Celebrating Community
Hurricane Sandy was a storm of the century. Which these days means a storm that seems to hit two or three times a year. But that’s another story. Our story is about Sandy and Red Hook. Sandy put us under two feet of water, plunged us into darkness for three weeks and thrust us into the national spotlight. Two young […]
The seventh annual Barnacle Parade took over the streets of Red Hook on the evening of October 29. This year, the homemade neighborhood extravaganza took on the theme “Hook-Lantis, ”reimagining Red Hook as a fully underwater city, where public submarines–with humans and sea creatures alike as co-passengers–stand in for MTA buses. As usual, the event drew a wide range of […]
On the streets of Red Hook on October 29, the iconic Japanese sea monster Godzilla took on his fiercest opponent yet: extreme weather. He won, saving the neighborhood from a second natural disaster and keeping its citizens dry and happy over the course of the Barnacle Parade, which has annually celebrated local resilience since the first anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. […]
You see them every day, the stray cats of Red Hook. Many have been around for years, some turned up more recently. Some are friendly and crave to be touched, some are feral and eye you suspiciously from under a car. You may love them or hate them, or perhaps fall somewhere in the middle. They are a rough looking […]
Six years after Hurricane Sandy, Red Hook residents are wondering what happened to the city’s promises to safeguard their neighborhood from future floods. The Red Hook Integrated Flood Protection System (IFPS) had its official genesis in “A Stronger, More Resilient New York,” the 438-page planning document produced by Mayor Bloomberg’s Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency (SIRR) in 2013. “Flexible […]
Hurricane Sandy, the mega storm that hit New York City on October 29, 2012, was one of the costliest storms in U.S. history at the time, just behind Hurricane Katrina. Its 29 foot waves and storm surges caused extensive coastal flooding and $19 billion in damages. Red Hook is one of 10 communities that was hit hardest and in this […]
Hurricane Sandy badly affected the Red Hook Houses, worsening the already uncomfortable living conditions for Red Hook’s 6,217 New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) residents. Sandy and its associated floods destroyed boilers, damaged roofs beyond repair, and compromised playgrounds, lighting, underground conduits, fencing, and sidewalks. Four years after the storm, a process is underway not only to repair the […]
The Red Hook Civic Association drew a larger crowd and had a larger agenda than many of the earlier meetings this year. The September meeting was held in the PS 15 auditorium and president John McGettrick held sway over a number of local topics. He began with a tirade against city and state government as even more money has been […]
Centered, tan, and slightly scraggly, it isn’t hard to picture Alexandros Washburn as a fisherman in his mother’s native Greece. Although the Stevens Institute of Technology professor and veteran urban planner has no formal role on any of the citizen’s committees or research teams or councils of public officials attempting to guide Red Hook’s future post-Sandy, Washburn is hard […]
On January 7, 2014, Vice President Joe Biden came to Albany to announce-together with Governor Andrew Cuomo – a $16.7 billion federally funded package of programs to strengthen New York’s infrastructure against future storms. The money was part of the $50.5 billion in emergency money that congress granted to New York and New Jersey following Hurricane Sandy, with $200 million […]