Cops Nab Poachers
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
SAVE CASH! FIND THIS WEEK’S BORO DEALS ON PAGE 10 Yo u r Neighborhood — Yo u r News® BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260–2500 • Brooklyn, NY • ©2011 SERVING BROWNSTONE BROOKLYN, WILLIAMSBURG & BAY RIDGE AWP/16 pages • Vol. 34, No. 31 • August 5–11, 2011 • FREE ALL EYES ON WATCHTOWER Deal could keep housing out of Brooklyn Bridge Park — if Jehovah’s sell in time By Kate Briquelet semblywoman Joan Millman Pier 6, where two buildings are ury housing — and the property The Brooklyn Paper (D–Carroll Gardens) accepted still slated to rise. CONFUSED? taxes that it generates — is seen a slightly smaller luxury build- Squadron hailed the announce- by many park supporters as the Brooklyn Bridge Park will TURN TO PAGE 12 & READ have fewer luxury condos in- ing on John Street in DUMBO in ment as “a path to complete Brook- best way to generate the $16-mil- side its waterfront footprint un- exchange for a Bloomberg Admin- lyn Bridge Park and address long- lion maintenance budget for the istration flip-flop to allow future The Explainer der a deal that would set aside fu- standing community concerns park, which is required to be self- tax revenues from the 30 prop- sustaining. ture tax revenues to pay for the erties owned by the tax-exempt about housing on the site,” but op- park’s $16-million annual upkeep Watchtower Bible and Tract So- ponents slammed the lawmaker housing inside the park develop- The Watchtower Bible and for allowing housing inside the Tract Society is slowly moving — but how much less housing de- ciety to fund the park if those ment. “There will be housing on pends on the timely sale of tax- park in exchange for the illusion its operations upstate, and the So- buildings are sold and return to John Street [and] there won’t be exempt buildings owned by the the tax rolls. of Watchtower revenues. ciety does not pay taxes on office enough Watchtower property to Jehovah’s Witnesses and not con- If all the buildings are sold, Michael Van Valkenburg Associates “He gained half promises,” buildings, printing plants and resi- trolled by the city. there is a chance that no luxury Housing inside Brooklyn Bridge Park could be limited to just said Judi Francis, president of replace housing on Pier 6.” dences under controversial federal State Sen. Daniel Squadron housing will a smaller building in DUMBO — if the Jehovah’s Witnesses the Brooklyn Bridge Park De- Francis may be fighting a bat- law that relieves religious organi- (D–Brooklyn Heights) and As- be needed at sell their Brooklyn Heights properties promptly. fense Fund, which has opposed tle already lost; controversial lux- See PARK on page 12 COPS NAB POACHERS Wildlife-trapping vagrants of Prospect Park hit with fi nes By Natalie O’Neill In the most-dramatic case , The Brooklyn Paper Meadows of a plucky little goose who lost Cops have busted a group of the top half of his beak to a oddball poachers in Prospect fishhook earned him endless Park — a band of vagrants that sympathy and the nickname, was trapping and eating ducks, “Beaky.” squirrels and pigeons. The fishing and hunt- Photo by Olaf Soltau Parks officers wrote four ing ticket blitz comes while Funny, he doesn’t look like a rare bird to us — but ornithologists tickets — two for killing wild- park-goers collect and docu- went nuts when this gray-hooded gull showed up in Coney Island. life and two for illegal fish- ment large mounds of fishing ing — totaling $2,100 in fines wire, claiming waterfowl fre- during a two-day period last SHAME quently get tangled. week. And it’s not the first time The city would not imme- imals, then grills them over that poachers have been busted. diately release details of the the fire, according to park Last year, park-goers con- It’s a fl y by! incidents, which occurred on watchdogs. fronted a man after spotting July 17 and 18 — just days “One woman uses a net to him catching fish and secret- after park-goers told rangers bag the ducks,” said wildlife ad- ing them into a bag — a vio- Birders fl ock to Coney to see gull about a “Beverly Hillbillies”- vocate Johanna Clearfield. lation of the city’s “catch-and- Wildlife advocates have release” rules. like scene featuring men grill- Community Newspaper Group / Stephen Brown By Aaron Short before landed on the beach. long pushed the Parks Depart- ing critters over a campfire and Wildlife advocates Anne-Katrin Titze and Ed Bahlman After being confronted, the The Brooklyn Paper The gray-hooded gull, typically in- ment to crack down on illegal keeping fish in buckets on the discovered turtle traps last year. man dumped the dead fish back Meet the coolest bird in Coney Is- digenous to sub-Saharan Africa and southeast side of the lake, near hunting and fishing in Pros- into the lake. land! coastal South America, touched down the ice skating rink. pect Park — especially after The new poaching busts Birders of a feather flocked together last week and bonded with a gaggle of “This is a dodgy group,” catch a pigeon while his friend The disheveled — and pos- a stunning array of cases in bring to mind last year’s wave at the People’s Playground this week laughing gulls just off the Boardwalk. said park-goer Peter Colon, started a fire. “They are the sibly homeless — tribe in ques- which geese and cygnets were of animal murders by the so- after a shorebird so rare it had only A birder first noticed the gull’s un- who spotted one of the men most threatening people in tion uses “makeshift” fishing injured by illegal barbed fish- called “Butcher of Prospect been recorded in North America once See GULL on page 12 crouched down, trying to the park.” poles and traps to catch the an- hooks and lure. See POACH on page 13 The Mouth roars! Marty: Let Jamie take freebies Borough President Markowitz has been extremely quotable during the scandal: Beep calls for relaxed city ethics rules against tagalong spouses “They look upon me like the By Dan MacLeod officials can bring their spouses on the consider clarifiying it.” to take the same freebies that are lav- mayor of a city and when you go The Brooklyn Paper free trips. He defiantly claimed that Jamie ished on their elected spouses, who are over there, they expect your wife He won’t let this one die. “It’s not a law, just a set of reg- Markowitz’s travel perks were legit- allowed to take free trips to promote to be with you and you meet up Fresh from last week’s slap for bring- ulations that the city has in place,” imate because she is “the First Lady the borough or the city — as Markow- with other husbands and wives. Photo by Julie Rosenberg ing his wife on three international jun- Markowitz said last Thursday after of Brooklyn,” a position that exists in itz did on the trips to Turkey and the It’s sort of like good work for New Borough President Markowitz kets, Borough President Markowitz is that most important of officials du- spirit, though not in law. Netherlands in 2007 and 2009. York, representing our city and out and his wife, Jamie — an unfor- demanding that the city relax its regu- ties, MC’ing at a deli opening in Bay Under the Beep’s proposal, such bor- His wife tagged along and got free See MOUTH on page 12 gettable, inseparable pair. lations so that he and other top elected Ridge. “[The city] should seriously ough “first ladies” would be allowed See MARTY on page 12 Un-bee-lievably bad Swarm of wasps invades Brooklyn Bridge Park By Kate Briquelet stinging pests to move along. to humans (especially those with and Haru Coryne Last month, digger wasps com- rum on hand). The Brooklyn Paper mandeered the giant sandbox at When that didn’t work, park Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier the foot of Atlantic Avenue, and staff started raking the sand each bugs — which sometimes go by 6 has become the city’s biggest the play area was actually closed day, trying to dislocate the har- their nom de doom, bembix ocu- beehive — terrifying parkgoers between July 21 and 26 as staff- rowing pests. lata — are hardly killer bees. and forcing officials to shutter the ers tried to shoo the superflies Yet the wasps have remained But experts say there’s noth- popular sandpit for five days last with mint oil, a substance that sand hogs. ing to fear — these docile, al- month in a vain attempt to get the can kill wasps yet remain benign The good news is that these See WASPS on page 13 GAME CHANGER! Photo by Stefano Giovannini Pro hockey could be coming to Bklyn Jim Staley, director of Roulette, an avant-garde arts group, has run afoul of some By Aaron Short “We hope to explore hockey oppor- locals for his plan to serve booze inside his venue, which is being built in the empty YWCA theater at the corner of Third and Atlantic avenues. The Brooklyn Paper tunities in the future,” Barclays Cen- Barclays Center officials now say that ter CEO Brett Yormark said this week, the Prospect Heights sports arena will be though quickly adding, “[but] our pri- able to host a professional hockey team — mary focus at the moment is to build the a flip-flop that comes days after Nassau best sports and entertainment venue in Spinning ‘Roulette’ County voters rejected a new home for the the world.” struggling New York Islanders.