Is one of 5th avenue’s most recognizable merchants, Long’s Discount Wines and Liquors (aka Long’s Wine Factory), catching a case of downsize fever?

Word has it that the 25 year old varietal retailer may have an interested buyer, a downtown Brooklyn wine store owner, with some saying the deal is as good as inked.

More-so than its selection of Barolo and Pinot – Long’s Wines has been synonymous with the name of its principal owner, New York State Conservative Republican Party Leader – Mike Long.

Long, a major player in NYS politics and an institution in Bay Ridge civic life, is known to have run the business as a down-home, mom & pop family enterprise.

A day after detectives and medical examiners pronounced the death of Bay Ridge Pharmacist, John Rossi a suicide, authorities continue to maintain: “he [Rossi] fired one bullet from a .380 automatic Beretta into his chest – but missed all vital organs, either though nerves or poor aim. Bleeding, he then pointed the handgun at his head and pulled the trigger.”

However, according to the Daily News, authorities are also saying that Julius Nasso sr – Lowen’s building owner, one-time movie producer, and convicted Steven Segal extortionist with alleged ties to the Gambino crime family – is being ’scrutinized.’

Nasso sr., Rossi’s friend of 40 years, denies any involvement with pharmacy[outside of just owning the building we guess], or the steroid scandal.

Suspiciously mum on the subject of murder, however.

Rossi, who has adamantly denied any wrong doing in steroid trafficking since the May 2007 raid, is said to have possessed information that “could have taken down a lot of people.”

Information which Rossi now takes to his grave.

Law Enforcement sources going on to say that;’his suicide not only ensures his silence but also could frighten off other witnesses.’

While a Daily News source speculates one Rossi business partner was: “hiding under a bed somewhere, convinced it’s not a suicide and they’re coming for him next.”

John Rossi, pharmacist and co-owner of Bay Ridge’s Lowen’s pharmacy shot and killed himself in an apparent suicide attempt last evening , reports the Daily News.
Lowen’s, the Bay Ridge Pharmacy co-owned with Rossi by Julius Nasso (son of J. Nasso sr. one time movie producer, turned convicted Steven Segal extortionist) found itself in the midst of an investigation into a bi-coastal, multi-million dollar steroid trafficking ring last summer, when in May over $100,000 were seized from the landmark Bay Ridge pharmacy. Only in October to have over $1million in anabolic growth hormones seized along with equipment, and a number of prescriptions reported to implicate everyone from athletes, entertainers, to cops and bodybuilders as Lowen’s clients.

The medical examiner is labeling the death of Rossi a suicide, ‘despite the number of shots found in the room, but gave no details.’

Rossi reportedly died of gunshot wounds to the chest and head.

Police sources saying, ‘he wanted to make sure.’

Rossi was found face down in his second floor apartment above the business last evening, with cotton in his ears, the fatal shot in the side of his head, open bottle of pills, Jack Daniels, a note that said ‘please forgive me’ – and the licensed .380 Berretta.

More from Gotham City Insider

Lowen’s co-owner and pharmacist, the late John Rossi, some time this past fall posted the above blow-up of a ‘Letter to the Editor’ of The Bay Ridge Daily Eagle responding to last May’s ‘raid’ by state inspectors, implicating his pharmacy in a steroid scandal that reportedly had ties to organized crime.

The pharmacy is a beloved member of the Bay Ridge merchant community by residents who consider it the personification of this neighborhood’s friendly, small-town feel.

The letter was inset to an unrelated article on Lowen’s and Rossi, titled: “Lowen’s Pharmacy, Beacon of Service to Bay Ridge Families for 50 Years; Pharmacist John Rossi Building Loyal Clientel with Personal Service.”

excerpt from Rossi’s letter, here:

“… All our pharmacists and technicians are fully registered and have no mark against their records. Referring to recent news articles.

Lowen’s Drug was visited by officials in May 2007 and was found to have products that were distributed by a non-licensed company, DNP International.

Importantly, the products were FDA approved and did have proper certificate analysis.

The problem was not with the FDA approved product itself, but with the distribution company who was unlicensed. Lowen’s was not aware of this problem until officials notified us when they visited the store in May 2007.

At this time one of the officials called DNP and spoke to both the salesperson and the president of DNP making them aware they could not distribute the product without proper licensing.

After the visit we immediately stopped making the products in question. Any other products that we did make were made by legitimate doctors with proper licenses. Products were only made, as properly prescribed by doctors.

After the officials left in May we realized they left sealed products that were discontinued by our company for reasons stated above. By advice of our counsel we segregated these products away from the processing part of our pharmacy and never used them again.

We then filed a lawsuit in federal court against DNP International for selling us these products without DNP obtaining proper licensing for the distribution of these products. This lawsuit is currently pending.

When officials came back in October 2007, they found compliant products from licensed distributors with compliant physicians prescriptions. Upon the officials inspection in October they found segregated product that has been isolated for the Federal lawsuit that we had filed against DNP. Unfortunately, the officials exaggerated to the news media the value of this product and failed to acknowledge that this product was being segregated for the Federal lawsuit and was not in fact being used by Lowen’s.

Again, this product was not being used at this time and was set aside and isolated months ago when the authorities first visited us in May 2007.

Lowen’s and its pharmacists and employees have done nothing improper and have fully cooperated with these officials involved in the investigation since Lowen’s was first informed of the problem in May 2007.”

In the hours following the tragic, and seemingly bizarre death of local pharmacist, John Rossi, NY tabloids and the Brooklyn blogosphere were flooded with commentary on what many are calling one of the most convenient and improbable suicide scenario, ever.
The question at the tip of everyone’s fingers tonight – why?

Why John Rossi, just hours after leaving a hospital where his daughter gave birth to his first grandchild, brimming with joy, would choose to go home and celebrate – by executing a suicide of Arthur Miller like staging, with all the fastidious detail of a Martha Stewart place-setting.

The crime scene, said to include: the victim behind a desk, a bottle of Jack Daniels, an open container of pills, a suicide note: “lifes a bitch. I cant fuckin’ take it no more, signed ‘the dead guy’” – and his .380 Berretta.

A scene, which probably couldn’t have been better furnish had you gone to Crate and Barrel.

Which may explain why detectives and the city medical examiner were so prompt in signing off on Risso’s death as a suicide.

Nevertheless, for skeptics there remain significantly more questions than answers tonight; from a neighborhood who can’t quite swallow the alleged Rossi coup de grâce – which consisted of multiple gun shots to Rossi’s body, with another slug found lodged somewhere in the room.

Exactly how Rossi (reported to have been found with two ’self inflicted’ gunshot wounds) maintained enough muscle control after shooting himself once in the chest, to fire a second round to his head, for now – remains a mystery.

Or, is it as one police source said? “He wanted to make sure.”

[photo courtesy of the Daily News]

John Rossi, pharmacist and co-owner of Bay Ridge’s Lowen’s pharmacy shot and killed himself in an apparent suicide attempt last evening , reports the Daily News.

Lowen’s, the Bay Ridge Pharmacy co-owned with Rossi by Julius Nasso (son of J. Nasso sr. one time movie producer, turned convicted Steven Segal extortionist) found itself in the midst of an investigation into a bi-coastal, multi-million dollar steroid trafficking ring last summer, when in May over $100,000 were seized from the landmark Bay Ridge pharmacy. Only in October to have over $1million in anabolic growth hormones seized along with equipment, and a number of prescriptions reported to implicate everyone from athletes, entertainers, to cops and bodybuilders as Lowen’s clients.

The medical examiner is labeling the death of Rossi a suicide, ‘despite the number of shots found in the room, but gave no details.’

Rossi reportedly died of gunshot wounds to the chest and head.

Police sources saying, ‘he wanted to make sure.’

Rossi was found face down in his second floor apartment above the business last evening, with cotton in his ears, the fatal shot in the side of his head, open bottle of pills, Jack Daniels, a note that said ‘please forgive me’ – and the licensed .380 Berretta.

More from Gotham City Insider

All Bay Ridge blogging Green Church went viral today, as Curbed asks: ‘Will God Take Sides in Nasty Bay Ridge Church Demolition Fight?’

If anyone in Bay Ridge is interested – we got wind of this by way of Brownstoner:

Preservation Vision: NYC

Preservation Vision: Planning for the Future of Preservation in New York City is a year-long initiative to engage those interested in preservation in a conversation about their aspirations for preservation in New York City in the year 2030 and the actions needed to make those hopes a reality.

Who’s involved?

Project Steering Committee

A steering committee has been formed to determine and oversee the goals of the project. It consists of the financial supporters of the project and a small number of selected advisors.

Anthony C. Wood, foundation executive, is the Chair of the Committee.

Members of the committee also include:

Lisa Ackerman, World Monuments Fund
Leah Krauss, New York Community Trust
Anne Van Ingen, New York State Council on the Arts
Randall Mason, Minerva Partners and University of Pennsylvania
Felicia Mayro, St. Mark’s Historic Landmark Fund and the Neighborhood Preservation Center
Vicki Weiner, Minerva Partners and The Pratt Center
Kirstin Sechler, Minerva Partners

Project Administration: Minerva Partners

Since preservation’s future goes beyond the purview of any existing preservation organization and to engage as broad a spectrum of the preservation community as possible, it was decided that the visioning process should be administered by an organization uninvolved in the daily give and take of NYC preservation. For these reasons, Minerva Partners — a nonprofit, historic preservation group working in New York and around the world to find solutions to issues of cultural heritage preservation and community development — has been selected to host and manage the project.

So, we really don’t know what to make of this item, except to say it’s strong words from an anonymous poster claiming to be ‘Club Shadows Management,’ in response to last week’s ‘Window into Club Shadows‘ piece – where they assert, among other things, that “Club Shadows has closed its doors in this racist community.”
We apologize if the VH1, Poison Behind the Music reference was lost on ya comrade!

full text:

Anonymous said…

“To the reporter who wrote the article about Club Shadows “ANONYMOUSLY”
You are a total idiot! You should investigate all facts before writing such a stupidity! Whores and horrors? Have you ever been inside of Club Shadows? Because you were too afraid to come in and have a good time we opened the window, so you could see how other people are having a good time. Club Shadows was never or ever will be a strip club!!!
You always judge a book by its cover?
Media, politicians, community board members and the whole neighbourhood was always invited.
Have you ever seen the invitations posted on the front wall? My suggestion to you is to see an eye-doctor for your near sightness. It’s now irrelevant, Club Shadows has closed its doors in this racist community.
Have a nice day, Jerk!
Club Shadows management”

- see all “window into Club Shadows” comments, here

Club Shadows in the news:

Last Call for Club Shadows?

Stabbing Haunts Club Shadows

New Charges for Club Shadows

Club Shadows Fights On

‘A blogged week’ turned into a very blogged few hours yesterday, thanks to the Daily News and the people over at Curbed who gave some much needed exposure to Pastor Robert Emerick’s desperate counter-protest to local activists’ 11th hour effort to stop the sale/demolition of his Bay Ridge United Methodist ‘Green’ Church.

Efforts which have been stoked with all the thoughtfulness, sensitivity and mercy of a California wildfire. Largely, by the hysterical and dishonest objections of groups such as Katherine Walker’s ‘Committee to Save the Green Church,’ local activist Victoria Hofmo of the Bay Ridge Community Council’s Preservation Committee, councilman Gentile, and Assemblywoman Hyer-Spencer.

[photo courtesy of NY Daily News]

Hofmo, best known for her passionate, highly romanticized exhortations, put on her best ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’ game-face this week as she kicked off her BRCC chair[person]ship with a preservation ‘awareness’ retrospective. Which, at one point, reportedly spiraled into a bizarre cross-fire between congregation supporters, preservationists and audience members.

Emerick, who leads the congregation of less than two dozen worshipers, is asking officials and activists to stop intervening in their sale and allow them to ‘bury their dead in peace.’

Repeated landmarking attempts have failed, resoundingly.

Last year Gentile, ‘Save The Green Church’s’ Katherine Walker, along with Hofmo [all of whom have been behind more lost causes, it's amazing they aren't managing the Knicks] approached the Landmarks Commission, but were unsuccessful.

“’They ignored just about everything we said,’ complained one person who attended a session with Tierney” – reported the Brooklyn Eagle.

Local preservationists, already having proven their inability to score an administrative victory, continue to desperately enlist an army of supporters by waging a tasteless war of merciless jawboning, brow-beating and intellectual half-truths that paint the congregation as ‘liars,’ who are somehow ‘indebted’ to the community.

Of course for one to believe the case of local preservationists, one would therefor have to accept those claims – while on the other hand – the congregation has satisfied every administrative and legal requisite to the liking of the Brooklyn Supreme Court, who’ve already allowed them to proceed as they wish with the sale.

“We can not let them take this from us… This is our community, this is our church, and this is
our fight, now is the time to make our voices heard,” said historian Wade Goria at a CB10 meeting last year.

Goria’s emotionally charged remarks [for which he had to be physically restrained at one point], are naturally echoed by other preservationists and will hopefully serve as a reminder as to just how the community of Bay Ridge failed the Green Church, not the other way around.

And, when these particular walls finally do come tumbling down, you can hopefully count among the destroyed this particular crop of “neighborhood” preservationists – born of this tragedy.

Because if the best Bay Ridge can do to preserve its historical signifigance, is save its structures by destroying the dignity of our neighbors – is anything ultimately worth saving at that price?

a blogged week, redux: preservation & zoning
Bay Ridge Rover: a blogged week(11/1/07), pro-growth Bay Ridge in the age of enlightenment,
activism or fascism (10/24/07)
Right in Bay Ridge: a new front opens over Bay Ridge’s Green Church (1/18)
Gowanus Lounge: Amity street developers rethink plans, Reaction to Carroll Gardens down-zone is muted
Curbed: Will God take sides in nasty Bay Ridge church demo fight?
GothamCityInsider: they paved paradise and put up a 3br, 2 & 1/2 bath Fedders
Brownstoner: Time Equities Planner weighs in on Amity plan, CG Downzone Dance Begins
PardonMeforAsking: a look inside 45, 3rd place

a preservation-neutral blogged week:
Right in Bay Ridge: meter maids continue to harass Bay Ridge residents outside their homes
Sunset Park Blog: Will Sunset Ferry Ever Return? Ron Ardito RIP, Dumplings in Sunset Park
GothamCityInsider:Pit needs TLC, Evolution of the Guido, “milestones”
Gowanus Lounge: the latest on 475 Kent, something smells on Grand street, Red Hook Taco Wars
PardonMeForAsking: still trying to figure out who Councilman Bill De Blasio is working for