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INSIDE: DOUBLE THE COUPONS TO SAVE YOU CASH Yo u r NeighborhoodYo u r Neighborhood — Yo u r — News Yo u r ® News® BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260–2500 • Brooklyn, NY • ©2011 BROOKLYN HEIGHTS–DOWNTOWN EDITION AWP/12 pages • Vol. 34, No. 7 • February 18–24, 2011 • FREE INCLUDING DUMBO NOT SO FAST MEET THE Yards residential tower needs fi nancing FLOCKERS By Andy Campbell “We hope to release de- arena, the future home of Two new geese show up from The Brooklyn Paper signs in late spring or early the New Jersey Nets, is the Developers of the Atlantic Yards proj- summer and still hope to project’s only slam dunk. ect were caught red-faced last week break ground this year,” It is expected to be com- Canada and await their doom when one of the development compa- the spokesman said. “[But] pleted in 2012. ny’s officials said that construction of they need to secure financ- That said, Gilmartin did By Natalie O’Neill to the park’s glistening lake — but the project’s first residential building ing.” reveal that Forest City Rat- The Brooklyn Paper their arrival only draws more atten- History — and the ner now has an architect for would begin this year — but then had Meet Prospect Park’s celebrity couple tion to the likelihood that the duo and economy — is not on For- it, if the company comes up File photo by Stefano Giovannini to admit that no financing has been RATNER du jour — two geese with tags on their their new friends will be dead later est City Ratner’s side, at with financing: SHoP Ar- Gregg Pasquarelli of SHoP Ar- legs and targets on their heads. this summer. lined up. least in the short term. Last CONSTRUCTION chitects — the same Man- Forest City Ratner Vice President chitects will design the first The feathered squawkers flew all Roughly 162 geese now call the year, company executive UPDATE hattan firm that is credited residential building at Bruce Rat- the way from Quebec to perch next See GEESE on page 9 MaryAnne Gilmartin told real-estate Jane Marshall also said with saving the arena proj- insiders on Wednesday that construc- ner’s Atlantic Yards — though a that a groundbreaking on ect after developer Bruce timetable is unknown. tion of the long-delayed, 400-unit resi- the half-below-market-rate rental build- Ratner fired starchitect Frank Gehry dential tower at the western end of the ing would take place in 2010 . in 2009 . mega-project’s footprint would get un- last year that the tower was insulated New birds on the block It’s the same old story for a project Ratner’s inability to break ground Say hello to Pierre and Jacqueline: A duo of Canadian immi- derway this year, but the next day, a plan that once consisted of 16 skyscrap- on the rental building — the first of from the depressed housing market be- spokesman for the company admitted ers and an arena near the corner of At- what he claims will be a 6,400-unit cause preparations to build it were al- grants with matching horoscope signs and different personal- that the developer doesn’t have money lantic and Flatbush avenues in Prospect residential complex — is particularly ready underway when the real-estate ity types who — oh yeah! — also happen to be geese. Ca- for the project. Heights. For now, the Barclays Center glaring, given that the developer said bubble burst. nadian researchers slapped tags on the feathered creatures in Quebec in July, 2009, which provided a wealth of info for these Tiger Beat–style profiles: Name Jacqueline Pierre Dumb in DUMBO? Birthday May 13, 2009 May 10, 2009 Birthplace Varennes, just east of On the St. Lawrence City ‘looking at’ River Cafe in tax scheme Montreal. River in Boucher ville By Andy Campbell “Buzzy” O’Keeffe’s E. 34th DUMBO, the River Café. Number 1048-75724 H9Z4 The Brooklyn Paper Street eatery didn’t ring up 25 “We are looking at it,” said a City auditors are investigat- percent of their sales in 2009 — source in Liu’s office, who re- Named Jackie O The founder of his ing the River Café this week and likely did not fork over the quested anonymity because he after hometown after officials claimed that the tax money from those sales. is not authorized to talk about staff at the restaurant’s sister It’s unclear where that money ongoing investigations. Personality Aloof, classy Affable, outgoing eatery in Manhattan was mis- went, or whether workers actu- If O’Keeffe’s workers at type reporting revenues to avoid the ally committed any crime, but River Café are doing the same tax man. auditors have turned their at- thing that they’re charged with Hangout On the southern bank of On the ice on File photo by Gregory Mango P. Comptroller John Liu tention towards O’Keeffe’s doing at the Water Club, the res- the lake the southern end The city is looking into whether The River Cafe is un- charged this week that workers at the legend- taurant owner will have some of the lake der-reporting its sales. workers at Michael ary haute outpost in See RIVER on page 9 Lethem in LA: ‘Brooklyn is repulsive’ By Meredith Deliso told the LA Times in a sprawling profile by your environment, but dictated in- sponse in full, see the sidebar). The Brooklyn Paper of the “Motherless Brooklyn” writer, Plus! We have Lethem’s exclusive response stead by what you read that day, or In the glory days, Lethem was not who, in a move painfully reminiscent something else.” only the toast of Brooklyn — he cele- He’s broken our hearts yet again. SEE PAGE 2 The former bard of Boerum Hill, of the Dodgers, abandoned Brooklyn Dismayed (and convinced that Le- brated the borough right back. He was a Jonathan Lethem, is dissing the city for sunny California last year to take them had gotten too much sun), we regular at the Brooklyn Book Festival, that made him from his new digs in on the post of creative writing profes- mental traffic problems.” ists, it’s cancerous with novelists,” Le- reached out to our former pal this week the ultimate celebration of Brooklyn lit- Southern California. sor at Pomona College . “It’s not the Sure, Brooklyn has an active, thriv- them told the Times. “That can some- to express our feelings at having our lit- erary culture. When Greenlight Book- “I do love New York, but it’s also best place to write. The mental traf- ing literary scene. But Lethem also has times be too much when you need to erary hearts ripped out all over again. store in Fort Greene first opened, he unbearable to me in some ways, and I fic level is very high here. Here, you a bone to pick with that. also be inside yourself, exploring your His response? Get over it (we’re para- personally requested to have a reading compulsively leave it behind,” Lethem have traffic problems; there, you have “Brooklyn is repulsive with novel- own meandering feelings, not dictated phrasing of course. For Lethem’s re- See LETHEM on page 2 ‘Gay Boy,’ Humboldt horror we hardly Craigslist ad leads to imprisonment, rape By Aaron Short his alleged victim in a catatonic his East Williamsburg apartment The Brooklyn Paper state and curled up in the fetal for free. He even offered to buy A Williamsburg man lured a position on his mattress, shiver- her a one-way plane ticket from 27-year-old Wisconsin woman to ing and naked. Wisconsin to JFK Airport. knew ye Photo by Bess Adler The Midwestern woman met She accepted the deal and ar- New York through an online ad A grocery store in Bushwick has changed her suspected abuser through rived on Feb. 4. But seconds after and repeatedly raped her during a Craigslist ad that she spotted entering the apartment near Me- the mildly offensive names of some of its a nine-day imprisonment as his Market scrubs some sandwiches, like the Gay Boy, above. several weeks ago when she was serole Avenue, the victim discov- “sex slave,” cops said. searching for a place to live in New ered the reason for Hopkins’s lar- Community Newspaper Group / Aaron Short controversial ’wiches Officers arrested John Hop- York City. gesse: Cops say he told her that Cops say that a rapist lured kins, 45, on Saturday night, when Hopkins allegedly told her on she would have to be his slave — a woman to his Humboldt By Aaron Short they stormed into his Humboldt the phone that if she cooked and and over the next nine days, he Street apartment and kept The Brooklyn Paper Street apartment and discovered cleaned for him, she could stay in See HORROR on page 10 her as his sex slave. So much for ordering a Gay Boy with extra cheese. Bushwick’s newest grocery store, Hana Nat- ural, hastily scrubbed a line of controversially named sandwiches — including the “Gay Boy,” “Butter Face” and the Mexican-inspired “Ille- Thus spoke the lawyers! gal” — after neighbors of the Wyckoff Avenue grocery complained. has been renamed “South of the Border” ($6). So the “Butter Face,” a $6 wrap with veggie Oddly, “The Douche Bag” sandwich — chicken The Prospect Park West bike lane becomes a legal matter sausage, eggs, avocado and sun-dried tomato is and avocado, of course — is still on the menu. now labeled, “Farmer’s Tan.” The names have puzzled shoppers, who anticipated By Natalie O’Neill Prospect Park.