Celebrating Community
A couple weeks ago I was surprised to see the name “Carlos Menchaca” pop up on my phone’s Caller ID. Menchaca has been representing Red Hook in the City Council for the past seven years. During all of that time I have been writing about Red Hook in this newspaper. We’ve never socialized, despite my invitations for dinner to talk […]
On July 27, I got an email from Catherine McBride of the Red Hook Initiative which was pretty different than any I have received at this paper since I started it ten years ago. RHI press releases are generally quite vanilla. They are generally about their Red Hook Hub or else something having to do with their fund raising. This […]
There was a big ceremony today at the foot of 39th Street in Sunset Park. The occasion was a press event heralding what is called the reactivation of the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. In the old days in Brooklyn, most of the waterfront in this part of Brooklyn was a full of commercial activity – most of it the loading […]
Thor Equities and their land use lawyers and engineers held an informational meeting led by Councilman Menchaca at the Red Hook Recreation Center on April 19. Originally meant to be a private meeting at the councilman’s office, it was shifted to the Rec center as word got out to locals interested in asking questions about flooding and Thor’s piles of […]
There are more than 3400 local governments in New York State. The state population is about 20 million, which means one body of government for every 6,000 residents. Red Hook has twice as many people, but not much in the way of local government. Our councilman has Sunset Park to worry about, which is much larger than we are. Our […]
More than five years after their Wolcott Street Senior Center was damaged by the Hurricane Sandy floodwaters, Red Hook seniors finally moved into a new building of their own. Since the hurricane, seniors were allowed a half day, which included lunch, in the basement of the Miccio Center, 110 West 9th Street. The building next to the Miccio (110 West […]
“It is a great day for this community,” Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez said at the groundbreaking for the construction of Red Hook East and West. “Here we are in a path to recovery. In that sense, we have to make sure the rebuilding we do is one that is built to last.” The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), along with […]
Carlos Menchaca should have never had a race for re-election, he’s one of the better council members, at least as I see it. However, for various reasons, not many having to do with actual governance, he did. Thankfully, to me and many readers of the Red Hook Star-Revue, he won, pretty much going away. So now that we have four […]
The City has announced the winning proposal for a temporary public art project addressing the impact of climate change on the Red Hook community. Dozens of Red Hook residents selected the Ark for the Arts, a proposal by Brooklyn-based artists and educators Jeannine Bardo and Isabelle Garbani, from a total of nine proposals presented at a public input session on […]
Sunny’s raises $65,000 and is still looking for more According to their website, and a story that aired on WPIX-TV, Sunny’s much publicized campaign to raise $65,000 to help the bar purchase the building from Sunny’s family has succeeded. Tone Johannsen, who married to bar owner Sunny Balzano, has raised money from a number of events including an art auction. The […]