By Sarah Portlock
DUMBO: A local community board resoundingly approved a controversial plan on Wednesday night for an 18-story building that opponents say would forever ruin views of the fabled Brooklyn Bridge, but supporters say will bring a much-needed public middle school and affordable housing to DUMBO.
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Link: Another classic issue! But why wait until our print version is in your hands when you can read it all right now? Click below for our exclusive stories on Brooklyn’s upcoming economic bust, V-J Day in Downtown, Marty Markowitz’s sudden decision that Atlantic Yards is no longer “feasible” and all the features, arts, listings and columns you expect from The Brooklyn Paper, Brooklyn’s real newspaper for 30 years. Keep hustlin’, Brooklyn!
By Evan Gardner
Event: The borough that gave Barack Obama eight out of every 10 votes in November is ready to get down and party on Inauguration Day.
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Editorial: Our editorial board says that the new calls to cut costs at Atlantic Yards are par for the course for developer Bruce Ratner: promise the stars, shoot for the moon, get state officials to approve the clouds, then build a project that barely gets off the ground.
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By Zeke Faux
Art: Artist Crit Streed is literally putting herself on a pedestal with her new project.
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By Ben Muessig
Development: It’s the beginning of the end. Housing prices remained strong in Brownstone Brooklyn, but a huge drop in the number of sales might herald real estate doom, experts said.
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By Mike McLaughlin
Coney Island: The Manhattan-based the Municipal Arts Society asked the public for its ideas for Coney Island. Here’s what you came up with.
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By Sarah Portlock
Downtown plan: The economy may be in trouble, but it hasn’t slowed down the city’s plans to build a Bryant Park–style park in Downtown.
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By Sarah Portlock
Parenting: A Brooklyn Heights restaurant has gone from kid-loving to kid-charging overnight, proving once again that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
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By Ben Muessig
Music: Mumiy Troll, the seminal Soviet-era rock group, is undergoing a musical Glasnost.
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By Mike McLaughlin
Theater: The borough’s pre-eminent playwrights, from still-living legend Budd Schulberg (“On the Waterfront”) to comic David Lindsay-Abaire (“Fuddy Meers”), will be featured in their own series, starting next Saturday.
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Letters: The mailbag is filled as usual with letters. See what readers are saying about, among other things, our coverage of Atlantic Yards.
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By Sarah Portlock
Nightlife: Fans of the adventure drama “Lost” looking for a premiere party next Wednesday need look no further than the Bell House, where a recap rock band will get fans up to speed.
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By Ben Muessig
Breaking Chews: It’s a great time to be a North Brooklyn foodie. Two new restaurants have opened in as many weeks, bringing fresh eats to the burgeoning culinary scenes in Williamsburg and Greenpoint.
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By Ben Muessig
Mean Streets: Get this: the chairwoman of a key North Brooklyn transportation panel was booted from her position because she attempted to correct a factual inaccuracy in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (of all places).
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Parenting: The Brooklyn Paper’s roundup of summer camps for your kids.
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By Susan Rosenthal Jay
Parenting: All the fun you could be having with your kids.
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All the community meetings you should be going to.
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By Gersh Kuntzman
Gehry Partners
Atlantic Yards: Borough President Markowitz, one of Bruce Ratner’s staunchest allies, dropped a bombshell on Tuesday, saying that the $1-billion basketball arena at the heart of Atlantic Yards is no longer “economically feasible” and that Ratner and state officials need to give the expensive design “a second look” so that the structure can actually get built.
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By Mike McLaughlin
Red Hook: Ikea has again slashed its free ferry and shuttle bus service, citing declining use of the complimentary transit by shoppers to its Red Hook megastore.
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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.
By Zeke Faux
Park Slope: A gang of teens assaulted an 11-year-old on Monday — the latest in a string of after-school muggings in J.J. Byrne Park.
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By Sarah Portlock
DUMBO: DUMBO is about to get stoned — restoned, that is.
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By Gersh Kuntzman
DUMBO: Our podcast team is on another big story — this time, icy conditions at a DUMBO intersection.
With video … Comments (1).
By Evan Gardner
Even the Brooklyn Cyclones are taking advantage of the most anticipated presidential inaugural in decades.
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By Ben Muessig
Williamsburg: A teenager goes wild on Jan. 5 on the Southside of Williamsburg.
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By Thurston Dooley III
Dooley Noted: The world’s foremost authority on puppetry and mime reviews “Sleeping Beauty” at Puppetworks.
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By Louise Crawford
Smartmom: If it’s Tuesday, it must be Smartmom day at BrooklynPaper.com. This week, Smartmom says she’s not worried about the Great Depression of 2009 — because living on less has been her lifestyle for years.
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By Zeke Faux
Event: OK, Readings on the Fourth Floor — quite possibly the only elementary-school fundraiser frequented by the Giants of American Letters — is still raising money to buy dead-tree-based books. But on Jan. 21, the Park Slope school’s annual series will feature authors who write about sustainability.
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By Gersh Kuntzman
Coney Island: A Web site created by Coney Island landowner Joe Sitt to herald “the future of Coney Island” is now an adult-only site that hawks “the best porn on the Net.”
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By Ben Muessig
Bay Ridge: The conflict in Gaza is flaring up in Bay Ridge.
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By Sarah Portlock
Dining: Owners of the proposed Brooklyn Heights Wine Bar cleared their first hurdle on Wednesday night when Community Board 2’s health, environment and social services committee voted to approve proprietor Mark Lahm’s liquor license application.
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By Sarah Portlock
Beyer Blinder Belle
DUMBO: Opponents of a controversial 18-story residential building and public middle school rallied on Sunday morning in hopes of blocking a building that they say will forever block views of the historic Brooklyn Bridge.
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By The Brooklyn Paper
Podcast: Finally: one-stop-browsing on the Web. Every Brooklyn story is just one click away, thanks to The Brooklyn Paper’s new “Brooklyn Wire” service.
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Weekender: Once again, the invaluable Brooklyn Paper is back with some nice tips for this weekend. Keep hustlin’, Brooklyn!
With video … Comment.
By Mike McLaughlin
Coney Island: The iconic, cartoonish Coney Island Rocket was removed from its long time perch atop a fast-food stand in Astroland on Tuesday as part of the dismantling of the theme park that went out of business last fall.
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By The Brooklyn Paper Smash or Trash team
Smash or Trash: The Brooklyn Paper’s Smash or Trash team is back — this time “reviewing” Brooklyn singer-songwriter Jessie Killguss’s new hit, “Gristmill,” in advance of her Jan. 17 show at Rose Live Music [345 Grand St., between Havemeyer Street and the BQE in Williamsburg, (718) 599-0069]. Brooklyn Paper poohbah Gersh Kuntzman executes a coup over the rest of the team in this very special “Smash or Trash.”
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By Gersh Kuntzman
Dining: No, you actually have never had a good cup of coffee — yet. But that’s all going to change once Stumptown Coffee Roasters — the brew that made Portland famous — opens its new roasting facility in Red Hook next month.
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By Sarah Portlock and Zeke Faux
Transit: Buried deep in the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s proposed budget cuts are suggestions to close part-time and several full-time service booths — a move that could save the $10.8-billion agency millions, but could also compromise safety of its passengers by depriving riders of another set of eyes and ears late at night.
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By Ben Muessig
Bay Ridge: Two would-be Bay Ridge Republican stars are gearing up for this fall’s Council race against incumbent Vince Gentile (D–Bay Ridge).
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