White Powder In Envelope Disrupts Brooklyn Federal Courthouse; Office Quarantined

Photo: MK Metz

FDNY, HazMat and NYPD emergency vehicles rushed to Brooklyn Federal Courthouse on Cadman Plaza West in Downtown Brooklyn around 4 p.m. today after someone in the Clerk's Office reported an envelope containing suspicious powder, according to news reports.

Photo: MK Metz

The Clerk's Office was placed under quarantine. Above, Squad Company 1 puts together a decontamination tub.

Photo: MK Metz

 Above, a decontamination team heads inside the courthouse.

Photo: MK Metz

Emergency vehicles clogged Tillary Street and Cadman Plaza West. Most people were allowed to leave the building, except for the unfortunate workers inside the Clerk's Office who may have been exposed to the powder.

More news sources with this story:

Brooklyn Eagle
NY Daily News
NBC


Photos copyright MK Metz

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Bike Share to Launch Memorial Day Weekend? And More Brooklyn Briefs

- According to mysterious sources in the Bloomberg administration, the bike share is going to launch Memorial Day weekend. [Brokelyn]

- Supporters demand that LICH stay a "full service" hospital. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- City Councilwoman Letitia James, Assemblyman Walter Mosley and others filed a lawsuit against the Bloomberg administration and City Point's developer. [City & State]

- 'Gowanus by Design' exhibit opening soon. [Brownstoner]

- 'Discover the Hook' event in Red Hook coming up. [Realty Collective]

- The U.S. Senate just passed that Internet sales tax bill. [Gizmodo]

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Smorgasburg at Tobacco Warehouse, DUMBO, Draws Hundreds to Brooklyn Bridge Park

Smorgasburg brought hundreds of happy picnickers to the iconic, roofless Tobacco Warehouse and Brooklyn Bridge Park in DUMBO this past Sunday. Folks snagged gourmet treats inside the Warehouse, then wandered out into the park to eat lunch.

This may be the last season for Smorgasburg at the Tobacco Warehouse.

Rogers Marvel Architects

The St. Ann's Warehouse theater company will be taking it over and building a theater structure inside the landmarked structure. (They can't touch the walls...)

St. Ann's will be holding their gala inside the Tobacco Warehouse on Wednesday to celebrate their victory over leaving well enough alone.

If you get a chance, stop by and enjoy the DUMBO Smorgasburg on Sundays, while it lasts.

- Designs for Brooklyn's St. Ann's Warehouse Unveiled at Thursday Night CB2 Meeting

Photos copyright MK Metz

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'Spider-Man 2' Filming Takes Over DUMBO Monday, May 6 -- UPDATED

Yikes! Most of the streets in DUMBO -- and a couple in the Vinegar Hill/ Brooklyn Navy Yard area are being commandeered for feature film production "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" -- just called "SPE" on signs -- on Monday, May 6 from 6 a.m. - 10 p.m.



Cars were being towed from Sunday night at 10 p.m. from sections of Plymouth, Main, Water, Front, Washington, York, Bridge, and Gold streets and Anchorage Place.


Photo by MK Metz

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Bone Marrow Drive for 9/11 Hero, in Downtown Brooklyn

Steven Bonano

Retired NYPD cop and 9/11 first responder Steven Bonano is battling a rare form of cancer believed to be related to working at Ground Zero, according to the NY Daily News.

Forest City Ratner, which last year hired Bonano to head security at the Barclays Center, is hosting a bone-marrow registry drive in Downtown Brooklyn on Tuesday and Wednesday at 345 Jay St.

Cancer among 9/11 responders is 15% higher than among people not exposed to the Ground Zero toxins, a recent study found.



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Steiner Studios Head Plans to Raze Manhattan Church

Photo: Jim Henderson

Douglas Steiner, head of the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Steiner Studios, plans to raze a a 96-year-old East Village church, Mary Help of Christians, and replace it with residential property and ground-floor retail, the NY Post reports.

“We hope [Steiner] can see the light and realize it’s advantageous to use something that’s special rather than demolishing it for something that’s a dime a dozen," said Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

This is just one of several churches facing the wrecking ball, the Post reports.

Several years ago, Mary Help of Christians Church was among 21 parishes to be closed as part of the Diocese's realignment plan.

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Is SUNY's Search for LICH Buyer 'Designed to Fail?'

Photo: MK Metz

Participants at last night's Cobble Hill Association meeting about worried that SUNY's official search for someone to take over Long Island College Hospital (LICH) may be "designed to fail," reports the Brooklyn Eagle.

The RFI has “more holes than Swiss cheese,” said Jerry Armer, the 76 Precinct Community Council President and long-time community activist. “And the holes are designed for a developer to use this land as something else.”

The RFI says LICH's new operator could provide health care services either "on the [LICH] campus or in the community around" the hospital, leaving open the possibility that some or all of the valuable Brownstone Brooklyn real estate could be sold.

SUNY also demands that interested parties submit, by May 22, "a complex proposal providing details about clinical service areas, governance and ownership models, utilization projections, legal structures, regulatory timelines and approvals, and financial plans including capital needs and sources of funding. SUNY will answer questions from interested parties only until May 15."

Assemblyman Joan Millman told the Eagle “I don’t know how anyone could respond in such a short window of time, with no financial information,” she said. “You couldn’t do all that.”


- LICH supporters slam SUNY’s search for new hospital owner Brooklyn Eagle.

- SUNY: Who Wants to Buy LICH?

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More LICH Skulduggery; Coney Island Parade Problems; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- State officials call meeting with pols about LICH’s future -- and then refuse to talk about the Brooklyn hospital. [NY Daily News]

- The famed Coney Island Mermaid Parade may have to be canceled this year because of damage from Hurricane Sandy. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Unions file suit to halt construction at City Point in Downtown Brooklyn. [TRD]

- Brooklyn's Taj Mahal -- said to be the most beautiful house in the borough -- is for sale. [NY Daily News]

- DUMBO preservation group clashes with BID over proposed Tech Triangle bus route. [Brooklyn Eagle]

-  How to do Derby day in Brooklyn. [Carroll Gardens Patch]

- Fancy Coney Island bathrooms put on hold. [NY Daily News]

- Is mom visiting for Mother's Day? 12 affordable, Zagat-rated restaurants in Brooklyn. [About]

- Boston bombers originally planned Fourth of July attack. [NY Magazine]

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SUNY: Who Wants to Buy LICH?

Photo: MK Metz

The State University of New York (SUNY) issued a public Request for Information on Wednesday, to officially kick off the search for someone to take over Long Island College Hospital (LICH), the Brooklyn Eagle reports.

SUNY dropped its plan to close LICH (and sell its valuable real estate to a developer) last Friday after months of protests, marches, a lawsuit and media coverage.

The resolution the City Council passed last week warned SUNY that the money they would have gotten from the sale of LICH's assets would have to go back to the local LICH community for its medical needs -- and not to SUNY Downstate.

SUNY Downstate, nearly bankrupt, is now in a bind. After two years of not managing their financial problems, they have to develop a sustainability plan for Downstate by June 1, get all the approvals, and begin implementation on June 15.

Don't forget: To discuss the future of LICH, the Cobble Hill Association is hosting a community forum on Thursday, May 2, at 7:30 p.m. at LICH, 339 Hicks Street, Conference Room A.

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'Moby Dick - Rehearsed' by Orson Welles at Red Hook's Waterfront Museum & Showboat Barge

Red Hook's Waterfront Museum & Showboat Barge sends us word about:

Moby Dick - Rehearsed 
by Orson Welles

Performed by Brave New World Repertory Theater

May 3-5 and May 10-12 at 7:30

Creating Melville's world on the bare stage of an historic wooden barge, a cast of characters bring life to museum artifacts transporting each barge-goer to the docks of Nantucket, the deck of Captain Ahab's ship, and the wild unpredictable ocean.

Directed by John Morgan & Alexander Harrington.

Tickets : $25 General, $18 students/seniors.

www.waterfrontmuseum.org

290 Conover Street, Red Hook Pier 44, Brooklyn, NY 11231

(718) 624-4719 ext. 11

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