Brooklyn’s Real Newspaper BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 834–9350 • Brooklyn, NY • ©2007 BROOKLYN HEIGHTS–DOWNTOWN EDITION AWP/20 pages • Vol. 30, No. 17 • Saturday, April 28, 2007 • FREE INCLUDING DUMBO TAKING ITS TOLL Brooklyn pols blast congestion pricing By Dana Rubinstein The Brooklyn Paper Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to charge driv- ers $8 to enter Downtown Manhattan is an un- fair burden on Brooklyn motorists, pols said this Marty flips: Fee week, even as traffic experts said it could ease gridlock through- out the borough. The so-called Apartments “congestion pric- worth a new look ing” scheme would over require most mo- the BQE? Many Brooklynites are calling Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan a tax on the torists who drive boroughs. Not Borough President Markowitz, though. This week, the Beep said he below 86th Street PAGE 18 hadn’t taken a position on the plan, despite very strong statements in the past to- in Manhattan to wards anything that smacked of a toll on the East River bridges. — Rubinstein pay the fee between 6 am and 6 pm. The mayor says his goal is to reduce traffic and pollution “Some ideas will fly like an eagle. This is a nomic burden on the businesses and resi- transportation ... then it’s something worthy while generating revenue for mass transit. turkey. It’s just totally unfair to Brooklyn.” dents of Brooklyn, many of whom are of review. ... I don’t know if what is being But Brooklyn electeds weren’t buying it. New York Daily News, Feb. 16, 2002 done in London could be transferred here / Sam Ferri forced to drive because they have no oth- “It’s a regressive tax on working middle-class ••• er public transportation options.” to New York City. However ... it is certain- families and small-business owners,” said Rep. ly worthy of looking into.” “To try and rationalize that East River Daily News, Sept. 30, 2003 Anthony Weiner (D–Sheepshead Bay). The Brooklyn Paper, November, 2006 Councilman Vincent Gentile, a Bay Ridge De- tolls as a ‘fair tax’ because people in ••• ••• mocrat, chided the mayor for “punishing Brook- Manhattan are able to afford more ex- “If there was a way that it would not be- lynites who are forced to drive due to a lack of an pensive real estate is ridiculous.” “I have many concerns [about congestion come an additional tax burden on residents pricing]. However, it is worthy of full re- adequate public transportation.” Daily News, April 6, 2003 of the boroughs of New York City and at Bloomberg insisted that the “punishment” to view. … I haven’t come out against it, ••• the same time it would generate revenues The Brooklyn Paper illustration The Brooklyn city residents would be nominal because most nor have I come out in support of it.” The mayor’s congestion pricing plan amounts to a toll on Brooklyn drivers, people who drive into Downtown Manhattan Bridge tolls would be a “tremendous eco- for major infusions of resource in public The Brooklyn Paper, April, 2007 some local pols say. See TRAFFIC on page 18 BEE-LIEVE IT! This does not compute Keeper: Cellphones Tech alums wonder: Where’s the blacksmith shop? killing honeymakers By Ariella Cohen transformation Tech had undergone since The Brooklyn Paper their salad days. But they were certainly not the most Where did all the slide rules go — and wowed over by the digital-age makeover where do all the books fit with all these of the 85-year-old engineering, math and computers on the desks? science school. These were the questions in the air last John Lyons, a member of the class of ’67 week at Brooklyn Technical HS as the who showed up in his letter sweater and a techies of times bygone descended upon few valedictorian pins, explained the differ- their Fort Greene alma mater for a re- ence in three words: the personal computer. union. “Students went from drawing with pen “I remember one computer in the and ink to using a mouse,” Lyons said. whole school,” said class of 1967 grad Everyone seemed to understand how Philip Morris. “It was the size of two re- much the meaning of the word “tech” had frigerators and had its own language.” changed over the decades. “We started it with a punch card,” “We had blacksmithing and a foundry,” chimed in his one-time classmate, said 1947 grad, Mark Drummond. The re- Jonathan Goldman. tired telephone engineer recalled building “Every time I got mad at the teacher, I Greenhood / Aaron sections of naval ships in shop class. used to bend the card so the program “I graduated before the transistor was wouldn’t start,” the gray-haired former invented,” he said, patting a desk that he geek said. said once would have had a tool vise at- Morris and Goldman sat in a computer tached to it. lab — it was a metal shop when they Paper The Brooklyn “But we had a computer, too,” he said. went to the school — marveling at the Aira Contreras, a senior at Brooklyn Technical HS, shows John Lyons, class of 1967, computers. “It was called an abacus.” Ratner’s wrecking Callan / Tom The Brooklyn Paper The Brooklyn By Matthew Lysiak ball hits, protested The Brooklyn Paper Honeybees are dying all over the country — and one Brook- By Ariella Cohen need you now!” said Council- lyn beekeeper thinks that cellphones are the culprit! and Gersh Kuntzman woman Letitia James (D-Pros- Brooklyn bee-maven David Graves, who sells his high-end The Brooklyn Paper pect Heights). “This community “Rooftop” brand honey at the Union Square Farmers Market, is was forced to file lawsuits be- sounding the alarm about the possible cause of the crisis that has Developer Bruce Ratner be- cause [of the lack of] govern- claimed the lives of billions of bees in 24 states. gan demolition of three more ment oversight.” “Every year, more and more bees are just disappearing and I am buildings within the Atlantic The rally came three days af- real concerned that cellphones Yards footprint this week, days ter a federal judge ruled that Rat- are messing with their ability to after dozens of opponents ner could start knocking down find their way,” said the bee- called for the developer to call buildings in the footprint, despite INSIDE keeper. off his wrecking ball until several cases still percolating Graves said he has about a pending litigation is resolved. through the court system. dozen rooftop hives throughout Protesters gathered on Mon- Last Friday, Justice Joan the boroughs, with one on day morning at 191 Flatbush Madden rejected opponents’ re- Bergen Street in Brooklyn, and Ave., to complain that the demo- quest for a restraining order that claims to have made much of litions would create blight in and would have barred demolitions his honey on the rooftops of A CUT BELOW around Ratner’s proposed 16- until a May 3 hearing in one of Bay Ridge (though he likes to tower, arena, residential and of- the cases. keep the exact locations secret). fice complex — especially if the Up to 15 structures are slated 500 things to Graves says the apiary “die- lawsuits are successful and the to fall in the next few months, off” is playing havoc with the Gersh’s trim not $400 project is never built. the first steps towards complet- do this week production of honey and other “We say to Gov. Spitzer, we See BALL on page 7 PAGE 2, 9-13 products from the hive. HE CHOICE IS YOURS Ameri- “I have had to raise the price ca: The $400 haircut of Democ- THE BROOKLYN of my honey this year to $15 for T rat John Edwards (above left) or By Gersh a half-pound,” Graves said. “I the $15 haircut of Weirdo Gersh Kuntz- ANGLE Kuntzman am anticipating having a bad man (above right). SMART year and have already put the Before you answer, consider the sage DECISION 2008 order in for 30 packages of hon- words that a crotchedy old barber in mom eybees from South Carolina.” Bay Ridge once told me: “Son, the only tough to be a man of the people when More than half-a-billion bee difference between a good haircut and you’ve just spent more than the cost of What to tell colonies have been affected by a bad haircut is three days.” 250 Bud tallboys on your hair. a mysterious bee die-off — and Which brings me back to Edwards. Not that I’m in any position to lec- the children more and more, people think this “colony collapse disorder” The Democratic presidential candi- ture a man who may be the future pres- PAGE 16 is due to radiation from mobile date added a second difference be- ident, but I’ve never spent more than / Julie Rosenberg tween a good haircut and a bad one phones and the antennae that $10 on a haircut — and look how good amid revelations that he paid a hair EDITORIAL help you reach out and touch stylist $400 to make him look pretty I look! someone. — oh, so pretty — on the campaign All seriousness aside, given Ed- Good Bloomy, How important is this bee- trail. wards’s predicament, when I needed a tastrophe? Well, as Einstein Far more than three days have trim this week, I headed straight for the Paper The Brooklyn Bad Bloomy once said, “If honey bees be- Clinton Street Barber Shop, a new Signs of the times: Phyllis Wrynn carried these watercolor posters (left and center) at Monday’s rally, come extinct, human society passed since the news broke — and Ed- PAGE 15 wards’s haircut still looks bad.