FYI! The Citi Bike Docking Station At Carroll And Smith Street In Carroll Gardens Has Been Removed

Well, that is strange! The large Citi Bike docking station next to Carroll Park on Carroll Street at Smith Street here in Carroll Gardens was removed yesterday afternoon. One wonders why, since this location seemed to be well used and located conveniently just half a block from the Carroll Street subway entrance to the F/G train.

The docking station was installed together with others in the fall of 2016, when City Bike expanded into the neighborhood.  

The removal of bikes at a well used location seems odd considering the pandemic, when people might prefer to ride a bike rather than take the subway.

Have other bikes being removed in the area?

If you need to dock a bike nearby, the station on Smith Street near 2nd Place and 3rd Street is still there.

***Update: some readers have informed me that Carroll Street is slated for repaving next week. Hopefully, the station will be reinstalled. Stay tuned.

The Carroll Street docking station on Carroll Street before it was removed.

still there: docking station at Smith Street near 2nd Place and 3rd Street

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People In The Neighborhood: Jerry And His "Bathtub Roses" Of Carroll Street

"You should take a photo of the bathtub roses on Carroll Street," local resident Jerry Maresca told me when he saw me with my camera in Carroll Park last week-end. Intrigued, I asked him to tell me more.  "I planted a tangerine and a yellow rose in an old bathtub I moved  in front of my house years ago.  They are blooming beautiful right now," he explained.
Of course, I asked Jerry if he would show them to me, so he took me to the house which has been in his family since 1927. He proudly showed off his roses, which are, indeed, spectacular.  It made me smile that he had planted plenty of basil to last through the summer amidst the roses.

Jerry also pointed out a lovely pink rose bush in a raised planter in front of the house.  "I bought this one in 1965 for my mother at the A & P on Court Street, where the CVS is now.  It cost $1.29."

Obviously, Jerry has a way with roses, whether they are planted in an old cast iron claw foot tub or directly in the ground.  Thanks for showing them to us, Jerry.

PS: Jerry mentioned that he decorates his front yard tub ever Christmas.  I told him that I took a picture of it last December, which seemed to please hi.m
This is for you, Jerry.

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The Year Long Saga Of An Ever Deepening Pothole On Carroll Street In Carroll Gardens

Carroll Street resident John Verderame pointing out road cave-in on his block.

In the city that prides itself on never sleeping, repair to local infrastructure has a tendency to  progress at a snail's pace. Take for example an ever-widening and deepening pot hole on Carroll Street between Smith and Hoyt Street.
Local residents first noticed a slight indentation in the surface of the road last summer. Several 311 calls were made to report the problem, but no action was taken. By the fall, the depression had become more pronounced and Carroll Street residents called in more complaints.
John Verderame, for one,  kept careful track of all his calls, like this one made on October 22, 2013.

Service Request #: C1-1-901500023
Date Submitted: 10/22/13 1:02:54 PM
Request Type: Street Condition
Details: Cave-in

Your Service Request was closed.

The City inspected the condition you reported and asked the Department of Environmental Protection to address the issue.

Instead of a road crew, the City sent out the Department of Environmental Protection, which visited the two residences on either side of the street near the cave-in to see if perhaps their sewer or water pipes had collapsed and had caused the problem. It was quickly determined that that was not the case. No one seemed to be concerned of the fact that the pot hole was actually right next to a gas connection point.

In the meantime, the roadway near the original pothole started to become more uneven. Again, 311 calls were made and more service requests were filed. To no avail.

This past Sunday, Verderame and a few neighbors stood near the cave-in and noticed a strong smell of gas. They immediately called 911, and two firetrucks arrived immediately. Firemen poked a probe into the front yard of nearby brownstones, but determined that the gas leak was right in the street, right at the pothole. The fireman told local residents that they would refer this matter to National Grid as an EMERGENCY.

Verderame and his neighbors were relieved, imagining that National Grid would take immediate action. Shortly after the firemen left, a truck from National Grid showed up. The crew confirmed that the leak was right at the spot were the cave-in on the road had occurred, and not in someone's house. That was great news.

However, as the crew explained, that would mean that it was no longer deemed an "emergency." As it was explained to John Verderame, a gas leak in the street can wait. National Grid would be back in 6 months to 1 year to fix the problem, he was told.

Residents on the block are stunned. If it will take so long to repair the leak, the pot hole will be even deeper and the problem may take over two years to be addressed. And of course, there is concern about  the leak itself.

The cave-in on Carroll Street is by no means the only problem with crumbling infrastructure in our neighborhood. Just a few weeks ago, I posted photos of a parked SUV that seemed to be getting swallowed by a pothole on Third Avenue in Gowanus.

If you have been trying to get a problem fixed on your block, please share. And tell us how long it took to actually get any results.

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Summer Of 2012 A Very Good Year For Carroll Gardens' Fruit Crops

2012 seems to have been exceptional for fruit-bearing trees around the neighborhood.  You may remember the apricot tree on DeGraw Street that had an over-abundance of fruit. back in June  And now, in early September, there is more evidence that this year's hot summer has produced a bumper crop.
Just look at all the pears ripening on this tree on Carroll Street.  Though it bears fruit every fall, I have never seen so many hanging from its branches.

And look at this fig tree on Second Place at the corner of Court Street.  Quite impressive, no?

Did you have a bumper crop in your neighborhood yard this summer?  How were the tomatoes?

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How Many 311 Calls Does It Take To Get A Pothole Fixed? One Carroll Gardener Is Fed Up

How many 311 phone calls to report a rather large pothole does a citizen need to make before the City does anything about it?  That's what John Verderame wants to know.  Over several months, he has called the Mayor's non-emergency services number at least a dozen times to alert the Department of Transportation about the problem on carroll Street, between Smith and Hoyt Streets.  Instead of action, the hole just keeps on getting deeper. 

Verderame also walked into Assemblywoman Joan Millman's office right around the corner on Smith Street countless times to complain about the hazard. 

Just once did someone from DOT show up to take a look.  The worker took out a can of yellow spray paint and marked the perimeter of the sinkhole.  "So you will come out to fix it?"  Verderame asked hopefully.  The answer was "No."  Apparently, the hole wasn't deep enough to warrant repair...yet. "We have plenty of holes that are bigger than this one" the worker explained.

"How much bigger does it need to get?" Verderame asked me the other day when he saw me.  "I can lay in it."  And to prove his point, he actually did.  "Do you have your camera on you, Ms. Pardon Me For Asking? Take a picture."  So I did.

Let's see if this post and your demonstration will help get a crew out here, John.

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Picture Of The Day: Blue Fence, Red Door

Next to the Carroll Street Bridge

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Update On Gowanus Canal: After High Tide, Water Receding

Just took another walk down to the Gowanus Canal and found quite a few people on the Carroll Street Bridge on this Sunday after the storm.

The water level had gone down since the high tide mark at 8 AM. The owner of The Yard at Carroll on the Canal is checking out the situation. Earlier, his property had been flooded.

Some traces of the flooding are still visible between the trees on the property

The residents of the Satori, the condo building on Bond between Carroll and President obviously took precautions, piling sandbags against the building's front door.

Hope this was enough to prevent flooding in the building.

And last, but not least, as predicted, raw sewage is flooding

into the Gowanus Canal from the sewer overflow pipes.

Pretty disgusting, right?

I wonder how much was dumped into the canal during Irene.

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Carroll Street Mugging Victim Wants Everyone To Be Aware

As many of you have probably already heard, a woman was attacked and robbed on Carroll Street between Hoyt and Bond Streets last week. The incident happened at 7:30 PM when it was still light out. The victim, who would like to stay anonymous, has just sent me an email, describing exactly what happened to her last Thursday. She wants everyone in the neighborhood to know about the incident and to be careful and aware.

She writes:

"I was mugged on Thursday Mar 31 at 730 pm when I was walking down Carroll between Hoyt and Bond . I didn't see them coming but I am pretty sure they came diagonally from across the street. By the time I heard something / saw shadows they were already on me. One guy tried to put me in a choke hold while the other went for my bag. My initial reaction was to pull back my bag and scream for help thinking that there should be people around. I ended up on the ground. The guy that tried to choke me kept trying to put his hand on my mouth saying not to scream. I fought back until the other guy started hitting my head with his fist. At that point I thought they may have a knife (they didn't) and I let my purse go. They then said give us your phone which was in my coat pocket. I had given up and went to get my phone out but then they ran off suddenly. A neighbor had heard me and come out the house from across the street. They left my bag and ran down Carroll making a left on bond. I realized they had stolen my wallet from the bag the next morning after they started with the charges.

It happened right after the scaffolding on Carroll by that tree/fire hydrant. They were 18-25 years old from what i recall and maybe 5'7"-5'9", maybe 160-200 lbs, black/hispanic. Dressed mostly in dark clothing but i don't remember what exactly. They then went to pay rent at the NYC HA and hit Dominos on Smith and Bergen."

The incident is being investigated by the 76th Police Precinct. It is of particular concern that this incident happened so early in the evening. Though that part of Carroll Street is very quiet, this happened just as everyone was coming home from work.

Let's all be a bit more careful.

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When A Section Of President Street Was Secor Place And Carroll Street Was Carroll Place

An 1874 Map of the Gowanus Canal area

Detail of 1874 Map

Union Street between Smith and Hoyt was once called Bergen Street

This section of President Street was Secor Place

The former Carroll Place, now Carroll Street

Second Street was known as Balchen Place

Carroll Gardener and friend Alexandrea is as passionate about the neighborhood's history as I am. Over the years, she has amassed an amazing collection of old photos and maps, which she generously shares often with me and PMFA readers. Recently, Alexandrea and I have emailed back and forth about a map from 1874 that she found of the area along the Gowanus Canal.

Very interestingly, four of the blocks between Smith and Hoyt Streets in our neighborhood had different names than they have today. For those blocks, Union Street was once called Bergen Street, President Street was Secor Place and Carroll Street was actually named Carroll Place. And Second Street, believe it or not, was called Balchen Place.

This new knowledge prompted Alexandrea and me to check historical documents and sure enough, we came across plenty of evidence that these blocks went by those names.

It has even been suggested by some neighborhood old-timers that Carroll Place and Secor Place (President) between Smith and Hoyt, which are close to the once private community garden now known as Carroll Park, were gated.

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when the streets were renamed, but from my search, I would conclude that the switch happened around the time the 1874 map above was printed since the name still appear in newspaper ads at that time. (See the 1875 'for sale' ad below.)

These streets were all laid out on land that belonged to farmer Jacob Bergen, descendant of a Dutch/Norwegian family. (You can read some fascinating Bergen family history here) The area of Bergen's farm was known as Bergen Hill and ran along the Gowanus Canal to Smith Street.

Below are some great information Alexandrea and I stumbled upon when we searched these old street names. I'll post more soon.

And as always, Alexandrea, thanks for sharing your finds with me and with everyone else.

Brooklyn Eagle Archive, November 23, 1854

***Take the time to read the mention of the desirability of the 

proximity to the Gowanus canal in the ad above.

Brooklyn Eagle Archive From 1875

Sales ad for the lot now occupied by #259 Carroll Street

Brooklyn Eagle Archive, March 20, 1875

The J. Bedell mentioned above was the builder of several houses on Carroll Street. 

He had his office on Smith Street.

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