Open Thread

Adam & the Mrs. are s’posed to be there. We haven’t seen them in quite a while. Most everyone else we saw in January.

it took me a while to get my act together for a cobblesnaps production.

crime wave in bklyn heights, from the cityroom blog in the times:

MARCH 10, 2011, 5:55 PM
To Burgle in Brooklyn Heights, No Heavy Equipment Needed
By LIZ ROBBINS

Brooklyn Heights, the brownstone and red-brick bastion of families new and old, has seen a crime spree of sorts: four burglaries in the past five days. But none of the burglaries came from a forced entry, a broken window. Instead, the burglars simply let themselves in through windows, or doors that residents, perhaps overly confident, had left open.

Police officers from the 84th Precinct alerted the executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association about the burglaries, and the director, Judy Stanton, sent out an e-mail to 1,200 neighbors on Thursday morning. “This neighborhood is so safe, but not everybody puts on their city smarts and remembers to do the common sense thing and lock their doors,” she said. Not everybody thought they had to -– until Thursday.

“Oh no, we don’t lock our doors often,” said Allen Tobias, 67, who has lived in Brooklyn Heights since 1984. “You get used to a certain level of comfort and you don’t go back too easily. But I locked my door today. The burglaries were right around the corner.”

According to the police, two burglaries happened in a building on Willow Street on Wednesday when the residents were at work, and both times the entry point was a fire escape window. (An air-conditioner was removed in one case.) Stolen: headphones, cell phones, tie clips, an old computer and $80.

An officer taped hundreds of warning fliers to apartment doors on Thursday, and even locked several doors that were open.

On Saturday, a woman left her door open on Remsen Street, and returned hours later to find stolen her diamond earrings, a ring, a bracelet, two Rolex watches, and $300, the police said. On Columbia Place, a resident left both a window and door open; gone were a computer and PlayStation 3.

Ms. Stanton said another feared burglary “turned out to be a messy apartment.”

Eric Medlin, 42, commented: “When we were growing up, there used to be knife fights on the promenade, muggings, all kinds of things.”

While the neighborhood has changed, Mr. Medlin said: “You still have to pay attention. It’s Brooklyn, but it’s still safer than anywhere you can be.”

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