Seeking Safe Home for Toxic Goop

I love hearing about the old days from NOP; there is always some extra insight, like the recollection of the kids from the foster home--a time when kids roamed the streets to play, and learned about the world (and folks unlike themselves) on their own...

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 19, 2009 11:44 PM in response to Walkabout: Montrose Morris - Full Circle

We live steps from Caton Ave. and yes, it is the major truck thoroughfare between the mainland U.S. (via Staten Island) and Montauk, it seems; prepare for perpetual gridlock. Also, the apartment buildings on some of the nearby streets between Caton and Church are still pretty dodgy. And yes, our retail sucks. But the park is literally at your doorstep and the Parade Grounds (the southern sporty 2-block-deep extension of the park) have been renovated amazingly; the Tennis Center is a 5-minute walk away. On balance, despite the noisy crowds for soccer and the everlasting traffic and trucks, I have come to love living here; you get huge gusts of fresh air from the park, and the area is fascinating and alive.
(But that apartment sure sounds overpriced!)

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 19, 2009 12:36 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 1110 Caton Avenue, #6C

This picture just renews my Walter Mitty fantasy for Coney Island: An absolutely authentic repro of Dreamland/Luna Park (only up to the fire code and access standards of today), a "Colonial Williamsburg" of playlands, even down to the food (oysters, anyone?) This would rock so unbelievably; it could be a self-contained sector of a bigger, contemporary amusement park, a trip back into history. Sigh. (In an alternative universe, it exists, and Montrose Morris and I go there with our parasols up...)

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 19, 2009 12:25 PM in response to Closing Bell: Award for Luna Park Founders

Adding to the chorus of loving that pic...it should be turned into a classic print or poster. Brownstoner could have numerous other product lines, ahem, just sayin' Mr. B!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 19, 2009 12:21 PM in response to Wednesday Blogwrap

Delightful and fascinating post. Don't you wonder what happened to all that archi-swag when they demolished these places? Was it dumpstered, or salvaged? (Amazing what gets dumpstered when a style goes out of style--my parents streeted a Victorian mahogany breakfront for the trash, to replace it with cheap pseudo-Danish furniture, and assured me that lots of folks did the same with that "old stuff"...)

As for a homophone, I had a friend who used his to alert his friends during Fleet Week so they could go over to the docks for some naval gazing...unfortunately, they never invited me.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 19, 2009 12:07 PM in response to Walkabout: Montrose Morris - Full Circle

My sympathies. Our 100-year-old sewer pipe and water main had to both be replaced about 10 years ago (our maple ate the old terra-cotta sewer line, and the water line was made of lead and also breached by the Roots from Hell). I don't recall which firm did the job, but it cost $8,000 and included construction of a mine shaft to a horizontal tunnel. Exciting stuff, a fine replacement for a vacation for the next 2 years :{

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 19, 2009 12:00 PM in response to Broken Sewer Main

Not a bad little salad spinner...but pretty overwhelmed by the random agglommeration of awfulness to which it is stuck.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 18, 2009 10:48 AM in response to Atlantic Terminal Station: So Close!

Lovely bit of reno porn, so happy for you!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 18, 2009 10:48 AM in response to Beneath the Surface

We have squirrels. Swirling squirrels; they make "the patter of little feet." We also have holes in our exterior fascia board through which they enter, something we're planning to fix very soon.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 16, 2009 11:26 AM in response to Animal Living in the Wall

Aww, thanks guys-who-meet-up. Actually, I was smoking a pipe in a corner under a black hood, my eyes scanning the room. Some call me a Ranger, others by my given name of Aragorn.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 13, 2009 6:17 PM in response to StreetLevel: Cortelyou Market, Wine Bar Coming Along

Thanks for the tip, I have one too, a dead monster with a cracked foot; last time I tried to get someone to haul off a cast-iron radiator, it involved lots of phone calls to really suspicious-sounding places whose proprietors sounded as if they'd be happy to sink just about anything unwanted, radiator or human, into the Gowanus Canal. Or you could do what the previous owner of our house did: Bury the thing in the backyard. (We left it there; you have to water more thoroughly over it, because the grass has a shallower root system, but otherwise it's working for us.)

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 13, 2009 2:28 PM in response to Junking a Radiator?

We get by at Farm by ordering the exquisite hamburger and never getting any bev more expensive than beer and splitting desserts. We are, in a word, the cheapskate restaurant patrons from hell, but at least in a recession nobody seems to mind. As for Picket Fence, no more chances for them; over the weekend, we waited 45 min. for 2 salads and a wrap, had to plead for A/C to be turned on because the place was sweltering, and the chicken wrap contained, as Daughter wryly noted, "traces of chicken." To her credit, the waitress deleted one salad from the bill after we had been obviously forgotten in a time wormhole, but she did it as if we were somehow to blame for our fate. It's really a shame that cute little place ain't better.
As for a Ditmas Park meetup, aren't you guys afraid of meeting Brownstoner commenters in the flesh? I mean, afraid that someone might have the What along, thrashing in a gunnysack like Gollum?

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 13, 2009 2:25 PM in response to StreetLevel: Cortelyou Market, Wine Bar Coming Along

Yes, I'm afraid I had the same reaction to the sagacious Councilwoman's statement. Kids shoot each other over chicken wings, and the problem is "poor planning"? It may indeed be poor planning to promote any event that would draw these "yoots" (as My Cousin Vinnie says) to that horrible pseudo-mall, but the problem runs a tad deeper, no? Next time, perhaps the chain should advertise a special on broccoli and Beethoven.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 12, 2009 9:15 AM in response to Thursday Links

We have a perimeter alarm system with central station monitoring, via B&M Alarms, who give us very good service if anything in the system goes wrong.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 11, 2009 10:29 PM in response to Window Alarm?

Rob, you really do have a heart of gold to see the midtown Hooters girls as part of an "affirmative action" program for the cosmetically (and mammarily)challenged!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 11, 2009 9:55 AM in response to 'Nationally Known' Restaurants May Land in 345 Adams

We have a whole house-alarm system with those; yes, they work (rather too well, sometimes); some are done with magnets that have to meet up, some have glass-break detectors or both.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 11, 2009 9:53 AM in response to Window Alarm?

Just saw the Flea segment on Martha...poor pitiful TV lumpenproletariat, watching us rule over the universe with our awesome gelato and adorable crafts and locally sourced pickles and legendary bridge towering above it all! Poor Martha, carrying around her map-o-Brooklyn totebag as if it would confer our mad magnificence upon her Connecticutian matronly self! I sing the pickles electric! Flea, I watch you face to face! As you once ate pupusas, so did I! I too fingered the little crocheted critters and faux-bois pottery! I am with you, consumer hipsters of my generation! Just as you feel when you look on the gelato, so I felt; Brooklyn of ample fleas was mine!
[must calm self...must make Uncle Walt stop watching TV with me...]

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 10, 2009 12:10 PM in response to Martha Show Airs Today

Here in Victorian Flatbush we start hyperventilating over practically anything better than a 99-cent store. But yes, I'm happy to see Cortelyou Road bounce back from a bunch of recent shuttered storefronts to have another nice new place open. Surely no little spark has been fanned with such desperate care since Tom Hanks tried to light a fire from twigs in "Cast Away."

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 10, 2009 11:58 AM in response to Purple Yam Opens Today

I have a new way to avoid work: feed the addresses in MM's posts into Googlemaps, and make the "little guy" bring up the Google street photos! Wouldn't it be a great Twilight Zone plot if you actually could become the little guy icon--go anywhere in the world with a click, but the world would be frozen in Google photos? Sorry, I digress. Cool post, gorgeous houses, why doesn't everyone live in Bed-Stuy when it's so gorgeous and how dare people dis it?

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 10, 2009 11:54 AM in response to Walkabout: The Architects - Montrose Morris, Part 1

Imagine throwing all those big expensive sneakers at a wall full of Hummels! Now that would be "shopping therapy"!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 10, 2009 11:43 AM in response to New Sneaker Boutique on Tompkins

Maybe you mean "pupusas." I think "papussas" are some sort of portable indigenous infants. The name for a place that makes pupusas is a pupusaria...(accent on the I, I believe)...they're one of those Red Hook vendor foods, I find them pretty leaden.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 10, 2009 10:08 AM in response to Martha Show Airs Today

Frankly, I can't blame the cranky anti-concert locals...we go to Marty's concerts at Asser Levy every summer, usually (stupidly) by car, and the surrounding streets are absolutely FLOODED with people and traffic if it's a popular act; they already absorb the traffic for the Aquarium and Keyspan. It gets pretty nuts on the sidestreets around there, esp. when the concerts end. Things around there are, as Pooh says, wedged in a great tightness.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 10, 2009 10:04 AM in response to Post Launches Brooklyn Blog, Dishes on Coney Theater

And let's not forget that we the blogoscenti punked the New York Times with "NoProPaSo" (for the almost-as-absurdly-really-named "Caton Park"):

http://crazystable.squarespace.com/journal/2008/3/16/nopropaso-kneel-before-your-creator.html

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 9, 2009 12:27 PM in response to Creative (Desperate?) Neighborhood Rebranding

Nokilissa, I'm with you. Can't imagine anyone wanting to be alerted to what my high-school-age daughter brutally terms "brain vomit," nor imagine wanting to receive (almost) anyone else's. However, I would like to see the antlers that "ShinySquirrel" bought, so perhaps I am more susceptible than I realize.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 9, 2009 12:24 PM in response to The Flea In Tweets

I love sagging wooden buildings in late sunlight!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 6, 2009 10:33 AM in response to Friday Links

"peanut buttery smelling tunnel of excitement and fun" will haunt my dreams...oh, what paradise! (until the screams begin!)

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 5, 2009 6:30 PM in response to Mouse Infestation - Help!

The pigeon proves one thing: Our damned celebrity urban hawks and falcons are sitting back autographing their books and neglecting their duties in the food chain. Paging Pale Male and Lola!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 5, 2009 12:57 PM in response to Thursday Links

Don't count on cats. We've had several who were excellent mousers but several who were apathetic or downright cowardly in the face of a mouse (and the mouse will march right past a cat, that's how the food chain apparently works--no "fear of cat smell" evident there). We also had a legendary cat, Hodge, who "caught" mice, tenderly groomed them and then released them; we took to carrying Hodge out to the street, his new "friend" still carefully restrained in his teeth, and performing the Heimlich maneuver to make him spit his little buddy into the gutter. The mouse often died of fright shortly afterward; once, a passing jogger nearly did the same when she witnessed the ritual.

Hodge, for the record, steadfastly refused to wear underwear on his head, even in the name of interspecies friendship.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 5, 2009 12:50 PM in response to Mouse Infestation - Help!

The tourists are the ones I feel sorry for on weekends, clutching their little maps and squinting at the inscrutable lists of service changes and struggling to hear the gravelly announcements (if there are any). When they ask me for weekend train directions now, I just send them upstairs to get a cab.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 5, 2009 12:44 PM in response to Subway Service on Weekends Is F@#%ed

"Calls Loudly for Adornment" sums it all up! Reminds me of Tom Wolfe's description in "Bauhaus to Our House" of the ungrateful proletariat sprucing up their Modernist boxes with fripperies. Something in the human soul calls loudly for adornment, and that's why we still love Victorian Brooklyn!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 5, 2009 12:41 PM in response to Walkabout: Italianates, the Ornamental Imperative

Cute widdle house in South Slope with crooked lintel sells for $700K. Thus, the "recession" was either (a) very overrated, (b) very over, or (c) passed over us like the angel of death over every crooked lintel upon which was painted the blood of the lamb.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at November 5, 2009 12:37 PM in response to Brooklyn Sales: Under a Million

Miss Edna Lewis is rotating in her grave, and I am depressed as hell. Who could have imagined that this historic treasure could actually take a step DOWN from TGI Friday's? Just sparing a moment to remember clam belly platters lit by gaslight sconces, courtly waiters and snowy linens, and the all-too-brief culinary renaissance under the masterful hand of Miss Edna.

[sob]

Ya want fries with that?

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at October 30, 2009 11:35 AM in response to Checking In On Fulton Mall Arby's

We've had our interior and exterior used twice by "Law & Order" (admittedly not a full-blown movie shoot, but you'd never guess it by the massive incursion of rigs and equipment), and they were WONDERFUL--so careful to replace your stuff that they used a Polaroid to re-situate the knickknacks. They were also just real nice folks, considerate and engaging; they have to be, given how much location shooting they do and how much "L&O exhaustion" some oft-used areas develop. Can't speak to movies or commercials, since we haven't had one of those (yet).
We did turn down two offers, btw: one for a Metallica video (that wanted to shoot on a Thanksgiving day and pitched us desperately the day before--now that would've been an amusing Turkey Day!), and one for a cheap ambush-style reality show called "I Hate Your House" (we don't,thank you very much!)
And of course, we aren't co-op'ers, so we don't have to worry about a Board...

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at October 29, 2009 11:54 AM in response to Renting Your Place for Movie

Seems to me the "license to print money" business plan for this space would be...delicious brick-oven pizza for the hungry line-standers who despair of Grimaldi's!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at October 28, 2009 7:06 PM in response to Streetlevel: Restaurant at 7 Old Fulton Street

Last time I rented a dumpster, I went through the Yellow Pages...and at least half the companies had disconnected numbers with "no further information available." I got the feeling it was a business with a high, er, turnover. I've never figured out how one reserves the street spot short of sleeping in it; people just move traffic cones out of the way...

If you need a guy to do the clean-out work for you, we used Greg's rubbish removal for our basement crap and they did fine.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at October 28, 2009 7:04 PM in response to Dumpster Details?

This is great news, for the community and for Prospect Park.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at October 27, 2009 11:56 AM in response to BREAKING: Ocean on the Park Houses Landmarked

Another great idea for a book or calendar: Gargoyles of Brooklyn! Thanks for another great wrap-up, MM.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at October 27, 2009 11:51 AM in response to Walkabout with Montrose: In the Throat of Terror

Call a plumber, NOT the gas company!!! Years ago (in the B.U.G. years), we made the mistake of calling Brooklyn Union; they came, confirmed that yes, we had a leak, turned off our service, and slapped big humiliating red warning stickers all over the house (that said something like "Idiots With Leaky Gas Live Here!") It was a freezing weekend and we had to go days without heat trying to scare up a plumber, who of course said, "Whoa! Never call da gas company! They'll lock ya meter!"

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at October 27, 2009 11:48 AM in response to Gas Leak

The Albemarle house was used as a location in the Angelina Jolie movie "Wanted," which should lend it some added cachet:

http://crazystable.squarespace.com/journal/2008/3/12/a-hollywood-jolie-christmas.html

The owner should register with a location scout or agency if he or she needs some extra help with that $1.6M pricetag; these manses are used for film shoots with such regularity that we locals now merely yawn and say "What, Angelina again?" (The house across the street was used for Uma Thurman's "My Super Ex-Girlfriend"...damn stars, we simply trip over them on our way to the garbage...)

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at October 27, 2009 11:45 AM in response to Last Week's Biggest Sales

Isn't that the park's Tennis House? When do they have it all lit at night? (It's mostly unused these days, no?)

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at October 26, 2009 11:18 PM in response to Monday Blogwrap

Wow, Brooklyn has received the ultimate imprimatur from the media-mogul doyenne of haute-bourgeois style. I hear Detroit is the new Hoboken, people!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at October 26, 2009 12:10 PM in response to Martha Does The Flea

Oh, definitely don't visit, we shoot folks on site out here in the badlands! Jes' fer lookin' at us the wrong way!

But seriously...yes, it is Flatbush, of course, one could even say (if one had been drinking a bit) The Jewel in the Flatbushian Crown, but it's pretty legit to describe it as Prospect Park South because that is a circumscribed historic district (within the glorious realm of Greater Flatbush).

Seems like just a few years ago that folks were SHOCKED the first time a PPS house was listed for $1 million or over. These mansions were actually quite undervalued for many years, then reality caught up. Now after the boom I guess it's catching up again, the other way. I've never been inside on the tour, but the exterior is kind of curious even by the eclectic standards of PPS: a sort of chalky, blank "expression" on its neo-Classical face, not quite the same vibe as any other house down there. For some reason, it reminds me of the old Colonial Hotel (now renamed something else, I believe) in Cape May, NJ.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at October 22, 2009 3:11 PM in response to House of the Day: 177 Rugby Road

I like the little mini-gardens, but the overall effect, at least from this photo angle, is of a Hipster Garden Playset tossed into the bottom of one of several handsome wooden bins. Perhaps the effect is different from ground level, although there one would be looking up at the Great Wooden Wall. One could always grow vines...

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at October 22, 2009 12:48 PM in response to Inside Third & Bond: Week 105

No Nu's is good news.
(Sorry.)

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at October 22, 2009 11:21 AM in response to Ho! Ho! Ho! The Flea Takes Manhattan (For a Month)

I love those mysterious little "rear tenements," quite a few scattered around Greenpoint and Wmsburg. Another great find from Kevin.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at October 21, 2009 5:14 PM in response to The Northside's Haunted House

While searching for a route to the Indies, or maybe it was that mall on the Belt, I stumbled onto these houses over a year ago (most seemed ready for occupancy but still empty). It was like stepping out of the Tardis and into Dwell magazine; I'm a hater of modern architecture, but they were uncanny in their freshness and novelty, toylike and sort of hip-suburban. Very...architectural. I'd like to see what they're like now with folks moved in; I'm sure the "Twilight Zone" feeling of the deserted streets, pristine sod squares and unused postboxes has warmed up to feel more like a real community.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at October 21, 2009 12:26 AM in response to East New York's Nehemiah Housing Proving Resilient

Happened to me about 7 or 8 years ago. They had to dig up front garden, remove railing and dig part of sidewalk. It just took them the day. I used Harris Plumbing on Atlantic Ave and paid them $8,000. harriswatermainandsewers.com
K

Posted by: HurricaneKate at November 19, 2009 3:50 PM in response to Broken Sewer Main

I just used Figliolia for a new water main and they were quick and very professional. They coordinated with the City and took care of all the paperwork. It cost $4500 which was one days work for three guys. This seems exceedingly expensive but they were highly recommended by my regular plumber and they did exactly what they promised.

Sometimes its worth paying top dollar to get something done quickly and with minimal headaches.

Posted by: JoeBushwick at November 19, 2009 4:23 PM in response to Broken Sewer Main

OMG, Brenda, you have my sympathies. Thank goodness we have no trees on our street.

Posted by: mopar at November 19, 2009 4:58 PM in response to Broken Sewer Main

Yes, Figliolia lives large as he was busted a few years back for extorting the city. That said, we used him on our water main replacement and they did a great job. Sewer main, I can't say.

However, a house on our block had a serious sewer problem last summer and Main Man was on the scene for days with little progress ( It was also one of those situations where city utilities were affected and it was probably more problematic than most sewer line upgrades). Main Man mostly had a bunch of guys standing around doing very little. After about ten days Figliolia took over and it was done very quickly.

Posted by: tinarina at November 19, 2009 8:55 PM in response to Broken Sewer Main

i prefer harris water main
2600 Atlantic Ave # 1
Brooklyn, NY 11207-2415
(718) 495-3600

Posted by: eman1234 at November 19, 2009 9:28 PM in response to Broken Sewer Main

Alex Figilioa Water and Sewer did my father-in-law's sewer main about 30 years ago, and they did ours last year. Very professional, I can recommend them.

Posted by: elizabethJane at November 20, 2009 12:28 AM in response to Broken Sewer Main