The nation’s president awarded a medal to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn’s skyline became less sweet after the iconic Domino Sugar sign came down, and a Coney Island woman finally returned home after Hurricane Sandy left her destitute. Month in Review recaps these and other top stories from our print and web editions in August.
Bam on BAM: The world-famous Brooklyn Academy of Music found itself in the spotlight when President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama gave it the coveted National Medal of Arts during a pomp-filled ceremony at the White House. The 153-year-old Brooklyn arts institution has been a stage for the likes of opera star Enrico Caruso, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and ballet great Rudolf Nureyev. Now it is also the bearer of the highest government award given to artists and arts patrons for outstanding contributions to the promotion of national arts.
Sign of times: The iconic Domino Sugar sign in Williamsburg, which marked what was once the world’s largest sugar refinery, was removed temporarily to allow for the site’s mega-development. The construction of several space-age towers of residential, office, and retail space, in addition to a school, is expected to take around 15 years to complete, but preservationists can take heart — the developer says it plans to re-install the historic sign above the main refinery building, which is being spared the wrecking ball.
Welcome back: There was no place like home for Coney Island resident Mildred Davis, a Hurricane Sandy victim making do in a makeshift apartment for two years until Habitat for Humanity came along and repaired her W. 29th Street home as part of its Superstorm Sandy Recovery Program. Big-hearted builders overhauled her first floor and backyard, and installed upgraded appliances and fixtures. Davis couldn’t believe her luck when she saw the remodeled digs: “My mouth dropped open, it was beautiful,” she told us.
Champ of champs: Brownsville-born boxer Danny Jacobs has bragging rights worthy of a true champ. He won the World Boxing Association middleweight championship at the Barclays Center last month, just three years after a grueling bout with cancer. Jacobs, who defeated Australian bruiser Jarrod Fletcher, is the first cancer survivor ever to win a world title, and his victory was made sweeter in front of his cheering, jubilant, hometown crowd.
Pols will be pols: Dueling Democrats took their mud-slinging to new lows in the primary battle for Sheepshead Bay’s Assembly seat, accusing each other of disrespecting the sabbath and trivializing the Holocaust. Challenger Ben Akselrod demanded a judge to invalidate signatures on Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz’s nominating petition, triggering a flurry of subpoenas to the incumbent’s supporters just hours before the sundown start of Shabbat. The late-day warrants were insensitive to observant Jews, who comprise a large portion of the district encompassing Sheepshead Bay, Midwood, Manhattan Beach, Gravesend, and Brighton Beach, said Cymbrowitz (D–Sheepshead Bay). Akselrod then referenced a news article in which Cymbrowitz invoked the Holocaust to defend his spending of campaign funds at a souvenir shop in Munich.
Chopped meat: Commercial big beefs are axing out neighborhood butchers, claimed the owners of Frank and Eddie’s Meat Market before closing their location at Third Avenue and Bay Ridge Parkway after 50 years of cleaving meat cuts for loyal customers. “There’s too much competition,” said Otto Mannarino, who runs Frank and Eddie’s 86th Street shop, which will now carry items previously available only at the Third Avenue shop. “Too many supermarkets are opening in the area.”
Street drama: All of Brooklyn was a stage, and men and women from the Theater for a New City were only payers, as they headed to the sidewalks of Coney Island and Sunset Park to perform free shows for mom, dad, and the kids. The two-day festival offered urban summer relief with innovative offerings, including an operetta called “The World Takes a Selfie.”
Dumping ground: Sheepshead Bay’s battle against overflowing trash cans won’t be solved until locals stop dumping household garbage in street bins, said Councilman Chaim Deutsch (D–Sheepshead Bay), vowing tougher enforcement against scofflaws. The city agreed to monitor wastebaskets and sock litterbugs with $100 tickets, said the grimefighter.
Treasure island: Thousands of dollars may still be buried at Coney Island beach, after a pair of wealthy do-gooders from San Francisco hid $2,500 in 38 Pez dispensers and scattered them across the sand between the New York Aquarium and Luna Park as part of a scavenger hunt. But the cash-filled candy cases were gone the next day, likely due to city tractors raking and leveling the sand each night, said a spokeswoman for the Parks Department. One lucky treasure hunter dug up some cash on the beach, while our adventure correspondent emerged only with a rusty fishhook and some straight-up trash after his own exhaustive search.
Suds on the Rock: Brooklyn Brewery, the borough’s longest-running brewing company, eyed opening up a factory across the Narrows on Staten Island at a site previously owned by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, which bought it in a failed bid to build a racetrack. An expansion is necessary to keep up with the company’s increasing exports, said brewery owner Steve Hindy, who began his company in upstate Utica, and now has facilities in Williamsburg and Stockholm, Sweden. Staten Island was being considered among a handful of spots around the state, including upstate near Newburgh and near the Newark-port transit hub in New Jersey, said Hindy.
