Open Thread Wednesday

By on July 31, 2019 8:44 am in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

Share this Story:

  • CassieVonMontague

    Neil Estern, Sculptor of Monumental Public Works, Dies at 93

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/arts/neil-estern-dead.html

    He lived on Remsen for 47 years, and moved in 2005. The Daily Eagle shared a good story about him working in his studio which was also in his Remsen home:

    Jadow described her father as “warm, friendly, kind and open,” and a disciplined worker who “punched the clock,” working from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, going straight upstairs after breakfast. “It was like an office for him,” she said. Estern frequently worked with male and female nudes. “He had a love affair with the human form,” Jadow said. When her father was sculpting nudes in his studio, at lunch time “the models would put on a shift and have lunch with my mom and the kids, then go back up.”

    https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2019/07/17/neil-carl-estern-sculptor-of-monumental-works-dies-at-93/

  • Jorale-man

    It’s nice to see street resurfacing on State, Atlantic and Columbia Place but why the long delays between the digging-up and paving? It should be done on consecutive nights.

    The other day I saw an elderly man with a cane trying to cross State and Clinton, where it was all rough and gravelly. He seemed to be having a tough time (I was in a car or otherwise, I’d have offered him some help).

  • Robert Perris

    The interim period gives utilities time to work before the streets are repaved.

  • CassieVonMontague

    Alt-School is closing and will transition to a Guidepost Montessori School beginning this school year.

    https://brooklynbridgeparents.com/altschool-closed-new-montessori-school-opening-in-the-space/

  • CassieVonMontague

    The owner of the Saturday Shop antique store that used to be on Hicks St and Cranberry (where the Veterinarian is now) wrote up a ghost story about his old house:

    https://www.theexaminernews.com/how-a-ghost-helped-me-buy-a-house-a-fantastic-but-true-story/

    Any experts know where Jacob Hicks—the alleged ghost—used to (or currently) resides?

  • CassieVonMontague

    Another collision at the Atlantic Ave entrance to the BQE today. Seems there’s at least one collision a week since summer started. Today involved three cars and one person injured.

  • Eddyde

    Cassie, Thanks for posting that. However, the location of the antique store wasn’t where the vet office now is. I believe it was diagonally across the street. The vet office has been there since the mid 1950’s with only a brief closing earlier this decade.

  • Eddyde

    That entrance has always been a nightmare. Tow trucks actually “hover” there, on the grass patch, waiting for a crash. Had a few close calls there myself.

  • CassieVonMontague

    oh, thanks!

  • Proto Plano

    Does anyone know why this entrance to BQE is prone to accidents?

  • Eddyde

    It is the geometry of the roadway. Basically, the entrance is right after a fairly sharp curved on a downgrade so creates kind of a blind spot for the drivers trying to merge in and for drivers approaching fast in the right lane. Also, there is an exit immediately before the entrance, so cars are leaving the right lane and other cars zip in taking advantage of the open lane, tending to speed up.

    I avoid that entrance at night when traffic is moving fast and the visibility is even worse.
    If I am causing past it, I always use the center or left lanes. If I am merging on there, I turn my head and look directly at the oncoming vehicles, don’t just use the mirrors there! And always signal.

  • Jeremy

    Nice story!

    Bill’s store was at 57 Hicks (the yellow house next to the vet). I was in touch with him a few years ago. There was another antiques store across the street at 62 Hicks (which for many years before that was an upholsterer’s shop). Both those storefronts, like almost all on lower Hicks Street, have now been converted to residential. He told me there were at least 2 other antique shops nearby at the time he ran the Saturday Shop, one of which may have been 68 Hicks (diagonally across from the vet), before it was the laundromat and offices.

    As for Jacob Hicks – he and his brother owned almost all the land from Fulton to Clark, from east of Hicks Street to the bluff. I won’t opine on whether Bill saw him or not, but he certainly didn’t live at 57 Hicks. The ancestral Hicks house was at the corner of Fulton & Hicks Street and later he moved up the hill to the corner of Pineapple & Hicks.

  • Timothy Oltmans

    Keys found outside The Oyster Room. 3 with colorful covers. Scented with ladies cologne. Call 718-582-5084. You need those keys.

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Jeremy, you are incredible. I read some of what you mentioned but your detail and personal examination of the facts is admirable.

  • MaggieO

    lol. dot and utilities are notoriously bad at coordinating this type of thing.

  • Timothy Oltmans

    Or 718-852-5084

  • Robert Perris

    Be that as it may, it’s not for lack of trying.

  • Andrew Porter

    Tried to post this Wednesday, but Disqus refused to attach the photo:

    Scraping the bottom of my downloads from the Municipal Archives. Here’s Old Fulton Street in 1985, looking toward Manhattan and the World Trade Center. You can see the cobblestones the street is still paved in, now hidden under the asphalt put down in recent years:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ee4f9ec66974418b82c36a8ce61f344388dd32797bc339134f49ad1112cdcb32.png

  • gatornyc
  • Jorale-man

    I see Atlantic Ave. is freshly blacktopped now. Looks very nice. Hopefully the utilities companies don’t start digging it up in another week!

  • Ykwthis…

    Always a cheery comment…
    As the city spirals down.

  • You know who this is….

    Wearing my Big Red Trump hat near the St George last night. It was hot so I took it off and used as a fan. A group of brat students asked me what I was doing; and I said:
    I’m fanning the fires of bigotry, hatred xenophobia, violence and racism…then I showed them what kind of hat it was!!!!!
    They almost passed out from directly viewing what the Sunday morning programs had warned them about and the violation of every PC rule….

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    Oh Jeffery, When did you get out of Creedmoor, again?
    Too bad those students weren’t cut from the old-school Brooklyn cloth and given you some much deserved comeuppance. Like the beat-down you got back in the day, LOL.