Red Hook Civic Association forges ahead, by George Fiala

The Red Hook Civic Association, which restarted with new leadership earlier this year, made a notable impression in the NYC media world with a major story about its push for a new express bus taking Red Hookers to lower Manhattan. This is a long term project of the Civic Association, and almost came to pass in 2008 until the financial crisis caused the MTA to cancel it before even starting.

StreetsBlog is an advocacy publication, and they featured an article by former Brooklyn Paper reporter Kevin Duggan about the new push.

StreetsBlog describes itself as having “an influential audience of public officials… passionate about improving the streets in their neighborhoods.”

The article quotes Civic Association member Dave Lutz and links to a letter sent out to public officials that the Association sent last month.

Under the presidency of John McGettrick, the Red Hook Civic Association was instrumental in bringing attention to Red Hook from city agencies, as well as informing locals about things affecting the neighborhood.

One difference today is that there are more people handling Association business, and committees have been set up to attend to different matters.

A website created by member Matias Kalwill lays out the schedule of all the meetings, including the monthly General Meeting, and the committees, which consist of Infrastructure and Development, Mobilization and Communication, Organization, and City Services. This offers full transparancy to Association doings, and makes it easy for people to become engaged.

In addition, there is a section devoted to position papers, which lays out current goals of the Association. Right now these include the bus proposal, the Truckpocalyse, and emissions from the Cruise Terminal.

The next General Meeting will take place on Monday, November 27 at the Red Hook Rec Center, which is next to the pool on Bay Street. All are invited and in fact encouraged to attend.

George Fiala

Founder and editor of the Red Hook Star-Revue. George is also a musician and one-time progressive rock disk jockey, in York, Pennsylvania, also birthplace of Mrs. Don Imus.