4 AWP December 2 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 7, 2019–January 2, 2020
Affordable Family Dentistry
in modern pleasant surroundings
State of the Art Sterilization (autoclave)
Emergencies treated promptly
Special care for children & anxious patients
WE NOW ACCEPT OXFORD
• Tooth Bleaching (whitening)
• Cosmetic Dentistry, Porcelain Facings & Inlays,
Bonding Crowns & Bridges (Capping)
• Painless, Non-Surgical Gum Treatment
• Root Canal • Extractions • Dentures • Cleanings
• Implant Dentistry • Fillings (tooth colored)
• Stereo headphones • Analgesia (Sweet air)
Dr. Jeffrey M. Kramer
544 Court Street, Carroll Gardens
624-5554 �� 624-7055
Convenient Office Hours & Ample Parking
and insurance plans accommodated
2019 YEAR IN REVIEW
her neighbor Laurie Miller
attacked the business and
tried to get the city to shut
it down out of an admitted
prejudice against practitioners
of the BDSM lifestyle.
While Taillor announced her
intention to move in March,
she would actually leave until
the following month, when the
owner of Lift NYC Movers offered
to transport the the sex
educator’s dungeon furntiture
free of charge. The dominatrix
found a new dungeon located
on a more tolerant block
somewhere in Brooklyn, but
asked that’s location not be
revealed.
APRIL
Bad pot luck: The state
Legislature approved its $175
million budget without including
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s
proposal to create a legal
weed market in New York
on April 1. The state’s chief
executive attributed the setback
to disagreements over
how the drug would be taxed,
where the money would go
, and safety concerns raised
by law enforcement and constituents.
Marijuana legalization
would bring in a whopping
$300 million in annual
tax revenue over the coming
years, Cuomo previously
promised.
Out-house: Dozens of
Sunset Park families were
left without a home after a
fire gutted the top floor of
their 44th Street apartment
complex on April 3. Residents
were forced to wait for more
than a day to regain access
to their units, unsure of the
damage to their apartments
and property, and unaware
if their pets had escaped the
blaze as they awaited for firefighters
and building inspectors
to allow them inside. The
blaze erupted from the sixstory
apartment building’s top
floor and injured 32 people
in all, including nearly two
dozen firefighters who suffered
burns, sprains and debilitating
smoke inhalation.
Measles outbreak:
Mayor Bill De Blasio declared
a public health emergency
on April 9 at the Brooklyn
Public Library’s Williamsburg
Branch following an
outbreak of the measles virus
in Brooklyn’s Orthodox
Jewish communities, where
nearly 300 people fell ill. The
mayor’s statement required
residents of four Williamsburg
zip codes to seek vaccination
or alternately face
Department of Health violations
and fines costing as
much as $1,000 per unvaccinated
person.
Steely span: Brooklyn
Bridge Park honchos unveiled
renderings in April
that show the future of the
embattled Squibb Bridge. The
span, connecting Brooklyn
Heights to the waterfront lawn
will one day be reborn as a
sturdy steel pathway, with a
$6.5 Million price tag. The
steel rebirth of the walkway
will be just another chapter in
its long, expensive saga. The
old wooden bridge, which cost
taxpayers $4 Million and was
long off-limits for safety concerns,
was demolished in Oc-
TOWER...
nity Board 2’s Land Use committee
on Wednesday.
Some members of the civic
panel took issue with the glass
facade of the building and its
large podium entrance,, which
is shown in renderings donning
a modern look next to
the surrounding stately townhouses
and brownstones.
“That seems garishly out
of place to what’s going on on
St. Felix — it jumps at you,”
said Eric Sprueill.
Kelly told the civic board
member that the architects
would take that feedback into
consideration, and possibly
change the proposed tower’s
aesthetic to fit more with its
surroundings.
“I hear what your saying,
that entrance should be more
of a brownstone feel, I understand
that,” Kelly said. “I
think it’s a very valid, reasonable
comment. We’ll do
some studies.”
If approved, the planned
development would include
some 120 condos, 30-percent
of which will be slated as socalled
“affordable housing”
units under the city’s Mandatory
Inclusionary Housing
program — which requires
developers to set aside
a percentage of cheaper units
if they add housing via land
use actions.
The “affordable” units will
be targeted at households
earning between $52,000 to
$110,000 a year — the most
expensive out of four options
given to developers under the
city’s regulations.
The development’s cellar
and first two floors will also
house a 20,000 square foot
space for the Brooklyn Music
School — which is currently
bursting at its seams hosting
some 2,100 students in four
connected townhouses adjacent
to the site, according to
the school chair of its board of
trustees, Shelby Green.
Gotham bought the lot in
2015 for $5.5 million, along
with the music school’s unused
air rights for $7 million.
The school will fund its
part of the build through the
revenue from that sale of the
air rights, along with $6 million
in funding the previously
city allocated for its expansion
and other proceeds the education
facility collected with
its own fundraisers, according
to the developers.
The building company
hopes to launch the city’s
lengthy land use review to
allow for more residential
units on the lot during the
middle of 2020 and they anticipate
Brooklyn Irish LGBTQ Organization
having the green-light
by City Council a year after
that, Kelly said.
The project will also first
need to get a Certificate of
Appropriateness from the
city’s Landmarks Preservation
Commission, due to
its location within the Special
Downtown Brooklyn
District.
Continued from page 1
tober to make way for its hopefully
safer second coming.
Cold cuts: Park Slope Key
Food butchers found themselves
locked out of work
amidst union negotiations
with the grocers corporate
overlords, who replaced the
unionized workers with scabs
while they picketed out front.
The workers were locked out
as punishment for picketing
during their lunch hour, after
grocery magnate Benjamin
Levine failed to show up
to the bargaining table with
the butchers’ union, United
Food and Commercial Workers
Local 342.
MAY
No shelter: Park Slope
residents reacted with fury to
plans for a new homeless shelter
that would serve families
on Fourth Avenue at a meeting
in May. Locals shouted
down and booed city officials
and nonprofit shelter operators,
who they accused of
bailing out developers with
pricey city contracts. Many
Slopers expressed concern
about the shelter affecting
property values in the ritzy,
liberal neighborhood, leading
some to accuse them of being
faux-progressives.
Toxic tides: Toxic bluegreen
algae infested Prospect
Park in late May, forcing locals
to take extra precaution
to avoid the hazardous material
— which can give you a
rash, and even kill furry canines,
according to officials
with the State Department of
Environmental Conservation.
This infestation marked the
fifth consecutive summer
that the algae was spotted
in Brooklyn’s Backyard. The
substance lives relatively dormant
in Prospect Park Lake
during most of the year, but
blooms during the summer
— causing a blue-green tint
to appear on the water’s surface.
No-moratorium: Utility
company National Grid instituted
a months-long moratorium
on new gasoline customers
in Brooklyn, Queens,
and parts of Long Island in
May after state regulators
nixed a plan to build a massive
pipeline off the coast of
Coney Island. Hundreds of
customers were left without
gas — including wouldbe
businesses that couldn’t
open — because of the power
struggle between Governor
Andrew Cuomo’s administration
and the British-based
utility, which operates under
a state-granted monopoly. National
Grid eventually caved,
agreeing to hook up new customers
in late November —
and pay a hefty fine to affected
businesses.
JUNE
LaBelle of the ball: Legendary
gospel singer Patti La-
Belle kicked off Bric Celebrate
Brooklyn! at the Prospect Park
Bandshell on June 4. Locals
waited in massive lines to
catch the iconic American
singer’s concert — which
was the first in the series of
summer concerts hosted by
the organization, and was attended
by a number of highprofile
politicos, like Councilmembers
Brad Lander and
Laurie Cumbo, and First Lady
Chirlane McCray.
The Brooklyn Way: Rapper
Biggie Smalls was honored
on June 10 with the conaming
of St. James Place
as “Christopher ‘Notorious
B.I.G’ Wallace Way.” The late
hip-hop artist grew up on the
very block — between Gates
Avenue and Fulton Street —
which now bears his name.
A number of music fans, history
buffs, and local politicians
attended the unveiling
ceremony for the late rapper
— who was fatally shot in
1997 at the age of 24.
Renter rights: Brooklyn
renters celebrated a landmark
agreement on June 14 that limited
landlords’ ability to jack
up rent and deregulate rentstabilized
apartments, among
other provisions favoring tenants.
Political leaders of both
the state’s legislative chamber
lauded the deal as historic
victory for tenants across the
state. Housing advocates —
spearheaded by state Sen. Julia
Salazar — began pushing
lawmakers to pass nine
“universal rent control” measures
following the November
election.
Hammer beats gavel:
On June 14, former Community
Board 6 District Manager
Craig Hammerman was found
not guilty in Brooklyn Supreme
Court on charges of using
bogus documents to give
himself pay-raises from the
city which totaled more than
$16,000 annually. But Hammerman
maintained that he
had been authorized to use
the signatures for community
board business — a defense
the jury accepted.
JULY
Shots fired: NYPD Chief
of Department Terence Monahan
slammed Brooklyn
District Attorney Eric Gon-
Continued from page 3
Photo by Trey Pentecost
Photo by Trey Pentecost
(Clockwise from top) Councilman Brad Lander
of Park Slope at a vigil in July for a dead cyclist.
Marchers could openly wave the rainbow flag at the
Brooklyn St. Patrick’s Day Parade for the first time
last March. Legendary gospel queen Patti LaBelle
opened the 2019 season of Celebrate Brooklyn in
Prospect Park in June
Mayor Bill de Blasio declared the end of the city’s
measles outbreak on Sept. 3, which swept through
Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn for almost
a year.
Photo by Paul Martinka
See 2019 on page 8
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