DONE!: The Environmental Protection
COURIER LIFE, DEC.DT 28, 2018–JAN. 3, 2019 25
2018 REVIEW
Continued from page 14
Democratic state Senate hopeful
Andrew Gounardes defeated
longtime GOP state
Sen. Marty Golden in a shocking
upset. Congressional blueparty
candidate Max Rose
also won in his race against
Rep. Dan Donovan — who represents
a swath of Southern
Brooklyn and all of Staten Island
— knocking the city’s
lone House Republican out
of offi ce. Voters also chose to
send Fort Greene Councilwoman
Letitia “Tish” James
to Albany as New York State’s
fi rst black attorney general.
Don’t look now: Dumbo
locals warned that a quartet
of towers poised to rise across
the river in Manhattan will
block Washington Street’s
iconic view of the Empire State
Building framed by the Manhattan
Bridge. A foursome of
builders wants to erect the
80-, 69-, 63-, and 62-story highrises
in the outer borough on
the bank of the East River in a
massive development project
that needs approval from the
City Planning Commission,
but isn’t required to formally
go before the community or
Council.
Signing on: Another sign
will soon grace the Brooklyn
Heights skyline where the
Jehovah’s Witnesses Watchtower
letters once hovered, after
the city on Nov. 8 ruled the
property’s new owners’ can
put their own branding on the
building’s still-in-place scaffolding.
Room to grow: Offi cials
on Nov. 26 revealed designs
for a community farm they
want to plant on a two-acre,
overgrown plot next door to
a Bergen Beach school. Plans
for the growing patch on Avenue
N between E. 71st and
72nd streets call for creating
a greenhouse, several raised
beds for planting crops, a
kitchen and classroom, a storage
shed, restrooms, an orchard,
and a central patch of
artifi cial turf where kids can
roam. Work on the farm is expected
to start next year, according
to planners.
Squeaky clean! Federal
offi cials on Nov. 27 announced
a section of the fetid Gowanus
Canal is now cleaner than it
has been in more than a century,
after workers in November
fi nally wrapped a pilot
dredging-and-capping program
as part of the channel’s
federally led cleanup. The
program in the Fourth Street
Turning Basin kicked off in
October of 2017, and fi nished
more than six months after its
initial April 2018 deadline.
Another route: City offi
cials announced they are
considering a third scheme
for their looming fi x to the
Brooklyn–Queens Expressway’s
triple cantilever, after
pushback from locals and
pols about their two previously
revealed options. The
new plan — ginned up by
an urban planner tapped by
members of civic group the
Brooklyn Heights Association
— proposes creating a temporary
roadway near Brooklyn
Bridge Park for expressway
traffi c during the repairs, instead
of sending those cars
and trucks on a speedway that
would replace the Brooklyn
Heights Promenade for much
of the years-long fi x.
December
Closed for winter: The
Coney Island outpost of Wahlburgers
— the burger chain
owned by famous siblings
Mark, Donnie, and Paul Wahlberg
— temporarily closed its
doors this winter for the second
year in a row on Dec. 2.
The restaurant will re-open
sometime in the spring under
the same management, according
to an executive at the
Massachusetts-based parent
company of the burger joint,
which franchises its locations
to independent operators. The
parent company fi rst closed
the Coney location in September
2017, citing management
“restructur ing,” and reopened
it May 2018 under new
management.
Front-yard work: Brooklyn
Bridge Park leaders on
Dec. 5 announced a slew of
changes in store for Brooklyn’s
front yard, including
that they will completely replace
the beleaguered Squibb
Bridge to the meadow after
closing it indefi nitely for the
second time in July; that they
will boot the Brooklyn Ice
Cream Factory from its longtime
location inside the fi reboat
station at Fulton Ferry
Landing to make way for a
new outpost of Ample Hills ;
and that they will be replacing
a Pier 2 handball court
with a new squash court . Park
leaders hope to have the new
squash court and Ample Hills
location up and running by
next summer, with the Squibb
Bridge replacement open
sometime in 2020.
Hero’s farewell: Hundreds
of New York’s Bravest
gathered on Dec. 13 to say
goodbye to their colleague
whom authorities suspect a
man killed days before, amid
a fi t of road rage on the Belt
Parkway that turned fatal on
Dec. 9. District Attorney Eric
Gonzalez charged the man
with second-degree murder
roughly a week later, on Dec.
18.
Show time! Movie buffs
at Nitehawk Cinema opened
their new Nitehawk Prospect
Park location inside the former
Pavilion Theater following
its roughly two-year restoration
on Dec. 19. The new
650-seat movie house features
seven theaters, digital projectors,
three 35mm reel-to-reel
projectors.
20 8 CONEY ISLAND
NEW YEAR'S EVE
presented by
the Alliance for Coney Island, Luna Park in Coney Island and the Red Apple Group
with support from Councilman Treyger and the Office of the Booklyn Borough President
FREE! 31
DEC
Live Entertainment
Fireworks Show
B&B Carousell Ride
* musical performances, live entertainment and
carousell rides are dependent upon weather.
Please check social media for updates.
ST
BEGINNING AT 9PM
STEEPLECHASE PLAZA
PARACHUTE JUMP
Boardwalk and W. 19th St
@coneyislandfun | coneyislandfunguide.com | allianceforconeyisland.org
Agency in November completed
its pilot dredging-and-capping
program inside the Gowanus Canal’s
Fourth Street Turning Basin.
File photo by Jason Speakman
/coneyislandfunguide.com
/allianceforconeyisland.org