I N S BROOKLYN’S ONLY COMPLETE U W L • Inside new Steve Getz O P N Jazz Hall in Williamsburg • Wendy Dale’s Third World travels Nightlife Guide • DUMBO gets a record label CHOOSE FROM 34 VENUES — MORE THAN 140 EVENTS! 2003 NATIONAL BROOKLYN’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AWARD WINNER Including The Downtown News, Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill Paper and Fort Greene-Clinton Hill Paper Published weekly by Brooklyn Paper Publications at 26 Court St., Brooklyn, NY 11242 Phone 718-834-9350 © Brooklyn Paper Publications • 16 pages including GO BROOKLYN • Vol. 26, No. 43 BWN • October 27, 2003 • FREE NO MORE FULTON ST. CB2 panel votes to change name, except Downtown, in honor of the Underground Railroad’s Harriet Tubman By Deborah Kolben committee recommendation, street signs cret passages and safe houses that came to on the Queens border, have already en- The Brooklyn Papers would read both Fulton Street and Harriet be known as the Underground Railroad, dorsed a name change. Tubman Boulevard along the Fulton Mall passed by a vote of 8-1, with one absten- The vote followed two years of discus- A Community Board 2 committee commercial strip from Adams Street to tion, and will come before the full board sion, a series of public hearings and a few voted Tuesday to rename most of Ful- Flatbush Avenue. From Flatbush Avenue for a vote at its Nov. 12 meeting. incendiary racial exchanges, some of which Callan / Tom ton Street to “Harriet Tubman Boule- to Classon Avenue it would bear just the Community Boards 3, 5 and 16, whose spilled over Tuesday night in the meeting at vard,” after the Underground Railroad Tubman name. communities are largely black and which the New York City College of Technology. pioneer, with the provision that the street The motion to rename Fulton Street in also share the majority of the nine-mile “I’m exuberant but exhausted,” said be co-named in Downtown Brooklyn. honor of Tubman, who led more than 300 thoroughfare that runs from Adams Street Fred Laverpool, the founder of Braggin’ Under the Traffic and Transportation slaves to freedom through the series of se- in Downtown Brooklyn to Cypress Hills About Brooklyn, a company that pro- Papers The Brooklyn motes tours of black historic sites in New Wendy Aibel-weiss, vice president of education and programs at the Brooklyn York City, who was among the key com- Historical Society, displays a map of Brooklyn from 1913, which shows the dif- munity leaders fighting for the issue. ferent types of industry the borough hosted back then. Laverpool, who was accompanied by activists from the Committee to Honor Black Heroes, packed the committee meeting and there was no lack of tension Monty St. Shuffle as the group of mostly white committee members hashed out the issue between History lives themselves and with the Tubman support- ers. Gap moving to Walden, yet another Rx Transportation Committee Chairwom- Historical Society an Nancy Wolf ruled with a heavy hand By Deborah Kolben as tensions flared in the college classroom. re-opens in Heights The Brooklyn Papers A comment by board member Bill Harris that Tubman “had nothing to do By Deborah Kolben Stores along Montague Street have been with Brooklyn,” set off proponents of the The Brooklyn Papers opening and closing these days faster than you naming who told Harris he had “no idea can say “clearance sale.” what he was talking about.” The Brooklyn Historical Society The newest development is that longtime stalwart Committee member Kenn Lowy has finally returned home to its his- Waldenbooks, at the corner of Montague and Henry stepped up to say that Tubman’s relation- toric Brooklyn Heights digs, at streets, will be shutting its doors for good after Christmas. ship to Brooklyn was irrelevant and noted Pierrepont and Clinton streets, fol- But that’s not the only change. that plenty of historical figures, including lowing a major four-year renovation. Callan / Tom The Gap will be moving down the street, a new Ital- Martin Luther King Jr., had streets named The five-story landmarked building, ian restaurant is opening, MAC Cosmetics is coming Callan / Tom after them even though they didn’t live in completed in 1881 and designed by promi- to the strip, and modern furniture retailer Design With- Brooklyn. nent architect George Post — who later in Reach (DWR) will be opening its first Brooklyn The street renaming issue has been went on to design the New York Stock Ex- store in the Anchor building between Hicks Street and pulling at the seams of the already con- change — was in dire need of a facelift. Papers The Brooklyn Columbia Terrace early next month. tentious community board for two years. Years of neglect and a series of additions BHS President Jessie McClintock Kelly With Waldenbooks moving out, the Gap, now locat- Papers The Brooklyn Demographically, CB2 is an economi- including an ill-placed elevator that outside the BHS building Wednesday. ed just half a block away in the mostly vacant, 16,000- The Montague Mews, at the corner of Henry Street, will soon lose cally and racially diverse district encom- blocked a stained-glass skylight, were See SHUFFLE on page 6 the Gap, which will move across Henry to the Waldenbooks space. See FULTON ST on page 5 among the major blights, according to Bud Motzkin, director of architecture for Jan Hird Pokorny Associates, the firm hired to lead the building’s upgrade. INSIDE THE PAPER A 600-seat auditorium was also obliter- ated during World War I, when the space Classifieds . GO 6-8 was turned into a Red Cross headquarters. GO Brooklyn 8 pages . follows page 4 P’Park keeps cops thru Nov. Standing inside the impressive, two-lev- Home Improvement . GO 8 el library, now retrofitted with gold and Health, Mind & Body. page 6 The Brooklyn Papers commanding officer of Patrol Borough The Summer Park Detail provides ex- frosted glass lamps made to resemble the Parent . page 4 Following a spate of highly publi- Brooklyn South, which includes the tra patrols from May to mid-October original gas lighting, Brooklyn Historical Police . page 3 cized attacks in Prospect Park, includ- 78th Precinct. and was set to expire. Under that pro- Society President Jessie McClintock Kelly Real Estate . GO 6 “In the wake of some of the incidents gram, in operation since the early 1980s, called the renovations “long and meticu- ing an attempted daytime rape and two there has been quite a bit of community Brooklyn South officers are reassigned lous” and said she was excited to see the muggings, the extra security detail concerns. The chief wanted to make the to patrol areas such as Prospect Park and project nearing completion. Online at assigned to patrol the park throughout people who utilize Prospect Park feel a Coney Island, which are more heavily While the building will officially open to www.BrooklynPapers.com the summer months will remain on little bit more secure,” said Deputy In- traversed during the warmer months. the public on Sunday, Oct. 26, the library Hear our editors and reporters discuss the news into November. spector Edward Mullen, commanding During the fall and winter, the 78th will not be ready until June. every week in EDITORIAL ROUNDTABLE That decision was made earlier this officer of the 78th Precinct, which in- Precinct normally has a 12-officer park The extensive collection — which in- Historical Society Brooklyn month by Assistant Chief Joseph Fox, cludes the 526-acre park. See PARK COPS on page 5 See HISTORY on page 7 A refurbished viking head. Truckers despise new Hook routes By Deborah Kolben tract to be the sole juice and The Brooklyn Papers soft drink provider to all city schools and city build- Snapple may be the ings — $40 million of that city’s beverage of choice contract is guaranteed as but if a new Red Hook payment to the Department truck route proposal of Education, according to goes into effect, the the mayor’s office — has company says it will been operating its New have to pack up shop York City distribution cen- and move its distribution ter out of 212 Wolcott St. in headquarters out of the Red Hook for the past 20 Big Apple. years. / Greg Mango / Greg “They’re driving us out,” Each day more than 250 said Snapple Vice President trips are made from the of Operations Igor Kats- Snapple warehouse deliver- man. ing to bodegas, grocery The city Department of stores and vending ma- The Brooklyn Papers The Brooklyn Transportation (DOT) pro- chines across the city. posal, the culmination of a Katsman said the new three-year study, eliminates Callan / Tom truck route proposal would Columbia Street and north- make it near impossible for Brooklyn over eats bound traffic on Van Brunt his drivers to complete the Restaurateur Joe Chirico (left), owner of Marco Polo in Carroll Gardens and Gage and Tollner Street from the designated pickups in a reasonable Downtown, helps chef Franco Insingo and waiter Carlos Taveres serve fettuccine tossed in a truck routes and adds amount of time. bowl made of cheese during “Brooklyn Eats” tasting event at the Brooklyn Marriott Monday. Conover Street. Papers The Brooklyn “They’re putting us on The event allowed Brooklynites to overindulge in samples from 50 local restaurants. For Snapple, which recently A truck tries to negotiate a turn from Van Brunt Street onto Van Dyke Street in Red small narrow streets,” he more on the event, see page GO 2. inked a $166 million con- Hook during truck driver protest demonstration Wednesday. See TRUCKS on page 6 Coming Saturday, Nov.