SATURDAY • MAY 22, 2004 Including Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill Paper, Downtown News, DUMBO Paper and Fort Greene-Clinton Hill Paper Brooklyn’s REAL newspapers Published every Saturday by Brooklyn Paper Publications Inc, 55 Washington Street, Suite 624, Brooklyn NY 11201. Phone 718-834-9350 • www.BrooklynPapers.com • © 2004 Brooklyn Paper Publications • 20 pages including GO BROOKLYN • Vol. 27, No. 20 BWN • Saturday, May 22, 2004 • FREE CITY TO PUBLIC ON B’KLYN WATERFRONT: NONE OF YOUR THIS WEEKEND BUSINESS Brittain Stone EDC won’t release pier study Long on talent By Lisa J. Curtis and Urban Divers. Michael Sherman, an EDC spokesman, told GO Brooklyn editor An exhibit of a wide variety of artworks by EXCLUSIVE The Brooklyn Papers, “There are no such plans hundreds of artists, the Brooklyn Waterfront at the moment,” when asked about the study’s re- NOT JUST NETS Critically acclaimed talents and youth Artists Coalition Pier Show 12 continues, and lease. THE NEW BROOKLYN groups alike will strut their stuff on the will be on display in the warehouse at 499 Van By Deborah Kolben “It was always just going to be for our internal Beard Street Pier in Red Hook this Sat- Brunt St. from noon to 6 pm. The Brooklyn Papers urday, May 22, as part of the 10th annual The Arts Festival events take place from 1 pm use,” he said, adding that an executive summary Hamilton, Rabinovitz & Alschuler, saying they Red Hook residents and merchants who or “highlights” of the study might be released “at Red Hook Waterfront Arts Festival. to 5 pm at the Beard Street Pier, Van Brunt ignored community input throughout the process Among the troupes that will take the stage are Street at the Red Hook Channel, and the per- have been eagerly awaiting the results of a some point.” and came in with a preconceived agenda to major city-sponsored study on the future of “Our thinking is that we’re just using the in- the Urban Bush Women, Dance Wave Kids Com- formances are free. For more information, visit squeeze the working ship port out. pany and the Pee Wee Hoofers (pictured). The the Web sites www.dancetheatreetcetera.org or the working waterfront will have a lot formation to clarify our position on the piers,” Results of that study, which community mem- longer to wait. Sherman said. band Heritage O.P., whose music has been heard www.bwac.org. bers were led to believe would be made public, A New York Water Taxi shuttle will run Maybe, forever. A study on the feasibility of bringing the cruise in Broadway’s “The Lion King” and Marc were originally to be released last August but Levin’s 2001 film “Brooklyn Babylon,” will per- between Pier 63 Maritime at West 23rd Officials with the city Economic Development ship industry to one or more of the Brooklyn were repeatedly pushed back. form traditional African and modern music. Street in Manhattan and the arts fes- Corp., which co-sponsored with the Port Authority docks will also meet the same fate, Sherman said. “By denying access to this important informa- That news came as a shock to the many com- The Waterfront Arts Festival also includes tival on May 22. For the New of New York and New Jersey the $400,000 tax- tion that was gathered with taxpayer money, the York Water Taxi schedule, visit munity groups and elected officials who have dance and beat-box workshops, storytelling and payer-funded study of the best uses for Piers 6-12, EDC has blocked the public from making its www.nywatertaxi.com or call said they will not release the results to the public. continually criticized the study’s consultants, hula-hoop performances as well as boat rides and See WATERFRONT on page 6 other activities offered by the Gowanus Dredgers (212) 287-2224. BEGINSPAGE ON 9 Ed Weintrob Protesters need Heights on the market to adjust focus Watchtower move could ignite real estate boom By Deborah Kolben Brooklyn’s success — historically and to- t’s not just the Nets, and it’s not just em- The Brooklyn Papers EXCLUSIVE inent domain. Whether Bruce Ratner day — is due in large part to our having has his way with us, in transforming avoided the walled mega-block syndrome The Watchtower Bible and I Tract Society, one of the largest gious order might want to sell off. Brooklyn from its status as a perpetually that is Ratner’s tool to wealth. Neighbor- Watchtower owns 29 properties in evolving multi-textured urban quilt into a hoods prosper — and sometimes decline in property owners in Brooklyn Heights, may soon be unloading Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO includ- sterile Manhattanized version of cul-de-sac order to regenerate and prosper anew — or- ing 21 residential buildings ranging from suburbia, will depend more on our collec- ganically; urban renewal’s bulldozer is pros- some of its high-end Brooklyn brownstones to apartment buildings. tive vision than on our individual pocket- perity’s foe. Heights real estate, a Watchtower “There’s a possibility some of those books. The soulless utopia Bruce Ratner would spokesman told The Brooklyn buildings might go up for sale,” Watch- Papers this week. That Ratner would pay handsomely to si- impose won’t please and won’t generate a tower spokesman Richard Devine told widening swath of prosperity. For evidence, The corporate entity of the Jeho- The Papers. lence critics should never have been in vah’s Witnesses religion recently In addition to the potential new resi- doubt. With the club of eminent domain in consider Metrotech and its immediate envi- sold off a hulking, 12-story building dential complex in DUMBO the reli- one hand and a checkbook in the other, the rons; compare that massively subsidized at 360 Furman St. at Atlantic Av- gious order is moving many of its homeowners on Ratner’s site would of dead zone in our midst to what has happened enue for $200 million. printing facilities to Wallkill, N.Y., 90 course choose to live in luxury somewhere throughout such Brownstone Brooklyn And they may not stop there. Callan / Tom miles outside of New York City. else than sustain high-risk combat against neighborhoods as Boerum Hill and Carroll The religious organization, whose Real estate brokers in the area have Empire State Development Corp. chief Gardens, just slightly removed from that “ur- world headquarters are in Brooklyn, been speculating about a potential sale. Charles Gargano and Gov. George Pataki. ban campus.” plans to build a massive, 1,000-unit “If these buildings did convert it Atlantic Yards opponents were thus pre- Ratner is certainly capable of adequately residential complex at 85 Jay St. in would be a tremendous boon to the cisely wrong in making eminent domain the revisiting his design, and such modifications DUMBO. Papers The Brooklyn real estate business in Brooklyn The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society’s move to four buildings Heights,” said Frank Percesepe, man- most apparent source of their discontent. would be welcomed here. But his track That project, if approved, could lead to a surplus of Watchtower planned for this DUMBO site, at Jay and York streets, could result in aging director of the Corcoran office in The larger issue, the communal one, tran- record doesn’t offer much hope that he will. property in the area that the reli- stepped-up real estate activity in Brooklyn Heights. See HEIGHTS on page 8 scends those living on-site and even nearby. EdWeintrob@Brooklyn Papers.com The last picture show Revived Flatbush Pavilion to close its doors By Deborah Kolben pute. Norman Adie, principal Park Slope native Jackie Con- The Brooklyn Papers EXCLUSIVE owner of Screen Arts, did not re- nor said the theater’s former in- turn calls seeking comment. carnation, the Plaza Theater, A Park Slope movie the- Mascena this week confirmed News of the closing came as a long ago earned the nickname ater that was recently reno- that the theater would be closing surprise to nearby merchants and “the itch house, because it was- vated will close its doors for after Sunday’s shows. The residents this week. n’t so clean.” good after its last showings movie house did not pull in “That’s terrible,” said Chris But Connor, who said she and on Sunday night. enough business to survive, she Owens, who lives across the her husband, Charles, often fre- The Flatbush Pavilion, which told The Brooklyn Papers. street from the theater and said he quented the Flatbush Pavilion, opened in 1912 as the Bunny According to a source, the has seen about a dozen movies will always remember the old Theater and has a storied past, theater owners have been in- there since Screen Arts renovated Plaza theater for another reason. was one of the oldest theaters in volved in a dispute with the it. Like many Prospect Heights “When James Dean died they New York City. landlord, which may have also and Park Slope natives, Owens, showed a James Dean movie After years of neglect, the for- involved a rent increase. the son of Rep. Major Owens, re- and I went just so I could cry mer Plaza Twin, at Flatbush Av- The property is owned by rel- members seeing movies there as a some more,” said Connor, who enue near Seventh Avenue, was atives of Sol Goldman, a major child. attended a special screening of / Greg Mango / Greg purchased in May 2001 by New York City real estate mogul When it first opened — “Rebel without a Cause,” at the Screen Arts Corporation. The who died in the 1980s.