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Saturday, June 16, 2007

Civic Calendar

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

No sleep ’til Beasties!

Music: This just in: The Beastie Boys will be playing the McCarren Pool in Williamsburg on Aug. 9! The pioneering hip-hop trio is best known in these parts for the 1987 single “No Sleep ’til Brooklyn” — and Adam Yauch is a borough native who went to Brooklyn Friends school Downtown and Edward R. Murrow High School in Midwood. Comment.

Family calendar

Parenting: All the great ways to keep your kids entertained this weekend. Comment.

Murray’s poem walk

Downtown: Call us crazy, but we kinda expected Bill Murray to be, you know, funny. But, alas, he wasn’t cracking jokes during the 12th annual “Poetry Walk” across the Brooklyn Bridge this week. Comment.

Slope to Shaya: Fix J.J. Byrne Park now

Park Slope: The local community board wants the city to deny developer Shaya Boymelgreen a key permit until he fixes a park damaged during construction of his Novo condo. Comment.

Kid solves mystery

Sebastiaan Vonk, the 14-year-old whose quest to find the family of World War II hero Lawrence Shea was documented in The Brooklyn Paper in January, has finally linked up with Shea’s American descendents and gotten what he really craved: Shea’s story. Comment.

Sheemy’s Boot Camp Challenge

Our classified salesman Adam El-Sheemy is undertaking the “Boot Camp Challenge,” a grueling, thrice-weekly workout regimen set up by two personal trainers. Every week, he’ll give us an update on how he’s doing. Here is how he fared during week two. Comment.

Limp, Forrest, limp! Ridge man makes it that extra mile — or 70.

Bay Ridge: They may have talked the talk, but could they walk the walk? Two aspiring travel writers tried to walk all 150 miles of New York City — but only one survived. He’s from Bay Ridge, of course. Comment.

Armory plan advances?

Park Slope: Workers are indeed putting the finishing touches on a $16-million renovation of the Park Slope Armory — but that doesn’t mean neighbors will be lifting weights and running laps any time soon. Comment.

Slim hope for rezoning Carroll Gardens quickly

Rezoning: Tempers flared this week as Carroll Gardens residents argued over how best to control “overdevelopment” in the neighborhood. Comments (1).

Dyker Heights house is now one for the ages

Bay Ridge: A college thesis has finally made history: Dyker Heights’s famed “Saitta House” has made it to the National Register of Historic Places — thanks to a New York University medical student who did his college thesis on the neighborhood’s under-appreciated history. Comment.

Beaten by girls then offended by Paper

Letters: Lots of mail about our coverage of Prospect Heights’ “tween bandits,” ugly buildings on Fourth Avenue, the resignation of a Community Board 6 member, Rudy Giuliani and, of course, the Nathan’s hot dog-eating contest. Comments (1).

Paulie battlin’ it for Brooklyn

Bay Ridge: Readers may remember the last time Bensonhurst’s Paulie Malignaggi was in a title bout: he ended up on the receiving end of a hook from Miguel Cotto and on our front page under the headline, “Duck, Paulie, duck!” Comment.

‘Sopranos’ fan waits for Tony

Heights Lowdown: Our columnist imagines Tony Soprano doing business in Brooklyn Heights. Comment.

Cleanliness and godliness

Park Slope: Doing the lord’s work took on a new meaning as a massive antique chandelier at Park Slope’s Old First Reformed Church was scrubbed for the first time in 12 years. Comment.

Marty’s happy & gay

Politics: For once, Borough President Markowitz wasn’t the biggest personality in the room. Markowitz hosted celebrity impersonator Howie V. Cher (left) and transgender beauty Clover Honey (impersonating Mae West, right) to usher in this year’s Brooklyn Pride festivities. Comment.

The Chabadnik-ing of DUMBO

Downtown: DUMBO’s only yeshiva has closed — but there’s no Jewish Exodus going on; the yeshiva’s founders are about to open a community center nearby. Comment.

Jazz hands

Nightlife: Brooklyn Burger Bar starts cookin’ with a new jazz night. Comment.

Nab Hook’s last feral dog

Carroll Gardens: The last feral dog along the changing Red Hook waterfront has been caught, signaling the end of wild times on Ikea’s new home turf. Comment.

A brutal push and rob on Polhemus Pl

Park Slope: A woman walking near her Polhemus Place home late on June 6 was pushed to the ground and had her bag stolen, cops said — and all the other crime news from the Slope. Comment.

Two women mugged by their pal

Fort Greene: Two women were robbed by a male friend on June 3 after he dropped them off at the corner of Park Avenue and Cumberland Street at around 5 pm — plus all the other crime from Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. Comment.

Crossing the Hudson

Carroll Gardens: Detectives got to take a field trip last week — and this collar was certainly worth the gas money. Comment.

Why I’m staying on my local CB

PS … I Love You: Our columnist decides to stay on Community Board 6, despite the turmoil. Here’s why. Comment.

Unlucky man robbed twice in one week

Downtown: Talk about a bad week: A 22-year-old Brooklyn man suffered a string of bad luck when he was held up twice in four days, police said — plus all the other crime news from Downtown, DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights. Comment.

Clyde & Clyde strike at a bar in Bay Ridge

Bay Ridge: Two thieves steal the cash box from a Fifth Avenue bar — plus all the other crime news from Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst. Comment.

Yes we Cannes

Cinema: GO Brooklyn heads to France to check in on DUMBO producers. Comment.

All drawn out

Cartoon: Our cartoonist’s take. Comment.

Slope wants gay nups

Park Slope: Shocker of the week: Park Slope’s community board wants gay marriage to be legal. A public hearing held by Community Board 6 at Park Slope United Methodist Church last Monday ended with the unanimous passage of a resolution in favor of Gov. Spitzer’s bill to grant marriage licenses regardless of gender. Comment.

Daily News loves Brooklyn, too

Yellow Hooker: The Daily News comes to Bay Ridge for a listening tour — but our columnist thinks there’s a better hometown paper (hint: it’s the one you’re reading right now). Comment.

After-baby bod

Fitness: Pilates for Park Slope moms. Comment.

Educators must learn a lesson

Greene Acres: Our columnist wonders why Department of Education officials can’t learn the simplest lesson of schooling: talk to the parents! Comment.

Brooklyn loves its Hook tacos

Brooklyn South: An army travels on its stomach — so, naturally, do the papusa partisans who support the Red Hook food vendors. Comment.

Dinner with family, and The Sopranos

Perspective: Our columnist decodes the final episode of “The Sopranos.” Whaddyagonnado? Comment.

Yassky: More biodiesel

Downtown: A Brooklyn Heights councilman wants every building in the city to be partially powered by the stuff that comes out of the fryer at your local diner by 2009. Comment.

Art in the family

Art: No kidding, parents and teens join forces for photo show in Sunset Park. Comment.

Mob war in ’Hurst? Yaawwwn.

Bay Ridge: Funny thing about life: More people were interested in the finale of “The Sopranos” than the possibility of a real life mob war going on in Bensonhurst. Comments (2).

Fossella reveals the ‘hole’ truth

Bay Ridge: Rep. Vito Fossella caught a huge break at his press conference about security lapses at a Bay Ridge fuel pipeline: a hole in the supposedly secure fence! Comment.

Mean green or good grass? Cadman Plaza Park opens

Downtown: Foes of artificial rubber grass were dealt a resounding blow on Tuesday, when the city’s Parks Commissioner declared Cadman Plaza Park — complete with a new Astroturf playing field and a gorgeous, $2.9-million facelift — officially open. Comment.

‘Lady’ sings the blues

Music: Flatbush’s Ladybug Transistor buzzes in Brooklyn. Comment.

The tricycle thief

Fort Greene: A Fort Greene chef, wielding a pan full of olive oil, chased an adult-tricycle thief on Sunday, sparking a madcap manhunt, a tricycle-car crash, and the rescue of a neighborhood icon. Comments (2).

They’re the champs: Squad from shuttered gym go on to win it all

The Fire Department closed their gym as unsafe, but that didn’t stop a team of young Brooklyn athletes from winning a statewide championship this month. Comment.

Arcade’s fire

Music: Performance artist Penny Arcade and pals say forget LES, Brooklyn is more. Comment.

Label Conscious

Dining: Everybody’s stuck on Brooklyn Label. Comment.

Flaming bar on market: Site for sale, but Hank’s will stay

Downtown: A building housing a legendary, century-old Atlantic Avenue bar that was once so popular with Mohawk Indian ironworkers that it became an informal union hall is for sale. Comment.

Yvette says no to Dick

Politics: Vice President Dick Cheney must be impeached for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” a Brooklyn lawmaker charged last week, joining an elite group of seven members of Congress calling for Veep’s firing. Comment.

Look for union label: Pols rally against Downtown hotel project

Downtown plan: Protesters and elected officials rallied last Friday in Downtown to protest the use of non-union labor in the construction of twin hotels. Comment.

He felt good

Fort Greene: The late, great Godfather of Soul’s doppelganger, Black Velvet, charmed Fort Greene’s silver-haired set with a sex-charged, early bird luncheon and performance of James Brown tunes at the Masonic Temple in Fort Greene on June 6. Comments (1).

Tex message

Dining: Mexicali has a chile summer in Cobble Hill. Comment.

Pricey slice! Piece of pizza soaring towards $3

Carroll Gardens: It’s the beginning of the end: A slice of pizza has hit $2.30 in Carroll Gardens — and the shop’s owner says it’s “just a matter of time” before a perfect storm of soaring cheese prices and higher fuel costs hit Brooklyn with the ultimate insult: the $3 slice. Comment.

Baby bandit! Sunset Parker aids orphaned raccoon

Park Slope: The raccoon invasion continues! Now a woman in Sunset Park is feeding one with a baby bottle! And we have the pictures to prove it. Comment.

Chimichanga Chuck!

Carroll Gardens: Sen. Chuck Schumer ate his way into the fight to save the Red Hook food vendors, grabbing some delicacies last Saturday and saying the city should abandon a plan to sell the group’s vending permits on the open market — a scheme that many believe will lead to higher permit fees for the mom and pop vendors and competition from deep-pocketed corporations. Comment.

Bush-where?

Nightlife: No matter what you call it, the new Bushwick is definitely hot. Comment.

Fourth Avenue rising right

Editorial: Grabbing a beer on the new Fourth Avenue provides an object lesson in the difference between good development and bad development. Comment.

Public school is best because she’s broke

Smartmom: Smartmom has always been a strong believer in public schools — so no wonder she gets angry when friends leave PS 321 for the supposedly greener pastures of private school. Comments (1).

Victim of bike theft says racks aren’t safe

Ever wonder whether the rack you just locked your bike on is secure? Well, wonder no more. It isn’t. A Boerum Hill woman found that out the hard way this week. Comment.

Bloomy to host fundraiser for Marty

Politics: Breaking news! Mayor Bloomberg will host a fundraiser for term-limited Borough President — and mayoral hopeful — Marty Markowitz in his Upper East Side townhouse next week, The Brooklyn Paper has learned. Comment.
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