Open Thread Wednesday

By on January 22, 2020 12:32 am in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn

    I disagree, actually. I don’t think that’s the distinction here at all: it’s neither strictly pragmatic nor idealistic to both invest in human relationships and give oneself to them freely. And being part of a community means cultivating a relationship with the people in a place. It’s not something one does for personal gain, but it can offer great rewards.

  • Andrew Porter

    You might be right. I was trying to think of tall buildings that were there in 1909, south of Clark Street.

  • BrooklynHeightzer

    Being part of the community in one of the Manhattan neighborhoods also “means cultivating a relationship with the people in a place. It’s not something one does for personal gain, but it can offer great rewards.”

  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn

    I think you’ve missed my point. If that relationship can be uprooted by a temporary infrastructural annoyance, then it never had any foundation and you’re still just acting on a short term equation that calculates what’s beneficial to you. Sure, you can cultivate a great sense of community in Manhattan, until they want to redistribute traffic on an avenue or something, then you’ll be outta there. Vroom!

    And that’s fine. You can do that. In fact, I’m saying you should.

  • BrooklynHeightzer

    “Sure, you can cultivate a great sense of community in Manhattan, until they want to redistribute traffic on an avenue or something, then you’ll be outta there.” Bingo! will be outta there – if they redistribute traffic on an avenue, erect a busy shopping mall, setup a sanitation garage, start a decade long highway reconstruction, etc…etc..and that is exactly what most people, possessing even a slightest forthright, would do or at least consider doing….

  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn

    OK so two things:

    1. By that logic, either Brooklyn Heights empties out completely in the next twelve months or we’re all irrational and stupid. And I don’t think that’s where you want to go with that argument.

    2. You’re still coming back to this “it’s all about whether I’m temporarily inconvenienced”, which undermines the point about community.

    And I place emphasis on that word “temporary.” Nobody is talking about permanently razing the promenade and Columbia Heights, or tearing down PS8, or the Montague Business District, to borrow your inaccurate analogy, in order to “erect a busy shopping mall” or “a sanitation garage”. Such changes would be permanent and bear no relationship to the reality Brooklyn Heights is facing.

    Worst case scenario, we’re talking about the structural maintenance of a section of highway that will affect one lovely feature our neighborhood and bring a different class of steady noise for part of each workday within perhaps a several-block range. Best case scenario, that overhaul happens even faster and results in a truly progressive solution to the infrastructural considerations we will face in the next 50 years, but of course none of us are holding our breath for that.

    Like I said, if that means you’re headed to Manhattan, then that’s where you should live.

  • BrooklynHeightzer

    I will go (it does not have to be Manhattan, could be Williamsburg or any other neighborhood) where I find 1)a relatively better living environment (more or less defined by pollution, noise, type of residents, shopping options & easily available parking, crime etc) 2) convenient commute options 3) reasonable real estate prices (these options are dwindling in NYC). BH is certainly losing on 1) and 3), while 2) is becoming questionable for the next decade or so.

  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn

    K, cool. Best of luck with your move.

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