be amusing to watch the skaters careen across the irregular pavement and, as often as not, land on their keester or knees.
Using the steps as jump platforms is another matter – they are indeed fragile, and the wear and tear is clearly apparent.
Surely the 84th could perhaps work wonders.

Unprovoked? You opened with a troll-esque comment that was sure to upset those who rely on street parking. Given the suspension of regulations cannot be causing you any harm, I would call that behavior, being miserable.

Thanks for the convoluted logic. Still seems gratuitous to me.

Why don’t you come right out and say what you mean then!

I’m not a homeowner but I imagine it’s a lot to contend with, between the irresponsible dog owners/walkers (who, it should be pointed out, are the extreme minority!), and the people who litter.

The latter—litterers, literally—evoke feelings of rage in me that are frightening to confront. Well beyond a little lateral litigiousness!

Comment was focused primarily on the religious aspect of the suspensions. Thirty days of suspensions for various religious holidays seems over the top to me. I can see it bleeding over into other areas like school closings and state holidays and becoming more and more of a problem.

I would have thought that since I used 3 different religions in my original comment you might have been able to figure out that I was not attempting to single out one religion.