Open Thread Wednesday

By on March 15, 2023 12:07 am in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

Photo: C. Scales for BHB

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  • Andrew Porter

    This is a cropped photo from Shorpy, showing Brooklyn Heights; the original was taken from the top of the Singer Building in Manhattan in 1910. Click to enlarge:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eeaac433b9362fe6464ebddab075e571fdd485c7c377916217490c1f86a8b924.jpg

  • Andrew Porter

    Here’s a view of the Singer Building, a gorgeous structure that was perhaps the tallest building to ever be demolished in NYC:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/51aa8dd455a7f7f035b499bec9285cbeb91fc4ccded3663393c06c32c0c0b5a6.jpg

  • kizz

    How come the two Brooklyn Bridge towers are not lit up at night? I noticed them lit up a few weeks ago on a random weeknight. It looked great! They only light up the suspension cables and walking/street paths.

  • Cranberry Beret

    Just in time for the Bossert scaffolding to come down following no work done for ages, new scaffolding went up at the Montague/Henry corner…with no work being done.
    (If I were the new restaurant coming in to the LPQ space, I wouldn’t be happy)

  • TeddyNYC

    Maybe to save money? Sometimes when I cross the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, it’s completely lit up including the towers and other times just the cables/upper & lower roadways.

  • Ebenezer

    I wonder why the street lights along the path to the east of city hall, running from Joralemon Street and going north past the Kings Count Supreme Court parking lot, are not on at night. Been so for many years. Dark at night on that stretch.

  • Andrew Porter

    Maybe because it’s the Spring migratory bird season? Don’t want to confuse our fine feathered friends!

    Here’s a GIF of one of them:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/96cdd12583eae731ee17432d54f10e64ff0f7260cd9f439980fca9217958a5ee.gif

  • MaggieO

    no work yet, but they do have a violation: FAILURE TO MAINTAIN BUILDING IN CODE COMPLIANT MANNER.NOTED:AT EXP #1(FRONT) & EXP #2 (LEFT)NEAR ROOF LEVEL DECORATIVE MOULDING SECTIONS MISSING MASONRY & SPALLING MASONRY STUCCO IN VARIOUS AREAS THROUGHOUT CRE

  • Effective Presenter

    There are an incredible light installation on the Brooklyn Bridge that is hardly ever turned on.

  • T.K. Small

    After roughly 30 years of banking with the same team, today I closed my Signature account. Until last week, if anyone had asked, I would have highly recommended them. Understandably, the entire team is quite distressed, and one person was on the verge of tears.

    However, life goes on and I am looking for neighborhood banking recommendations. Upon closing the Signature account, I went to Citibank, but they left me with a bad feeling; a combination of being at Social Security and DMV. I already have relationships with TD and Santander, and I am not happy with either. To me banking is a serious business and I want to find a quality bank. Does that even exist anymore?

  • Banet

    People tend to recommend credit unions when looking for the personal touch and community vibe. Alas, the only credit union I can think of in the neighborhood is on Atlantic, just below Hicks and looks pretty… ignored.

  • Banet

    Get in touch with Lincoln Restler. I bet he can solve it.

  • robertnill

    Finally surpassed by the former JPMC nee Chemical nee Manny Hanny nee Union Carbide Building on Park just above Grand Central a couple of years ago. Another fun fact: The original name of One Liberty Plaza, which replaced the Singer Building, was the U.S. Steel Building, which surprised this native Pittsburger.

  • robertnill

    LPQ?

  • T.K. Small

    That always struck me as a strange place for that type of business… But maybe I’ll check it out.

  • Jorale-man

    PSA: Joggers, please refrain from loud cell phone conversations as you’re huffing and puffing up the street. You can be heard from high-floor apartments! Thank you.

  • TeddyNYC

    That makes sense.

  • RW

    Low floor apartments too. I live on the 1st floor and people have loud, middle of the night phone calls outside my bedroom window all the time.

  • Mak
  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com/ Claude Scales

    Here’s a story from pre cell phone days. My late friend Nick Tosches lived for a time above a fast food joint called Chicken America on West 14th in Manhattan. Many nights he was forced to overhear a loud conversation from the sidewalk below that always went something like:
    “Louise, get in the car!”
    “F— you, Harry!”
    “Louise, get in the goddamned car!”
    “F— you, Harry!”
    This went on through a number of iterations until, I suppose, she got into the car.

  • Banet

    Le Pain Quotidien

  • Mike Suko

    Kind of crucial to identify (even to yourself) what your needs are. Yes, banking “presents” very differently from even 20 years ago. My adult kids might go into a physical bank once in 2-5 years, but that may not be your style.

    Investors Bank on Court is likely different from most on Montague (“smaller banks,” of course, are “not for everybody”), although there’s one “outlier” even on that block – Flushing Bank.

    The Municial Credit Union is on Jay near Metrotech, and while it has some restrictions on who can use it, there’s a big “if you’re related to” loophole. NB: the one at 69 Atlantic is reported to be “permanently closed.” Of course, if a short subway ride isn’t disqualifying, there are numerous choices. Last, they now have lots of ATM options LOCALLY, at least some C.U.’s.

  • Andrew Porter

    I have a checking account at Bank Santander, which used to be Sovereign Bank, which in turn acquired Independence Bank of Brooklyn in 2006.

    They have offices at the corner of Atlantic and Court, on Montague Street, and a separate ATM in the CVS at 156 Henry Street.

    As to finding a quality bank, those days have, alas, gone—along with most independent pharmacies, bakeries, etc.

  • Andrew Porter

    Mike, T.K. Small is confined to a wheeled vehicle—notice the avatar on his posts—and a subway ride is likely out of the question for him.

  • Andrew Porter

    The solid masonry wall of the St. George Tower is across from me, and conversations, or other sounds, come clearly into my apartment—and I have double-glazed windows. Then there’s the 7am leaf-blower and 7:30am dog barking…

  • Sweeties

    I hate that leaf-blower. So unnecessary.

  • B.

    The quiet nuns across from Highland Park have been driven out of their cloister by all-night noise. They’ve packed it up and gone to Pennsylvania.

  • Banet

    We actually have three independent pharmacies in the Heights. We use City Chemist and love them. There’s the Careland over on Clark – I don’t know anything about them. And there’s the newish place on Atlantic next to the old Barney’s. Technically in Cobble Hill but close enough. The owner there is a gem.

    Oh, and there’s the new Montague Apothecary – no clue if they’re actually a pharmacy, they strike me as more of a beauty store. Does anyone know?

  • Mike Suko

    Sorry, TK. Thanks, AP, for that info. Well, there are/were 2 “local” possibilities mentioned, but – yes, I recognize that logic doesn’t always prevail, for ANYone – it would seem that the “advances” of the 21st century: internet AND entities limiting “brick & mortar” but striving to serve entire states of regions where they once thought smaller, would make for numerous good options for someone with mobility issues. (Not surprisingly, since getting $15/hour people with brains & “caring” in NYC to put in 8 hrs/day “in public” is such a tough goal, one has much BETTER choices once one recognizes how very unimportant a local “branch” is.)

  • Andrew Porter

    I patronize Careland, small but eclectic selection, and also City Chemist.

    Growing increasingly tired of CVS, where I have my prescriptions re/filled. But their insistence on self-checkout is off-putting.

    I for one do not welcome machines replacing human services!

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