As reported in the Brooklyn Paper, on November 11, a 37-year-old man was arrested for pulling a woman into a van after stealing her cell phone and driving around with her for an hour.

The man approached his 30-year-old girlfriend near the corner of Tillary and Adams streets, and grabbed the cell phone from her hands and walked to his van, where he pulled her in before driving around under the Brooklyn Bridge. The woman jumped out of the van, unharmed, and notified police who arrested the man.

The scary incident is not unheard of in domestic abuse cases, said Jane Welsh, a domestic abuse prevention expert.

If an angry partner tries to lure you away by stealing your property, do not follow them and call the police, she said.

To see Brooklyn Heights now is practically to see it as it was 30 years ago, if not more.

With a landmark designation and a height restriction of 50 feet imposed in the mid-1960s, development of luxury high rises that have come to dominate neighborhoods from Williamsburg to Downtown Brooklyn to DUMBO have been impossible in Brooklyn Heights.

The article then notes that, despite the lack of major physical change within the boundaries of the historic district, changes on its periphery, beginning with the construction of One Pierrepont Plaza, as well as the shift in storefront tenancy from locally-owned to chain stores, have affected the neighborhood. Read the article here.

Today, Ed writes about founding the Brooklyn Paper in 1979 on their website. It’s worth reading:

Brooklyn Paper: As I sat with a cadre of believers in Minsky’s Bar on Remsen Street back in 1978, envisioning a new kind of Brooklyn newspaper with the simplest of monikers, we strategized for the future — but certainly not for 30 years. We were young and somewhat reckless, and 30 years was a lifetime.

BHB  entertainment newshound Inna Chumikova sent us a photo and video of yesteday’s fake car crash on Cranberry and Willow Streets shot for the FX drama Damages. She comments, “Driver of the car was quite dizzy after crash other than that
everything went smooth.” Video after the jump.

The Danish Seamen’s Chuch [102 Willow Street] will hold its annual Danish Fair today and tomorrow.  Get yer Glogg on!

Photo by Aki Tuccu

A P.S. 8 parent  files this dispatch about last night’s reading event to benefit the school:

Despite drizzling rain, over a hundred people turned out for the first annual PS8 Night to Celebrate Reading Event at Umbrage Gallery in Dumbo last night to hear from over a dozen local authors, as well as actor/director/producer Gabriel Byrne. The event featured well-known authors such as Tad Friend, Warren St. John, Paul Zelinsky, and Josh Neufeld, as well as PS8 parent Melissa Milgrom and future PS8 parent Beth Feldman and others. After much coaxing, Gabriel Byrne joined author Arthur Phillips in an unplanned enactment of Phillips’ The Song is You: A Novel, which required “someone who can act a bit and has an Irish accent,” said Phillips, pointing to Byrne at the back of the room. Byrne reluctantly joined Phillips at the microphone to play a young female Irish piano teacher, much to the audience’s amusement. He finished his piece with a reading from James Joyce’s “The Dubliners.” The event raised money for the school’s enrichment programs and other necessities, and was made possible by generous donations from local businesses, authors, and publishers.

More photos by Aki Tuccu here.

Photos by Karl Junkersfeld

A BHB tipster writes in:

Nothing yet on the yellow Health Department signs adorning Le Petit Marche?

Matthew Parker comments:

Earlier this morning I walked by Le Petite Marche on Henry St. There are two Board of Health signs on the front windows ordering the restaurant closed.

I saw workers inside cleaning up.

NYC  Department of Health public records show that the restaurant racked up 23 violation points on November 11.  While high, that is still technically a “pass” for inspection.   Violations mentioned in the inspector’s report:

Violations were cited in the following area(s) and those requiring immediate action were addressed.
1.) Facility not vermin proof. Harborage or conditions conducive to vermin infestation exist.
2.) Personal hygiene inadequate. Clean outer garments, effective hair restraint not worn.
3.) Evidence of, or live mice in facility’s food and/ or non-food areas.
4.) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations.

DEVELOPING…

Rezso Kasztner, a Jewish-Hungarian journalist who helped Jews escape Nazi occupied Hungary but later was wrongly accused of collaboration with the Third Reich by an Israeli court — leading  to his assassination – is the subject of a biopic by Gaylen Ross of  Brooklyn Heights.

The Brooklyn Eagle interviews Ross this week.   It notes that she was able to track down and interview Kasztner’s assassin, Ze’v Eckstein, for the film.

Killing Kasztner: The Jew Who Dealt with Nazis, is currently playing at Cinema Village in Manhattan.

Thanks to BHB tipster Mitchell!

BHB tipster “TF” ran out in the rain to catch opening day at Iris Cafe at 20 Columbia Place.  He says, “I can’t wait to go there for lunch. It’s adorable and the people were super friendly.”

Read the entire memo after the jump.

Flickr photo by Tom Rupolo

What’s on your mind? Comment below!

I was walking home tonight down Columbia Place and noticed that one of the formerly empty storefronts was no longer empty. I stopped and talked to the person there. Apparently it’s going to be a coffee shop and will be open this Thursday. It’s called Iris Cafe. As a resident of Riverside Apartments, I for one am very excited!

The Iris Cafe is one of the new restaurants revitalizing the Riverside Apartments strip.   An Italian restaurant is planning to open soon in the old River Deli space.

But first, police said there was no new information in the theft of four tires and rims from a car parked on Cranberry Street between Henry and Hicks street overnight on November 10. The combined cost of the tires and rims totaled $3900.

A crook took off with laptops containing patient information from a medical office on Montague Street between Clinton and Court streets on November 6. Along with the two computers, one small copy machine was also stolen from the office.

There were two gym locker robberies at two separate gyms within minutes of each other on the morning of November 11. A snooping thief stole a $2,500 watch from an unlocked locker at a gym on Livingston Street between Boerum Place and Court Street around 11 a.m. A money clip containing $85 was also stolen.

Just fifteen minutes later, a robbery was reported at a gym on the corner of Boerum Place and Pacific Street. A wallet was stolen, and more than $2,500 in purchases were made on the victim’s credit cards. The victim said he wasn’t sure if he had closed the lock.

An employee was arrested for stealing a laptop from the First Unitarian church on Monroe Place. Security camera footage caught the employee sneaking into the basement and removing the laptop from a table on the night of November 12.

A motorcycle thief stole a $3,000 red BMW motorcycle on Montague Street, between Clinton and Henry streets on November 8.

A perp stole a man’s gold chain necklace at gunpoint on York Street between Gold Street and Hudson Avenue around 5:30 a.m. on the morning of November 11. The gun-toting thug approached the 28-year-old man asking for money and then took out a gun and held it to the victim’s neck while he removed the $2500 gold chain.

NY1 has a full video report.

The event, Night to Celebrate Reading, will be held from 7-9 p.m. in the Umbrage Gallery on 111 Front St., suite 208, in Dumbo. Wine and cheese will be served, and the event is a suggested $20 donation. Author list after the jump.

The readings will be broken into two parts, one lasting from 7 to 8 p.m. and the other from 8 to 9 p.m.

PART 1:

Tad Friend, Cheerful Money: Me, My Family, and the Last Days of Wasp Splendor
Warren St. John, Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, An American Town and Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Road Trip into the Heart of Fan Mania
Melissa Milgrom, Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy
Rich Benjamin, Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey into the Heart of White America
Paul Zelinsky, Wheels on the Bus, Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin
Josh Neufeld, A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, and A Few Perfect Hours and Other Stories from Southeast Asia & Central Europe.

PART 2:

Janice Eidus, The War of the Rosens, Vito Loves Geraldine, Urban Bliss, and The Celibacy Club
Beth Feldman & Liz Gumbinner, co-authors of See Mom Run: Side-Splitting Essays from the World’s Most Harried Blogging Moms
Fiona Maazel, Last Last Chance: A Novel
Sarah Langan, Audrey’s Door, The Missing, and The Keeper
Paola Corso, Giovanna’s 86 Circles and Other Stories
Nan Richardson & Claudia Pearson, A Tribal Alphabet
Arthur Phillips, The Song is You: A Novel; Prague, The Egyptologist, and Angelica.

Additionally, signed, donated copies of the following books will be available for sale:
Jonathan Ames- The Alcoholic
Stephen Elliott-The Adderall Diaries: A Memoir of Moods, Masochism and Murder (not signed)
Virginia Heffernan & Mike Albo-The Underminer: The Best Friend Who Casually Destroys Your Life
Julie Salamon-Hospital: Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity, Plus Red Tape, Bad Behavior, Money, God, and Diversity on Steroids
David Samuels-The Runner and Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Amy Sohn-Prospect Park West

Damages to Film in Brooklyn Heights on Thursday
The (Anti) Social Media World of Rex and Guder
Thugs Lift Hot Wheels on Cranberry Street
Park Progress: Thirty-third Report–It’s beginning to look a lot like a park!
“Holiday Thursdays” at Brooklyn Women’s Exchange
Cops Still Seeking Pierrepont St. Attacker
84th Precinct Police Blotter – 11/10/09
Terra Cotta Will Be Replaced at 111 Hicks Street
MGMT Frontman Loves Brooklyn Heights

Should we continue this weekly round up?  Comment below.

Brooklyn Heights is no stranger to the FX drama Damages which filmed much of its second season in and around Brooklyn last year.    Oscar winner William Hurt took up temporary residence on Willow Street during the filming and even caused some controversy at a local bistro.

The series is now shooting its third season, stopping recently in Ditmas Park, and will set up shop around Cranberry and Willow Streets this Thursday. That means if you’re parked around there you’ll need to get your car off the street by 10pm or risk “relocation”.

While Hurt is not expected back this season, the show has added some more star power to its cast: Campbell Scott, Martin Short, Lily Tomlin, Keith Carradine and Reiko Aylesworth.

NY1: Tucked away inside St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn Heights is a treasure trove of toys. The Toy Museum of New York has opened on the second floor of the church, and its one room is packed with hundreds of toys dating back to the 1870s.

“We’re so thrilled to finally show New Yorkers our collection, and we welcome everybody to come and see us,” says Toy Museum founder Marlene Hochman.

All of the items on display are donated, from Lincoln Logs which first debuted in 1916, to an original 1939 View-Master, to a 1950s Lego set. The most recent toys in the collection are from the 1980s.

Lost City: I’ll wager that no stretch of pavement in New York City more completely takes you back in time than the stretch of Middagh between Henry and Willow Streets. Why? Because it is here, perhaps, that there is a greater concentration of well-preserved, wooden clapboard houses than anywhere else in the burg. This is because the street was one of the first built in this, New York’s first suburb. Most of the houses date from the 1820s. Together, they emanate a sense of beauty and peaceful simplicity that causes your racing heart and mind to slow down a speed or two.

Joe Daiuto's MySpace gun show in his graffiti laced room

We’re learning more about admitted graffiti “artists” and members of the  ”millennial” generation  Rex Ikwueme and Joe “Guder” Daiuto, who frustrated Brooklyn Heights residents recently with a spree of spray paint and magic marker powered vandalism.

Both “artists” have left a trail of social media breadcrumbs which reveal a little bit about their personalties and world view.

Daiuto’s MySpace profile shows the 19 year old posing shirtless in a room laced with graffiti, while his blog on the social network includes what appears to be surveillance video of two “taggers” on a roof.   He also attempts to drop the “N” bomb in its colloquial manner but manages to spell it wrong (or any of its hip hop variations for that matter).

As for Rex Ikueme, he claims to have been an extra in hipster rock band Passion Pit’s video for “The Reeling”.   Known for their complex arrangements and gifted musicianship, Passion Pit are serious musicians and artists who graduated from the prestigious Berklee School of Music.  What is  ”artist” and Pace University student Rex up to during his matriculation?  This YouTube video provides at least one piece of the puzzle:

This next video brings new meaning to the phrase “higher education” as Rex and friends frolic in what appears to be the St. George dorms:

Chillen w/ Tony boobs n’ shiet from rex ikwueme on Vimeo.

A glance at Rex’s Twitter feed (@themiddleman) shows a very social but average 20 year old with a slight obsession for Nudie jeans.   There is also one tweet from November 11th  that suggests contrition on his part:

Life experiences always humble my personality. I aint invincible after all. Thanks fam!(@stephaniethb ,momma, bevski, sistaz)

One more thing, Rex’s Twitter profile lifts a line from legendary Brooklyn born Hip Hop star Busta Rhymes — “Respect my conglomerate“.  Mr. Rhymes spent years building a reputation in the Hip Hip community based upon his talent and the swagger exhibited in that song is well earned.

After having what amounts to be a minor run-in with the law, we hope that  both Rex and Guder take Mr. Rhymes’ example and learn the true meaning of respect and how it is earned.

Note: Thanks to No One of Consequence and X as well as other commenters for doing some of the leg work for this piece.  We’ve also reached out to Rex via Twitter, offering him a chance to tell his side of the story directly to our readers.  The same offer applies to Mr. Daiuto who also has been contacted by BHB/The Brooklyn Bugle.  - Homer

BHB newshound “BP” sent in this photo of an Infiniti M45 parked on Cranberry between Henry and Hick Streets.  Its wheels were stolen at some point in the last few days.  Our tipster adds, “ Looks like the cops are on the case already as there is white fingerprinting powder on the sides of the car.”

Brooklyn Paper: “Firetrucks are definitely going to be a problem,” Ishwar Patel, an on-site inspector with the Department of Design and Construction told The Brooklyn Paper.
But he quickly backtracked — a bit.
“I’m just the inspector,” he added. “This is not my issue. The DOT [Department of Transportation] sends the designs, we implement them.”
But Patel did say that firetrucks would almost certainly have to go up onto the sidewalk to make a left turn from Hicks Street onto Joralemon Street.

NY Post:  ”It is amazing the change in Brooklyn in the last dozen years or thereabouts. I’m going to have dinner tonight in Brooklyn,” Hizzoner said yesterday as he announced the city’s deal to buy land in Coney Island. ”Time and time again, when I say, ‘Where do you want to go to have dinner?’ Friends who’ve come from out of town pick restaurants in Brooklyn, and that is really different,” the mayor added. ”They didn’t used to before. Maybe one or two in [Brooklyn] Heights, but Brooklyn has really come back.”

So is Noodle Pudding THE restaurant you’d recommend friends and tourists check out in Brooklyn Heights?  BHB contributor Karl Junkersfeld, who sent us this link, would agree.  Us?  We’d say Jack the Horse in the neighborhood or Henry Public in Cobble Hill among others.  How about you?

The Brooklyn Eagle profiles 28 Middagh Street and its current owner Richard Carlson today.  The home which has undergone extensive renovation is up for sale, priced at $4.2 million.  Interested parties (and lookey loos) can check out the property during Open Houses held this and every Sunday between 2pm and 4:30pm.

Broker: Gabriel Ford for Brown Harris Stevens 718-858-3876

BHB photo by C. Scales

BHB photo by C. Scales

BHB photo by C. Scales

BHB photo by C. Scales

Addendum: Thanks to reader AEB for alerting me to some nice photos on Brownstoner made by someone who was on the Park grounds.

Thanks to the generosity of Virginia resident Charles Hedges, a valuable collection of dolls owned by his late aunt here in Brooklyn has just been donated to Yankee Fair. Come visit the Gymnasium this Saturday where these wonderful dolls, all in their original packaging (!), will be offered for sale at equally fabulous prices.

This is a great opportunity for doll collectors; if you know anyone who might be interested in adding to their collection, spread the word!

Of course, there will be many other things for sale at the Fair, along with entertainment, activities for kids, and food. Admission is free for adults; kids’ activity bracelets, good for admission to all activities, may be purchased at $16 per child, $30 for two or $40 per family.

BHB photo by C. Scales

Today: 3:30, doll and dressmaker Simone Kaplan will lead a doll-making craft class for children; 6:00, jewelry designer Marissa Alperin will present her jewelry and demonstrate how she makes her unique hand-knit greeting cards, and decorator and bag designer Monique Lignon will present her colllection of tapestry tote bags.

November 19: 11:00-7:00, artist Deborah O’Connor will create a silhouette of your child in minutes (please call the Exchange at 718-624-3435 for an appointment); 5:00, chocolatier Betsy Baudille will present her chocolates for your tasting enjoyment.

December 3: 3:30, illustrator Melissa Iwai will read and sign her children’s book Chanukah Lights Everywhere; 6:00, jewelry designer Lisa Detwiler will present her collection of jewelry with semi-precious stones, and jewelry designer Ashka Dymel will present her collection of architectural necklaces and earrings.

December 10: 3:30, designer Noel MacFetrich will make holiday decorations with children; 6:00, crafter Mary McNeill will present her unique sock monkeys, and T-shirt designer Peter Hildebrand will present his line of Brooklyn-themed T-shirts.

December 17: 3:30, author and illustrator Mari Takabayashi will read and sign her children’s book I Live in Brooklyn; 4:00, members of the Exchange will lead a card-making craft lesson for children.