Valentine's Day red shopping cart awaiting the big day. (Photo submitted by anonymous reader)
It was dawn a few weeks ago when someone snapped me still sleeping on the front lawn of this house near East 19th Street & Avenue W.
With sleep still in my eyes, I barely managed to ask the person why my picture was being taken. When she told me that I was going to be featured in Sheepshead Bites as a misplaced shopping cart, I was all for it. Just wish I had some time to wash my face. A couple of weeks passed by and I was not to be seen anywhere near Sheepshead Bites.
So, here’s Valentine’s Day around the corner and who should show up on the blog? That’s right. Little ol’ Red. I’m all dressed up for the romantic holiday, but got no one to roll around with. I could use a little companionship. Anyone know another shopping cart looking for some Red hot love?
Months after the location looked furnished, Siberian Health at 1408 Avenue X (between East 14th Street and East 15th Street) is finally open. The sign says Siberian Health will sell organic products and cosmetics, but when we stopped in late last week it wasn’t quite what we expected. Instead of a fully-stocked storefront, it was a large empty space with a few desks. When we talked with an employee, he said it’s the American branch of a Russian-based business. From the looks of things, they either do business-to-business, or use the door-to-door model like Avon. It wasn’t quite clear when we asked the employee. Regardless, good luck, Siberian Health.
When a resident of East 19th Street first began complaining to us – months ago – about the graffiti here, we shrugged it off. We figured, “This is New York City, there’s always going to be graffiti. You just gotta report it and remove it, like everyone else does.”
When the resident continued to complain, saying the vandals were targeting homes, we thought it was weird and worth checking out. But we got caught up in other things and never went to take photos.
To that resident, we’re sorry. Very, very sorry. You’ve sent us these photos and shocked us. Then we went to take a walk of our own and saw even more graffiti, including on residential property. We dropped the ball on this one.
But we’re not the only ones. I’ve seen the way the the police handle your complaints at meetings. They have the same reaction we initially had. But it’s obvious that East 19th Street between Avenue X and Avenue W has a higher level of graffiti and vandalism than surrounding blocks. It could be because it’s not particularly well lit, and the United States Post Office sorting facility, the auto repair shop, and the apartment building prove to be appealing canvases.
Whatever the case, police officers ought to be making more frequent night patrols down the block and local leaders should work with the business owners to install security lights. This is preventable.
More photos after the jump.
“The truth is out there” may have been Fox Mulder’s motto, but it’s one the Sheepshead Bites staff will have to adopt as well.
On February 1, 1998, Sheepshead Bay resident and UFO enthusiast Alex Cavallari witnessed something he had no doubt been waiting for: Mr. Cavallari had a sighting. Yet just over a decade later, the case and the witness has all but disappeared.
Mr. Cavallari described the object as a “small orange/red colored light dot in the Eastern sky” over Nostrand Avenue, near Avenue X. Capturing it on his 35mm camera, he described it as being the size of a “basketball when viewed at arm’s length” and “appeared to be a solid mass of light.”
Read more about Cavallari’s UFO sighting, his sudden disappearance, and Sheepshead Bites’ hunt to get to the truth
This afternoon, sometime around 3:30 p.m., a tan minivan collided with a silver minivan in front Sheepshead Bay High School.
One witness said that he was looking out the window at the moment when the cars collided, and he immediately came out to the sidewalk. He had said this to say about the accident: “This brown car, he went to go pull a u-turn and he crashed into him while he was coming down the street.” When asked if he thought there was any speeding involved, he said, “Nah, there was no speeding.”
Emergency response workers could be seen carefully removing an injured male victim from the tan minivan. Minutes later, he was placed on a stretcher and taken away in an ambulance. It is not known if there are any others injured in the crash.
There was police presence at spot where the crash occurred. The street did not appear to be closed to traffic, as cars could be seen passing near the injured person as he was being lifted into the ambulance.
It's a miracle! Common sense prevails in DOT sign changes at Bassett Deli
Way back in October we told you about the bad sign situation in front of Bassett Deli and Caterers on Avenue X and East 14th Street. At the time, the “Stop Sign Ahead” caution blocked the “Alternate Side Parking” sign, causing many customers to become victims of the city’s agressive ticket policies. Police stalked the intersection, waiting for unwitting violators.
Well, no longer. Local drivers and customers at Bassett Deli and Caterers won’t be victimized by this ghost sign anymore.
Early Thanksgiving week, workers from the Department of Transportation arrived to make adjustments. According to Frank Bassett, owner of the neighborhood institution, DOT sought to swap their positions, so the alternate side parking sign blocked the stop sign ahead. But an employee of the deli with a little more common sense came out and suggested that they put both signs on one post. In an amazing instance of bureaucratic clarity, they listened! They’ve removed one pole entirely, and both signs are finally equally visible. Continue Reading »
Last week, when the identity of lower Manhattan’s Sad Panda was revealed in documentarian Michelle Tay’s video, it reminded us of hungry pandas and our local panda food supply. Most of you may know that the black-and-white bears like to eat the shoots, leaves, and crunchy stalks of bamboo plants and in Sheepshead Bay, we appear to have our very own supply.
It’s not the first time that we’ve been reminded of pandas and bamboo. This January, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington. D.C. said that their resident pandas’ food supply of fresh bamboo was dangerously low, and they issued a request for bamboo from private supplies. At the time, we almost called the zoo to alert them to all the bamboo at the intersection of Avenue X and East 16th Street. Continue Reading »
The photo above shows a large amount of Autumn leaves collected on East 19 Street between Avenue X and Avenue Y. In the late afternoon of Thursday, November 5, 2009 many of the car owners have already moved their vehicles in preparation of the alternate side of the street cleaning rule that prohibits parking from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.
The following picture was taken Friday, November 6, 2009 at about 10:30 a.m., before cars even had a chance to rush into some of the spots. It’s quite apparent that no street cleaning truck came by during the designated hours, because the leaves from the day before are still there.
It is quite a common occurrence to see the streets remain unswept. Meanwhile, residents who need a parking spot are forced to go scrambling or risk a swift ticket slapped on their cars at 8:31 a.m.
Over at The Alternate Side Parking Reader, blogger MJN is busy tracking his/her parking adventures around an even more remote part of New York City — the Rockaways. With the city’s many annoying and nightmarish parking regulations, we could probably turn Sheepshead Bites into a similar site documenting residents’ complaints about how car owners are being penalized for simply owning a vehicle. Fortunately or unfortunately, we have many other things to complain and brag about.
Let’s hear from you, readers: Should the NYC Department of Transportation turn over a new leaf and abolish Alternate Side of the Street Parking rules or would you prefer for them to continue cleaning up (your wallets, that is)?
This photograph of Halloween decor in the front yard of a house on Ocean Avenue is an open invitation for children who are looking for treats. Was this the same house where YiaYia and Papou made milk and cookies available with the hugs and kisses?
Have a safe and happy time Trick-or-Treating, cruise-partying, sitting on the dock of the bay when going clubbing, or electioneering — whatever is your fancy!
Like the lovebird characters from Grease, Danny and Sandy (and friends), sang in “We Go Together” – we shopping carts go together, too.
We stay behind this apartment building at Avenue V and East 19th Street. The super at this building is a pretty nice guy. He says that many of the tenants in the building abandon us here and he really doesn’t know where to put us. He just lets anyone take us, if they so desire. Like yesterday. We had to say goodbye to four of our comrades.
When a couple of people came to take our friends away, we started making some noise: “Chang chang ah chang-it-ty chang shoo-bop.” Not even our loud clanging was able to deter them and no matter how hard we stuck together, we still managed to lose a few of our own.
In memory of our friends, we sang all the way into the night:
We go together like
Ra-ma la-ma la-ma ka ding-a da
ding-de dong
Remembered forever as
Shoo-bop sha wad-da wad-da
yip-pi-ty boom de boom
So long, our Shopping Cart Friends, we will remember you forever.
(Lyrics courtesy of TSRocks)
