Williamsburg: There’s a new Gold Rush going on in Brooklyn — but the precious metal isn’t the same one that drove the ’49ers crazy. It’s copper. Comment

The message of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to New York this weekend is one of hope — and hope is just what clergymen are clinging to most in Brooklyn. Shifting demographics, suburban flight, and fierce economic factors have caused many of the Brooklyn Diocese’s parishes to shrink since the last papal visit in 1995. Comment

Politics: Former fugitive, Communist Party presidential candidate and Black Panther Angela Davis is coming to Pratt with a message that racism is “no less overt” than it was 50 years ago. But is it? Comment

Gowanus: The Gowanus Canal doesn’t kill microscopic life forms, it makes them stronger — and that could lead to medical benefits for humans. Comments (1)

Downtown: Now this is a house tour with class: This year’s Brooklyn Heights Association’s journey through some of the neighborhood’s poshest digs includes, for the first time, an inside look at the Hotel Bossert. Comment

Politics: The death of the mayor’s congestion pricing plan has also lead to the killing of the city’s residential parking permit proposal. Comment

Atlantic Yards: The construction of Atlantic Yards project must be halted immediately until developer Bruce Ratner commits — in writing — to building the full state-approved project, three councilmembers demanded this week. Comment

Fashion: The area down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass is known for expensive furniture, coffee table books and a few destination eateries, but as the weather warms, DUMBO is revealing a new side of itself: fashion Mecca. Comments (1)

Rezoning: The city will tweak an arcane zoning rule to restrict the scale of new construction on several blocks of Carroll Gardens. Comment

Downtown: The city has wheeled out a solution to make space at Brooklyn Heights’ overcrowded PS 8 — trailers. Comments (1)

Fashion: The borough’s boutiques are now fully stocked with all you need to maximize your enjoyment of spring and summer. Whether you want to fake a tan or sling some cherry blossoms around your neck, GO Brooklyn has searched the borough for your necessary accessories. Comments (1)

Boerum Hill: Vandalized parking signs near a Boerum Hill school touched off a brouhaha last week over one of the city’s scarcest and most vital resources — parking spots. Comments (4)

Red Hook: To some, Red Hook is best known as a hard-to-get-to neighborhood that prosperity forgot. But it is also the birthplace of America. Comment

Fashion: Fifth Avenue, Bedford Avenue and...Kings Highway? When Steev Eitelberg opened Steev’s West Fourth, a 10,000-square-foot designer clothing emporium, in September, he was the first to bring haute couture to Gravesend, and so far, the gamble is paying off. Comment

Gowanus: Here’s yet another park that’s being proposed for the banks of the Gowanus Canal. Yes, parks along the Gowanus. Comments (1)

Fashion: At the bi-level Urban Outfitters, which opened on Atlantic Avenue last month, summer is already in full swing. Comments (1)

Park Slope: Café Eleven, the Seventh Avenue coffee bar that closed barely three weeks ago after barely a year in existence, will reopen as a wine bar run by the owner of Big Nose Full Body, The Stoop has learned. Comment

Brooklyn South: Local bar-restaurant pioneer Jim Mamary wins his battle with his Hoyt Street neighbors. Our columnist has one word: Good! Comment

Downtown: Is the end near for state Sen. Marty Connor? The Brooklyn Heights Democrat’s hopes for a 16th term are looking shakier than ever, thanks to a few good weeks for challenger Daniel Squadron. On Sunday, Sen. Charles Schumer came to Brooklyn Heights to endorse Squadron, calling his former staffer “one of the smartest, most able people I know.” Comment

Park Slope: A brazen thief pulled a gun on a woman on Degraw Street in the middle of the day on April 11 and mugged her for her iPhone and $5,000, cops said. Plus all the other crime news from Park Slope’s 78th Precinct. Comment

Dining: As kosher kitchens busy themselves in preparation for Passover, the Center for Kosher Culinary Arts in Midwood is on hiatus for a few weeks — so they were able to kibbitz with GO Brooklyn about Passover food trends. Comment

Fort Greene: A man beat up an employee of a Carlton Avenue bodega who had tried to stop a 10-year old shoplifter on April 10. Plus all the crime news from Fort Greene and Clinton Hill’s 88th Precinct. Comments (1)

Williamsburg: A would-be car thief turned violent when police arrived on April 8 at the corner of Morgan Avenue and Beadel Street. Plus all the other crime news from Williamsburg and Greenpoint’s 94th Precinct. Comments (1)

Downtown: A burglar sneaked into a Willow Street apartment and stole a cornucopia of jewelry and electronics from the four female inhabitants on April 7. Plus all the crime news from Brooklyn Heights, Downtown, DUMBO and Boerum Hill’s 84th Precinct. Comment

Williamsburg: Knives are still in style among Williamsburg muggers, as at least three crooks used blades to intimidate and slash their victims. Comment

Carroll Gardens: A boy was robbed of his cellphone by four punks in some after-school misbehavior on West Ninth Street on April 11. Plus all the crime news from Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and Red Hook’s 76th Precinct. Comment

Williamsburg: An extreme crook jacked the skateboard from a 13-year-old on April 9, but cops ended the four-wheeled joyride the next day. Plus all the crime news from Williamsburg and Bushwick’s 90th Precinct. Comment

Books: In the decade that she lived in Red Hook, Maureen McNeil collected plenty of stories about the neighborhood — it was the mid 1980s, after all — and on Saturday, April 12, she celebrated the release of “Red Hook Stories,” a book comprised of them. Comment

Quakers will rise from the dead this summer in the center of Prospect Park — and you’re invited to watch. Comment

Bensonhurst: A man had his West 11th Street home robbed of cash, jewelry and clothing while he was at work on April 10. Plus all the other crime news from Bensonhurst’s 62nd Precinct. Comment

Bay Ridge: Two men cornered and robbed a teenager at gunpoint on 83rd Street on April 3. Plus all the other crime news from Bay Ridge’s 68th Precinct. Comments (1)

Breaking Chews: We’re dishing up Brooklyn’s latest food news! Comment

Williamsburg: Plenty of people recycle, but how many recycle their clothing? Today at the Green Arts on Grand Street Community Awareness Project’s Earth Day celebration, everything from hats and shoes to dresses and bedding — not to mention household electronics — can be dropped off and recycled. Comment

Cobble Hill: To be or not to be? Shakespeare’s Sister, a Cobble Hill gift shop, has gone with the latter and will close this month after a 15-year run. Comments (1)

Williamsburg–Greenpoint Waterfront: A weed-strewn parking lot on the border of Greenpoint and Williamsburg will bloom with a lush waterfront area, a cutting-edge building topped with a slanted lawn and a playing field under the latest city plan to create a world-class waterfront park. Comments (1)

Fort Greene: The city will turn a stretch of DeKalb Avenue in Fort Greene into a safe haven for cyclists, sacrificing parking in an effort to calm the hectic throughway. Comments (2)

Podcast: His broken ankle finally healed, Editor Gersh Kuntzman is back on his bike, riding into work for the first time on Tuesday, April 22, 2008. How’s the ankle? Watch the podcast. Comment

Podcast: Vice president Dick Cheney will be in the city today, April 21, 2008, to endorse Rep. Vito Fossella (R–Bay Ridge) for a sixth term. Will it help? Ben Muessig has the answer. Comments (1)

Podcast: There’s a disaster in The Brooklyn Paper newsroom: The coffee maker is broken. Comments (1)

Prospect Heights: The city says it will pull off a rare win-win-win for all the various users of Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights. Comment

Bay Ridge: The Brooklyn Public Library has turned a page for Bay Ridge readers last week, doubling temporary service at a library branch undergoing two years of renovations. Comment

All the tidbits from your neighborhood. Comment

All the important meetings you should be going to. Comment

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