According to this morning’s New York Post, the victim of Wednesday’s sexual assault outside her Bay Ridge apartment was asked by her attacker for forgiveness, then made the sign of the cross – after being beaten her over the head with a screwdriver and forcing himself on the 39-yr old woman.

Neighbor Anne Carnes, 68, said she was in the elevator with a neighbor about 20 minutes after the rape when the victim cried out – reports the Post.

“She was afraid to move until she heard my voice, and then she was like, ‘Anne! Anne! Anne!” she said.

The woman told neighbors in her Bay Ridge building about the ordeal after they came to her aid Wednesday morning.

“I’m sorry. I’m going through some hard times. I didn’t mean to do this,” she said he told her. “Will you please forgive me?”

The rapist quickly found religion as well.

“He made the sign of the cross,” said neighbor Victor Mena.

The rapist, described by cops as in his early 20′s to 30′s; white; crew cut; last seen wearing white sneakers, blue jeans and a blue shirt – remains at large.

Police have just surveillance video of the piece of shit who raped a Bay Ridge woman on her way to work Wednesday morning.
WABC and the Daily News has posted video, amounting to less than 10 seconds in length, of a man running from the scene who appears to fit the description of the scumbag wanted for the broad daylight attack.

Anyone with any information is urged to contact Crimestoppers at (800) 577-TIPS or text 274637 and enter “TIP577.”

Or…. handle it in the ‘traditional ways.’

Had enough excitement this week?

Well, take a vacation from your neighborhood’s problems with some lamb on a spit, followed by a turn on the “salt ‘n’ pepper” ride, at the Holy Cross Greek Cultural Festival.

The festival, which runs Friday September 19th – Sunday the 21st, is in something like its 20th year, and still going.

For three solid days, Holy Cross fills 86th to 84th streets on Ridge Boulevard with rides, games and Greek food; and this year, features a much talked about Loukomades eating contest!

With festival organizers predicting roughly 10K people to pass through this weekend alone, parking’s guaranteed to be scarce – plan on walking it, all you Loukomades eating fatties!

Gothamist newsmap and WABC report that a Bay Ridge woman on her way to work this morning was attack and sexually assaulted by an unknown assailant outside her Bay Ridge home on Ft. Hamilton pkwy and 93rd street.

According to WABC: “The 39-year-old victim was attacked inside her Fort Hamilton Parkway home at around 8:40 a.m. According to police, she was surprised by a man standing outside who struck the victim over the head with a screwdriver and sexually assaulted her. The victim did not know her attacker, police said. She was taken to a nearby hospital where she is being treated.”

A sketch was released of the suspect, who is described as a white man in his 30s or 40s, between 5’8″ and 6′, 180 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes with a crew cut. At the time he was believed to be wearing blue jeans, and a blue shirt.

While on the subject of preservation and how useless the Bay Ridge down zone was, what better time to check in with the same cocksuckers who singlehandedly disfigured what was at one time a quaint picturesque block on 87th street, with a second house masquerading as a ‘lot line extension?’

Well, no time like the present!

No surprises here tho, preservation fans, that even after the DOB threatened possible criminal liability should the Cunningham’s not dismantle their fucked-up lot line extension – the spite house still lives to spite us!

What gives?

No preservationist ballyhoo and pot banging!?

Surely this is enough to offend even the sensibilities of the most casual observer… AND it appears to have been done all for profit!

Their neighbors, the Gershons (see: house right, robbed of all natural light and diminishing property values), where are their advocates!?

Where’s their BLOG!?

Oh, that’s right. You’re hypocrites – all of ya!

We know it ain’t no parsonage on a limestone block where a bunch of itinerant assholes carved out curb cuts – but c’mon, surely it’s worthy of one piece of Tupperware being banged!

Well, now 87th street is really fucked… because if the stucco clad box permeating our nabe isn’t going to kill bay ridge, Dyker Heights design sensibilities will, as it appears the floodgates are open and the levee broke!

Directly across the street, apparently the vice-presidents of bad taste and ‘let’s put stucco on everything’ have moved in to turn another small, old-timey looking house into Ceaser’s.

Via a Press Release just obtained from Councilman Vincent Gentile’s Communications Director, Dena Libner, the Bay Ridge councilman has responded to reports that demolition permits have been granted by the city, and the Green Church could be razed within days, if not hours.

Below is the Councilman’s press release, which he offers the three “alternatives” he sought to demolition, in what his Communications Director calls “respectful” conversations with Green Church Pastor, Robert Emerick.

from the Councilman’s press release:

The Proposals

In the first alternative proposal, developed by Con Edison as part of their Renaissance Project, the church would have been left intact, and the property in the hands of the congregation. Affordable senior housing, which would have been developed around the perimeter of the church by ConEd, would have yielded $300,000 annually for the congregation – the figure that the congregation’s leaders said was needed on an annual basis in order for them to retain the church.

This plan would have provided an annual income for the congregation in perpetuity and senior housing that would be sold to individual buyers at below-market cost. The United Methodist Church’s Board of Trustees rejected this proposal in 2007.

In the second proposal, Omni New York LLC offered to give the congregation $9.75 million (the same purchase price as the current contract between Abe Betesh and the congregation) under the condition that the developer would be able to obtain state and/or federal financing for the development of affordable senior housing on the property. This would have required that all efforts toward demolition of the church be halted for 90 days while Omni New York pursued that financing; in the meantime, Omni would have put $250,000 in escrow as a measure of good faith. The affordable housing would have been developed around the still-standing Green Church, which would have been used as a community performing arts center. The Methodist congregation would also retain a portion of the property, and would build a new church on that site with the proceeds from the sale.

Omni New York would have also paid the congregation’s lease for its temporary home at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.

“This plan would have accomplished a few different objectives,” Councilman Vincent J. Gentile remarked. “First, the Green Church building would have been able to continue to enrich this community with what would have been called the ‘Bay Ridge Center for the Performing Arts.’ This center would have been open to all local cultural groups as rehearsal and performance space.

Rehabilitation of the church structure could be accomplished over time with state and city funding if the arts center were run by a non-profit group.

“The remaining property would be developed in a way to address a local shortage of affordable senior housing,” Councilman Gentile continued. “Lastly, and just as importantly, the Methodist congregation would have a new church as well as the financial means to ensure a long and productive future.”

However, the investor and the church Board of Trustees disagreed on whether the money in escrow would be refundable if government financing was not possible. Consequently, the offer did not go forward.

The third proposal was set forth by Engel Burman Group, a large development company that builds assisted-living and nursing home units for seniors. Engel Burman made an offer to the current purchaser, Abe Betesh, which would allow him to recoup some of his investment. Engel Burman would then contract with the church.

Engel Burman’s plan would allow the Methodist congregation to retain ownership of the property. Engel Burman had planned to retain most of the façade of the church, build residential units around it, and sell those units to local seniors. After the housing was developed and sold, the church would collect annual revenue on the ground lease.

In addition, there would be a medical facility in the new residential complex. Under the plan, Engel Burman would also build the congregation a new church, with a value estimated at $3.5 million, on the Ovington Avenue side of the property.

Engel Burman is still in discussion with Abe Betesh (at least until demolition occurs). The church has not taken a formal vote on this proposal.

Reflections on a Valiant Effort

“It is important to note that, throughout this process, all parties acted in good faith to come to some resolution,” Councilman Gentile said. “Each participant in this process did so willingly in the search for that alternate solution.”

Pastor Emerick met and entered into discussions with all three investors – Con Edison, Omni New York LLC, and Engel Burman – and each presented him with the above-described proposals. The first two proposals were not successful, while Engel Burman’s offer to the current purchaser is still viable.

Yet, throughout this process, Councilman Gentile and Pastor Emerick kept a respectful line of communication open in search of an acceptable alternative. George Fontas, a consultant to Pastor Emerick and the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church, assisted greatly in this effort.

“This church has played an important role in the Bay Ridge community since 1899,” Councilman Gentile said.

“The church is understandably interested in ensuring its congregation’s future, while other Bay Ridge residents are interested in the survival of a historic and beautiful building. I believe that the alternatives to demolition addressed the needs of all parties.

“My role has been that of an intermediary, facilitating discussions between interested investors and Pastor Emerick, who listened with an open ear,” Councilman Gentile added. “I’m disappointed that we have not been able to reach a win-win resolution.”

According to the official blog of the Committee to Save the Green Church, Bay Ridge Journal has announced that as the last stained glass window is removed from the church, so too will all links on their blog to the controversial preservationist group.

The latest move signals the likely final chapter in what was, at best, an uncomfortable situation for the congregation and at it’s worst, a shameful excuse for a community preservation effort marred by mud-slinging, quasi-libelous slander and a poor excuse for neighborliness towards the 30 or so remaining congregants of the 109 year old church.

Kip herself acknowledges that whatever window existed to save the Green Church may have closed well before the Committee ever came on the scene, as early as March 2007.

In closing out the Committee to Save the Green Church portion of her blog, Kip will reportedly go on blogging about NYC preservation in general, and offers some final thoughts on what community preservation efforts entail.

In Kip’s own words:

“I think that, in any given New York City neighborhood, doing historic preservation depends upon the existence of a critical mass of knowledgeable, committed property owners with sufficient resources and organization to counter the development lobby. Except on certain blocks, that is not the case in Bay Ridge.

I can only hope that efforts like ours will have provided property owners in Bay Ridge who want to do historic preservation with better tools and information.

The effort to save the church having ended, I have removed the contact information for the Committee from this blog.”

(photo courtesy: Kevin Walsh’s Forgotten-NY)

Today, State Senator Marty Golden will mark the 7th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks with a memorial service to be held at Bay Ridge’s Veterans Memorial Pier – 8pm at Shore rd. and 69th street.

The ceremony will include a moment of silence and prayer; remarks by Mr. Golden and other community leaders; as well as a candle lighting ceremony and 21 gun salute, courtesy soldiers of our own Fort Hamilton army garrison.

For more information: contact Senator Golden’s community offices at (718) 238-6044 or (718) 627-3659.

More from the imitable White in Bay Ridge

(photo of Brooklyn Remembers 9/11 Memorial courtesy: Bridge and Tunnel Club)

The New York Observer drops in on our little slice of southwest Brooklyn, just three years after the much lauded Bay Ridge down zone – which raised the hopes of preservationists and residents alike that the days of grotesque and undisciplined development may finally draw to a close – only to find that the more things were promised to “change,” the more they stayed the same.

Case and point: the Observer looks at how a ‘comprehensive’ rezoning could have allowed for the demolition at least three of our neighborhood’s houses of worship to make way for what could conceivably be at least 500 more units of ‘luxury condo’ development – not to mention the renowned sale and destruction of three Bay Ridge Victorian homes by prick-bastards developers, Basile Builders, to make way for the overpriced shitboxes known as “Yellow Hook Townhomes.”

Since the rezone, neighborhood preservation has gone painfully awry, as evident by the lightening rod which has become Bay Ridge’s Green Church – only to have local developers in the course of fighting tat battle gobble up at least two other prominent houses of worship, and threaten to raze them for what could total inexcess of 500 more untois of houseing along 4th avenue.

Nancy Morgan, who played a leading role in the neighborhood rezoning a few years ago, tells the Observer she’s since distanced herself from local preservationists.

“There is a delicate balance of needing to supply housing so that the local population is not priced out of the city, versus making sure that a neighborhood’s buses, subways, and parking can accommodate more people,” she said on her front porch.

“A lot of the activists in the neighborhood don’t want things to change, which is impossible; but I don’t see anyone working to find solutions to ease the pressure, like building new parking garages.”

By a margin of 3-1, Staten Island Councilman Mike McMahon beat Bay Ridge’s own career candidate, Steve Harrison, for a shot at Vito Fossella’s 13 district congressional seat this November.

A predictably low voter turnout, aided by the fact that Harrsion reportedly didn’t do as much aggressive campaigning in Staten Island as he did in ’06, are all believed to be contributing factors in yesterday’s result’s.

On the GOP side – former Staten Island Assemblyman Robert Straniere beat back a challenge from political newcomer and Island doctor Jamshad (Jim) Wyne, winning the Republican primary with 59-41 percent of the vote – according to the Staten Island Advance.

(photo courtesy: Staten Island Advance)

OK all you 13th-congressional-district-fans out there, tomorrow is Primary Day! And among New York’s most closely watched primary battles will be the democratic primary for the now disgraced Vito Fossella’s 13th district seat – between Bay Ridge’s own Steve Harrison, and Staten Island City Councilman, Mike McMahon.

Early polling indicated McMahon to be the odd son favorite, leading Bay Ridge’s own Harrison by a margin of 46 points, according to a WABC poll reported in the Staten Island Advance.

Nevertheless, Harrison – who was the only democrat to come within 6 points of former republican darling Vito Fossella in the 2006 general election – remains undeterred in his bid, touting himself as the only true progressive democrat in this election.

McMahon, a virtual unknown in Bay Ridge (much less greater Brooklyn) has locked up endorsements from Staten Island and Brooklyn Democratic bosses like Vito Lopez, Senators Hillar Clinton and Chuck Schumer – as well as Brooklyn bP Marty Markowitz.

Alternatively, Staten Island Republicans have also managed to squeak out a primary fight for the 13th district seat fight after their previous choice following the Fossella debacle — former Wall Street financier and MTA boss — Frank Powers died.

Tuesday, former friends turned bitter Republican rivals – Dr. Jamshad I. Wyne, finance chairman of the Republican Party on Staten Island, and former Staten Island Assemblyman Robert Stranier will battle it out for a spot on the November GOP ticket.

According to the New York Times:

“Dr. Jamshad I. Wyne… accused his rival… Assemblyman Robert A. Straniere, of trying to persuade him to make illegal contributions to Mr. Straniere’s failed 2001 campaign for Staten Island borough president.

Mr. Straniere… pointed out that Dr. Wyne, a cardiologist, recently began using the name Jim in his campaign literature, rather than his legal first name, Jamshad, as he is listed on the ballot for the Sept. 9 primary. That change, Mr. Straniere said, is an attempt by Dr. Wyne to conceal his Pakistani and Muslim roots.”

Polls open at 7am, close at 8pm.

For more on local primary battles and voting information, visit the Gotham Gazette