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73, Year of Decision Locally,Foundation for Action YearCONTINUING SAGA OF THE GOWANUS CANALThe beginning of 1973 promised a success-filled year ahead in the battle to clean up this open sewer through the heart of South Brooklyn. But, the promise vanished as the year progressed, and remains yet to be filled. In January, a neighborhood-oriented Ad Hoc Committee to Clean the Canal was formed. The same month the PHOENIX ran a special news section of the horrors of the Canal and the recent history of the fight to clean it. Shortly after, Mayor Lindsay organized an official Gowanus task force headed by Heights resident Donald Elliott to pursue renewal of the Canal and the surrounding area. Early in the year, the State moved from No. 20 to No. 1 on its priority list the Red Hook Interceptor Project, which would provide the sewer system needed to halt dumping of raw sewage into the canal. In March, Washington announced funding. During the summer, however, the project languished, and at the end of the year the City had gone to court to get the Federal government to release impounded funds it had earmarked for the sewer project.DOWNTOWN ACHIEVEMENT CONTINUESThe year 1973 was one of continued achievement and renewal in Downtown Brooklyn, and the event that probably means the most to continued development was approved during December. At the Flatbush-Fulton junction, the new Con Edison building was opened and construction on a twin across Flatbush was begun for the Telephone Company. New housing was finally approved for the StateSchermerhorn Street parking lots between Smith and Bond, and construction is already underway. New housing is already under construction in the Atlantic Terminal area, along Fulton St. But it was the final decision of the State Board of Regents on Dec. 14 that did the most to insure that the Downtown renewal will radiate out from the Fulton St. shopping area. That day, the regents sealed the decision that Baruch College would locate its permanent campus at the Atlantic-Flatbush intersection, insuring that the entire junction would be uplifted.WE GET LANDMARKSAfter a summer crisis over the future of landm ark historic districts in downtown Brooklyn, the Board of Estimate confirmed the decision of the Landmark Preservation Commission and 1101111x1 most of Park Slope and a section of Carroll Gardens as historic districts in September. In November, Boerum Hill got the same nod from the Commission, but the decision awaits action by the Board of Estimate, required for final approval. Hearings were finally held in December on the application of Fort Greene-Clinton Hill residents for similar district status, but no decision is expected for weeks.( ADMAN PLAZA RENEWAL' m u ----------%u2022 i %u2022 >i iiu v u u u u v n a y a w m in g c iiu u iiutheCadman Plaza Urban Renewal area, which began back in the 1950%u2019s, seems to be destined toShopping Malls:Yes to Fulton St.;No to Seventh Ave.extend well into the %u201870%u2019s. The spring saw the occupancy of the final Cadman Towers buildings begin, and by September most of the co opers were in, though there are still apartments available. The spring also saw an unprecedented court action against the developer alleging fraud and criminal misstatement in the co-op offering. The trial resulted in the accquital of the defendants, though the judge used strong language to describe what he believed were big gaps in the laws governing offering statements and the supervision of this project by the City. The remaining controversy at Cadman Fiaza relates io uie future oi niocK 207, the northern-most block in the Heights, which has long lain fallow awaiting some kind of action. InHiiNvvmtnitimmMHtiiiiiMiiiiiMiiiiiiifiiiiifiiiiuNiiuiiiMNiiiiiiiHiiaiiiiiniiiiiiiiiifniiiiisiinHkMisurro unding Downtown B rooklyn in eluding Boerum H in. B rooklyn Heights, C a rro ll G ardens Cobble H ill Fort mmmtiGreene and P ark Slope S ubscript,on isthe spring the Brooklyn Heights Association said its m em bers favored elderly housing on the block, and particularly the proposal of the Knights of Pythias. Others have organized a movement to build a new eightgrade school on the block, though the local school board unanimously rejected this idea. At year end, action by the Local Planning Board, following a public hearing, has been postponed to February on the only proposal before it, the plan to build senior citizen housing.SHOPPING MALLS: YES AND NOOur area is going to get a shopping mall, but not the one it expected earlier in the year. In Sept, and throughout the fall, debate over the virtues of a shopping mall along Seventh Avenue in Park Slope heightened. The reasons for such a change seemed good, and the advantages obvious. But bad planning and preparation and poor doomed the proposal, which was withdrawn by the City in a preThanksgiving meeting. However, to much public aclaim, a project to convert Fulton Street downtown from traffic-way to pedestrian arcade was approved,Stopped JumperPolice emergency squad officers speiu a harrowing afternoon nour on New Year%u2019s Day successfully talking a would-be jumper out of taking a dive off the Brooklyn Bridge. The man, identified as Jimmy C. Weber, 21, was first spotted 120 feet above the roadbed on the bracing cables closest to the Brooklyn pier. He came down of his own accord at about 2:30, afterand engineering work is now underway, with completion set for 1975. At year-end, the study of a mall for Montague Street is underway by a Heights architect, with proposals to be announced sometime early in 1974.LOCAL SCHOOL ACTIVITIESThe year 1973 was the year for community school board elections, the first since the boards were originally created. Candidates multiplied, with 31 in District 13 (including Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene and a part of Park Slope) and 29 in District 15 (Cobble Hill, South Brooklyn, Park Slope,%u2019 and parts of Sunset Park and Flatbush) competing for the nine spots on each board, but the results offered up few surprises. Board chairmen remained the same following the elections in both Districts. One issue that has stirred up problems in both, however, is that of the district superintendent. In the case of District 15, it is the lack of one; for nearly a year and a half the post has been unfilled, and little has been done to change that condition. In District 13, after much effort to make a broad-based choice for a new person for the post, the selection has been temporarily barred from taking office by a court order. (See news story elsewhere in paper).A NEW SOUTH BROOKLYN HIGH SCHOOLThe building of a new high school for South Brooklyn is yet another issue that held out great promise of achievement early in 1973, and which has been largely forgotten during the closing months of the year. A major issue in school board elections, and among public school parents concerned about continued overcrowding at John Jay high school in the Slope, the cry for a school was unanimous, but the site was disputed. The logical location was the so-called %u201cgas-company%u201d site adjacent to the GowanusCanal, but a crucial decision by th> Mayor%u2019s Gowanus committee resulted in the beginning of the em of the hope for the school here Though the comm ittee put %u201chold%u201d on the site, a cement plan was constructed and bega operation, even though necessar; permits were not obtained, and ii spite of a temporary court orde forbidding operation. The Ad Ho Committee for a New Gowanu High School, that spoke out s strongly during the first quarter o the year, was silent for the rest and the possibilities of success ar slim as we enter 1974.HOTELS IN BROOKLYP HEIGHTSThe picture for hotel living ii Brooklyn Heights is a mixed one a year end, after much promise fo improvement during the year, am actual gains for a few of the hotels The hotel problem, generall; synonomous here with that of thi elderly living on fixed incomes, ha eluded solution. A rash of murder spurred improved security at thi St. George, but the bash arrangem ent that has a fev hundred residents scatterei throughout floors containing 200* rooms, invites continued problems The Pierrepont Hotel has lost it; %u201ccriminal element%u201d after even reached a crisis stage during thi summer, but the rem ainini residents face the uncertainty o homelessness at year end as th< owners announce they have soli the building and refuse to indicati to whom. A rash of suicides durini December at the Pierrepont in dicates the fear of the possibli future that lives with many of it; older residents. Continue! problems at the Franklin Arm; have prompted the organization o a new block association on Orangi Street.More on PagesProblems at Brooklyn Heights Hotels continuea A p ril v o m m u n 1/ n e w s p a p e r A p plication to M b .V Second ClassPress -in serving the neighborhoods New Yorkth<> urging nf thr officers and minister. a unsolved.