Open Thread Wednesday

By on February 5, 2020 12:01 am in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • Nomcebo Manzini

    Anybody hear or see anything about the Mon. “change in policy” re big trucks on the BQE? … I’m also wondering about the key detail of the plan to say Yea or Nay to this or that truck – Who weighs them and where? It’s true that a pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of lead, but what’s inside a truck of a certain size certainly has a big affect on its weight.

    It occurs to me that the city & state will almost HAVE TO re-think the panel’s BQE proposal, because even weekend re-routing is going to tear up the N-S streets parallel to the BQE very quickly, throwing a monkey wrench into “offloading” some traffic onto them.

    Not to mention REALLY tense situations when a delivery here or an ambulance there has traffic backing up on Henry or Hicks for blocks and blocks. The BIG plan certainly got that aspect picture perfect – to get from here-to-there (patching/rebuilding the BQE) requires some new and temporary lanes where the berms are. Without that, this will make the Boston Dig’s over-runs (time & money) look tiny! (NY’s ability to borrow will be jeopardized.)

  • JC

    The idiots at the landmark preservation commission got us a much worse version of a restaurant on the Fulton ferry landing. Instead of the gorgeous first design, which was also temporary, we now get this rinky dink design, also temporary. They just love to not approve stuff. The developers should have put forth the recent design that got approved first. They would have said it’s not exciting enough. Then they could have given us the grand first design that was denied and they would have gushed over it. I hate how these know nothings decide what’s right for us without our day. So instead of getting a place that looks as nice as Island Oyster on Governor’s Island, a much more historic place, we get this inferior, cheap looking stand. The developers would have put so much more money into it. LPC was like, “nah, we want it cheap looking”. Shame.

    https://www.brownstoner.com/architecture/fulton-ferry-landing-historic-district-brooklyn-dumbo-bar-restaurant-seaworthy-1-water-street-lpc/

  • streeter

    I’m very curious about this, too. There was supposed to be a crackdown starting on Monday with $7,000 fines for oversize/weight trucks (per BDB on Lehrer). I looked at BQE traffic for a little bit on Tuesday and saw plenty of oversize trucks still passing.

    I don’t know about weighing, but many trucks exceed the legal maximum length in NYC and those could be very easily cracked down on. They’re usually even labeled! (look for the ’53’ on the side and/or back of the cargo – anything over 55 feet is illegal and the tractor unit part of the truck is always going to be over 2 feet)
    But it’s completely unenforced, because you see them everywhere. I saw one jammed stuck under the Manhattan Bridge a few weeks back, holding up all traffic coming off the bridge on Jay St.
    I have complained to the precinct, 311, the DOT, and even companies like Target that use these illegal trucks, but nothing happens.
    If these trucks were to avoid the BQE (or certain parts) and start going through the streets, there definitely needs to be strict enforcement.

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

    Not entirely true, 53′ trailers are allowed on some roads, they can also get an oversize permit to drive most anywhere in the city.
    https://www1.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/motorist/sizewt.shtml

  • streeter

    The routes specified don’t go through Brooklyn. Re: permits, that’s true, but it would not surprise me if there are no permits. Someone posting to the Illegal53nyc twitter account found out through a FOIL request that not a single permit was issues for the east side of Manhattan in Q1 2019.

  • Chris Bastian

    There’s an article in THE CITY on the failure to activate all the LinkNYC internet kiosks, including the one at Montague and Henry: https://thecity.nyc/2020/02/dozens-of-linknyc-kiosks-are-installed-but-not-activated.html

  • Cranberry Beret

    I’m glad they ran that story. 311 won’t allow you to complain directly about the Montague kiosk because — as an unactivated location — it doesn’t show up on 311’s list of actionable kiosks. (As the article points out, the city does have a list of all kiosk status incl unactivated.)

  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn

    From the rendering it looks like they just recreated the pilothouse/head from Pilot and the rest is basically pop-up. That’s fine, this location is basically designed to intercept tourists. The owners deserve the extra income this will no doubt generate, and will put it to good use. We locals will still have Pilot!

    Sadly, Eric, the manager there, took a new job in the West Village at the end of last season. I hope his replacement will be as wonderful.

  • JC

    Pilot is only a once in awhile thing for me. Too little space, can never get a seat seat and the rocking gets to be too much.

    Have you been to Island Oyster on GI? It’s beautifully designed. It’s a destination. People go to GI in the summer just to go there. We could have had our own destination here without having to trek all the way to GI, but instead we are getting a cheaper looking, micro tourist trap kiosk. The LPC literally told the developers to spend less money, make it less nice and less appealing. Insane.

    If you scroll down in the link above you can see the original rendering. Blows what we’re getting out of the water.

  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn

    To be sure, Pilot is not a nightly hang out for us either, but we like to go down there at least a good handful of times every season, or whenever we have guests in from out of town or even out of the neighborhood. We always just get drinks and hang out astern so our kid can play Captain. We call it our other living room, and I don’t get tired of being gently rocked by the New York Harbor.

    I have been to Island Oyster (spent a lot of time on GI—did my student teaching at the Harbor School last spring) and think it’s wonderful, but that kind of thing would never work at the bottom of Old Fulton, for many reasons.

    As a pedestrian I’m prepared to almost completely relinquish certain parts of our area to tourists, and that’s one of them: ferry landing meets the bridge/Grimaldi’s/Main&Water photo op foot traffic pipeline, and that’s before we get to the wedding photo shoots.

    Meanwhile, what do we know about the place that opened up at the foot of Columbia Heights at Old Fulton? I haven’t heard a thing, and I know I’m not the first to ask here.

  • Jorale-man

    On a related note: As someone who enjoys an occasional Bargemusic concert, I wonder how the resulting noise from the restaurant is going to affect concerts there, especially if a liquor license is granted.

  • Andrew Porter

    Here’s an artistic rendering by Chesley Bonestell of the transcontinental rocket leaving from Idyllwild Spaceport. You can see Brooklyn Heights in the lower left corner:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/577a027168bdbcf41986fdcb185e1924455b9b011bc26ef03d585948212616c4.jpg

  • Steve

    You can also see New Jersey.

  • Nomcebo Manzini

    Now called Plum’s, it actually has some very positive reviews on Yelp, … but they pre-date its current version/format. I’ve never been to Shake Shack, but my hat’s off to anyone who can operate in a mega-high foot traffic area like “1 Old Fulton” and not race to the bottom. I’ll have to check out Pilot; in return, folks who wrote off TimeOut’s Market without giving it a fair try should consider doing so. And if “Times Square” is not your favorite place, go later, not earlier, since there must be more commerce & industry in 11201 than I ever dreamed possible. Happy Hour there gets VERY busy.

  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn

    It’s funny to think of a suborbital rocket launching from Queens. I love these old science fiction illustrations—Bonestell is great and he’s up there with John Berkey and many others—but sometimes the concepts are amazingly naive. Not the artists’ fault. Are you retired from publishing now, Andrew?

  • Reggie

    “The LPC literally told….” Literally, as in the minutes so state?

  • Andrew Porter

    Bonestell’s artwork appeared in the slicks; I believe this was first in Collier’s in the early 50s, illustrating the nonfiction “Man Will Conquer Space Soon.”

    Not retired; semi-retired. But I still send out numerous links and articles to various news magazines, blogs and individuals.

    I also have a lot of photos I’ve taken over the last 50 years, which appear various places. Several of my photos from the Hotel Margaret fire will be in the Eagle in a few days.

    I sold rights on some of my photos of Octavia Butler to a UK publisher, and one of my photos is in the film about Ursula K. Le Guin.

    So I keep busy!

  • sharon gill

    I was living in a top apartment at 45 Pineapple Street at the time of the big fire. Fire sparks were hitting at my window. Very scary. Will look forward to seeing those pictures

  • Andrew Porter

    Vineapple isn’t dead! Just walked by, and there’s a big sign covering the window announcing they will return, with a full breakfast, lunch and dinner menu, serving wine and cocktails, too.

  • JC

    What the hell are you trying to say here? No points for participation.

  • Reggie

    What I am saying is that I’m sure none of the commissioners wanted something cheap looking, as you allege. If the design is (in your opinion) cheap looking, it was in service of other design objectives. But, then again, the second word in your OP is “idiots,” so I really shouldn’t expect a sophisticated understanding about how LPC works.

  • JC

    I call it like I see it. You’re inability to form a comprehensive statement puts you right in line with those LPC “second words”. Gasp! Is that too brash for your delicate palate? Simpletons? Is that too bold?

    Sophisticated? LPC? You’re funny.