By Paulanne Simmons
"Wit," now on stage at Long Island
University’s Downtown Brooklyn campus, is ostensibly about Vivian
Bearing, a 50-year-old professor of 17th-century poetry who is
dying of ovarian cancer; the doctors and nurses who care for
her; and the two major influences in her life, her distant, intellectual
father and the professor who directed her thesis, E.M. Ashford.
Comment
By Paulanne Simmons
The Impact Theatre’s
newest production is Henrik Ibsen’s "The Wild Duck,"
directed by David Greenwood.
Comment
By Tina Barry
Finding a cafe
with small-town flavor has become increasingly difficult with
megagrinders like Starbucks nudging out the competition.
Comment
By Lisa J. Curtis
"Your husband called ... he said to buy anything you want."
Comment
By Paulanne Simmons
The National
Theater of the United States of America has extended its run
of "What’s That on My Head!?!" at DUMBO’s NEST Arts
complex until Feb. 29.
Comment
By Lisa J. Curtis
Whether you’re looking for a last-minute
Valentine’s Day gift for that special guy, or just looking for
a few laughs, actor Steve Schirripa’s latest book, "A Goomba’s
Book of Love" fits the bill.
Comment
By Kevin Filipski
After winning the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for
fiction, Michael Cunningham’s novel "The Hours" became
the basis for 2002’s acclaimed movie version, which not only
starred Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Ed Harris, but also
won Nicole Kidman a Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal
of Virginia Woolf.
Comment
By Tina Barry
On Smith Street, where moderately priced
bistros are the norm, Chestnut, which opened in November, stands
out as an original.
Comment
By Ed Beeson
Time to dust off grandma’s old pasties,
darling. That bawdy and ribald men’s entertainment called burlesque
is back in Brooklyn.
Comment
Development: Skyscrapers
that could top 60 stories would line Flatbush Avenue Extension (at
left, looking south from Tillary Street). Dwarfing the Williamsburgh
[…] Comment
By Jotham Sederstrom
Atlantic Yards: During his State of the Borough address Sunday Borough President Marty
Markowitz touted Brooklyn’s cultural renaissance and future as a
tourism hotspot while reminding an audience of about 500 that its schools
are among the city’s most crowded and its auto-insurance rates among
the nation’s highest.
Comment
By Deborah Kolben
Forget Bloomindales and the Empire State Building.
Comment
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: As the controversy heats up over the construction of a Frank Gehry-designed
village and professional basketball arena in Prospect Heights, there is
one group that apparently stands to benefit — property owners.
Comment
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Call it the “dribble-down” theory, the foundation of “Ratneromics.”
Comment
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: A group of Prospect Heights residents fighting to save their homes from
condemnations that would make way for Bruce Ratner’s Nets arena development
have interviewed a noted civil liberties attorney to take up their cause.
Comment
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Developer Bruce Ratner may have some competition for his planned Nets
arena site, a city councilwoman told Prospect Heights property owners
this week.
Comment
LETTERS
Letters: I am writing in response to Borough President Marty Markowitz’s Jan.
31 letter to the editor published in The Brooklyn Papers.
Comment
LETTERS
Letters: [Brooklyn Papers Editor Neil Sloane] was right to ask what Brooklynites
get out of this massive stadium and adjoining towers [“Brooklyn’s
identity safe without the ‘Jersey Nets,” Jan. 31]. None
of the people who worked on the plan have any connection to the existing
communities, so the only agenda is money, money, money. It’s time
to set an agenda that Brooklyn citizens in adjoining neighborhoods can
get behind. Personally, I’d like to see:
Comment
LETTERS
Letters: I can assure your readers that just about all the development now under
discussion for Downtown Brooklyn and the vicinity will be built. The only
question is whether it will be built in Downtown Brooklyn and the vicinity
— accessible by mass transit to tens of thousands of working people
in need of employment, with any tax revenues going to New York City’s
schools and other services — or on a greenfield site on the suburban
fringe.
Comment
LETTERS
Letters: I loved your editorial on Brooklyn’s identity [“Brooklyn’s
identity safe without the ‘Jersey Nets,” Jan. 31]. I love
Brooklyn for what it is and what it’s not (i.e. Manhattan). I don’t
want to see it become Midtown Manhattan — filled with cars, pollution,
and high-rises buildings. At the same time, I realize the need to improve
some parts of Brooklyn. The questions is, ‘Who gets to decide what
is best for Brooklyn?’
Comment
LETTERS
Letters: I am writing to thank you for your Jan.
31 issue that clearly lays out the massive changes taking place in
Brooklyn. I work with an organization named Brooklyn Vision, founded to
facilitate communication between community organizations and increase
the input that residents have in planning developments that will directly
impact their lives, and the lives of their children and grandchildren.
Comment
LETTERS
Letters: Thank you for your coverage of the Downtown Brooklyn Plan. Your map clearly
shows how much is going on in such a small area of our borough. As a member
of the Traffic & Transportation committee of Community Board 2, I
was saddened to see the Draft EIS for Downtown Brooklyn, submitted by
the Economic Development Corporation.
Comment
LETTERS
Letters: Perfectly timed for the winter holiday season, EDC and co-sponsors sent
to this board a prettily packaged cluster bomb of 22 complex proposals.
To their surprise, this board swept aside much other business, both personal
and civic, to render its study.
Comment
LETTERS
Letters: I find the inability of Community Board 2 to make an effective statement
on the Downtown Brooklyn rezoning proposals [“Mum’s
the word,” Feb. 7] to be an appalling betrayal of the public
trust.
Comment
LETTERS
Letters: The Feb. 7 article headlined “Mum’s
The Word” rightly notes that the Downtown Brooklyn Plan is “the
most complex rezoning plan in city history.” Unfortunately, the lead
agencies, City Planning and the Economic Development Corporation, selected
the plan’s submission date just prior to Christmas and New Year’s,
effectively abbreviating the already scant 60 days available for community
board evaluation.
Comment
LETTERS
Letters: This letter is
in response to Editor Neil Sloane’s column, “CB2
blows it bigtime.”
Comment
LETTERS
Letters: We were shocked to read your paper’s alleged “coverage”
of the recent vote of Community Board 2 on the proposed plans for Downtown
Brooklyn and, in particular, the severe criticism of board member Rachel
Foster.
Comment
LETTERS
Letters: In the last issue, I read your editorial account of the Community Board
2 vote on the proposed plans for Downtown Brooklyn. I was deeply disturbed
at your overly personal and vitriolic attack on board member Rachel Foster.
Not only were your remarks intentionally defamatory (i.e., calling for
Ms. Foster’s resignation), much of what you reported was unsubstantiated.
Comment
LETTERS
Letters: The type of character assassination you have engaged in without checking
your facts or the reliability of your “source” makes it difficult
to take The Brooklyn Papers seriously. The Community Board 2 member, Rachel
Foster, who you describe as “intimidated” and “cowering”
[“CB2 blows it bigtime,”
Feb. 7] is not the same Community Board 2 member Rachel Foster whom I
have known both personally and professionally for 17 years.
Comment
LETTERS
Letters: Your Feb. 7 editorial [“Neil Sloane/CB2
blows it bigtime”] and Deborah Kolben’s article [“Mum’s
the word”] grossly mischaracterize the circumstances of my participation
in the Community Board 2 vote on the Brooklyn development Plan.
Comment
LETTERS
Letters: It is unfortunate and a disservice to the members of Community Board 2
(CB2) and your readers that you were so ill prepared to write the editorial,
“Neil Sloane/ CB2 blows it bigtime,”
that appeared in the Feb. 7 edition of The Brooklyn Papers. Your fact-less
and irresponsible reporting further adds to the misinformation disseminated
by other ill-informed individuals.
Comment