Magic's Kingdom
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BROOKLYN’S REAL NEWSPAPERS Including The Brooklyn Heights Paper, Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill Paper, DUMBO Paper and the Downtown News 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 • © 2005 Brooklyn Paper Publications • 16 pages •Vol.28, No. 21 BWN • Saturday, May 21, 2005 • FREE Magic’s BORO’S BEACON kingdom Our 9-11 memorial dedicated in Ridge NBA Hall-of-Famer buys By Jotham Sederstrom The Brooklyn Papers On a breezy, sun-filled day eerily reminiscent of the September morning when two commercial jets were flown into the World Williamsburgh Bank tower Trade Center towers, several hundred people, many of whom wit- nessed the destruction from the 69th Street Pier in Bay Ridge, returned to that dock for the unveiling of Brooklyn’s first-ever By Jess Wisloski borough-wide memorial to victims of those attacks. The Brooklyn Papers Fire and police boats quietly circled Monday morning as, one-by-one, He conquered the NBA, he’s a giant in the officials involved with the Brooklyn Remembers memorial project stepped retail franchising field and now Earvin behind a podium and carefully reflected on the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A “Magic” Johnson towers above Brooklyn with light fog blurred an otherwise clear view of Lower Manhattan. his latest purchase — the Williamsburgh Sav- “You can understand what a perfect place this is for a memorial. Just ings Bank tower. look around you,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg during the May 16 cer- An investment fund led by the NBA Hall-of- emony, adding later, “We saw blazing towers go down. But human beings Famer teamed up with a New York developer to have the capability to mourn while also looking to the future.” purchase the building at 1 Hanson Place, the bor- More than 400 men and women, many of them relatives of the 283 Brook- ough’s tallest, the partners announced this week. lynites who died that day, appeared stoic, if not a bit solemn, as Bloomberg They plan to convert the city landmark office and other elected officials took turns praising the memorial, a bronze sculpture building, which stands 34 stories and 512 feet tall, depicting the once prominent trumpet used by firefighters to announce danger. into luxury condominiums with ground-floor retail. See BEACON on page 5 The Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund, which incor- porates Johnson’s development company —which also has another luxury condominium project in progress in Park Slope, at 45 Park Place — “focus- es on the development of urban properties in under- served neighborhoods,” according to a press re- lease by the company. They teamed up with the Dermot Co. to pur- chase the building. One report had the price tag at $71 million, although that could not be confirmed by press time. From the time it was built in 1929 until 1962, the Williamsburgh Bank building’s four-sided clock was the largest in the nation. A city landmark, the grand limestone building, which combines Ro- manesque and Byzantine elements, is overdue for a facelift. Besides HSBC bank, which sold the tower and will vacate its eight floors, the building houses the offices of many dentists. Aproject manager for Canyon-Johnson, Bobby Turner, said he saw the Williamsburgh tower op- portunity as “unrivaled” and “unbelievable.” “The whole mandate of the fund that we manage is to revitalize densely populated and ethnically di- / Tom Callan / Tom verse communities, and look for unique opportuni- Callan / Tom ties to contribute in development,” Turner said. “Here’s a building that was built in the 1920s that is unparalleled in its landmark status and archi- tectural design. It has the fourth largest four-faced clock in the world, it’s got unobstructed views of The Brooklyn Papers The Brooklyn The Brooklyn Papers File The Brooklyn Manhattan, we are strategically located at the front The Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower, at 1 Hanson Place, door of one of the largest business transit terminals Firefighter John Dilillo (Engine 14, Manhattan) with his mother, Angela Dilillo, visit Brooklyn’s Sept. 11 memorial, “Beacon,” on has been purchased by Magic Johnson and partners. See MAGIC on page 5 the 69th Street Pier in Bay Ridge on Tuesday, the first night it cast its beam of light into the sky. Cops eye Flying the ‘co-op’ bias in Gourmet grocery has Slope co-op appeal By Jess Wisloski Union Market, on the corner of navigable aisles of organic and The Brooklyn Papers Union Street and Sixth Avenue, is gourmet teas, cereals and spreads. the closest counterpart for neighbor- Park Slope Food Co-op members The Park Slope Food Co-op, hood shoppers. pay a $25 one-time joining fee and known since 1973 for providing The new 3,000-square-foot store, a $100 “investment” deposit that is Carroll organic produce and grocery-store which opened six weeks ago, had a refunded if they quit. They are re- goods to its members at discounts handful of shoppers on a recent quired to work 2 hours and 45 min- — provided the members work weekday afternoon. utes every four weeks. Babysitters there a few hours each month — is Union Market, which carries watch children in a playroom while facing fresh competition just half a both organic and conventional fruits parents are working or shopping. slashing Callan / Tom block away. and vegetables as well as a selection The co-ops offers merchandise at The cooperative has in the past from regional farms, boasts a selec- 20 percent over wholesale, accord- hosted discussions on the impact of tion of more than 150 gourmet ing to Joe Holtz, the co-op’s general By Jess Wisloski such new food retailers to the area cheeses, and meat and poultry that manager and one of its 10 original The Brooklyn Papers as Fresh Direct, Whole Foods has no added antibiotics or hor- founders, who said that commonly Police are investigating a stabbing in broad Papers The Brooklyn (opening next year on Third Av- mones. It carries several lines of or- purchased items cost a little over 30 At the Union Market on Union St. at Sixth Avenue, Max Hoffman, 4, and mom, Deb enue) and Fairway (opening as ear- ganic and artisanal breads and dis- percent more at a supermarket. daylight in Carroll Park as a possible hate ly as this fall in Red Hook), but play glistening, picture-perfect and crime. The shocking brawl that led to three Hoffman, shop at the meat counter. See CO-OP on page 12 teens being stabbed stirred concern among neighbors who share the public space. The incident, which took place in the northeast section of the park at President and Smith streets, happened just as school children typically flood the park, at 3:40 pm on May 15. Police say a fight broke out among several UN in Brooklyn could clog streets teenagers inside the park, and one of the teens in- volved pulled out a knife. By Jotham Sederstrom the issuance of $600 million in one reason he blocked the bid headquarters on the East River Designed as a major push to United Nations and its slew of Two teenagers were taken to New York The Brooklyn Papers bonds to fund construction of a for new digs in Manhattan. is being renovated. retain back-office space in New diplomatic license plates, inter- Methodist Hospital for stab wounds, including a 35-story skyscraper next to the Secretary-General Kofi An- Besides its staff of 3,000, the York City and keep corporations sections all along Flatbush Av- 16-year-old white male who received a laceration Even with hundreds of new United Nations’ current head- nan said in a report issued last U.N.’s General Assembly meet- from fleeing to New Jersey, the enue are predicted to see added on his right arm, and a 17-year-old white male who parking spaces included in the quarters, said that a move to week that the United Nations ings require a conference hall Downtown Brooklyn Plan, traffic. It cited Willoughby received a laceration to his chest. Downtown Brooklyn Plan Brooklyn would almost certainly may have found commercial big enough to seat 1,800 — passed by the City Council in Street in particular, of which de- A 13-year-old black male was taken to Long Is- redevelopment project, the usher in traffic and parking woes. space in Downtown Brooklyn which a development proposed August, is expected to encour- veloper Joseph Sitt has said land College Hospital for lacerations to his face. arrival of some 3,000 United “They don’t respect the traffic that could serve its Secretariat on the southern corner of age more than 6 million square U.N. officials inquired. Police say all three wounded teens were treated Nations employees would laws of the city of New York, so and General Assembly needs Willoughby and Flatbush av- feet of office development in ad- “Willoughby Street would and released the same day. Police say that an inves- drown the area’s already I expect them to be parked all while its iconic glass-and-steel enues might be able to provide. dition to 1 million square feet of function as the primary access tigation being headed up by the NYPD Hate packed streets with wall-to- over the place,” said Golden. retail space and residential de- corridor for much of the com- Crimes Unit is ongoing. wall congestion, not to men- “So in Downtown Brooklyn, velopment — in part by allow- mercial development that would A police source said that while the case had not which is already congested, it PAGE 7 ing buildings to rise up to 400 occur with the proposed ac- yet been determined to be a hate crime, it is being tion deplete an already bleak will just continue to go on.