Snow Bombs Away! Storm Hits Borough with Winds and Near Foot of Snow
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INSIDE: GET THE RIGHT RESULTS WITH OUR CLASSIFIEDS SECTION Yo u r World — Yo u r News BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260–2500 • Brooklyn, NY • ©2018 Serving Brownstone Brooklyn, Sunset Park, Williamsburg & Greenpoint AWP/12 pages • Vol. 41, No. 2 • January 12–18, 2018 • FREE BUILD NOW, GET OK LATER Pier 6 towers are rising fast in Bridge Park, even as their very legality is being challenged in court By Julianne Cuba measly coffers if St. George decides Brooklyn Paper the towers must face the wreck- The proof is in the building. ing ball, according to a meadow The developers of two polar- spokesman, who said that only the izing towers at Brooklyn Bridge developers will forfeit funds used Park’s Pier 6 are so sure they’ve toward construction if the judge won their court battle over the le- rules against the project. gality of the yet-to-be-approved A rep for the builders said they high-rises at the foot of Atlan- are merely following Billings’s tic Avenue that they’ve already July decision. dug deep into their pockets to “We are acting in good faith construct nearly 10 stories of a under the terms of the ground 15-story building, critics said. lease and the merits of the argu- “If you were in their shoes, ments previously made in court, would you be spending millions and will continue to act accord- if you thought you weren’t going ingly as we progress toward pro- to win?” said Peter Bray, head of viding the much-needed afford- the Brooklyn Heights Associa- able-housing component and tion, which sued the park’s hon- Services ODA/RAL Development revenue-producing housing for chos in July 2016 after develop- The high-rises at the foot of Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn the park and city,” said Eric Wa- ers RAL Development Services Bridge Park have been subject to scrutiny for years. ters, spokesman for RAL Devel- and Oliver’s Realty Group filed opment Services. plans for the 15- and 28-story Another critic slammed the de- buildings, claiming the towers — order to oversee asbestos litiga- on its 28-story neighbor’s base- velopers for acting so brazenly one of which would contain 100 tion, she said at the time. ment, workers at the site told this while St. George continues to de- units of so-called affordable hous- And not long after workers reporter on Jan. 9. liberate over her verdict, which ing — violate Brooklyn Bridge broke ground on the site this sum- One hard-hat said that the some activists claim could lay the Park’s governing document, the mer, some locals complained to framework of the shorter high- path for more private development 2006 General Project Plan, which this newspaper that noise from the rise containing the so-called af- in public parks across the United permits development within the job scared youngsters who fre- fordable units — a major point of States if it allows the towers’ con- green space only to generate rev- quent a nearby playground . contention that St. George even struction. enue needed by the park. Now, six months after con- suggested developers scrap in an “It is disturbing how much they But meadow attorneys repeat- Community News Group / Julianne Cuba struction began and nearly two attempt to broker a compromise have put into the ground and into edly denied that charge before the Workers are nearly done erecting 10 floors of the 15-story tower at Pier 6. months after St. George heard — would be completed in about the air, despite the fact that the benches of Justice Carmen Victo- litigants’ final arguments, the two weeks, and that the skeleton judge has not come through with ria St. George and her predeces- fix the timber piles that support paperwork to begin construc- proceed as long as whatever went 15-story tower that contains the of the 28-story building would be her decision,” said Judi Francis, sor Justice Lucy Billings, arguing Pier 6, which wood-eating crus- tion amid the ongoing legal bat- up could be “undone,” before being below-market-rate units is nearly finished sometime this spring. the president of advocacy group the high-rises will bring in money taceans are devouring. tle, and Billings ruled that month removed from the case in August 10 floors high, and contractors But Brooklyn Bridge Park won’t the Brooklyn Bridge Park De- the cash-strapped park needs to In July, the developers filed that work on the high-rises could after four months of arguments in are putting the finishing touches lose any cash from its allegedly fense Fund. Snow bombs away! Storm hits borough with winds and near foot of snow By Julianne McShane Brooklyn and pummeled locals with ough fun-lovers — including this news- Brooklyn Paper nearly 30-mile-per-hour wind gusts on paper’s intrepid reporters — seized the This snow day was the bomb! Jan. 4, leading city and state officials day for sledding, snowball fights, and An epic “Bomb Cyclone” dumped to adopt an all-hands-on-deck approach storm-chasing. a blanket of snow one-foot thick over to tackling the winter storm, while bor- Our friends at the Weather Channel, who have taken it upon themselves to name winter storms, dubbed the storm “Grayson,” but its more meteorologi- cal categorization as a “Bomb Cyclone” Ice work comes from its sudden intensification as it undergoes “bombogenesis,” a dramatic 24-hour drop in pressure that brings about Chilly blob forms intense winds and snowfall. And snow it did. By the evening of in station’s wall! Jan. 4, the National Weather Service reported that an average of 11.5 inches By Julianne Cuba fell across the borough, with Flatlands Brooklyn Paper clocking the highest amount of the white It’s hole frozen over. stuff at 12.4 inches, and Fort Hamil- A block of ice protruding from a gap- ton recording just 7.1 inches. Local ing hole in a wall of Cobble Hill’s Ber- pols prepared for the city to tackle the storm ahead of time. Mayor DeBlasio gen Street station formed days before Photo by Paul Martinka the “Bomb Cyclone” pummeled Brook- announced on Jan. 3 that the city would give kids a snow day before declaring Powder-loving revelers took to a Dumbo hill near the Brooklyn Bridge to make the most of the “Bomb lyn — and many of its subway stations a winter-weather emergency , and Gov. Cyclone,” a storm that blew through Brooklyn on Jan. 4, blanketing neighborhoods in snow. — with several inches of snow on Jan. Cuomo followed up by declaring a state 4, according to straphangers, one of of emergency for both the city and its city’s plow-tracking map ,and the Sanita- walks to report on how Brooklynites dealt Cuba even found winter wonderlands at whom first noticed the punctured wall Community News Group / Julianne Cuba suburbs , citing the storm’s particularly tion Department dispatched 2,400 plows with the wintry mess. Downtown and the Jay Street–MetroTec h and Clinton– weeks ago when foul odors floated from Cobble Hill resident Garth Horn intense winds and advising New York- and spreaders citywide by early afternoon Brownstone reporter Julianne Cuba hit Washington stations , two of the many its gap. wants the MTA to patch up the ers to stay off the roads. to fight the snow and ice, according to the streets in Williamsburg and Green- subway hubs where straphangers couldn’t “I’m surprised it hasn’t been fixed — gaping hole in the Bergen Street The city largely kept the borough’s a New York Daily News report . point , where she found a desolate Mc- escape the city sky’s relentless snow- it’s not surprising, but it is a little shock- station, which filled with ice in the streets well plowed throughout the day This newspaper’s fearless journal- Carren Park and some snow-loving bor- fall, which also hit the 77th Street sta- See ICE on page 9 recent chilly weather. until the snow stopped, according to the ists stormed the snowy streets and side- ough pups willing to brave the storm . See SNOW on page 10 The spy who lived next door James Bond himself reportedly buys Cobble Hill brownstone By Julianne Cuba for a quantum of solace in their lion Brooklyn Heights penthouse Brooklyn Paper new digs, they may have to wait. — and famed Starship Enterprise He’s licensed to Hill! The house went up in flames on captain and mutant scholar , Park The actor who plays famed se- New Year’s Eve in 2016, accord- Sloper Sir Patrick Stewart. cret agent James Bond in the fran- ing to the Post , and its listing says But there’s currently no Aston chise’s recent spy flicks is rumored it has since been repaired but that Martin parked outside the blue- to be moving to Brooklyn. Brown- the buyer must install all the fin- doored brownstone between Kane ishing touches. and Degraw streets, and neither stone Brooklyn. The previous owners, Brit- Craig’s nor Amis’s reps immedi- Daniel Craig and wife Ra- ish novelist Martin Amis and ately returned requests for com- chel Weisz reportedly inked a his wife, American-Uruguayan ment on the sale. deal in August to buy a five- writer Isabel Fonseca, packed Associated Press / Jordan Strauss The attorney who reportedly story $6.75-million brownstone up after the blaze and reportedly Craig and wife, actress Ra- represented the buyer — Craig, on Strong Place in Cobble Hill, moved into a high-rise in nearby chel Weisz, allegedly bought via a limited-liability company On according to a New York Post re- Boerum Hill.