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Since 1978 • (718) 260–2500 • Brooklyn, NY • ©2019 16 pages • Serving Brownstone Brooklyn, Sunset Park, Williamsburg & Greenpoint Vol. 42, No. 9 • March 1–7, 2019
CULTURE SHOCK
Arts spaces in Fort Greene tower delayed indefi nitely
By Julianne Cuba
Brooklyn Paper
Work on long-promised new
cultural spaces inside a Fort
Greene tower near the Brooklyn
Academy of Music is delayed
indefinitely, until the city
can hash out a deal with the building’s
developer to acquire the sites
and break ground, according to
a rep for the agency overseeing
the project.
“NYCEDC is working diligently
with the developer to finalize
acquisition and transfer details
of the property,” said a rep
for the city’s Economic Development
Corporation. “We look
forward to advancing this project
and delivering a vibrant cultural
facility that’s aligned with
the community’s vision.”
Back in 2013, the city approved
Brooklyn-based developer
Two Trees’s plans to construct
its 32-story tower dubbed
300 Ashland on a former cityowned
parking lot bounded by
Flatbush Avenue, Lafayette Avenue,
and Ashland and Hanson
places.
The project included setting
aside ground-floor space in the
building for new cultural centers
— including a branch of the Brooklyn
Public Library, a home for the
Museum of Contemporary African
Brownstoner / Craig Hubert
Work on long-promised cultural facilities at the bottom of
Two Trees’s Ashland Place tower is at a standstill because
the city has yet to finalize a deal to acquire the space from
the developer.
Diasporan Arts, space for Africanarts
group 651 Arts, and Brooklyn
Academy of Music cinemas
— as well as other commercial operations,
including Whole Foods
and Apple Store outposts.
The tech store and supermarket
opened in late 2017 and early
2018, respectively, but the cultural
spaces are at a standstill until city
officials and Two Trees bigwigs
can agree to terms on their deal,
according to the Economic Development
Corporation rep, who
said the ink should dry on the
agreement by the fall.
“The delay is due to ongoing
negotiations and a need to finalize
terms of acquisition,” he said. “We
hope to complete the transfer by
summer-fall of this year, and costs
are still being finalized.”
Still, work on the new reading
room and cultural spaces now
won’t kick off any sooner than
next year, according to a Brooklyn
Public Library rep, who back
in September said book lenders
had yet to receive a green light
or final timeline for the job from
the city.
A rep for Two Trees said its
leaders are working closely with
the economic agency — which
this month went back to the drawing
board with its 15-years-in-themaking
plan to build a green space
above a high-tech parking garage
Downtown when it severed ties
with the project’s developer — to
finalize the agreement and start
work on the cultural facilities.
“Two Trees has been working
diligently with EDC for months on
facilitating the transfer of the completed
core and shell of the cultural
space to the city,” a spokesman for
the real-estate firm said. “Everyone
is on the same page about the
urgency of getting this cultural facility
finally opened.”
Photo by Caroline Ourso
Pretty fun!
Marley Shea, 12, and drag queen Cholula Lemon showed off their fierce looks after
Lemon led the youngster and other tweens in a makeup tutorial at the Brooklyn Public
Library’s Courtelyou Library in Ditmas Park on Feb. 21. The cosmetology class sprung
from the library system’s partnership with do-good group Drag Queen Story Hour, which
brings queens to borough book lenders to read to kids. Read more on page 5.
McCarren Park fast tracked!
Opens ahead
of schedule
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
They crossed the finish line,
in record time!
City green thumbs opened the
new track and field inside Williamsburg’s
McCarren Park almost
two months ahead of schedule,
delighting athletes who spent
much of the last year sprinting
around other loops after officials
began work on the new facilities.
“It’s awesome, it’s great to see
everyone out here,” Williams-
Daniel Avila / NYC Parks
The city reopened the new facilities almost two months
ahead of schedule, to the delight of local athletes.
burg jogger Kim Strafella told
this newspaper on a recent visit
to the Lorimer Street green space
between Driggs Avenue and Bayard
Street. “It’s nicer to be outside,
the weather is warming up.
It’s nice to see people out here
playing soccer and football — it’s
nice to see kids playing.”
Department of Parks and Recreation
workers last March shuttered
the track and field for their
$4-million makeover, which officials
then said would conclude
a year later.
But in late January, the city
surprised local fitness fanatics by
unveiling the resurfaced rubber
track and newly installed artificial
turf soccer pitch, along with
new adult-fitness equipment, a
misting station, water fountains,
bleachers, benches, and planters,
said Parks Department rep Maeri
Ferguson.
And later this spring, agency
workers will install goal posts on
either end of the field, according
to Ferguson, who said the project,
funded by Mayor DeBlasio’s
office, also finished within its
budget.
Williamsburg residents aren’t
the only ones rushing to see the
new running oval — the refurbished
track is a draw for sprinters
from surrounding neighborhoods
who lack such training facilities,
said a long-distance runner who
jogged from his Bushwick home
to check out the loop on a friend’s
recommendation.
“This track is nice,” Nicholas
Gomez said on this newspaper’s
recent visit to the green space.
“I usually run at the Ridgewood
Reservoir — it’s the closest thing
that’s not a track that I can find
that’s like a track.”
— with Natallie Rocha
Runner Nicholas Gomez ran all the way from his Bushwick
home to test out the new track, which he gave an enthusiastic
thumbs up.
Photo by Natallie Rocha
Catholic clarity
Lawyer: Diocese must release details
used for list of predatory priests
By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Paper
The Diocese of Brooklyn must release
the criteria its leaders used to determine
the credibility of sex-abuse accusations
against the dozens of Catholic priests included
in a list of alleged predators church
officials unveiled last month, according
to a lawyer for abuse victims.
“Many of my clients are looking at the
list with skepticism,” said Mitchell Garabedian,
a Boston-based attorney with
local clients alleging abuse at the hands
of Kings County Catholic clergymen.
“The Brooklyn Diocese has not stated
what criteria it has used to determine if
a priest should be listed as a perpetrator,
or sex abuser.”
The Catholic Church’s 166-year-old
Kings County diocese on Feb. 15 published
a list of 108 clergymen — a whopping
five percent of its borough priests
— facing sex-abuse accusations that diocesan
officials believe “may be true.”
The list features additional information
including the named priests’ past
parish postings and their current status
within the church, according to the diocese,
whose leader said he published the
list in an effort to help victims heal.
“I have met with many victims who
have told me that more than anything,
they want an acknowledgment of what
was done to them,” said Bishop Nicho-
Diocese of Brooklyn leader Bishop
Nicholas DiMarzio expressed
remorse for victims.
File photo by Paul Martinka
las DiMarzio. “This list gives that recognition
and I hope it will add another
layer of healing for them on their journey
toward wholeness.”
But Garabedian — whose role in exposing
sex abuse within the Archdiocese
of Boston was featured in the 2015
film “Spotlight” — doubts the thoroughness
of the local diocese’s list, due to the
church’s history of covering up sex abuse
within its ranks, and its strong opposition
to the Child Victims Act, legislation extending
the statute of limitations for sex
crimes, which Gov. Cuomo signed into
law this month after the bill languished
in Albany for 13 years .
“We’re looking at this list with skepticism,
since history has taught us the
Catholic Church cannot self police,”
he said.
The lawyer suggested the diocese’s list
— and the settlement program for abuse
victims it launched in 2017 — is more spin
control than sincere apology, and said a
more honest expression of remorse would
be naming priests who helped cover up
the alleged abuse in addition to identifying
the purported predators.
“It’s damage control by the church,”
Garabedian said. “If they were really interested
in healing, they would release
all information related to the cover-up
and sex abuse of children.”
Whatever criteria diocese leaders
used resulted in the list including the
late Mgsr. Thomas Brady , who beat accusations
of sexual abuse against two
teen boys when a grand jury failed to
indict him due to lack of evidence following
his 2011 arrest .
But even if the diocese released the
criteria it used to separate credible accusations
from non-credible ones, there
is no reason to assume that information
would be accurate, according to another
lawyer for local victims, who said the
only true measure of guilt will come
from litigating the many claims currently
waged against Brooklyn priests.
“We will figure that out as litigation
proceeds,” said Jayne Conroy, a partner
at Manhattan firm Simmons Hanly Conroy.
“It’s one of the reasons of litigation,
they can tell us what the criteria is.”
A spokesman for the diocese denied
Garabedian’s allegation that the church
refused to share its criteria, but did not respond
to questions about what the criteria
was, or whom it was shared with.
R
they really serious?
Straphangers blast pols’ proposal to split service
By Julianne McShane
Brooklyn Paper
Local pols must pump the brakes on
their renewed calls to again split R-train
service between Brooklyn and Manhattan,
because another bifurcation would
mean longer commutes for many straphangers,
and do nothing to improve the
core problems plaguing the beleaguered
line, according to riders.
“I work in Manhattan as a personal
assistant, so I take the R over five times
a week,” said Brooklyn Heights resident
Sofia Lecho. “It would be extremely
inconvenient on my daily commute to
split the train up.”
A quartet of Southern Brooklyn officials
including Rep. Max Rose (D–Bay
Ridge), state Sen. Andrew Gounardes
(D–Bay Ridge), Assemblywoman Mathylde
Frontus (D–Coney Island), and
Councilman Justin Brannan (D–Bay
Ridge) on Feb. 15 sent a letter to Metropolitan
Transportation Authority bigwig
Andy Byford demanding he look into
ceasing interborough R train service like
transit leaders did for several months
following superstorm Sandy.
Between August 2013 and September
2014 , local R trains terminated at
Downtown’s Court Street station, where
on weekdays Manhattan-bound straphangers
could freely transfer to 4 or
5 trains to continue on to the distant
isle, and on weekends could take R
trains following the N line over the
Photo by Maya Harrison
Manhattan Bridge and into the outer
borough, as workers shored up the R
line’s East River–spanning Montague
Street tunnel.
Many riders at the time told this
newspaper that the change in service
brought newer subway cars to the
line and faster travel times for Kings
County commuters.
But after news of the proposed second
split broke, other straphangers took
to Twitter to blast the pols.
The critics included one Bay Ridge–
based rider, who wondered why the
quartet returned to a scheme that officials
only adopted in the wake of a
rare, and extremely devastating circumstance.
“The solution to fixing the R train
should not be to revert to something
that was implemented as a result of a
natural disaster,” tweeted Bay Ridgite
David Troise.
And another commuter, who said
she did not want to relive the ordeal of
her extra-long rides from Bay Ridge
into Manhattan, questioned how many
of the pols who signed the letter actually
rode the train during the first bout
of split service.
“Commuting during the Montague
tunnel shutdown was worse than what
we’re dealing with now,” Nancy Ford
tweeted . “Which of these four representatives
made that commute everyday?”
Not all R riders panned the call for
another Southern secession, however.
One Ridgite said the line needs a quick
fix while straphangers wait for longer
term improvements — which won’t
come for at least a decade, since Byford’s
$40-billion so-called Fast Forward
Plan to fix the beleaguered transit
system is not fully funded.
Local Sofia Lecho said the proposal
to split R-train service between
Brooklyn and Manhattan
would make her life a nightmare,
because she takes the line across
the river five days a week.
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