Open Thread Wednesday

What’s up with the shady cars holding parking on Columbia Heights by Hillside dog park? They was a guy in a white van who was sloppily putting yellow police tape and orange cones on Monday. When I started taking photos he tried to intimidate me and said he worked for ConEd. He had no uniform, refused to give his name or a badge number and so I called ConEd. They confirmed there were no active permits for the area and there were no active emergency conditions. They also confirmed, using his license plate, he was neither an employee nor contractor for ConEd. I called 311 and they said they’d look into it. The next day the white van is gone, but there is now a Lincoln town car livery driver doing the same thing: holding Parking spots. He’s got a fake yellow “ConEd” vest in the dashboard of his car. ConEd has confirmed this car, NY plate GXV3892, is also not their employee. As a community we should keep calling out this fraud and putting pressure so that authorities address the situation.

I have noticed lately (last year or so) that when there is “stray electricity,” Con Ed puts cones and tape around any metal (i.e.: curb edges, utility access covers) that might conduct electricity. It then hires livery car drivers to babysit the sites 24/7 until the issue is resolved. Saw this today at Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues. Shocking but true! (Sorry, had to add that.)

Here’s the Eagle article about how the Bossert didn’t open. Again:

http://tinyurl.com/yy2k5ucf

On Brownstoner, there’s news that the Brooklyn Women’s Exchange is being forced to move after 40 years in the same storefront on Pierrepont Street:

http://tinyurl.com/yyyegcct

And yet more, another film shoot centered around on Willow Street and Orange Street that will be a week long event. This follows the week-long disruption caused by the filming of some hurricane movie in the first quarter – noise, water, large machinery. Surely, there must be some ordinance the prevents a residential house setting itself up as a commercial movie set. This is a quality of life issue at this point when generators are running outside of residential properties week long. Public representatives take note, your help is requested here. So too the BHA, presuming the BHA does not actually benefit from being paid off from such shoots….