BROOKLYN’S REAL NEWSPAPERS Including Brooklyn Heights Paper, Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill Paper, Downtown News, Fort Greene-Clinton Hill Paper and the DUMBO Paper 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 • 16/18 pages •Vol.29, No. 41 AWP • Saturday, October 21, 2006 • FREE Mickey Mouse plan Critics rip Disneyesque theme park on Red Hook piers By Ariella Cohen area’s remaing cargo business and transform the tion next March from the publicly owned piers. The Brooklyn Papers fenced-off working waterfront into a phantasmagoria The city Economic Development Corporation says it of family-friendly attractions, housing and restaurants. can create 3,000 new service sector jobs — and housing Elected officials from Washington to City Hall “This is part of a scheme for a New York with as for 700 people — by evicting ASI and its several hun- this week derided Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to few blue-collar jobs as possible,” said Rep. Jerry Nad- dred full-time longshoremen. turn the Red Hook and Cobble Hill waterfront ler (D-Coney Island) at a public hearing last week on The cranes operated by those dockworkers would into a maritime-themed tourist attraction as “Dis- the plan’s environmental impact. disappear to also make way for a 250-room hotel on a ney on the Waterfront.” A spokesman for the company that operates the currently inaccessible stretch of waterfront west of And one Red Hooker described the plan as “a area’s last working cargo port sees Bloomberg’s plan Columbia Street. pimping of the waterfront.” as a plot against Democratic union jobs. A smaller working port, with 100 jobs, would be re- “The history of maritime trade is as old as prostitu- “It’s a dollars-for-developers scheme from a Repub- tained. tion and it looks like the maritime trades are about to be lican administration with no interest in keeping good Residents who testified at last week’s Community prostituted,” said Tom Kerr, a resident of Beard Street. jobs in Brooklyn,” said Matt Yates, director of opera- Board 6 hearing cautioned against rezoning the water- The criticism is a reaction to city plans to oust the tions for American Stevedoring, which is facing evic- front for residential development. “There are other places to put housing,” said Dan Wiley, spokesman for Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Sunset Park). Others complained that development would overcrowd schools and parks, taking a large toll on the quality of life in a neighbor- hood that is slowly regaining a residential SMART population that vanished after World War II. “We need the peaceful waterfront com- mom munity and good schools that we have spent the last forever fighting for,” said Grace SEE PAGE 6 Seifman, who has lived in the neighborhood for nearly a decade. “We don’t need more housing blocking our views, another theme park or a South Street Seaport.” But city planners promise that their theme park will be suited to the historic character of the dockyard community. One proposal, by PortSide NewYork, includes cafes, a maritime-themed shop and two salvaged, historic ships where students and tourists would learn about waterfront trade. Ho / Dennis W. “There is space in Red Hook for a hinge between the world of recreation … and the world of work, because there is still a thriv- ing industrial waterfront there,” said Elaine The Brooklyn Papers The Brooklyn / Dennis W. Ho / Dennis W. Carmichael, a planner on the project. Meanwhile, ASI is trying to hold onto The sister tower of the Brooklyn Marriott, at 333 Adams St., is 25 stories and contains its working-port turf. 280 rooms. It opened this week. “I don’t know if the city is trying to kill maritime industry in Brooklyn, but this The Brooklyn Papers The Brooklyn plan will certainly hurt it,” said Edward Kelly, president of the Maritime Associa- tion, which represents 400 maritime busi- nesses, including ASI. Who needs homework? “It’s fairly obvious that forcing one of Sophia Bennett-Holmes looks on as her mother, Sarah Bennett, signs copies of her new book (co-written with the last port operators to leave will do ir- ROOM BOOM Nancy Kalish), “The Case Against Homework,” at the Barnes and Noble in Park Slope on Oct. 17. reparable harm.” Marriott annex opens ARTIST COLLARED as competitors arrive By Dana Rubinstein “Brooklyn is attracting people from all over the globe and now they have a place to By Tania Haas The Brooklyn Papers The Brooklyn Marriott’s 280-room stay when they’re here,” said Craig Hammer- for The Brooklyn Papers man, district manager of Community Board 6 BAM does Ibsen P7 Police dragged a quirky Clinton Hill annex has swung open its doors on Adams Make that, places to stay. artist — and building code scofflaw — Street, bringing its total number of rooms in The skeleton of Brooklyn’s first “boutique” out of his home Wednesday, after the city the often sold-out hotel to 660. hotel is now going up on Fourth Avenue, be- declared his jerry-rigged, self-built man- The 25-floor annex opens amid a hotel tween Fifth and Sixth streets, where visitors boom in Brooklyn that includes the Holiday will have views of a dialysis unit on one side, sion unsafe for him and his neighbors. Inn Express on Union Street in Gowanus and Arthur Wood’s famous ziggurat abode, and taxi depot on the other. The eight-story, 48- at least four almost-completed newcomers. room lodge features a sleek design by Quebec- Trolley idea “Broken Angel,” attracted the attention of the But the Marriott is the most grand, accord- based Andres Escobar. city Department of Buildings after part of it ing to its general manager. caught fire last week. On Duffield Street, a 25-story W Hotel and “Our annex is fabulous,” gushed Sam a similarly sized Sheraton Hotel will rise next When inspectors toured the former Brooklyn Ibrahim. “The views are breathtaking — you to each other for a total of 500 rooms. The Trolley headquarters, they discovered enough can see the Statue of Liberty [and] the Brook- is derailed code violations to evict Wood. Sheraton is slated to open in early 2008. lyn and Manhattan bridges. It’s unbelievable.” “The building is open to the elements, the The addition comes at a critical moment And for the thrifty tourist, hotel mogul By Gersh Kuntzman floors are not complete and there aren’t stair- for Brooklyn, as tourists increasingly spurn Sam Chang, who built the Holiday Inn Ex- press, is expanding his Brooklyn portfolio The Brooklyn Papers ways, just planks in some places,” said Build- Manhattan for its hipper neighbor. ings spokesman Jennifer Givner. “There are “Brooklyn is hot now, everyone’s moving with the creation of a Comfort Inn on Baltic ABrooklyn man’s dream of restoring the bor- also two illegal additions. One is a 50-foot ex- there, and it’s no longer a second choice for Street near the Gowanus Houses. ough’s fabled trolleys looks like it’s being tension above the roofline and another is a 15- meetings,” said Marriott spokeswoman Kathy That’s in addition to the recently opened At- derailed by planners of a waterfront development foot horizontal extension. The building is a lantic Motor Inn on Atlantic Avenue in Crown / Tania Haas / Tania Duffy. “We’ve had to turn down some con- along the Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO shore. safety hazard for him and for the public.” ventions, because we didn’t have enough Heights, a new Best Western in Sheepshead Bay, Arthur Melnick, who has spent a decade as a Givner said her agency ordered Wood to va- sleeping rooms for conventioneers. and The Smith, a 93-room boutique hotel being Quixotic promoter of trolleys as clean and efficient cate the building on Tuesday. When he refused, “The expansion is meant to make us more built across from the Brooklyn House of Deten- transportation, presented Buildings Department officials returned competitive in the convention market,” she said. tion on Atlantic Avenue in Boerum Hill. planners with his pro- Wednesday — this time backed by the NYPD. When the first Marriott building went up in Borough President Markowitz, thinks this posal for a three-line At 2:30, police cars blocked off both ends of Papers The Brooklyn 1998, critics said that the space in the building hotel boom is a boon for Brooklyn. streetcar system linking Wood’s block on Downing Street, and officers Clinton Hill artist Arthur Wood is dragged allocated to the hotel was too small to meet the “Each new hotel room gives visitors a spe- the so-called Brooklyn knocked on the red wooden door that bears the away from his home, which the city says is a borough’s needs. Additional space was leased to cial opportunity to be a Brooklynite — if only Bridge Park to Borough See EVICTION on page 14 danger to itself and others. the Brooklyn district attorney and other offices. for a night,” said Markowitz. Hall, the BAM cultural district and Red Hook. Several years ago, park planners said they were open to the idea of / Greg Mango / Greg historic light rail, but this time, they dodged The calm in the storm Melnick’s trolleys. “There are other things like jitneys” that are being explored, said Tech principal has big plans for battered school The Brooklyn Papers file The Brooklyn Jee Mee Kim, one of President Markowitz declared it “Randy thing, the school is 10 times bigger, Arthur Melnick several consultants hired By Paul Koepp for The Brooklyn Papers Asher Appreciation Day” in Brooklyn.