INSIDE: DINE THE BOROUGHS STARTS ON MARCH 18! MORE ON PAGE 2
March 15–21, 2019
Including Brooklyn Courier, Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill Courier, Brooklyn Heights Courier, & Williamsburg Courier
ALSO SERVING PROSPECT HEIGHTS, WINDSOR TERRACE, KENSINGTON, AND GOWANUS
COMING SOON: The country’s largest distribution center is slated to rise as of right at an 18-acre site on Third
Avenue between 19th and 21st streets, near the banks of the noxious Gowanus Canal.
Bridge Development Partners and DH Property Holdings
BANKING ON IT
Developers erecting massive distribution
center near banks of fetid Gowanus Canal
Partners and DH Property
Holdings purchased for $255
million in early January, according
to Bridge Development
Partners executive Jeff
Milanaik.
The center will feature a
so-called “intricate ramping
system” to transport goods
to awaiting tractor trailers,
which will shuttle its yet-tobe
determined inventory on
same-day deliveries to fi nal
destinations in Manhattan,
Brooklyn, and Queens, according
to the developers.
The builders have yet to
court any prospective tenants
for the facility, said Milanaik,
and they currently do not
know how many trucks will
be driving to and from it each
day. But any increase in big
rigs on local streets is likely
to rile nearby Sunset Parkers,
who last year demanded
the city conduct a truck-im-
BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
Developers will erect what
they claim will be the country’s
largest distribution center
on an 18-acre site near the
mouth of the Gowanus Canal,
after purchasing the massive
swath of land earlier this year.
The four-story facility will
occupy more than 22 football
fi elds’ worth of Third Avenue
land between 19th and
21st streets, which real-estate
fi rms Bridge Development
Continued on page 10
Paws in the air!
City cracks down on off-leash
dog walking in Carroll Park
BY COLIN MIXSON
Call it paw enforcement!
Department of Parks
and Recreation patrolmen
ambushed dog walkers at a
Carroll Gardens park this
month to crack down on
pup owners who walk their
furballs off-leash, according
to one hapless human,
who said one minute he was
walking his dog Cassie, and
the next minute he was surrounded!
“It reminded me of ICE
tactics,” said a Carroll Gardener
Remko de Jong, referring
to the federal Immigration
and Customs
Enforcement agency. “It was
defi nitely an ambush — it
came out of nowhere. There
was no way to escape.”
Locals for decades have
used the gated black top at
Carroll Park on President
Street as an unoffi cial dog
run, according to De Jong.
The park is plastered with
signs strictly forbidding taking
dogs off their leashes
at any time, but rogue visitors
who do let their hounds
loose are generally respectful,
cleanup after their fourlegged
friends, and limit
their time off-leash to the
early hours before 9 am, the
local claimed.
On Sunday, March 3 at
8:30 am, however, half a
dozen offi cers with the Parks
Enforcement Patrol suddenly
appeared and blocked
all entrances to the black-top
area of the park, issuing $50
citations to De Jong and six
other dog owners one-by-one
as they fi ltered out of the recreation
space — a raid the
Carroll Gardener called excessive.
“That’s so many resources
CAUGHT: Shayna Wellington received
a $50 fi ne in the recent
sting, for allowing her pooch Sam
to run off-leash in Carroll Park.
Photo by Maya Harrison
for seven people
walking their dog on a Sunday
morning,” he said. “It
seems like you could spend
your resources on other
things.”
The sting outraged another
local dog walker, who
said offi cials should create
a dedicated space for pups
in Carroll Gardens — where
the closest places that permit
pooches to run freely are
Red Hook’s DiMattina Dog
Run or Hillside Dog Park in
Brooklyn Heights — before
penalizing pet owners who
just want to give Fido a few
minutes to roam.
“I understand the rules of
the park, but they must understand
our needs and that
Continued on page 10
Vol. 39 No. 11 UPDATED EVERY DAY AT BROOKLYNPAPER.COM
/BROOKLYNPAPER.COM