EM up City: Put Middle School in House of D
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The borough is cuckoo for cocoa P.7 Brooklyn’s Real Newspaper BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 834–9350 • Brooklyn, NY • ©2008 AWP/16 pages • Vol. 31, No. 2 • Saturday, Jan. 12, 2008 • FREE EDITOR OF THE YEAR! LOCK ’EM UP City: Put middle school in House of D By Mike McLaughlin the idea, according to people who at- “David’s position has always been The Brooklyn Paper tended the meeting at Borough Hall. that we need a new middle school in the The city wants to open a new Yassky’s support for a jailhouse general Downtown area,” said Sam middle school — in jail. middle school follows his opposition Rockwell, Yassky’s spokesman, adding to a plan by DUMBO developer that the councilman would certainly Developers responded so weakly David Walentas to include a middle consider the school-in-a-jail concept. to a city invitation for ideas for retail school in his proposed Dock Street “It’s bizarre,” said one participant and residential use at the soon-to-re- open Brooklyn House of Detention apartment tower because part of that in the meeting. “Retailers don’t want that the city is now considering put- building might block some views of to be in the building, yet Yassky ting a middle school in the space. the Brooklyn Bridge. would put our kids there?” For months, the city has said it plans to reopen — and double the ca- pacity of — the 11-story, 750-inmate Big House on Atlantic Avenue be- tween Smith Street and Boerum Place. TALE OF THE TAPE But last year, when the city solicit- HOUSE OF DETENTION Institution SCHOOLHOUSE ed bids for ground-floor shops in the infamous holding pen, retailers Convicted criminals, Who’s Children, age 11–14, showed only lukewarm interest. whether they like it or not. inside whether they like it or not Bachner / Jeff Besides the weak response from re- Taxpayer dollars Financing Taxpayer dollars Mindy Huls tailers, only one developer submitted a bid to build a residential tower adja- While awaiting court dates Terms While awaiting high school Our intrepid — and award winning — edi- cent to the soon-to-reopen jail. Callan / Tom tor, Gersh Kuntzman, in Iowa last week. Warden, guy with shiv Who to watch for Principal, bullies As a result, Corrections Commis- Paper The Brooklyn sioner Martin Horn told a group of Sloppy Joe Favorite lunch Sloppy Joe local pols and community activists at Coney beaut SNA tabs Gersh a Jan. 2 meeting that he is consider- Crime doesn’t pay, who your What you learn Reading, writing, how to pop ing housing a new middle school in friends are, and that you on the inside a pimple, and that your par- Miss Cyclone, Angie Pontani, was one of 200 the jail. Paper file The Brooklyn should never try to break out ents are right when they call people at a hearing about the city’s Coney Is- as leader of pack on a rainy day using a gun it “the awkward years.” Councilman David Yassky (D– The Brooklyn House of Detention made out of a bar of soap. land plan — where the main opponent, state The Brooklyn Paper Brooklyn Heights) strongly supported could house a public middle school. Sen. Carl Kruger, was shouted down. Page 6. Just a few months after The Brooklyn Pa- per was named “Newspaper of the Year,” Pa- per Editor Gersh Kuntzman was named “Edi- tor of the Year” by a national newspaper association on Thursday. The Suburban Newspapers of America, which represents nearly 2,400 daily and weekly newspapers in both urban and subur- Pols: Pull Ratner off the trough ban markets, cited Kuntzman as the country’s top weekly editor for providing the “most fo- cused and sharply written coverage” and for property-tax abatement say it has of revenue from cable TV, luxury “good exploratory stories and graphics.” MSG subsidy is little cost the city just under $300 mil- MORE YARDS • Meet the Yards ombudsman boxes and higher ticket prices. On hearing the news, Kuntzman, 42, was lion since 1982. on page 14 • Atlantic Yards quiz show set Meanwhile, opponents have turn- atypically humble. But Yassky pointed out that the ed their attention to the Atlantic Yards arena, which, unlike the Mad- “An editor doesn’t win awards like this city has already allocated $205 mil- why Ratner still gets tax breaks tion passes. Any effort to trim or alone,” he told The Paper’s staff, which had compared to A’Yards lion to help build the proposed At- for his decades-old Metrotech eliminate subsidies to MSG or At- ison Square Garden renovation, gathered in the newsroom. “The only reason I lantic Yards basketball arena, plus complex and both his Atlantic Av- lantic Yards would require ap- will be built with public money. was even nominated is because of the amaz- agreed to tax breaks that will bring enue shopping malls. proval in Albany. The Independent Budget Office ing work everyone here is doing. Now, get By Gersh Kuntzman million-per-year property tax abate- the package to at least $500 million. “He may have needed those The MSG deal was created in said that when its bean counters back to work.” The Brooklyn Paper ment on Monday, Councilmembers “So this is a much worse deal subsidies in the past, but Brooklyn 1982, when the owners of the are- crunch the numbers, MSG’s tax It’s been a pretty good year for The Brook- Letitia James (D–Fort Greene) and A City Council effort to reign than MSG,” he said. “If we are is hot right now, so these subsidies na argued that if they didn’t get break is greater than the $140 mil- lyn Paper. In August, The Paper was named David Yassky (D–Brooklyn Heights) in a tax break enjoyed by Madi- going to scrutinize MSG, we have are inappropriate,” she added. property tax relief, they would lion in subsidies that Atlantic “Newspaper of the Year” by the SNA. And a demanded that the city and state re- son Square Garden should bring a responsibility to do the same for Yassky and James have called take the Knicks and Rangers out Yards will receive over 40 years month later, the Independent Free Papers of visit its subsidies for Ratner’s $4- about a cutback of the massive Atlantic Yards.” on Speaker Christine Quinn, who of New York City. At the time, it — but that figure does not include America gave Kuntzman and Brooklyn Paper public subsidies lavished on At- billion mega-development. Both councilmembers said they the $305 million in direct city and Senior Editor Vince DiMiceli its top prize for is spearheading the attack on the seemed like a plausible threat. lantic Yards developer Bruce “If you think the MSG deal was would put forward a resolution MSG subsidy yet is also a strong But now, money is flowing into state infrastructure improvements, editorial writing. Ratner, two councilmembers de- crummy, the Atlantic Yards deal is within days that would “scrutinize a spokesman for the IBO said. The SNA award will be presented at the Atlantic Yards supporter, to bring Madison Square Garden, thanks to manded this week. far worse,” Yassky, an early Ratner the effectiveness all the these tax the resolution to a vote. a privately funded renovation of It also does not take into account group’s spring conference next month in Ponte supporter, told The Brooklyn Paper. that Ratner will not pay property tax Vedra Beach, Fla., which sounds like a really After the Council’s Finance breaks citywide,” James said. It is unclear what would hap- the “World’s Most-Famous Are- nice place to pick up an award. Committee discussed MSG’s $11- Critics of MSG’s 25-year-old She questioned, for example, pen even if a City Council resolu- na” in the 1990s and a huge influx See A’YARDS on page 14 PATRICK STEWART is Beam them to BAM, Scotty Trekkies are in heaven with ‘Picard’ as Macbeth By Dana Rubinstein fequencies when you see his perfectly “Stewart is more than a cult figure,” freelance cartoonist and Network mem- The Brooklyn Paper molded, ghostly white cranium. said Fidler, who has almost every “Star ber, is a bit more decisive. She’ll be For those unfamiliar with the pecu- Trek” episode on videotape or DVD, there. No question. Fans of “Star Trek” will boldly go liar allure of the gentleman often re- plus a small model Starship Enterprise, “I always loved the old ‘Star Trek’ se- where few have gone before — into ferred to as the Sexiest Bald Man Alive, and in his office, a poster called “Ten ries, and when Stewart started in ‘Star the Brooklyn Academy of Music, no here’s some background: Things I learned from Star Trek” (one Trek,’ it enhanced my Trekism,” said less — to see Captain Jean-Luc Pi- Between 1987 and 1994, Stewart lesson? “Beware of your enemies. Like Dairo, who first discovered Stewart card (sometimes known as Patrick starred as the strong yet sensitive Cap- Romulans, they often come cloaked”). when he did “Dune,” another sci-fi fan- Stewart) flex his sinewy theatrical tain Picard in “Star Trek: The Next “I consider myself a fan and not a fa- tasy, and “Lady Jane,” a historical drama. muscles in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.” Generation,” an incarnation of a sci-fi natic, but I’d love to meet Captain Pi- “He has the audience in the palm of The Patrick Stewart Network, the series that has inspired delirious devo- card,” said Fidler. his hand,” she added.