Going Fourth

Brooklyn’s Real Newspaper BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 834–9350 • Brooklyn, NY • ©2008 AWP/16 pages • Vol. 31, No. 14 • Saturday, April 5, 2008 • FREE ALIVE! Yards foes GOING FOURTH to sing to Forlorn no longer, Brooklyn’s Supremes boulevard seems ready for retail By Dana Rubinstein By Dana Rubinstein The Brooklyn Paper The Brooklyn Paper The Atlantic Yards project is heading to the Supreme Court — if Retail finally looks ready to take off on the Court will have it, that is. Fourth Avenue, a run-down thoroughfare that has seen scores of new residential units Eleven Brooklynites who still own land in the foot- in the past few years, but has been slow to DEAD! print of the mega- cast off its identity as a commercial desert project asked between Park Slope and Cobble Hill. the High Court Neighbors hankering for more shopping op- on Monday to tions on what planners have billed as the future examine the “Brooklyn Boulevard” can thank the avenue’s state’s use of emi- oft-derided 12-story towers for the good news. nent domain to make These buildings may offend the eye, rising like way for Bruce Rat- so many yellow teeth in a gingivitis-ridden ner’s development — mouth, but the flood of new residents has fi- and at least one ex- nally created consumer demand. pert gave the case a “Retail follows population changes,” said good chance of be- Roslyn Huebener, of Aguayo and Huebener ing heard by the Realty. Court, which turns Indeed, for every new building coming up Julie Larsen Maher / Wildlife Conservation Society Julie Larsen Maher / Wildlife Conservation Society down 99 percent of with zero space for ground-floor retail, another / Noelle D’Arrigo the 8,000 petitions is rising with space set aside for boutiques and it receives every year. gyms and restaurants. “The petition is very well written, Circle of life (death) The Argyle, a 12-story, 59-unit tower to be so there’s a chance,” said attorney completed by this end of this year, between Michael Rikon, who once represented For every beginning, there is an ending, and animal lovers learned that lesson again Sixth and Seventh streets, may have no last week. First, on Friday, the Prospect Park Zoo welcomed its newest arrival, a kanga- Paper The Brooklyn plaintiffs fighting eminent domain at ground-floor retail. Ratner’s Metrotech project. roo joey named Riley. But the next day, tragedy struck at the New York Aquarium in But developer Domenick Tonacchio’s This building on Fourth Avenue and Warren Street has eight stories Two months ago, Rikon said the Coney Island, where a 43-year-old sand tiger shark Bertha sucked in her last gill-aided planned 10-story, 49-unit building at the corner of housing with a parking garage instead of retail on the ground odds were “extremely slim” that the breath. That circle of life, folks; it giveth and it taketh away. See FOURTH on page 14 floor, bucking a trend on the future “Brooklyn Boulevard.” case, Goldstein v. Pataki, would be accepted. But he said on Wednesday, “I’ve changed my opinion” because the plaintiffs, who include Freddy’s Bar and Daniel Goldstein of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, may have found an inconsistency in the Court’s The cost WATCHTOWER landmark 2005 Kelo decision. Traditionally, Eye-in-sky is talk of DUMBO courts have allowed of Victory governments to seize By Ben Muessig privately owned land for public projects Hospital sells for $45M The Brooklyn Paper like highways. And There’s a new high-rise in DUMBO, Kelo expanded the By Ben Muessig but this one isn’t residential. definition of “public The Brooklyn Paper Police parked a two-story mobile patrol benefit” to include the A local businessman paid $45 million for Dyk- tower on Front Street between Adams and positive impacts of eco- er Heights’ ailing Victory Memorial Hospital at an Pearl streets last week, directly beneath the nomic development on a “blighted” auction this week. Manhattan Bridge, puzzling residents of community. Gabi Saadia offered the staggering sum for the the quiet neighborhood who don’t think of But the court also said that the state soon-to-close medical center on March 31. The re- the area as needing 24-hour surveillance. can’t seize land “under the mere pre- mainder of the hospital’s $90-million debt will be Cops usually install the hydraulic tow- text of a public purpose when [the] slowly paid off by Saadia, said Tim Walsh, a lawyer ers, known as Sky Watch, in high-crime ar- actual purpose [is] to bestow a private for Victory. eas. The 20-foot-tall platforms, equipped benefit.” “The good news is that it’s not going to become with cameras and various sensors, offer po- That same 5–4 decision also held condos,” said Bill Guarinello, chairman of the be- lice improved vantage points, while re- / Julie Rosenberg that courts must defer to a given state leaguered hospital’s board. “It’s going to remain minding crooks that they’re being watched. legislature’s determination of what is and is not in the public benefit. healthcare related.” Callan / Tom In recent years, Sky Watch towers have The 243-bed hospital filed for bankruptcy in been deployed in Harlem to combat drug But the Goldstein v. Pataki plain- 2006, and a state commission subsequently recom- trafficking. In February, police installed a tiffs, who have lost two prior rounds in this battle, want the Supremes to al- mended that it be shuttered. surveillance tower on the corner of Nos- Paper The Brooklyn Since then, the 108-year-old hospital has laid off trand and St. Marks avenues in Crown Police have deployed this 24-hour low lower courts to determine if gov- ernment is using its eminent domain employees, lost its ambulances, and terminated its Heights for the same stated reason. watchtower in low-crime DUMBO. maternity unit — where hospital supporters state Paper The Brooklyn The latest Sky Watch installation is the power properly — namely that it is Sen. Marty Golden (R–Bay Ridge) and Councilman talk of DUMBO, where the local popula- truly for public benefit, not for the Vince Gentile (D–Bay Ridge) were born. tion of artisans and trendsetters is growing But never has the NYPD brought out gain of a developer. The hospital will shut its ER and end in-patient Toys for tots accustomed to a beefed-up police pres- the big gun — the Sky Watch. The issue is central to Atlantic care on June 30, but “but the nursing facility will ence. After a crime wave during the sum- “It’s always seemed very quiet in the Yards, because opponents argue that remain open [under the new owner],” said Jeremy One-year-old Gabriel Rosenbaum plays janitor at the fake (no, mer, extra officers — some from neigh- streets here,” said Elizabeth Maher, a the so-called public benefit of the Johnson, another lawyer for the hospital, which is really, fake), gas works inside the new Moxie Spot family restau- boring precincts — were called in as a Boerum Hill resident who hangs out in now-truncated 16-skyscraper arena, on 92nd Street. rant at 81 Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn Heights. show of force. residential, office space See SKY WATCH on page 12 and hotel project was merely a sham de- signed to get Ratner through the ap- proval process. “The arena for Rat- ner’s professional bas- ketball team is no more City pitches its $240M jail plan a public benefit than the planned hotel,” reads the petition. “Both … will be By Mike McLaughlin lion to enlarge the currently closed, 11-story, and has been closed since 2003. called for demolishing the existing jail and available to the public — for a price.” The Brooklyn Paper 759-inmate prison into one that holds 1,469 The latest request for proposals is a far cry replacing it with a smaller detention center The petition also argues that if the The city is taking another stab at re- troubled souls, plus boasts ground-floor retail from the city’s effort last year, when it asked — a vision that doesn’t mesh with the city project were indeed intended for the on bustling Atlantic Avenue. developers to integrate residential housing plan for expanding the jail, said Department designing the shuttered Brooklyn House of public’s benefit, the state would have The city has long said that enlarging the and retail into the complex. of Correction spokesperson Steven Morello. Detention in its ongoing effort to expand had a long planning process, and then pokey is necessary because its Rikers Island Such a request brought little interest — Another contentious proposal called for a held a bidding process to choose the the jail and install retail space in the At- penal colony is crumbling, and the Depart- though Common Ground Council, Hamlin public middle school on the premises. That lantic Avenue facility. best developer — a process that did ment of Correction wants inmates closer to Ventures and Time Equities created a fanci- idea was scotched within minutes after it was not happen at Atlantic Yards. The Department Downtown Brooklyn courts. ful idea that included luxury housing and floated at a January meeting. Warner Johnston, a spokesman for of Design and Con- But neighborhood groups have been criti- open space in a glass-walled doughnut Developers interested in expanding the jail the Empire State Development Cor- struction will pay a de- cal of all plans to expand the slammer, which around the jail (pictured). should submit proposals to the Department The city rejected this plan poration, which spearheaded the proj- veloper $240 mil- is between Boerum Place and Smith Street That proposal went nowhere because it of Correction by April 11.

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