Author: Brett Yates

Election Coverage, News, Politics

A guide to the June 23rd primary

The coronavirus hasn’t delayed New York’s June 23 Democratic primary. In fact, it has added to the ballot a presidential contest – rescheduled from April 28, then cancelled (which prompted a lawsuit from candidate Andrew Yang), then restored, then challenged again in court, then affirmed – where 10 candidates who’ve suspended their campaigns will compete for delegates to August’s Democratic […]

News, Real Estate

Tenant unions want recognition

Regal Management, a corporate landlord in Brooklyn, has a portfolio of more than 20 buildings located primarily in Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant. Its tenants have the same complaints as most renters in Brooklyn: namely, high rents and subpar maintenance. In March, after COVID-19 hit New York City, Regal sent a form letter to residents. “We are aware that you might be […]

Election Coverage, Election Coveratge, News

Congressional fixture Jerry Nadler faces primary challenges this year

The two new options on the table are Boylan, a 36-year-old Columbia Business School graduate whom Andrew Cuomo appointed Deputy Secretary for Economic Development and Special Adviser to the Governor in 2018, and Herzog, a 25-year-old who joined Andrew Yang’s 2020 presidential campaign after serving as co-president of Harvard Law School’s student government. Herzog hopes to advocate for Yang’s platform […]

News, Politics

NYCHA residents lead other Red Hookers in census response

Since March, 60.6 percent of U.S. households have responded to the 2020 Census, which will determine each state’s share of congressional representation and (to a large extent) federal funding for the next 10 years. With a 55.6 percent self-response rate, New York State trails New Jersey (62.6 percent) and Connecticut (64 percent). The self-response rate refers to the percentage of […]

Election Coverage, Election Coveratge, Felix Ortiz, News

Brisport, Walsh lead fundraising race in SD25, AD51

New mandatory disclosure reports filed in May at the New York State Board of Elections gave local voters a glimpse into the campaigns of several candidates who hope to represent Red Hook in Albany in 2021. The documents reveal political donations and expenditures made between January 12 and May 18. Schoolteacher Jabari Brisport, who trailed former State Senate staffer Jason […]

Politics

Coronavirus interrupts state legislature campaigns

How do you win an election without leaving the house? Local politicians – their sights set on Albany – hope to figure out the answer. With seven major Democratic candidates vying for New York State Legislature seats in Senate District 25 and Assembly District 51, which overlap in Red Hook and Sunset Park, this spring would – under normal circumstances […]

Red Hook News

Spaceworks artists still at risk

Update: Spaceworks has announced that artists at its Williamsburg and South Bronx locations can wait until June 15 to move out. 19 below-market-rate studios for artists in Williamsburg and the South Bronx are slated to vanish in May, leaving painters, sculptors, writers, and dancers with the grim task of moving out during a pandemic. Until recently, more than two dozen […]

Red Hook News

Red Hook Houses still standing

In zip code 11231 – which encompasses Red Hook, Carroll Gardens, most of the Columbia Street Waterfront District, southern Cobble Hill, and eastern Gowanus – the rate of verified COVID-19 infections is seven per 1,000 residents, roughly half that of New York City on the whole, according to data from the New York State Department of Health. The low-income tenants […]

News

Q&A with a doctor on the front lines

Dr. William Chiang is a native New Yorker who moved to California last year for a fellowship in wilderness medicine at UCSF Fresno. On April 12, he flew home to serve as a daily volunteer in the emergency departments of several New York City hospitals until May 7. On April 17, after four consecutive nights of 12-hour shifts, he shared […]

Red Hook News

Red Hook Laundromat reopens

Red Hook Laundromat at 282 Van Brunt Street reopened on Monday, April 27, after a temporary closure at the start of the coronavirus outbreak in March. It will operate daily from 8 am to 8 pm. For safety, customers must wait outside while their clothes wash and dry and must fold their items at home. The unexplained reopening, which followed […]

Red Hook News

Canoe club keeps ‘Gowanus Strong’

The boats of the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club – an organization that advocates for aquatic recreation and environmental conservation in Brooklyn – are a familiar sight on the Gowanus Canal. Starting in March, pedestrians on the canal’s bridges and esplanades may have noticed a couple changes when they observed the usual paddlers on the water. First, for the sake of […]

Column, Covid

Things can get better, but they don’t have to

In the wake of manmade tragedies, natural disasters, and other local or global shocks to the system, people often begin, optimistically, to feel that, upon recovery, life surely cannot return to normal. We’ve seen and felt too much. The everyday, numb routine has fallen away, revealed its mutability, and given us space to rethink our choices and values. In these […]