CB2 DM Alabi gets the boot: p.9 Primaries heat up: p.3 INSIDE BROOKLYN’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER Including The Downtown News, Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill Paper and Fort Greene-Clinton Hill Paper Brooklyn Designs show in DUMBO Published weekly by Brooklyn Paper Publications Inc, 26 Court St., Brooklyn 11242 Phone 718-834-9350 AD fax 718-834-1713 • NEWS fax 718-834-9278 © 2003 Brooklyn Paper Publications • 18 pages including GO BROOKLYN • Vol.26, No. 24 BWN • June 16, 2003 • FREE DA’S FOE INDICTED Say Hynes rival stole $10G By Patrick Gallahue She will turn herself in on Monday, June 16, to be The Brooklyn Papers arraigned at Brooklyn Supreme Court, sources close Sandra Roper, an attorney who twice challenged to Roper told The Brooklyn Papers. Brooklyn’s Democratic political establishment, includ- A special prosecutor will handle the case. ing District Attorney Charles Hynes, has been indicted Roper’s indictment was sealed, but the Daily News on charges she bilked an elderly client out of $10,000. reported on Wednesday that her former client, Mary Lee Ward, 73, of Bedford- Stuyvesant, accused Roper of il- legally taking money from an escrow account after promising to represent her free of charge in a dispute with a lending firm. Ward fired Roper in 2001. Roper, a civil rights attorney Garson: I’m Callan / Tom from Crown Heights who has served as counsel to the Nation- al Association for the Advance- ment of Colored People, is best known for her quixotic cam- innocent paigns for Brooklyn district at- Papers The Brooklyn torney, against Hynes, and state Macy’s sent up a spectacular show, visible from the Brooklyn Heights promenade, on July 4, 2000, when they were last seen there. By Patrick Gallahue Assembly, against Brooklyn The Brooklyn Papers Democratic Party boss Clarence Justice Gerald Garson plead- Norman Jr. ed not guilty Monday morning In 2001, Roper challenged to charges that he fixed divorce Hynes, in what turned out to be cases in exchange for cash and a turbulent campaign. gifts, as two women damaged Shortly after she jumped into the campaign, Hynes success- by his allegedly predetermined fully had Roper removed from HEIGHTS’ BIG BANG rulings stood outside the court the ballot after charging that her and demanded justice. petitions were “egregiously “I got nothing,” said Sigal Levi, loaded with fraud.” Macy’s fireworks viewable from promenade a mother of five who lost custody The state Supreme Court of her children to her ex-husband ruled that some petitions were By Patrick Gallahue lantic Avenue to Cadman Plaza West.” “Public transportation is critical,” said In- Avraham Levi, another suspect in “permeated” with fraud and The Brooklyn Papers “I don’t think any residential neighborhood spector Christopher Rising, commanding offi- the case. “They took away my that she was aware that fraud wants to be inundated with crowds on a daily cer of the 84th Precinct. “The biggest mistake rights as a mother, citizen and hu- was being committed, a charge Brooklyn Heights will host thousands basis, but it’s a holiday,” said Judy Stanton, ex- you could make is thinking you can get in man being.” she adamantly denied. Roper of revelers this July 4. ecutive director of the Brooklyn Heights Asso- your car and drive down to the promenade to Frieda Hanimov, who blew the admitted that some of the signa- The 30-minute Macy’s Independence Day ciation. “As long as it’s a quiet, responsible see this. You’ll just end up in a traffic jam and whistle on Garson in October 2002, tures had been forged but that it fireworks spectacular, launching 30,000 aerial group, and they don’t litter and they don’t leave watching the fireworks from your car.” said, “He should go to jail for a was unbeknownst to her when shells and special effects, will be set off from a lot of garbage around, I think most residents It is certain that streets in the Heights, long time for the people that he they were submitted. The ap- two locations, one on the East River off Man- / Tom Callan / Tom are excited to see the fireworks.” DUMBO and Fulton Ferry will be closed to hurt.” pellate court eventually ruled in hattan’s 34th Street and the other just below A spokeswoman for Macy’s said there have traffic, Rising added, though exactly which Hanimov said the drawn out Roper’s favor placing her back South Street Seaport, making the Heights prom- not been fireworks viewable from the prome- streets was still being determined. The times court battle with her husband left on the ballot with only a few enade, the uplands of the piers, Fulton Landing nade since 2000. of closings, he said, would depend on the her broke and so she turned to Dis- weeks left to campaign. and Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park prime trict Attorney Charles Hynes after Police at the 84th Precinct, which includes crowd size. Despite the abridged and ul- viewing areas. Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO and Fulton Ferry, “Our counter-terrorism concerns won’t go fearing she was going to lose cus- Papers The Brooklyn timately unsuccessful cam- tody of her children. The Macy’s July 4 hotline announces: are battening down the hatches all along the wa- away, so we’ll be concerned about that,” Rising Sigal Levi outside Brooklyn paign, Roper picked up a re- “Prime viewing area is between Joralemon terfront from DUMBO to Atlantic Avenue and said. “But fireworks in downtown are not new See GARSON on page 9 Supreme Court on Monday. See ROPER on page 9 Street and Cranberry Street at the Brooklyn they warn that driving to the area on July 4 so we have plans that we’ve used in the past Heights promenade and Furman Street from At- would be an exercise in futility. that we can put in place.” Jeers for Hook Ikea PRIDE By Patrick Gallahue plan to build an Ikea home furnishings and shuttle buses from the Smith-Ninth The Brooklyn Papers store at the former New York Shipyard, a Street F and G subway station, and the site bounded by Van Brunt Street, Colum- Fourth Avenue F, M, N and R station at About 75 Brooklynites crowded into bia Street and the Erie Basin. Shortly af- Ninth Street. the City Planning Commission’s Lower ter the meeting began, however, it began Simon asked them to elucidate in their IN THE Manhattan hearing room on Tuesday, to look like a warm-up for the public re- future studies how the neighborhood will many to express their concerns over an view. deal with the cumulative impact of Ikea, Ikea furniture store planned for Red “This large traffic increase will be a Fairway and Lowe’s, the giant supermar- Hook. nightmare for residents and businesses ket and home improvement store, respec- The meeting was intended to be a scoping alike,” one woman said. tively, that are also planned for Red Hook session for the draft Environmental Impact Not that there weren’t a sizeable list of and nearby Gowanus. PARK Statement, with the public invited to request is- concerns and suggestions for the study, She also asked how the rerouting of sues that they would like to see studied for the with almost everyone wondering how the traffic for the six- to 10-year reconstruc- store would brace the neighborhood for tion or replacement of the Gowanus Ex- 50,000 car trips a week. pressway would factor into the plan, and Gay parade carries Jo Anne Simon, chairwoman of the called for an examination of alternative Gowanus Community Stakeholders sites for the Swedish furniture store. / Tom Callan / Tom on despite rain Graduation Group, a coalition of neighborhood organ- Lou Sones, a member of Red Hook The Brooklyn Papers salute the Class izations seeking to replace the Gowanus Groups Against Garbage Sites, who was a By Patrick Gallahue Expressway with a tunnel, said, “We are major opponent of the Fairway Supermar- of 2003… and the Best of Brooklyn The Brooklyn Papers concerned that plans thus far for public ket that will be built at 480-500 Van Brunt scholastic award winners transportation to the site are so much fluff. St. during its passage through the Uniform What a drag. People just don’t take a ferry to buy a chif- Land Use Review Procedure last year, Papers The Brooklyn Saturday’s rain washed the shoppers away, it NEXT WEEK forobe.” presented a four-page list of issues he Justine Duplessis and Monica McAlpin braved the rain during washed the stage shows away and washed the Ikea proposes adding a ferry service See IKEA on page 8 Pride Fest on Prospect Park West Saturday. crowds away. But by 9 pm’s seventh annual Brook- lyn Pride parade, the spirit of the borough’s gay and lesbian community was still marching strong. “I’ve got my umbrella and I’ve got my coat,” said McKenzie Granger, of Crown Heights, who joined viewers on Prospect Park West to cheer on the marchers. “I love my community. I’ve got to Marching for Jesus support them.” “So far, I’m having a good time despite the rain,” said Kelsey, a 19-year-old marcher from Queens. By Deborah Kolben Some danced and twirled The march started in Brook- “A little rain won’t dampen the spirit of Brook- The Brooklyn Papers ribbons while others sang lyn five years ago, but moved lyn’s energetic and vibrant gay, lesbian, bisexual along with the music piped to Central Park last year. It took and transgender community,” said Borough Presi- Steady and at times place in Downtown Brooklyn from a truck leading the pa- dent Marty Markowitz, who revved up his disco- heavy rain did little to rade.