Celebrating Community
It’s not the sexiest subject, but Red Hook’s ongoing reinvention as an e-commerce shipping hub has for me piqued an interest in logistics. For all their expected negative environmental externalities, the forthcoming last-mile distribution centers on Columbia Street, along with the planned UPS complex near Valentino Pier, at least offer a measure of historical continuity in a neighborhood that once […]
You’ve probably watched the annual spectacle on the local TV new stations or maybe have even participated in it yourself, dressing up in costume and walking the mile-long route in Lower Manhattan. New York City’s Village Halloween Parade is just one of those city-specific events that you can only experience here, much like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or the […]
Media, Literally The Human Rights Watch Film Festival comes to New York once a year. So when the director of the film ‘Bellingcat’ — a documentary about a popular European ‘citizen journalism’ site — strongly recommended it, we booked a seat. Citizen Journalism is widely believed to provide a cure for the corporate media model. The concept quite rightly implies […]
Since I live in a very small and ugly apartment, one of my favorite activities when I’m a tourist (in my own city or elsewhere) is to visit historic homes that’ve opened themselves to the public. Different houses serve different purposes. Some – like the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park or Old Westbury Gardens on Long Island, famous primarily for […]
“Where is your bike Robbie?” I heard a very recognizable, somewhat Americanized, across the pond, accent. It was my good friend Gary. I told him that my bicycle got jacked about a week before, from in front of my house. Gary reached into his pocket and pulled out a key. “Here, take this one,” he said, pointing to a bike […]
When the Queen Mary 2 was docked at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, on May 17, Red Hook took notice. Mark’s Pizzeria put out a sign welcoming the ocean liner that temporarily reconverted the skyline. “I have noticed the QM2 a few times,” Christina Daniels at Pioneer Works wrote in an email. “It always takes me a minute to realize it’s there because it’s […]
A relic of the past has ascribed a cultural significance in Brooklyn. The Waterfront Museum Barge in Red Hook and Bargemusic moored at Fulton Ferry Landing, have emerged as vessels to entertain and resurrect Brooklyn’s waterfront. In the 19th and 20th century, Brooklyn’s waterfront was the hub of America’s commercial wealth and capitalism, as the area between Red Hook and […]
Dan Al-Mateen or “Maddan” sat with a bulging binder full of papers, newspaper clippings, and photographs spread out across the bar at Rocky Sullivan’s. As he started to talk, he flipped carefully through the pages, forming a patchwork image of the lives that his parents have led and touching on the various events and circumstances that had formed so much […]
A version of this story first appeared in the Star-Revue’s August 2017 print edition. A burnt out bulb. A busted car. A broken knee. Future biographers might note a theme laced through Vander Carter’s culinary career: things keep breaking. But Carter — a Carroll Gardens entrepreneur behind the food startup JestGreen — only sees crisis as a chance for growth. […]
I’m hungry, but I dutifully wait for lunch. Because lunch is at Defonte’s. I spend the morning writing at the Star-Revue’s warehouse office, pretending coffee is enough. The hours slouch by. When I can’t take any more typing, I bolt out the door and head down Van Brunt Street. Armed with a notebook and cash, I try my best to […]