Downtown TKTS Booth Quietly Closes by Julianne Cuba Bigwigs at Stage-Advocacy Group Have Declined to Where It Wasn’T on and Off Broadway
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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 18 pages • Vol. 41, No. 38 • September 21–27, 2018 • FREE TROUBLED BRIDGE Squibb span to Brooklyn Bridge Park has no reopening date By Julianne Cuba Now, Arup workers must think up de- Brooklyn Paper sign tweaks to again shore up the once Brooklyn Heights residents should notoriously bouncy span before park- not hold their breath waiting for the goers can set foot on it, a multi-step serpentine Squibb Bridge to Brooklyn project that Landau said would likely Bridge Park to reopen following its sud- drag on for an indeterminate amount den July closure, because the problem of time since the firm’s initial assess- meadow leaders claimed was a single ment of the bridge’s recent damage took faulty piece of wood is actually a far big- longer than planned. ger structural flaw, the stewards said. “It took us a lot longer to do the test- “I cannot give anybody a timeline as ing than we hoped, and it will take lon- to how long it will take,” said Eric Lan- ger for us to design the appropriate so- dau, head of the semi-private Brooklyn lution than you would like it to take,” Bridge Park Corporation, which main- he said. tains the green space. “Sadly, that one The water damage is a particularly piece that showed visual signs of prob- bedeviling problem because the wood lems is not the only piece where we used to build the $4-million, taxpayer- have deterioration.” funded footbridge — black locust — Park keepers shuttered the zig-zag- is supposed to withstand heavy mois- ging crossing from Middagh Street’s ture, according to Landau. “Every wood expert we spoke to said Squibb Park to the waterfront lawn in File photo by Colin Mixson July , alleging a single plank in “poor The Squibb Bridge, seen here after park workers barricaded its Squibb black locust is the best there is — you condition” necessitated its closure, and could put it into a vat of water for 100 Park entry in July. Photo by Jason Speakman recruited engineering firm Arup Group years and you’d never have deteriora- — the same company tapped in 2016 to tion,” he said. “So we were really sur- oversee the span’s previous $3-million inspection last week, found the lone are as miffed about the span’s second prised, as was our wood expert, when repair after meadow stewards fired the piece of wood is actually among many prolonged shuttering as they are. they discovered that we had a piece Election fever firm that created the bridge amidst that that are crumbling due to “higher than “We know there are concerns,” he with decay.” fix — to survey the damage. expected moisture level,” according to said. “Let me be clear, we are upset Landau shared the news during an Democratic Socialist Julia Salazar embraced a supporter after win- And the engineers, who wrapped their Landau, who assured locals his staffers about its closure.” See BRIDGE on page 7 ning the Sept. 13 Democratic primary for New York’s 18th District, defeating eight-term state Sen. Martin Malave Dilan and now go- ing on to represent parts of Bushwick, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bedford-Stuyvesant, East New York, and Brownsville in Albany as she faces no general-election challengers. Attorney Zellnor Myrie (below), also won, delivering a stunning defeat to sitting Crown Plus: Floating ideas Heights state Sen. Jesse Hamilton. For more results, see page 3. Big pool proposed for Heights park, but concerns about crowding remain By Julianne Cuba concerns, we really encourage you to share Brooklyn Paper ideas about how to mitigate them.” They want this pool to make a splash — Drury and green-space keepers at the without dampening neighbors’ privacy. semi-private Brooklyn Bridge Park Cor- Brooklyn Bridge Park leaders want poration told locals they hope the eter- the new public swimming hole they’re nal bath coming to the Middagh Street building in Squibb Park to be more than play space will fit between 150 and 300 double the size of the beloved Pop-Up people, up from the maximum of 60 that Pool it is replacing, according to consul- could cool off in the Pop-Up Pool that of- tants tapped to help plan the facility, but ficials drained for good at the end of the also asked neighbors to share their con- swimming season this year. cerns about foot traffic a larger pool will Residents also weighed in on the type draw to the tony enclave where residents of facility — whether a lap pool, wading have complained about unruly park-go- pool, or some hybrid of the two — in ad- ers in the past . dition to floating ideas about other ame- “How do we design things that im- nities they want to see in the space at the Brooklyn Bridge Park Bridge Brooklyn pact the surroundings?” said Tythe De- Sept. 12 meeting about the project. Brooklyn Bridge Park bigwigs hope the new pool they are building in sign rep Kristina Drury, whose local firm Locals can also submit thoughts about nearby Squibb Park will fit more than twice the number of swimmers was tapped by meadow stewards to collect the scheme via an online survey — which who could cool off in the meadow’s now-closed Pop-Up Pool. input on the project. “We do want to hear See POOL on page 5 Photo by Michael Simpson Downtown TKTS booth quietly closes By Julianne Cuba Bigwigs at stage-advocacy group have declined to where it wasn’t on and off Broadway. regularly drew queues of locals — But LeShay assured that plum- Brooklyn Paper the Theatre Development Fund, feasible for TDF, a not-for-profit But the window also hawked who often frustrated this paper’s meting profits, not the gun shots, And … scene. which opened the Downtown booth service organization, to maintain stubs to performances at local in- reporters when they had to bob and were to blame for the demise of Local theater-lovers now have in MetroTech Center next to this an outlet at this location,” said Da- stitutions such as the Brooklyn weave through the crowds while the local TKTS outpost, which he to schlep across the East River to newspaper’s headquarters in 2008 , vid LeShay. Academy of Music, and was the racing to file a story on deadline claimed struggled to make money score half-price tickets for Broad- shut the window down on Sept. 1 The Kings County kiosk — like first of the organization’s booths to — to the booth, where last month a since it debuted. way plays after Brooklyn’s lone due to several months of low sales, its three surviving counterparts in accept credit cards when it opened patron waiting in line had to duck “Since opening in the summer TKTS window closed earlier this according to a spokesman. Manhattan — sold same-day and a decade ago. and cover after gunfire rang out in of 2008, sales have always been The Downtown TKTS closed month with no grand finale. “In the past year, ticket sales next-day discount tickets for shows And the low-cost entertainment the MetroTech campus. light,” he said. booth earlier this month. grandfather preached, leading the family of the Staten Island–born songwriter to move into an apart- This schoolhouse a lock! ment next door. Baez and locals including many present-day occupants of Joan Baez, locals are triumphant in effort 238 President St. in March be- gan their push to landmark the to landmark small Carroll Gardens buildings old kindergarten and its neigh- bor — a campaign that inspired By Julianne Cuba sense of place, and I am thrilled this newspaper’s former editor Brooklyn Paper that they have now been for- to pen his own folk song about Cue the victory music! mally designated as individual the effort — after news spread Preservationists including leg- landmarks,” said Carroll Gar- that a developer sought to buy endary folk singer Joan Baez suc- dens Assemblywoman Jo Anne and demolish the former school to erect a seven-story residential ceeded in saving a pair of Carroll Simon. building in its place. Gardens buildings the musician’s The two-story building at 236 President St. opened in 1897 as But that deal allegedly col- family once lived and worked in the Hans S. Christian Memorial lapsed after city preservation- when officials named the prop- Kindergarten, the first freestand- ists kicked off the landmarking erties as city landmarks on Tues- ing facility of its kind in the bor- process for the two buildings day. ough, whose faculty moved into weeks later, when the owner of Advocates cheered the Land- its neighboring residential com- 236 President St. put the property marks Preservation Commission’s plex completed in 1853 shortly back on the market — where it decision to preserve the 19th-cen- thereafter. still sits unsold with a $4,950,000 tury properties at 236 and 238 Associated Press / I. Lopez Decades later, leaders of the price tag . President St., citing their inter- Joan Baez, who with locals First Methodist Episcopal congre- And following the landmarks connected past as integral to the pushed officials to landmark gation transformed the classrooms commission’s ruling, the agen- Photo by Caroline Ourso neighborhood’s identity. the buildings where her fam- into the borough’s first Spanish- cy’s approval is now required for The city on Tuesday desginated the old schoolhouse at 236 President St., and its neighbor, “These two structures provide ily lived, and her grandfather speaking church, where clergy most renovations to the ancient as landmarks.