Open Thread Wednesday

By on December 4, 2018 11:12 pm in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • Andrew Porter

    Here’s another 1940 tax photo from the Municipal Archives, showing the incredible church that was built at the corner of Clark and Henry, after their first location was demolished for the construction of the Manhattan Bridge.

    The place didn’t last that long. It was torn down and replaced by the Art Deco apt building that houses the Clark Diner:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/00d398845359606775cfee9833187811f1246186980cbb964d1dd9e2d2a71394.png

  • M.Pierce

    A Bridge No More?
    Squibb Park this past Fri.:
    entire park area covered in all types of markings. In various colors and designations. Preparations for pool to come?
    Some of the markings were near the vicinity of the now closed off “money pit” bridge. If indicative of pool layout to come there will then be no access to the Squibb portion of bridge entrance/exit.
    END OF SAGA!

  • AEB

    So back to Alice’s Teacup, reported in these pages–well, here–to be opening in the store at the SE corner of Hicks and Middagh.

    Ain’t gonna happen, it appears, at least as a retail outlet.

    If one peeks through the paper-covered windows, not difficult to do as the paper’s begun to tear here and there, one sees a space entirely filled with baking equipment. In short, the place appears to be an outpost for creating “product” to supply other “Teacup” locations.

    Why does this bother me? Because I live, shall we say, in very close proximity to what’s happening there and the makeshift storefront looks terrible. (I’m also disappointed that there won’t be goodies for sale.)

    What, if anything, can be done about the unsightliness? Just removing the paper and allowing the world to see the working within would be an improvement. But–taped-up paper for eternity? Is there any “landmark” rule about this sort of stuff?

  • CassieVonMontague

    What’s past is prologue: https://ny.curbed.com/2018/12/4/18125867/brooklyn-bridge-park-squibb-park-construction

    A new bridge will replace wooden structures with aluminum and steel by mid-2020

  • Andrew Porter

    If you go to their website, you can see contact information.

    I really dislike when you present conjecture as solid information…

  • AEB

    Well, I have you to bring me to task, now for the second time, don’t I, Andrew? However, if you read my post above carefully, you’ll see the caveat “it appears” next to my assertion that the place isn’t opening as a retail spot.

    I really dislike it when people misread and draw faulty conclusions because they have.

    By the way, let me know when the shop opens as I retail outlet. I’m here, waiting.

  • http://members.brownstoner.com/gwc gwc

    Costs for this pathetic footbridge will now rival the Brooklyn Bridge.
    Accountability???
    A thing of the past.

  • Nomcebo Manzini

    FWIW … it’s kinda hard to believe that a “manufacturing operation” – however sweet the product – is kosher in terms of zoning. Your point is VERY well taken. I had a relative living near a bakery…. What might strike some as a “nice smell” “once in a while” can be quite a different thing if it all but forces you to keep your windows closed.

  • Banet

    Agreed. Maybe they’re storing some equipment for the moment? But there’s no way this is going to be a manufacturing operation. Zoning won’t allow it. And it would be foolish as well. Directly across the street is a school where hundreds and hundreds of parents go every single morning — it’s the perfect place to sell a ton of big goods.

  • Nomcebo Manzini

    As someone else noted in a different connection, one has to wonder “what planet” BBP and its execs are living on.

    WHATEVER option is chosen re the BQE, one would think that work (AND MONEY) spent on “the bridge” is going to be mostly wasted, especially when BBP opted for “replace” over “repair.”

    Similarly, while the unloved-by-BBP-CORP-after-a-while pop-up pool is/was something I don’t know all the ins and outs about, … it’s rather a different thing to terminate a city amenity with the claim that there will be something even better “before long” … than to SAY THAT, when you’re 100% aware [because I’d sooner think them sneaky than dumber than posts] that any “hiatus” is likely to last a decade!

  • AEB

    Evidence of my eyes (I’m not arguing with you, just presenting): a not-so-large room once used for various real estate operations that’s now crammed with commercial baking equipment–a mixer, a small oven, etc. Not just en-route to somewhere else, but installed.

    The building’s basement has also been altered to contain more equipment, a piece of which is vented to the main floor, I believe.

    I may be wrong about the ultimate purpose of all the equipment, but at the moment there’s no ROOM in the store to conduct business, to hold and display goods, etc.

    There have been occasional fabulous smells wafting from the store, so it seems someone is making something….

  • Frown of Passion

    The current apt building at 70 Clark St. is not Art Deco. Art Deco faded as a popular style in the 1940s. By contrast, this apt building was constructed in the 1960s. The apt’s design has more in common with the “International Style” or the Bauhaus. You may also be confusing Art Deco with Art Moderne. An example of Art Moderne is 160 Columbia Heights. .

  • PUFFS

    Thanks for the article. Now just how will the park and the pool share the same area? Especially in the Spring/Summer time. Depends on layout of pool. BBP and Parks Dept. not the same agencies.

  • Andrew Porter

    Okay, not Deco, but certainly not built in the 1960s. Here’s a photo of the building from 1948:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8037c0ed5852c814460d82e14ffdcec0931f12d394fd86d0e884df1a1099247c.jpg

  • CassieVonMontague

    I contacted Alice’s Tea Cup, and a representative got back to me very quickly to say that they will be opening the cafe “as soon as humanly possible,” which they think will be the second week in January.

  • Andrew Porter

    I was there at 4pm. They opened the door; I explained your concerns. I was told that a staircase must be built from the basement to the first floor. Currently, the basement can only be accessed by going outside, and this is impractical when the ovens are going.

    I was also fed a butter cookie, baked today. It was delicious!

    Back to your conjecture, do you really think a company would build a commercial bakery in a tiny store, instead of, say, building one in an industrial area (as Jacques Torres did after their store in DUMBO was flooded during Sandy)?

  • Andrew Porter

    They told me their biggest booster is the crossing guard!

  • CassieVonMontague

    And what do I get for sending an email and not going in person? Certainly not a cookie! I’ve learned my lesson.

  • AEB

    Glad to hear it! I look forward!

  • AEB

    If it were cheaper and feasible to locate their facilities at 43 Hicks, of course.

  • NeighboorHood

    No this is not about “sustainable” materials, or unforeseen circumstances. This is about, as the neighborhood has argued for years, that the BBP Corp and it’s board have been cooking the books and choosing, on purpose, the most expensive, excessive plans possible, with the highest maintenance costs, to bolster their argument that they had to have more condo building in the park to generate revenue that in fact, they didn’t need. Just to add it up, we are talking about close to 15 MILLION dollars for a pedestrian bridge that MAY be open by “mid 2020″ and was previously CLOSED more than it was open. I think what Mr Landau, Regina Meyers equally powerless successor as BBP “President” means, is that the board is “super focused”, to use what is evidently the only expression in his arsenal, on continuing the cronyism, secretive back room deals, and fiscal irresponsibility that the board, as really headed by DeBlasio’s Goldman Sachs groomed Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, has always designed and advocated.

  • Nomcebo Manzini

    Great photos, … but you need to team up with someone … more knowledgeable. What denomination? Torn down?? When? I wonder if Google’s street level photos are being archived, so that these before-and-after things will become almost effortless. I seem to remember a hist. photo library online where you could – on a very limited basis – It gave you the ability to see X location 50 or 100 years ago.

  • Andrew Porter

    The history of the Old Sands Street Methodist Church is here, on Brownstoner, with a then/now photo:

    http://tinyurl.com/y9cxwpdw

  • MPIERCE

    Drilling has begun in Squibb Park for the pool. Good indication that the Preferred option is coming to the Promenade. Otherwise too expensive to then close down if other options move towards BBP. Despite promises from DOT. As old song used to say: They smile in your face, the back stabbers!

  • Local_Montague_Man

    Anyone else here all the banging going on early in the morning on Montague Pl. and Pierpont Pl.? Imaging what the BQE construction is going to sound like…non-stop (day and night) for close to a decade.

  • Nomcebo Manzini

    Not to sensationalize (too much), but you’re not even CLOSE. My building had facade work … and drilling into one’s exterior walls (a little like teeth) CAN BE LOUD…. But any BQE-remediation construction noise – however long it lasts, what hours, days, etc. – IS AS NOTHING when compared to

    Traffic noise! – which ebbs and flows over the 24 hours in every day and the 7 days in every week. Of course, part of the “importance” of the BQE is truck traffic, … and their lobby is almost as powerful as AAA or “the big 3″ in terms of drivers’ priorities.

    “Wanna require trucks to emit less toxicity – we’ll fight that to the death!” … I use BBP a fair amount, mostly non-bermed sections. Whenever one hears what sounds like gunshots or a BQE collapse, one looks and sees a big truck. I’m told the reason that a chunk of the Q train goes below grade was because irate taxpayers way back when said, “My God, people on those trains could look into our bedrooms.” (Whoever represented them on the City Council must have had more muscle and testosterone than our Councilman!)

    That may be the only reason the DOT didn’t propose a double-decker in place of the promenade! Not that anybody west of Hicks St. won’t wish they could “get away” for 5-10 years.

  • http://members.brownstoner.com/gwc gwc

    It should be pretty clear by now that we are being handled. As I mentioned in an earlier thread, the formula applied to us is ….
    obfuscate,obfuscate, obfuscate …………
    stick it down their throats.
    It’s going to take a lot more than logic and a few meetings to slow this train down.

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwspR_6MS1U

    Here is a film I did a hundred years ago. May provide some insight into old churches in the nabe.

  • Karl Junkersfeld
  • Jorale-man

    So you mean, the construction of the pool suggests that the “innovative” option is the leading candidate now? I’d think it would be the opposite, since a six-lane expressway would probably be plowing right through (or near) Squibb Park as it reconnects with the BQE heading north.

    Or maybe they reason that any of this is so far in the future (what with various legal battles) that they may as well move ahead with their plans.

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