INSIDE: PAGES AND PAGES OF COUPONS TO SAVE YOU CASH! Yo u r Neighborhood — Yo u r News® BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260–2500 • Brooklyn, NY • ©2014 Serving Brownstone Brooklyn and Williamsburg AWP/14 pages • Vol. 37, No. 20 • May 16–22, 2014 • FREE SAVE THE WEDDINGS! After Dumbo venue’s abrupt closure, a helping hand to couples By Matthew Perlman his own wedding not too long ago and The Brooklyn Paper said he shudders to think about how the The surprise closing of Rebar , a bar, stranded couples must be feeling. restaurant, and event space on Front “I remember going through all the Street in Dumbo, has sparked former different hassles and experiences of employees, scorned customers, and planning a wedding,” said co-owner neighboring venues to band together Jesse Levitt. “I feel really terrible for to help save the dozens of weddings these people.” booked at the defunct party palace for Levitt said his restaurant can host a the next two years. party of 125 in a pinch, and most of the Rebar employees came in to work events it has booked right now are for last Friday expecting a normal day, but the end of the summer and later. He is found a note on the door saying the joint hoping to help fill some of the imme- was shuttered. A two line e–mail from diate void left behind by Rebar’s clos- Jason Stevens, Rebar’s owner, accom- ing by offering a 25-percent discount panied the note, but the message did not for anyone trying to re-book their nup- provide any further information about tials in a hurry. what is happening or why, nor did it “We happen to be in a position where make any mention of reimbursing the we can help a little,” he said. couples who have booked the space Supporters also started an online for weddings through 2016. fund-raiser that hopes to raise $5,000 Borough businesses rallied to aid for each of the 18 couples with wed- the spurned couples. At One Knick- Photo by Elizabeth Graham dings booked over the next couple of erbocker, a bar and restaurant in Wil- Vicki Friedrich and Egon Smullyan’s February, 2015 wedding plans months. They had raised $1,600 by liamsburg, one staffer recalled booking went haywire when Rebar shuttered without warning. See REBAR on page 6 Photo by Jason Speakman Whole road hog Japanese designer Hiroyuki Ogura traveled from Osuka to Dum- bo to show off his unique handmade skateboards. Neighbors: Mega-grocer is blocking bike and pedestrian traffi c on Third Avenue Japan Bklyn By Megan Riesz Avenue paths nearly The Brooklyn Paper every day and some- The Whole Foods Market in times into the evening. MEAN Japanese designers in local show Gowanus is using the bike lane The congestion shows and sidewalk that run along its a gaping hole in the By Matthew Perlman group of Japanese thing-makers in- side as a loading dock, blocking store’s planning and Streets The Brooklyn Paper spired by our borough — even if they the path with forklifts, trucks, proves why the city The battle for Brooklyn’s byways Forget turning Japanese, the Jap- are a bit fuzzy on the details. and pallets, say irked neigh- should have never let anese are turning Brooklyn. “Nowadays in Japan, Brooklyn is bors and cyclists. Big Kale get the zoning vari- “It’s pretty chaotic over Bklyn Designs, a design convention like a brand,” said Shigekazu Yasuta, Twitter / Doug Gordon A musician who lives around ance to build such a huge facil- there, with trucks unloading that happened last weekend in Dumbo, a designer and professor of design A Park Slope cycling activist snapped this shot of a the corner from the high-end ity, the longtime resident con- and not taking care where they usually limits its roster to borough from Osaka. “They love the lifestyle. Whole Foods Market forklift taking up the whole bike grocer claims the store’s un- tended, saying it has ruined that do it — and sometimes multiple designers, but this year it featured a See JAPAN on page 11 lane and sidewalk with its work on April 28. loading obstructs the Third side of the street for him. See WHOLE on page 5 Missing man found dead in harbor By Danielle Furfaro for the man friends described as 24 hours to identify it. footage of him walking on the Ott worked for the Los An- The Brooklyn Paper depressed . Friends last saw Ott on the eve- Williamburg Bridge. geles-based fashion investment Police pulled the swollen body Boat-equipped cops retrieved ning of March 22, and he was At the time, his friends and firm Dock Group and has also of missing fashion designer James the body from the harbor at Pier captured on a surveillance video family put out notices and fliers worked as a designer for J. Men- “Jay” Ott out of the New York 4 off of Second Avenue and 58th entering his home in Williams- across the city in search of him, del and the Row. Photo by Paul Martinka Harbor last Thursday morning, Street in Sunset Park at 11:12 am burg’s McKibbin Lofts at about and warned that he suffered from He was profiled by the web- Police recovered the badly decomposed body of James ending a nearly two month search on Thursday. It took more than 10 pm. His friends later found depression and anxiety. site Stylelikeu in 2009. Ott floating just off Pier 4 at 58th Street in Sunset Park. Still sleepless beside bridge Residents say noisy construction work has gone on too long By Matthew Perlman entrance and exit ramps, repav- The Brooklyn Paper ing the bridge, and painting of It is a bridge below troubled the entire 131-year-old span — nights’ sleep. that has taken four years so far That is the complaint of res- and was originally scheduled to idents living beside the Brook- finish last month. The extension lyn Bridge on Cadman Plaza and gives the agency until April 2015 in Concord Village, who say the to complete the work, but hon- city is taking way too long to get chos at the road-making body the job done, and killing them in say it will try to have most of it the process. done by the end of this year. The “Noise is not something to sneeze at,” said Roberto Gau- city blames poor weather — es- tier, who lives on the 23rd floor pecially this past winter — for the delays to the work that runs Photos by Matthew Gilbertson of a Cadman Plaza West build- More than 200 dancers showed up for Morning Glory’s first early-morning dance party. ing that overlooks the bridge’s overnight or on the weekend to entrance. “It affects your health minimize traffic disruption, but when you’re submitted to sleep neighbors the city has had plenty deprivation.” Photo by Jason Speakman of time to finish the job. The Department of Transpor- Roberto Gautier looks down on the entrance ramp to the Gautier claimed he has had his Get up — and dance tation filed an extension for the Brooklyn Bridge, where he says construction is keeping sleep disrupted for four years now project — which is repairing worn him awake at night. See BRIDGE on page 11 Sober, pre-work raves arrive in Williamsburg By Danielle Furfaro lery space in Williamsburg early The Brooklyn Paper last Wednesday morning. Going to the gym before work The raves are modeled after BUTTING IN is so passe. well-lit morning bashes that de- A party company is now offer- buted in London last year. An- ing a new kind of morning work- nie Fabricant, the co-founder of A rogue Court Street worker out regiment — early morning, the New York branch of Morn- sober raves. The eye-opening for- ing Glory, discovered the events posts own smoking ban signs mat is the perfect way to start a when she went home for the holi- weekday, a participant said. days and she decided to replicate By Megan Riesz the entrance by posting a home- “We do not have to relegate them here. The difference be- The Brooklyn Paper made sign “no smoking” signs dancing to super-late at night tween them and the dance par- Court Street is now a no-smok- near the front door. and while under the influence of ties she had been to was like ing zone! The signs warn tobacco tokers drugs,” said Tasha Blank, one of night and day, she said. Photo by Jason Speakman Someone working in the De- not to indulge unless they head the disc jockeys who spun at the Johnny Quinn Alston and “It was a wave of really posi- A Department of Education worker posted this no- partment of Education building down nearby Joralemon and Liv- first Morning Glory rave, which Nessoono Norich danced tive energy. Everyone was really smoking sign outside 65 Court St., which goes against on the downtown street declared ingston streets, since even going was held at the Kinfolk 94 gal- the morning away. See RAVES on page 6 the agency’s own policy. a smoking ban within 50 feet of See SMOKING on page 12 Pre-K cash gives W’burg communiy hub hope By Danielle Furfaro ten a fighting chance in a housing court Community Board 1 member Jan Pe- Now advocates say the mayoral ment, which contains a bocce court, a The Brooklyn Paper battle thanks to a cash infusion from terson, who helped to open the place money, as well as the other public funds pool table, and a ceramics studio.