Sex, Parole, and Development - Oh my!

Three stories with Sunset Park interests:
(For those who have written in wondering: Set up a Google Alert for "Sunset Park" or any other key word. Then you too can receive these handy-dandy story links!)

1 - The Brooklyn Eagle has an update on the sex shop lawsuit that will directly affect Sunset Park's Third Avenue strip. I like it because it spells out why the lawsuit is occurring and how the shops have gotten around the "don't be near a school or house of worship" law.

from the article:

By using a loophole in zoning law, “shops masquerading as non-adult businesses … are allowed to operate near residences, schools and houses of worship, and are a blight upon their neighborhoods,” stated city attorney Robin Binder, who is handling the litigation.

Old zoning laws define adult establishments as businesses with a substantial portion — defined as 40 percent — of their stock or floor space devoted to adult entertainment.

According to city attorneys, some adult bookstores obeyed the letter of the law by importing large quantities of unmarketable videos (cartoons, multiple copies of a single old movie, kung fu films) and leaving them in basement or second-floor areas not frequented by customers.

2 - SI Live.com has an explanation of why Joseph Gray, the ex-cop who killed a family with his car, didn't get paroled.

from the article:

Despite a clean disciplinary record, Joseph Gray's release from prison "is incompatible with the welfare and safety of the community," the board determined after interviewing Gray yesterday.

Gray, 48, expressed "little or no remorse" and a "lack of insight" for the four deaths during the interview, wrote Commissioner Sally A. Thompson.

3 - The Real Deal has an abandonment story about Bush Terminal. Sunset Park will see one less set of rehabilitated buildings for the waterfront than expected.

from the article:

"Given current market conditions, Time Equities was unable to create an economically viable business plan with the Economic Development Corporation for the acquisition and redevelopment of Bush Terminal buildings B and C and Federal Building No. 2," Francis Greenburger, chairman and CEO of Time Equities, said in a statement.

The two sites, the city-owned Bush Terminal buildings B and C to the south and the Federal Building site to the north, were part of an effort to rehabilitate industrial buildings on the Brooklyn waterfront.