Parks

Feature Story, Parks

Audubon Society supports Red Hook Conservancy with a beautiful Bay Street mural, by Brian Abate

It seems like this is the summer of murals in Red Hook. The newest will border some of our new ballfields. It will feature eight at-risk birds that are native to New York. It was made possible thanks to the work of Marlene Pantin, the founder and executive of Red Hook Conservancy who is also involved with the National Audubon […]

Feature Story, Parks, Sports

The bar may be gone but the team is the 2023 champion! by Brian Abate

Bait & Tackle capped off an improbable run to win the championship of the Red Hook Locals Softball League on August 17. The league, which has been around since the 2000s, resumed play last year after a long hiatus while waiting for construction at the Red Hook ballfields to be completed. Fields 5-8 were closed in 2015 after toxins were […]

Parks

Harold Ickes Playground still empty

In the fall of 2017, when Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and councilmen Carlos Menchaca and Brad Lander agreed (at the behest of teenage activists from the nonprofit Red Hook Initiative) to allocate $3 million to transform Red Hook’s Harold Ickes Playground from an unkempt concrete baseball diamond into a first-class skate park, the Department of Parks and Recreation took […]

Volunteers painting and scraping in Red Hook
Parks

Brownsville Park gets new paint job through community service

Crown Castle, the nation’s largest provider of shared communications infrastructure, hosted its third annual Connected by Good community service initiative on May 8. More than 1,880 employees spent their day planting, building, painting and improving public spaces around the country. The Floyd Patterson Ballfields, located in Brownsville, were one of those 22 chosen nationwide sites. Forty-eight employees from the company’s New York […]

Parks

Nothing but excuses from Parks, no solutions from politicians, by Nathan Weiser

Red Hook ballfields dormant for yet another season Red Hook residents recently got some disappointing news regarding their ability to use the outdoor fields in the Red Hook ballfields complex. Ballfields 5-8, originally scheduled to be finished by the spring of 2019, will now not be ready until at least the spring of 2020. Marty Maher, the Brooklyn Parks Commissioner, […]

Parks, Red Hook News, Red Hook Rec Center, Red Hook Recreation Center

Menchaca hosts Thor Equity honchos at the Rec Center, by Nathan Weiser

Thor Equities and their land use lawyers and engineers held an informational meeting led by Councilman Menchaca at the Red Hook Recreation Center on April 19.  Originally meant to be a private meeting at the councilman’s office, it was shifted to the Rec center as word got out to locals interested in asking questions about flooding and Thor’s piles of […]

Environment, Parks

Brooklyn Greenway Initiative knows how to throw a great fundraiser, by Sarah Matusek

For BGI’s summer fundraiser, it’s a good idea to come hungry. Photo by Sarah Matusek. There’s more to Brooklyn than brunch. Just ask Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, whose annual summer fundraiser, Brooklyn Waterfront Tastes, combines the boozy weekend meal with bicycles and grassroots activism. In its thirteenth year, BGI’s brunch-tasting event lucked out with a day of sunshine and drew a […]

Parks, Pioneer Works

Pioneer Works’ Garden Offers a Haven in the Heat, by Sarah Matusek

Pioneer Works’ garden entrance. Photo by George Fiala. Pioneer Works’ public garden offers visitors a space for summer zen. For a moment, the rumble of trucks beyond the wooden lattice fence nearly disappears. A brief walk from the NYC Ferry and Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, the garden sprawls next to the art nonprofit’s 150-year-old red brick building at 159 Pioneer St. […]

Parks

Rally held at Red Hook Ballfields, by Nathan Weiser

  On Saturday, May 6, a group of Red Hook residents and local government officials gathered at Hicks and Lorraine to share ideas, opinions and facts on the state of Red Hook’s parks – a number of which have been closed for some time due to pollution. People are upset that yet another baseball season has come with the ballfields […]

Parks, Sports

A Red Hook native brings tennis to the Hook, by Nathan Weiser

I take the game on the road,” Pablo Sierra said. “I call it actually tennis anywhere, anytime, anyplace.” He started his own tennis organization called the South Brooklyn Tennis Association (SBTA), which focuses on Red Hook, Sunset Park and Bay Ridge for kids 10 and under. Pablo Sierra is a native of the Red Hook projects who fell in love […]