And Now a Word From Our Dark Reality

Last night, I couldn't sleep. At all.

My occasional insomnia is of a snake-eating-its-tale variety. It goes like this. I'm unable to sleep, so, while awake, my thoughts turn to troubling topics (family, past regrets, professional worries, doubts, politics) that make it further impossible for me to fall asleep. It's like trying to grab at the bed covers, which have fallen to the floor, but only managing to grip a thread, which causes the blanket to slowly unravel the more you tug at it. The cover that might win you sleep quickly disintegrates the more you claw.

Usually, I dwell on family. Last night, however, it was politics. The recent shenanigans of the City Council campaign of Brad Lander, and the inaccurate coverage of those events by the perfidious Brooklyn Paper, had unduly upset me yesterday, and I spent the night stewing over the matter. Lander made me think of Bill De Blasio, whose seat Lander hopes to win, and who is as slippery as he is tall. De Blasio caused me to think of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, who is as calculating as he is fatuously ebullient. That led me to Bloomberg, as cynical as he is rich. Which made me think of Pedro Espada and Albany's fetid swamp of corruption.

It then occurred to me in that dark 2 AM that, whatever I think of those men, whatever anyone does to fight them and point out their malefactions (and many people have done plenty), it's very likely they will all be swept into office, and will be ruling our lives and our city for years. My mind became polluted with churning thoughts of rivulets of deception leading to rivers of sleaze pouring into an ocean of fraud and greed under which New York City is soon to become a new Atlantis.

And then I read something on Kurt Strahm's blog Restless entitled "The Persistence of Assholes." Kurt has a much sharper political mind than I have, and I am thankful for him, for he often puts in cogent, clear, unapologetic words what I am consciously, subconsciously and unconsciously thinking.

Strahm points out that the mistake consistently made by liberals (and I am one—no surprise) is that—out of fairness and decency and some vague idea of the universal civility of the human race—we always go out of our way to give the leaders of the other side credit. We assume their opposing beliefs are born of actual philosophies, theories and deeply felt convictions, when, very often, these people are not borne up by any such serious underpinning. They are just bad men and women. Men of greed, selfishness, chicanery, anger and festering contempt.

The rent-hiking man whose kicks out the decades-old, family-run dry cleaner that the community loves and depends on, in hopes of a big payday; the developer who skirts laws and regulations and ignores community outcry; the incumbent who aggressively knocks challengers off the ballot; the candidate who pours corporate contributions into his coffers and swears if won't effect his judgment or voting; the man who circumvents public referendums in order to retain his grip on power; the man who represents one neighborhood, but lives in another, cushier one; the man who destroys the cultural legacy of a neighborhood in order to make a buck; the men who halt state governing until their personal needs are met—these, and many more, are not men with legitimate, but divergent points of view. They are villains. They are assholes. They have no beliefs. They do have a motivation, though, and they see it ever morning when they look in the mirror.

I'll let Restless take it from here:

Half of all people tend toward being assholes. (Proved beyond doubt when this spoiled democracy RE-elected George Bush Jr.) It has always been so, and always will be. Humanity comes from nature, which spreads risk through Chance, delivering a potential asshole each time the coin flipped at conception lands tails.

Technology helps assholes amplify their effects on others. (Proved by the existence of cable "news" networks, car alarms & chirpers, Wall St. CDOs and high-speed trading, etc.) That is the double-edged nature of knowledge; it can expand your reach and even save your life, until assholes get their hands on it.

Every year it becomes more obvious that the world is split between those who are curious and seek meaning, because they love life, and those who find meaning in their brutal ability to dominate, because they hate life and people in particular.

They sneer at empathy; the only time they're willing to stand in someone else's shoes is after they've blown the wearer to smithereens.

They sneer at "regulations" -- the tedious details of Law put in place to balance the interests of the diverse individuals who make up society.

They sneer because all those sissified niceties just get in their way.

They play the political game just to get inside and poison government, then society -- spreading the ignorance, hate and cynicism that consumes and distracts the pitchfork crowd long enough to let the assholes keep on stealing until they've trucked everything away, right down to the pipes.

You thought these assholes would go away when Obama won? They will never go away. Looked at in the most positive way possible, they are our "worse half," conniving brutes installed by nature's random balancing act to test us, to help keep our critical judgment lean, sharp and clear eyed for the long voyage ahead.

Dutch Bikes Will Be Here Soon!

One big reason to get excited about autumn: The Dutch Bikes are coming.

Started Sept. 8—and commencing with the 400th anniversary of the Henry Hudson’s landing in New York City—400 bright orange, Batavus bicycles will be made available to New Yorkers, courtesy of the government of the Netherlands.

The Dutch bicycles will be made available to the public at a special bike sharing event Sept. 8-12; the New Island Festival on Governors Island Sept. 10-20; and the start of New York’s Harbor District on Sept 13. 120 bikes are adult-sized, the rest medium and small. I, personally, can't wait.

This Week on Lost City

Mary the Crossing Guard Remembered; Third Street, Third Street and More Third Street; Carroll Gardens Bike Thieves Tried to Steal My Bike; The Graffiti of 190 Bowery Celebrated; Brad Lander Is a Sneaky Snake.

Carroll Street Stop May Lose Station Agent

Public Advocate candidate Bill DeBlasio has sent out a letter alerting Carroll Gardeners that the station agent booth at the Carroll Street Station on the F line may be closed.

Dear Neighbors,

Recently we learned of the potential closing of the Station Agent booth
at the President Street entrance to the Carroll Street F train stop.
If this booth is closed, it will be a detriment to the neighborhood.
Carroll Street has a high volume of ridership, which will only increase
once the Smith-9th Streets stop will be closed as part of the Culver El
Viaduct Project. Carroll Gardens and its surrounding neighborhoods
need these agents to ensure the efficient operation of the station.
Please join in our support of the project by signing our petition:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/CarrollStreetAgents.

I have sent a letter to the MTA request[ing] the station remain open. We
look forward to working with all of you to keep this necessary resource
in our neighborhood.

Sincerely,

Bill de Blasio

This is kind of amazing, given the heavy ridership this station receives.

Nice of De Blasio to alert us. I still wouldn't vote for him. But nice.

Lost City to Guest Blog on Curbed Network Next Week

For the third August running, I'm happy to say I'll be a guest blogger next week over at the estimable, brave and powerful Curbed network, so look for my postings on Curbed, Eater and Racked. They'll also be some traffic here at the home site, if my brain doesn't overheat and I don't get carpal tunnel syndrome.

Some Stuff That's Interesting

Not everyone's falling for Bloomberg's con. Certainly not District Council 37, the largest union of city government workers. "He's arrogant," they said. Well, yeah. [NY Times]

The six-way race to succeed Councilman Bill DeBlasio (my Brooklyn district) has gotten slimy. Brad Lander's campaign has taken the low road by trying to make an issue of the fact that opponent Josh Skaller, his biggest rival, sends his kid son, who has special needs, to a private school. “I have pointed out that I am the only public-school parent in the Democratic primary, but I have never questioned or attacked any of the other candidates for their choices, and never said a word about anyone’s family,” Lander told The Brooklyn Paper. “It is simply false.” However, folks who have had direct contact with the Lander campaign know that the candidate's people have been trying to make hay of this issue for some time. [Brooklyn Paper]

Bloomberg has killed small business during his reign. [Queens Crap]

Di Fara's Dom DeMarco really look like what he looks like. [Slice]

Now that's a stove. [Scouting NY]

A variety of New York skylines. [Architakes]

The characters on "Mad Men," set in the 1960s in NYC, apparently are drinking with historical accuracy. [NY Times]

Vertical Sign

I like this large vertical sign on the building that holds Cobble Hill's Book Court. It reminds me of the way stores used to advertise their presence in the past.

But Why the Huge Flagpole?

The origins of this post began with an innocent-enough question: "Why does 135 Bowery have such a big flagpole protruding from its facade?" It looks like it could hold a whopper of an Old Glory, though it's un-used at present.

I thought a little research might uncover whether a particularly patriotic business once occupied the three story, dormer-windowed building. And hot dog!, but some wild times went down at 135 Bowery over the years.

Roundabout 1881, one Gottfried Walbaum, known to the authorities as "Dutch Fred," ran a "gambling house and dive" at 135 called, with amusing cynicism, the Red, White and Blue. Walbaum was a gambling king who later built the Guttenberg Race Track, which, if you believe the papers, brought degradation to Hudson County.

Walbaum must have had his gambling den on an upper floor, because around the same time, and for many decades, the address was the place of business for the more law-abiding William H. Wilson, who made hats for volunteer fireman. Wilson grew up and lived his life around the Bowery and was a respected figure. In the late 19th century, when some were thinking of changing the name of the street to Parkhurst Avenue in order to improve the Bowery's reputation, he said to a reporter, "I think, for my part, you could find worse men and tougher men on Sixth Avenue to-day than ever frequented the Bowery. The modern fellows are not so eccentric in their dress as our old rounders used to be, but they have not nearly as keen a sense of what is fair as they used to have."

The Pig & Whistle, a well-known, 19th-century tavern, was next door at 131 all these years.

The building of Walbaum and Wilson was replaced by a new one in 1900. But that doesn't mean the fun stopped. Seemed the people who lived at the address were always being hauled in by the cops for such offenses as stealing from a church. In 1921, two young tuffs tried to rob a jewelry store that was located there. The left-handed owner Henry H. Edson reacted by grabbing his gun and firing back. The "swarthy-skinned, undersized robbers" fled.

In 1943, George Somarindyck Gill, who had owned the property for 75 years, finally sold it. It was recently sold again, in December 2007, to First American International Bank.

That's a lot of history. Doesn't explain the flagpole, though.

Hank's Saloon—Health House

Lowdown Boerum Hill dive Hank's Saloon is putting its second floor to good use as a billboard. For Health House. Nice synchronicity. You can ruin your health on the first floor and then get instruction on how to restore it on the second floor.

Sorry about the crappiness of the photo. I was on the bus. And it was raining.

More on 42 Third Place

Of all the things I blogged about on my "Positively Third Street" day on Tuesday, the item on the unsightly growth atop the Carroll Garden's brownstone 42 Third Place received the most attention. So I decided to revisit the property.

Built in 1910, the owners got the go-ahead from the Department of Building to added two extra floors back in April 2008. Since then, there have been plenty of official complaints and violations, including charges of unsafe scaffolding, the new floors not being equipped with proper ventilation, a lack of safety netting, and work continuing when a Stop Work order was in place. Not much work has taken place since May.

One reader wrote in, saying "But there are brownstones just down the block just as tall. Are they all inappropriate?" I checked out the block. It's mostly two-and-a-half story brownstones. There are a few that go up an extra story. But this is the only building that goes up as high as it does on the block. Another reader suggested that the new Carroll Gardens downsizing wouldn't prevent this sort of building, as I had said, since 42 Third Place is under 50 feet. Maybe so. It's hard for me to judge 50 feet with my eye.