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Page 12/ ZPHOENIX January 10,1974PHOENIXBecomes'M ust1ReadingThe annual PHOENIX New Year's party last Friday was a huge success and we were delighted that more than 350 people joined us to help honor the launching of 1974. Visiting us were a host of eminent public officials, plus leaders of community and civic organizations in our brownstone neighborhoods, and many of our advertisers. The crowd was flattering evidence that the PHOENIX indeed has become \with improving the quality of life in our neighborhoods and our City.This is the world famous view from beneath the Brooklyn Bridge.A controversy is now brewing over plans and proposals to puta restaurant off-shore at the foot of Fulton Ferry. See LettersWe pledge to continue to dig and pry to lay before our readers information we believe they should know, whether or not it is popular. Our goal is to continue to publish a newspaper that people want to read and that is readable.Today, the PHOENIX is the number one newspaper in Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope and South Brooklyn. We got there because we work hard to produce a paper every week that is filled with news and features that are interesting to a broad range of readers. We are well on our way to becoming the number one newspaper in all of Brooklyn because our dynamic neighborhoods need and demand bigger and better news coverage and we intend to give it.Like what we have to say? Tell your neighbors. Disagree with us? Let us know and we%u2019ll put you right on this page to let you tell our thousands of readers what YOU think. That%u2019s what a community newspaper is for.Peace and love toallof you tor 1974.BritainIn BrooklynThe British are here and you should be sure to see them. It%u2019s the British Theater season at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and its worth the trip to our venerable downtown hall to take part in this festival that should do us all proud to be taking place in Brooklyn.They've spruced up the Opera House at the Academy, installed new lighting on the streets around it, and opened a parking lot%u2014 all to make a trip to the Lafayette Ave. center easier and more enjoyable. But it is the Theater that will make it worth the trip. The Royal Shakespeare Company opened the season this Wednesday to a full house, and later this month comes Sylvia Plath, followed by the Actors Company in February, The Young Vic Company in March, and the Royal Shakespeare Company with Sir Michael Redgrave back in April.It's a stupendous season of theater that will be drawing crowds from all over New York, and it%u2019s the kind of programming that can bring the Academy alive again for all New York. Get your seats now while there is still time, and cheer for a similar spectacular next year.Fulton Ferry Plans:Keep View in SightTo the Editor:I am writing in response to a recently published letter from Mr. Nat Levine concerning the proposed floating restaurant at Fulton Ferry. I am owner of a Landmark Building on the corner of Fulton and Furman Streets, which I am in the process of restoring and converting into loft apartments, having been granted a Special Permit to do so by the City Planning Commission. Since I came to Fulton Ferry because I wanted to live here, I have an emotional comm tment to the area as well as a financial one. Therefore, I feel compelled to keep abreast of other plans for the area and in this instance to clarify some of the points in Mr. Levine%u2019s letter.Various City agencies have recently taken an interest in this magnificent but long forgotten backwater. The Mayor%u2019s Office of Downtown Brooklyn Development, the Department of Ports and Terminals, the Department of Highways, and the Department of Parks have worked together to devise a commendable plan for revitalizing the neighborhood by. creating a public park on the open waterfront land which is presently a parking lot and by channelizing traffic to the extent that it may become possible to cross the street to get to the park. Ports and Te minals has to date almost completed extending the land out to a new bulkhead: the Highways Department has agreed to undertake substantial on-land improvements such as paving and tree planting; and the Parks Department has agreed to maintain the park, that is, if it is not turned over to a privateut'Vciupct.The idea of establishing a floating restaurant at Fulton Ferry is potentially an exciting prospect for both the neighborhood and the Borough of Brooklyn. It is not the idea but rather the method bv which the Department of Ports and Terminals has attempted to set up the \it, which has brought about the strenuous opposition of localresidents and property owners and concerned organizations like the Heights Association, the Long Island Historical Society, and the Committee on the City Waterfront and Waterways.The Department of Ports and Terminals has intended to take before the Board of Estimate for approval an agreement whereby the City will turn over to a private developer on a long lease the piece of land already being developed as a park for the public. The developer would be allowed to build on one fifth of the area and supposedly would be required to leave the remainder of the land open to the public. Of course the floating restaurant barge and the on-land structure he requires, which is almost as big, are to be located across the segment of the shoreline which offers the breathtaking view of lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge. Because the barge and building are to be up to ten feet high they will effectively block the view from the park behind. That view is the main reason for the existance of the park in the first place.Last summer local residents and property owners at Fulton Ferry respectfully communicated to Commissioner Fabber our concern for maintaining the view from the shoreline and presented a far more viable alternate location for the floating restaurant off the adjacent, unused fire station pier. Our endeavors had the support of other City agencies involved; however, there has never been any response from Ports and Terminals.We therefore feel that ouro n e n f n l l i f _______;*.%u2022__ tV,* X.W.40.UV-1 v u vppv/O ltiv/ll u)the proposed restaurantagreement should come as no surprise to Mr. Levine who, as he signed his letter, is a resident of Brooklyn Heights and is ViceChairman of Community Planning Board No. 6, where in both places I hope we have gained majority support. Also because Mr. Levine is, as he did not mention in his letter. Director of Special Projects lor the Department of Ports andTerminals, under Commissioner Fabber, we hope that he might encourage his Department to achieve its goals by considering the planning efforts which the community has made to ensure that the options are kept open at Fulton Ferry for free public access to a part of the waterfront which has unique visual and historical significance for the Borough of Brooklyn.Sincerely yours, David Morton 8 Cadman Plaza WestTakesFishcake'To the Editor:About that Fulton Ferry fish stand: If Nat Levine is the arbiter of taste for Planning Board No. 6, let us sell out immediately and settle for good old reliable Nathan%u2019s, or Chock Full of Anything.I know sensible people objected to view obstruction, traffic patterns and other planning evils, but Levine%u2019s incredible eclectic aestheticism, purportedly saving our heritage, takes the fishcake. Is the spirit of Brooklyn Heights composed of %u201ccolonial-nautical%u201d achieved by barn siding from inland New York state, dotted with replica %u201cantique street lamps%u201d augmented by the moderne %u201c multicolored globe lighting%u201d reflecting the baroque of Copenhagen%u2019s Tivoli Gardens, with just a touch of contemporary parking lot?I assume some flying Niew Amsterdam Dutchman will man the mighty fishing boat, which will either wend its way up the East River through Throggs Neck to the unpolluted reaches of Long Island Sound or brave The Narrows to compete with the Sheepshead Bay flotilla for our Sunday fish Brunch. Will it provide that varied menue magic forays to th&iGulf forContinued on Page 15