Celebrating Community
There’s a proverb about good intensions often leading to doom. Take the Adams Administration’s “City of Yes Housing Opportunity.” I’ll bet the branding consultants got well paid on this one. To support City of Yes is to be for “Housing” and “Opportunity.” To be against it is to be for homelessness and despair. And as for “City”? Why, join the […]
On Prospect Park West, just south of Prospect Avenue sits a small outpost of flavor and coolness Dog Day Afternoon. The shop, opened by Joe Boyle, a Chicago native, and his partner Jay Kerr, serves up a top-shelf version of America’s national food, the hot dog. I started eating hot dogs at Nathan’s in Coney Island when they were 25 […]
The 2024 Red Hook Softball League resumed play on July 11 after a Fourth of July break. In the first game of the evening, the Record Shop took on MiniBar at Dovey Diamond. Last place MiniBar jumped out to a 3-0 lead but the Record Shop responded by scoring 19 unanswered runs. They crushed five home runs in the game […]
Jam’It Bistro, a Jamaican restaurant at 367 Columbia Street, down the block from DeFonte’s, is making history as one of the first restaurants in New York City allowed to accept Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments under the Restaurant Meals Program (RMP.) Last month politicians and locals gathered there with the bistro’s owner Dawn Skeete […]
Those interested in learning how to kayak can do so for free at Valentino Pier Park thanks to the Red Hook Boaters. The Red Hook Boaters are a group of volunteers who teach people how to kayak twice a week on Thursdays from 6-8 pm (May 30 to August 15) and on Sundays from 1-4 pm (June 2 to September […]
Family, friends, neighbors, and appreciative members of the Red Hook community gathered to celebrate Nancy Kearse Gooding at a barbecue on Coffey St on July 20. Last December the corner of Visitation Place and Van Brunt was renamed after her. Kearse Gooding was a force in Red Hook starting in the 1970’s. She ran an organization that helped local people […]
One of the projects that the now defunct Red Hook Civic Association worked hard on last year was a location for a temporary library to replace the Wolcott Street library which was pretty much demolished in order to update it. A frustration for those in Red Hook was that the next closest library is in Carroll Gardens and is also […]
Afrobeats vs. Amapiano Takeover at Barclays Center On Sunday, August 4, the plaza at Barclays Center echoed with the sounds of Afrobeats and Amapiano as the two genres took center stage at the third annual Africa Everything: Afrobeats vs. Amapiano Takeover. From 12:00 to 6:00 PM, music lovers, undeterred by the cloudy weather, gathered to experience the best of these […]
On June 28, 2024, the acclaimed singer-songwriter Troy Ramey released his latest single, “Pick Up Truck.” Known for his soul-stirring voice and evocative lyrics, Ramey’s new song, which began as a light-hearted jest, has evolved into a heartfelt piece that captures the essence of summer drives and the joy of music. Backstory The story of “Pick Up Truck” began […]
A Tale of Two Kiddies Ok, full disclosure: I grew up on a block in Brooklyn during the 1950s. In the age before playdates, I was let out at the age of 5 to roam one side of the block between 4th and 5 avenues. (just for the record I have no issue with parents using playdates in a post-Etan […]