Open Thread Wednesday

By on August 22, 2023 11:33 pm in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • Andrew Porter

    Here’s 69 Poplar Street in a 1940 tax photo. The building was later demolished, and modern town houses are now on the site:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c916f7a76e9b1d94a1330bd420365a651e0a9db9d19b3ef29da1a55ad7fa7aa4.png

  • Andrew Porter

    And here’s 73 and part of 75 Poplar at right, also demolished in favor of new infill townhouses:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/86829523f3aef0dfb1c76fd51783b821a41509de6a20f0c6755d88bb60d5f7bf.png

  • camper

    There was a new homeless encampment on the Montague St entrance to the promenade this morning… including multiple pieces of furniture. I can’t spend my day on the phone with 311 about this stuff. Is there ANYONE paying attention to the Promenade becoming Skid Row??? Does BHA keep on top of this and deal with calling it in? Obviously the 84th should be paying attention, but clearly they don’t even have a cop walk it every day.

  • Effective Presenter

    Residents of Montague Terrace and Pierrepont Place have called 311 with NO results.

  • Effective Presenter

    Residents of Montague Terrace and Pierrepont Place steps away from the camp have called 311 with NO results.

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    For you old-timers of the BHB, Nabeguy’s prior home is for rent.

    https://streeteasy.com/building/56-middagh-street-brooklyn

  • NeighboorHood

    America’s Felon. NY’s Shame.
    The Arc of Justice finally swung around and knocked this racist, fascist weeble over. Millions of NYers have been waiting decades for this moment. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/72de4424e13aea7fdd88c37ce3f942bbd17c64328b69bd5e9466b08800ad5835.jpg #NeverForget

  • Effective Presenter

    If you lived in Brooklyn Heights, the quality of life from Mayor David Dinkins had been poor.

    Mayor Guiliani changed all that gone was the crime, etc.

    Like anything in life Rudy had been a “mixed bag” some good and some NOT so good.

  • Greg

    Who was Nabeguy?

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Greg, nabeguy was a regular poster to the blog who wrote some pretty witty stuff approximately 10 years ago. He sold his beautiful house and is enjoying suburban life.

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Just found a video from 13 years ago that describes nabeguy and shows the old neighborhood.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGLsAs8PoFk

  • NeighboorHood

    I lived in Boerum Hill during both Dinkins and Guiliani. Crime was certainly not worse in wealthy Brooklyn Heights than elsewhere. Guiliani was not a mixed bag he was racist thug who cost lives. From his race baiting, to his locating the emergency command center in the already once bombed WT Center (so he could have a bedroom suite there located within walking distance of his “office” where he could cheat on his wife) to not following FDNY recommendations for an integrated radio system, but rather give the contract to a crony which made the system no more able to communicate with the police than it had been before, resulting in over 120 firefighters not hearing the evacuation call and dying in the collapsing tower on 9/11. Also, if you look up the stats, you will see that crime declined steadily every year of Dinkins administration a trend, which consists tenured nationwide not just in New York, through the Giuliani administration. Oh, and did I mention he lead a drunken armed riot of police officers, chanting, the N-word and vandalizing cars and shutting down the Brooklyn Bridge while they terrorize New York citizens? Oh did I mention his attempt to cancel the mayoral election using 9/11 as an excuse, so he could cling to power? Sound like any other smarmy racist famous New York are you know?

  • B.

    Giuliani is crazy, but he accomplished a couple of good things for us. Dinkins was a gentleman, but he allowed the Flatbush and the Crown Heights riots to run as long as they wanted. Right now, Brooklyn is messier than I’ve ever seen it except in the worst days of the 1970s and 1980s. At least in those days we didn’t have moldy plywood eating sheds lining the sidewalks and the stench of weed on the promenade and in Prospect Park. We had mounds of uncollected garbage, true, but at least everyone objected to it.

  • Nomcebo Manzini

    Something less controversial, here…. And late! But I surely would like to add my “WELCOME!” to others in connection with Claude’s decision to add Ms. Koster to BHB “staff.”

    As always, “we boomers” often talk a better game about transparency than we practice, … so one can read into Claude’s announcement pretty much whatever one likes.

    First, since the Daily News is now behind a robust paywall, here’s Ms. Koster’s “writing sample.” Boy is she A+ in that regard:

    https://textsrus.org/Koster.pdf

    Brooklyn Heights deserves – (a) It IS among the best places on earth to live; and (b) I suspect that our literacy stats are also way above average – an excellent blog, and Claude is altogether clear that it’s hard to “do it all.” If he did nothing more – and I think he DID quite a bit more! – than keep the BHB alive since Homer Fink’s passing, we’d owe him a ton. That he obviously has given some thought to revitalizing the blog … makes him Hall of Fame material!

  • Effective Presenter

    Life in Brooklyn Heights improved significantly when Mayor Giuliani took over.

    We had a police presence daily CPOP Officers, Community Police On Patrol, other NYPD cars and presence throughout our neighborhood.

    We have NOT seen a CPOP Officer in years.

    Our home and our neighbors homes, efforts that included landscaping, holiday decorations, flowers, etc were NOT stolen. Gone were the “no radio ” signs from cars. We could send a 12yo to the store alone without a homeless derelict bothering him.

    Our opinion of Mayor Giuliani remains high and we are NOT interested in your opinion.

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

    Thank you for crediting me for adding Ms. Koster to the BHB writers’ roster (see, I’m a poet!). Actually, though I was enthusiastically in favor of adding a new writer (and would like to see more), it was Mary Kim who recruited Ms. Koster. for which I am most grateful.

  • AEB

    Whatever has become of Giuliani–and a lot that’s despicable has–one ought to recall that after 911 his was the voice of true leadership: calm, informative, supportive. Until then, I’d never experienced what a political leader can do in an an emergency to actually HELP. Alas the rest since then is, quite literally, madness.

  • Andrew Porter

    Not there as of Sunday.

  • Sandy McCroskey

    The “stench…”! Oh, my! No accounting for tastes…

  • LEFTOVER

    Amen to EP’s post. Truth is they were better times, less crime etc.

  • Eddyde

    Indeed, Guiliani is a mixed bag of good and evil. David Dinkins was a do nothing clown. Guiliani’s first term in office was great for NYC, he got rid of a lot of the corruption and nepotism that raged in city government and was able to streamline a lot of the bureaucracy.

  • nomcebo manzini

    I stand corrected, but maybe – as “fearless leader” – you can weigh in on a few related questions:

    When will she start? What’s her “beat?” How often? Is this it for changes? … That latter sounds barbed, so let me clarify that I only mean that one of your recent appearances in a comment – probably to MK’s article announcing Ms. Koster’s coming aboard – seemed to imply that you needed to “step back,” at least to some extent.

    Nobody – least of all, me – is showing you the exit, but the BHB remains a shadow of its former self, its “governance” is certainly not common knowledge, and if there’s any truth to “you grow or you die,” those of us who wish BHB well can’t be blamed, I submit, for being more than a little worried.

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

    I’m not sure either “fearless” or “leader” properly applies. While I’m thought of as “editor” I don’t actually edit; each of us submits our posts directly to the blog. I’m the most frequent contributor, which I suppose makes me primus inter pares. When Ms. Koster begins posting depends on when our tech person (I have no control over tech stuff), who has been on vacation, can set her up to post, and when she decides to post. None of us have assigned “beats”; Song Bird has a school age child, so she keeps an eye on school related matters; Teresa loves furry friends and has a close relationship with the Cat Cafe folks; and so on. As I’m sure you know, we are all volunteers. I’d like to see the blog keep going and will try to expand the stuff I regularly post about to include, for example, the Heights Players, Bargemusic, and the concerts at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity.

  • Nomcebo Manzini

    Thanks for that. Hope you can find the time; meanwhile, you’ll see & hear some good stuff. But some of the tech stuff that makes this all possible MUST have gotten through to you. If Ms. Koster had something ready to go, I haven’t a doubt in the world that Mary could make it appear. Meanwhile, what’s new at PS8 et al? I don’t know where Song Bird’s kid(s) go to school, but there’s probably 1 or 2 neighborhood schools that would be thrilled to communicate “what’s new & exciting.” Yes, they should reach out to you, but … why not ask them?! Ditto, the neighborhood’s many houses of worship.

    Fan the flames, for heaven’s sake. (Said with no rancor, of course, but 15 minutes work – identifying key people – would go a long way!)