Seen & Heard: Aggressive Bees

••• From M.: “My kids both go to P.S. 234, and for the past three weeks everyone has been commenting on the unusually high concentration of bees on the school grounds, the yard, and the nearby park. Then bees became increasingly aggressive. In the past two weeks, I have heard from nine people who have gotten stung (not including my seven-year old who got stung twice while playing outside at recess) and myself (I got stung on my foot while walking past the school gate after drop-off today). Apparently, a local resident, concerned about the declining bee population, has registered with the Department of Health and is growing bees on her balcony on Greenwich street (Tribeca Trib wrote an article about this back in July.) As it turns out, a high concentration of bees (supposedly around 60,000) does not mix well with high-density population and garbage. The bees turn increasingly aggressive in the fall as they frantically gather the last bits of nectar before the cold sets in, and this poses a real and serious threat to the school community. What if someone is anaphylactic? I am dumbfounded by the fact that the Department of Health has allowed this to happen.” I’ve noticed more bees around the garbage cans on the street, but they haven’t bothered me. For what it’s worth, there are also beehives atop a Warren Street building, so I’m not sure we can know for sure whose bees they are. UPDATE: “Before condemning the honeybees,” says a reader, “are you sure the pests aren’t yellow jacket wasps?”

••• “Wisefish Poké looks closer to opening than I would’ve thought,” reports K. “Who knows? It could open before Dig Inn.” (The official word is that they’re shooting for early November.)

••• Can You Keep a Secret? shot yesterday on Franklin (and as you can see from the first photo, the production blocked off the street, likely for a long stretch rather than only while filming was occurring). According to IMDB, it’s based on a Sophie Kinsella novel:  “Thinking they’re about to crash, Emma spills her secrets to a stranger on a plane. At least, she thought he was a stranger… Until she later meets Jack, her company’s young and elusive CEO, who now knows every humiliating detail about her.” And “The First Wives Club” shoots today in the Greenwich/Franklin area. It’s a TV show based on the 1996 film, and it needs an apostrophe. And “Billions” is back for two days in the Hudson/Hubert area. At least it’s now going by its actual name. And “Blank Pro” is shooting Friday in the Greenwich/Hubert area. (That makes at least five productions this week—the other one is “Law & Order: SVU”—one of which is here for two days.)

••• Arcade Bakery is open on Mondays again.

••• I had thought that the single-story storefront at 56 Reade was leaning toward being a catering kitchen, but yesterday, I saw a group of employees, all dressed alike, gathered on the sidewalk, and a manager was exhorting them to be better, since the business is going to “set the neighborhood on fire.” So now I’d wager it’ll be 212 Bagels, Good Food Kollection’s other brand in the works. And it’ll likely open soon. Below: a Pinterest mood board crated by GFK founder Eddy Eskenazi.

 

4 Comments

  1. We had brunch at 1803 two weeks ago. Everyone sitting near their outdoor planter had to move because of the bees. They weren’t aggressive, but they were all over us and our food. I wondered why there were so many.

  2. Maybe the bees have just spent too much time in New York.

  3. It would be great to get a new Big Belly garbage can at the corner of Greenwich and Chambers. That specific can is the wasp nest it seems.

  4. I’ve been waiting for something to be written about the increase in bees! It’s crazy. I’ve lived in Tribeca for over 13 years and have never seen anything like this. My family can’t eat at any indoor/outdoor restaurants on west broadway as my kids are quite tense and jumpy around bees so the dining experience is miserable. We tried to have an enjoyable weekend picnic at Washington Market Park a few weeks ago and again the bees were aggressive and would not leave us alone while we tried to eat. I was even ordering from the outside window at Jack’s coffee and two bees literally fell from the sky on to my coffee cup on the window sill. It would be quite a coincidence that this occured around the time someone started growing thousands of bees.

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