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*/4*%&1"(&40'$0610/4504"7&:06$"4) Yo u r Neighborhood — Yo u r News® BrooklynPaper.com s (718) 260–2500 s Brooklyn, NY s ©2010 DOWNTOWN, PARK SLOPE & BAY RIDGE EDITIONS AWP/12 pages s Vol. 33, No. 6s Feb. 5–Feb. 11, 2010 s FREE £.6/*$*1"-¤1"3, Credit union buys name of Coney stadium By Gersh Kuntzman The Brooklyn Paper Stephen Brown Give the Brooklyn Cyclones credit where credit is due — their Coney Island stadium is now named for the city’s largest credit union. Keyspan Park is now officially MCU Park — a name that reflects the world’s most popular Class-A ball- park’s new sponsor, the Municipal Credit Union. The Brooklyn Paper / The new moniker — which became inevitable after Slips of paper reading “Kill Jews” showed up on Sixth Avenue. Keyspan went out of existence after be- ing purchased by the British energy Another call giant National Grid in 2007 — was an- nounced Thursday at the Surf Avenue stadium, just one week after the Cyclones and National Grid re- leased the details of their amicable divorce. to ‘KILL JEWS’ “MCU and the Cyclones are a great fit,” said Cy- By Stephen Brown “It’s so ignorant and hateful,” said clones General Manager Steve Cohen. “All of their Guilbert, who picked up a handful of members are workers like firefighters and cops — and Claire Glass Gary Thomas the same slips back in October. “There and that really matches our fan base.” The Brooklyn Paper In a stunning display of intolerance, are hundreds of kids that walk up and Neither Cohen, nor Municipal Credit Union Presi- down this street.” dent and CEO Kam Wong would release the financial Sixth Avenue in Park Slope was littered with strips of papers reading “KILL Before she turned the slips over to agreement behind the 11-year naming-rights deal. the police, Guilbert played amateur The original deal on the stadium, which opened along JEWS” in capital letters from Fourth to Ninth streets last Wednesday. detective by turning the strips over the Coney Island Boardwalk in 2001, was supposed to run Nearly two dozen of the strips were and piecing them together. All that The Brooklyn Paper file / through 2020. But Cohen said that the Cyclones were al- picked up by Karen Guilbert, who had emerged was that the slips had been cut There’s been plenty to celebrate at Keyspan Park over the years, but now the home of lowed to negotiate with other companies after National just finished walking her daughter to from a document from a taxi driving the beloved Cyclones will be named for the Municipal Credit Union. See MCU on page 2 school. school. Yet there were no addresses or phone numbers on the strips that offered any further clues. “Someone is trying to be a taxi driver,” Guilbert nervously joked. “I sure hope I don’t end up in his car.” An officer from the 78th Precinct said he turned the notes over to the $BMMJU$PMMFHFUPXO 3FE)PPL NYPD’s Hate Crimes Unit, but the de- partment had no official comment. Most unsettling, this is not the first time the craven anti-Semitic litterer Joe Sitt eyes turning his land into dorms near Ikea, Fairway has struck. A month before Guilbert’s Hallow- By Stephen Brown dent housing if we can tempt a nearby of the Fairway and the Ikea, as well as een discovery, the same notes turned The Brooklyn Paper university.” the convenience of the nearby water up in Bay Ridge, Boerum Hill and Red Hook already has a furniture The property, which once housed the taxi service, Sitt added that he wanted Clinton Hill. store and a supermarket — how about Revere Sugar factory on Beard Street, to “best utilize” the property. To top it off, vandals struck two some frat houses? has been the subject of much specu- He added that the land would have synagogues in Brooklyn Heights in Developer Joe Sitt sent shockwaves lation since Sitt bought it in 2005. to be re-zoned before Sitt could do any- 2007 and left the same message on through a monthly gathering of real Last year, Sitt — best known for sell- thing with it — a potential sticking car windshields. estate executives on Tuesday by shar- ing most of his vast Coney Island hold- point, though there are few neighbors In response to this latest attack, a ing news that he hoped to convert his Bess Adler ings to the city last year — was consid- to complain about loud parties. rainbow coalition of politicians and waterfront land between the Ikea su- ering turning the Red Hook site along A spokesman for New York Univer- other leaders gathered at Congrega- perstore and the Fairway supermar- Beard Street into a mega-mall complete sity, which now runs Polytechnic Uni- tion Beth Elohim in Park Slope to ket into a student housing complex. with a BJs Wholesale Club. There was versity in Downtown Brooklyn, said condemn anti-Semitism. “Ask any university, they’re starv- also talk of a flea market. the university would likely seek student Councilman Brad Lander (D– ing for student housing,” Sitt, the CEO But structural problems with the housing in that neighborhood, not dis- Park Slope) convened the gather- of Thor Equities, told the development The Brooklyn Paper / remaining edifice on the site killed tant Red Hook. Long Island University ing, which included Borough Presi- big wigs at the Real Estate Roundtable COLLEGETOWN? Joe Sitt, who owns the land next to the Ikea in those plans, along with the building said it wasn’t interested in Sitt’s dream dent Markowitz, Rep. Yvette Clarke at the Brooklyn Historical Society. Red Hook, hopes to turn it into a mini–college town with dormitories itself, Sitt said. because it is already working with an- (D–Park Slope), Councilman Steve “[It could be] quasi-residential stu- serving Manhattan and Brooklyn students. Noting the enormous profitability other developer. See HATE on page 2 FOWL PRAY Slope family searches high 4UBUFPGVOJPO and low for missing chicken By Stephen Brown for now, there is concern that blood- The Brooklyn Paper thirsty stray cats or an opportunistic If Park Slope residents see some- hawk will see the hen for what she is: 3FQ.D.BIPO thing — namely a disoriented chicken fresh poultry. — they should say something. Yet the Kentucky Fried controversy A Slope family’s dream to become a has a tragic side. The family’s only re- mini dairy farm had its wings clipped maining hen, Bonnie Kate, is alone in IFBETGPSIJMMT now that one of the two birds acquired her coop, too nervous to start laying eggs last week has escaped! (chickens are such prima donnas). “She’s freaked out and stopped lay- start the process of covering the un- “She flew the coop!” Lax said. “It President Obama called must have happened within an hour of ing,” Lax said. “Normally, they lay one on congressional Democrats insured by expanding existing pro- every other day or so, depending on grams like Medicare and Medicaid.” us bringing them home.” to pass a health care bill now, Until the departure of the hen, dubbed how they’re feeling.” rather than fearfully “head for That’s what they’re saying. The rad- It’s not the first time that The Brook- ical reform was not welcomed by Sophia Lor-hen by the family, Rebecca the hills” — but freshman Rep. lyn Paper has gotten in the middle of the electorate. Lax and her two daughters were bub- Mike McMahon is so far up the bling with anticipation at the prospect an avian escapade. Just last week, The mountain that he risks a of fresh blue eggs straight from their Paper played an outsized role in saving nose bleed! backyard coop on the corner of Sixth Gracie, the African Grey Parrot who That’s what the Bay Avenue and First Street. They had just disappeared last week, but was found Ridge Democrat told returned from Pennsylvania with a new after The Brooklyn Paper’s Web site us just a few hours pair of cluckers, and had even taken egg alerted the world that Gracie had taken after the president’s .D.BIPO orders from First Street neighbors. wing. well-received State of Fortunately, chickens — even ones In the Lax family case, the stray the Union address last PO -JOF straight from the bucolic Keystone State chicken would surely return if she Wednesday night. countryside — don’t tend to wander only knew of the perks of living the Clearly, it was time to very far. urban life. Stephen Brown get McMahon on Line Lax and her neighbors have spot- The family’s previous pair of chick- 1 again. He had a spirited con- GK: Wait a second. Did you just ted the white-headed hen in backyards ens, “Eggy” and “Danger,” was spoiled versation with our editor, Gersh call the House bill “radical”? along Sixth Avenue, and now suspect to no end (though they had to be re- Kuntzman. MM: It was certainly perceived that the bird is making her way down- turned because Eggy turned out to be Gersh Kuntzman: The presi- as such. hill toward Fifth Avenue. a noisy rooster, not a hen. In addition dent asked the House and GK: Yeah, but whose freakin’ Lax and her daughters have spotted to being divas, chickens make it tough The Brooklyn Paper / Senate to pass a conference fault is that? the hen roosting in trees as night falls, to determine their gender). Rebecca Lax holds Bonnie Kate, the family’s only remaining chicken version of the health care MM: Well, I blame the proponents of but have yet to capture it.

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