By Gersh Kuntzman
Politics: The first-term Park Slope Democrat was one of just nine members of Congress who last week voted against House resolution 847, a symbolic bill that, among other things, acknowledged “the international religious and historical importance of Christmas and the Christian faith.”
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In the spirit of encouraging a free exchange of ideas, The Brooklyn Paper makes this space available to our readers.
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By Susan Rosenthal Jay
Parenting: All the action for you and your kids!
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All the important meetings you should be going to.
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By Gersh Kuntzman
Downtown: Court officers and other mourners lined Sidney Place and steps of the Church of St. Charles Borromeo in Brooklyn Heights at last Wednesday’s funeral for Bill Gallagher, who died on his 70th birthday, Dec. 3, after a lifetime in the criminal justice system. Gallagher worked in the state’s court system since 1977, most recently as the system’s inspector general.
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By Leon Freilich
Park Slope: The poet laureate of Park Slope weighs in again.
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By Dana Rubinstein
Fort Greene: Buy your holiday gifts at the Habana Outpost crafts fair.
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By Mike McLaughlin
Bay Ridge: Police are looking for this man in connection with three burglaries at chain restaurants in Dyker Heights between Nov. 3 and 24.
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By Wendy Ponte
PS … I Love You: Our columnist offers a timeless tale of Christmas heroism.
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By Adam F. Hutton
Williamsburg Waterfront: The developer who wants to build 2,200 units of luxury housing on the Domino Sugar refinery site just north of the Williamsburg Bridge is using its “affordable housing” component — about 660 of the new units — to promote the project in the community.
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By Noah Zuss
Bay Ridge: A long-awaited junior golf course on unused land at Dyker Beach Park is on schedule for completion and will be ready for play by next June.
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Letters: Letters pour in regarding a Hanukkah snub; the loss of the Brooklyn Dodgers; an allegation of an anti-Italian bias in The Brooklyn Paper; how to keep our streets safe; Bruce Ratner’s new tower at City Tech; security at Atlantic Yards; poor bus service in Brooklyn; Smartmom’s column; and the limits of Paper Editor Gersh Kuntzman’s intelligence.
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By Louise Crawford
Smartmom: Hepcat makes latkes the old-fashioned way: He improvises. And therein lies a great life lesson!
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By Adam Rathe
Everyone’s heard war stories, but until you’ve seen the Brooklyn Historical Society’s “In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn Vietnam Veterans,” which opened on Dec. 14, you haven’t really heard anything.
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By Adam F. Hutton
Williamsburg: Police arrested a 34-year-old man for robbing a man on Dec. 4 after threatening him, “I know exactly where you live so don’t call the police.” Plus all the other crime news from Williamsburg and Bushwick’s 90th Precinct.
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By Adam F. Hutton
Williamsburg: A notorious 16-story apartment project on North Eighth Street that has been holding steady at 10 stories for seven months was cleared for takeoff this week.
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By Adam Rathe
Dining: Just like Hanukkah gelt and Christmas cookies, madeira wines are a hard-to-resist holiday sweet — as the Greene Grape will demonstrate at an upcoming tasting.
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By Mike McLaughlin
Carroll Gardens: A break-in nets that ultimate gizmo: an iPhone. Plus all the other crime from Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill’s 76th Precinct.
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By Harry Cheadle
Fort Greene: An enraged video store customer locked the store’s owner in a closet then emptied his handgun into it — but thankfully, the owner of the Atlantic Avenue store survived the Dec. 8 rampage. Plus all the other crime news from Fort Greene and Clinton Hill’s 88th Precinct.
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By Harry Cheadle
Downtown: Police are hunting for a thief —Â and a would-be thief — who hit banks in Brooklyn Heights and Downtown on consecutive days last week.
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By Adam F. Hutton
Williamsburg Waterfront: The developer planning to transform the long-shuttered Domino Sugar refinery into a vibrant residential community will face increased costs now that the City Council has landmarked three historic buildings on the site — but the company couldn’t be happier.
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By Harry Cheadle
Downtown: A young man minding his own business was stabbed in the chest by a total stranger on Dec. 5. Plus all the other crime news from Brooklyn Heights, Downtown and DUMBOs 84th Precinct.
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By Joe Jordan
Bay Ridge: At least three people had their tires stolen right off their cars last week, cops said. Plus all the crime news from Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge’s 68th Precinct.
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By Michael Giardina
Bay Ridge: A group of knife- and gun-wielding purse-snatchers grabbed a woman’s handbag as she was walking down West Fourth Street on Dec. 6. Plus all the other crime news from Bensonhurst’s 62nd Precinct.
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By Chris Varmus
Music: Former Fugees legend Wyclef Jean popped into the Alligator Lounge in Williamsburg on Dec. 3. Holy Lauryn Hill, Batman!
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By Gersh Kuntzman
Park Slope: Two buildings inside Prospect Park — the Picnic House and the Wollman skating rink — were robbed last week, cops said.
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By Gersh Kuntzman
Park Slope: Two pre-teenagers did the old bump-and-rob to a 60-year-old woman on First Street on Dec. 3, cops said. Plus all the other crime news from Park Slope.
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By Joe Jordan
Bay Ridge: The Christmas decorations at the VA hospital in Dyker Heights may not rival other fanciful displays throughout the neighborhood, but that’s just how the hospital wants it.
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By Joe Jordan
Bay Ridge: Cops have released this sketch of the woman they believe fatally stabbed a man in the Best Western Gregory Hotel last week.
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By Matthew Lysiak
Yellow Hooker: Our columnist explores the world of subway lap dances.
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By Mike McLaughlin
Atlantic Yards: State officials said that the NYPD won’t need to close streets around the Nets arena because police don’t close roadways next to Madison Square Garden on game nights —Â but there’s only one problem with that promise: the NYPD did shut a roadway between the Garden and Penn Plaza after 9-11.
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By Juliana Bunim
Theater: Much like Santa himself, comic storyteller Mike Daisey is bringing Christmas cheer to Brooklyn for one night only, so you had better not pout and you’d better not cry. Here’s why.
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By Mike McLaughlin
Park Slope: Gowanus Canal-area residents say government agencies are selling them down the river by not pushing for a cleanup that will make the fetid waterway safe for swimming.
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By Tom Gilbert
Beside the Point: The stunning conclusion of our “Should Walter O’Malley be in the Hall of Fame” saga.
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By Adam Rathe
Waiting in the Wings: Big news, Shakespeare-loving Trekkies: hairless heartthrob Patrick Stewart (aka Captain Picard from “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) will take the title role in “MacBeth,” which lands at the BAM Harvey Theater on Feb. 12.Â
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By Deirdre Donovan
Theater: Why, at the end of her life, did Russians so sorely neglect the poet Marina Tsvetaeva? That question mary well have sparked the new heart-wrenching work, “The Past is Still Ahead.”
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By Adam F. Hutton
Downtown: The Jehovah’s Witnesses, a major landowner in Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO, have netted a whopping $50 million for the Standish Arms Hotel, a Columbia Heights building that will be turned into luxury rentals, the new owner says.
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By Mike McLaughlin
Park Slope: Yes, you are seeing double. Smith Street and Fifth Avenue are becoming mirror images of one another — thanks to at least half a dozen entrepreneurs opening shops on both streets.
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By Adam Rathe
Dining: In the Columbia Street Waterfront District, Korhogo 126’s French-African fusion hits the spot.
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By Tina Barry
Dining: Tina is taken in by the ‘scruffy’ charm of Park Slope’s Canaille.
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By Dana Rubinstein
Downtown plan: The InterContinental Hotel Group — an extremely high-end chain with lodges from Andorra to Zimbabwe — joined forces with a 25-year-old developer to break ground this week on a $60-million hotel on Duffield Street.
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By Mike McLaughlin
The New York City Hall of Fame (yes, there is one) inducted its freshman class last weekend — and none other than Craig Hammerman, the district manager of Community Board 6, is on the list!
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By Adam Rathe
Dining: What to eat when you’re drinking on the boozy blocks of Fourth Avenue.
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By Dana Rubinstein
Downtown: Scores of Brooklynites rallied on Tuesday to support a plan to tear down a row of historic, yet badly damaged, houses inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard to make room for a supermarket — even as the federal government issued a report declaring that most of the 10 150-year-old mansions can be saved.
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By Gersh Kuntzman
Brooklyn Angle: Four years ago this week, Bruce Ratner unveiled the Atlantic Yards project. That anniversary gives us a chance to revisit whether the developer is living up to his original promises (thank goodness we saved the press kit!).
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Editorial: We always knew that the Atlantic Yards project would afford us many occasions over the next 30 years to say, “We told you so.” But we just didn’t expect to get one so soon.
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By Gersh Kuntzman
Atlantic Yards: Departing Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff took a parting shot at the Atlantic Yards mega-development this week, offering the stunning admission that if the city had to do it all over again, it would have demanded a proper public review of the $4-billion project.
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By Chris Varmus
Nightlife: Park Slope’s Fourth Avenue may never have been the most pedestrian friendly of the borough’s thoroughfares, but that’s quickly changing. The future boulevard now now boasts more than just gas stations and fast food restaurants.
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By Mike McLaughlin
It may be called the F line on transit maps, but you can call it the C-minus train from now on.
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