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Long-awaited report card shows improvement needed on rezoning commitments

February 13, 2026 No Comments

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

Court Street redesign was justified by an anecdotal survey

February 13, 2026 No Comments

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

Over 20 buildings tested in latest soil vapor intrusion sampling

February 12, 2026 No Comments

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

So You Didn’t Get A Reservation for Bar Bête In Time…

February 12, 2026 No Comments

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

I am starting a new column….

February 9, 2026 No Comments

Last month I wrote about how this paper was starting on a new project, lets call it “going digital.” In case you have signed up for our free email-newsletters (hint hint we need more subscribers, see below), I’ve been enjoying writing between issues. It’s opened me up to consider writing something I’ve always wanted, a political column. I am probably

Changes to Gowanus Green cleanup agreement worry local residents and some local politicians

February 9, 2026 No Comments

The former Citizens Gas Works on the western bank of the Gowanus Canal—one of the most polluted sites in all of New York State—is already a jumble of parcels with different owners, remediation plans, and regulatory statuses. Now, a move by the owners and developers of parcel one—the future home of Gowanus Green, a project that includes an affordable housing

Court Street redesign is a nightmare for the businesses that make it a great shopping strip

February 9, 2026 2 Comments

While the lawsuit to undo the Court Street redesign is no more, businesses along the 1.3-mile stretch have remained steadfast in their opinions on the road’s new style. Not only is Edward De Freitas the owner of Empire Pest Control on Court near Third Place, but he’s also an avid cyclist. De Freitas shared that he’s a veteran of the

ICE and Bike take center stage at CB6

February 8, 2026 No Comments

Community Board 6’s January meeting continued conversations around humanity’s never-ceasing concern: safety. “We need to make sure that we pass legislation that gives immigrant New Yorkers both legal counsel as well as stop any local or state actors participating in ICE’s actions,” said District 44 New York State Assemblymember Robert Carroll, calling those actions morally and legally “out of bounds.”

You can find community at the Gowanus Wine Merchants

February 13, 2026

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

Want to meet the love of your life? Come to this Carroll Gardens coffee shop on Thursdays

February 12, 2026

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

When will the city offer public relief?

February 8, 2026

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.

The Star-Revue February comics (Stan Mack and Michael Arthur)

February 8, 2026

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

Column: Some good additions at the Star-Revue

January 15, 2026

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

People of Red Hook

January 14, 2026

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

Family Fun Night at the Harbor Middle School

January 12, 2026

December 19 was a special day at the Harbor Middle School/PS 676. A holiday hallway was set up leading to the auditorium, with performances followed by fun in the cafeteria. The program was titled Nutcracker 2.0: A Harbor Holiday Experience. The student council president and eighth grade advocate welcomed everyone and introduced each of the three acts of the showcase.

Judith Dailey’s bad experience at local nursing home

January 11, 2026

Fourth-generation Red Hook resident, Judith Dailey recently had to go to rehab after a problem with her leg. Unfortunately, it was not a good experience for her and she called us to complain about neglect, inadequate meals, and rude treatment from staff members. Dailey has been a prominent member of the Red Hook community her entire life, spending time on

Some of the people who make up the new Gowanus

January 8, 2026

Gowanus is a neighborhood in formation, and this is part one in a continuing series that will try and introduce some of the newcomers to our readers. “I’m not originally from New York City, but I lived in Manhattan on the Upper West Side, and then moved here about six months ago,” said Nick, a recent move-in at 335 Bond

Another year of living dangerously, by Joe Enright

January 7, 2026

It was late afternoon on New Year’s Eve and flurries were blowing in from Erie Basin, sweeping through the Food Bazaar parking lot and up Conover Street, pushing me into Sunny’s. Izzy poured me a generous Dewar’s and I hunkered down in the booth by the door to peck out my annual retrospective. Oh what a wretched year. Pancreatic cancer

Hank’s documentary ready to roll, Interview with filmmaker Leon Chase

January 6, 2026

Happy New Year and welcome to 2026 my lovelies. What year 2025 was and I was so grateful to share my musings and adventures with you. The year ended with a fantastic month of music here in Brooklyn, from swing to power pop and everything in between. But like Janus, I look both to how the year ended and with

MUSIC: Wiggly Air by Kurt Gottschalk

February 20, 2026

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

FILM: Celebrating the singular experience of working in a movie theater, in print and on film

February 10, 2026

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

JAZZ by Grella: They’ve Got the Whole World in Their Hands

February 9, 2026

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

Column: THE PEOPLE vs. EDC: Lawsuit asks court to undo BMT Final Vision Plan

February 8, 2026

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

On Jazz: He’s an American Man

January 14, 2026

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

Film Review: “Obex” is the Surreal “Tron” Clone David Lynch Never Directed

January 11, 2026

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,

JAZZ: He’s an American Man, by George Grella

January 8, 2026

Jazz: Enemies at the Gates, by George Grella

May 13, 2024 No Comments

Gatekeeping gets a bad rap—and it should! Guarding information and experiences to keep them away from people is generally bad. At the very least, it’s a petty and infantile exercising of very limited and temporary power, trying to create an artificial sense of exclusivity and prestige in a pluralistic, democratic culture—snobbery in other words. At worst, you get self-perpetuating, smug

On Jazz: The State of Shipp, by George Grella

September 16, 2023 No Comments

Pianist Matthew Shipp has had such a consistent, sustained career, nearly 40 years as one of the foremost free jazz players, that it’s easy to lose sight of what he’s done as a musician. His built a grand discographical forest through his own albums and those on which he’s part of another ensemble—coming up with the important David S. Ware

When the future of rock and roll was in Windsor Terrace, by Raanan Geberer, photos by J.R. Rost

January 11, 2023 1 Comment

If you Google “rock clubs, Brooklyn,” you’ll see more than a dozen, most of them in Williamsburg, Bushwick, Gowanus or nearby. But before any of them were there, Lauterbach’s, at 335 Prospect Ave. in the South Slope, had a thriving scene featuring original rock bands. None of the Lauterbach’s bands – Frank’s Museum, Chemical Wedding, Cryptic Soup, Formaldehyde Blues Train,

Nationwide shortage of church organists a challenge, by Erin DeGregorio

December 9, 2022 No Comments

Imagine not hearing the majestic sounds produced by thousands of metal or wooden organ pipes echoing around you during a wedding, funeral, or Mass. That’s the reality some houses of worship are facing as an organist shortage unfolds nationwide, on the heels of a pandemic that brought in-person services to a screeching halt for months and has since affected attendance.

The Year’s Best Recorded Jazz, by George Grella

December 8, 2022 No Comments

Just in time for your shopping lists, and just before you might, I hope, have some time off and can spend some of your evenings these dark days listening to fine music, here are my choices for the best jazz albums of 2022. I make this list because I think lists are useful, and year-end ones help focus the mind

Music: Kurt Gottschalk’s Wiggly Lines

July 2, 2022 No Comments

Beauty runs deep. The surprise hit of the summer may turn out to be Kate Bush’s 1985 single “Running Up That Hill” which, after placement in an episode of the Netflix series Stranger Things, hit the top 10 in 14 countries and raced to the top of the Apple Music charts in the states. It’s not exactly a deep cut.