Celebrating Community
Red Hook’s PS 676 held their first Hispanic Heritage Celebration on October 15 as part of National Hispanic Heritage month. Adding to the Hispanic heritage theme of the event was the ethnic food that Kimpanadas, a new restaurant on Smith Street, donated. The owner is a friend of pastor Edwin Pacheco from Redemption Church. A world map gate gave students […]
After more than 160 years as a repository of human and industrial waste, the Gowanus Canal is leaving its toxic legacy behind—or under. Last month marked a milestone in the Superfund cleanup of the waterway, as the bottom of the canal north of the 3rd Street Bridge was successfully injected with a five-foot layer of cement in a process known […]
It’s been surprisingly difficult to speak with Amazon officials about the large Amazon Flex facility in Red Hook, which is located on Bay St. between Columbia St. and Hicks St. I was told to get in contact with their corporate office before I could speak to anyone but after a lot of phone calls and messages, I still couldn’t get […]
I actually had my column all written before this. This is the month when the City Council, led by local Councilmember Brad Lander, will most likely allow the transformation of Gowanus from a gritty, funky, artsy/industrial neighborhood, into a modern, affluent community dominated by high rise luxury apartments. It will end up resembling countless high-rise affluent neighborhoods throughout the world. […]
In 2012, Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc in our community. Basements were flooded, cars destroyed and power was out for almost a month – mostly at the Red Hook Houses,NYC’s second largest public housing project. That’s when Carlos Menchaca came to the neighborhood, dispatched by Kathleen Quinn, at the time Speaker of the City Council. He made himself familiar at the […]
The Scherman Fund is a huge non-profit fund with hundreds of millions of dollars in assets, including millions invested in hedge funds, some in the Cayman Islands. As Program Director, Alexa Aviles managed a portfolio in the tens of millions. She was given a mission to spread the money around to various progressive groups in New York and around the […]
On Sunday, September 26, at Washington Park in Park Slope, employers and domestic workers joined hands in an effort to improve jobs and conditions in the domestic care economy by urging the passage of Care Forward. Care Forward is a local initiative that aims to raise, enforce and improve domestic worker rights. [slideshow_deploy id=’14102′] This event at Washington Park was […]
One new upgrade is an improved library with additional books, more space to do activities and new computers. This year there is a librarian and can have lunch clubs and expose students to more literature. There are also additional ways that the library will be utilized this school year. “We are going to incorporate a lot of harbor […]
A phrase I have been making use of when talking politics with friends is that I wish there were just two political parties – Democrats and Progressives. I believe in good government, and too many Republicans, reinforced by Ronald Reagan, feel that government is the enemy. Hypocritically, since they spend so much money and energy to be part of what […]
Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez and Assembly member Jo Anne Simon spoke to a frustrated crowd of people in the Whole Foods parking lot next to the Gowanus Canal. They both voiced their concerns about the city’s Gowanus rezoning plan which was approved by Mayor Bill de Blasio. The rezoning plan would allow real estate developers to build new condos in the […]