Brooklyn Week in Review

We're almost afraid that today is Friday the Thirteenth, given the kind of week it's already been.

Of course, there was the awful plane crash was on the Upper East Side, but Brooklyn had its own share of little mishaps and awfulness to color the second week of October, including the little construction boo-boo at the Ikea site that injured two of the workers vandalizing giving the Red Hook waterfront its big blue-and-yellow box makeover. Can you say, bye-bye Graving Dock? Then, of course, there was the near conflagration at Broken Angel in Clinton Hill that the owner said was the result of a "freak accident," which in turn, has led to other problems with the city that threaten the place more than the fire probably did.

Our personal favorite horror was our own discovery that Steiner Equities--better known as Steiner Studios--is actually tearing down the Old Dutch Mustard factory in Williamsburg. And, yes, we're ticked of they're knocking down a Williamsburg landmark. We did up a long-ish Brookvid about Old Dutch, that also shows the Mill Building, 184 Kent and some other scenery. You can head over to youtube to check it out. or wait for us to post it on on GL tomorrow. Steiner's impact isn't limited to Williamsburg. As it turns out, a crane company that labored for two years at Ground Zero is going to get evicted from the Brooklyn Navy Yard (where they really used to build ships) in order to make way for a film studio. The city, meanwhile, has come up with a solution for the fire houses it closed, like the "People's Fire House" in Williamsburg: Sell them to developers!

We weren't lacking for human ugliness either, what with the awful hate crime in Plumb Beach, which also reminded us that that particular spot has some fairly unsavory things going on regularly. Of course, the NYPD supplied us with a different troubling issue by racially profiling blacks at the Seventh Avenue station in Park Slope, in an apparent response to an increase in crime there. We're guessing that story won't vanish right away. In other subway fun, it turns out that some Pratt students planted fake bombs on the subway as part of a class project. Damn. Like we need to be reminded that people can kill us on our commute.

No profiling in caucasian Dyker Heights, though, where they handed out so many sanitation tickets that people almost started a garbage rebellion.

Speaking of racism and discrimination, the National Fair Housing Alliance accused Corcoran of engaging in blatant discriminatory sales practices. They even are said to have literally drawn red lines on a map to do a kind of reverse redlining for white yuppie buyers. While that kind of thing makes us wish litigation, prosecution and ruin on the perpetrators, we had to laugh at how Williamsburg--and, specifically, the North8 Condo--is now being marketed to "happy white people with oversized heads." Even Corcoran agents wouldn't need to show anyone a "gentrification map" of Williamsburg. It's got a bull's eye painted on it.

Speaking of significant change, the proposals for the Coney Island Aquarium makeover continue generating comment and reviews. You can even take a Brooklyn Papers poll and vote for your favorite if you want to chime in. So far, no one's dumped on the aquarium designs the way that Paul Goldberger, in effect, said that Frank Gehry's Atlantic Yards design sucks. Although some have taken issue with the Brooklyn Paper's suggestive cover photo of new Park Slope resident Maggie Gyllenhaal, leading to an apology.

And, finally, our favorite New York public official distinguished himself by holding forth on the merits of the aforementioned Brooklyn project. Next week, you can tell them what you think by taking a poll eating well.

Chow down, readers.