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 • ©2012 Serving Brownstone Brooklyn and Williamsburg AWP/12 pages • Vol. 35, No. 37 • September 14–20, 2012 • FREE CALM DOWN! City wants to slow traffi c with extra parking By Natalie O’Neill parking spaces on the two-lane north- The Brooklyn Paper bound from 7 to 10 am on weekdays by Now try to get off the BQE. MEAN scrapping one of the area’s leftover strips Drivers will have to hit the brakes of rush-hour “no standing” signs. in Cobble Hill thanks to a plan that Streets Neighbors are cheering the plan, uses parked cars to make school-side saying Union Street’s well-used Cob- intersections feel less like a NASCAR The battle for Brooklyn’s byways ble Hill–to–Columbia Waterfront Dis- raceway. trict connection is a death trap for pe- The city wants to narrow Hicks Street Brooklyn . destrians, partly due to a chain-link near Union Street, where drivers rush The Department of Transportation fence that makes it hard for drivers to to and from the Brooklyn–Queens Ex- says a thinner street will help slow down see humans. pressway, by allowing dozens of cars drivers, prevent highway spillover traf- “The safety issue is crossing over to park along the thoroughfare dur- fic and create “a buffer” for walkers the BQE — but this could be the right Photo by Elizabeth Graham ing morning rush hour — a tactic the crossing the street, which is just few prescription for it,” said neighbor Brian The city’s plan aims to tame driv- city is increasingly using as a “traf- blocks from PS 29. McCormick. ers so pedestrians can safely fic calming” measure in Brownstone The road change frees up roughly 120 See TRAFFIC on page 2 cross the street. Market forces Organic oasis opens on Myrtle Avenue By Eli Rosenberg ert to organic oasis. Gieseler, who lives in the The Brooklyn Paper Photo by Stefano Giovannini Metropolitan City Market Avalon apartments across the Downtown’s burgeoning ba- opened last weekend in the street. “It’s really a great thing guette set has a new, upscale 240-unit tower at Flatbush Av- to have in the neighborhood grocery to pick up fresh baked enue Extension— and neigh- — and it’s convenient for all Serenity now breads, gourmet cheese, and bors said it brings a wealth of the residents of the high-rises sushi made on site — as the food to a area where it was around here.” Join Larisa Fuchs and Jesse Sheidloweras they host an all-night Community Newspaper Group / Eli Rosenberg ground f loor of the luxury To- once difficult to find a loaf And that includes res- costume party and screening of the cult sci-fi TV series Firefly. Metropolitan City Market manager Jack Gio says ol- ren tower is helping transform of bread. idents who have suffered Read more in GO Brooklyn on page 5. ives go great with a glass of wine. Myrtle Avenue from food des- “It’s gorgeous!” said Carly See MARKET on page 9 What drought? Bklyn corn growing fi ne By Natalie O’Neill Park Slope. thumbed Brooklynites, who say Gowanus . drought the Midwest has seen in The roped-off plants, which The Brooklyn Paper Workers at Ivy Garden — a the crop is difficult to grow in Lim said she doesn’t grow corn 76 years — which caused plants produced several ears, are for fun, Mother nature apparently pre- health food shop on Fourth Av- the kind of tiny plots generally but that she recently harvested a to die, prices to surge and farm- not profit, and aren’t for sale. enue and President Street — re- found in Brooklyn. bunch of juicy tomatoes, cucum- ers to panic. Keeping them healthy was eas- fers the urban jungle. cently harvested several six-foot- “It’s a great juxtaposition bers, and eggplants — which is Unlike those disappointed ier than you’d expect — with the A merciless drought killed off tall corn plants using two patches and a reminder that you don’t more than some farmers in the soil-stompers, these Gowanus- help of one key ingredient. CNG / Natalie O’Neill much of the Midwest’s corn crop of dirt near the store. need acres to grow beautiful corn belt can say. based urban farmers aren’t “There’s no secret,” said Corn is thriving on this — but the tough-to-grow sta- The corn-centric mini-farm things,” said Frieda Lim, who This year’s crop of corn and looking to turn kernels into a Linda, a clerk at the shop. “Re- Gowanus sidewalk. ple is thriving on a sidewalk in impresses even the most green- turned her roof into a garden in soybeans suffered from the worst career. ally, we just water them.” CONEY ISLAND’S WILD RIDES Wheel Chute wars ’em up By Will Bredderman The Brooklyn Paper Jump to get lit There isn’t enough room in By WIll Bredderman Coney Island for two big wheels, The Brooklyn Paper the owners of the landmarked The company that brought Deno’s Wonder Wheel said this Luna Park and the Scream Zone to week as they lashed out against Coney Island is close to penning thrill seekers’ plans to bring a a deal that will allow it to fulfill a new 600-foot observation disk to longtime dream of Borough Pres- the People’s Playground . ident Markowitz’s — stringing The famed Parachute Jump Both Borough President up the Parachute Jump with mil- will receive a $2 million Markowitz and Dick Zigun, the Photo by Steve Solomonson lions of lights so it can be seen necklace of new lights. unofficial mayor of Coney Island, from Mars, insiders say. say the observation wheel cur- Deno “DJ” Vourderis agrees that there is only room enough in Coney Island for one wheel — his father’s The city’s Economic Devel- would look like if they were given rently planned for Staten Island opment Corporation, which will would be a fine addition to the Wonder Wheel. the contract. Photo by Elizabeth Graham oversee the Parachute Jump’s “It looked like you really could Park Slope’s long-shuttered Sixth Avenue library is open amusement area, but operators bling-over that Markowitz has of the 150-feet Wonder Wheel wheel,” a ride spokeswoman the Rock’s view of the Man- invested $2 million in taxpayer see it from space,” said Mermaid again — finally! say the 92-year-old ride featured said. “Why would anyone want hattan skyline and go ahead dollars towards, would not con- Parade founder Dick Zigun, who in the movie “The Warriors ,” is to build another?” with its construction. firm that Central Amusements said he viewed the video where and always should be a Coney Staten Island’s proposed But Coney Island boosters ar- has won the bid to light up the the ride is re-illuminated complete Island original. wheel would rival the London gued that the move would steal landmarked spire, but Coney Is- with dancing LED lights synchro- Page turner “Modern amusement parks Eye and become the tallest ob- the People’s Playground’s spot- land civic leaders say the com- nized with the brilliant beams of may have several roller coast- servation ride in the world if light and pit the outer boroughs pany has been parading around the Scream Zone. “I was com- ers, but there’s only room for one the city decides to cash in on See WHEEL on page 2 a video of what the iconic ride See JUMP on page 2 Park Slope cheers Sixth Ave library’s long-delayed return By Natalie O’Neill wireless internet and iPads just The Brooklyn Paper for kids. DEADLY COLLAPSE A long-shuttered library in “Expect to walk into a beau- Park Slope is closing the book tiful new library,” said spokes- on years of renovation delays — woman Emma Wood. One killed, four injured at Fort Greene site and opening the doors to fancy The upgraded lit house will new technology and more pub- also feature more than 20,000 By Eli Rosenberg between DeKalb and Willoughby a loud noise seconds before the lic meeting space. new books, self check-out ma- The Brooklyn Paper avenues when the floor gave way building collapsed. The Brooklyn Public Li- chines, and new wheelchair A construction worker was at 9:15 am — sending two workers “I was having coffee when I brary’s branch at Sixth Ave- ramps. killed and four others were in- plunging to the basement. heard a bam, bam, bam!” said nue and Ninth Street will re- The city first announced jured — one seriously — on Mon- A 67-year-old worker who had Joe Louis, who lives down the open on Sept. 13 after three years renovations in 2009, saying a day morning when the Carlton Av- not been identified by Monday block from the construction site of construction, three opening- revamp was required to make enue building they were working afternoon was taken to Brooklyn and said he always crosses the date push-backs, and dozens of the century-old building handi- on collapsed underneath them. Hospital, where he died of his in- street instead of walking under complaints about the boarded-up capped-accessible. But the bud- Department of Buildings of- juries. A second member of the the building’s scaffolding. “My eyesore. get soon ballooned by $700,000 Photo by Stefano Giovannini ficials said five workers were construction crew was in serious nephew asked me if it was thun- The library will now boast to $2.7 million — and the city Twisted metal beams mark the spot where two construc- loading cinder blocks and other condition at Kings County Hospi- der, but I said no because it was a refurbished interior — com- extended the project to include tion workers fell after the third floor at the Carlton Avenue heavy materials onto the top of the tal, an FDNY spokesman said.