“Ants were crawling on the image of the crucified Christ,” said Msgr. Kieran Harrington, a spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, which sent a letter asking for the video to get yanked from the exhibit. “Certainly we don’t think this would be tolerated if this was the image of the Prophet Muhammed or any other religious symbol.”

“A Fire in My Belly” is a short, unfinished film created by the late David Wojnarowicz. The Brooklyn Museum intends to show a four-minute edit of the video, which is about suffering.

The shaky, Super 8 footage shows a crucifix lying on the ground as ants scamper across Jesus’ bare body. The 10-second crucifix segment is spliced between other bizarre scenes: objects dropping into a dish of what looks like blood, a boy breathing fire, hands lacing together a loaf of bread and bloody sewn-up human lips

“What is the point?’’ said Pastor A. R. Bernard, who leads Brooklyn’s Christian Cultural Center. “I think this is the piece in the Hide/seek collection they really need to hide.”

“As a Catholic, this is very sad for me,” said Ginette Peterburs, 59, of Crown Heights. “It is not art, it is just disguising.”

The video is part of a larger collection of gender identity-themed artworks that were displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington last year. A Fire in My Belly ignited a political firestorm while it was on display for about two months until it was pulled in December 2010.

The Brooklyn Museum will open HIDE/SEEK to the public Nov. 18 through Feb. 12.

It’s far from the first time the art museum has stirred the pot: The museum drew ire from then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 1999 for an exhibit featuring a painting of the Virgin Mary decorated with elephant dung and images of female genitalia.

Giuliani tried to cut the museums funding because of the painting, part of a provocative exhibit called Sensation. Giuliani and Catholic advocates also slammed the museum for featuring Yo Mamas Last Supper” which depicts Christ as a nude woman in 2001.

“A Fire in My Belly” is creating a similar stir. But Brooklyn Museum Director Arnold Lehman defended the entire exhibit.

“For a city that prides itself on diversity and creativity, there couldn’t be a better exhibition,” Lehman told the Daily News.

We are talking about one of the greatest symbols of religion, so people are bound to be offended, said Carolyn Desalu, 22, a Fort Greene writer. But for me, its just another artistic form.

With Joe Tepper

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The Brighton Beach cave-in set the stage for a dramatic rescue operation by firefighters, who pulled three trapped hardhats from the rubble.

“Thank God! Thank God! I’m alive!” a worker screamed after one of the Bravest pried up a chunk of metal pinning him.

Rescuers freed another man by using a blowtorch to cut through the crumpled steel of the five-story unfinished building on Brighton Fifth St.

Five workers were taken to hospitals. One went into cardiac arrest and died later in the day.

A preliminary probe revealed the cause of the accident was improper pouring of fresh concrete — which is normally put down first on the lower floors to fortify a building’s base.

“What we believe happened today was that they started from the top and worked their way down,” Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri said. “In the coming days, we expect to take some action against some of the parties when we know exactly what happened.”

A man who answered the phone at the contractor, SP&K Construction, wouldn’t talk. “I have no comment for you. Bye,” he said before hanging up.

Robert Approbato, 53, who works for Stillwell Ready Mix, said he was delivering his final load of concrete when he felt the ground shake.

“It was like metal and steel — thunder,” he said. “We were all moving as fast as we can. It just came right down. It buckled.”

The 2:30 p.m. collapse sent up a cloud of debris that brought neighbors running.

“It was such a very, very bad noise,” said 91-year-old Margaret Arcarola. “I didn’t know which door to run out. I thought it was falling on my house.”

Luis Santiago said a massive “Boom!” preceded a shower of metal. “Unbelievable,” he said of the destruction.

Firefighters from Ladder 149 knew the situation was serious as soon as they arrived. “When we turn in, cops are waving us in,” said Firefighter James Molinell.

“Workers are stuck, and we know right away we had to get to work. When we get up top, on the second floor, we see the victim pinned from the chest down.”

Firefighter Mike Egan used a pry bar to free the man, who seemed stunned he had survived.

“Thank you. Thank you,” he repeated.

Two workers were in serious but stable condition; two more were in stable condition at Lutheran Medical Center.

“I’m praying for them,” developer Sam Ruvinsky said, insisting he was unaware of how the concrete was poured.

“I’m not a contractor,” he said. “I don’t know anything about construction.”

The builders obtained a construction permit in July. There are three violations from 2008 and 2009 connected to the address for a shoddy fence around the site, but they were resolved.

On Saturday, a neighbor complained to the agency that crews were working outside normal hours. It wasn’t deemed an emergency.

“We normally route inspectors based on need,” LiMandri said. “We’re gonna look at response time.”

A Buildings Department spokesman said an agency worker accidentally deleted the after-hours complaint while typing a report of the collapse into the system.

With Brian Kates and Jonathan Lemire

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The newest Census data shows that Brooklyn’s Asian population is spiking – not only in the longtime stronghold of Sunset Park – but also east into Dyker Heights, Borough Park and Bensonhurst along the transit route.

The intensity of the demographic shift is “stunning,” said Steve Chung, head of the United Chinese Association of Brooklyn, which has headquarters right next to the Bay Parkway N subway stop in Bensonhurst.

“It seems like every month it changes because Bensonhurst is an ideal place to raise a family,” Chung said.

In Bensonhurst alone, the Asian population increased by 57% between 2000 and 2010, since 19,747 more people identified themselves as Asian, according to CUNY’s Center for Urban Research.

Relatively low-crime rates and affordable housing, diverse businesses, solid – if full – schools, a beautiful shoreline and access to public transportation all equal an area that’s “very convenient and comfortable for newcomers,” Chung said.

Ties between immigrants and train lines have always been strong within New York, said CUNY Mapping Service Director Steven Romalewski. Similar trends exist along the 7 subway route in Queens, and the Long Island Rail Road track into Nassau County, he said.

J. J. Chen – who was born in China but raised in the U.S. – became part of Brooklyn’s trainline boom when she moved from Fort Hamilton to Bensonhurst in August.

“It’s an upgrade,” the 21-year-old sales consultant said, in between bites of a properly creased slice of cheese pizza. “It’s quiet, it’s nice, it’s safe. I can walk my dogs here anytime of day without being worried.”

The shift might even be more drastic than Census numbers show, because many Asian immigrants crowd into houses split into studio apartments and, as a result, go unaccounted for during Census counts, said Paul Mak, founder and leader of the Brooklyn Chinese-American Assocation.

As a result, the borough’s growing Asian-American community is facing serious stressors, said Mak.

There’s strong competition to get into neighborhood public schools, a tight job market that forces parents out-of-state for work, and cuts to job training, English-as-a-Second-Language classes, day care centers and senior services.

“It’s a bad timing to say the least,” Mak said.

The shift is affecting others, too: As the population has shifted, business has dwindled at J&V Pizza in Bensonhurst, said manager Joey Cordero, a 32-year-old native of the neighborhood.

The pizzeria has been open since 1950, but many of the old Italian customers who used to snatch up their pies, calzones and breaded cutlets have migrated to Staten Island or New Jersey.

“It’s bad,” Cordero said, pointing to a 30% to 40% drop in sales. “Everyone moved out. It’s different people now, and they don’t spend money the way they did years ago.”

Other businesses, however, have adapted.

About two blocks away from that pizza parlor, Doris Fashions employs a United Nations of sales clerks and seamstresses who speak just about any language a customer could need to buy a flowing wedding dress or
jewel-toned prom gown.

“We can do it all: Italian, Greek, Polish, Chinese – multiple kinds -Pakistani, Spanish and, of course, English,” said shop owner Sal Traina, 68, who took over the business from his parents.

“It wasn’t planned with all this mix,” he said. “It just happened that way. But it’s how we survive in this neighborhood where everything always changes.”

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In the years that have passed, the central Brooklyn neighborhood has settled into an uneasy peace, even as many of the mixed-race, kumbaya community groups have fizzled.

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After the Riots
Throughout the weeks of co-reporting and research that went into crafting this package, I oversaw the project organization and served as the lead writer. Links to the articles as they ran online are below.

• Peace Rules Crown Hts.
• Key Figures Can’t Forget
• Timeline: How the 1991 Crown Heights Riots Unfolded
• Video: Album’s Positive Message of Hope

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And this is a follow-up article.

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A follow-up article from the next day.

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The Piggery, run by husband-and-wife team Brad Marshall and Heather Sanford, has about 130 pigs. They raise them in an open-air barn and allow them to roam grassy pastures – beginning a process that ends with bacon and pork chops in the Big Apple.

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