Author Archives: dailyheights

BRANDING: Nets are now "Nets Presented by Jackson Hewitt"

Posted on by dailyheights
1 Comment

branding-iron.jpgTen days ago (six years ago in Internet Time), the Newark Star-Ledger reported that the New Jersey Nets are “suddenly … ‘the New Jersey Nets presented by Jackson Hewitt.'” This is the doing of Brett Yormark, the former NASCAR exec who’s trying to “sell” the Nets to Brooklyn.

Carrie at Stay Free Daily asks: “Could this move prompt NYC officials to realize that … using a sports team named after a tax preparation service isn’t exactly going to help ‘brand’ Brooklyn? Nah, I doubt it…”

[ALSO FOR SALE: “B.S.” Branding Iron.]

Categories: Ratner and the Nets Stadium

World Record in DAILYHEIGHTS Forums!

Posted on by dailyheights
3 Comments

message_boardtn_1.jpg
Official site records reveal that a record number of simultaneous ProHo’ers were on the DAILYHEIGHTS message boards yesterday: “Most users ever online was 7 on Tue Mar 15, 2005 3:55 pm”

To get a handle on that number: imagine a Subaru Outback so stuffed with people that there is no more room to sit down–not even in the trunk space. Or an entire elevator, so full that it may make 4 or more stops (or even more) before it gets to your floor.

[PICTURED: Message Board.]

Categories: dailyheights forum

USAgain IS HIRING!!

Posted on by dailyheights
No Comments

goodbye usagain-tn.jpgThis is the last known photograph (click to enlarge) of the USAgain clothes collection box that underwent a long, painful removal from the corner of Underhill Ave. and Prospect Place. It looks like well-meaning neighbors of yours were still trying to stuff old clothes in the blood-red behemoth, despite the fact that the the box was clearly out of commission (and despite the fact that USAgain is not a charity, but a private company that makes money from your donations).

Now that at least 2 of the USAgain boxes in this city have been NIMBYed into obscurity, is USAgain making a swift retreat from the territory? On the contrary–in fact, they are hiring. USAgain is offering $35-$45k per year–plus commission–for someone to “canvass the territory and identify suitable locations for drop-off boxes” in New York City and Long Island. Must have own car.

Bonus! Charles Star had the foresight to take a picture of the box that used to sit next to Espinal Grocery, the bodega at Underhill and Sterling, back when the box was still in relatively pristine condition… He included it in his write-up “Eyesore of the Month” in Stay Free Magazine. According to Charles, “the owner … asked the company to remove the box in front of his store after someone started a fire inside it. Meanwhile, the box at the corner of Washington and Lincoln now bears the graffito, ‘For-profit corporation. Donate to charity instead.'” Is that box gone, too?

Categories: Eyesores, Underhill Ave.

NEW TOY: GO PLAY

Posted on by dailyheights
2 Comments

Mediawiki.png
WikiHeights. This is a website about Prospect Heights that everybody (including you) can write and edit. You can start your own page. You can even make a link to a page that doesn’t exist yet (so you or somebody else can create it later). To learn about how this works, click on the Help page. But it’s pretty simple–you can just click on the “edit” tab and start typing. You’ll figure it out.

Categories: dailyheights

DAILYHEIGHTS Expands Global Reach; Will Solve Problems for Food

Posted on by dailyheights
No Comments

district 35.jpgDAILYHEIGHTS is now serving as Moderator of the District 35 Community Gazette over at GothamGazette.com, a non-profit NYC news and policy website published by the Citizens Union Foundation of New York.

District 35 is shaped like a big boot, stretching from Metrotech and the Navy Yards, down through Prospect Heights, and out to Schenectady Ave. So Prospect Heights is in the heart of the district. Or heel? Actually, more like shin. Whatever.

The Community Gazettes are supposed to be like little local newspapers, created and read by people like you. Some of you have already discovered the site and posted there, but in case you haven’t, the Community Gazettes are “an effort at creating an online community for people who care about their own neighborhoods … we traffic in issues, and look to solve problems.”

So, what’s bugging you? Go vent:

-Upload a photo.
-Repost an entire newspaper article. Verbatim. (They, uh, assure me that local newspapers are cool with this practice.)
-Create a “Fix It” report on a pothole, broken traffic light, graffiti, etc. and discover entirely new and interactive ways of being ignored.
-Post ideas, comments or “general gripes” in the Community Views section.
-Add links to community resources.
-More! (Too lazy to list the rest.)

Categories: dailyheights, Media, Politics

Broken Things Now Fixed; Fixed Things Now Broken

Posted on by dailyheights
No Comments

stooges plumbing.jpgThis site is like a Three Stooges routine: When Curly patches up the pipe leak here, water starts squirting out over there. When he patches up the pipe over there, the pipe springs another leak and he gets sprayed in the face. Then Moe comes over and whacks him on the head.

The problem of the moment is inaccurate comment counts. Any Movable Type gurus out there? It would be great to know why some of the Category Archives pages don’t accurately report the number of comments (see Marty Reads Script, Then Splits entry on the Ratner Category page), while other pages seem to be fine (i.e. the Bars and Nightlife page).

Categories: dailyheights

353 Park Pl., 75 Years Later

Posted on by dailyheights
4 Comments

353-Park-Place,-75-Years-La-tn.jpg
I tried to find the exact spot where photographer Percy Loomis Sperr stood 75 years ago when he took this photo of 353 Park Place at Underhill Avenue. On the right is my attempt to redo his photo. There have been some changes. Goodbye, stately mansion. Hello, institutional architecture. [Click here for the full photo comparison.]

Image from the New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Gallery. The original photo can be found here.

Categories: Uncategorized

Peace Corps Sends ProHo Senior to Bulgaria

Posted on by dailyheights
No Comments

Irene Porges (Newsday - Bruce Gilbert).jpgFreelancer Julie Gilgoff interviewed Peace Corps volunteer Irene Porges for Newsday: “… at age 62, Porges decided to leave the comforts of her brownstone apartment in Prospect Heights and joined the Peace Corps as a volunteer in Bulgaria.”

“…(in) a mountain community of about 10,000 people, she felt she was going against local customs just by doing her job as a community economic development volunteer. ‘If you’re over age 60 in the community where I lived, you’re sent out to pasture …You don’t work.'”

“… Over time, however, Porges said she got to know the other female professionals in town … During her stay, Porges created a business center where she helped train local artisans to market their goods.”

[IMAGE: Bruce Gilbert for Newsday]

Categories: Prospect People

Ready for Spring: Park Place/Underhill Avenue Block Association Newsletter

Posted on by dailyheights
No Comments

pdf.jpgREADY FOR SPRING. Cilla Ehly, PPUABA President, writes about a recent trip to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden in the March 2005 newsletter: “My friend John and I visited the Botanical Garden on Saturday. The semi-arid glass house was fragrant with rosemary and a variety of South African cowslips, gladiolas and other flowers. A weeping bottlebrush tree was blooming and a variety of flowering shrubs contributed to the lovely scented air. In the tropical house, papayas, cocoa pods, coffee berries and an amazing sickle plant with purple points up and down its flower… If you can get there this weekend, I think the papayas will be ready for eating.”

Download PPUABA Newsletter here… Highlights:
-New rules about setting out yard tree trimmings
-PPUABA Annual Plant Sale and Block Party: Date and NEW location
-Parent Coop Day Care wants your lightly used children’s books
-ALTERNATE SIDE PARKING RULE SUSPENSIONS
-NEIGHBORHOOD RESOURCES: MaMa Duke (owner: P Diddy’s mother?!), Fermented Grapes, One Race, more…
-Newsletter Editor Needed!

Categories: PP/UA Block Association