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Find a new home or a new job — in The Brooklyn Classifieds INSIDE Including The Bensonhurst Paper Dinner or a spa for Mom’s Day 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 © 2003 Brooklyn Paper Publications • 16 pages including GO BROOKLYN • Vol. 26, No. 19 BRZ • May 12, 2003 • FREE Water taxi, free no more, is back in biz By Deborah Kolben half the time of the free ferry. what ridership was when the ferry was The Brooklyn Papers “If they stopped this I was going to move free, Baker said it could be enough for the to Staten Island,” said Denise Koster, who company to turn a profit. It’s little, yellow and different. And was among the many commuters scram- For the first month, all fares will cost it’s also a whole lot faster. bling to find new modes of transportation $4. Those fares will go up to $5 for a sin- A new fleet of taxicab-hued catamarans after the city Department of Transportation gle ride, but there will also be volume dis- awaited passengers boarding the ferry abruptly notified customers that starting counts — $45 for a 10-trip book, and $175 from Sunset Park to Manhattan this week. May 1 the ferry would be no more. for a monthly pass — starting in June. But the new color wasn’t the only A last-minute effort by elected officials, Those prices put the ferry out of reach change at the port. who contacted ferry companies up and for many customers who had grown ac- / Brad Horrigan New York Water Taxi took over the fer- down the eastern seaboard, resulted in the customed to the ride. ry service on Thursday morning after the Red Hook-based New York Water Taxi “I can’t afford to pay that much,” said federal government pulled its funding for taking over. Josephine Balestena, who lives in Bay the free ferry put in place following the at- “We’re Brooklynites so we wanted to Ridge and works as a receptionist in the tacks on the World Trade Center. make this work,” said Mark Baker, the Wall Street area. “We wouldn’t have The Brooklyn Papers The Brooklyn While passengers were still adjusting to ferry’s chief business operator, who was minded $3, but $4 is just too much. the $4 fare, none seemed to be complain- out at the 58th Street pier on the second “And there’s no big discount for the ing about the brand new fleet of 53-foot day of service, early Friday morning. monthly pass,” she added. Blossoms in bloom aluminum catamarans that skim across the On May 1, New York Water Taxi re- Balestena started riding the ferry after Loan Nguyen takes a photo of her grandsons Pen and Peter Nguyen on a Japanese Flowering Cherry at the Brook- bay from the 58th Street Pier to Pier 11 at ported carrying about 350 passengers each 9-11. She said she’s been afraid to return lyn Botanic Garden. Cherry blossoms peaked last week. Wall Street in less than 12 minutes, about way. While that number is less than half of See WATER TAXI on page 4 2 judge-picking Dems quit panel as grand jury turns up the heat By Patrick Gallahue The Brooklyn Papers Two longtime members of the Brooklyn ANOTHER B’KLYN Democratic Party’s judicial screening panel abandoned ship on Tuesday as calls for reform got louder and a special grand jury’s investigation into the judicial selec- JUDGE IS AXED tion process moved forward. Barry Kamins and George Farkas, both Court lord $15,000 in back rent. By Patrick Gallahue Street attorneys, resigned from the screening The Commission on Judicial Con- The Brooklyn Papers panel, with Farkas saying the screening panel duct ordered Mason removed from Capping an already horrific week the bench in June and the Court of was “flawed.” for the borough’s judiciary, the state Appeals supported the decision on “I believe that certain people’s participation in Court of Appeals on Thursday ordered May 1. the committee itself leaves the committee sub- Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice The commission report had noted ject to potential criticism,” Farkas told The Reynold Mason to step down. that Mason was uncooperative during Callan / Tom Brooklyn Papers. “And the bottom line being, I Mason, 52, had been accused of il- the investigation and “that he failed to believe, the entire system of selections has very legally subletting his apartment for 10 respond to six letters seeking his re- serious flaws in it. And the screening committee years to his brother-in-law, depositing sponse to the allegation of misconduct.” happens to be part of the system.” the money paid to him into an escrow Paul Gentile, Mason’s attorney, did He declined to name anyone he believed did / Tom Callan / Tom not belong on the screening panel. account and refusing to give the land- See ANOTHER JUDGE on page 5 Papers The Brooklyn “A number of things have occurred, a lot of it Democratic boss Clarence Norman in the public eye, some of it which will come (above) addresses party faithful in the into the public eye, such as who gets inter- Marriott after protestors, some dressed viewed and what a particular applicant is enti- in judges robes, rallied outside. The Brooklyn Papers The Brooklyn tled to before being interviewed,” said Farkas. BRIBE JUDGE CASES After Civil Court Judge Margarita Lopez Tor- res was shunted aside for an interview last year with the screening panel because she hadn’t ARE UNDER REVIEW been referred by the county leader, Assembly- man Clarence Norman, two members threatened The Brooklyn Papers Protest at Dem dinner The state Office of Court Adminis- to leave the panel. With District Attorney Charles tration has even set up a hotline for By Patrick Gallahue This year’s dinner, however, featured The protest was organized by Alan “I’ll let you guess who those were,” he said, people to report suspicious verdicts. Hynes building a case against The Brooklyn Papers factions holding separate events and the Fleishman and Liz Daly, state commit- hinting that it was he and Kamins. “As of the time of the arraignment Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge dinner itself was greeted with a protest tee members, also known as district Lopez Torres has claimed that she has been at there were under 10 cases that we’ve What a difference a year makes. from a group of elected officials and ex- leaders, of the 52nd Assembly District odds with the county party ever since she refused Gerald Garson for allegedly ac- identified as being improperly routed cepting gifts to fix divorce cases, While last year’s Kings County De- ecutive committee members. The protes- of Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights. to hire a legal secretary referred to her by Norman, to Judge Garson,” said David Book- mocratic Committee dinner featured a tors waved placards outside the New Among the 20 or so to attend the and in another instance, one referred by Bushwick court overseers have turned their staver, a spokesman for the Office of few intentional absences by reformers attention to the disgraced jurist’s York Marriott Brooklyn Thursday night, protest rally were Brooklyn Heights Assemblyman Vito Lopez, a party loyalist. Court Administration. There have been and party dissidents, the party stood gen- Councilman David Yassky and Park Lopez Torres once again declared her candi- past rulings. reading, “Order in the Courts” and “Jus- See UNDER REVIEW on page 5 erally united and fired back at criticism. tice is not a family affair.” See DINNER PROTEST on page 5 See QUIT on page 5 19th-century Brooklyn Eagle morgue comes alive online By Patrick Gallahue The Brooklyn Papers The fragile pages of the Brooklyn Eagle, once threatened by age at the Brooklyn Pub- lic Library, are now preserved in cyberspace. / Tom Callan / Tom Under headlines such as “An Aggressive Campaign: Women Suffragists Are Forging Right Along” and “Plymouth Church and the Slavery Question” the pages offer a fascinat- ing glimpse into the then-contemporary past The Brooklyn Papers The Brooklyn of Brooklyn in the vernacular of the times. The New York Power Authority plans to turn Owl’s Head plant (pictured) into an electrical generator. The Web site, which the library is still test- ing, but which The Brooklyn Papers got an exclusive look at this week, also captures the freshness of Brooklyn’s evolving narrative Water treatment plant at 150 years ago, including the opening ball of the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1861; the inauguration of the Brooklyn Bridge on May 24, 1883 and Brooklyn’s transformation from Owl’s Head to power up city to borough on Jan. 1, 1898. “The Eagle online will offer patrons a new By Deborah Kolben mer’s drought, numerous residents thority (NYPA) announced this widow into history,” said Brooklyn Public Li- The Brooklyn Papers contacted elected officials and the week that it would be installing a brary executive director Ginnie Cooper. city Department of Environmental small generating unit at the Owl’s The Web site features editions from January Nearby residents have been Protection (DEP) to find out what Head Park facility that would both 1841 through December 1902, that are, incred- Mango / Greg complaining for years about was wafting from the northwest eradicate the smell and produce ibly, keyword searchable. There are also spe- foul odors coming from a wa- corner of Bay Ridge. electricity by harnessing the gas cial compilations by subject for African-Amer- ter treatment facility in Owl’s With summer nearing once byproduct from the water treat- ican History, BAM, the Brooklyn Bridge, Head Park, next to the 69th again, those residents may soon be ment plant.

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