Politics: Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to charge drivers $8 to enter Downtown Manhattan is an unfair burden on Brooklyn motorists, pols said this week, even as traffic experts said it could ease gridlock throughout the borough. Comment.
Park Slope: A Park Slope lawyer whose throat was slit during a 2004 carjacking in his building’s parking lot has won a multi-million-dollar settlement against the big-time construction company that failed to secure his safety. Comments (1).
Downtown: The owners of the two-story building at Clinton and Remsen streets say they are not ready, just yet, to sell. Their comment only slightly calmed the concern of Brooklyn Heights residents. Comment.
Downtown: Pace University has pulled its 500 students out of a Clark Street dormitory, but the 800-bed facility will likely be busy again when the fall semester starts, experts said. Comment.
Bay Ridge: Twenty-two local roads from Bay Ridge to Bensonhurst will be getting a well-deserved makeover this summer - a tiny fraction of the thoroughfares that deserve the spring cleaning, at least one local official said. Comment.
Fort Greene: Friends and family mourned tattoo artist and model Monica Henk at her funeral last week as cops sought the hit-and-run driver who killed her. Comment.
Downtown: The thief promised he meant no harm, but just needed enough money to buy drugs so he could stop the pain of withdrawal - plus other crime from the 84th Precinct. Comment.
Bay Ridge: A popular clothing store’s display table was looted by thieves who pulled off a bold high-noon heist on April 11 — plus all the other Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst crime. Comment.
Greene Acres: Luxury units in the Forte condos - Fort Greene’s first new residential skyscraper - officially went on the market last week, putting the punctuation mark on the neighborhood’s complete transformation into Brooklyn’s own Upper West Side. Comment.
Brooklyn’s chance of becoming a base for a fleet of tricycle pedicabs was dashed this week when the City Council voted to limit the number of the person-powered vehicles on city streets. Comment.
Letters: One reader blames the victim for her mugging, while another longs for one last photo of Herbie the Hereford - plus the rest of our weekly mailbag. Comment.
Editorial: The two faces of Mayor Bloomberg are again on display. One day, the mayor is one of the nation’s leading advocates of environmentally sound, community-sensitive, sensible development. The next day, he’s a backroom crony greasing the wheels for a developer who ignored the community. Comment.
Carroll Gardens: An ice cream man’s sweet treat melted this week when city officials painted over a special — and illegal — parking space next to a kid-filled Carroll Gardens park. Comment.
Bay Ridge: Commuters in Bay Ridge who want a 12-minute water taxi ride into Manhattan have been left at the dock - and they have Mayor Bloomberg to blame, a local pol charged this week. Comment.
Red Hook: The Brooklyn cruise terminal created just 14 full-time jobs in its first year on the Red Hook waterfront — a whopping 356 short of the number of full-time jobs promised by the city’s Economic Development Corporation. Comment.
Fort Greene: Like adolescents to a compulsively neat parent, two elected officials are trying to reason with the city’s Sanitation Department, arguing that Fort Greene and Clinton Hill do not need twice-a-week street cleaning. Comment.
Fort Greene: Old graduates returned to Brooklyn Technical HS for a reunion last week only to find that the nature of technology has changed since the days when high-tech meant sharing an abacus with a pal. Comment.
Atlantic Yards: Developer Bruce Ratner began demolition of three more buildings within the Atlantic Yards footprint, days after dozens of opponents called for the developer to call off his wrecking ball until pending litigation is resolved. Comment.
Fort Greene: Brooklyn Public Library officials reportedly said this week that their efforts to raise money for a $135-million iconic glass-walled performing arts branch have failed - and that the project can’t go forward at this point. Comment.
Residents of Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill hailed a city plan that would build housing atop the nine-block-long Brooklyn–Queens Expressway trench that divides the neighborhoods from the Columbia Street waterfront. Comment.