Open Thread Wednesday

Regal Cinemas (Court Street) announced they’re closed indefinitely (regardless of what city guidelines say).

Another Starbucks (near Trader Joe’s) is permanently closed.

The storefront apocalypse continues…

I get what you’re saying, but what DO Starbucks & Regal have in common – in terms of their raison d’etre? (Actually, the words non-essential services probably nails it!)

Zoom & Peloton & Amazon are obvious “winners” during Covid. Disneyland, airlines & movie theaters surely make anyone’s top 10 worst hit!

There’s no shortage of places to buy coffee – the opposite, really – and I’ll wager that most residents of Brooklyn Heights who go “out” to the movies have made vastly more trips to Cobble Hill or BAM than Regal ever since the local cinema folded.

Spotting trends is a great skill. Imagining trends is much more common … and leads to terrible decisions. I don’t agree with Cuomo all that often, but his cold shouldering the movie exhibitors industry is simple common sense. I remember fondly seeing Tootsie in a cinema one long ago Xmas. Now, “what could go wrong?” should staunch any tears shed for Regal, with its $12 popcorn & other poisonous snacks…. at the peak of flu season & during a pandemic!!

Absolutely. Reminds me of a time when there were thousands of video rental outlets … or buggy-whip factories.

Karl – it’s YOU who are being unreasonable. We may differ on whether the banks or auto industry got more than they deserved in 2008 … or the airlines so far during the pandemic. Think “cruise ships” if you want SOME good to come out of all this!

And yes, this is one of those “wind storms” that have destroyed many healthy and beautiful things & people.

But I hope you’re rational & educated to understand the most rudimentary “statistics.” My “odds” as a 74-year-old re Covid are much worse than my grand-daughter’s. Similarly, Henry’s End is much MORE LIKELY to weather this odious storm than the “Be Good” salad place on Montague. True, if things get much worse, there will be total randomness in terms of who survives & who doesn’t, but for now, it’s not quite that chaotic.

I try to pen an “olive branch,” and you bring out a chainsaw. who’d-a-thunk-it?

NYers hard hit by COVID-19 pandemic rely on food pantries to live

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-covid-hungry-people-food-panties-20201005-2w7zvnmw7ralpbovntf2r37rzm-story.html

Nanny Marcia Tisson started getting her meals from the food pantry at First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn in Brooklyn Heights after the pandemic forced a family she worked for to leave the city — and leave her without a job.

But for three months, First Presbyterian, which had been running the pantry since 2008, was forced to close its doors because the virus was putting its volunteers at risk.

“As you can see most of our volunteers are seniors,” said the Rev. Adriene Thorne, the church’s pastor. “We have some volunteers in their 80s. We were very concerned about not getting anyone ill. As a church, we feel called to clothe the naked, feed the hungry and visit the imprisoned, so we had to weigh that against if one of the volunteers gets sick and dies.”

The church pantry’s resurrection came just in time, said Tisson, whose job loss hurt her family.

“It was very hard for me because I didn’t have food to eat,” said Tisson, who has two children and two grandchildren to look after. “I don’t really have the money to buy anything. When the pantry opens, I try to get bits and pieces for my family.”

Joan Cooms, a former mental health counselor, said she would not have made it through the pandemic without help from the church, which feeds up to 100 people on some of its busiest days.

She has arthritis in both knees and pain from a spine surgery, so she tries to avoid standing in a long line.

“I try to come out as early as possible,” Cooms said. “The price of the supermarket, you go in there with x amount and you can’t even buy what you want.”

Regal Cinemas is part of a British-owned chain, and they announced that all their theaters around the world—including 536 just in the USA— would be closing for the duration.

Interesting. There are a lot of municipal photos of Joralemon dug up for the IRT construction then but that’s a new one to me. Note the house on the northeast corner with the original roofline and moldings that were butchered sometime in the ’60s. Maybe some day it will be restored to its former beauty.

What’s the word on Halloween this year? Are kids trick-or-treating? People doing candy?

From the recent Brooklyn Heights Association email:

No–Halloween isn’t totally cancelled. The beloved neighborhood parade tradition continues, but with some safety modifications. The BHA will be hosting a socially-distant, face-coverings required Halloween Parade for families on the Promenade on Saturday Oct 31st at 10am, offering kids a chance to show off their costumes and receive a treat.

More details to follow but please save the date!

Unfortunately, the normal Halloween trick-or-treat celebrations on Garden Place won’t take place this year. Garden Place residents look forward to hopefully welcoming everyone back next year!

Here is a video of a prior Garden Place Halloween gathering in case you want to reminisce about the good old days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKDw3RB4oKM

There’s a computer and other electronic stuff repair shop opening on Montague, in the hole-in-the-wall location where the toy store used to be.

Not sure if covered before, but it looks like 100 Clark Street has progressed to a second floor.