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News archive

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Free for all!

In the spirit of encouraging a free exchange of ideas, The Brooklyn Paper makes this space available to our readers. Comments (2).

McCain walks the walk in Bay Ridge drop by

Bay Ridge: Likely GOP nominee John McCain stopped by Bay Ridge on Thursday to talk politics and have a slice of pizza without sauce! With video … Comments (2).

I paid $3 for this coffee!

Brooklyn Angle: Finally, a place to get a $3 cup of coffee on Fourth Avenue! Comment.

Family Calendar

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

Civic Calendar

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

Paper toasts Rubinstein

The staff of The Brooklyn Paper bid farewell to veteran reporter Dana Rubinstein on April 1 at the 4th Avenue Pub in Park Slope, where Editor Gersh Kuntzman, a longtime Rubinstein mentor, gave the keynote address. Comment.

Showing their medal

Bay Ridge: Bay Ridge came out in force to honor its cops last week, paying special tribute to 51 officers who performed outstanding police work in 2007. Comment.

DUMBO meets its farmer

DUMBO: DUMBO residents came out in bunches on Tuesday to meet the husband-and-wife team that will be selling them fresh organic produce all summer long, thanks to the neighborhood’s new Community Supported Agriculture program. Comment.

DUMBO on the range!

Podcast: Brooklyn Paper Editor Gersh Kuntzman gets the low down on Tom Otterman’s new art installation on DUMBO’s grassy knoll! With video … Comments (1).

All drawn out

Cartoon: Our artist’s take on the issues of the day! Comment.

Ikea’s opening day!

Podcast: Brooklyn Paper senior reporter Mike McLaughlin has the scoop: Ikea’s Red Hook store will open early — on June 15, 2008. With video … Comment.

Doll house

Art: In a small Prospect Heights community center, 31 artists have come together to create a new neighborhood — populated entirely by handmade dolls. Comment.

Readers: What are kids doing in bars, anyway?

Letters: The mailbag is filled with missives about our ongoing kids-in-bars coverage; our recent story about pet adoptions; our humorous “field test” of new biodegradable lunch trays; a Prospect Lefferts Gardens development; the death of Bertha, the sand tiger shark; and the failure of a plan to but a power plant on the Williamsburg waterfront. Comment.

Path to victory in Billyburg

Williamsburg: Pedal-pushers in Williamsburg and Greenpoint are taking a victory lap to celebrate the approval of a bike path that would convert a dangerous truck route along Kent Avenue into a safe haven for cyclists. Comment.

Eye ‘Candy’

TV: For Jennifer Dzuira, stand-up comedy is no joke. After three years of running “Monday Night Stand-Up,” a live comedy show at Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg, she’s reaching even more neighborhoods through television. Now, every Tuesday at midnight the show airs on BCAT. Comment.

Cut Ratner off

Editorial: He’s already getting $2 billion in public subsidies — and now Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner “wants more”? The Paper’s Editorial Board offers a handy place to put that request. Comments (2).

Homework havoc at home

PS … I Love You: Our columnist confronts the homework menace. Comment.

Bank rob

Bensonhurst: Two 86th Street banks were robbed within days of each other last week, leaving similar clues that may link the two to the same robber. Plus all the crime news from Bensonhurst’s 62nd Precinct. Comment.

NABBED! Burglars caught in the act on Flushing Avenue

Williamsburg: Cops interrupted the burglary of a Flushing Avenue sneaker store on April 1, arresting one half of a criminal team that was suspected of robbing the shop of $40,000 of merchandise in January. Comment.

Abut a boy

Bay Ridge: Three men robbed a teenager on April 3 — plus all the other crime news from Bay Ridge’s 68th Precinct. Comments (1).

Say ‘spahhh’

Spa: Those suffering from dull complexions, aching muscles and tattered toenails should stop and make and appointment — now! It’s Spa Week again, and 11 Brooklyn pampering emporiums are offering several services for the rock bottom price of 50 bucks, from April 14 through April 20. Comment.

Men down!

Fort Greene: Shots rang out in the early morning of April 6, dropping two men to the cold pavement. Plus all the other crime news from Fort Greene and Clinton Hill’s 88th Precinct. Comment.

Photo-graft

Williamsburg: A man in a business suit stealthily snatched more than $13,000 of photo equipment from a photographer during an April 1 shoot at a wedding hall on Ross Street. Plus all the crime news from Williamsburg and Bushwick’s 90th Precinct. Comment.

Two banks are robbed two days apart

Downtown: Thieves plundered two Downtown Brooklyn banks in separate incidents last week. Plus all the crime news from Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO, Boerum Hill and Downtown’s 84th Precinct. Comment.

She’s got legs

Carroll Gardens: An employee at a national retailer on Smith Street couldn’t stop a woman from stealing a pair of leggings on April 4 because she had some brawny backup. Plus all the crime news from Red Hook, Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill’s 76th Precinct. Comment.

Twisted his leg

Greenpoint: A hoodlum turned his victim into a contortionist on March 21, twisting a 54-year-old man’s leg until it broke — but the injured man got one measure of relief when his alleged tormentor was later collared. Plus all the crime news from Williamsburg and Greenpoint’s 94th Precinct. Comment.

Blackberry bandits

Prospect Heights: A 24-year-old woman battled three other women who were attempting to rob her mobile devices on Vanderbilt Avenue on April 6. Plus all the other crime news from Prospect Heights’ 77th Precinct. Comment.

Catching the ‘Flea’

Vox Pop: Hundreds of shoppers flocked to the April 6 grand opening of the Brooklyn Flea — a 200-vendor gathering in the yard at the Bishop Loughlin HS on Lafayette Avenue. Here’s what they told GO Brooklyn they found. Comment.

Smartmom outsmarts Skenazy

Smartmom: It’s a parenting columnist smackdown: Our Smartmom vs. Lenore Skenazy of the New York Sun. Comments (1).

Beet down

Park Slope: A customer at a trendy Thai restaurant on Seventh Avenue had her purse stolen off the back of her chair when she wasn’t looking on April 4. Plus all the other crime news from Park Slope’s 78th Precinct. Comment.

Checking in with … Christian culture chronicler Daniel Radosh

Checkin’ in with: The Windsor Terrace writer has a new book out — and he talks to The Brooklyn Paper about being Jewish yet writing about Christian pop culture. Comments (2).

Mission accomplished? Cops remove DUMBO watchtower

DUMBO: After peering down on DUMBO for 14 days, cops removed their lookout tower, leaving the low-crime community wondering why police put the watchtower on Front Street in the place. Comments (1).

‘Walworth’ your time

Theater: When GO Brooklyn reached playwright Enda Walsh, he was at home in London and had just finished watching an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” The 41-year-old Irishman is the author of “The Walworth Farce,” which will make its U.S. debut at St. Ann’s Warehouse in DUMBO on April 15, but despite being a serious playwright, he was still floored by Larry David’s antics. “It’s so good,” he said. “That’s perfect farce.” Comment.

Ridge to city: Cut out curb cuts

Bay Ridge: Residents of parking-starved Bay Ridge are calling on the city to close a loophole that allows property owners to pave over their front yards to make driveways. Comments (3).

‘Hotel’ check in

Nightlife: With its unconventional entrance — an unmarked door on a side street — and frosted front windows, you could easily pass by Hotel Delmano, the latest impossibly hip new bar to grace Williamsburg. Comment.

Jamie is queen of swag

Atlantic Yards: Bruce Ratner got the award, but Borough President Markowitz’s wife got the goods. Comment.

Memory lane

Nightlife: The stars were all visible “Under African Skies” on April 9, when the Brooklyn Academy of Music hosted a gala to honor Paul Simon, who performed a concert by the same name — part of a month-long series entitled “Love in Hard Times.” Comments (1).

Knish upon a star

Dining: “Yiddish food is the Rodney Dangerfield of cuisine,” said Park Slope cookbook author Arthur Schwartz. “It doesn’t get any respect.” With the release of his newest book, “Arthur Schwartz’s Jewish Home Cooking,” the Marine Park native is hoping to change all that. Comments (1).

Hung jury on plans for Court St.

Carroll Gardens: A developer’s plan to build one of the tallest buildings on Court Street in Carroll Gardens was assailed last week for clashing with the neighborhood’s low-rise architectural landscape. Comments (1).

It’s a wrap: Filmmaker Spike Lee’s Fort Greene HQ for sale

Fort Greene: You know development is out of control when even acclaimed local filmmaker Spike Lee feels squeezed by rising rents. Comment.

Houses for hipsters

Williamsburg: Buying homes isn’t just for the stuffy, old and rich anymore. But if you’re young, artsy, cool and fashionable — in short, a hipster — you still need help. One broker is offering it — in bars! Comment.

‘Amber’ alert! Arts group to sue

Fort Greene: Three entrepreneurs who invested millions to turn a derelict Fort Greene building into a music hall and art space — only to be told that the building would be demolished to make way for a city-sponsored art space — have sued the city for $10 million. Comments (1).

Big box for Shore Pkwy

Bensonhurst: A discount wholesaler might give Costco some competition when it anchors a seaside shopping center along Shore Parkway in Bensonhurst. Comment.

The Gowanus hotel craze

Gowanus: Yet another would-be hotel is set to rise in what has turned out to be very fertile soil around the messy Gowanus Canal. Comments (1).

Evicted artists return from ‘matzoh brawl’

Williamsburg: After three months of sleeping on their friends’ couches, the evicted artists of 475 Kent Ave. are finally back to doing what they do best: putting on an art show. Comment.

Ridge super in cease fire

Bay Ridge: Bay Ridge’s crabbiest super is finally ready to take his yearlong war with his tenants outside. Comments (2).

For St. Francis College, a new prez, a new plan

The incoming president of St. Francis College hasn’t even taken office yet — but he’s already planning to add Master’s programs and dorms at the commuter college in Brooklyn Heights. Comment.

Gristedes pharmacy reopens after fire

Brooklyn Heights: The Word is that the Almighty created the heavens and the earth in six days — but an even greater miracle has occurred on Henry Street: the pharmacy at the Gristedes supermarket re-opened just three days after an electrical fire almost completely destroyed the store. Comment.

Red Hook will be Brooklyn’s Napa Valley

Red Hook: Bordeaux. Napa. Chianti. Brooklyn? The borough may never be mentioned in the same breath as such formidable winemaking regions, but for now, Brooklyn oenophiles are buzzed about the arrival of a winery in Red Hook. Comments (1).