Browsing Tag

montague street

Brooklyn Heights

Brooklyn Heights ‘Signs’ Off On DOT’s Mixed-Case Lettering Mandate

August 16, 2012

Street signs in Brooklyn Heights will soon be following the letter of the law. The Federal Highway Administration has mandated that your tax dollars be spent on replacing 250,000 capital-letter street signs in New York City with mixed-case—specifically utilizing a condensed version of the Clearview typeface (licensed as ClearviewHwy).

So far, about 11,000 street name signs have been replaced around NYC’s five boroughs to meet national standards in typography and surface reflectivity, according to The New York Times—including some along Brooklyn Heights’ Montague Street. Brown historical signs will maintain their color.

Clearview was created in the 1990s by designers Donald Meeker and James Montalbano, working with the Thomas D. Larson Pennsylvania Transportation Institute and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. “With its crisp, clean design, Clearview represents exactly what its name suggests,” says city transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. “Whether through signs, markings or sidewalks, we’re bringing clarity and simplicity to street design.”

Developer Montalbano recalls about two years ago crossing the East River from Brooklyn—where he lives—coming off the Brooklyn Bridge and seeing a sign for “Chinatown” with an arrow in Clearview. About a month ago, he also noticed Clearview signs on Montague Street in the Heights. “It’s very exciting,” he told NY Times. “We’ve been working on this project for a very long time.”

A number of the new signs replace those scheduled for routine maintenance, as well as when streets are under repair or reconstruction. “But sometimes, the new signs appear to have replaced perfectly serviceable older signs with all-uppercase lettering,” the Times notes, which has meant of tirade of criticism directed toward the Highway Administration, an agency of the federal Department of Transportation. As a result, DOT has since eased or eliminated some 46 deadlines and/or mandates for dutiful compliance.

(Graphic/New York Times)


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45877

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Brooklyn Heights

Massive Mess: 111-115 Montague Street Sidewalk Will Be In Tatters For 3 Months

August 14, 2012

While the massive hole in front of 200 Hicks Street and Montague continues to get wider, deeper and messier, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Beginning this week, the entire sidewalk from the Chinese Hand Laundry and McCurdy Real Estate at 111 Montague up to Subway sandwiches at 115—which also encompasses retailers Peerless Shoe Repair and Connecticut Muffin—will be torn to bits.

The superintendent for the Berkeley and Grosvenor apartment buildings at 111 & 115 Montague tells BHB that infrastructure work below the sidewalk will endure for a minimum of three months. Oh, joy!

(Photos: Chuck Taylor) At top, the mess at 200 Hicks. Below, a last look at the sidewalk on Montague along the impacted area.


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45728

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Brooklyn Heights

Pet Adoption: August 16 In Front Of TD Bank On Montague Street

August 14, 2012

In Our Hands Rescue will hold its next pet adoption in front of TD Bank at 205 Montague Street at the corner of Cadman Plaza West (Court Street). The date: Thursday, August 16 (Happy Birthday, Madonna!), from noon to 6 p.m. (as well as Thursday, August 30).

Teamed with the North Shore Animal League, In our Hands will be present in a large van outside the bank, with rescued cats, kittens, pups and small pooches looking for homes. Application, references, ID and donation are required. See available pets at the IOH website and Facebook. Apply online for pre-approval, adopt at lunch and IOH will hold your pet until you get off work. Take your new friend home the same day.

In Our Hands Rescue is a not-for-profit 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45645

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Brooklyn Heights

Fuming 200 Hicks Street Rez Take Hotel Conversion Grievances To NY Daily News

August 14, 2012

The group of concerned residents who reside at 200 Hicks Street and voiced their concerns to BHB last Friday about the Bossert Hotel’s conversion back to a hotel have now shared their grievances with the New York Daily News. Brooklyn Heights rez Elizabeth Bailey and her comrades believe the plan before the Bureau of Standard and Appeals could create serious noise, traffic and safety issues in the area.

The Daily News, with typical bravado, writes: “A bar battle is brewing in Brooklyn Heights where residents are foaming mad over a developer’s plan to open a rooftop suds spot and restaurant at a historic hotel. Locals living near the Bossert Hotel at 98 Montague Street are afraid the bar and event space will lead to noisy crowds partying late into the night.”

Bailey, who has lived at 200 Hicks Street for 27 years, is quoted in the story, saying, “We want to work with the developers to make sure there are enforceable restrictions around noise.” She and the other unhappy residents “are pressing the city’s BSA to reject or greatly restrict the hotel’s application to change its zoning to allow the bar and restaurants, the News says. A hearing is scheduled September 11.

They have also employed the services of attorney Al Butzel, who met last month with representatives of the hotel’s developers, David Bistricer and Joseph Chetrit, to voice the group’s concerns, including traffic jamming the narrow one way street out front: “It’s a tiny little street taken over by Key Food trucks and kids walking with their parents. The developers have referred to the Carlyle as being their prototype but this is not Madison Avenue,” he says.

Kathleen Cudahy, a spokeswoman for the hotel’s new owners, says a “design consultant” is working to make sure “there’s no adverse impact due to any noise. This is not going to be a big destination place for large events such as wedding or a bar mitzvah.”

The developers bought the 14-story hotel for an estimated $90 million although the official price hasn’t been formally listed. They plan to expand the number of rooms from 224 to 302, with a $300 a night room rate, Bistricer said during a recent real estate luncheon. The hotel is slated to open in a year.

Read the Daily News story here. The New York Observer also writes about the Bossert conversion here.



Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45612

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Brooklyn Heights, Celebrity Residents

HBO’s ‘Girls’ Filming All Over Central Brooklyn Heights Tuesday

August 13, 2012

“Girls,” the HBO comedy starring Brooklyn Heights native and resident Lena Dunham, will be filming in the Emmy-nominated creator’s home ‘hood on Tuesday, August 14, from 3-9 p.m. Cars parked in the shoot area will be towed.

Good luck making sense of the affected streets and corners: both sides of Montague between Clinton and Henry; the west side of Court Street between Pierrepont and Joralemon; the east side of Clinton Street between Pierrepont and Montague; the east side of Henry between Montague and Remsen; both sides of the street at the north and east intersections of Hicks and Montague.


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45531

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More Morning, and Some Evening, Walk Pix

August 12, 2012

Your correspondent had just walked out the door Saturday morning when he spotted these late summer blossoms in the garden outside his building (corner of Montague and Pierrepont Place). More photos and text after the jump.

Wasp gathering nectar, Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Double-crested cormorant drying its wings on a piling, Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Hot pink blossoms, Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Spartina grass, salt marsh, south edge of Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Tour boat Half Moon passing close to Pier 1 esplanade; Brooklyn Bridge in background.

Large flower beside pond, northeast corner of Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park.

South Street Seaport Museum’s schooner Pioneer, seen from Brooklyn Heights Promenade; Governors Island in background.

Friday evening: lower Manhattan seen from Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park. Sunset reflected from windows of One Liberty Plaza.

Sunset reflected from Empire State Building, seen through Brooklyn Bridge from Pier 1 esplanade, Brooklyn Bridge Park.


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45502

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights, Food

Brooklyn Heights’ Starbucks Features Fancy ‘Clover’ Brewer

August 12, 2012

Fans of Starbucks in Brooklyn Heights may be interested to know that you’ve got the fanciest java in the borough. According to Gothamist, the store at 134 Montague Street has been employing the ooh la la “Clover” brewing system since May.

The machine is described as an upside-down French press, with coffee brewed one cup at a time. “Depending on the size of the serving, ground coffee is weighed and added to a hollow chamber at the top of the machine where it is met by a stream of steaming hot water. The mixture is manually stirred and scraped by a barista, then strained into a cup by the machine shortly after,” the website says.

Starbucks, which purchased the company that manufactures Clover in 2008, only uses its “exotic and rare” Reserve line of coffees to brew in the machine. The “exquisite” coffee “brings out the best of what these beans have to offer,” according to Starbucks. Each machine costs $13,000.

While there are 23 Clover outposts in Manhattan, the only Brooklyn-equipped Starbucks at Montague Street in the Heights is selling about 50 cups of Clover-brewed coffee per day, at $5 per cup, Gothamist says. Starbucks describes the machine as “a true innovation that comes along only once in a while.”



Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45495

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Brooklyn Heights

Clamorous Construction Continues Messing Up Montague

August 11, 2012

After crews spent a month widening the corners of Montague Street at Henry Street and another few weeks digging a sizable hole for telephone work in front of the Bossert Hotel—and separately replacing pipes & cables there—now the cacophonous construction mayhem has moved across the street in front of 200 Hicks Street.

You can’t escape the irony that some residents of that residential building are already fuming over potential noise from the Bossert Hotel’s conversion to a hotel… They must be loving this.

On Saturday, a gaping hole had been dug in front of 200 Hicks, as a yellow hydraulic bucket excavator darted with daunting speed about Montague & Hicks. Meanwhile, the majority of Montague Street is beginning to resemble a pastiche of paved patchwork. What a damn mess. (More photos below)

(Photos: Chuck Taylor)


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45440

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights

Residents Of 200 Hicks Street Concerned Bossert Hotel Conversion Will Create Noise, Safety Issues

August 10, 2012

A group of concerned residents who reside at 200 Hicks Street are taking to task the new owners of the Bossert Hotel at 98 Montague Street. Brooklyn Heights rez Elizabeth Bailey and her comrades believe the conversion plan currently before the Bureau of Standard and Appeals could create serious noise, traffic and safety issues in the area.

She writes to the Brooklyn Heights Blog: “Although residents of Brooklyn are happy, mostly, about our borough’s resurgence, or rather, emergence, those of us who live here because it is a quiet, safe place to live and bring up children, are worried that these developers are showing little regard to neighborhood concerns.”

New owners David Bistricer and Joseph Chetrit are seeking a variance to convert the hotel to a “commercial transient facility,” from its status as visitor housing for previous owner Jehovah’s Witnesses. The BSA has scheduled a hearing on the application September 11.

The group of residents at 200 Hicks, located at the northwest corner of Montague, say that the plan could deter the Heights’ peaceful persona “if it is done without regard to the nature and character of our residential community.” Bailey points to a New York Times feature on the Bossert from November 2011, in which Brooklyn Heights Association executive director Judy Stanton notes concerns about upkeep, “since Watchtower society placed a premium on maintenance, including the surrounding sidewalks and parks.” Stanton also intimates that the neighborhood may become livelier if the Bossert is converted into a high-end hotel.

Bailey writes, “The developers are proposing to increase the number of rooms from 224 to 302. Although they speak of creating a boutique hotel, over 300 rooms is a pretty big boutique. They also have plans to build a ground floor restaurant, event spaces (weddings and bar mitzvahs, etc.) and a bar on the rooftop. The developers contend that the increase in traffic on the busy corner of Montague and Hicks from their proposed hotel will be negligible.” She finds this “hard to believe.”

“There have been many articles in the New York press about the negative impact of noisy bars—particularly rooftop bars—on residential neighborhoods,” Bailey adds, citing Times’ stories here and here.

“We understand from press reports that both Chetrit and Bistricer have been publicly criticized for various aspects of their past real estate ventures. Among other controversial matters, Chetrit is one of the investors in the Empire Hotel near Lincoln Center, which has been the subject of a three-year battle that a West 62nd Street coop had to wage in the courts over ‘torment’ from the noise from its rooftop bar well after midnight,” Bailey says. “The developers are also involved with the Chelsea Hotel, which has been the subject of recent controversy. Noise and traffic: That’s what Brooklyn Heights residents are worried about.”

The 200 Hicks Street group proposes that restrictions be put in place on the proposed hotel/bar: “The aim is to limit the increase in noise and traffic that would compromise the safety and the character of this neighborhood.” Bailey invites public discourse of the issue, and is available via email at Elizaabailey@mac.com.

Comments from the BHB community?


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45367

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Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Food

Downtown’s Starbucks Booming; Seattle’s Best A Bust?

July 26, 2012

Have you ever met a Starbucks that didn’t do boffo business? The recent move of the Brooklyn Heights’ locale from the open & airy 134 Montague Street to the long & narrow 112 Montague doesn’t appear to have cut down on the number of Caffè Vanilla Frappuccino Blendeds being served in the neighborhood. (More photos below the jump.)

Meanwhile, the new Starbucks location at Fulton Mall’s 348 Fulton Street, which opened earlier this month across from Shake Shack and next to the spanking new Brooklyn Industries, appears to be satisfying coffee lovers with equal gusto.

The same can’t be said for Downtown Brooklyn’s Seattle’s Best, which opened its first standalone store in the borough at 253 Livingston Street & Bond Street on June 21. Earlier this week, a stop inside revealed not a single customer. The somewhat desolate location is set apart from the neighborhood’s gentrifying commerce and is situated in a building that is thus far undeveloped.

The irony, of course, is that Seattle’s Best, founded in 1970, became a subsidiary of Starbuck’s at the dawn of the millennium.

(Photos: Chuck Taylor)
Montague Street, Brooklyn Heights
348 Fulton Street, Fulton Mall
253 Livingston Street


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/44690

From the Web