Open Thread Wednesday

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • Steve

    If I google self-aggrandisement, arrogance, narcissism will your name pop up too?

  • Heightsman

    Haha. This makes me laugh. Don’t put your compost in my compost. SMH.

  • Jorale-man

    That’s good to see. There are way too many people missing the point of a “stay at home” order – meaning: runs to the grocery store, drug store or for exercise. And that’s it!

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

    ^^ I’ll back Studio on this one. If one has a second home or alternate place of residence, nothing wrong with going there, as long as they maintain safe protocol.

  • Puffinette

    Still nothing on my block. Packages, yes. Mailbox mail, no.

  • Brooklyn Noob

    Agree. Point to point with no contact with others is incredibly low risk and also decreases density in areas that need it.

  • ColumbiaHeightster

    Quick note for our running community here. Please try to remember to run/walk as far to your right side as possible on sidewalks, the promenade, the piers (even if you think no one is around you…there’s always someone faster than you ready to pass you). It’s an easy way to help folks passing you keep a safe distance from both you and from people walking towards you from the opposite direction. This is good running etiquette under normal circumstance, but critical now. Thanks! Stay healthy and safe neighbors.

  • Andrew Porter

    I do all that organized stuff anyway. Never use their bathroom. But I really don’t want to walk that long distance during the current crisis, am making do with infrequent trips to Key Food on Montague and the place at Henry/Pineapple.

    Also, stock up once a year on the seasonal Cranberry Sauce, so I can enjoy it year-round.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/98afe88fba6c98475e0bae6bc48b2c67189dbb92c0e60d56b071e2b09e128543.png

  • Andrew Porter

    Unaware of posts by a-holes and anonymous trolls.

  • Andrew Porter
  • aeshtron

    Sidewalks and curbs in NYC are almost always owned by the city. When sidewalks are privately owned in NYC, there is typically a bronze inlay indicating property lines. Once trash cans and recycling bins are put out for collection they are almost never on private NYC property.

  • Joey

    That’s pretty funny. Nice retort as your response for people calling out your know it all and arrogance attitude you display many times when you post on the blog. Apparently people have agreed with me too.

  • Joey

    “Mommy! Joey is making fun of me!” Cry baby.

  • TeddyNYC

    Well, at least SB isn’t ‘gramming their “Escape from New York” like these guys.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2020/03/31/nyc-mommy-blogger-gets-heat-for-road-trip-amid-coronavirus/amp/

  • Frown of Passion

    So you used your privilege to risk infecting your neighbors in two jurisdictions…twice.

  • Steve

    So if I google self-aggrandisement, arrogance, narcissism your name will pop up too?

  • Andrew Porter

    No, you’ll get “Trump”—and “Steve”.

    Hey, found a photo of you on-line!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f2fa4bd022078ac651e066125e4353a895629b14f7cdd973b0797fc79434ca4f.jpg

  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn

    That’s cute. Where did a cantankerous conservative like you learn to use the word “privilege”?

    I don’t need to explain myself to you, and I don’t want you to confuse this response for me caring what you think, but for everyone else’s benefit, here’s the situation: in Brooklyn Heights we (my wife, child and I) rent a tiny 1br apartment. To give you an idea of how privileged we are, we experience food insecurity at times because the rent is a lot for us, even though it’s at the low end of the market. We choose to live in Brooklyn Heights because this is our community and the location makes the costs worthwhile for us, for the time being. I have a relative who owns a large home outside the city, where we are staying. As I said before, we are in keeping with best practices of social distancing here, and we maintained best practices during our very brief (several hours long) return to the neighborhood to retrieve necessities—in the middle of the night—when it became clear our absence would require more clothing and other items. We are very lucky to have been able to stay up here because it has afforded us the space needed to work remotely and thus keep our jobs and our sanity, and ensure our child can remain involved with school.

    Is any of that problematic for you so far?

    We would be far more at risk of infecting ourselves and our neighbors if we’d stayed in Brooklyn. Our apartment does not have room to store two weeks worth of any consumable goods so we’d be going out a lot more.

    “Privilege” means options: what form of comfort one prefers from one week to the next. We don’t have options. We didn’t just escape to some weekend home because we felt like it. It was this—being at the mercy of my relative—or face joblessness and a child almost half a year behind in school.

    With all due respect (i.e., none whatsoever), you can shove it, “Frown of Passion”. I posted here because I was concerned about a young man who is more vulnerable than I am during this time of crisis and all you can come up with is your typical smug antisocial vitriol directed at anyone who breathes a whiff of concern about others less fortunate than themselves. Go back to your hole and stay there.

  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn

    Damn right I’m not. I’m a NYC public school teacher. I’m running an online classroom. There is nothing glamorous or relaxing about it, and I’m trying my best to make it fulfilling and meaningful for my students.

  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn

    That’s a very sophisticated turkey, Andrew! Who among us takes time to peer with genuine interest into the windows of bookshops these days?

  • Steve

    Then I suppose infantility will light up the screen when Andrew Porter is googled…

  • Andrew Porter

    Go ahead; make sure you look for Andrew I. Porter, not the author or the former New Yorker music critic.

  • KXrVrii1

    I’m sorry, I’ve tried to stay out of this discussion, but now I can’t.

    I’m not a big fan of “privilege” debates, but I think in the Coronavirus context, it is absolutely fair game to call you out as “privileged”, as are probably most of us in this site.

    You don’t need a house in the Hamptons to be privileged. Look at the NY Times article today on the wealth disparities for those able to work from home – something that was hopefully obvious to most of us. Look at the pictures of “essential” workers, some without health insurance, crowding into subways again, because service levels are down due to sick MTA employees.

    You are able to work from home, you were able to choose between two different living options, you appear to have a car or the means to rent one. And guess what, limited space to store food is also a pretty common problem in NY.

    Now I don’t think what you did is the worst thing, and I trust you were very careful in following “best” practices. (Although I didn’t see any exception in the various orders / suggestions if you followed “best” practices.) And I bet I would have done the same thing – which is the main reason I hadn’t commented yet.

    But nonetheless, you chose to, and had the means to, exit the city earlier in the pandemic, and then come back into the city and re-exit, at a time when that is being very strongly discouraged.

    As I mentioned, I don’t think I would have done any different – except in one key regard. I would have kept my mouth shut about it, and I certainly wouldn’t repeatedly try to justify it to myself online, or for that matter, to myself. I’d accept that it was a selfish, but not totally unreasonable, flouting of rules that we all should be doing our best to abide by.

  • Reggie

    Why am I not surprised that your middle initial is “I?”

  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn

    I think what you said here regarding privilege is fair. It’s of course a sliding scale, and I consider myself much more privileged than many, and much less privileged than many others (especially in Brooklyn Heights). I object to FoP’s sanctimonious tone and smarmy cherry-picked attacks that always seem to come out in these posts and this one really set me off.

    The reason I posted in the first place was out of concern for someone who seems to be one of my neighbors, struggling with some mental issue. It seemed necessary at the time to give some context as to why we were on the Promenade at 1am on a Wednesday morning—pretty close, in my opinion, to a safe time to go for a walk outside without risking anything to ourselves or anyone else. I was careful to point out that I’ve been carefully following best practices with regard to distancing.

  • KXrVrii1

    Thanks for the polite reply, and I hope I wasn’t too rude or judgmental in getting my thoughts off my chest too, however useless they may have been. And now that I have, I am going to refrain from any further discussion on this topic, and I look forward to your future comments on the blog!

  • Andrew Porter

    If you think somehow I, as a baby, named myself, you’re even more of a stupid moron than I thought previously.

  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn

    As I recall your remarks are always upstanding, and I appreciate your candor. Thanks!

  • Steve

    “stupid moron”- sounds like you are really losing it.

  • Andrew Porter

    “Joey,” does this remind you of yourself? (Unless you’re a young kangaroo…)
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8a310ded1171a9dbfd7730353e99c59bed7bb55efadfdb1dd2b8c54c4c423478.jpg