Celebrating Community
The Gowanus Canal Conservancy (GCC) has moved its Lowlands Nursery from the Salt Lot to a new location next to the new Monadanck building at 25 9th St., next to the Smith and 9th Stret subway. The move was necessatied due to the construction of a sewage tank required as part of the Gowanus Canal Superfund cleanup. Andrea Parker, the […]
Sunset Park has a history of things happening to it, rather than for it. In Thomas J. Campanella’s thorough history of the borough, “Brooklyn: The Once and Future City”, Campanella describes how the borough’s neighborhoods were transformed by Robert Moses-era construction projects. Working class neighborhoods were re-branded with names like Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill. In Sunset Park, Third Avenue […]
It’s always been the view of this paper (and me) that the Columbia Street waterfront, the stretch of coastland between Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Red Hook Cruise Terminal should always remain a containerport. Actually, in addition to the shipping facility, it is also home to the beer distributor Manhattan Beverage and also the Waterfront Commission, a leftover from the […]
There will be six massive last-mile warehouses open in Red Hook by 2022, totaling more than 3 million square feet. These warehouses include Amazon, UPS and Fedex facilities and right now the plan is for them to bring tons of trucks in and out of Red Hook every day. The designated truck route runs down Van Brunt Street, which would […]
It is apparent, even at a distance, that among the primary concerns of most New York City voters are safety from crime and the need for the police department to insure increased public accountability for it’s actions. While these issues resonate in Red Hook, the community also faces at least two major environmental challenges in the immediate future. Currently a […]
Red Hookers got their first view of Cesar Zuniga back in 2014, when, with the support of our council member Carlos Menchaca, he ran against Assemblymember Felix Ortiz. He didn’t do that badly, but it was not yet Ortiz’s time to lose. Here is what he told the Star-Revue then, as part of our ask-the-candidates story: “As the son of […]
When the city unleashes a rezoning and its accompanying host of contentious public review meetings on a neighborhood, seldom does anything stop it. A coalition of local grassroots organizations led by Voice of Gowanus managed to do so temporarily by suing the city and preventing it from triggering the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), a seven-month path leading to […]
UPS is slowly ramping up their plans for their massive distribution facility in Red Hook. Last month, they finally responded somewhat to questions from local residents about how UPS plans to drive their trucks in our neighborhood. The questions were originally sent to Laura Lane, Communications Officer, on July 2. Jim Tampakis of Red Hook’s Marine Spares International and Tamco […]
On June 1, aboard the NYC Ferry’s early-morning maiden voyage on the South Brooklyn route, Jim Tampakis felt inspired. “Look at the water,” he instructed a friend. “No traffic. There’s no boat traffic at all.” It being 7 a.m. rush hour, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway was likely bumper-to-bumper. The subway a series of overstuffed cars upset by delays. But here on […]