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BROOKLYN’S REAL NEWSPAPERS Including The Brooklyn Heights Paper, Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill Paper, DUMBO Paper and the Downtown News Published every Saturday — online all the time — by Brooklyn Paper Publications Inc, 55 Washington St, Suite 624, Brooklyn NY 11201. Phone 718-834-9350 • www.BrooklynPapers.com • © 2006 Brooklyn Paper Publications • 16 pages •Vol. 29, No. 17 BWN • Saturday, April 29, 2006 • FREE PARK SLOPE CANAL Sale of 3rd Av building could bring Slope to the Gowanus THIS WEEK By Ariella Cohen along Fourth Avenue one block The Brooklyn Papers east, accelerates the perception that Park Slope is expanding through A powerful real-estate devel- the old Gowanus neighborhood all oper has bought the Jewish Press the way to the canal (“Park Slope building near the Gowanus Ca- River,” anyone?). nal — the latest in a series of Boymelgreen has coveted the moves that could transform the massive, windowless building — industrial area into a village of which until 1965 was a Transit Au- / Tom Callan / Tom housing, stores, art galleries and thority facility — since he began waterfront esplanades. snapping up canal-area land two “We are very excited about the years ago, according to property acquisition of the JP site,” said Sara owners nearby. Mirski, spokeswoman for develop- With the Jewish Press building in his portfolio, Boymelgreen now The Brooklyn Papers The Brooklyn er Shaya Boymelgreen. “The site provides improved access opportu- / Dana Rubinstein controls more than two acres sur- nities to [a] proposed waterfront es- rounding the canal — land he planade and park” along the canal. wants to turn into “Gowanus Vil- The heat is on The sale of the building, on lage,” a mixed-use neighborhood Third Avenue between First and designed by a glamorous interna- Tanning enthusiast Samantha Ranieri christens a new salon in Bay Ridge, just in time for GO Brooklyn’s Third streets, coupled with con- Papers The Brooklyn tional architect, Enrique Norten. Fashion Issue. See page 7 to find out what you’ll be dying to wear this summer. And if your 9-year- struction of a Whole Foods market Park Slope on the Gowanus? The Jewish Press building on Third Boymelgreen would transform old is anything like the Oh So Feisty One, follow Smartmom’s shopping experience on page 6. one block south and development Avenue was just bought by developer Shaya Boymelgreen. See CANAL on page 5 Chief Coney Island freak NEW ODD COUPLE weds Nigerian princess Spitzer & Carey do Slope By Dana Rubinstein The Brooklyn Papers By Gersh Kuntzman trials just to get to this day that The lanky attorney general The Brooklyn Papers you can’t help but see how badly and portly former governor made Here it is, freak show fans, he wanted this. It’s a great thing.” an odd couple as they toured The Ghana wedding did have the first photo of Mr. and Mrs. Park Slope on Wednesday. its share of hitches. For one Would-be governor Eliot Spitzer Richard Zigun — aka the thing, Mukoro wasn’t at the air- King of the Coney Island was in town to receive an endorse- port in Accra to meet Zigun two ment from Hugh Carey, who held Sideshow — and his Nigerian weeks ago because she not only princess bride. the office himself from 1975 to didn’t have the right immuniza- 1983 — but it turned into a two- Dick Zigun tion card, but she also “mouthed and Pat Mukoro EXCLUSIVE hour episode of “Hugh Carey Re- off” to security guards, Zigun members.” finally made it said. official in Ghana last week — “I always thought this was the Next, Mukoro — who is not most intelligent district,” said the culmination of a trip to the al- only a princess in the Urhobo tar that began in the late 1990s, Carey, 87, who was a seven-term tribe, but also a Nigerian pop star congressman from the neighbor- was interrupted by a post-9-11 — finally signed the pre-nup deportation, was hindered by at hood before moving to the big (yes, Dick Zigun, whose worldly house in Albany. “It elected the least four governments, and re- possessions include vintage sulted in the loss of thousands of same man seven times.” Coney Island postcards, a Fiji Carey — who was elected as a / Dana Rubinstein dollars for the groom. mermaid skeleton and a closet The couple had been set to Democrat but severed his party full of zoot suits, has a pre-nup!). wed in Cyprus in February, but registration several years after leav- Then, the bride’s niece couldn’t ing office — endorsed Spitzer in immigration officials blocked Collection of Dick Zigun be found, even though she had just the 2006 election, but the press Mukoro’s passage from Nigeria. Coney Island’s head freak Dick Zigun smootches his Nigerian called from the lobby. Turns out, conference rambled over four Papers The Brooklyn The French government bride, Princess Pat Mukoro, after last week’s wedding in Ghana. blocked a subsequent effort to she was at La Palm Royal Beach decades of history. In Park Slope on Wednesday, former governor Hugh Carey (left) get married in the supposedly ro- hotel — but the one in Togo, not Spitzer and Carey chatted in endorsed Eliot Spitzer for his old job in Albany. mantic city of Paris. And even have been far worse. Zigun’s carny pals — the Great Ghana. (A simple 16-hour round- front of the same stoop on St. the Brits weren’t helpful with Zi- “By African tradition, I should Fredini, Insectavora, Helen Mel- trip drive by the bride’s brother John’s Place where Carey and gun’s plans to marry in Black- have purchased a present for on, the Kerosene Queen, and the solved that problem.) then-Sen. Robert Kennedy fought added, triggering another history handful of reporters squeezed into pool (their Coney Island). Pat’s relatives and paid for three other “wonders of human curiosi- But at last, the couple was in 1966 for the restoration of neigh- lesson, this one about Fort Greene an elevator for an awkward ride to Fortunately, Ghana provided a cows to be slaughtered,” he ty” — said Zigun’s relentless pur- wed. Now all that remains is a borhood brownstones. Park and the Revolutionary War. the third floor. safe haven. wrote from Ghana. “Cows are suit of Mukoro was inspirational. few months of immigration red “It’s about time we had a man of Then both men hopped into Carey shuffled comfortably and Despite the circuitous route to not cheap! So even with paying “I tend to have a cynical heart tape and Mukoro will take her vision and leadership,” said Carey, Spitzer’s waiting limo for the two- proudly down the hallway of the nuptial bliss — and thousands of for two weddings (one unused in about marriage,” said Fred Kahl, rightful place at Zigun’s side dapper in a gray suit and blue block journey to Helen Owen Ca- center — named for his late wife — dollars in lost deposits and airline Cyprus and this one in Ghana), I a.k.a. “The Great Fredini. “But (and, he said, in the Madame handkerchief. rey Day Care Center. and both men peeked in on some tickets — Zigun said it could suppose I am getting off easy!” Dick has been through so many Twisto case in the Sideshow). “We’re in a battleground,” he Once there, Carey, Spitzer, and a napping children. Some were star- tled from their sleep by the intru- sion. Spitzer and Carey tried to charm the sleepy children anyway, includ- ing one tyke with corn-rows. “I wish I could wear my hair like that, but I don’t have enough FREEDOM ROAD Jail hair,” said the follicly challenged Spitzer. “And I love finger-paint- ing,” added Carey. Fresh support for RR protest At another classroom, Carey re- galed the kids, all born in 1998, with By Ariella Cohen noring the real history of the site. war stories about himself and RFK. The Brooklyn Papers After that, the dynamic duo The Brooklyn Papers Moore says the city is better at preserving history in white neighbor- Boerum Hill residents packed a jumped into Carey’s car for the The destruction of a row of hous- hoods than in black neighborhoods. City Council hearing Tuesday to two-block (uphill!) ride to the Park es near Fulton Mall would “contin- “My analysis of 34 Underground beg the city to sell the Brooklyn Café on Seventh Avenue, where ue a legacy” of losing valuable bits Railroad-related sites [shows] that al- House of Detention and build a they met with district leader Alan of black history, a member of the most all still survive in Brooklyn new pen elsewhere in the borough. Fleishman. city’s Landmarks Preservation Heights,” he wrote. But Corrections officials reasserted Spitzer ordered coffee, and Commission charged last week. Underground tunnels connect the their plan to reopen the House of D Carey had iced tea. Both were ex- As reported recently in The wood-frame houses on Duffield after a $240-million renovation that ceedingly polite to the waitstaff. Brooklyn Papers, preservationists Street. Historic records of the Under- will double the jail’s capacity, while Carey sweetened his tea with have stepped up a two-year-old fight ground Railroad in Brooklyn show also adding retail to the ground floor. Splenda, but was quickly reminded to save two Downtown Brooklyn routes that may have included the Relocating the jail is not an option that the politically correct choice homes where the city wants to build houses as way station between aboli- being considered, they said.