Open Thread Wednesday

By on August 20, 2019 11:59 pm in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • AndyHeights

    I live equidistant between the Key Food on Atlantic Avenue and the one on Montague Street. There are a few items which I can purchase in one and not the other. But for the most part I shop at whichever store is convenient to me depending on where I am going to be that day. I am not great at paying close attention to prices, and so I was wondering if over-all anyone has noticed how the prices differ. After the renovations a few years ago, the Montague Street store is more visually appealing, yet I do not like the lack of cashier lines available for check out rather than the self service areas. Does anyone have any thoughts?

  • Andrew Porter

    There’s a long article with lots of photos about the “Panorama” redevelopment of the several Witness properties on Furman and Columbia Heights, in the Eagle, here:

    http://tinyurl.com/y5b5ursr

    Meanwhile, courtesy the Municipal Archives, here’s a 1960 aerial view of downtown Brooklyn and the Heights. Click on it to enlarge and note the many changes in the last 60 years:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cf401fc31993501121d0bc665ab94832b2b0190df787f78928a47e6ef91f6469.png

  • Andrew Porter

    Hard to say, because each store is individually owned. Prices have to stay within narrow limits, but so many other factors, like real estate taxes, retail and employee costs, etc., are involved.

    Don’t forget that the Atlantic Avenue store replaces a structure that burned down and was rebuilt many years ago.

  • Nomcebo Manzini

    Common sense says that the store on AA will be less expensive. (Yes, I know that’s not at all as worthwhile as something evidence-based!)

    I believe it’s 30-60% larger, and from casual observation, the average “transaction” is larger, meaning that it probably grosses quite a bit more than the one on Montague.

    But I doubt that ANYONE believes that the new Dumbo supermarket prioritizes “value” (i.e., low prices) in its business plan, let’s face it – the Central Heights DOES have folks (in general) with higher incomes, and with negligible “competition,” Key-on-Montague would be other-worldly if it didn’t (and doesn’t) take a little advantage of that fact.

    (I’ll bet the dollar value of a cart-full that my analysis would be borne out by the real numbers!)

  • CassieVonMontague

    Guests from out of town always ask me the same question, “What percentage of these townhouses are single-family homes?” I’ve tried to find figures, but can’t. Anyone have any idea?

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Thanks for link. Very informative.

  • Local_Montague_Man

    Any news on the Bossert?

  • Andrew Porter

    Best way to figure is to see how many doorbells there are at the front door.

  • Andrew Porter

    From The Brooklyn Paper’s Crime Beat:

    A gunman robbed a man on Montague Street on Aug. 17.

    The victim told police the pistol-packing perp pulled a gun on him between Hicks Street and Pierrepont Place at 1:20 a.m., when he told him to hand over his watch and wallet, before bolting towards Henry Street.

  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn

    Thanks to Claude for letting us know about the flyover. It was really cool!

    In other news, on the way to watch from the Promenade I spoke with one of the park maintenance workers, who was angrily repainting the gate to Pierrepont Playground. The local guy who commits little acts of guerilla beautification had painted the crosspiece with the little fish on it. The park worker told me the guy is a “total nut job” who does whatever he wants, including trimming tree limbs, thereby exposing them to disease. Her takeaway quote: “He’s not a gardener…he’s not Banksy and he’s not Rembrandt either, as far as I’m concerned.”

    I always appreciate the little touches of color the guy adds to local ironwork, but didn’t know he was also attempting—unsuccessfully—to prune flora. Anyone have any insight?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ed334cca36f220cce9bffd402439f84580b64acdcb6ba9d8ede2d08e38b149ba.jpg

  • Jeremy

    According to NYC data (PLUTO dataset), there are just over 500 buildings in Brooklyn Heights that are classified as 1, 2 or 3 family, and out of those, just over 200 are 1-family. (That’s probably the best you’ll do on guessing a percentage…there may be other townhouses that are over 3-family but the classifications make it impossible to know which is a townhouse and which is a tenement.) Also, some townhouses classified as 2- or 3-family are actually used as 1-family…the only way to tell is Andrew’s method: count the doorbells!

  • Proto Plano

    I shop at both KF locations weekly. Hard to say if one is cheaper than the other. You can find better deals at either location. However, using fruits and vegetables as a gauge, there is no question AA location is cheaper. Also AA location always has more produce on sale in the weekly specials. On the flip side I find Montague KF store easier to navigate and actually prefer the self-checkout stations.

    Would like to take this opportunity to raise an old discussion about the ridiculously high prices of Gristedes. Have lived in BH for > 20 years and have shopped their probably more more than 6 times.

  • CassieVonMontague

    thanks! those were rough numbers i was hoping for. I’ve always guessed about a third.

  • CassieVonMontague

    i tried talking to him once. he was not friendly.

  • Andrew Porter

    Gee, when I did, he was friendly.

  • CassieVonMontague

    maybe a caught him on a bad day. it was back when everyone was writing articles about him.

  • CassieVonMontague

    the prices at gristedes are insane. i think they prey on the College students across the street. I doubt Cadman Towers owners shop there.

  • KXrVrii1

    Agreed, when I met him with my son years ago during the postal days he was friendly, told him we were fans of his work and asked him if he worried about getting busted, and he said he had basically dared the Post Office to prosecute him for “vandalizing” when he was improving things they were supposed to maintain.

    With regard to the trees, this is pure speculation, but remember how upset the Post Office was initially some years back? They even repainted a couple of his works, despite having a huge backlog of other post boxes in much worse shape. Eventually, they backed off.

    So it could be more of the same, “vigilante” pruning that may possibly have not complied with Parks best practices, but may still have been reasonable given the circumstances.

  • Eddyde

    I was fortunate to be working in Jersey City and got a great view from a pier on the Hudson River. Would like to share some photos but can’t seem to upload?

  • Brixtony

    We’ve lived at Cadman Towers for almost 30 years and haven’t set foot in Gristurdes for ages since we compared prices with other local shops. Not to mention some run-ins with less than helpful staff.

  • Andrew Porter

    They changed how you put photos onto Disqus. Now you just drag the photo and drop it into a box in the open comment, and voila!

  • Remsen Street Dweller

    Are Parts of Brooklyn Doomed when it comes to Phone Service?

    First, I had Verizon for landline and internet. But it was out of service more than it was working. Plus you had to call Verizon and beg for credit. They promised us FIOS — but never happened.

    So finally switched to Spectrum. Besides the local outage making phone, WiFi and internet service spotty for the last week, my landline is out every other week or so.

    So, it seems we can not only not put a man on the moon anymore, we cannot provide decent phone service anymore.

  • Eddyde

    Here it is

  • Andrew Porter
  • Andrew Porter

    Verizon trucks on my street this week. They told me they’re finally installing FiOS here.

    But too late for me. A couple of years ago, after a lightning strike on the St. George Tower fried my Verizon internet, I got tired of it being on, then off, several times a day, and moved phone, cable, internet to Spectrum. Ever so much faster, more reliable, for me, anyway.

  • Jean

    Verizon is pathetic. I can’t believe I tolerated the horrific service for years. I had a whole year of horribly slow to no internet, and 9+ months of no landline. I escalated it to the FCC (please do this, Verizon deserves it for the neglect of this nabe)

    Every month I’d get a message with a new date of service. Bogus. Only reason I tolerated it was because I was promised refund on service when all was fixed. After a while, I was also promised that refund, even if I had to switch. Guess what? “The cable issue ” was never fixed. Switched to spectrum. No refund. Big lies from supervisor too. I could go on and on.

    Switch now, as I tell everyone.