Page 1: This week’s print version of The Brooklyn Paper is yet another collector’s edition, featuring exclusives (like Mike McLaughlin’s story on Long Island College Hospital), great news stories (like Sarah Portlock’s story about a smokey new hotel Downtown) and all the other features (Smartmom! Calendars! Police blotters!) that you get every week in Brooklyn’s real newspaper. Keep hustlin’, Brooklyn!

A jarring reminder of a dead biker

By Ben Muessig

Don Wiss

Mean Streets: The scene of a biker’s death has become macabre memorial — a lasting reminder of the mean streets that claimed his life. Comments (1).

Bring the noize! Big rap party on Heights pier

By Sarah Portlock

Bridge ‘Park’: Pier 3 along the Brooklyn Heights waterfront will play host to a massive block party on Saturday night — but residents in the quiet hilltop community nearby are already complaining about the noise. Comment.

Wave goodbye to ‘park’ walkways

By Mike McLaughlin

Bridge ‘Park’: A key — and much-hyped — design element of the proposed Brooklyn Bridge Park development that would have created Boardwalk-like promenades over the East River has been quietly abandoned by state officials who deemed it harmful to aquatic life. Comments (5).

Team coverage: The 2nd presidential debate!

Politics: On Tuesday night, tens of millions of Americans watched the second presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. With that many people engaged in something so big, you can be sure that The Brooklyn Paper’s “Best Community Newspaper Political Team in the Whole Darn Business” was out on the beat, watching the debate, too. Here is our exclusive full-team coverage. Comment.

A winning vision for Grand Army Plaza

By Sarah Portlock

Mean Streets: The public has spoken: Grand Army Plaza should be completely transformed to once again connect it to Prospect Park, bury Flatbush Avenue underneath a land bridge, and make pedestrians, not cars, the dominant users. Comments (1).

LICH cash woes came on so quickly

By Mike McLaughlin

Cobble Hill: A 2006 audit of the Cobble Hill hospital was rosy. Twelve months later, the scenario was dire. Is the hospital’s management company being straight with us? Comment.

Let go my momo

By Mike McLaughlin

Dining: So a Tibetan restaurant has opened in Ditmas Park, prompting at least one important question: What is Tibetan food? Comment.

Feliz viaje!

By Evan Gardner

Event: It’s the end of the vine for Feliz Red. The popular red table wine — a 2005 vintage created exclusively by Park Slope liquor store Red, White and Bubbly — has sold out. Your last chance to get a bottle is this Thursday. Comment.

B-I-N-G-O!

By Sarah Portlock

Event: When the economy tanks, what else is there to do but play Bingo? That’s how Spencer Rothschild explained the new “Bingo Night” at his popular Barrio restaurant on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. Comments (1).

‘Railway’ history no longer underground

By Sarah Portlock

Downtown plan: At long last, Brooklyn will soon get its own Abolition trail, thanks to a just-announced $3-million project to commemorate the borough’s rich history in the battle against slavery. Comment.

Not ‘Murder Ave’ for pedestrians

By Mike McLaughlin

Mean Streets: Merchants and pedestrians on Myrtle Avenue are calling for the city to fix a hazardous stretch that forces straphangers to straddle a narrow median between two lanes of traffic while they wait for buses. Comment.

Nu Hotel’s growing pains

By Sarah Portlock

Downtown: Overnight residents at the Nu Hotel on Smith Street are dealing with two unwanted guests: bus exhaust and unwanted guests. Comments (2).

They’re Dugan it!

By Evan Gardner

Brooklyn Heights: Ice-cream socializing. Comment.

Our exclusive family calendar

By Susan Rosenthal Jay

Parenting: Here it is: All the fun you could be having with you and your kids. Comments (2).

Civic calendar

Event: All the local events you should be going to. Comment.

Brooklyn Daily: Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008

Spiked! Lee won’t make movies, just ads, in DUMBO

By Sarah Portlock

DUMBO: It turns out that filmmaker Spike Lee will not be making Hollywood magic in DUMBO after all. Comments (1).

Why are people living in the Novo condos?

By Sarah Portlock

The Brooklyn Paper / Kristen Joy Watts

Park Slope: How did developer Shaya Boymelgreen get away with commandeering a city park? Well, the city let him, that’s how. Comments (3).

A salt of the earth!

By Sarah Portlock

Finally, we have proof: The New York City Waterfalls is a tree-killing monster! Comments (2).

It’s Mike’s 1-year anniversary! A video tribute

Podcast: Senior Reporter Mike McLaughlin is marking his one-year anniversary at The Brooklyn Paper today, Oct. 8. In this exclusive video, he looks back on the great stories he covered with his boss, Editor Gersh Kuntzman. With video … Comment.

Here they are — your Police Blotters

Link: If it’s Wednesday, it’s Police Blotter day on BrooklynPaper.com. Find your neighborhood below or click the link above to get a full list.

This stabbing is vicious

By Ben Muessig

Williamsburg: A mugging was nearly fatal when a vicious crook stabbed a 26-year-old woman with a steak knife so roughly that the blade broke off inside her on Oct. 2. Comments (2).

Meet the new farmers

By Ben Muessig

Vox Pop: A Saturday Greenmarket is blooming in Bay Ridge, offering grocery-starved neighbors a satiating solace after the shuttering of a beloved Key Food. Here’s a breakdown of the farmers and food purveyors who will be hawking their wares at the corner of Third Avenue and 95th Street from 8 am until 5 pm every Saturday until December. Comments (1).

Baking it up for Barack

By Christina Long

Park Slope: Brooklyn backed Barack by baking brownies. Comments (1).

Brooklyn Daily: Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008

Brooklyn leads fight over Bloomy power grab!

By Mike McLaughlin

Politics: Brownstone Brooklyn pols in city and state government are on the front lines of the battle to stop Mayor Bloomberg from getting a third term — but their motives might have as much to do with their own political ambition as it does with civic virtue. Comments (5).

BBQ on the BQE

By Evan Gardner

Chad Gayle

Mean Streets: Traffic was finally back to normal this morning, almost 18 hours after a truck exploded in a collision in the Queens-bound lanes on the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway underneath Columbia Heights. Comment.

It’s fare game

By Mike McLaughlin

Dining: The proof is in the pupusa for a beloved Latino food vendor from Red Hook Park whose simple snacks may be named the best street food in the city next week. Comment.

Brooklyn goes two the dogs

By Evan Gardner and Christina Long

Dining: Meet two men of meat. Comments (2).

Smartmom does some babysitting

By Louise Crawford

Smartmom: If it’s Tuesday, it’s Smartmom day on BrooklynPaper.com. This week, everyone’s favorite Park Slope mom finds herself traumatized about the prospect of babysitting for her 4-year-old niece. Comments (1).

Save the date: DDDB walkathon as Yards looks shaky

By Evan Gardner

Atlantic Yards: The annual walkathon to raise money to fight Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-development is going undercover — under cover of darkness, that is. Comment.

Brooklyn Daily: Monday, Oct. 6, 2008

Merritt’s Monday Minute!

By Merritt Gurley

Art: Our correspondent, Merritt Gurley, headed to DUMBO last week for the Art Under the Bridges festival to figure out the age-old question, “What is art?” Along the way, she meets artists, sees finished work and even licks a salt sculpture. With video … Comments (1).

One cell of a problem

By Ben Muessig

The Brooklyn Paper / Ben Muessig

Bay Ridge: One woman can’t seem to escape Verizon’s cellphone antennas. Comments (6).

Brooklyn Daily: Sunday, Oct. 5, 2008

Palin gets the Brooklyn cheer

By Ben Muessig

Boy, there’s something about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin that Brooklynites want to openly mock. Comment.

Brooklyn Daily: Friday, Oct. 3, 2008

The weekender! Here’s what you should do on Saturday and Sunday

Weekender: Once again, the invaluable Brooklyn Paper is back with some nice tips for this weekend. Keep hustlin’, Brooklyn! Comments (1).

Kids tell Parks to get on ‘board’! Youths want a skateboard park in B’Hill

By Mike McLaughlin

The Brooklyn Paper / Gregory P. Mango

Mean Streets: Skateboarders are leading a push to turn a Boerum Hill park into a sanctuary for their gnarly tricks as an alternative to Brooklyn’s mean streets — but their dreams of “carving up the bowl” aren’t likely to happen unless someone comes up with some big bucks. Comments (2).