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DECISION ’08 THE PAPER ENDORSES POWELL, SQUADRON AND McMAHON: P.12

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BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 834–9350 • , NY • ©2008 –DOWNTOWN–North Brooklyn AWP/16 pages • Vol. 31, No. 35 • Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008 • FREE with carroll gardens, cobble hill, boerum hill, fort greene, clinton Hill, dumbo, Williamsburg, greenpoint THIS BUST’S FOR YOU Beer-swillin’ Slopers hit for drinking on stoop

By Sarah Portlock Slope Parents Web site, he said The Brooklyn Paper he is incensed at the officer’s in- Enjoying an ice cold one on terpretation of the city’s open- your warm stoop could send container law. you to the cooler. Indeed, isn’t a stoop private property? That’s what a Park Sloper Uh, no. learned on Aug. 27, when a uni- According to the Title 10, formed officer ticketed him for Chapter 1, Section 10-125 of drinking a beer — on his own the city administrative code, front steps — at 11 pm. a public place is any location This summons for public where “a substantial group of consumption of alcohol has persons has access” — and re- sparked outrage across Brown- main in view of other members stone Brooklyn, where a stoop of the public. is as much a source of pride as a The interpretation of that law well-worn Dodgers cap — and is left to individual officers, said a person’s right to drink there a source at the 78th Precinct, and is considered natural law. there is no hard and fast rule. “The stoop is the social center Some officers don’t ticket peo- of the universe,” said Brad Eng- ple if they are high up on their strom (pictured at right), who stoop or behind a gate. Others fought a similar open container slap a summons if the drink- ticket last year in and ing is in clear view of the pub- won. “I’ve met every neighbor lic, the source said. on my block [by] inviting them In essence, even though your to have a beer on my stoop.” stoop is on your property, down- But as with most parties, it’s ing a beer there is the same as do- all fun and games until the cops ing so in a parked car on a public show up. street, the city code says. Whether The man in the latest inci- stoop or car, as long as the public The Brooklyn Paper / Michael Lipkin dent said he will pay the $25 can see the “crime” in process, Brad Engstrom (left) and Philip Shimmel enjoy a beer on a friend’s 17th Street stoop — the fine, but in a post on the Park See BEER on page 11 same place where all three men got tickets for public drinking. Taps tightened on tree-killing ‘Falls’

By Sarah Portlock the victims of Olafur Eliasson’s four- in the restaurant’s lush garden. fresh water to flush salt from the soil. The Brooklyn Paper / Jeff Bachner The Brooklyn Paper pronged arborcidal artwork. “We’ve already been warned that our The cut in hours did not satisfy Brook- Under fire from local groups and Just as the city decided to tighten the soil may be damaged beyond repair and lyn Heights Association Executive Pres- one of the city’s most-romantic restau- faucets on the project, cutting its hours we would have to replace it,” he said. ident Judy Stanton, who had called on The city’s Saturday announcement of the city to cut the water pipes after La- Tsar-struck in Bklyn rants, city officials have cut the hours of operation from 101 to 50, the manager of the illustrious River Café in DUMBO a scaleback in the $15-million project bor Day to save the trees. At Rasputin, a Russian nightclub in Gravesend, dancers perform a tribute to that the “ Waterfalls” told The Brooklyn Paper that salt water came after arborists from the Parks De- “It seems … preposterous to keep the Havana’s Tropicana as part of the lavishly costumed “World of Cabaret” show exhibit can