HOME from DELIVERED THROUGHOUT Happy Easter Happy Passover BROWNSTONE BROOKLYN 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 • 18 pages •Vol. 29, No. 15 BWN • Saturday, April 15, 2006 • FREE 10 PLAGUES HAIL MARY OF BROOKLYN Brooklyn’s ship comes in Saturday By Ariella Cohen The Brooklyn Papers Leave it to a queen to come between broth- ers. Red Hook dock workers — brothers in the same longshoreman’s union — will split up on Saturday morning, April 15, one group unloading passengers and baggage from the glamorous Queen Mary 2, the other taking lumber and steel off a freighter called the Brasilia. The long-awaited arrival of the QM2 is a his- toric moment in Red Hook — and not just because Brooklyn is welcoming the largest cruise ship in the world. It also puts front and center two competing vi- Lousy bagels Gowanus Canal sions for the Red Hook waterfront — namely, whether Brooklyn’s last working container port will survive or succumb to the newly arrived cruise ship industry. Many longshoreman are hedging their bets. Nearly 100 union baggage handlers will jump to the cruise ship terminal from the container port to- day. Two hundred others will remain with the far- less-feted cargo, their fate in the hands of city offi- cials, who say they will not renew the container port operator’s lease when it expires next year. Through it all, the union brothers vow to get along. / Cunard Cruise Lines / Cunard “I’m not going to yell at anyone for working over there,” said one crane operator at the contain- er port. “The cruise ship terminal is better than the No late-night cabs one in Bayonne, better than the one in Manhattan. Associated Press But it will only be beautiful as long as we still have The Queen Mary 2 will be docking at its new Brooklyn home — in Red Hook — on Saturday. our jobs over here.” Chuck E. Cheese New Dems locked out By Gersh Kuntzman But Owens and others slammed IND The Brooklyn Papers right back — leveling pretty much the same charge. Clubhouse politics in Brooklyn “Changing the endorsement vote is an was thrown into turmoil last week injustice against anyone who joined prior after one supposedly influential to the long-stated deadline,” said Owens, Overdevelopment club barred more than 100 new whose IND membership precedes the members from its upcoming THIS WEEK current rhubarb and, as such, says it is endorsement vote — even though his “job” to find new members. they all signed up on time. “I know I brought in nine people,” he The board of Independent Neighbor- said. “And I know they joined on time. hood Democrats voted in secret to Reform-minded clubs should stick to the move up its long-scheduled May 18 en- rules.” Bones on the subway dorsement vote so that the flood of Though independent in name, IND is members — supporters of congression- affiliated with Assemblywoman Joan al candidate Chris Owens and others Millman (D-Park Slope) and state Sen. from the anti-Atlantic Yards group, De- Martin Connor (D-Brooklyn Heights). velop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn — When the flood of new members would not be eligible to pick candidates rolled in, Millman and executive board for the club to endorse. Chairman Kenn Lowy dove into the surf, The board’s April 6 vote set off a sources said. round of charges that the board didn’t “Joan and Kenn were looking over the want Owens to “steal” the endorsement list and saying, ‘This is trouble,’” said for the 11th congressional district from one club member. City Councilman David Yassky (D- The club was particularly threatened Brooklyn Heights) — and counter- by a flood of new members who might charges that Owens and others were support Ken Diamondstone, a former / Craig Schwartz Traffic “packing” the club at the last minute. community board member who is chal- “These 100 people came in to pack BAM lenging Connor, a founding member of Lice our club and I’ll be damned if I’m go- the club. (some things never change) ing to let ’em get away with it!” said “Think about how embarrassing it Buddy Scotto of Carroll Gardens, a Seeing Red-grave would be if Connor lost IND’s endorse- founding member of the IND. Actress Lynn Redgrave stars in Oscar Wilde’s “The Impor- ment,” the source said. “The club could- “[Candidates] went out and rounded tance of Being Earnest” at the BAM Harvey Theatre, April n’t let that happen.” up relatives and friends. That ain’t 18 through May 14. An interview with director Sir Peter Lowy agreed that a Connor loss would cricket.” Hall is in GO Brooklyn, page 7. See PACK’EM on page 3 Beetles are back in Brooklyn E’S BAAAACK. She’s Gittleman, the USDA’s Asian beetle tions, make phone calls, but people baaaack. And their kids are authority, leading a team of four tree THE BROOKLYN only respond when we physically hit Hbaaack, too. Fortunately, so are saviors on Quincy Street in Bed-Stuy. By Gersh the block. People see us and realize the unsung heroes of the United First stop, the backyard of ANGLE Kuntzman it’s not a scam. They say, ‘Is this States Department of Agriculture — Dorothy Sherman, who happily al- free? Well why didn’t you call me Manhattanification Baby discrimination who are back on the streets in a vio- lows Gittleman’s team to inject her in the affected area,” Gittleman says, about my tree?’ ” lent, block-by-block, house-to-house, 50-foot silver maple, planted by her In most cases, the USDA did — “but not everyone lets us into his HE PASSOVER CELEBRATION — marked by Jews worldwide this week — tree-to-tree battle against the Asian father more than a half-century ago. backyard.” hoping to limit the beetles’ consump- longhorned beetle. “It’s a member of the family,” says Almost on cue, a woman at the tion to just a few areas and prevent a features a recitation of the 10 plagues visited upon the ancient Egyptians Violent? Sure. When you’re dealing Sherman (“like the tank,” she adds next house refuses to allow the crew recurrence of what happened in Tas punishment for enslaving the Israelites. Inspired by the story, read every when asked how it’s spelled). Greenpoint, when the under-arbored with an implacable foe who has killed in, even though the USDA has a year from the Passover Seder’s Haggadah, The Brooklyn Papers asked renowned 2,200 trees since landing in Greenpoint While the pesticide drains into the signed release from her daughter. neighborhood lost 900 trees in the in 1996, you can’t be afraid to pump roots, the team inspects the tree with Gittlemen’s team reschedules the beetles’ first assault. graphic artist Roxanna Velandria, of Park Slope, to create a modern set of some defenseless street tree binoculars. Gittleman thinks he’s spot- appointment. Now, with crews working six days plagues, suitable for 21st-century Brooklyn. All your favorite pet-peeves about ted the perfectly round holes that the a week, Gittleman hopes they’ll hit with eight cups of pesticide. Seconds later, though, a our Kingly lives are here — from the traffic we endure to the lice our schoolchild- And you can’t be too timid to not beetles chew on their way out of an in- homeowner from down the all 22,000 elms, planes, maples, knock on every door in Greenpoint, fested tree, so he orders a team of block strolls over and begs the horsechestnuts and other tooth- ren pick up to the chicken bones that we find underneath the subway seat we Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant, climbers to return for a face-to-branch team to inspect his tree. some trunks favored by didn’t get. Our Passover coverage also includes news of a radical (and raucous) East New York and Ridge- inspection. Gittleman and company are the Asian long- Haggadah written by opponents of Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-develop- wood — all neighborhoods Sherman again wel- pleased to oblige. horned beetle. that have been affected by comes the attention. “That kind of thing hap- “Luckily,” he ment (see page 4). So join us as we lift a glass or two (or four!) of Manischewitz the winged, Far Eastern Other Brooklynites are pens a lot,” he said lat- said, “there are a lot and toast the holiday season. L’chaim! — Gersh Kuntzman scourge. not so inviting. er. “We put out flyers, of trees they don’t eat. The other day found Joe “We’d like to get all 22,000 trees send out notifica- Yet.” 2 AWP THE BROOKLYN PAPERS • WWW.BROOKLYNPAPERS.COM • (718) 834-9350 April 15, 2006 NYC Department of Sanitation Spring Cleaning 2006 reduce, reuse, recycle Get free Recycle your Donate compost! electronics! clothing & linens! Made from NYC leaves, compost is a computers & TVs CLOTHING natural soil enhancer. laptops printers LINENS: Just bring a shovel and sturdy containers keyboards & mice cell phones blankets, towels, sheets to take away all the compost you want. monitors scanners Bring clean, gently used items in clear Also purchase discounted compost plastic bags. No other electronics accepted; limit five bins for $20 to make your own compost pieces per vehicle. at home. April 22 & 23 Sat & Sun, 8am – 2pm (rain or shine) NYC Department of Sanitation Composting Facility at Spring Creek near the intersection of Fountain and Flatlands Avenues, close to the Belt Parkway Driving Directions From the Belt Parkway: Take Exit 15 (Erskine St.) • at 1st traffic light on Erskine, turn RIGHT onto Gateway Dr.