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On January 9, the NewFilmmakers Series at Anthology Film Archives in Manhattan screened Followed, a short by local filmmaker Georg Schmithüsen. New York’s longest-running year-round film festival, NewFilmmakers holds weekly events in the East Village, showing hundreds of movies a year by up-and-coming directors. A cryptic, visually expressive portrait of psychological instability, Followed begins at night at Pier 44, where […]
In late 2017, at 347 Henry Street, construction began on 5 River Park, the first of four planned high-rises by developer Fortis Property Group that will soon loom over the Cobble Hill Historic District. Designed by Romines Architecture, the building’s 15 stories will hold 25 condos, with an average price of $3.15 million per unit. Work will finish on the […]
Julián Castro, the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) between 2014 and 2017, declared his presidential candidacy for 2020 on January 12, joining a rapidly growing field of indistinguishable centrist losers who’ll spend the next two years masquerading as bold progressives. His speech made use of Obama-style platitudes (“Brainpower is the new currency of success!”) while highlighting […]
On December 15, New Brown Memorial Baptist Church at Clinton Street and Center Street held its annual Christmas concert, performed by the Sister Helen Lee Keyboard Ensemble and Drum Corps. The concert showcased youth talent honed in the church’s music program, led by the internationally acclaimed author James McBride and fellow instructor Damon Due White. Founded in 1954 by McBride’s […]
The 10 worst pieces from the New York Times’ stable of regular columnists in 2018
In December, NYU Langone Health, the academic medical center at New York University, released the Red Hook Community Health Needs and Assets Assessment (CHNAA).
The Red Hook report was compiled in October by a consortium of six local nonprofits: the Alex House Project, Family Health Centers at NYU Langone, Good Shepherd Services, NYU Langone Health Department of Population Health, the Red Hook Community Justice Center, and the Red Hook Initiative.
The formerly Dutch village of Roode Hoek has come a long way since the 1600s. But on December 11, the motherland briefly returned to Brooklyn when Sander Dekker, the Netherlands’ Minister for Legal Protection, paid a visit to Red Hook, along with seven other officials from the Hague and a Dutch TV crew. Dekker, a politician from the center-right People’s […]
On November 28, Studio 153 on Coffey Street held the opening of the exhibition “Blue City,” which inaugurated the conceptual phase of a long-term plan by the nonprofit RETI Center to build a cluster of “sustainable floating structures” at the Gowanus Bay Terminal (GBX). The development will be “the first of its kind in New York City.” Based in […]
On Friday, December 14, the New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS) converted the LOOK Hotel at 17 Seabring Street into a temporary homeless shelter that will offer 152 beds for “single adult males who are employed or employable.” DHS has contracted Core Services Group, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit, to operate the facility. No estimate has been provided for how […]
At a Moth StorySLAM at the Bell House in Gowanus, the most remarkable thing is that the live event is exactly as good as The Moth Radio Hour on WNYC. This is surprising because The Moth – a nonprofit whose mission “to promote the art and craft of storytelling and to honor and celebrate the diversity and commonality of human […]
In November, the Mexican eatery Claro became the first restaurant in Gowanus ever to win a Michelin star. Executive chef T.J. Steele, previously of Union Square Cafe, and restaurateur J.T. Stewart, who also co-owns the nearby New American spot Freek’s Mill, opened Claro in the summer of 2017 at 284 3rd Avenue. Generally regarded as the world’s authoritative fine-dining manual, […]
On the afternoon of November 17, leaders of local organizations, activists, and politicians gathered at the Red Hook Public Library with the goal of creating – or beginning to create – a “community-based plan” for the neighborhood. Drawing a crowd of about 25, the meeting was dubbed the Red Hook Community Leaders Summit. “If we, as a community, are not […]
A year after Hurricane Sandy, a Columbia University graduate student named Shannon Geiss came to Red Hook to record conversations with neighborhood residents for her thesis project, “Ambiguous Borders: Defining Community in Red Hook, Brooklyn,” an audio walking tour that would earn her a master’s degree in oral history in 2014. Her work found its final interview subject in a […]
