Open Thread Wednesday

Great looking building. Would have given the scenes in Moonstruck and Manhattan (the Woody Allen movie) a very different look.

Back to School: In-person, outside.

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2020/0908/Back-to-School-In-person-outside

Trish Appel Peterson, the principal of PS8, The Robert Fulton School, which teaches about 650 K-5 students in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, worked with her colleagues to submit a plan, still pending approval, that proposes closing two nearby streets, using tents on each for classrooms. The school would also use outdoor space on school grounds.

Ms. Peterson sees the potential for creativity to flourish in an outside class, when there is less technology and more talking. “I think it’s going to be interesting to see how things change when we’re outside and there isn’t a screen as a back up,” she says.

Lea Ciavarra, co-founding partner at Lubrano Ciavarra Architects in Brooklyn, helped PS8 build a plan for safe indoor and outdoor learning. Ms. Ciavarra, whose daughter is heading into second grade at the school, says outdoor options are definitely viable, just as they were during epidemics early in the 20th century.

“You get outside, there’s fresh air and you get reinvigorated,” she says. “Why wouldn’t you weave more of that into the day for a child?”

I didn’t know the man or the work; thanks for sharing. Ironically, his own obituary was not only not on the front page, it does not look like it appeared in the print edition at all.

Closing part of Poplar and Middagh (though the fire station is on that street), I guess…

I looked up “Packard House” and found one on the corner of Henry and Joralemon. Were there two?

https://www.bklynlibrary.org/digitalcollections/item/d9912922-7e10-45be-9d31-17e9dec68d42

Yep, different Packards. The Columbia Heights @ Cranberry house was Ralph Packard. The Joralemon @ Henry house was Edwin Packard. Apparently no relation.

Ralph G. Packard was an engineer and had his own dredging company.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9536965/ralph-gooding-packard

Edwin Packard was a linen importer for AT Stewart and served on the board of directors for many companies

https://www.bklynlibrary.org/blog/2016/03/28/john-mccrae-and

Our protectors at Engine 205 & Ladder 118 rarely go down that block. They usually take control of the traffic light and go up to Henry Street. But if I lived on Willow & Cranberry I wouldn’t be happy with this plan!

Why Willow and Cranberry?

I wonder. Yes, there are “quirky” people (like the owner of the long empty space near Key on Montague) who march to a drummer only they hear, but Mr. Greco (the developer in question) is much more likely to be fully sane.

So, here is all I could come up by way of “motivation.” (A) An eyesore lasting a decade or more probably DOES build pressure for approval of even a dubious plan next time around. (B) I’m sure you could play with numbers to say that “settling” for 1 $5 million profit when you would rather net $8 … might lead to a “wait for it” approach.

You can again play with 2 numbers – when you bought and how long you held, but you’d find very few combos that made Heights R.E. anything other than “about as sure-fire as an investment can be.”

In other words, even a somewhat “scaled back” design implemented in 3 or 4 years might net so much more than the same one now that he sees that “time is on his side.” T.B.D.

Has everything changed? I’m sure I don’t have the answer to that one!

Heights could be model for tree support in Brooklyn’s flora-loving neighborhoods

https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2020/09/10/heights-could-be-model-for-tree-support-in-brooklyns-flora-loving-neighborhoods/

“In fact, we are hoping to launch a new effort this fall to conduct an inventory of the conditions of our tree pits and trees. We think this is a great activity that people can undertake as they plan socially distant walks around the neighborhood,” Birnback said.

“We’re also hoping to recruit some ‘block captains’ or tree stewards who will volunteer to monitor the trees on their block and care for any new trees in particular that may be planted,” she said.

And now there’s an app

BHA volunteer Peter Steinberg has built a mobile phone app that tree fans can use to easily record tree pit data. All people need in order to participate is a tape measure and a smart phone.

I sense this is an area where you almost certainly know a great deal more than I do.

It’s just that (as Reggie points out below, he IS a developer, so he probably “knows more” than even you do.

I happened to look at Google’s “view” of his Hicks St. property. I don’t know the economics of parking lots, but I doubt he’s losing much money there.

Maybe, it’s a matter of record what his tax bill on Cranberry is. Could it be more than $10K p.a.? (I doubt it.) If so, the numbers I threw around last post support my view of his choosing to “stay in,” rather than “settle” for a sum (via building a little smaller) that would certainly change my balance sheet seismically.

You’ve seen, I’m sure, a fistful of “conversions” in the N. Heights, where the new co-operators have “bought out” the developer for $10MM or more – I’m talking 3-5 unit buildings. Maybe, he is just a little “petty” and is “sticking it” to folks who have so far blocked him; if he’s rich enough, maybe it’s “not about the money” – this once.

I spoke with the BHA about this today. Basically, they’d love for volunteers to head out with a tape measure and a iphone or Android phone and measure tree pits. It sounds like a fun civic-minded project I might do with my kids in the coming weeks.

If you’re so inclined, give a call to the BHA and they can set you up. 718-858-9193. or info@thebha.org

The history of St. Francis College before it moved to Brooklyn is here, on the blog “Daytonian in Manhattan”:

http://tinyurl.com/y4vt6hqn

I did hear allegations of failure to underpin the neighboring property. This is the same developer who made the mess at Smith and Douglas, where there were also accusations that an adjacent property was damaged.