INSIDE BROOKLYN’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER Including The Downtown News, Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill Paper and Fort Greene-Clinton Hill Paper ‘Nut’ gala raises $700G for BAM Published weekly by Brooklyn Paper Publications Inc, 26 Court St., Brooklyn 11242 Phone 718-834-9350 AD fax 718-834-1713 • NEWS fax 718-834-9278 © 2002 Brooklyn Paper Publications • 12 pages including GO BROOKLYN • Vol. 25, No. 51 BWN, DTG, PSG, MID • December 30, 2002 • FREE NEW YEAR’S BLAST! BUNKER MENTALITY CB2 tells Bloomie to take hike By Patrick Gallahue The Brooklyn Papers Calling it a hazard to Downtown Brooklyn and its residents, Community Board 2 and Councilman David Yassky this week came down strongly against the city’s plan to build a new Office of Emergency Management headquarters at 165 Cadman Plaza East, the former home of the American Red Cross. / File photo “On public safety grounds I just do not think this is a viable place for such a sensitive facility as the OEM headquarters next to ex- Plans to put the city’s Office of Emergency Management headquar- tremely sensitive, and quite possi- ters at the Red Cross building site at 165 Cadman Plaza East, have The Brooklyn Papers The Brooklyn bly, target facilities, namely the come under fire. The Brooklyn Papers / File photos Brooklyn Bridge and the federal courthouse,” Yassky said. OEM headquarters is built there. ceived a cold response from the Besides stating his position at a The OEM proposal is making its community and he pledged to re- GAP fireworks to mark 2003 public hearing before Borough way through the city’s public re- vise the design. President Marty Markowitz Wed- view process, the Uniform Land Community Board 2 rejected the nesday night, Yassky also fired off By Patrick Gallahue around the park about 15 minutes before midnight rooftops, for example, would offer a good view Use Review Procedure (ULURP), plan on Dec. 11, citing concerns for a letter to OEM Commissioner on an application to convert the the safety of the thousands of resi- The Brooklyn Papers when the fireworks, prepared by the Pennsylvania- of the 10- to 15-minute pyrotechnics display. John Odermatt urging him to seek based Zambelli Fireworks Manufacturing Compa- The fireworks are being funded by Keyspan ’50s-era, 60,000-square-foot Red dents living across Adams Street in other accommodations. “I would be Cross building into an office and Brooklyn will return this New Year’s ny, are launched at the countdown to the New Year. Energy and Borough President Marty Markowitz Concord Village, in northern Eve to a 20-plus-year tradition of fire- happy to aid your office in a search emergency operations center. Brooklyn Heights and in the Watch- There are no other activities planned for ei- and the celebration was organized by the Prospect for other sites in, or out, of my dis- works launched from Prospect Park to The agency began in October tower Society dormitory to the east. ther Grand Army Plaza or Prospect Park and the Park Alliance. trict,” Yassky wrote. presenting its plans to the commu- The board also cited the potential usher in the New Year. streets will not be closed to traffic, Thomas said. After 9-11, the celebration for 2002 was toned Besides public safety, Yassky nity for a five-story, 100-foot-tall, proliferation of terrorist targets, not- “It’s a very nice way to celebrate a hopeful, Thomas added that points near the north end down. Fireworks were substituted with a laser light added in his letter that Walt Whit- windowless command center. ing the close proximity of the wonderful year of 2003,” said Prospect Park of the long meadow, near Grand Army Plaza, show at Grand Army Plaza and representatives man Park, at Cadman Plaza East Henry Jackson, an OEM deputy planned OEM bunker to the federal Administrator Tupper Thomas. provide some of the most favorable vantage from the police and fire departments, as well as 9- and Adams Street, stands to lose commissioner, acknowledged that courthouse on Cadman Plaza East, Thomas said spectators usually gather in and points, but added that most elevated places, like 11 relief charities, led a silent countdown. 2,500 square feet of parkland if the the architectural renderings had re- See BUNKER on page 2 Council Downsizing Park Slope Plan that would keep buildings lower clears first hurdle By Patrick Gallahue On Thursday, the proposal was ren and Third streets, and then Third along Fourth Avenue, from Warren enues, protested, “It will cast a The Brooklyn Papers brought before the land use com- Avenue, between Third and 15th Street to 15th Street, which boasts a shadow over all of the buildings on district mittee of Community Board 6, streets. much wider roadway than the other Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue.” The city’s plan to impose which has long advocated for height Most of the area is currently corridors in Park Slope. That strip is height limits on a 110-block limits in Park Slope. The perimeter zoned R6, which effectively has no to be rezoned to R8A, which would Seek bonus for swath of Park Slope kicked off of the area proposed for rezoning height limits, said Regina Myer, the allow for buildings as high as 120 housing on 4th its public review with near has as its southern border 15th director of the Brooklyn office of feet, roughly 12 stories, and setback Brad Lander, executive director unanimous approval this week. Street, from Third Avenue to City Planning. Under the proposed at 85 feet. of the Park Slope-based Fifth Av- The few points of contention Prospect Park West; to the east, zoning almost all of the area would “What we really wanted to do enue Committee, a non-profit hous- rewrite ing group, said he was concerned arose over Fourth Avenue’s compar- Prospect Park West, from 15th be changed to R6B, with a height was preserve the mid-blocks with atively towering limits and a recom- Street-Bartel Pritchard Square up to limit of 50 feet and a required set- support for apartment house con- that the rezoning would only create By Patrick Gallahue tures into the 33rd district north mendation by a local housing group about Union Street; to the north, back of 40 feet, keeping future de- struction,” Myer said. more market-rate housing and lead The Brooklyn Papers of Fifth Street, between Seventh to modify the proposal to encourage Union Street, from Prospect Park velopment in line with the existing Some residents, such as Monica to more displacement. He pushed Avenue and Prospect Park West, The City Council’s Dis- affordable housing development on West to Fourth Avenue; and to the structures. Cavanagh, a resident of President for adding an “inclusionary zoning” and into the 38th district, at the avenue. west, Fourth Avenue, between War- An exception to the proposal is Street between Fourth and Fifth av- See ZONING on page 7 tricting Commission released around 11th Street and Fifth Av- its second draft for proposed enue. councilmanic lines on Dec. 18. “We’re still looking at it, ob- The new drafts seem to have viously,” 39th district Council- addressed some of the contro- man Bill DeBlasio said of the versy and concern that greeted newly redrawn lines. “The ini- the last round of proposals, es- tial feeling is, on the good side it pecially with respect to the definitely seems more coherent, Floating hospital stranded on Atlantic makeup of the Sunset Park-Red but the side that I’m still won- Hook 38th district and the Stat- dering about is [that] the cut in By Patrick Gallahue forced it to move two weeks ago. lic transit and has remained in serv- is leaning towards having a more charts were faxed to an office on en Island-Bensonhurst 50th dis- Park Slope is a little artificial.” The Brooklyn Papers “We’ve been doing this since ice for the past 16 months with profitable tenant on the pier, Tinto- land at 120 Wall St., a 20-minute trict, but take the Gowanus sec- Under the current proposal, Sept. 15, 2001,” said Ellie Tinto- funding from the Federal Emer- Poitier said. walk from the medical ship. tion back from Park Slope’s the 39th district would run The panoramic view of Poitier, the Floating Hospital’s chief gency Management Agency. “We’ve really tried to work with “Pier space in Manhattan is lim- 39th district. along half of Fourth Avenue un- Manhattan from Brooklyn operating officer, who is a Boerum The hospital was moved to Pier them but it’s really not ideal for ited,” said Janel Patterson, a The lines, which are redrawn til 13th Street and then shift east Heights has become one of Hill resident. “We’ve been from pil- 17 at South Street Seaport, but was them and it’s not really ideal for us spokeswoman for the city EDC, every 10 years to coincide with to Fifth Avenue until 20th longing for a storied maritime lar to post.” bumped again on Dec. 11, this time because we don’t have electric hook which has sought to find space for the shifting populations accord- Street. institution. After 9-11, the Floating Hospital to Brooklyn, to make room for ad- up or telephone lines [at Pier 17],” the hospital. “They need pier space, ing to the latest census data, rep- DeBlasio was concerned that The Floating Hospital, a 136- was bumped from its mooring at ditional ferry service as part of the Tinto-Poitier said. plus they want parking facilities resent the districts in which Third and Fourth avenues were year-old mobile clinic, has been a Wall Street’s Pier 11 to make way mayor’s contingency plan in the Without connections to Con Ed and little or no rent.