SATURDAY • April 24, 2004 Including Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill Paper, Downtown News, DUMBO Paper and Fort Greene-Clinton Hill Paper Published every Saturday by Brooklyn Paper Publications Inc, 55 Washington Street, Suite 624, Brooklyn NY 11201. Phone 718-834-9350 • www.BrooklynPapers.com • © 2004 Brooklyn Paper Publications • 20 pages including GO BROOKLYN • Vol. 27, No. 16 BWN • Saturday, April 24, 2004 • FREE RATNER PAYOFF Developer suggests he’d give victims of eminent domain new homes near arena By Deborah Kolben The Brooklyn Papers NOT JUST NETS • THE NEW BROOKLYN • NOT JUST NETS If you can’t beat ’em, build ’em a new building. being considered for its construc- ner would build a 20,000-seat bas- who would be evicted or otherwise owns a condominium at 24 Sixth Plowing ahead with plans to tion. ketball arena for his recently pur- impacted by construction of his At- Ave., the A.G. Spalding Building, construct a $2.5 billion arena, of- “It’s among the various options chased New Jersey Nets, flanked lantic Yards project. And fewof which would face the wrecking fice and housing complex in Pros- we’re considering at this point,” by four sweeping office towers and them interviewed this week were ball under Ratner’s plans. pect Heights, developer Bruce Rat- Deplasco said. buildings containing 4,500 residen- thrilled with the idea of moving At the same time, Ratner is, ac- ner is now looking to construct a Gehry, in fact, told Newsweek tial units. into one of his buildings.Others de- cording to sources, floating a new new building to house some of the online this week, “Bruce is asking The plan is dependent upon the clined to talk about their discus- plan that would require less use of residents his plan would displace. me to design a new apartment state’s condemnation of more than sions with Ratner. eminent domain. Ratner and architect Frank building for them [neighbors two square blocks of privately “Personally, I would want to According to one official, the Gehry have been in discussions whose apartments might be de- owned property. stay in my home. And if I had no new schematic would save half of about the building, according to stroyed by the complex]. He’s got a For the past several months, Rat- other choice but to move, I would the block between Flatbush and Ratner spokesman Joe Deplasco, specific site nearby.” ner has been going head to head want to move into a home of my Sixth avenues. who said “a number of sites” were As part of the 21-acre plan, Rat- with Prospect Heights residents choice,” said Dan Michaelson, who See RATNER on page 16 / Tom Callan / Tom ‘Designs’ Papers The Brooklyn CB2 sez Attorney Sanford Rubenstein, Vito Avvinti, his wife, Laura, and son Matthew walk past the state Supreme Court building on Court Street in Downtown Brooklyn on their way to the Municipal Building for living to pay the traffic ticket they claim helped kill Avvinti’s father. By Lisa J. Curtis GO Brooklyn Editor ‘No’ to THIS WEEKEND “Brooklyn Designs,” a three-day-long showcase for the borough’s designers and manufacturers of fur- niture, lighting, linens, rugs and decorative acces- New look sories for the home, office and garden, returns to DUMBO on April 30. Walentas And if you liked last year’s event, the first-ever “Brooklyn Designs” show, event organizer Karen Auster says you’ll have 50 percent more reasons to be thrilled this year. for ‘ticket “Last year we had one space and 30 exhibitors,” said Auster. “This year we have two spaces and 46 exhibitors.” building A jury of design editors whittled down the number of ex- hibitors from 100 applicants to 46, but the show still need- ed to expand into a second venue. “We were so pleased with the tremendous quality of all to die’ tape Slams DUMBO plan the submissions,” said Kenneth Adams, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, in a statement. “Many for blocking views of last year’s exhibitors will be returning with their latest Lawyer charges By Jotham Sederstrom The Brooklyn Papers products, and they will be joined by an outstanding mayor & top cop By Deborah Kolben group of newcomers.” A surveillance video ob- The show will be held at St. Ann’s Warehouse The Brooklyn Papers distorted video tained by the family of a Ben- at 38 Water St. and the Brooklyn Designs sonhurst man who suffered a Developer David Walentas has spent the past 20 By the bridges: Stained-glass windows craftsperson Gallery (the former Gale Gates et. al gal- of parking-ticket fatal heart attack after being years building formerly industrial DUMBO into a Nancy Nicholson hosts one of the new booths at this lery) at 37 Main St., said Auster. issued a parking ticket appears residential and commercial neighborhood, but year’s Brooklyn Designs show in DUMBO. See BROOKLYN on page 14 heart attack now the community says he is going too far. to show that two traffic agents saw him clenching his chest Following a public hearing this week, a Community BEGINSPAGE ON 7 Board 2 committee voted down his proposal to construct but did nothing to help him. a 16-story building with 200 apartments at Water and A copy of the 20-minute grocery Dock streets, next to the Brooklyn Bridge. store surveillance video was played “This would destroy the for The Brooklyn Papers by an at- very neighborhood he is torney for the family of Onofrio credited with creating,” said Avvinti, who died 10 minutes after Joan Craig, a resident of the being issued a ticket for double Fulton Ferry Historic Dis- parking outside the Met Foods gro- trict, who is opposed to the cery on 20th Avenue while his wife / Tom Callan / Tom project. shopped. At the hearing, held at The tape appears to contradict Polytechnic University Wed- an interpretation of the video of- nesday night, opponents blast- fered by police and City Hall last ed the proposal claiming it week, which had Avvinti showing was “ill-conceived,” out of signs of suffering only after the traffic agents drove away. Police The Brooklyn Papers File The Brooklyn scale with the existing low- DUMBO’s David Walentas rise buildings, and would cast Commissioner Raymond Kelly shadows on the nearby and Mayor Michael Bloomberg Brooklyn Bridge Park. both said last week that the traffic But chief among the concerns was that the new build- Callan / Tom agents did not appear to be at fault. ing — which would rise at the 38 Water St. site that is Kelly discounted the notion now home to the single-story St. Ann’s Warehouse — that there was reason to believe would obstruct views of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, just the agents knew the man was suf- 70 feet away. fering a heart attack. Bloomberg Jed Walentas, Walentas’ son and a principal in their Papers The Brooklyn charged that the family’s version of the events was inaccurate. Both Two Trees Management company, defended the proposal The Queen Mary 2, the world’s largest ocean liner, cruises past the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor Thursday morning. at the April 21 hearing, explaining that the building said the tape seemed to show would be consistent with the surrounding area. Avvinti loading groceries into the “We try very hard to be good neighbors,” Jed Walen- car after the agents had left. tas said during a presentation to the board. “At no time after getting the Laura Cheng, an architect with Beyer Blinder Belle, ticket before the heart attack was Queen Mary steams past B’klyn Avvinti putting groceries given to the firm that is designing the building, described the Wa- lentas plan as “sympathetic and respectful to the DUM- him by his wife in the trunk of the BO community. By Richard Pyle rived nearly on schedule, just after 8 boats spouting red, white and blue wa- len Smith, of Yorkshire, England, who car,” said attorney Sanford Ruben- But neighbors who attended the meeting disagreed, Associated Press am, after making up time lost to the ter. Earlier, it passed under the Veraz- made the voyage with her two sisters. stein, who is representing the fam- saying they found the proposal disrespectful to the his- The world’s largest ocean liner, fog and to storms during the first two zano Narrows Bridge, which links The docking came 92 years and a ily in a $100 million wrongful week after another New York-bound toric bridge. the Queen Mary 2, steamed into a days of its inaugural trans-Atlantic Bay Ridge and Staten Island, with less death suit, a notice of which they Following a series of impassioned pleas from commu- crossing, which began in Southamp- than 20 feet to spare. British ocean liner, the Titanic, sank filed with the city last week. “In nity members, including representatives of the Brooklyn hazy New York Harbor Thursday, ton, England, last Friday. Passengers stepped ashore on a dock after striking an iceberg on its maiden fact, his wife, after learning her Heights, Fulton Ferry Landing and DUMBO Neighbor- just clearing the Verrazano Nar- Onlookers watched from vantage on Manhattan’s West Side raving about voyage, killing 1,503 people. husband was stricken, ran to his hood associations, the CB2 land use committee voted rows Bridge and stopping near the points in Bay Ridge and Red Hook as the QM2’s amenities, from the art deco The QM2 had no iceberg trouble, aid without groceries.” unanimously, with one abstention, to reject the proposal. Statue of Liberty on the way to its the ship’s arrival was marked by post- styling to computer and dance classes.