Brooklyn Heights Press

77TH YEAR, NO. 3,936

THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2017

TWO SECTIONS

50 CENTS

‘New Data’ to Be Presented at Pier 6 Hearing

‘Developments Worth More Than Park Estimated’ SEE PAGE 2

BHA Looks at BQX; Annual Meeting Examines Community Service in the Age of Trump

THE BROOKLYN-QUEENS CONNECTOR (BQX) DEBATE AND COMMUNITY SERVICE IN THE AGE OF TRUMP WERE HOT TOPICS AT THE BROOKLYN HEIGHTS Association’s (BHA) annual meeting Monday night. Shown: Swimming pool aficionados Sabrina (left) and Leo Quint hold the BHA community service award their mom Suzanne Quint received. Quint was one of the organizers of “Love Our Pool: Families United for a Pool in Brooklyn Bridge Park,” one of several groups that were honored on Monday. See pages 4-5.

Heights Press photo by Andy Katz

Brooklyn Heights Association Bringing ‘New Data’ to Pier 6 Hearing

‘Developments Worth More than Park Estimated’

By Mary Frost

Brooklyn Heights Press

The Brooklyn Heights Association (BHA) will be coming to court on March 6 armed with new data it says will bolster its arguments in its fight against development at Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

BHA says that property valuations released by the city’s Finance Department last month show that two residential towers planned for Pier 6 are not financially necessary.

The city’s valuations show that private highend developments already built in the waterfront park will bring in much more money than the park corporation projected, BHA says — rendering the Pier 6 project unwarranted.

BHA filed a lawsuit to block the Pier 6 development on July 7; the next appearance is scheduled for March 6.

The park’s General Project Plan (GPP) requires that any private development within the park’s borders must be necessary to support the annual maintenance and operations of the park. According to the GPP and a longstanding agreement with the community, BHA says, if the development is not necessary to support the park, it should not be built.

Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Interim President David Lowin maintains, however, the Pier 6 towers are necessary to support the park.

“The Pier 6 project will provide the park with funding it needs to serve millions of New Yorkers for decades to come — along with affordable housing and union construction jobs,” he said in a statement on Feb. 24.

He added, “We have repeatedly made clear the necessity and merits of this project, and look forward to responding to the BHA’s erroneous claims in court.”

BHA and other advocates had earlier commissioned their own study, by Rosin & Associates, that found that developments already in the park would generate a surplus even without Pier 6.

This study had been contested by the park corporation. Lowin submitted an affidavit to

The Brooklyn Heights Association says that new city figures show that two residential towers planned for Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier Rendering courtesy of ODA-RAL Development Services - Oliver's Realty Group 6 (above, center and left) are not financially necessary. the court in November contending that study’s financial methodology was flawed, and called its income projections “overly aggressive.”

Lowin contended that without the Pier 6 development, the park would run out of money “almost immediately” if it launched a pre-emptive maritime maintenance program. If, however, the park maintains its marine infrastructure on an as-needed basis, he said, the park would run out of money by 2028.

BHA says the city’s newly released figures vindicate their own study, which is even more conservative.

Letter to the Judge In a Feb. 10 letter to Supreme Court Justice Lucy Billings, who is overseeing the lawsuit, BHA attorney Richard Ziegler alerted the judge about the city’s latest valuations and assessments.

The park’s existing private developments include the luxurious Pierhouse hotel/condo complex; the Empire Stores, a historic warehouse turned commercial complex; the One John Street waterfront condos; and One Brooklyn Bridge Park, a former Jehovah’s Witnesses printing factory converted into luxury condos.

The 2017 Finance Department valuations of

Sen. Squadron Enlists Seniors to Fight Cuomo’s $17M Senior Center Budget Cut NYC Could Be Forced to Close 65 Centers

By Mary Frost

Brooklyn Heights Press

State Sen. Daniel Squadron kicked off a tour of Brooklyn senior centers on Feb. 22 to organize older adults to fight Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget cuts to the centers.

Under Cuomo’s proposed state budget, more than $17 million in Title XX funding would be shifted from senior centers and services to child care.

“I’m here because I really need your help,” Squadron told the packed dining room at the St. Charles Jubilee Senior Center, on Pierrepont St. in Brooklyn Heights. The center is run by Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens.

The seniors booed when Squadron told them of the proposed $17 million cut, which could lead to the closure of as many as 65 senior centers throughout the city, or cuts in hundreds more.

Cuts like this have been proposed before, Squadron said, “but the good news is, working together, in the past, we have beaten it back and prevented it from happening. In fact, I was here on a similar campaign five or six years ago.”

Seniors signed petitions that Squadron passed around, which he intends to send to the state Senate leadership and across Albany.

Senior Centers: Not Just Lunch “Some people think this is just a lunch program,” Squadron said. “The lunch is great, but this is a lot more than just lunch. It’s a community, and relationships, and activities, and support, and a lot of smiles and a lot of things that help organize people’s days here.”

Sheila Garson, program manager at St. Charles Jubilee for the last 10 years, said the most important service the center provides is to be a “home away from home.”

“The level of socialization and support emotionally, as well as physically, as well as nutritionally, is literally keeping the lives of these older adults happy and healthy and giving them a level of longevity. It also reduces the cost to the general population in terms of their needs,” Garson said.

Senior center patron Lois Hedlund agreed.

“The lunch is good, but I think we come more for the fellowship and getting to know other people,” she told the Brooklyn Heights Press.

Continued on page 8

2 • Brooklyn Heights Press • Thursday, March 2, 2017

Senior Center patrons William Scasolon (left) and Henrietta Zacharoff.

Heights Press photo by Mary Frost

these developments average about 30 percent higher than the values assumed in the park’s financial model, Ziegler told the judge.

Brooklyn Bridge Park is supported by private developments through payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, which are based on property values.

The city’s latest figures pegged the value of the residential units at Pierhouse, for example, at $230 per square foot — not the $144 per square foot projected by the park corporation. This is roughly 60 percent higher than the park’s projections.

The new valuations mean that annual PILOTgenerated revenue to the park could be more than $300 million higher than the amount reflected in the park’s financial model, Ziegler wrote.

The Pier 6 proposal calls for 100 of the 266 units to be affordable. Affordable housing is a priority of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, and the mayor has been pushing hard for the development through his proxy on the park’s board, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen.

Local residents, organizations and elected officials, however, including state Sen. Daniel Squadron, Councilmembers Stephen Levin and Brad Lander and Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, have been pushing back.

In numerous high-spirited meetings, Pier 6 opponents have pointed to considerable changes throughout the area since an environmental review in 2005. These include greater population density, clogged streets and overcrowded schools.

Last year, Sub-district 2’s schools were operating at 108 percent of capacity, and substantial development in the area is expected to drive enrollment to roughly 135 percent capacity, even without Pier 6.

BHA and other members of a community coalition, including the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund and the People for Green Space Foundation, say the Pier 6 site should be instead turned into much-needed parkland and urge that the “long-promised” Atlantic Avenue entrance to the park be created.

BHA’s lawsuit names Empire State Development Corporation (ESD) and its subsidiary, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation. Also named are two real estate developers selected on June 7 to build on the Pier 6 site — RAL Development Services and Oliver’s Real Estate Group.

The BHA’s petition seeking to block the Pier 6 development will be heard on Monday, March 6 at 9:30 a.m. in New York State Supreme Court.

The hearing will take place at 71 Thomas St., Courtroom 204, in Manhattan.

LICH Garage, Slated for Demolition, Was Built Over Local Objections

By Raanan Geberer

Special to Brooklyn Heights Press

In the recent controversy about the Fortis plan for the Long Island College Hospital (LICH) campus, which — among other things — would tear down the LICH garage and put up a EWS 17-story building on the site, little mention has been made of the fact that this very garage, in its day, was also the subject of bitter controversy.

Most Cobble Hill residents are familiar with Van Voorhees Park. But many, especially younger residents, don’t know that it was once Lower Van Voorhees Park. Until the mid1990s, there was also an Upper Van Voorhees Park. This park, on the west side of Hicks Street, was sold by the city to LICH to construct the current 430-car garage on the site.

I remember Upper Van Voorhees Park. It was an awkward space, bounded on one side by the hospital, across Hicks Street, and on another by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE). There was a set of toddler-type swings there, and some local observers questioned whether it was appropriate for local mothers and caretakers to take their children to a park where they could breathe in the fumes of the BQE. Despite the small park’s shortcomings, the issues were the loss of part of Cobble Hill’s already small amount of green space and whether it was proper for the city to sell off parkland to another entity.

In 1993, a local group known as the Friends of Van Voorhees Park filed a lawsuit charging that the city failed to consider alternative sites for the garage, and that the City Council had no right to allow the transfer of the park to the hospital because the Board of Estimate, the city’s governing body at the time the park was established, had been dissolved. The city and LICH countered that the Board of Estimate’s functions had been absorbed by the City Council when the board was abolished in 1990.

The hospital itself maintained that parking was needed because its nurses, doctors and others worked around the clock, and finding on-street parking at, say, 10 p.m., could be both difficult and dangerous. LICH spokespersons pointed out that many of the doctors came from far-off places like New Jersey and Staten Island where public transportation wasn’t practical. But the biking, walking and public transit advocacy group Transportation Alternatives said the garage would “add to local traffic woes” and would encourage

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Heights Press file photo by Mary Frost

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more cars to enter the neighborhood.

On top of it all, the community was split on the issue. While Friends of Van Voorhees Park was an implacable foe of the garage project, the Cobble Hill Association (CHA) felt otherwise.

“This is a good deal and good for the community,” NALYSIS The New York Times quoted longtime CHA civic leader Roy Sloane as saying after then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani approved the deal.

The controversy was intense, but in the end the lawsuits were denied and the eight-story garage got built. As part of the agreement, three mini-parks, two of which have playground equipment, were built nearby.

Now, the garage is empty and awaiting demolition, and the future of the small parks is in doubt.

One more thought — only in New York City would a building that is a mere 20 or so years old become expendable!

The Long Island College Hospital garage is seen in the foreground.

A diagram of the Fortis plans for the former LICH campus.

Diagram courtesy of Fortis Property Group

New Top Cop Appointed to Run 84th Precinct

By Rob Abruzzese

Brooklyn Heights Press

After two and a half years under deputy inspector Sergio Centa, the NYPD’s 84th Precinct is getting a new commanding officer — Capt. Roberto Melendez — who introduced himself at last Tuesday’s community council meeting held at Borough Hall.

Melendez, a native of Puerto Rico, grew up in Brooklyn and went to Franklin K. Lane High School and Empire State College before he graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He has been with the NYPD for nearly 26 years, including a five-month stint as executive officer in 2013.

“I’m glad to be here in the 84. It’s a great community, a great place to work,” Melendez said. “I was here back in 2013 from May until October, I was assigned here as a captain. I moved on to the 75th Precinct in Brooklyn, and that’s where I’ve been the past couple of years.

The 75 is a big precinct. I dealt with traffic, domestic violence, shootings and gang violence. This is obviously different. In April, I’ll have 26 years in the department. I’ve worked most of my career in Brooklyn in Brooklyn North so I’m familiar with the area.”

Melendez takes over for Centa, who took over command at the 84th Precinct in September 2014. Centa was popular with many community members for his willingness to speak frankly during community council meet-

The 84th Precinct has a new commanding officer — Capt. Roberto Melendez.

Pictured from left: Tony Ibelli, Melendez, John Kenny, Diana Torres and Julius Hudson.

Heights Press photo by Rob Abruzzese ings and for his support of the precinct following the deaths of officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in December 2014. Centa was assigned to the command at the 83rd Precinct in Bushwick.

This change within the precinct comes as the 84th Precinct Community Council is still without a president since the death of Leslie Lewis, who served as president of that council for 25 years. Longtime vice president Tony Ibelli is acting president for now, as elections to offi-

cially replace Lewis won’t happen until the spring.

Community affairs officers Detective Freddy Mitchell also retired in early 2016 and Detective Sal Ferrante was promoted in December and now works at 1 Police Plaza.

They have been replaced by community affairs officers John Kenny, Diana Torres and Julius Hudson.

Melendez inherits a precinct that has seen a steady rise in crime so far in 2017. Through

Feb. 12, the area has seen a 34.9 percent rise in the major index crimes including a 145.5 percent jump in burglaries in the area. Melendez, who officially took over the department on Thursday, Feb. 16, said the precinct is currently putting plans in place to reduce crime, but noted that they recently made some big arrests that should help ease the burden.

“Crime is up right now, especially burglaries,” Melendez said. “We’re putting together a plan right now, but they also made a lot of good arrests right before I came on so we expect the next couple of weeks we’ll see crime go down a little.”

Melendez said that he plans on relying on the Neighborhood Coordinating Officer program, which began last October under Centa.

The program assigns Neighborhood Coordinating Officers (NCOs) to certain sectors of the precinct and encourages them to interact with the community.

“I want you to get to know the NCOs in your zone,” Melendez said at the meeting during which he introduced five of the eight NCOs to the attendees. “We have eight officers assigned to the program right now. In the last couple of days, I’ve seen success stories with the NCOs. They have been successful in getting intel and apprehending some criminals.”

The new captain also spoke about focusing on pedestrian and bike safety within the precinct.

Thursday, March 2, 2017 • Brooklyn Heights Press • 3

Doubts on the BQX, Community Service In the Age of Trump at BHA Annual Meeting

By Mary Frost

Brooklyn Heights Press

Experts cast doubts on the proposed BQX (Brooklyn Queens Connector), a streetcar which would connect points along the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront, and community members were honored for their service at the annual meeting of the Brooklyn Heights Association (BHA) Monday night. (See adjacent story for details concerning the BQX panel discussion.)

“How does a neighborhood association move forward in the age of Trump?” BHA President Patrick Killackey asked the crowd packing the auditorium at St. Francis College. “It’s easy to feel powerless or paralyzed these days. Facts are up for debate; our values are in question.”

The answer, Killackey said, is community participation.

“North Korean disarmament is not within reach for most of us. But fighting for a pool, advocating for more school space and pushing for better traffic safety is,” he said.

Not only does the neighborhood benefit from the dedicated gardeners who volunteer on the Promenade, who fight “those miserable helicopters,” who take a stand against swastika graffiti and who support the Muslim members of the community, Killackey said.

“The small stuff of community participation, local politics, is the first step to higher level action and public service. It’s better than the alternative of disillusionment and distrust. In fact, it’s an opportunity to find inspiration and purpose,” he said.

“We’ve got some purpose again, which is an upside to the mess we’re living under.”

BHA Highlights Killackey updated BHA members on some of the year’s highlights, including the replacement of the annual house and garden tour, which has been a big money maker in the past, with a new Brooklyn Designer Showhouse event, to be held in September.

The Showhouse will give more than a dozen premier decorators the opportunity to transform a townhouse in Brooklyn Heights from top to bottom.

BHA continues to press its case fighting a two-tower development on Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park, Killackey said. “We recently received affirmation of our most fundamental [legal] arguments.” (See story on this development at brooklyneagle.com) The next hearing takes place on March 6.

BHA had success putting the brakes on the overdevelopment of 141 Willoughby St. in Downtown Brooklyn, which would have set an unfortunate zoning precedent, but less success with

Presenter Tom Stewart with members of the Pier Six Litigation team Judi Francis, Henry Richmond and Richard Ziegler.

Fortis Property Group’s development of the former Long Island College Hospital (LICH), which is going ahead “without community input,” he said.

Squibb Park Bridge, connecting Brooklyn Heights to Brooklyn Bridge Park, should reopen in the spring, Killackey said, and BHA hopes to partner with other stakeholders to ensure its reopening “is a net positive.” In the same vein, BHA will be installing video cameras on Joralemon Street, the site of muggings and other disruptions during the past warm seasons.

In other highlights, the temporary Brooklyn Heights Library site opened this year, 181 and 185 Montague St. were preserved, and a meeting will be held in the spring concerning the next steps with the BQE cantilever work. BHA has a new website (thebha.org) and BHA took on oversight of the Brooklyn Heights Playground Committee.

BHA’s Finances Treasurer Kevin Reilly, in his financial report, said BHA suffered a $38,000 loss in 2016, on revenues of over $1 million, for two main reasons: There was no house and gardens tour, and a hit from expensive Pier 1 Save the View Now litigation.

BHA received a financial shot in the arm, however, as international law firm Jenner & Block contributed roughly $800,000 in pro bono legal work toward separate Pier 6 litigation.

With a $447,000 cash balance and membership ranks, dues and contributions up, BHA is left with “good financial flexibility,” Reilly said.

Community Service Awards

Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon with longtime Brooklyn Heights preservationist Otis Pearsall.

As emcee of BHA’s annual community service awards, WNET Channel 13’s Tom Stewart brought the house down when he announced the winner was “La La Land!”

But seriously, “The things that make this neighborhood great don’t just happen,” he said.

BHA honors the community activists, who, often “at great sacrifice to their personal lives, make this neighborhood a better place,” Stewart said.

This year BHA honored Irene Janner, for her outstanding service over the years — at the BHA as treasurer for 20 years and on various committees, on P.S. 8’s PTA, on Community Board 2 and on the Cadman Park Conservancy.

BHA also presented community service awards to the organizers of “Love Our Pool: Families United for a Pool in Brooklyn Bridge Park.” These parents advocate for a permanent pool in the park. The winners are: Amy Bieberdorf, Farrah Field, Lee Levine, Nora McCauley, Suzanne Quint, Alexa Suskin, and Ali Watts Sise.

The team fighting the development of Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park was also presented with an award. The winners are: The law firm of Jenner & Block, Judi Francis of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund, and Henry Richmond of People for Green Space Foundation.

BHA presented its highest honor, the Martha Atwater Award, to Seth Phillips (right), beloved principal of P.S. 8/ M.S. 8, who will be retiring at the end of this school year.

Also pictured is Tom Stewart.

Martha Atwater Award BHA presented its highest honor, the Martha Atwater Award, to Seth Phillips, beloved principal of P.S. 8/ M.S. 8, who will be retiring at the end of this school year. When Phillips arrived at P.S. 8 in 2003, the school was shunned by local residents.

Phillips turned P.S. 8 around by rebuilding it from the ground up, Stewart said.

He “reinvigorated its academic core,” integrated children with special needs into the school’s mainstream classrooms, established partnerships with other organizations, brought in a school librarian, “worked tirelessly” to get an addition built and recognized and promoted teacher talent. P.S. 8 is so desirable now that the city had to reduce the size of its zone.  For more on the awardees, plus additional photos, visit brooklyneagle.com.

4 • Brooklyn Heights Press • Thursday, March 2, 2017

Awards presenter Tom Stewart with award winner, community activist Irene Janner. Heights Press photos by Andy Katz

Panel on BQX Offers Lively, Biting Look at New Transportation Idea

Many Vital, Unanswered Questions Raised by Transit Experts

BQX discussion panel, (from left): New York Times journalist Jim Dwyer; David Bragdon, executive director of Transit Center; Candace Brakewood, assistant professor of civil engineering at the City College of New York; Benjamin Kabak, owner of the blog Second Avenue Sagas; and Samuel Stein, a PhD student at the CUNY Graduate Center with a master’s degree in urban planning from Hunter College.

By Scott Enman

Brooklyn Heights Press

Is the city on the right track with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposed $2.5 billion BrooklynQueens Connector (BQX) streetcar?

That was the topic of discussion at the Brooklyn Heights Association’s (BHA) 2017 Annual Meeting on Monday.

Following a recap of BHA’s annual report and a presentation of awards (see adjacent story), the bulk of the meeting, which took place in a packed auditorium at St. Francis College, featured a panel discussion of transit experts on the feasibility of the BQX. The panel consisted of David Bragdon, executive director of Transit Center; Candace Brakewood, assistant professor of civil engineering at the City College of New York; Benjamin Kabak, who runs the blog Second Avenue Sagas, which has provided news, views and commentary on the city’s transportation system since November 2006; and Samuel Stein, a PhD student at the CUNY Graduate Center who holds a master’s degree in urban planning from Hunter College.

The New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jim Dwyer moderated the evening.

Since its inception at the mayor’s State of the City address in February 2016, the BQX has been a contentious subject.

The trolley’s proposed route would run from Sunset Park through Gowanus, Red Hook, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO, Vinegar Hill, the Navy Yard, Williamsburg and Greenpoint before entering Long Island City and Astoria.

The streetcar has been praised by some as a necessary step towards serving transit-starved communities, but it has also been criticized by others who believe that the project is uneconomical and fueled by developers.

“If you look at who proposed this idea in the first place, it’s a group called the Friends of the BQX. I’m no ace investigative journalist. I just looked who made this thing up and then I compared their property holdings to it and it’s basically a list of who has either new developments done or coming along the route,” said Stein whose comment elicited applause. “So the people proposing this thing and ostensibly paying for it are people whose property values will increase dramatically because of it.

“If we think about the businesses along that route, especially the industrial businesses, if we think about the low-income tenants who live in many of these neighborhoods, they are immediately displaced by rising property values.”

The panel fielded questions from the audience and discussed several areas of concern about the project, including how it would be paid for.

The BQX, as it is currently proposed, would be funded through tax increment financing, which is a method that would allow the streetcar to be built and paid for through public infrastructure development and a gradual increase in property tax.

This method, however, would only be feasible if property values rise significantly.

Yield amounts from the Village Voice, according to Stein, determined that properties would have to rise at least 17 percent in areas that have already seen major growth.

“For the buildings along this route to have that kind of value increase, a four-story building would have to become a 15-story building,” said Stein.

“We’re talking about significant new development

that’s A. in a flood zone, especially in Red Hook and Sunset Park, which were both hit very hard by Hurricane Sandy and B. in a number of neighborhoods that are pretty vulnerable to gentrification.”

An area of concern for the panel was the location of the streetcar’s storage station, which would be situated in Sunset Park, an area prone to flooding. The trolley’s wires would run underground in flood zones, unlike other light railways that have elevated wires. An environmental impact study will be conducted in 2017.

Brakewood noted that in order for the BQX to be effective, it would need dedicated right of way paths, which require removing traffic lanes and on-street parking.

“We really need to consider how this is going to be an effective transportation option even before we can get into some of the other debates about it and in order to do that it needs to be frequent, it needs to be fast and it needs to be reliable,” she said.

Kabak cast doubt on the project and its potential ulterior motives. Kabak cited the transit hub at the World Trade Center, which cost $4 billion and “didn’t do much to improve transit.“ He also mentioned Gov. Cuomo’s desire for a LaGuardia air train that would bring commuters into Queens rather than Manhattan, where the majority of passengers need to go.

“You look at the history of New York City transit and the word folly is certainly a good word to use,” said Kabak. “You have a lot of projects that have been built for questionable reasons … The question is who is driving the agenda and why? Are you building something that you can network out to other areas?

“If you build this line along the waterfront, does it go further into Queens, does it go to LaGuardia, does it go up to the Bronx, does it go further up into Brooklyn or are you building something that you can’t network and that you can’t capitalize? Are you building something that is so discreet that it sort of becomes a gimmick?

That’s what you need to guard against; otherwise you do end up with one of these follies.”

Bragdon suggested that city use its money to improve other areas of the city that are in more dire need of reliable transportation.

“New York is highly quantified and studied,” said Bragdon. “We know where transit is most needed in this city: It’s huge spots of eastern Brooklyn, central Brooklyn, eastern Queens, the Bronx, Marcy, Belmont, Flatbush, Flatlands, you name it. There are low-income people, hundreds of thousands of them who have crappy transit today and those are the needs that ought to be addressed.”

“If our concern was generally serving those who are least served by transit right now, there would be connectors to those couple points,” added Stein.

“We’re talking about Red Hook and Queensbridge.

Those are the only areas that are not within walking distance of an existing subway right now.

“You could have a connector that is either a

Benjamin Kabak, who runs the blog Second Avenue Sagas, which has provided news, views and commentary on the city’s transportation system since November 2006.

Eagle photos by Andy Katz bus line, a shorter streetcar or some other form of mass transit that would service those communities very well to existing subways. That would be much more useful.”

Stein also voiced his concern that the tax increment financing would cause the rising property values to fall on low-income tenants.

“Who are these tenants that can pay more, especially in places that need it the most like Red Hook and Queensbridge?” asked Stein. “It doesn’t add up without gentrification.”

Following the meeting, Executive Director of Friends of the BQX Ya-Ting Liu told the Brooklyn Heights Press that “The hosts ignored three months of offers from [BQX] supporters to explain why they are in favor of the project and blocked everyone with a different viewpoint from sitting on the panel, so it’s really no surprise that the discussion was entirely onesided and got key facts wrong.”

BHA Transportation Committee Chair Christian Bastian chats with BQX board members post conference.

The proposed BQX runs through Greenpoint.

Rendering courtesy of Friends of BQX

Thursday, March 2, 2017 • Brooklyn Heights Press • 5

Fear not BoCoCa — A Bookstore Grows in Brooklyn

‘Books Are Magic’ to Open on Smith Street This Spring

Eagle photo by Scott Enman

Photo by Jennifer Bastian

ABOVE: Best-selling novelist Emma Straub is opening her own independent bookstore Books Are Magic on Smith Street to fill the void of the recently shuttered BookCourt and the Community Bookstore. AT LEFT: Books Are Magic sits on the corner of Smith and Butler streets.

By Scott Enman

Brooklyn Heights Press

Cobble Hill residents were devastated to hear of the news last spring that after 30 years, the Community Bookstore would be closing its doors.

The area was further saddened by the December announcement that BookCourt, a neighborhood staple since 1981, would also be shuttering.

Following both closures, Brooklyn resident and best-selling novelist Emma Straub vouched to right a wrong, to fill a void and to revive a dying breed.

She assured residents in a letter written in December that she would open her own independent bookstore and make the neighborhood “positively coated in bookish fairydust for decades to come.”

Two months later, Straub delivered on her word as a sleek storefront bearing the name “Books Are Magic” recently emerged on 225 Smith St. on the corner of Butler Street.

“There’s a need for a bookstore in every community, but specifically in this one: this Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill tri-

6 • Brooklyn Heights Press • Thursday, March 2, 2017

angle,” Straub told the Brooklyn Heights Press. “I know that I have used BookCourt as my home away from home for many, many years. That includes when I worked there, afterwards and also after having children. I always thought of BookCourt as my living room.

“I know that a lot of other people felt that way also. That yes, it was a place to go and buy books, but more than that, it was a place to go and touch books and look at books and think about books and be surrounded by other people who valued the printed word,” she continued. “I couldn’t deal with the idea of living in a neighborhood that didn’t have a bookstore, in part because I wouldn’t have anywhere to go.”

The store, which Straub hopes to have open in May, will preserve and utilize many of the same bookshelves from BookCourt.

As for the name, Straub and her husband initially had the idea to open a children’s bookstore, but upon further consideration, decided the neighborhood merited one for all ages.

“We knew that this neighborhood didn’t just need a children’s store; it needs an everybody store,” Straub told the Heights Press. “We decided that magic was equal opportunity. Everyone

needs magic, and so we thought books are magic for young, old and everyone in between.”

Straub and her spouse searched several neighborhoods for a location, including scouring Court Street and Atlantic Avenue, but her cozy Carroll Gardens corner felt just right.

“The space that we rented really feels like a bookstore,” she said. “It feels cozy and welcoming, and there are lots of nooks and crannies for people to get lost in. It was really just a matter of finding the space that felt right.

“Right now, we care most about making it feel energetic and lively and welcoming and the kid’s section is going to be enormous and wonderful because we have two little kiddos and there’s a lot of other kiddos in this neighborhood that need a place to hang out.”

In the meantime, residents in need of an independent bookstore can spend their time a short walk away perusing the literature-laden corridors of Freebird Books and Goods, a local bookstore complete with antique furniture in the Columbia Street Waterfront District at 123 Columbia St.

Downtown Houses of Worship Take Stand on President Trump’s Executive Order, ‘Muslim Ban’

Members of the Brooklyn Heights Interfaith Clergy Association have taken a stand in response to Executive Order 13769, which many refer to as the “Muslim ban,” signed by President Donald J. Trump on Jan. 27.

This executive order subjects millions of children and families in the United States and around the world to great suffering, believes the clergy group, which issued the following statement last week.

Under the terms of the executive order, “refugees fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries are to be turned back, just as the U.S. turned back the refugee ship St. Louis in 1939, and sent 900 Jews into the hands of the Nazis.

“Religious institutions across the country — mosques, but also churches, synagogues, and other houses of worship and congregations — are taking a strong stand: America must welcome all who come to our shores in flight from violence and warfare that endangers them; the United States has a moral obligation to serve as their sanctuary. As the voice of the people of diverse religious faiths who make up the Brooklyn Heights community, the Association is expressing the sentiment expressed in the Gospel of Matthew: ‘For I

was a stranger, and you took me in.’”

“As leaders of the neighborhood houses of worship, we feel called to display our communities’ support of refugees and immigrants in a public manner,’ say Rev. Adriene Thorne of First Presbyterian Church, Rev. John Denaro of St. Ann & the Holy Trinity, and Rabbi Seth Wax of Congregation Mount Sinai. “To that end, we created a banner for use by our congregations that reflects our shared position. The banner, which reads ‘Our Sanctuary Welcomes Refugees and Immigrants,’ sends a strong message of support for and solidarity with individuals and families seeking freedom and opportunity in this country. There are many individuals and organizations working with and on behalf of refugees and immigrants, and we add our voices in support of those at risk.”

Congregations participating to date include Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, Congregation Mount Sinai, the Danish Seaman’s Church, Dawood Mosque-Islamic Mission of America, Grace Church Brooklyn Heights (Episcopal), First Presbyterian Church, St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Plymouth Church, First Unitarian Congregational Society, and the Brooklyn Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).

Organ Prodigy Alcée Chriss To Play Brooklyn Co-Cathedral

By Francesca Norsen Tate Brooklyn Heights Press

The Brooklyn Chapter of the American Guild of Organists presents a concert with Alcée Chriss tonight at Brooklyn’s own rococo cathedral.

Coming from Montréal, Chriss is the silver medalist at the 2016 Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition. He will perform at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Prospect Heights, recently-renovated and acclaimed for its beauty and splendid acoustics.

The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 2.

Alcée Chriss III is the winner of the Firmin Swinnen Silver Medal at the Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition 2016, where Choir and Organ Magazine wrote, “Chriss stole the show.”

He has been celebrated for his “grace, skill and abundant proficiency” (Journal Assist News, Albuquerque) and has performed throughout the United States and France. He has won top prizes at several major competitions, receiving First

Prize and Audience Prize in the Miami International Organ Competition (2014), the Fort Wayne National Organ Competition (2016), the Albert Schweitzer National Organ Competition in Wethersfield, CT (2013), and the Quimby Regional Competition for Young Organists in Austin, TX (2013).

Alcee was also selected as one of five finalists for the final round of the Taylor Organ Competition in Atlanta, GA (2015), and won the $5,000 second prize. In addition to being a “Rising Star” performer at the AGO National Convention in Boston, MA (2014), he also received a grant from Oberlin’s 1835 fund to spend January 2014 in France studying historic organs and repertoire. Alcee returned to France in April 2016 and March 2017 to perform solo recitals as a part of the Festival Myrelingues in Lyon and continues to do international volunteer work as the parrain of a music immersion course in Lyon’s Duchère district. He is regularly featured at various organ festivals, including the Atlanta International Organ Festival, and various AGO Conventions.

Barn Dance Heralds Arrival Of Brooklyn Folk Festival

Heralding this spring’s return to St. Ann’s of the Brooklyn Folk Festival, this landmark Episcopal parish hosts a benefit barn dance on March 11.

The Brooklyn Folk Festival will kick off its ninth year with this event — a preview concert and barn dance — at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church on Saturday, March 11, 7:30 p.m. The fundraiser will help cover the costs of ongoing repairs in the historic sanctuary.

This active Episcopal church is the center of worship, a community space, the home of The Forum @ St. Ann’s — an ongoing series of talks on civil discourse, and a venue for the Brooklyn Book Festival programs.

The March 11 concert will feature performances by folk singer Eli Smith, and renowned Balkan music duo Eva Salina & Peter Stan. Square dancing with caller Dave Harvey and NYC Barn Dance will follow.

Later this spring, the Brooklyn Folk Festival returns for a third straight year to St. Ann’s Friday through Sunday, April 28-30.

April marks the 170th anniversary of the landmark church building. First opened in 1847 in the heart of the growing City of Brooklyn, the structure is an architectural treasure that was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989.

Music, art and civic discourse are a major focus of the parish’s community outreach through The Forum @ St. Ann’s, which was launched in 2013 and has presented numerous timely exhibitions and performances to great acclaim.

St. Ann’s has begun a new phase of maintenance and repairs of the sanctuary and church tower. The fundraising goal in 2017 is $350,000 to cover outstanding and continuing costs, which will be followed by a long-term capital program and renewed fundraising next year.

For information on festival preview concert pricing, and to purchase tickets, call the Jalopy Theatre at (718) 395-3214, visit the Jalopy Theatre website or pay at the door on the day of the event.

Dr. Herbert Daughtry (at podium) speaks at a July 2015 rally in front of Brooklyn Borough Hall. The rally was organized to support the Haitian and Dominican communities over a crisis involving revoked citizenships on the island of Hispaniola, which is home to both nations.

Heights Press file photo by Francesca N. Tate

Rev. Dr. Herbert Daughtry Receives Award at Conference That ‘Raises Bar’ for Social Action

By Francesca Norsen Tate Brooklyn Heights Press

Longtime pastor and civil rights activist the Rev. Dr. Herbert Daughtry received the “Beautiful Feet” award last week at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference in Richmond, Virginia. The event was an opportunity for black faith leaders to strategize how to protect the rights of their communities in the wake of what they view as destructive and divisive policies from the Trump Administration.

Daughtry is a fourth-generation pastor who has given testimony through his sermons, books and activism that he understands firsthand the power of personal redemption. He was ordained to the ministry and since 1958 has served as presiding minister of The House of the Lord Church. Moreover, his wife, the Rev. Karen Smith Daughtry, his daughter, the Rev. Leah Daughtry, and other family members, including his grandchildren, have been active in various ministries.

The Religion News Service’s Adelle M. Banks covered the conference at which Pastor Leah Daughtry told attendees that “they will need to work harder for social justice.”

On Wednesday of the conference, Sojourners joined leaders of African-American and Hispanic groups to launch the Matthew 25 Pledge (named for the Gospel passage).

Endorsed by 100 faith leaders and signed by more than 20,000 people, it reads, “I pledge to protect and defend vulnerable people in the name of Jesus.”

The pledge signers agreed to “stand with African-Americans and other people of color threatened by racial policing” as well as undocumented immigrants fearing deportation and

Muslims threatened with bans.

The Rev. Daughtry told the Heights Press on Monday after returning to Brooklyn that the “Beautiful Feet Award” is named for the Isaiah 52:7 Scripture verse that reads, “How beautiful and delightful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace, who brings good news of good [things], who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”

Among the participants were pastors, scholars, seminarians and professors. “These 3½ days were exciting, inspirational, educational,” But he emphasized also the conference’s clarion call to social action.

Pastor Leah Daughtry preached based on Matthew’ Gospel, Chapter 25: “If you’ve been feeding them, now clothe them,” said the Pentecostal pastor and 2016 CEO of the Democratic National Convention Committee.

“If you’ve been clothing them, now console them. If you’ve been at a march, now lead the march. If you’ve been at a rally, now organize the rally.”

Real estate developer Bruce Ratner, of Forest City Ratner Companies, which has worked with Daughtry in for a long time, was one of his award presenters. Also representing Forest City Ratner was New York President and CEO MaryAnne Gilmartin.

Standing with them at the award ceremony were elected officials, representatives of Brooklyn NAACP, and a former prisoner whom Daughtry had befriended and helped build a new life.

“I am excited, exhilarated and grateful. This conference set the bar real high,” said Daughtry.

Thursday, March 2, 2017 • Brooklyn Heights Press • 7

Massive Endless Whirlpool of Black Water Is Coming to Brooklyn Bridge Park in May

By Scott Enman

Brooklyn Heights Press

If you see something, say something.

That slogan, implemented after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, urges New Yorkers to immediately contact authorities if they see something suspicious.

Come May, Brooklynites frequenting Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP) might have the urge to report an abnormal-looking 26-footwide never-ending vortex of black water, but they should not be alarmed, as the whirlpool is actually the latest art installation by Mumbaiborn, Britain-based sculptor Anish Kapoor.

The renowned artist’s latest sculpture, dubbed “Descension,” will be installed at BBP’s Pier 1 and will be on display from May 3 through Sept. 10, 2017.

Public Art Fund is curating the exhibit as part of its 40th Anniversary season.

Public Art Fund, according to its website, “brings dynamic contemporary art to a broad audience in New York City and beyond by mounting ambitious, free exhibitions of international scope and impact that offer the public powerful experiences with art and the urban environment.”

“As we celebrate 40 years of bringing remarkable public art to New York City, it’s important to recognize those artists and exhibitions that have shaped the discourse and been so memorable to our broad public audience,” said Public Art Fund Director and Chief Curator Nicholas Baume. “We’re thrilled that Anish’s newest work will be a highlight of this

Photo by Tadzio

Mumbai-born, Britain-based artist Anish Kapoor is installing a 26-foot-wide neverending whirlpool of black water at BBP’s Pier 1 this May. Photo by Jillian Edelstein

like water can interact and behave in extraordinary ways. And with the East River only a few hundred feet away from the project’s planned location, the whirlpool will complement, contrast and interact with the city’s vibrant waterway.

“Through this transformation of properties inherent to materials and objects, Kapoor blurs the boundaries between nature, landscape and art, allowing us to perceive space differently,” states a Public Art Fund press release.

The whirlpool will be treated with a black dye, which will create an opaque, seemingly endless hole of darkness. The exhibit will create negative space that will seemingly spiral into the ground.

“Anish Kapoor reminds us of the contingency of appearances: Our senses inevitably deceive us. With ‘Descension,’ he creates an active object that resonates with changes in our understanding and experience of the world,” said Baume. “In this way, Kapoor is interested in what we don’t know rather than in what we do, understanding that the limit of perception is also the threshold of human imagination.”

“Descension” was displayed in a solo exhibition at Versailles in 2015. This will be the

first time that the large-scale outdoor piece will be on display in North America.

Kapoor is no stranger to major open-air sculptures in New York City, having had his “Sky Mirror,” a 35-foot-wide concave mirror, installed at Rockefeller Center in 2006. Public Art Fund presented that exhibit, as well.

Public Art Fund recently curated another outdoor sculpture at BBP’s Pier 6 by Londonbased artist Martin Creed. It featured a 25-foottall, 360-degree rotating sculpture that read “Understanding.” It was on display from May through Oct. 23, 2016.

Following “Understanding,” “Descension” will be the third temporary art installation that will be making its debut in BBP. Deborah Kass’ yellow “OY/YO” sculpture opened in November 2015 and was on view through August 2016. The sculpture read “OY” when looked at from Brooklyn, or “YO” if seen from Manhattan.

Anish Kapoor will give a Public Art Fund Talk in collaboration with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School on May 3 during which he will discuss “Descension” as it relates to his art practice and public space.

“Descension” was on display at Versailles in 2015. anniversary season, more than a decade after his outdoor debut with us.”

The exhibit, which will be surrounded by a railing, will demonstrate how an ordinary substance

Heights and Hills, BloomAgainBklyn Set to Host Event at Heights Casino

By John Alexander

Brooklyn Heights Press

On March 9, Heights and Hills and BloomAgainBklyn will team up to host an “An Evening of Flowers and Giving” at The Heights Casino. The event features two of the city’s leading floral designers from Opalia Flowers and FlowerSchool New York — Phoebe Crary and Meghan Riley.

Crary and Riley will conduct a flower workshop for attendees whose creations will be donated to local senior health care centers.

All of the flowers used in creating the arrangements will be unsold flowers donated

by Trader Joe’s and Opalia Flowers.

Heights and Hills is one of the largest providers of supportive services for older adults in Brooklyn and their families, providing services that address their physical and A Heights and Hills volunteer with arrangeemotional challenges.

“While Heights and Hills has many part- ments.

Copyright Randy Matusow Photography nerships and collaborations, our partnership with BloomAgain is one of my favorites,” also facilitate positive interactions between Judy Willig, executive director of Heights volunteers and recipients.

“Since BloomAgainBklyn started almost and Hills, told the Brooklyn Heights Press.

“Most of the work that Heights and Hills three years ago, we have formed a close collabostaff does every day ensures that older people ration with Heights and Hills and its Friendly have what they need in order to age success- Visiting Program where their volunteers bring fully in their homes — enough money to pay flowers to community-dwelling older adults,” Caroline Gates Anderson, their bills, enough food to eat, founder of BloomAgainBklyn, safe housing, access to health explained. “We have also concare and getting their chores ducted joint flower workshops of daily living taken care of. arranged with Heights and Hills “Our partnership with with groups like the Junior BloomAgain and our Friendly League of Brooklyn, Black Visitor programs both allow Alumni of Stanford University us to go one step further and and Morgan Stanley. enhance peoples’ lives by “The flower arrangements bringing joy and beauty into created by the volunteers from their homes and reminding these organizations have then them that they are still part of been distributed to the older a larger community that adults served by Heights and cares,” Willig added.

Hills. It has been a wonderful BloomAgainBklyn is a compartnership and we are so munity-based, nonprofit organipleased to co-host this special zation that takes unsold or once‘Evening of Flowers and used flowers destined for the Giving’ event with them.” trash and refurbishes them into An Evening of Flowers and new arrangements which are A centenarian enjoys a loveGiving will be held at The then distributed by volunteers to ly bouquet of flowers.

Heights Casino, Governor’s homebound seniors, local nursRoom, 75 Montague St. with wine and hors ing home residents and others in need.

The organization’s goal is to create an d’oeuvres from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tickets for the uplifting experience for those who may not event are $250 with the proceeds going to regularly have visitors or receive flowers and Heights and Hills and BloomAgainBklyn.

8 • Brooklyn Heights Press • Thursday, March 2, 2017

Sen. Squadron Enlists Seniors to Fight Cuomo’s $17M Senior Center Budget Cut Continued from page 2 Going to the center “gets me out every day, it gets me walking in the fresh air and seeing people. And in addition to lunch, we have so many exercise programs and other programs that keep us healthy. And in fact, tomorrow’s our general meeting and party, with a sing-along group.”

As far as the cuts go, “Every few years they’re talking about this,” Hedlund said. “I remember a few years ago there was a rally over by City Hall and we signed petitions, and we were very happy we were extended.”

Center patron Henrietta Zacharoff told the Heights Press that the center brings her good health.

“The food could be better but it’s okay,” she added.

William Scasolon, who said he has been in Brooklyn Heights 50 years, said the best thing about the senior center is “what you see now,” he said. “We got a place to come, a place to sing, a place to eat. Need I say more?”

“Folks have to come together, community by community, and make sure that their voices are heard,” Squadron told the Heights Press. “Too often in Albany it’s just a few high-powered lobbyists whose voices are heard, but this is an opportunity for regular folks affected every day to make sure they can have an impact — and I believe they can.”

Squadron said that the next step would be the budget process.

“The budget dance continues,” he said. “It’s critical that the state legislature stands up for these services on a district by district basis. If they do, I know they will get the restorations made.”

The final budget is due on April 1.

State Sen. Daniel Squadron kicked off a tour of Brooklyn senior centers last week to organize older adults to fight Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget cuts to the centers. Above: Squadron distributes information booklets to seniors at St. Charles Jubilee Senior Center in Brooklyn Heights.

Heights Press photo by Mary Frost