Open Thread Wednesday

Why the police helicopters hovering over the Heights about noon yesterday?

75 Poplar Street in one of those 1940 tax photos. Nice doorway:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2e0d7ef520537ed31b5a337f9545db5b825f08d5b4f50f4292db7b79aab90341.png

Wow, thanks.

Disappointed to see the “no through traffic” signs taken down at Joralemon & Hicks. I’m sure most drivers never obeyed them but it was nice in principle to have the shared roadway going down to the park. Once again, cars win out over everyone else on NYC streets.

I saw that last week and meant to ask. It’s a number of benches that are within a stone’s throw of the Pierrepont playground. Some of them seem to be sanded down as well – the wood is a lighter brown.

A modest (not too ambitious proposal. . .

The NYT this AM (Fri.) has a short piece bemoaning how “smoke shops” are displacing things like dry cleaners. True, I don’t happen to patronize the former, but in that we will find ourselves with Ubereats and the like delivering before very long, the ONLY reason these shops (most of which, of course, violate laws many times each day) CAN survive is a supply-demand imbalance AND crazy high profit margins. (Kind of similar to why Starbucks & competitors or opticians or banks proliferate, while we’re extremely lucky to have 2 bookstores.)

SO, “resolved” – because I believe it could happen – just as every restaurant is required by NYC to be inspected and to demonstrate EXPERTISE in matters pertaining to hygiene – “training” at least one employee, why can’t the City do something similar w.r.t. people who ARE selling substances that are ingested. E coli is the nasty for restaurants, and there are certainly health risks for the everyday smoker. Product purity – the NYT also reported today that 6,000 people have died from overdoses in Baltimore – IS a health concern. It’s no coincident that intoxicate and toxin have the same root!

If a dry cleaner didn’t “vent right,” it would be shut down in a NY minute. Surely, PUBLIC HEALTH is involved here, too.

Even Mayor Adams claims to see this as a problem, so the notion that no City agency has the authority or the power to put a lid on is intolerable. We’ve got – I believe – a fine City Council. Surely, one of its 50 members could FIX THIS via legislation. Maybe, give our barely visible Public Advocate [mostly there in case Mayor Adams dies in office] something REAL to deal with.

Why is LAND USE something individual neighborhoods have a big say about … while criminal enterprises (some of them surely “mobbed up”) can easily displace stores & services seemingly unceasingly? BOTH have a major impact on local quality of life.

There are other routes. That street doesn’t take you anywhere.

They probably shouldn’t take Joralemon then.

But seriously folks, I always wondered why they don’t fix the bricks on Joralemon but now I have a pet theory that the neighborhood wants the street so uneven and bumpy to slow down cars.

the Belgian Block pavers on that stretch of Joralemon are actually in much better condition than they were when I first moved to the neighborhood 10 years ago. They’re always going to be bumpy, but there were some significant dips that you risked bottoming out on. They absolutely encourage slower driving and I think that’s a valuable service on that block!

Yes, it’s a welcome side effect (though I do get envious of DUMBO’s spotless, re-bricked streets whenever I walk down there).

Not to mention the total lack of enforcement.

Well, that’s about as nice as the ugly POS at 322 Henry Street. Looks nicer from the back, which is not something you can say about everything.

Monstrous!

Yes. You’re right. I meant Hicks.

Loud, violent raging screams? Not sexual screams. Not domestic violence screams. More like… an attempt at catharsis?