Celebrating Community
Responding to a lawsuit claiming that the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) violated the New York State Open Meetings Law in creating the vision plan for the Brooklyn Marine Terminal redevelopment, the city admits for the first time explicitly that the task force—which voted to approve the plan in September of last year—was an advisory body. In a
A ribbon cutting ceremony celebrated the official opening of the NYU Langone school based health clinic for both Harbor Middle School and Summit Academy Charter School. The clinic is a free resource that will provide medical primary healthcare for students so that all of their medical needs will be met in the building. This clinic was an idea going back
The conversion of the publicly owned Brooklyn Marine Terminal and the transformation of Red Hook West from a NYCHA managed property to one leased to and run by private developers bear many similarities. In both cases, public property is either leased or sold to private entities. The PACT program allows NYCHA to lease out its buildings to private housing companies,
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
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
Coffey Street Studio, an art studio in an unassuming warehouse in Red Hook, is returning its artist residency program, the Coffey Street Studio Artist Initiative (CSSAI). The studio sits right next to the water and has its doors open to all who wish to learn more about what it does to help expose local performers and acts to the community
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
