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Red Hook

By Matt Chaban 11/02/11 11:00am

on the waterfront

All aboard.

Ahoy, Brooklyn! Defying Recession, Developers Drop Anchor Along East River

The sun had not quite broken over the rowhouses and warehouses of Greenpoint Monday morning when The Observer arrived at the new concrete pier jutting out into the East River at India Street. The dock seemed barely finished, its concrete planks not entirely even, the sides of the structure lined with chain-link fencing. Whole sections were torn up and surrounded with orange construction netting.

When the ferry pulled up, ghost decals clinging to the foredeck, the passengers filed on, handing over their $4 tickets, joining the nearly 3,000 New Yorkers who have ridden the ferry each weekday since its launch in mid-June, according to the city—more than double the number officials had expected.

After ordering our locally brewed fair-trade coffee and a pain au chocolat, we turned to see a gay couple smiling across a starboard table, sharing a quiche, a floating picnic. On the port side was a pretty biracial pair staring out the window at Long Island City, its gleaming towers pulling into view. The woman held a breastfeeding baby on her lap.

The subway this was not. Read More

5 By Matt Chaban 10/26/11 6:21pm

on the waterfront

Red Hook Container Terminal, Brooklyn

Red Hook Redo Already a Reality? Give It a Decade

Two weeks ago, Port Authority boss Chris Ward declared that one of the biggest projects the city could undertake would be the redevelopment of Red Hook. Not only would it vitalize another corner of the Brooklyn waterfront, but it would also become a critical connection to burgeoning development on Governors Island.

At the time, this sounded like pontification—Mr. Ward fought to keep the container terminal active at his previous job running American Stevedoring—but now it is looking more like prognostication.

Last week, it was revealed that the Port Authority had quietly cancelled its lease with American Stevedoring, which has led a handful of outlets to speculate that Red Hook’s redevelopment is in the near future. According to a highly placed source at the Port Authority, though, it will be at least a decade before the port ships out for good and the BroBos can move in. Read More

1 By Matt Chaban 10/13/11 9:50pm

on the waterfront

Chris_Ward

Chris Ward: Redo Red Hook to Save Governors Island

With at least a few people clamoring for a Chris Ward mayoralty, the Port Authority executive director visited the Time Warner Center today and talked about something besides the World Trade Center--not only the focus of much of his work the past three years, but also his public speaking.

Instead, he proffered an ambitious, even absurd, proposal for the Brooklyn waterfront and Governor’s Island. The former he likened to Vietnam: “nobody ever seems to retreat with a clear victory,” he said during an address at Municipal Art Society's Summit for New York City. Of the latter, he said “it is the last open question, in terms of land-use, in the city.” Read More

7 By Nate Freeman 7/12/11 7:02pm

The Wee Hours

Anchors away!

The Wee Hours: Red Hot Red Hook

BEHIND TWO BLANK DOORS on an industrial corner in Red Hook, a few blocks away from the shimmering waters of New York Harbor, three girls in skimpy French lingerie stood cleaning Champagne flutes. It was last Saturday, and though the sun still blazed outside, in a few hours a fledgling nightlife venue would take over Read More

By William Alden 6/28/10 7:24pm

If the Upper West Side and Red Hook Had a Baby…

A sign near the entrance of a $1.075 million three-bedroom apartment on 96 Schermerhorn Street politely asks visitors to remove their shoes.

"Eighty percent of contaminants come into the apartment on your shoes from the street," broker Cara Sadownick said on Sunday, in stocking feet.

The apartment, like many others in Brooklyn Heights, has been designed to Read More

By Sadie Stein 8/07/09 4:03pm

The Queen of Red Hook Realty

There are two ways to get an apartment in Red Hook.

If you live there, you ask around. “Everyone knows what everyone’s paying and who owns what and who’s moving, so it’s mostly done really casually,” says Bevin Strand. Another resident’s account is typical: “A guy we knew from the bar who used to Read More

By Sadie Stein 7/24/09 12:55pm

Where Everybody Knows Your Name, Y’All

Sunny’s Bar on a recent Wednesday night was packed. The last of the longshoremen’s bars that once dotted the Red Hook waterfront, the sepia-toned watering hole is, nowadays, known as a bohemian stronghold and a vital neighborhood institution.

Tonight, customers are packed into the front room, swaying to the rhythms of Smokey’s Roundup, in full Read More

By Sadie Stein 7/10/09 12:53pm

Hook Lines: Postcards at the Edge

Editor's note: Hook Lines is a new biweekly column by Sadie Stein, an editor at the blog Jezebel and a Brooklyn resident, about the property and daily life of Red Hook. The first column can be read here.

 

“Sorry,” says Anne O’Neil, running across Read More

By Reid Pillifant 4/06/09 12:33pm

Red Hook Piers Fight Unites Former Foes (Updated)

In Red Hook, neighbors who once squared off over developments like the Brooklyn Ikea and the Fairway supermarket have suddenly allied to fight a city plan to develop two waterfront piers. “In this neighborhood, there have been so many fights with one side against the other, but on this issue, there’s so much consensus,” said Read More

By Eliot Brown 2/11/09 5:41am

Joe Sitt Happy To Get Going in Red Hook, Mum on Coney

Joe Sitt wants to talk about Red Hook these days; not Coney Island.

At least that’s the main point the largest Coney Island landholder impressed upon me Tuesday afternoon when I bumped into him after a Brooklyn Historical Society real estate luncheon.

“We’re excited,” he said about Coney, adding that there would be an announcement Read More

By Oliver Haydock 1/30/09 3:17am

The Real World: Deli

It was 10:30 on a recent and particularly chilly Wednesday morning in Red Hook. Inside F & M Bagels, a cozy and plainly ornamented old-fashioned deli in the ground floor of a two-story brick building at the intersection of Van Brunt and Coffey streets, Eugene Orefice, a co-owner of the establishment, was taking time from Read More