Hold Your Horses! City Steps in to Bid for Troubled P’Park Stables
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April 14–20, 2017 Including Brooklyn Courier, Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill Courier, Brooklyn Heights Courier, & Williamsburg Courier FREE ALSO SERVING PROSPECT HEIGHTS, WINDSOR TERRACE, KENSINGTON, AND GOWANUS CB6 HEAD ARRESTED District manager charged with allegedly stalking ex-girlfriend BY COLIN MIXSON to trail her to a Broadway hotel near Long-time Community Board 6 dis- DeKalb Avenue on March 27, where trict manager Craig Hammerman Hammerman allegedly called the was arrested twice in one week on front desk numerous times using misdemeanor charges related to al- different aliases. legedly stalking his ex-girlfriend. At one point, Hammerman called The community board’s civic posing as a relative of the victim, guru is accused of using his ex’s asking for her room number and Uber account to track her to a Bed- leaving a message stating, “she can ford-Stuyvesant hotel, where he al- come home anytime,” court docu- legedly lurked outside spying on her, ments show. and then later violated a restraining The district manager also called order by pursuing her into a Park claiming to be the Uber driver who Slope watering hole — according to had dropped the victim off the previ- a complaint filed by the Brooklyn ous night, saying she had left prop- District Attorney’s office. erty in his cab and that he wanted The victim claims Hammerman to drop it off for her, according to HAMMER OF JUSTICE: Community Board 6 district manager and poker fan Craig Hammer- downloaded the popular ride-hail- prosecutors with the district attor- man was arrested twice in one week for charges related to stalking his ex-girlfriend. ing app and then hacked her account Continued on page 10 File photo by Tom Callan Hold your horses! City steps in to bid for troubled P’Park stables BY COLIN MIXSON Another potential buyer wants a seat at the stable. The city has now entered negotia- tions with the owner of the bankrupt Kensington Stables to purchase its ag- ing Caton Place barn, with an eye to- ward keeping Brooklyn’s last remain- ing stables in the horse business. “[The Parks Department] is inter- ested in keeping the property to oper- ate stables serving Prospect Park,” said Marc Yaverbaum, the agent represent- ing the Blankinship family in the sale Evening crush of 55 Caton Place. The barn was put up for auction ear- A motorist destroyed his car and left his passenger with serious injuries after he lost control of the vehicle on the Prospect Park lier this year after the Blankinships Expressway on April 8 and smashed into a divider near the Fourth Avenue exit, shearing the front passenger-side tire from the fell behind on their tax payments and vehicle and sending the car into a 180-degree spin, police sources said. Photo by Paul Martinka ran up a debt they couldn’t pay off , ac- Continued on page 6 A CNG Publication Vol. 37 No. 15 Vol. 37 No. 15 UPDATED EVERY DAY AT BROOKLYNDAILY.COM INSIDE NNN%9IFFBCPE;8@CP%:FD GL9C@J?<;9P:E>(D<KIFK<:?:<EK<IEFIK?('K?=CFFI9IFFBCPE#EP(()'( The wall of fame: Sideshow impresario and Coney Island’s unofficial mayor Dick Zigun will unveil the Sideshow Hall of Fame plaque at the Congress of Curious Peoples opening event on April 21. Photo by Georgine Benvenuto Super freaks! Sideshow Hall of Fame honors carnie history By Caroline Spivack USA. “We take it very seriously. People are the Ringling Brothers at some point in their This year, the lucky few will be immor- ake a deep drink of sideshow his- extremely knowledgeable, but by the end of career, as a nod to the recent closing of the talized with a Sideshow Hall of Fame tory! the night people are stinking drunk — it’s brothers’ circus, said Zigun. plaque mounted at the Freak Bar for all T Some of history’s greatest sword good fun.” Two nominees will duke it out in each to see, which Zigun hopes will become a swallowers, fire eaters, and sideshow odd- The Sideshow Hall of Fame has five category, and panelists will try to sway the destination in and of itself. balls will finally receive their due next categories: Born Different, Self Inflicted audience in favor of their sideshow sensa- “It will become a weirdo tourist attrac- weekend at the Sideshow Hall of Fame (those who alter their body with tattoos tion. After the advocates have made their tion,” he said. “For 10 years, we’ve been induction ceremony in Coney Island. At or piercings, for instance), Working Acts pitches, the crowd puts it to a vote. holding this event and have not had an the event, which kicks off the 10th annual (sideshow performers such as knife throw- Each winner will receive a celebratory actual iconic, physical hall of fame. So this “Congress of Curious Peoples” festival run- ers and sword swallowers), Show Folk (the toast while the crowd chants “Gooble gob- will give it a home.” ning April 21–30 at various Coney ven- producers and talent behind the sideshow) ble, we accept you! One of us, one of us!” The 10-day Congress of Curious Peoples ues, audience members and aficionados and Attractions, bizarre non-living items — loosely quoting the 1932 film “Freaks.” will also feature “Superfreak Weekend” on will drunkenly deliberate on which curi- that drew visitors, such as electric chairs, Voters then down their drinks in a single April 22–23, an extravaganza of exotic side- ous characters will be immortalized in the blade boxes, and the fake medicine of snake gulp — or as much as they can stomach — show performers including Koko the Killer Sideshow Hall of Fame. The crowd will also oil salesmen. all in the name of academia. Clown, Dr. Claw, and Nati The Patchwork get a thorough education on some of the This year’s Born Different nominees are “Remember, we’re seriously discussing Girl, along with a slew of lectures and panel world’s premiere oddities, but they might the Doll Family — a quartet of dwarfs who people who can turn their heads backwards, discussions on sideshow and circus culture. not remember the details the next morning, dazzled with song and dance routines — swallow coins, people who’ve covered Sideshow Hall of Fame induction cer- said one organizer. versus Martin Laurello, the “Human Owl” themselves in tattoos,” said Zigun. “But as emony at Coney Island USA (1208 Surf Ave. “It’s like the show ‘Drunk History,’ ” who could twist his noggin 180 degrees. the evening goes on the audience and the at W. 12th Street in Coney Island, www. said Dick Zigun, who runs Coney Island Each of this year’s nominees worked with scholars get incredibly drunk.” coneyisland.com). April 21 at 7 pm. $10. LOCAL LEGEND: (Left) Brothers Jack and Roy Vanasco outside their Myrtle Avenue appliance repair store they are now closing after 60 years of Your entertainment business. The store served as a museum of sorts, (right) displaying photos and a sign Roy once used to run for Assembly. Photos by Stefano Giovannini guide Page 19 Police Blotter ..........................8 Standing O .............................12 Letters .....................................16 Tom Allon ............................... 17 The end of an era Rhymes with Crazy .............18 Sports ..................................... 27 Brothers close appliance repair business after 60 years BY LAUREN GILL For decades, a hand- loaded with spare parts into becoming the M train. On a sidewalk outside an old painted sign advertising their cars and going out on Roy proudly pointed to appliance repair shop on Myr- “Parts” for refrigerators and service calls for which they a proclamation on the wall tle Avenue in Clinton Hill, washing machines, with a charged $75 each. The edu- given to him by former Bor- a man takes a break from phone number drawn next cation the brothers received ough President Abe Stark — his afternoon walk to comb to the words, hung over the from Manual Training High who helped put together the through a box of screws, nuts, shop’s door. But well-known School — now known as John fi rst community boards — HOW TO REACH US and bolts, labeled “Please New York-based artist Steve Jay High School — in Park commending him for his civic take.” Inside the shop, two Powers bought the sign last Slope armed them with all the work. It hangs next to a photo Mail: white-haired men wearing week for $500, leaving behind know-how they needed to re- of him and his wife, Rhoda, Courier Life caps emblazoned with the a blank sheet of rusted metal. vive ailing refrigerators and posed with Nancy and Ron- Publications, Inc., declaration “WORLD WAR Decades ago, the now-si- other appliances. ald Reagan at a swanky Man- 1 Metrotech Center North II VETERAN” are remov- lent phones in the shop rang During decades of running hattan party, dressed in suits 10th Floor, Brooklyn, ing frames from a wall plas- incessantly with callers’ a popular local business, Roy and glitzy ball gowns. tered with photographs and complaints about failed ap- rose to become the head of the On another wall of the N.Y. 11201 news articles. A sign reading pliances, their voices occa- Myrtle Avenue Merchants As- shop hangs a photo of Roy as a General Phone: “Elect Roy G. Vanasco” lies sionally drowned out by the sociation. Later, he became boy playing basketball on an (718) 260-2500 on the fl oor nearby. near-deafening noise of el- the inaugural chairman of 88th Precinct Police Athletic News Fax: The two men are brothers, evated Myrtle Avenue line Brooklyn Community Board League team. He went on to (718) 260-2592 and after operating the shop trains rumbling overhead.