Red Hook, Brooklyn has been my home for four years via Long Island, Queens, and Harlem. Of all the neighborhoods I have lived in, Red Hook easily best represents the epitome of what it means to be a New Yorker. We are a blue collar, hard-nosed, resilient, and resourceful neighborhood. Some people believe Red Hook is a forgotten piece of […]
Month: June 2016
Red Hook Senior Center to Reopen by End of Summer, by Nathan Weiser
Construction of Red Hook’s new senior center will be complete by late July, according to the New York City Housing Authority and project supervisors. The senior citizens of Red Hook have not had a dedicated senior center since Hurricane Sandy demolished the old one in 2012. The seniors currently use space in the basement of the Miccio Center on […]
City steps in to keep local daycare open, by Nathan Weiser
To the relief of local politicians, community members and parents, Strong Place for Hope Day Care, the facility at 595 Clinton Street will remain open due to the city purchasing the building. Earlier this year the building owner was frustrated that the city would not pay for necessary repairs on the 3,000 square foot building. Because the space holds a […]
Column: 3rd Rail Politics, by Michael Racioppo
I’ve always thought of the subway as something of an equal-opportunity headache. This past week, the MTA made it a migraine when it released a plan for express F train service. The line that runs from the southernmost point of Brooklyn (Coney Island) through Manhattan and into Queens has been divided between some marginal winners and some big losers. This […]
Carroll Gardens author writes novels based on her life experience, by Halley Bondy
We Were Never Here tells the story of a teenage girl with a stigmatized disease Being 16 is already difficult, let alone being 16 with a devastating disease with a shameful stigma. In her upcoming novel We Were Never Here, renowned Carroll Gardens author Jennifer Gilmore tells the fictional story of Lizzie, a 16-year-old girl who is hospitalized with ulcerative […]
City wants to evict a successful Gowanus film company by using eminent domain, by George Fiala
At the April meeting of the Gowanus Community Advisory Group (CAG), EPA Director Walter Mugdan announced the results of a long and difficult negotiation with New York City regarding the placement of sewage retention tanks alongside the Gowanus Canal. CAG member Marlene Donnelly and others said not so fast. A public comment period was requested and received. This period, […]
Menchaca takes on heavy hitting developer and wins, by George Fiala
Councilman Carlos Menchaca led a successful effort to defeat a proposed zoning change in May after hearing the community’s concerns about the relocation of a nursing home to Red Hook. The nursing home’s supporters included some of the largest development lobbyists in the city. The Oxford Nursing Home is a for-profit healthcare facility located in Fort Greene. In 2003, they […]
Message from Carlos: Resilient Together! by Carlos Menchaca
I’m proud of Red Hook. We get good results when we work together. In the last months, we looked to the future, learned from the past and planned a more resilient community. For example, at the Miccio Center, we learned about new ways of building integrated flood protection. People from all over Red Hook reaffirmed that resilience isn’t just […]