Top Ten Brooklyn Stories of Last Decade?
Rich Calder of The Post takes a stab at defining the ten biggest Brooklyn stories of the last decade. It seems like a decent list to us, though we would have put the rezonings of Downtown Brooklyn and Williamsburg higher on the list. What about you? What’s missing or shouldn’t have made the cut? 1….
Rich Calder of The Post takes a stab at defining the ten biggest Brooklyn stories of the last decade. It seems like a decent list to us, though we would have put the rezonings of Downtown Brooklyn and Williamsburg higher on the list. What about you? What’s missing or shouldn’t have made the cut?
1. Atlantic Yards
2. The Fight (Sitt vs. Bloomberg) for Coney Island’s Future
3. Cyclones Arrive at Keyspan Park
4. Condos Added to Brooklyn Bridge Park Plan
5. Astroland Closes
6. Rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn and Williamsburg
7. Marty Markowitz Becomes Borough President
8. Clarence Norman Busted for Selling Judgeships
9. Ikea Comes to Red Hook
10. Opening of Brooklyn Cruise Terminal
Calder’s Honorable Mentions on the jump…
Brooklyn’s Top 10 Stories of the Decade [NY Post]
Honorable mention:
– Feds call for Superfund designation of Gowanus Canal;
– Jehovah Witnesses begin selling properties in Heights and DUMBO;
– Walentas continues transformation of DUMBO;
– Hasids and Hipsters fight over bike lanes in W’burg.
Photo by loop_oh
I have to agree with Montrose — and I am white! During my years of fabulosity in the 90s, working for magazines and newspapers, another woman there and I were often the only Brooklynites at evening parties and events. At the end of the party, she and I would always share a cab. I would hail it, and then she would get in. I would get off at my place first, and theshe would then go the rest of the way to her home. If not for this, she would have had to leave all the events at at 8:30 pm and take the train home! A beloved elderly neighbor used to have difficulty getting a yellow cab to take him a few blocks to his house with his groceries. If I saw this happening (and it was more than once) I would hail the cab while he waited on the curb, and then load in the groceries for him. Yes, cabbies would give you a hard time about going to Brooklyn — and you had to know enough to only say the destination once you were in the cab with the doors closed. From what I saw, if you were black, you couldn’t get a yellow cab at all!
Funny, you can forgive Kerik his transgressions but not give Dinkins any credit for anything. I know corrections officers- they think Kerik is an ass.
Bxgrl;
He hired Bernie Kerik after Howie Safir retired. He hired Bernard Kerik for a very good reason: the man was widely and justly praised for the reforms he had instituted when he was the Commissioner of the Corrections Department (including, I might add, a glowing review in the New York Times). Prior to Kerik, prisoner-on-prisoner crime was considered an intractable problem about which nothing could be done, and frankly, many people felt that the prisoners had it coming to them. Bernard Kerik instituted a “zero-tolerance” policy towards such crime, and it was successful. Incidences of prison rape went down to near-zero.
As we all now know, Bernie Kerik self-destructed due to his own petty shortcomings, and he was rightfully disgraced. However, that does not take away from this tremendous achievement. I challenge you to talk to people who are associated with the Corrections Department, and they still speak admiringly of the man, for these reasons.
I am really sorry to hear about the crimes committed against you. I respect your personal feelings towards Giuliani. As FSRG stated above, however, the most reliable indicator of crime is the murder rate, because you can’t hide dead bodies. Based upon this statistic, Giuliani and Bloomberg deserve credit for the tremendous decreases in crime.
I stand corrected on that, then benson. My point then would be, why would you hire a Kerik in place of Kelly, Bratton or Safir? If I recall, Guiliani didn’t like people questioning his judgment- either professionally or personally. Guiliani was all the things pigeon listed, and then some. I’m not convinced he was the person we needed- and maybe it depends on which side of the fence you’re looking from but he, like Bloomberg and many other Mayors, did their best in the wealthiest or most visible parts of Manhattan. While Guiliani was in office and I lived in Bklyn Heights, I was mugged with a gun held to the back of my head, the building I lived in was burglarized several times, I was nearly attacked twice on Court St. I wasn’t the only one- so the statistics can say whatever they want. My experience is a bit different.
Oh yes MM – that strategy only worked if you got in the cab 1st….It was a real pain in the ass, you knew you had about a 90% chance of a fight everytime you wanted to come home. I still cringe a bit when I say “Brooklyn” to a cabbie.
Fsrg, I tried that a couple of times, too. Once the guy took off so fast, he almost left the door. I learned to get in, close the door, get comfy, and THEN tell them to go to Brooklyn. If they did, without cursing me out in another language, or in English, and were decent about it, I was an excellent tipper. I know it’s hard to get a fare back into the city, but Brooklyn is still part of greater NYC, and I have a right to go there.
I’m with johnny. Too right! And Robertson wasn’t the only one.
Cab to Bed-Stuy? I couldn’t even get a cab to Brooklyn Heights. To this day I dread getting a cab in Manhattan- drivers never gave a damn if it was the law or not. Considering all that, then they cracked down on gypsy cabs. It was the height of hypocrisy. I could stand on a corner and wait until doomsday for a occasional yellow cab – and my favorite rant? When you have to ask the S.O.B. if he’s going in your direction, otherwise they won’t pick you up.
“I think one of the highlights of the last 10 years is the ability for me, as a black woman, to get a yellow cab in Manhattan to take me to Crown Heights without an argument or having to handcuff myself to the back seat.”
Posted by: Montrose Morris at January 6, 2010 11:21 AM
Amen to that, Montrose!
“His best decision? Hiring Ray Kelly who Guiliani replaced with that thug, Kerik.”
More non-facts to spin a story. Giuliani did NOT replace Kelly with Kerik. He hired Bill Bratton, who had developed the Compstat system that was instrumental in reducing crime. Bratton was replaced by Howie Safir, who served for the majority of Giuliani’s term. Bernard Kerik was hired in the last year of Giuliani’s last term.