Author: gbrook@pipeline.com

Red Hook Star-Revue

Star-Revue wins three statewide newspaper awards, by George Fiala

The big take-away from the 166th annual convention of the NY Press Association is that weekly and monthly print newspapers are far from dead. Kevin Slimp, a newspaper consultant and technology trainer, gave that message at his two-day seminar sessions.  Slimp travels the country advising newspapers and through both polling and hands-on observation has seen the upturn. “Readers love a […]

Gowanus Canal, Land Use

Column – My two wild days in zoning class, by George Fiala

Last Thursday I sat through almost three hours of a city process that will force permanent, sudden transformation on a neighborhood that has undergone only incremental change since the Dutch first showed up in Brooklyn. The very next night I sat through two hours of something quite similar, albeit on a smaller scale. The one constant in both cases was […]

76th Precinct, Civic, Social Service

Warm turnout on chilly evening for the Civic Association, by George Fiala

  The thermometer read 11 degrees at 7:05 pm, when the January meeting of the Red Hook Civic Association began in the PS 15 auditorium. A rather large crowd came to hear Gordon Jackson of CORE talk about the new homeless shelter that suddenly took over the Look Hotel on Seabring Street last December. As of the 30th, there were […]

Environment, Gowanus Canal

Tunnel bombshell at Superfund meeting, by Erin DeGregorio

Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group (CAG) members received updates from government and city agencies at the general monthly meeting, held November 27. The biggest surprise involved a last minute request by the NYC DEP to substitute a giant tunnel, instead of the planned sewage retention tanks ordered by the EPA, to capture raw sewage that now is  dumped into the […]

Theater

The Rockaway Post Theatre Company Presents “A View From the Bridge,” A review by Nino Pantano

The Rockaway Post Theatre Company presented an exciting production of Arthur Miller’s play A View From the Bridge on Saturday evening, October 6th. The company is located in Fort Tilden, an old historic Army installation between Riis Park & Breezy Point in the Rockaways. This whole area is now part of Gateway National Park along with Floyd Bennett Field which was a […]

Formula E

HS Presentation at Formula E races, by Nathan Weiser

On Friday, July 13, one day before the second Formula E race in the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, Argo Group, who sponsors the DRAGON team, presented a $10,000 check for tri-state area robotics teams (high schools). Supervisors and students were on hand from Farmingdale High in Long Island and George Westinghouse High in Brooklyn. The contribution will be split up among […]

Neighborhood Profile

Neighborhood Portrait: Francesca Van Horne, by Emily Kluver

The Move From Manhattan “I can’t believe that was my life,” Francesca Van Horne says in the same light tone she used to describe her recent career changes. But the topic is anything but light. Francesca is a talented actor, writer, producer, and director. She’s a mother. She’s an active member of her local community, this community. She does it […]

Police, Red Hook Initiative

RHI group issues report slamming 76th precinct, by George Fiala

At a time when community policing is taking off throughout the city and Neighborhood Coordination Officers (NCO’s) have been making themselves available throughout the Red Hook Community, the Red Hook Initiative (RHI) has issued a report condemning local police for being a root cause of violence in Red Hook. RHI’S Real Rite Anti-Violence Research Group, a group that includes Tyneisha […]