The Mysterious Pacifier Trees of Borough Park

Whomever can solve this mystery will win a free Lost City t-shirt (whenever I actually possess such garments, which will probably be never).

Outside 1450 48th Street, in an apartment building called The Plymouth, there are two bare trees on either side of the walkway leading to the entrance. Their branches are utterly loaded with used, discarded pacifiers.

There are easily a couple hundred or the plastic things, in every shade of the rainbow. They are hung on the limbs by their circular handles. Passing by, I at first thought the trees were in flower. Then I thought they were strewn with garbage, debris that has been tossed by the wind and had gotten caught in the branches. Then I didn't know what to think.


What is the explanation behind this piece of peculiar, environmental ad-hoc art? A few possible scenarios:

*The residents of 1450 are mainly child-proud parents, and every time a new kid is born a pacifier goes on the tree to signify the birth.

*The residents of 1450 are parenting activists who are violently opposed the the antiquated forms of child-rearing that are represented by the pacifier. They show their disdain for pacifiers by hanging them out to rot.

*The residents of 1450 are lazy and couldn't make it all the way to the curb to throw out their used pacifiers.

*The residents of 1450 were the subject an odd Halloween prank, and no one has bothered to undo the mischief yet.

*The residents of 1450 belong to as-yet-undiscovered cult that employs used pacifiers as a way of warding off evil spirits.

*Some parent in 1450 has a kid involved in a very unusual school project.

*Pacifier Trees are urban vandalism's new Sneakers-Tied-Together-and-Thrown-Over-a-Telephone-Wire.

*Aliens.

Mazzola Bakery Christmas Tree Watch: It's Done!

Well, that didn't take long!

Just yesterday I started staking out Mazzola's Bakery at Henry and Union Streets in Carroll Gardens, watching for them to hoist up their annual floating Christmas tree.

Today, around 3 PM, two old guys shouting in Italian ("Gira!" "Tirare!") and two young guys answering in Spanish, started on the job. Ropes were tied to street lamps and small, earth-bound trees. Cords came whipping out of windows, furnishing electricity. Men with ropes on the roof took orders from men with ropes on the ground. Ladders went up. Crowds gathered. There's a big rainbow star on the top of the tree, a big red ribbon on the bottom. By 3:30 PM, it was done.

And the holiday season officially begins in South Brooklyn.

A Good Sign: Paul's Fruit and Grocery

Not just a nice sign, but a nice storefront altogether on Paul's Fruit and Grocery on Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn.

Some Stuff That's Interesting

Astroland is in a sad place. [Curbed]

A lot of restaurants are closing, some of them quite good. [Eater]

More coverage of the Landmarks v. Development issue in the Times. [New York Times]

There are cool signs outside New York, too. [Greenwich Village Daily Photo]

Morrisania Library is 100 Years Old. Enjoy it before the City sells it to a developer! [City Room]

Wooden Phone Booth Sighting: Miele Pharmacy

Now, this is a real find. I had no idea it existed. By pure chance, the other day I passed by the corner of 15th Avenue and 42nd Street the other day and saw an old Pharmacy sign. Big deal. I've seen a hundred like them. While old-fashioned pharmacy signs often hang around, evoking times gone by, pharmacy interiors are regularly updated and sterilized, leaving little taint of the past.

No so with this treasure, which the owner said has opened before 1900 and is the oldest pharmacy in Borough Park (the current owners have been there 40 years). Everything was as it must have been 60, 70 years ago. Wooden shelves lines the walls, climbing up to the ceiling. A rolling ladder hung on one set of shelving. The ceiling was tin, the floor was tile. A coin-operated scale stood near the door. A couple low shelving units punctuated the floor layout. There was one of those sloping wooden racks that hold greeting cards. The owner stood behind a long wooden counter near the back, little wire racks of gum and mints next to him, behind him another wall of shelves holding prescriptions and such.


Then I turned around and, lo and behold! Not one, but two wooden phone booths! Holy moly! The motherload. And in a pharmacy. I think that's a first for Lost City. Past wooden phone booth sightings have been in restaurants, bars and hotels only. And I had come just in time: the owner said the last remaining operating booth had just gone kaput; neither of them worked anymore and he was going to put them up for sale. A shame.


The shelves were loosely stocked; there was very little to buy. I wondered how the place stayed in business. (Copious local prescriptions?) If they must sell the booths, I hope they get a pretty penny for them, and that they sell them to someone who will restore and use them in another business.

Weird Mystery Building Now Has Scaffolding

The Vermont Market and Pharmacy—ghost store of Carroll Gardens, mysteriously shuttered and cluttered since the late '90s—has become enough of a subject of fascination for locals and visitors alike that it was the subject of a piece of detective work in the the New York Times last July.

The article uncovered that the store and building's owner, Mark Stein, is a bit of a nut, "a recluse who wears suspenders and prefers walking in the street, a genius with a deep knowledge of homeopathic remedies who had some sort of position at a local university, and a property owner stuck with a valuable building he is either unable or unwilling to sell." Stein's father bought the building from the previous owners, some gun-running pharmacists.

But it just sits there, crammed with antique and modern bric-a-brac—scales and boxes and vials and junk. Barely a bit of the fine old tile floor can be seen. The "Les Miz"-like etching of a waif's head in the window spooks me every time I walk by.

And now there's another wrinkle. Scaffolding has been erected around the building. According the Department of Building website, there have been a number of complaints against Stein over the past year. One from October reads: "CALLER STS THE STRUCTURE OF THE BUILDING IS VERY UNSAFE INTHE BASEMENT THE OUTSIDE WALL IS CRUMBLING IN THE BASEMENT, AND THEFOUNDATION IS UNSAFE , SECOND COMPLAINT." There are also regular charges that the boiler doesn't work.

Recently, the DOB issued a violation, charging, "FAILURE TO MAINTAIN BLDG WALLS. ON SACKETT ST SIDE EXTERIOR WALL ON 2ND FLOOR LEVEL BY THE FIRE ESCAPE HAS APPROX 3" WIDE CRACKS & 4' LONG.ALSO 4TH FL OVER WINDOW HAS APPROX 1" CRACK."

Is this how business would be conducted in Vermont? Maybe Stein should go into group counseling with the Rat-Squirrel House lady.

Mazzola Bakery Christmas Tree Watch

It's December 1. Time for businesses and communities to haul out the Christmas decorations and brighten our days. Everyone from Macy's to your local deli will have something to offer. But perhaps my favorite holiday decoration in all of New York City is the Mazzola Bakery Christmas Tree, at the corner of Henry and Union in the heart of Carroll Gardens.

Big deal, a Christmas tree, you say. Ah, but you don't understand. This tree stands not on the sidewalk, but one story above the heads of passersby. The trunk is shaved down and snugly stuffed into a metal holder that is bolted to the corner of the brick building, about ten feet off the ground. (You can see the brown brace dead center in the photo above.) The tree is then tied to various posts and poles around it, to steady the fir, and then decorated with lights. This has been going on annually for as long as I can remember.

Placed at such a height, the tree acts as a kind of holiday beacon of joy and delight for people blocks away, in every direction. Seen in the snow, it is quite magical. It is both simple and fantastic.

The folks at Mazzola always tend to take their sweet time getting the tree up. (It takes a lot of doing.) As of today, no preparations are visible. Lost City will keep an eye on the situation as it progresses, because it's fun for me and I have nothing better to do. Well, actually, I have plenty to do. Too much, in fact. But I enjoy this sort of fun makework assignment much better.

Some Stuff That's Interesting

Some interesting shots of the Empire State Building. [Restless]

Ben's Deli of Bayside in trouble. [Queens Crap]

Five Roses Pizza in the East Village is closing Dec. 6. I used to eat there. Nice place. Always liked the name. A rent hike, natch. [JVNY via Slice]

Some nice pictures of wrapped-up Christmas trees. [EV Grieve]

And more nice pictures, this time of the Dublin House Tap Room. [Greenwich Village Daily Photo]

You can go see and board the tanker Mary Whalen in the Atlantic Basin on Dec. 6. [Portside Mary Whalen]

Art Flowers, Artful Display

There's something special about this 13th Avenue flower shop in Borough Park, and it's not the facade or sign—though both are those are special, as is the name of the place, Art Flower.


No, it's the window display, the like of which you won't find anywhere else in New York City. Not content to work with mere Barbie and Ken mannequins, the owners have recreated a genuine Orthodox Jewish wedding. The ceremonial garb is quite authentic looking, and the details are impressive—the glass and bottle of wine, the chuppah, the wedding contract, the sidelocks. The men are wearing the long frock-coat garments called bekishes, and shtreimels, the distinctive flat fur donuts that serve as hats on special occasions.

About the sunglasses worn by one attendant, I think he just wants to be cool.

Tin Pan Alley Buildings Off the Block, Maybe

The New York Observer has a piece on the endangered row of former Tin Pan Alley buildings on W. 28th Street, saying the block of properties is now off the market:

As public opinion moves further against the plan and the economy plunges deeper into recession, a deal is looking increasingly unlikely. The five, mixed-use contiguous properties would yield over 111,000-square feet of “prime Chelsea Property” after demolition, according to the listing that first appeared on the real estate Web site LoopNet in the early fall, along with renderings of a 16-story residential building with 24 retail spaces proposed for the site. Though it remains up, the site says the “property is no longer available.”

This seems to echo an earlier report by the AP. It would be nice to know for sure. Unfortunately, the Coldwell Banker agent marketing the buildings did not respond to a request from the Observer for comment, and Jo-Fra Properties could not be reached. Seems like they can never be reached.