Open Thread Wednesday

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  • BHeights

    Anyone know when the cadman library branch is expected to open?

  • Andrew Porter

    Here’s one of my many photos of the Brooklyn docks in 1969 [Copyright © Andrew Porter]:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c06cdec793d234a039377493207393b751d3a92bbcb42c271a3eccf34110b20b.jpg

  • CassieVonMontague
  • cool

    Website now says winter 2022 (previously said summer 2021). Maybe somebody knows the story…. it certainly is a building that doesn’t seem to want to finish.

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

    Finally some cool retail opening on Montague!

    I wonder if the BHA had anything to do with attracting this business?

  • El

    nooo!! I was just thinking that it looked close to done the other day (most of the scaffolding except at sidewalk level gone)

  • Remsen St Strollin

    I asked at the Montague St event this weekend, and the librarian said she was hoping to be in by around December or January, so it still means this winter, not next winter (at least based on her expectations).

  • Jorale-man

    I saw this on the NY Yimby website today, reporting that the facade is nearly done. It’s mostly gushing about the appearance, as the website does with any new building. https://newyorkyimby.com/2021/09/one-clintons-facade-nears-completion-in-brooklyn-heights.html

  • Banet

    People have moved in so there’s no reason the library shouldn’t be close to done.

  • Banet

    Horrific accident on the corner of Atlantic and Clinton. As I understand it a car coming up Atlantic from the river made a right turn onto Clinton, realized their mistake, and panicked and swerved onto the sidewalk in front of Swallow Cafe (the old Cafe Tripoli space).

    They sheared off a parking sign, destroyed a couple of empt my tables and chairs, and only stopped because they collided with a tree.

    This corner is scary.

  • CassieVonMontague

    The most dangerous intersection in the neighborhood! Three pedestrians killed at Clinton and Atlantic since 2013. No other neighborhood intersection has any fatalities (motorist, cyclist or pedestrian) in the past ten years.

    February 2013: SUV jumps curb and fatally strikes woman in front of 200 Clinton

    https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20130222/cobble-hill/woman-fatally-struck-by-suv-cobble-hill/

    August 2015: Co-owner of Oriental Pastry and Grocery fatally struck by car

    https://www.brooklynpaper.com/cobble-hill-business-owner-killed-crossing-atlantic-avenue/

    June 2016: 70-year-old man killed crossing Atlantic

    https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160620/cobble-hill/70-year-old-man-fatally-hit-by-car-at-atlantic-ave-clinton-street-nypd/

  • RickP

    Around 1970, I was a brand new driver and borrowed a car (a Dodge Dart) to drive to Montreal. Drove down Hicks to Atlantic and made a right. Went into a skid and swerved all over Atlantic Ave, one side to the other. I got extremely lucky that I didn’t hit anything and got the car back under control. The explanation wasn’t simply that I was an inexperienced driver, although I was. It was also a combination of small wheels on the car and oily pavement from all the truck traffic on Atlantic, or so I came to believe. That was what my dad called a “cheap lesson”.

  • Red Leader

    I can’t walk by that corner without thinking of the woman who was killed at 200 Clinton in 2013.

  • Jorale-man

    Yes, cars turning left onto Clinton are often trying to beat the oncoming traffic and thread through the pedestrian traffic between Key Foods and the bagel shop. It’s an accident waiting to happen. Hope nobody got hurt yesterday.

  • Andrew Porter

    One side effect: it’s turned that block of Clinton into a wind tunnel. Note my comment on the YIMBY site.

  • Andrew Porter

    Was Hicks southbound then? Otherwise, you’d have been driving against the flow.

  • aeshtron

    Please, crash not accident.

    “Traffic crashes are fixable problems, caused by dangerous streets and unsafe drivers. They are not accidents. Let’s stop using the word “accident” today.”

    http://www.crashnotaccident.com

  • Heightsman

    Couldn’t a solution be to not allow any turning at the corner?

  • BH Mike

    Enough with the political correctness. Accident – an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury. The person who mentioned the incident stated in their comment “realized their mistake”

  • Omar

    How about a delayed left turn light like the one on Atlantic & Court street.I have lived at that intersection for many years.

  • RickP

    Sorry. It was Henry.

  • nomcebo manzini

    Which block? What did it replace?

    Anybody aware that Steve Levin – last I saw – was trying to do a little something before he exits on the COMMERCIAL RENT (control) front?!

    I think I saw it in the Brooklyn Paper, and it looks as commonsensical as “bail reform” – prompted by the zillionth “Your lease term is up. Pay 10x the old rent or find a new place” atrocity story. (I know that slights even MORE awful things that happen every day, where change is successfully resisted for years, but there’s clearly something wrong with any picture taken on Montague since Feb. or March – you’d think we were in a depression … or a lock-down or something equally inimical to functioning “retail.”)

  • aeshtron

    An relative of mine openly referred to Black people as the “n” word. He justified his use of the term by saying “that’s what we used to call them”. Languages evolve and some people’s vocabularies do as well. Other people continue to use outdated terminology whether it be by choice or cluelessness. My relative is now dead and someday we too will all leave eARTh for those younger than us.

  • Banet

    I’m not sure banking all turns would make a difference – this driver turned the WRONG WAY down a one way street. No amount of signage would prevent such cluelessness. It’a amazing no one way killed. A few hours later that corner would be swarming with kids on the way home from school

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

    I wouldn’t use “Horrific” to describe an accident where no one was killed or seriously injured. For when such an incident does occur, you’ll find yourself running out of adjectives.

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

    Absolutely, but “accident” isn’t derogatory slang.

  • aeshtron

    Using the word accident to refer to a crash that resulted from unsafe driving and/or poor road design tends to absolve the responsible parties of wrong doing.

    Headlines such as “Man in Custody After Baby Killed in Wrong-Way Hit-and-Run Accident”, which was published in Newsweek on 9/12/21, are common and do not acknowledge that drivers made choices that led to a crash. The crash in the Newsweek article killed a 3-year-old on the sidewalk in Clinton Hill. The recent crash on Atlantic and Clinton could’ve easily had similar results.

    Arch, you are correct that my comparison is flawed and that accident is not derogatory slang. However, motor-vehicle crash is a more accurate description than car crash. We all can choose to use whatever words we choose to use but I believe that the term car accident is badly outdated.

  • Banet

    I choose the word horrific because I find it horrific to think what could have happened. The car plowed through multiple tables and chairs. It’s just dumb luck that the tables were empty.

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

    Let’s open the dictionary:
    “ac·ci·dent | ˈaksədənt |
    noun
    1 an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury: he had an accident at the factory | if you are unable to work owing to accident or sickness | [as modifier] : an accident investigator.
    • a crash involving road or other vehicles, typically one that causes serious damage or injury: four people were killed in a car accident.
    2 an event that happens by chance or that is without apparent or deliberate cause: the pregnancy was an accident”.

    Well the definition of ‘Accident’ fits your examples perfectly.
    It doesn’t mean it wasn’t preventable or that someone wasn’t negligent in their actions that precipitated the event.
    Bottom line: an accident is unintentional. One can be negligent and not intentional in their actions.
    Humans make mistakes, whether they be drivers, cyclists or pedestrians.

  • aeshtron

    Arch, let’s agree to disagree. Continue to use the term car accident but I will refer to them as crashes.
    Yes, all humans make mistakes. However, the onus of safe action rises as velocity increases. An irresponsibly walking pedestrian has much lower potential for harm than a 18-wheeler and the operator should act accordingly.
    The definition you provided for accident is accurate and is the dominant way of referring to motor vehicle crashes. I recognize that I’m swimming against the current of American automobile culture.