VOLUME 67 NUMBER 34 • SEPTEMBER 6-12, 2019 Community News Beacon in South Brooklyn Since 1953 Where’s My Bus? MTA removes schedules from stops PAGE 2 WHAT’S NEWS Photo courtesy of Kids of the Arts Productions GRID-LOCK SLAMMED In the wake of a moratorium by National Grid on installing new gas hookups in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island, New York State might consider ending a long-standing agreement it has with the company, giving it a monopoly on supplying gas to homes and businesses. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has directed the Department of Public Service to broad- en an investigation it is currently conducting into the moratorium and to consider alternatives to National Grid as a franchisee for some or all of the areas it currently serves if the problem is not resolved. For more on this story, go to page 10. IMPEACHMENT-KEEN Demonstrators held a protest rally outside U.S. Rep. Max Rose’s Bay Ridge office late last month to urge the pol to back the impeachment of President Donald Trump. Rose, who won his seat in 2018 and has earned a reputation as a centrist willing to work across the aisle on certain issues, has steadfastly refused to back impeachment. For more on this story, go to brooklynreporter.com. FOODIE OUTPOST OPENS Sahadi’s, the family specialty grocery store that’s been a Brooklyn fixture since 1948, finally opened its doors in Industry City late last month. The new space is 7,500 square feet with approximately 80 seats and a bar. It offers the traditional ancient grains and spices, bins of freshly roasted nuts, dried fruits, imported olives and old-fashioned barrels of coffee beans that customers look for at its first location on Atlantic Avenue, along with new additions, such as light breakfast, full coffee service and lunch. For more on this story, go to page 12. CHURCH SALE The Bay Ridge property that housed Salem Lutheran Church for many years has been sold for $4.65 million in a real estate transaction that marked the second time in nine years the property has been put on the market. The Eastern Buddhist Association purchased the property at 450 67th St. from the previous owners, Saint Matthew’s Church, which bought the 11,915-square-foot property, which includes a church, parsonage and auditori- um, from Salem Lutheran Church in 2010 for $2.65 million. For more on this story, go to page 2. Columnists’ Corner: BAY RIDGE ‘PRINCESS’ Generally Speaking Seventh grader Ana-Sofia Rodriguez advances acting career By Ted General SEE PAGE 11 Common Sense By Jerry Kassar MARC MINDS YOUR BUSINESS Home Reporter executive Marc Hibsher spent a few minutes with Bay Ridge Matter of Fact Center Executive Director Marianne Nicolosi, whose leadership team has launched a satellite office on Third Avenue to expand services to Bay Ridge By Jay Brown seniors here who live in a well-defined Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC). NORCs usually come into being when residents “age in Focus on Bay Ridge place” because, Hibsher reports, “they remain comfortable with their neigh- borhood and their neighbors. The Third Avenue satellite office will be By Chuck Otey well received in a stable, residential place like Bay Ridge.” Focus on Bay Ridge columnist Chuck Otey agrees and was there to cover Columns begin on page 18 a public forum held at the new Third Avenue NORC center. For more, see page 19. ebrooklyn media photo by Arthur De Gaeta Giant fallen tree branch crushes truck in Bay Ridge • Page 6 2• •EXTRA EAGLE EDITION NEWS HOME MEDIA REPORTER — HOME AND REPORTER SPECTATOR AND • Week BROOKLYN of September SPECTATOR 6–12, 2019 • Week of September 6-12, 2019 Salem Lutheran Church site sold for $4.65 million BY PAULA KATINAS [email protected] A Bay Ridge property that housed Salem Lutheran Church for many years has been sold for $4.65 million to the Eastern Buddhist Association in a real estate transaction that marked the second time in nine years the property has been put on the market, the Home Reporter has learned. The Eastern Buddhist Ass- ociation purchased the proper- ty at 450 67th St. from the pre- vious owners, Saint Matt- hew’s Church, according to Victor Weinberger, the real estate agent who brokered the sale for RE/MAX. The closing took place earlier this month. St. Matthew Church bought the 11,915-square-foot prop- erty, which includes a church, parsonage and auditorium, from Salem Lutheran Church in 2010 for $2.65 million. Weinberger also handled that real estate deal. It is unusual for a religious institution to change hands This church property that once housed Salem Lutheran Church has been sold for the second time in less than a decade. Photo courtesy of Victor Weinberger twice in less than a decade, but Weinberger said St. Matthew Church wanted to ovated, along with the library to preserve noteworthy build- according to District Manager issue for more than a decade. design of the school building. sell so that church leaders and the church offices. ings in the neighborhood, said Josephine Beckmann, who said Bay Ridge United Methodist Salam Arabic Lutheran could concentrate on other The Eastern Buddhist Associ- churches are worth saving. the board often takes a close look Church, which was located at Church on Ovington Avenue, areas of the country. “Saint ation, a religious organization “Some of the most beautiful at so-called “soft sites,” build- 7002 Fourth Avenue for nearly down the block from the Green Matthew sold the church based in lower Manhattan, plans architecture we have in Bay ings that city zoning laws allow 100 years until the congregation Church site, was also demol- because their main churches to establish a Buddhist temple at Ridge can be found in our reli- to be converted to other uses. sold the property in 2008, was ished, in 2012, and housing was are in California and Texas,” the site, according to Weinberger. gious institutions,” she said. “The board is proactive. controversially demolished by a built on the location. he told the Home Reporter in The association could not be Salem Lutheran Church, The community needs senior developer. Then, when the bot- Another area church, St. an email. reached for comment. whose members held Sunday housing and schools, and the tom fell out of the housing mar- John’s Episcopal Church on St. Matthew Church put a Victoria Hofmo, founder of services at the site for 65 board is always looking for ket, the site was sold by the Fort Hamilton Parkway near great deal of work into the site, Bay Ridge Conservancy, said years, had a history of opening possible sites,” she said. developer to the city for use as a Marine Avenue, has been on spending nearly $3 million on she was relieved to hear that its doors to the larger commu- Beckmann said the 67th school, P.S./I.S. 30. The church the market since 2014, after extensive renovations of the the new owners will have a nity, according to Hofmo. “I Street church property, situat- was known to generations of closing because the shrinking three-story church building, religious presence at the site. remember there was a Girl ed across the street from Leif Bay Ridge residents as the congregation could not sustain including roof repairs, the instal- “I think it’s fantastic,” she told Scout troop. And the Swedish Ericson Park, “is a beautiful “Green Church” due to its ser- its use. An effort to landmark lation of imported golden plated the Home Reporter. “It’s good Folk Dancing Society was building that is in a great loca- pentine stone exterior. the structure has so far been cathedral-style leafs, a new heat- to know that the church build- there,” she said. tion.” The architects designing unsuccessful. ing system and plumbing up- ing is being preserved.” The church property was on The fate of churches in the the school incorporated the — Additional reporting grades. The auditorium was ren- Hofmo, whose group fights Community Board 10’s radar, neighborhood has been an church’s clock tower into the by Helen Klein When is my bus coming? MTA removes schedules from stops BY PAULA KATINAS the move. mation on bus arrivals. ers, basic internet skills or sim- cians wrote in their letter to I urge the MTA to restore the [email protected] Councilmember Justin Bra- Brannan called the removal ply without access to mobile Foye. schedules immediately.” nnan, State Sen. Andrew Gou- of bus schedules “a bonehead- technology, printed bus sched- “We fear that enacting this MTA spokesperson Shams Riders waiting for the bus can nardes, Assemblymember Ma- ed move” and said he will do ules are an essential part of get- policy means forgetting or Tarek defended the removal of no longer tell what time it will thylde Frontus and U.S. Rep. everything he can to get the ting where they need to go. ignoring the needs of a signifi- schedules from bus stops. arrive after the Metropolitan Max Rose contend that the MTA to reverse course. Many of our constituents are cant group of bus riders, which “As we modernize bus serv- Transportation Authority sys- absence of printed schedules at The MTAallows riders to text senior citizens who may not would frankly be unaccept- ice, we’re finding ways to pro- tematically removed schedules bus stops is a hardship for riders their location to access bus have access to a working mobile able,” the lawmakers added. vide accurate arrival time infor- from bus stop poles, according to who don’t have smart phones schedules, but the elected offi- phone and so insisting that cus- The MTA stripped the sched- mation to customers in faster, four Bay Ridge lawmakers who and cannot access apps like cials argued that that’s also prob- tomers call, text, or visit a web- ules from hundreds of bus stops more efficient ways.