Open Thread Wednesday

By on May 23, 2023 11:13 pm in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • Red Leader

    The police were booting cars on Hicks St this morning. We were told it was all cars that didn’t get moved, not just those with unpaid fines.

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Today is the 140th Anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge. The video below celebrates its beginnings:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6abPBXhkX0

    Talking of celebrating, the film below is a firework extravaganza off the Brooklyn Bridge:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX1SGFftLnM

  • Karl Junkersfeld
  • gc

    Thank you for sharing this spectacular event . We had a terrace party that night and a front row view of this spectacular event!! We had watched fireworks each holiday since 1976 and very disappoint ed that the July 4th fireworks on the East River was moved up the river a few years ago and completely out of view from Brooklyn Heights or lower Manhattan area.

  • Andrew Porter

    Here’s the Brooklyn Trust Company, Montague and Clinton, in a 1950 Wurts Bros photo. View of the building from Pierrepont Street, in the reply:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5ed97bc91b7abd00ef8d4eb3b16bd32236bade8db89884b2d250d836205086fe.png

  • Andrew Porter
  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Video showing the construction and history of the Brooklyn Trust Company Building.

    https://vimeo.com/user4399236

  • Eddyde
  • Karl Junkersfeld
  • Andrew Porter

    Here’s one of my many photos showing the Bridge, this one from the edge of Brooklyn Bridge Park:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b5aaffc2703807b7495d3d4b935b171b1e7c181ede49dc98ae2135222af7159f.jpg

  • Andrew Porter

    The Brooklyn Paper reports that the Brooklyn Cat Café will expand with an outdoor ‘catio’ and new kitten room:

    https://www.brooklynpaper.com/brooklyn-cat-cafe-to-expand-with-help/

  • MaggieO

    I was just reading about this! they need matching funding! support kitties!

  • MaggieO

    i’ve been sending this message for awhile now since it happened to me. you don’t need a collection of outstanding tickets in order to get booted. sorry for those who got booted.

  • clarknt67

    Wow. Under what circumstances were you allowed that access? I am very jealous. Great shot. Thanks.

  • Eddyde

    Well, we weren’t really allowed access. Climbing the Brooklyn Bridge was a rite of passage amongst local teens. Back then, the security gates on the main cables were unlocked, open all the time, making access easy. Social status was the impetus, alcohol the fuel. Many adrenaline filled nights were spent climbing the bridge, like a giant jungle gym.
    One night in 83, three of us went up there and “borrowed” the special flags that had been flown for the bridges centennial. We took both the flags, from the Brooklyn and Manhattan towers. The next day the story was all over the news, how the flags had gone missing and the police were investigating. Furthermore it was revealed the flags were destined to be put in a time capsule for the next centennial.
    We felt the historical significance vastly outweighed our desire for souvenirs so a few nights later, after a failed attempt to return them to the police and a bottle of vodka, we put them back on the towers.
    It turned out we had a mutual friend of Keith Godard the artist who made the flags, through him Keith sent us a thank-you gift, two photos of the original flying day, one of them is the first photo I posted. Here is the other:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/35acf67449c7057bcd326cba8d927ccf9831b49fcf604468c1bd6370658bc249.jpg
    The reference to 4 flagmen includes our mutual friend.
    The other photos were taken a year or so later, and the only time we took a camera up there.

  • Effective Presenter

    We remember the 100 Brooklyn Bridge anniversary in the early 1980s a tremendous party sponsored by Brooklyn Union Gas, National Grid.

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Eddy, that was a great story. Thanks for taking the time to retell.

  • Greg

    What’s up with those loud damn birds on Joralemon tweeting in the middle of the night?

  • Cranberry Beret

    AT&T store @ 160 Montague St is cleared out & permanently closed. Must’ve happened in a hurry because the corporate website isn’t even updated yet. Didn’t notice anything unusual earlier in the week so seems to have happened in last few days.

  • Bornhere

    “Normally,” they start around 2:45 or 3:00, and quiet down after a while. It seems that they’re American Robins, and although the early singing is not unheard of, you have to wonder how much the lights and noise inspire their songs. On the other hand, their singing is way better than the almost-endless parade of incredibly noisy trucks (City and private) that go tearing down Henry all night.

  • B.

    On my block, it’s a lone mockingbird around 2:30-3:30 AM who sings. His song variety seems endless. Not much of a sleeper, I lie awake waiting for repetition and, happily, it’s long in coming. The sparrows and the rest seen to hold off until five.

  • Mike Suko

    I know that very few read past Friday, esp. on a holiday weekend, which is fine. I just have to kvetch that when I went to Target (near Fulton) on Saturday, I found that the men’s socks (6 for $15, give or take) are now under lock & key.

    Yes, one can say that that’s not in Brooklyn Hts., but obviously the problem goes beyond any one neighborhood – probably, beyond any city or region. And we “lost” 2 or 3 big drugstores in the last couple of years, at least partially to the same thing – what’s said to be “theft rings.”

    This may or may not be a problem of greater heft than birds chirping at night, but … well, now you know. (And I guess the 2 of them share a “What you gonna do?” vibe.)

  • Mike Suko

    This is such a BEAUTIFUL video that I think I’ll provide the YouTube link, having tested that you CAN click just below this AND see it on a big screen, if you’re sitting in front of one.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6abPBXhkX0

  • Jorale-man

    For the unofficial start of summer, with scenes from the Heights and Old Fulton St.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ml3nyww80

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Working with the Old Fulton Street theme, this music video was filmed right up the street from the video that
    Jorale-man attached. Personally, I think this dude has a little more rhythm but I guess it depends on your musical taste:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNumqNK27ZM

  • Andrew Porter

    From the BHA: Deploy Coffee will return to the intersection of Pierrepont Street and Pierrepont Place, Saturdays and Sundays from 9am-2pm.

    The Montague BID says Montague Street between Henry and Hicks will be closed to all vehicle traffic and parking on Tuesday, May 30 between 10am-3pm.