Really? Hunh. Ok, mystery solved! — Pam Frederick on Seen & Heard: Australian bridal imports on Warren

@James: How many years does one have to use them for them to compensate for the resources they use in manufacturing? — KP on Seen & Heard: Australian bridal imports on Warren

The cobblestones have deteriorated dramatically since they were reinstalled in 2009 (I think) My belief is that the extremely heavy truck traffic from the Citibank remodel is a prime contributor. I've called the Citibank number on the construction sign and asked for the number of the Citi employee responsible for the project. I think they should fix it or Pay for fixing it. The problem is acute on Greenwich from Canal to Hubert. The historic and charming appearance is really compromised by the asphalt patches at Laight between Vestry and Hubert and the Greenwich /Hubert intersection. This street acted as a filming location in the past but that has dried up. — Bill Paulsen on Eyesore of the Week: Greenwich Street cobbles

James is correct about reusable bags. Alas. — A. on Seen & Heard: Australian bridal imports on Warren

Expect powerful, organized, well financed opposition to a plastic bag ban: “As communities increasingly take action on the worsening plastic pollution crisis, the chemical and plastics industry and front groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have stepped up efforts to protect corporate profits through mass-produced preemption bills meant to “ban plastic bans.” This year, new bills to prevent local action on plastic pollution have been introduced in North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Florida, and reintroduced in South Carolina, Utah, and Missouri... ALEC has worked side by side with the Plastics Industry Association and its front group, the American Progressive Bag Alliance (APBA), to push model legislation for legislators to introduce and champion nationwide. This preemption approach has been used to benefit corporations over local communities on other issues including the minimum wage, paid sick leave, and fracking. Statewide preemption laws currently prohibit 70 million Americans in 10 states from enacting bag ordinances to reduce plastic waste and pollution in their communities. The American Chemistry Council (ACC), which is a member of ALEC, originally created the American Progressive Bag Alliance (then called the Progressive Bag Affiliates) and played a more active role in lobbying against plastic bans. In 2011, the ACC announced that the APBA was becoming a division of the Plastics Industry Association, which became a member of ALEC in 2013. In recent years, the Plastics Industry Association and the APBA have worked more closely with ALEC to oppose plastic bans across the country. Companies like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and SC Johnson were listed as members of the Plastics Industry Association as of 2018. While SC Johnson recently stated that it supports plastic straw bans, it is still a member of the association whose APBA division leads preemption lobbying against local plastic pollution ordinances. The preemption bill in North Dakota was introduced by ALEC’s state co-chair, Dan Ruby, and 5 other members who are closely aligned with ALEC’s priorities. Both the North Dakota and Oklahoma legislation closely track an ALEC model policy that has been used to pass plastic ban preemption laws in other states. The South Carolina and Utah bills that were reintroduced this year do as well. In Missouri, the legislation expands upon its existing preemption law preventing action on plastic bags to now include cups, packages, containers, bottles, and other packaging. Following a year that saw plastic straws explode in the national dialogue, the Florida bill preempts local action against plastic straws, and the North Dakota bill adds new language to ALEC’s previously-used model policy to include straws as well...” https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/chemical-and-plastics-industry-and-alec-conspiring-to-block-communities-from-acting-on-plastic-pollution-crisis/ — A. on Seen & Heard: Australian bridal imports on Warren

Rohin, at your age, you shouldn't be using a stroller. The real issue is that cobblestone crosswalks are in no way ADA compliant. Just think if you had to get across many of the cobbled crosswalks along Greenwich Street (or at Harrison/ Hudson, Jay/Greenwich, etc.) on crutches or in a wheelchair or are elderly or a klutz. Are you thinking? Because the city did not. — Jim Smithers on Eyesore of the Week: Greenwich Street cobbles

The stake out guys are school security guards (2 preschools on that block). They walk the perimeter of the block. — E on Seen & Heard: Australian bridal imports on Warren

In theory reusable bags are better for the environment than plastic, but they are more resource intensive to produce and distribute than plastic and are not reused enough times to compensate. This does not account for the resources needed to wash reusable bags, to avoid breeding and spreading bacteria and viruses from carrying raw foods and placing the bags in dirty shopping carts (especially the baby carrier portion.) — James on Seen & Heard: Australian bridal imports on Warren

5 Boro Bike Tour should consider shifting sightly to the south and starting at a wide open spot in a more commercial area like adjacent to the Oculus and Century 21 on Church Street. — James on Seen & Heard: Australian bridal imports on Warren

Sure looks like it’s gone with the fountains now running. — Bob on Seen & Heard: The Jeff Koons Sculpture Is Gone

Anyone have any updates on Red Balloom Flower? It’s been gone for months. 7 WTC plaza looks lonely without it:/ — Anthony on Seen & Heard: The Jeff Koons Sculpture Is Gone

Try going across them with a stroller! I literally have to eyeball a path through beforehand else risk getting stuck I agree the issue has more to do with the substrate than the cobblestones themselves. One would figure that the city would understand this but it’s more profitable to their contractor friends if they get to build these 3x over instead of just once (Extra donuts!) — Rohin on Eyesore of the Week: Greenwich Street cobbles

I feel very badly for the woman who was hit and died by the connection bus. But what people need to understand about the circumstances is the woman was jaywalking and she was doing so at dusk. If she had walked further north or south and crossed South End Avenue in the crosswalk with a traffic light she would have successfully crossed the street. There isn't a crosswalk or a traffic light at the spot where she crossed after getting off the bus. One was proposed years ago, but nothing ever happened. There should be one at that spot because it is in front of Gateway Plaza and many of the residents jaywalk at the same spot. — PeterD on In the News: Woman killed by Downtown Alliance bus

I have had both terrible and also cautious Connection bus drivers. There does seem to be high turnover and I suspect, the compensation is low and conditions less than ideal. Ms. Kaulfus stepped out in front of an M9 bus she just got off and the Connection driver did not slow down as he emerged from his blind spot. I would hope that the Downtown Alliance will evaluate its standards and training for Connection drivers. I also hope the local precinct will do more to enforce traffic laws on South End, which feels like a bus depot sometimes with tour and corporate buses circling the neighborhood or parked or idling in no parking zones. The extra illegal bus traffic diminishes safety for all. Prayers for Ms. Kalfus. — cami on In the News: Woman killed by Downtown Alliance bus

Family and I ride on Connection buses frequently and I always wonder what the urgency and speed is about on South End. There is no set time when they are supposed to arrive and they are literally driving in circles through our neighborhoods. If anyone or anything is serving the downtown community, free bus or otherwise, it also means making every effort to keep the community safe. Yield to pedestrians and drive slowly! MTA buses seem to observe these basic guidelines. More often than not, Connection buses race from one stop to the next in South End and these stops are no more than 2 blocks away! — BPC Resident on In the News: Woman killed by Downtown Alliance bus

This isn't really about pollution or bus quality as much as a human life was lost because the jack-ass connection bus driver hit her and killed her. Those Connection bus drivers (and buses in general) are so aggressive, come barrelling through intersections all the time. For what? To make a stop light? Couldn't even stop for the older woman crossing the street? Was she walking too slowly? That's effed up!! and this poor woman, who lived to be 81, only to be killed by some impatient and untrained jerk driver, should not have been hit. The problem is about bad bus driving, and bad Connection bus driving....which btw will continue to claim lives. Bully irresponsible attitudes on the road lead to victims on the streets. Shameful and heartbreaking. Prayers for Ms. Kalfus and her family. — valentina on In the News: Woman killed by Downtown Alliance bus

"Cobblestones aren’t meant for the volume of traffic they get, especially Laight St" https://www.google.com/maps/@48.8734663,2.294276,3a,75y,33.88h,91.91t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4ofE9aRZMKKfWiiB2SiOrQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en Yeah... you're totally correct. Excellent well informed point. — I think you could rollerskate on that on Eyesore of the Week: Greenwich Street cobbles

"Cobblestones aren’t meant for the volume of traffic they get, especially Laight St" This very famous and busy street would disagree https://goo.gl/maps/TvXDzH8zfS62 — Hilary Trump on Eyesore of the Week: Greenwich Street cobbles

Thanks for your 2 cents, except this person was killed by a converted van to bus. I find buses the most aggressive vehicles on the road. Those open top tour buses spewing black smoke all day long? Travel to any part of the EU and you will see a completely different class of driver and quality of bus. — CplusC on In the News: Woman killed by Downtown Alliance bus

Thanks for your 2 cents, except this person was killed by a converted van to bus. I find buses the most aggressive vehicles on the road. Those open top tour buses spewing black smoke all day long? Travel to any part of the EU and you will see a completely different class of driver and quality of bus. — CplusC on In the News: Woman killed by Downtown Alliance bus

The problem is not the cobbles. They were laid in concrete which is totally crazy. Cobble stones are designed to naturally lock together like a capstone as the weight of traffic actually improves the quality of the roadway. Concrete is rigid and cracks. The results are clear. The one upside was that the uneven surface slows traffic to a crawl. The recent patch up job is the worst of all worlds. Looks ugly and encourages higher speeds while still impossible to cycle on. — CHRIS FINCH on Eyesore of the Week: Greenwich Street cobbles

What is the problem with NYPD and NYFD parking their cars on our TriBeCa streets? Fake placards I get but these people protect and serve our communities. Sure it would be nice if they took public transportation but many of them don't...I think we should be nicer to delivery services and companies as well. We are a small island and rely on all these people to bring us all of our stuff!!! Let's rid the neighborhood of these Rovers and Jeeps...that would be a good start but I know it isn't going to happen. — TG on In the News: A proposal to fill in Tribeca’s Hudson River Park

I too cycle the wrong way (gingerly) on Washington Street because of the cobble stones on Greenwich. In Europe they don't seem to have this problem...the cobble stones are not the way they are on Greenwich Street because of traffic...the person who placed them needs to go back to Cobblestone school. — TG on Eyesore of the Week: Greenwich Street cobbles

Our NYC taxi cabs are regulated to death with more and more fees put on the consumer without the drivers getting much of any of the proceeds while Uber & Co. are free market and it is literally killing us! Too many vehicles on our streets. A huge SUV to pick up a woman with a yoga mat! As a cyclist, pedestrian and driver I will take a driver of a NYC cab any day over a private company driver. I do have compassion for these drivers because they have been misled but they aren't trained. Poor Ms. Kalfus. RIP. — TG on In the News: Woman killed by Downtown Alliance bus

A bit about who the early American Sephardi who would have worshiped there were, and how they came here. The Portuguese exported the Inquisition to all of their colonies. The first Jewish families to arrive in the colony of New Amsterdam disembarked from the Ste. Catherine in early September 1654. These six men, seven women and ten children – Dutch citizens – were fleeing Brazil, an embattled Dutch colony that was increasingly being overtaken by Portugal – and coming under the Portuguese Inquisition, which promised torture or death to Jews living in its territories. Governor Peter Stuyvesant was furious. The new colonists were “enemies and blasphemers” he wrote to the Dutch West India Company, part of a “deceitful race” and would “infect and trouble this new colony”. The governor demanded they leave forthwith, on the next outbound vessel. But these bedraggled, penniless newcomers refused to be cowed. They too wrote urgent letters to the authorities in Holland, pointing out that they were “confirmed burghers” of the Netherlands, just like “all the other inhabitants of these lands” and demanded their right to live in the colony. For over a year, these 23 Jews and Governor Stuyvesant waited urgently for a reply that would determine the future of Jewish settlement in North America. Finally, in April 1655, a letter came from Amsterdam: forbidding Jews from the colony was “unreasonable and unfair”. Conditions were put upon the Jews that weren’t demanded of other colonists – they were barred from ever receiving charity from non-Jews – but their safety was ensured. These Jewish colonists established Shearith Israel – the first synagogue in Colonial America – and the oldest surviving congregation in the United States.... — A. on Seen & Heard: A marker for the first synagogue in North America