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Brooklyn Today April 25: The Eagle’s Guide to Brooklyn’s Nxivm ‘Sex Cult’

April 25, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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THE LEDE: Happy hump day, Brooklyn! A Clinton Hill mansion gets White House-style columns, the borough’s waterfront is a hotspot for sunbathing seals, and a sex cult has been operating under our noses. Plus, the Brooklyn Museum has an eclectic sculpture garden, we share interior renderings of a new Pier 6 tower, and a Greenpoint eatery is named one of America’s best new restaurants. Finally, Mexico is the most dangerous country in the world for priests, Princess Charlotte makes history, and a Florida teen comes under fire for a racist “promposal.”                      
 
IMPRINT: Kim Kardashian receives her closeup on the May cover ofBusiness of Fashion.

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The Rundown
 

~THE EAGLE’S GUIDE TO BROOKLYN’S NXIVM ‘SEX CULT’: A cult allegedly recruited slaves to have sex with the shadowy founder of a supposed self-help group — and it was all happening in buildings Brooklynites pass every day. There’s 111 Hicks St., a Brooklyn Heights tower, where up to a dozen slaves allegedly stayed for various rituals over the past year, according to Frank Parlato, a former publicist for Nxivm who has turned whistleblower. There’s a “recruiting” building in East Williamsburg. And now there’s an apartment in Sunset Park, where the group’s new operator supposedly lives so she can be close to the federal lockup that is currently housing the accused sex cult founder. “I’m pretty shocked,” Eddie Owens, a 24-year-old lifelong resident of 111 Hicks, told the Brooklyn Eagle. “It’s hard to believe that something like that could be going on in this building.” (via Brooklyn Eagle)
 
~AN 1870S CLINTON HILL MANSION GETS WHITE HOUSE-STYLE COLUMNS, BLACK ALUMINUM FACADE: It’s a renovation fit for a president — or unfit, depending on whom you ask. A classic 1870s mansion on Washington Avenue in Clinton Hill is being transformed — some would say desecrated — with a riot of Classical columns, a Juliet balcony, vase-shaped pillars on the entry railing, and a black metal facade. The architect said he was just following orders. “The client literally said, ‘I want the White House,’” designer Josh Felix said. Changes were in store once the Evergreen Church of God in Christ sold the Second Empire mansion at 489 Washington Ave. to GB Properties for $2.7 million in 2015. The company envisioned enlarging and rebuilding the home into a 21-unit rental apartment building. That’s where J Goldman Design came in. Felix, a senior designer at the firm, added synthetic stucco pillars on either side of the front door and lined up two vertical rows of windows, which he surrounded with lightweight limestone and topped with a Classical cornice. (via Brooklyn Eagle)
 
~JUNIOR’S HIT WITH FEDERAL LAWSUIT OVER WEBSITE THAT ‘DISCRIMINATES’ AGAINST THE BLIND: Junior’s, the internationally known cheesecake maker and fixture on Flatbush Avenue for decades, discriminates against blind people by building a website that is intentionally inaccessible to the visually impaired, a new lawsuit charges. Brian Fischler, who is legally blind, is seeking unspecified damages from the 67-year-old Downtown Brooklyn restaurant and demanding that it fix its website, so that visually impaired people can navigate it, order online, view menus and take advantage of pop ups that advertise best sellers and “cheesecake giveaways.” “Due to its failure and refusal to remove access barriers to its website, plaintiff Fischler and visually impaired persons have been and are still being denied equal access,” the civil complaint alleges. (via Brooklyn Eagle)
 
~PIER 6 INTERIOR RENDERINGS RELEASED: After the Brooklyn Heights Association announced last month it would halt litigation against construction of two Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 6 towers, interior renderings were released in preparation for the Quay Tower sales launch. The renderings released by RAL Companies and Oliver’s Realty Group reveal a kitchen with white oak cabinetry, leathered finish quartzite countertops and satin bronze accents, all with a backdrop of Lower Manhattan. California-based AD 100 team Marmol Radziner will design the interiors as well as a gym, kids room and rooftop tenant’s lounge. The two-to-five-bedroom condos will start at $1.9 million later this season. (via Curbed New York)
 
~BROOKLYN WATERFRONT IS A HOTSPOT FOR SUNBATHING SEALS:Brooklynites don’t have to go to the Prospect Park Zoo for seal watching. The borough’s waterfront is proving to be a prime spot for the sea dogs. Two months after a seal was caught sunbathing on Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 2 for hours, another harbor seal was found in the Gowanus Canal near Whole Foods. The seal had hopped out of the polluted waters to catch some rays on top of a piece of canal clean-up equipment at the Fourth Street Turning Basin. The animal was left to mind its own business after E.P.A. official Natalie Loney said it should be left alone if it isn’t in stress. “Apparently, harbor seals are very adept at navigating into and out of these types of channels/canals,” Loney said. (via Pardon Me For Asking & Patch)
 
~BROOKLYN MUSEUM HOSTS SALVAGED SCULPTURES: The Brooklyn Museum is giving some sculptures salvaged from demolished buildings a second life. More than 40 selections, including urns, keystones, columns and sculptures fill the Steinberg Sculpture Garden, decorating the area with works dating back to the late 1800s. The pieces span a variety of styles and materials and come from some famed architects. The most notable pieces include Pegasus statues that once guarded a Coney Island fire station and a miniature replica of the Statue of Liberty. The exhibit is free with museum admission. (Atlas Obscura)

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Staff Picks:   
 

LONG READ: American border agents have killed 43 people since 2011. At least seven of those fatalities were people killed on the Mexican side of the border. Here’s why that matters. (via Vice)
 
ANOTHER LONG READ: ABC journalist Lisa Howard had a secret romantic relationship with Fidel Castro. Here’s a look inside their fling. (via Politico)
 
EAT: Greenpoint’s Chez Ma Tante is named one of 2018’s best new restaurants in America. (via GQ)
 
CARTOON: Feast your eyes on the Trump Macron… I mean macaroon. (via The New Yorker)

 
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NATIONAL BULLETIN: A Florida teen comes under fire for a racist “promposal”…The FDA is cracking down on e-cigarettes…And Governors Island will stay open until 10 p.m. every Friday this summer. (via HuffPost, WaPo and Time Out)         
 
FOREIGN FLASH: Mexico is the most dangerous country in the world for priests…The Toronto van driver is charged with murder…And Osama bin Laden’s former bodyguard receives roughly $1,400-a-month from German taxpayers. (via USA Today, NYT and Evening Standard)                                     
 
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 ROYAL WATCH: Despite her newborn brother getting all of the attention,Princess Charlotte just made royal history. (via CNN)

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BROOKLYN TONIGHT     
 

1:30PM – 5:15PM — Imaging Techniques and the Technical Study of Drawings at Morgan Library & Museum. Details.  
 
6:00PM — Trauma at The Kingsland. Details.
 
6:00PM — Loulou & Yves at Museum at FIT. Details.
 
6:00PM — Talk: The Great Cuban American Songbook at New York City Center. Details.
 
6:30PM — The Science of Sleep: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Matters at 92nd Street Y. Details.
 
6:30PM – 8:30PM — Tarot Card Basics at Windsor Terrace Brainery. Details.
 
6:30PM – 8:30PM — Analyze This: The Emerging Frontiers of DNA Science at New York Genome Center. Details.
 
7:00PM — Panel Discussion: Aristophanes and Political Satire at Brooklyn Museum. Details.  
 
7:00PM – 9:00PM — Words at Weeksville Heritage Center. Details.
 
7:30PM — Lou 100: In Honor of the Divine Mr. Harrison at Mark Morris Dance Center. Details.    
      
 
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EAGLE SPORTS: Junior Anna Grigoryan summed up Long Island University Brooklyn’s second straight NCAA Tournament-bound squad in four simple words. “It’s a dream team,” the Blackbirds’ No. 1 singles player said after the top-seeded Downtown Brooklyn program pulled out a 4-1 triumphover No. 2 seed Bryant in the Northeast Conference Tournament Tennis finalSunday. Grigoryan, who finished the year with an eye-popping 23-7 record in No. 1 singles play, also joined forces with sophomore Ana Leonte as part of the top-flight doubles team that opened Sunday’s final by besting the Bulldogs’Ashanti Campfield and Stefanie Arroyo, 6-4. (via Brooklyn Eagle)

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MILESTONES
 
Happy birthday to Hank Azaria, Emily Bergl, Jeffrey DeMunn, Tim Duncan, Gwen Jorgensen, Jason Lee, Al Pacino, Talia Shire, Gina Torres and Renee Zellweger!
 
Brooklyn Today’s editor is Scott Enman. Contact him at[email protected].


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