BEGGING for HELP Slope Pastor Has Had It with 3 Homeless Men
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Celebrate Lindsay Lohan at BAM P.13 Brooklyn’s Real Newspaper BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 834–9350 • Brooklyn, NY • ©2007 BROOKLYN HEIGHTS–DOWNTOWN EDITION AWP/18 pages • Vol. 30, No. 43 • Saturday, Nov. 3, 2007 • FREE INCLUDING DUMBO BEGGING FOR HELP Slope pastor has had it with 3 homeless men By Dana Rubinstein people sleeping on the steps of his house of worship The Brooklyn Paper that he has begun throwing out their belongings — a move that has prompted a flurry of multi-denomina- Three homeless men have driven one of Park tional soul-searching in liberal Park Slope. Slope’s most liberal religious leaders to the very “It’s always been a simmering problem, but it brink of what some would consider un-Christian heated up this summer,” said Meeter. behavior. For years, the front steps of the church, at the cor- Rev. Daniel Meeter of Old First Reformed Presby- ner of Seventh Avenue and Carroll Street, unprotect- Callan / Tom terian Church has gotten so fed up with the homeless ed by a fence, have served as a de facto homeless shelter. By this summer, three men in particular were finding refuge there: Robert Royster, who’d been an on-and-off visitor for Paper The Brooklyn years, Will Franklin, who drinks on the stoop and sleeps elsewhere, and Frank Silano. All three have substance-abuse problems, according to Meeter. The haunted The church at first tried to help. In the Brooklyn kids — of all ages! — caught Halloween fever spring, Meeter helped Franklin get a job at on Wednesday night. Making the scene in Cobble Hill a local Key Food, but he soon lost it. Meeter gave the men leftover food from Park (photo above) were Lea Sainz and Ines Weinstock, church affairs. He offered to help them get and Groucho Marx lover Howard Graubard. Meanwhile, treatment (he said they refused). His dea- in Park Slope, Wicked Witch of the East wannabe Kate con knitted them scarves. Lovell tried to scare her daughter Tess to no avail. The / Mike Fernandez But by July, according to Meeter, all good news? That’s not her normal skin tone. three were getting worse. “They started urinating in the area and they were losing self-control,” said Meeter. “They were making comments at The Brooklyn Paper The Brooklyn passersby and they were playing the radio A homeless man sleeps outside the Old First Reformed really loudly. Church on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. See HOMELESS on page 7 NEW D’TOWN FACE Vision of the future By Dana Rubinstein The Brooklyn Paper Downtown planners on Thursday rolled out a glitzy vision of Downtown Brooklyn as a 24/7 destination — and neighborhood — putting snazzy window dressing on a re- trenchment of the original notion that the Flatbush Avenue corridor and surrounding streets would be a booming business district. The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, the quasi-governmental agency charged with cre- ating the “new Downtown,” presented glitzy renderings (pictured) of what the area will sup- / Julie Rosenberg / Tom Callan / Tom See NEW FACE on page 14 Full story and slide show at BrooklynPaper.com Downtown Brooklyn Partnership Downtown Brooklyn The Brooklyn Paper The Brooklyn The Brooklyn Paper The Brooklyn Spelling it out OFF THE MENUS Artist tapes his anti-Yards Groups seek to curb handouts By Mike McLaughlin message onto building The Brooklyn Paper Two more groups have mobilized to In uncertain terms By Dana Rubinstein lantic Terminal Mall in the 1990s, told turn the fight against fliers and menus The Brooklyn Paper The Brooklyn Paper that Atlantic Yards into a dual-front war. Jim Vogel of the Pacific “is the same thing all over again.” Scott Witter — the curator of Brook- Street Block Association To register his anger, Witter erected the Sure, anyone can print his own sign at No Menus, No Flyers lyn’s Other Museum of Brooklyn (a.k.a. home, but for five bucks, you can buy two, gave out this placard message to “Mayor Moo Moo,” covering a Ningunos menús, ningunos aviadores BOMB) — has covered an entire brick wall of his own home with blue painter’s bright yellow, 3-inch-by-5-inch, weather- decrying menus and wall with a caustic message to Mayor resistant laminated placards from the tape. It took him eight hours and countless fliers — in six languages! 㼡 Bloomberg protesting the controversial Boerum Hill Association that say: “NO 㦘噫⠽᧨㼡 rolls of tape (no, really, he lost count). 㦘歪嫛䓸 16-skyscraper-and-arena Atlantic Yards In his message, Witter calls Ratner’s MENUS, CIRCULARS, ADVERTISE- 㼡㦘 Problem is, our crack staff 㼰㦘噫◤ 噫⠽᧨㼡㦘 project, warning that the project would re- MENTS.” ᧨㼰㦘歭嫛 歪嫛䓸 plan a “gated community” and says took the time to trans- 䓸 sult in a neighborhood getting “raped.” “there is no reason to give more of And if that’s not a clear enough message, ꐉ鰩 꽻 㼰㦘噫◤ 넁, 뻁ꄱ ᧨㼰㦘歭嫛 Witter, who opposed the destruction of Brooklyn to Bruce Ratner.” they also have an image of a menu and flier late it, and it doesn’t 넩꽩 꽻넁 䓸 ꐉ with a red slash through them; reminiscent add up. ⚜峭 鰩 꽻넁 뻁 the historic Long Island Rail Road Termi- Witter, a reformed Dumpster diver, runs ቑⓜ䞷ሧ ꄱ넩꽩 꽻 nal that made way for Bruce Ratner’s At- BOMB, a collection of modern artifacts, at of “no smoking” signs everywhere. ᨙ 넁 There are no money-back guarantees, ᨗ ⚜峭ቑⓜ his building on Steuben Street, Here’s what the sign 崭ዘ䥽䤓崭 䞷ሧ but the sign has a good track record. ቍቮ ᨙ between Park and Myrtle av- really says: ϡ ϡϥ ϕΉϡΓ ᨗ “I use it on my door, and while it does- ϝρωϡ, ϡ 崭ዘ䥽䤓 enues in Wallabout. ϡϥ ρϱέΕ 崭ቍቮ The latest screed is one of n’t always work, often it does work,” said about 20 enormous blue-tape Sue Wolfe, a member of the Boerum Hill ENGLISH messages Witter has erected Association. It means: “No Menus, No over the years. The BHA’s creation is but one of the lat- People Who Fly” menus, no fliers” est examples in the suddenly urgent fight “It was the mayor who / Adrian Kinloch SPANISH JAPANESE taught me to use painter’s against stoop flotsam. It says: “If you use [it] before a At the Park Slope Civic Council has en- It says: “None menus, none tape,” smirked Witter. “I aviators” noun it becomes a subject or [once] went out [with] a can tered the fracas with its own sign, after object.” / Adrian Kinloch of green paint and started hearing grumblings from members in the CHINESE painting. I got arrested right spring. Its creation takes a more polite ap- It says: “No Menus, No Fliers” ARABIC on Flushing Avenue. I spent Paper The Brooklyn proach saying: “Please No Fliers, Ads, It is just a line of unpronounce- 22 hours in jail. [And I Artist Scott Witter has covered two buildings in Wal- Menus” on the free sign it plans to give to KOREAN able letters, but the word “air- learned that] tape is not con- labout with anti-Atlantic Yards screeds. It’s not graffiti, block associations. Phonetically it means “No plane” appears in them. though; it’s blue painter’s tape. The Brooklyn Paper The Brooklyn sidered graffiti because it’s See MENUS on page 16 2 AWP THE BROOKLYN PAPER • WWW.BROOKLYNPAPER.COM • (718) 834-9350 November 3, 2007 shoprico.com WHERE TO EDITORS’ PICKS SATURDAY SUNDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY FRIDAY November 3 November 4 November 6 November 7 November 9 Military Guys & galas brass The Brooklyn Academy of Music celebrates its This afternoon, the 25th Next Wave Festival United States Military tonight with Finland’s Academy Band — West Tero Saarinen dance com- Point’s in-house act for pany and a big, fancy 190 years — will play a gala at the old Atlantic In a ‘Brush’ free concert at Brooklyn Super slides Telecom Center. Sure it’s ‘Battel’ of Center. Be sure not to pricey — two tickets will In celebration of its new talk during Check out a slideshow of Brooklyn exhibit, “Brushed with photos from “The Brook- set you back $300 — but the per- for cocktails, dinner, a show Are you bored with rock Light: American Water- lynites,” Seth Kushner and formance, and a taste of Hollywood shows? If your nightlife colors from the Collec- Anthony LaSala’s photo- people, without leaving Brooklyn, needs a shot in the arm, tion,” the Brooklyn Mu- graphic love letter to the because it’s worth the splurge. tonight’s Kaiju Big Battel seum is throwing a party borough tonight at Word all 48 performance is just the with swing dancing, Bookstore. Kushner shot 6 pm at the Brooklyn Academy members thing. Watch as giant movies and a chance to everyone from Steve Bus- of Music (30 Lafayette Ave. at monsters, battle in an epic of this band Ashland Place in Fort create your own water- cemi (pictured) to Coney are trained in Greene). $200 and up. For struggle for the fate of the colors. It’s the easiest Island Sideshow’s Dick Zi- combat. information, call (718) 636- world. It’s a bit like a live Best Of way to have your own gun, so head over and con- 4100 or visit www.bam.org. action “Godzilla” movie, paintings in the Museum! 3 pm at Brooklyn Center vince the boys to put your and you can bet we’ll be for the Performing Arts at mug in their next book. there with a drink in hand. 6 pm at the Brooklyn Museum Brooklyn College (one Sofas 372 & 384 atlantic bklyn 718 797 2077 (200 Eastern Pkwy.