Celebrating Community
I am going to say right off the bat that a lot of these words are the result of an AI Google search. It does a good job of explaining that a century ago, we had a housing crisis which put poor New Yorkers at risk of their lives. The solution, which took a Depression to implement, was largely due
New York’s finest over-police the city’s Black and brown residents, the New York Police Department’s own data shows. In February, the department released its latest batch of statistics on investigative encounters, which are interactions between a police officer and a civilian “for a law enforcement or investigative purpose.” Since 2003, the NYPD has collected data on so-called “level 3” stops—also
The Gowanus Oversight Task Force (GOTF), charged with monitoring the city’s commitments towards the area’s 2021 rezoning, recently published a report on the status of several agreements. The commitments were created by Councilmember Brad Lander and Community Board Six as a way to soften the impact of forcibly transforming the mixed-use neighborhood from being somewhat like Red Hook into much
In the battle of Court Street, common arguments around the thoroughfare in its former and current conditions include double parking, traffic safety concerns, deliveries and modes of access to the corridor. We were able to obtain a copy of the survey commissioned by Mayor Adams. The survey was part of a report issued by the Deptartment of Transportation. The 81-page
New York environmental officials are now in their third round of testing for chemicals rising from underground to the air inside buildings, but local activists say they don’t trust the findings. Due to Gowanus’ industrial past, several volatile organic compounds have been found in its soil. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has been testing the area for
Getting a Valentine’s Day restaurant reservation can feel nearly as difficult as winning the affordable housing lottery in this city. Luckily, there are endless ways to treat yourself and your loved one to a fun date this weekend without even hopping on the F/G trains! Pie and Coffee Breakfast dates have been overlooked for too long. Take advantage of the
Entering Gowanus Wine Merchants at 493 3rd Ave. feels almost like entering a home. There are many types of wines and spirits from various regions, and each bottle has a handwritten note on it providing details about the wine. There are also treats and bowls for dogs, and toys for children. Enrique Lopez opened the shop in 2012 with a
The woman behind one of Brooklyn’s hottest new speed dating events isn’t looking for love. “I don’t date. I hate dating,” Loretta Gendville told me over a glass of wine just before a speed dating night at her Smith Street coffeeshop, Planted Community Cafe. “I’m just not good at it. I get nervous. I don’t like small talk.” Plus, Loretta
The bathroom at Louis Valentino, Jr. Park and Pier is unexpected, standing at the edge of the small park across from Hoek’s Pizza. The metal facility is about 12 feet long, with an overhang and a water bottle refill fountain on the side. A somewhat elaborate light system indicates whether the toilet is occupied, vacant, out of order, or cleaning.
For many years, the Star-Revue has included cartoons in our pages. This past year, we increased the comix by an order of magnitude. Each issue contains two full pages of comix, one curated by England’s Marc Jackson, the other by Brooklyn’s own Dean Haspiel. Each page includes at least six different pro artists. In addition, we are very proud to
The longer this paper hangs around, the older this publisher gets. This aging is interesting as it lets me see changes in society firsthand (normally you read about these things in history books). For the past 15 years I have been telling anyone listening my belief that a newspaper you could pick up was an important part of having a
For this month I decided to pay a visit to Red Hook West and ask what improvements they wanted to see inside and outside their homes in 2026. Not many of my interviewees knew about PACT program, which is likely to convert their public housing complex into a weird hybrid Section 8 development partially run by private companies (see story
When 14th Street was Cooler. Back in the deep, dark ’90s, before the Meatpacking District was home to the Highline and the Whitney Museum and the Apple Store, West 14th Street housed one of the city’s great venues for music outside the norm, one that history seems to have left behind. The Cooler was a big, old, retrofitted, basement meat
One of the best cinema publications out there is Cashiers du Cinema. No, no – not the magazine that gave us Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, and the French New Wave. That’s Cahiers du Cinema. But the confusion is understandable, at least at a passing glance. Both Cashiers and ‘60s-era Cahiers are similar formats and designs, square-shaped with yellow-bordered covers framing
Jason Moran was the subject of my first column, some five and half years ago. The pianist (and artist, teacher, etc.) had a fascinating and frustrating exhibit/installation at the Whitney, a great honor for anyone, let alone a musician, but an ungainly fit between the fleeting nature of music and the collection of static objects that define a museum. As
For months, my neighbors and I did exactly what the City asked of us. We showed up. We logged on. We filled out surveys. We sat through the webinars and “visioning sessions.” We took time off to attend meetings about the future of our waterfront. We wrote thoughtful comments and asked basic questions about traffic, flooding, jobs, and affordability. We
There’s some historically important and fabulous jazz available again this month on vinyl and CD, and it might be a surprise that my feelings about that are mixed. On January 30, Sony will be re-releasing the Miles Davis – The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965, a 10LP/8CD box set that has every note from every recorded set the
Nostalgia slop, from AI-generated trash to IP-leveraging franchise flicks, is belched out so regularly our culture practically runs on the stuff. From the outside, Obex, Albert Birney’s lo-fi, black-and-white ‘80s-set 90-minute valentine to pre-Internet culture, might be mistaken for more of the same, albeit in an indie vein, especially with a press pitch that insists the film is “inspired by Mario,
