Waterfront up for Grabs

INSIDE BROOKLYN’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER Including The Downtown News, Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill Paper and Fort Greene-Clinton Hill Paper The CurryShop spices up Slope Published weekly by Brooklyn Paper Publications Inc, 26 Court St., Brooklyn 11242 Phone 718-834-9350 AD fax 718-834-1713 • NEWS fax 718-834-9278 © 2003 Brooklyn Paper Publications • 12 pages including GO BROOKLYN •Vol.26, No.1BWN, DTG, PSG, MID • January 6, 2003 • FREE Waterfront up for grabs PA: Piers 6-11 open to residential, retail, commercial use By Patrick Gallahue the property is,” said Port Au- hattan Bridge and Pier 5 at Jo- The Brooklyn Papers thority spokesman Steve Cole- ralemon Street; and American man. He said the plan would in- Stevedoring, which holds a lease The Port Authority of New vestigate commercial, cultural, into 2004 on piers 6 through 11, York and New Jersey will recreational, maritime and resi- is actively seeking to expand soon be deliberating plans dential uses on the piers. shipping operations and maintain that stand to radically trans- As the Port Authority selects a the waterfront’s current maritime form Brooklyn’s waterfront. planning team in 2003 there ap- functions. The agency is courting con- pears to be no shortage of interest “The consultant will look at a sultants through a joint request- in the piers from both the public whole range of possible uses,” for-proposals (RFP) with the and private sectors. Coleman said. city’s Economic Development Carnival Cruise Lines is re- Among those who have a per- Corporation to investigate the portedly negotiating with the sonal stake in the piers are the “best possible uses” for piers 6 Port Authority for Pier 7 [see sto- Brooklyn Bridge Park planners, through 12 on the waterfront be- ry below]; the Brooklyn Bridge who drew Pier 6 into their Illus- tween Atlantic Avenue in Brook- Park Development Corporation trative Master Plan. lyn Heights and Pioneer Street in continues to lobby for Pier 6’s in- “They’re going to take a good Red Hook. clusion in the commercial and hard look at the piers, which is “That plan will be used to help recreational development that good,” said Jim Moogan, the ex- the Port Authority determine now is planned for the waterfront ecutive director of the Brooklyn what the highest and best use of between Jay Street near the Man- Bridge Park Development Cor- poration. Confident that the stud- ies would favor Pier 6’s inclusion in the waterfront development, he added, “And we think the best use for the piers is recreational and park use.” Pier 6 is sought by the park planners to direct pedestrian traf- Carnival fic off Joralemon Street and make the wider, more commercial strip of Atlantic Avenue the primary access point to the southern end of the park. Coleman said the Port Author- ity would seek to have a plan in at Pier 7? place before American Stevedor- ing’s lease expires in 2004, to de- Flame on! termine whether a renewal of the lease was in “the region’s best interest.” Rob Maloney, of East Bridgewater, Mass., practices breathing fire during class last week at Sideshow School in Coney Island. The school pro- Meanwhile, the plan is of con- vides a rare chance for aspiring fire-eaters, sword-swallowers and human blockheads to learn their trade. See story page 8. AP / Suzanne Plunkett siderable concern to American Stevedoring, which holds a lease on all but one of the piers to be studied. “No other terminal in the port has ever gone out for an RFP,” protested Kevin Catucci, Ameri- can Stevedoring’s executive vice EPA blows off Brooklyn president. Catucci said he has been urg- ing the Port Authority and the EDC to bring Phoenix Distribu- Borough not included in 9-11 home testing tion — the primary warehouse, distribution and sales company in By Patrick Gallahue Joel Kupferman, counsel to the New York City for Heineken, Carnival Cruise lines could make Pier 7 in Brooklyn one of their The Brooklyn Papers Uniformed Firefighter’s Association Guinness and Miller beer prod- and executive director of the New ports of call. Carnival Cruise Lines ucts — to Pier 12 at the foot of The U.S. Environmental York Environmental Law and Justice Pioneer Street from Long Island Protection Agency’s deadline Project, said, “We know that the stuff By Patrick Gallahue According to Crain’s New City, Queens. for registering homes for 9-11- The Brooklyn Papers York Business, the company is Phoenix Beverage Corporation not only went over the East River related testing and cleanup has but got convoyed to Brooklyn.” Kathie Lee’s favorite cruise currently seeking incentives to currently warehouses beer in Port come and gone, leaving some develop the pier. Elizabeth New Jersey, then ships Trucks carting debris from line may drop anchor at Pier “While we can’t confirm or Brooklyn officials seething that Ground Zero to the Fresh Kills products to Long Island City, the borough, over which much 7. deny the information you are Queens, by truck for distribution Landfill traveled through the Brook- The parent company of Carni- asking, we can only tell you that to local stores, Catucci said. of the World Trade Center lyn-Battery Tunnel releasing the tox- val Cruise Lines, for which Ms. Carnival is constantly talking to American Stevedoring would smoke and ash was blown and ic dust into the communities of Red Gifford famously sang “If They various entities about port devel- be able to assist the company in through which large amounts of Hook and Sunset Park, he said. Could See Me Now” in commer- opment,” said Jennifer de la its waterfront operations and be- smoldering Ground Zero debris Kupferman added that Engine Com- cials, is reportedly negotiating Cruz, a Carnival Corporation cause beer could be shipped to was carted, was never included pany 279 and Ladder Company 131, with city and state officials about spokeswoman. Pier 12 by water, should the com- in the testing and remediation at 252 Lorraine St. in Red Hook, was turning the pier, just north of One of the largest cruise ship pany be granted a lease, Catucci parameters. called to put out smoldering debris Congress Street in the Columbia fleets in the nation, Carnival cur- said it would relieve city roads of On Friday, activists, elected offi- that flew off the trucks. Street Waterfront District, into a rently sets sail from Manhattan’s 16 million highway miles a year cials and Lower Manhattan resi- “The steel was still very hot and $120 million cruise ship terminal Hudson River piers from spring traveled by delivery trucks. dents, lashed out at the EPA, calling was being transported through the and parking garage. See CARNIVAL on page 4 See WATERFRONT on page 4 on the agency to extend the deadline Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and past and include Brooklyn in the study the firehouse,” said a firefighter from area. The deadline day was Saturday, Engine 279, who spoke on condition Dec. 28, and the EPA said it would of anonymity. “Sometimes there was not extend that cutoff. paper or other stuff which could start Last summer, NASA released a a fire.” space station photograph taken on Furious that Brooklyn was not in- Sept. 11, 2001 that showed the dust cluded in the test area, Kupferman and smoke plume from Ground Zero said, “Brooklyn is totally getting Port Authority cutting a path across the East River, shortchanged.” enveloping most of Brooklyn The protest on Friday was organ- Heights and Downtown Brooklyn ized by a group called 9/11 Environ- and then proceeding south by south- mental Action outside the EPA’s east over Cobble Hill and Carroll Lower Manhattan headquarters and rejects Sun Park Gardens, Park Slope, Prospect Park, included Kupferman, Lower Man- Kensington, Midwood and then hattan Councilman Alan Gerson, for- down over Sheepshead Bay and mer Councilwoman Kathryn Freed, The plume of smoke from the attack on the World Trade Center floats Brighton Beach. See SMOKE on page 2 across the center of Brooklyn on Sept. 11, 2001. NASA D’town banks robbed again By Patrick Gallahue On Thursday, Dec. 26 at around Place and St. Felix Street, and passed latest pair of robberies, which feature The Brooklyn Papers 11:25 am, a man entered an HSBC the teller a note demanding cash similar characteristics to others in the Bank on Fulton Street, at Red Hook while simulating a gun. That suspect recent spate of bank holdups, were re- Another pair of bank rob- Lane, and passed the teller a note de- also took off with an undisclosed lated to the earlier robberies. beries hit Downtown Brooklyn manding money. sum of money. On Dec. 16, a man entered an and Brooklyn Heights this week, The bandit then fled with an This time the suspect was de- HSBC Bank on Montague Street, be- undisclosed amount of cash. scribed as a black male in his 40s. Bush Terminal at 50th Street and First Avenue in Sunset Park The Brooklyn Papers / Tom Callan bringing the total number of tween Clinton and Court streets, dis- financial institution holdups in Police described the suspect as a There were no injuries in either in- black male in his 50s. cident, and a spokeswoman for HSBC played a gun and told the teller, “Give By Patrick Gallahue allocated through the city’s Eco- span from 42nd Street to 50th the area for December to at least me all your money or I will kill you.” The Brooklyn Papers nomic Development Corporation Street along the waterfront, The next day, at around 1:50 pm, a referred all questions to police, who to develop a waterside prome- Laufer said, and similar to six, three of which occurred on man entered another HSBC Bank, on would not discuss the contents of the The employee handed over more Activists in pursuit of a nade in Sunset Park.

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