REAL ESTATE P12 P9 HOME ‘Cheesy’ BROOKLYN Back to DELIVERED SERVICES P13 senator to SMART work for THROUGHOUT visit Slope BRIEFS BROWNSTONE BROOKLYN EMPLOYMENT mom Hepcat BROOKLYN’S REAL NEWSPAPERS Including The Brooklyn Heights Paper, Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill Paper, DUMBO Paper and the Downtown News Published every Saturday — online all the time — by Brooklyn Paper Publications Inc, 55 Washington St, Suite 624, Brooklyn NY 11201. Phone 718-834-9350 • www.BrooklynPapers.com • © 2006 Brooklyn Paper Publications • 14 pages •Vol. 29, No. 10 BWN • Saturday, March 11, 2006 • FREE CUT! THIS WEEKEND After complaints, movie crews banned in Heights By Ariella Cohen For some Brooklyn Heights residents, the deci- The Brooklyn Papers sion to restrict new filming permits didn’t come a Cut — that’s a wrap. In Brooklyn Heights, at least. moment too soon. After three big-budget movie crews turned the Last week, the already cramped neighborhood scenic neighborhood into a Hollywood backlot last was overrun with film crews — and their big movie week, the city announced that it would bar future star trailers, catering trucks and equipment rigs. filming there for three months. On Thursday and Friday, Warner Bros. rented St. Ann’s and the Holy Trinity Church to film the Kirsten Sher- idan-helmed “August Rush.” And on Thursday, author-ac- tor-director Ethan Hawke was on the Promenade shooting the film version of his angst-ridden City: Free novel, “The Hottest State.” Paws to reflect Hawke also stars in the film. And the next morning on Cadman Plaza West, dog-walk- ers were displaced by a white Wegman show kicks off at B’klyn Museum parking on trailer labeled “Lucy” and “Desi” that served the crew of a Castle Rock remake of “Mostly By Lisa J. Curtis graphs of those sad-eyed dogs. Martha,” starring Catherine Zeta- GO Brooklyn Editor “I wanted to give a sense of a mind Jones that races, and I think that comes through As a result of the celebrity in- William Wegman is not just a dog in this installation,” said Trevor Fair- the block vasion, the Mayor’s Office of photographer. brother, the exhibit’s curator. Film, Theatre and Broadcasting So at a press conference at the Brook- Wegman said he felt the exhibition placed waterfront blocks of Rem- lyn Museum on Wednesday, there was was nearly “suffocating” with the crowd- sen, Pierrepont and Montague Eye resident permits Wegman, graciously displaying the same ed amount of work it displayed, but felt streets on the moratorium “hot patience towards dog-obsessed reporters that “the advantages are that it’s easy to By Ariella Cohen list.” that he employs when arranging his Such filming bans are rare, make connections between different The Brooklyn Papers beloved weimaraners into poignant and pieces.” said a spokeswoman for the city hilarious Polaroids. Planners from the Department of Transportation have be- film office. In 2003, the entire “I’m glad that it’s all mixed up, that Some reporters, after all, were frustrated it’s not chronological or by media,” said gun studying a parking permit system that would discour- DUMBO neighborhood was that Wegman hadn’t brought even one of Wegman. age commuters from parking in residential neighborhoods temporarily made off-limits to the grey pups with him for the photo-op. And in most of what this witty rural surrounding Downtown — which could reduce the num- filmic auteurs, thanks to resi- But Wegman is quite serious about his ber of cars clogging the streets of Brownstone Brooklyn. dents’ complaints — a move art, which ranges far further afield than Massachusetts native has tackled, you’ll If the plan moves forward, residents of Brooklyn Heights, Fort that emboldened other over- those reporters knew. And that’s the sub- find a smidgen of humor, a lighthearted- Greene and Boerum Hill will be able to buy curbside spaces with filmed neighborhoods to start text of “Funney/Strange,” the museum’s ness that’s a breath of fresh air in the jad- ed art world. a monthly pass. complaining louder. first retrospective of Wegman’s work in Callan / Tom Boston, Washington, London and San Francisco already have The film office heard plenty 15 years. The exhibition took its name from a such systems, but the Downtown study is the farthest the contro- of gripes from Brooklyn Heights Spanning 40 years of his creative out- simple 1982 ink-on-paper which depicts a versial idea has moved in New York, where free street parking is last week. put, it includes paintings, collages, ladder going down into a circle, a straw considered a birthright. “The film companies idle their works-on-paper, artist books, black-and- going into a circle, the word “strange” “By not encouraging commuters to park, you may discourage trucks,” said Judy Stanton, exec- white as well as color photography, and and the deliberately misspelled, “funney.” commuters from driving Downtown,” said Ryan Russo, DOT’s utive director of the Brooklyn video works that Wegman directed and “He’s always playing on multiple mean- Papers The Brooklyn Downtown Brooklyn coordinator. “But by making it easier for Heights Association. “They take starred in. It will truly be an eye-opener ings,” Fairbrother explained. “He finds (Top) a detail of William Wegman’s chromogenic print, residents to park, you may also be encouraging more driving.” up parking and move our cars. for those who think the multi-talented something twisted, then twists that, too.” “Washed Up.” (Above) The artist in the Brooklyn Museum in See PARKING on page 12 See BANNED on page 12 artist only does splashy color photo- See WEGMAN on page 7 front of “Untitled, 1998,” also featuring his famous dogs. Demolition begins for Nets arena By Ariella Cohen Solitude,” the Underberg Building stares out at Rat- The Brooklyn Papers ner’s Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal malls — two very 20th-century projects that typify Ratner’s Bruce Ratner’s demolition of buildings prior work in Downtown Brooklyn. within the Atlantic Yards footprint has begun Forever looming over Atlantic Avenue’s traffic, Hindy: — albeit one brick at a time. the Underberg Building had a cult status among nos- On Wednesday, workers started dismantling the talgia buffs and preservationists who appreciated the first of six Ratner-owned buildings in the area of his contrast between its moody geometric outline and proposed arena for the New Jersey Nets. malls’ bright flags. The first to fall will be a forlorn former food sup- On March 23, project opponents will return to I’m all in ply building at the intersection of Pacific and At- Manhattan Supreme Court to appeal last month’s lantic avenues long known by the name stenciled ruling that paved the way for the demolition. across its back and sides: Samuel Underberg. Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) had By Gersh Kuntzman The building is too old to go down by wrecking challenged Ratner’s right to take down the building The Brooklyn Papers ball, according to demolition workers at the site, so before winning state approval for his project. DDDB Let the boycott really begin! it will be torn down brick by brick. argued that by razing the building, the developer was Opponents of Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards A moody work of 19th-century architecture im- actually causing the very neighborhood blight that is project renewed their call for a boycott of Brook- mortalized in Jonathan Lethem’s novel “Fortress of See ARENA on page 4 lyn Brewery beer after owner Steve Hindy offi- cially declared himself in favor of the $3.5-billion mega-development this week. Hindy had toured the site of the project last week with members of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, who hoped to persuade him that Rat- ner’s plan was out-of-scale with the surrounding community. But after the fact-finding mission, the beer meister — who last week said he supported bringing the Ratner-owned New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn, yet was neutral on the larger project — had the opposite reaction: “After meeting with the opposition and touring the site, we are more than ever convinced that the Atlantic Yards project is good for Brooklyn,” Hindy told The Brooklyn Papers. “Not only will it bring a professional basketball team, it also will bring much-needed affordable housing, jobs and economic development to downtown Brooklyn.” Hindy said he felt the need to clarify his posi- Callan / Tom Callan / Tom tion after critics complained that no self-respect- ing Brooklynite could support bringing the Nets to the borough, yet not have a position on the rest of the Atlantic Yards project. The Brooklyn Papers The Brooklyn His brewmaster, Garrett Oliver, had taken just Papers The Brooklyn such a position last month in what he believed Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver (left) and Steve Hindy in 2000. Oliver sent an email The Underberg Building, which is being torn down by owner Bruce Ratner, has stood near the in- See HINDY on page 4 in which he said that he — unlike his boss Hindy — opposes Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project. tersection of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues for a century. 2 BWN THE BROOKLYN PAPERS • WWW.BROOKLYNPAPERS.COM • (718) 834-9350 March 11, 2006 Everybody’s got a plan for future of Red Hook By Ariella Cohen men, without a cargo port. proposal, complaining about manufactur- ABORTION DENTISTS The Brooklyn Papers The Red Hook Container Port is operat- ers who stink up the neighborhood with ed by American Stevedoring, whose lease open garbage pits and illegal dumping. There are a whole lot of contendas will not be renewed when it expires next But the largest landowners on the wa- on the waterfront in Red Hook.