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News archive

Friday, March 28, 2008

Toll Brothers testing the waters

Gowanus: A national real-estate developer best known for luxury suburban homebuilding got a warmer reception at Thursday night’s unveiling of the latest designs for a huge Gowanus project. Comments (4).

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Free for all!

In the spirit of encouraging a free exchange of ideas, The Brooklyn Paper makes this space available to our readers. Comment.

Bridge coming down

Greenpoint: Efforts to preserve Greenpoint’s aging Kosciuszko Bridge crumbled last week, giving the state the green light to repair or replace Brooklyn’s hard-to-spell roadway. Comment.

Civic Calendar

All the important meetings you should be going to. Comment.

Get your Gersh on

Jotham Sederstrom of the New York Daily News was the only reporter with the guts to go mano-a-mano with Brooklyn Paper Editor Gersh Kuntzman on this week’s edition of BCAT’s ”Reporter Roundtable.” Comment.

Doc’s back

Park Slope: Dr. Vasudev Gabbur is back to work at his 13th Street office, a month after he was brutally beaten. Comment.

Coming soon to this old moviehouse

Bensonhurst: The site of the old Marboro Cinema is for sale! Comment.

Congestion pricing: Brooklyn votes

Podcast: Editor Gersh Kuntzman and Senior Reporter Mike McLaughlin give you the inside story on how Brooklyn councilmembers voted on the mayor’s “congestion pricing” plan. See the full story in this week’s Brooklyn Paper! With video … Comments (5).

Fire at Gristedes!

Podcast: Gersh talks with newbie Brooklyn Paper reporter Ben Muessig about the fire at Gristedes on Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights on Tuesday, April 1, 2008. With video … Comments (1).

Family Calendar

Parenting: All the action for you and your kids! Comment.

Smartmom’s tears to flow

Smartmom: Smartmom still isn’t crying over the Oh So Feisty One’s imminent fifth-grade graduation. Oh wait, yes she is! Comment.

Culture shock

Music: “Music off the Walls,” the Brooklyn Philharmonic’s series at the Brooklyn Museum, presents the world premiere of Susan Oetgen’s “Bazm-o-Razm” on Sunday, March 30. Comment.

Greenpoint gun

Williamsburg: An armed thug targeted a man leaving a nightclub on March 22 — plus the rest of the crime news from Williamsburg and Greenpoint’s 94th Precinct. Comment.

Getting a Dell

Williamsburg: A crook broke into a Maujer Street man’s apartment — plus the rest of the crime news from Williamsburg and Bushwick’s 90th Precinct. Comment.

Inside job

Art: There are certain iconic images of Brooklyn: The Manhattan Bridge shot from Front Street in DUMBO or the Wonder Wheel looming over Coney Island. On April 3, Sunset Park native Larry Racioppo will unveil “Brooklyn Interiors,” a show exploring what’s inside Brooklyn landmarks and exposing a side of the borough many have never seen. Comment.

KNIFEPOINT! Cops notice pattern in Billyburg mugs

Williamsburg: Cops have identified a pattern of knifepoint stick-ups in Williamsburg involving a Hispanic man in his late teens or early 20s who follows women, pulls a knife, demands their dough then flees. Comment.

Teenage mugs

Fort Greene: Cops arrested four teen muggers on March 17 — plus the rest of the crime news from Fort Greene and Clinton Hill’s 88th Precinct. Comment.

Cops: Pol’s wife’s attacker is nabbed

Bensonhurst: Police say they have arrested the man who assaulted and tried to kidnap the wife of Councilman Domenic Recchia last week. Comments (1).

Easy burgling

Downtown: A burglar crept into a Montague Street apartment on March 16, stealing two Apple laptops. And the rest of the crime news from Brooklyn Heights, Downtown, Boerum Hill and Dumbo’s 84th Precinct. Comment.

Tasty restaurant gossip

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news. Comment.

Permits not the solution to parking problem

Letters: The mailbag is filled — as always. Comment.

ID theft

Bay Ridge: Police are investigating two cases of identity theft that were reported on March 14. Plus all the crime news from Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights’ 68th Precinct. Comment.

Is arena facing all new review?

Atlantic Yards: Opponents of Atlantic Yards say the ballooning costs of the Frank Gehry-designed basketball arena will require state officials to re-approve the project — but state officials said no. Comment.

Criminal raid

Bensonhurst: A group of three unwanted houseguests raided a 20th Avenue apartment — but the trio was later arrested for beating and robbing the tenant on March 16. Plus all the other crime news from Bensonhurst’s 62nd Precinct. Comment.

Burning down the house — on 12th Street

Park Slope: A man harassed and threatened a woman — and then set fire to the curtains of her 12th Street apartment early on March 22, cops said. Plus all the crime news from Park Slope’s 78th Precinct. Comment.

Jungle love for our gorilla man

Park Slope: Gorillas of the world may not know it, but they owe a huge debt of gratitude to Park Slope accountant Ed Gerstein. Comments (2).

Metal heads

Shopping: On Saturday, March 29, Denise Carbonell and Derek Dominy will open the doors of their new handcrafted wares boutique, Metal and Thread, in Red Hook. Comment.

Jacob Jaffe, former LIU journalism chair, 89

Jacob A. Jaffe, the former chairman of the journalism department at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus, and a leading champion of print journalism, died on March 18. He was 89. Comment.

Janele says ‘cell no’ to tower

Bay Ridge: The battle between Bay Ridge residents and cellphone companies turned political this week, when an assemblywoman announced legislation to keep cellular antennas away from schools. Comments (1).

Just say no

Theater: Give me a real funny production of Aristophanes’s “Lysistrata,” and I’ll laugh until my sides hurt. I am a huge fan of the play, and at last, The Gallery Players deliver the famous anti-war comedy with just the right balance of hope and bawdy fun. Comment.

Meat the press

Books: When you write a book called “The Shameless Carnivore,” you had better serve something meatier than cheese and crackers at the launch party. So when Greenpoint author Scott Gold celebrated the release of his book at the Brooklyn Brewery earlier this month, he served foie gras, duck and a variety of other specialty meats. Comment.

‘Brightest’ star

Music: Shara Worden’s voice vibrated into our consciousness at the Brooklyn Academy of Music earlier this year, when her band, My Brightest Diamond, opened for The National. The uninitiated can catch her on April 2, when the Sunset Park songstress headlines a show at Joe’s Pub in Manhattan before taking off on a European tour. Comment.

Paul’s fare

Music: On Tuesday, April 1, Paul Simon will take the stage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Fort Greene for the first of 15 nights of performances. But some funny things happened on his way to Brooklyn. Here, GO Brooklyn has charted Simon’s progress on a trip that has been 60 years in the making. Comments (2).

All that jazz

Music: Beginning this Saturday, celebrities and emerging musicians alike will play all over the borough in a month-long celebration of Brooklyn’s rich jazz heritage. Comments (1).

South Slope stroller spot

Windsor Terrace: A new Windsor Terrace bar has waded into the ongoing battle over whether kids should join their parents at taverns by siding with the stroller set. Minus the strollers, however. Comment.

Rollergirls!

Bay Ridge: Coney Island doyenne Dianne Carlin — aka Lola Staar — welcomed hundreds to the celeb-studded March 22 opening of her Dreamland roller rink in the Boardwalk home of the long-defunct Child’s Restaurant. Comment.

What’s in a name? Marty says a lot

Kensington: Borough President Markowitz is siding with the descendants of Doris Cohen in their battle to get a Kensington elementary school to retain their mother’s name. Comment.

Historian to take stock of Hts

Brooklyn Heights: A renowned architectural historian has undertaken the gargantuan effort of documenting the history of every single building in the Brooklyn Heights historic district. Comments (1).

Not in their back yard!

Brooklyn Heights: A landlord’s plan to build a parking garage with a rooftop garden in the drab courtyard of the historic Riverside Apartments in parking-starved Brooklyn Heights has been soundly rejected by Community Board 2. Comments (2).

Grin and Behr it

Brooklyn Heights: A century-old Brooklyn Heights mansion that was once a communal home for monks and prostitutes — at different times, of course — has sold for $11 million. Comments (1).

Smith Street’s Doe-zaster!

Boerum Hill: If Smith Street has suddenly started to look like Filth Avenue, there’s a good reason: a nonprofit street-cleaning crew has moved onto dirtier pastures because merchants along the hip commercial strip did not want to pay for their services. Comment.

Unfare! MTA rejects better service

Transit: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority played straphangers for the fool, canceling $30 million in subway and bus improvements that were promised in the wake of the fare increase — an abrupt turnaround from promises made by the state agency earlier this month. Comments (1).

Field test: It’s a tale of two trays

The Brooklyn Paper obtained samples of the new sugar-cane food tray and the old Styrofoam trays and exposed them to a battery of tests at our test kitchen, also known as Front Street Pizza in DUMBO. And the results were clear: Styrofoam may be hated by environmentalists, but the relic has utilitarian advantages over the eco-friendly counterpart. Comments (2).