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Archive | June, 2007

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By Homer Fink on June 25, 2007 8:00 am in Photos

BHB Photo Club pic by fkuffel via Flickr

Connor Nixes Term Limits

By Homer Fink on June 23, 2007 8:15 am in Government, News

The Republican controlled State Senate passed a term limits bill recently, but not with the help of our man in Albany, Martin Connor:

Courier Life: Fierce Battle Over Term Limits: State Senators Eric Adams, Martin Connor, Velmanette Montgomery and John Sampson – all Democrats – shot down the bill. State Senator Carl Kruger was absent for the vote while State Senators Diane Savino and Kevin Parker, also both Democrats, were excused, according to the tally. “I think the Republicans can’t just talk a good game when it comes to term limits and then go about carrying it out by calling for the term limits of those on the top,” said Adams, who said he supports term limits for everyone. “We want a continuous rebirth of ideas, not stagnation,” the newly elected Senator said. “If someone can’t do what he set out to do in eight years, he’s not going to do it in eighteen.”

According to Marty Algaze, a spokesperson for State Senator Conner, the 29-year incumbent legislator was opposed to term limits because “he believes that we already have a term limit system in place that the public could use if they are unhappy about the guy in office.”
“They’re called elections,” he said.

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Heights Hoaxster Loses Fraud Case

By Homer Fink on June 23, 2007 8:03 am in Arts and Entertainment, Celebrity Residents, News

Laura Albert, nabe resident and the creator of the JT Leroy literary fraud, will have to pay a movie company damages over misrepresenting her novel Sarah as a true story a Manhattan jury decided yesterday.

New York Times: Author Defrauded Movie Company…: As part of its civil verdict, the jury ordered Ms. Albert to pay $116,500 to Antidote International Films, which, in 2003, had signed an option contract with “JT Leroy” to make a feature film of his supposed novel “Sarah,” a tale of filial love and prostitution set among the “lot lizards” of a West Virginia truck stop. When Antidote learned last year that the book had, in fact, been written by Ms. Albert, its president, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, sued for fraud and breach of contract, saying he had been duped and seeking not only the option money back, but damages and attorney fees as well.

Long before this somewhat narrow legal matter reached the courts, the broader saga of JT Leroy, with its agit-prop allure and celebrity aroma, played out on the larger and much more garish canvas of the press. After “Sarah” thrust him into stardom in 2000, JT Leroy became the damaged darling of the arthouse set, a street waif and supposed son of a truck-stop prostitute, who usually by way of telephone or e-mail (he was “famously reclusive”), befriended the likes of Courtney Love and Winona Rider — at least until his startling existence as a fiction was revealed.

All the while, of course, it was Ms. Albert, a mother and otherwise obscure young novelist from Brooklyn Heights, spinning gritty fantasies of drug addiction and Appalachian misery for the rich and famous names at the other end of the keyboard or the line. She gave interviews in a twangy accent to Terry Gross on NPR and sometimes paid her former boyfriend’s half-sister to appear in public as JT Leroy in the rarefied air of literary readings or the international film festival at Cannes.

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Heights Bride’s Dress Goes to Texas

By Homer Fink on June 23, 2007 7:32 am in News

Elisa Zuritsky, nabe resident and Sex in the City writer, has given away her wedding dress:

Woe Turns to Wow for Texas Bride: A Texas reservist has won a never-worn $3,000 designer wedding gown given away by a Brooklyn Heights writer in an Internet essay sweepstakes, it was announced today. Elisa Zuritsky, 37, a screenwriter, launched the online contest in March at takemy dress.com after the Mariana Hardwick gown she had ordered for her October wedding arrived just days before the event without time for needed alterations. More than 100 brides-to-be and some future grooms responded to the essay contest, with Zuritsky narrowing the choice down to the Texas woman who wanted to be known by the name Ann. Zuritsky had asked entrants to write their "tale of woe" in fewer than 500 words. "She was the very first entry I received and when I read her story, I loved her voice and she had a sense of humor about her situation," said Zuritsky. "Obviously I sympathized. At the time, both she and her fiance were going to be deployed to Iraq."

The winner, "Ann" wrote in her winning essay:

To be sure, our circumstances change constantly. Since I last wrote to you, it turns out that my orders were issued in error (very complicated story, but it pays off to pay attention to little details… take that, Uncle Sam!). I am now not going to Iraq (happy dance!)… but then there goes the "woe" that qualified my application in the first place. Hmmmm. So throw me back in the competition, but keep in mind that my situation is now only uncomfortable… not quite woeful :) Surely there is a more desperate (and deserving) bride than myself. If you choose me, I will happily wear the dress, and will be sure to pass it along in a similar fashion. I love what you did, and would be overjoyed to make this free dress a travelling dress.

Soooo… current plan is for us to elope to Colorado on January 18th after my dear soldier returns home to me in November…

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Cyclones Off to Fast Start

By Claude Scales on June 22, 2007 10:33 pm in Sports

The Brooklyn Cyclones, the Borough's own pro baseball team, have opened their seventh season on a tear. They took their opening series, two games to one, from their across-the-Narrows archrivals, the Staten Island Yanks, and tonight beat the Hudson Valley Renegades 3-0 to make their record 3-1. This is an auspicious start for manager Edgar Alfonzo, who returned to the helm after a six year hiatus, having skippered the Cyclones to a co-championship of the New York-Penn League in their maiden season.

Meanwhile, the Cyclones parent team, the Mets, returned to the winning column tonight with a 9-1 shellacking of the Oakland A's, riding the revived arm of Tom Glavine, who notched his 296th career win.

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BH Beach Coming Soon

By Homer Fink on June 22, 2007 10:15 am in Fun, News

BHB Newshound "Greg" sent in this photo of construction of the man made beach slated to accompany the Floating Pool Lady. The "beach" opens on July 4.

New York Post: The Latest Shore Thing: The beach will be modeled after the successful Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City, Queens, with one big exception – no alcohol.

"We made a decision not to try to get a liquor license," said Harry Hawk, a partner in the Brooklyn burger joint Schnack, which is operating the hot dog stands. "It would be a nice thing to do, but it's all about making small steps and seeing how everything works, how many people we attract."

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Bandits in Cadman Park

By Homer Fink on June 22, 2007 8:19 am in News

Seems that while our law enforcement officials are busy writing parking tickets, citizens are being yoked at a fever pitch:

Brooklyn Paper Police Blotter: A quintet of thugs surrounded a man sitting in Cadman Plaza Park and stole his camera at 2 pm on June 15.

The man, who had been relaxing with a friend on a bench near Middagh Street, was tinkering with his camera when the group approached and asked to see it.

After he agreed, the man turned and walked away with the device. When the victim tried to recover the camera, the thugs turned on him and started punching him in the face.

The camera was not recovered…

Two men — who may have been armed — forced a Brooklyn Heights man to withdraw $800 from an ATM before ordering him to drive them to Manhattan on June 16.

The drama began at 10:30 pm, when the man, who was getting into his car, was approached by the two men, one of whom claimed to have a knife.

The men forced the victim into a bank vestibule on Montague Street between Court and Clinton streets, where he withdrew the cash.

But these perps weren’t done yet. After pocketing the money, they ordered the man back to his car so he could drive them to the Herald Square area.

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Run Fink Run?

By Homer Fink on June 21, 2007 9:27 pm in Brooklyn Heights

In his column in this week's Brooklyn Paper, BHB publisher Homer Fink contemplates running for "higher" office:

Brooklyn Paper: I Should Run for 'Higher' Office: I’ve gotten to know the mind of the man (and gal) on the street in the Heights pretty well since I started publishing the Brooklyn Heights Blog almost a year ago. Our neighbors are smart, quick witted, proud and a little skeptical. Since I’ve been accused of having many of the same attributes, I’ve contemplated something that would have seemed preposterous when I lived in Manhattan — running for public office.

Before you start to get misty over my zeal for serving the public, let me make one thing perfectly clear about my motivation: I’m downright gobsmacked by the sheer wackiness of some of the folks representing us. Seems like every time I’ve picked up the paper recently at least one of our representatives is doing something odd. Heck, if they can do it why can’t I?

Now I’m sure that state Sen. Marty Connor is fine upstanding member of the community. He’s served us for two decades in Albany, which is admirable — if only for the fact that our state capital is an armpit of a town. But it’s a little weird that he was recently featured in the New York Times complaining about the lack of nightlife up there. Full Story

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BHB on Kyte.tv

By Homer Fink on June 21, 2007 3:31 pm in Fun

We've started a BHB channel on kyte.tv, a website that allows anyone to create a TV channel. You can create "programming" by uploading photos or video to the site or you can record directly from your webcam to kyte.

Check out our quick "Welcome" video using some BHB Photo Club pix and then start "producing" for BHB!

Brooklyn Heights Blog on Kyte.tv

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Fink in Funk; Scales Stumped

By Claude Scales on June 21, 2007 12:41 pm in Fun

For the second time in a row, BHB Capo di Tutti Capi Homer Fink failed to make the final rounds of the Dick Swizzle Sudden Death Game Show at Magnetic Field, inexplicably naming Broward, not Palm Beach, County as the land of dangling chads. This time he was joined in ignominy by consigliere Claude Scales, who did not score a single point in his appearance. Asked about the big letdown from his previous outing, Scales proffered the excuse that he had been bothered by the three attractive women he was pitted against in the opening round. When it was pointed out that the women had ignored him and concentrated on the game, he replied, "That's exactly what bothered me."

The night was redeemed to some extent by the yeoman performance of loyal BHB fan EJ, who advanced to the finals, but had to settle for a t-shirt and cap.

There was no relief available on the flat screens, as the Mets lost another one.

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Splitting Hairs Over Parking Tickets

By Homer Fink on June 21, 2007 8:43 am in News

Today's Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports on the increase in parking tickets in the Heights:

Brooklyn Eagle: Downtown Parking Blitz: According to Judy Stanton, executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association, the problem is that “generally in Downtown Brooklyn and in the areas around it, there is a tremendous amount of parking pressure. Incidents of illegal parking occur more here.”

She added that because of the amount of illegal parking, more traffic agents patrol the area, which is why more tickets are issued.

Leslie Lewis, president of the 84th Precinct Community Council, agrees, saying the reason is “because there are cars in violation. There are narrow streets and not much parking.” He added that he thinks the tickets have nothing to do with the wealth in the area, that the traffic agents are just doing their jobs: “These people’s job is to give summonses to illegally parked cars.”

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Getting TAZEd on Montague?

By Qfwfq on June 20, 2007 2:36 pm in Food

A reader brings to our attention the recent employment of "barkers" to get more people up into TAZE:

It's most annoying to have to walk home everyday and get hounded by being asked, "Do you like Turkish food? Why don't you eat here?" They try to interrupt you even when you're on the phone. It's really a nuisance and I think it's unfair that I have to alter my route home because of them.

I would really be interested to know what other readers in the area think of Montague Street being turned into Little Italy.

I don't know if we've reached the level of Little Italy or Little India, but I've found them to be a bit on the aggressive side. Do such tactics work? How do you feel about them?

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Poplar Precinct Conversion Plan

By Homer Fink on June 20, 2007 1:24 pm in Landmark Preservation, News

Brooklyn Eagle: It won’t by NYPD blue, it will be NYPD green, according to Bill Punch, a partner with Maurice Laboz and construction manager. of Regal Investments Inc., the developer of 72 Poplar St. in Brooklyn Heights.

Punch was speaking of the gas lighting planned for the front of the former home of the 84th Police Precinct, which is undergoing a residential conversion and facelift. Its new name will be (appropriately) the Stationhouse Apartments.

The newly-revised plans for the project and a new rendering have been released, as the developers and architect Andrew Fredman prepare to head back to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) for final approval.

“The Stationhouse Apartments will come complete with old fashioned NYPD green globe gas lighting at the entrance,” said Punch. “The building will also get a complete facelift to restore it to its original condition.”

The plans for the building and its adjacent carriage house call for approximately 38 rental units — a mix of one- and two-bedrooms — in the 30,000-square-foot building which is three stories in one half and four stories in the other, according to Punch.

Photo: Google StreetView

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SL Green Nabs 16 Court Street

By Homer Fink on June 20, 2007 11:23 am in News

RTT News: Wednesday morning, SL Green Realty Corp. (SLG) said that it has reached an agreement to acquire, the tallest building in downtown Brooklyn 16 Court Street, for $107.5 million. The acquisition would position the company as Manhattan's largest landlord and as a provider of quality office space in other metro-area submarkets. Built in 1928 and still Brooklyn's tallest office tower, 16 Court is a 38-story, 317,625-square-foot building. The Property is situated on Cadman Plaza, with one of the most prominent retail locations in Brooklyn Heights at the intersection of Court and Montague Streets. The property features substantial frontage on both thoroughfares and spectacular views of Manhattan and the New York harbor. Six subway lines to Manhattan are accessible at the Borough Hall station next door to the property, and another three are located just two blocks away.

Photo: Google StreetView

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