Star revue january 2015

SOUTH BROOKLYN’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER

The Red Hook StarªRevue

JANUARY 2015 FREE

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

In an incredible overreaction, Kyle Kimball, head of the NYC Economic Development Corpora-tion (EDC), announced that he was abandoning development of Sunset Park’s South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (SBMT), simply because City

Councilman Carlos Menchaca didn’t give him what he wanted.

SBMT comprises ten blocks along the waterfront in Sunset Park, southwards from 29th Street. It is an in-termodal facility, named because it is capable of han-dling freight three ways - by water, by rail and by truck. It currently has only one tenant, a municipal recycling center. The rest of it - 72 acres - is currently vacant.

Much of Sunset Park’s industrial area is controlled by EDC. These city owned properties include the Brook-lyn Army Terminal, the 65th Street Rail Yard and the historic Bush Terminal. EDC also controls properties in Red Hook, the Cruise Terminal and the Red Hook Container Terminal.

EDC is a city agency. President Kimball is a mayoral ap-pointee. EDC was created to operate independently of local planning areas for the purpose of bringing money and jobs to the city. Their website boasts of the billions of dollars in private investments they have brought into the city.

“By encouraging commerce within the City, manag-ing City-owned properties, administering loans and financing, and facilitating commercial and industrial development, New York City Economic Development Corporation successfully completed hundreds of devel-opment projects and implemented many public policy initiatives,” declares their website.

Master LeaseEDC was asking the City Council’s approval to become a “Master Leaseholder” of SBMT. This arrangement switches oversight of publicly owned land from local rep-resentation to EDC. They argue that this is what is need-ed to keep New York competitive - their fast action is what businesses want when they are looking to relocate.

They claim that normal government acts too slowly to make deals that are beneficial for commerce. Having control of a Master Lease allows EDC to make quick de-cisions about public land without having to go through the community and thus avoid oversight of their politi-cal representatives.

EDC fashions themselves after the private sector, as a profit making business. Their website boasts of their “greater operational flexibility than other organizations that provide similar services. This allows our employees

ARE THE RED HOOK CRANES HEADED TO SUNSET PARK?

by George Fiala

• EDC goes to court to evict bankrupt tenant from Sunset Park pier

• EDC demands total control over pier leasing• Red Hook’s lease up in four years• Report recommends sale of Red Hook piers• Port Authority boosts train transport - only

possible in Sunset Park

CAN A MOVE BE IN THE WORKS?

Top: The South Brooklyn Marine

Terminal is vacant and ready for a new tenant. Below: What

will replace the Columbia Waterfront District’s backdrop?

(continued on page 3)

Red Hook Star-Revue www.RedHookStar.com Christmas 2014

Happenings, etc.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 25Mil’s Trills 5th Annual Winter Bash of music, art, and community 11:30 am-12-:30 pm. Doors open at 11 am. $10 advance; $15 at the door. 18 Whitwell Place

THURSDAY, JANUARY 29Cora Dance performs Stories at BAM Fisher at 7:30 pm January 29-31, including two world-premieres and “down here.”Opening night includes a benefit. Tickets at BAM.ORG/dance/2014/stories, $15-50. 321 Ash-land Pl

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30Cora Dance performs Stories at BAM Fisher at 7:30 pm January 29-31, in-cluding two world-premieres and “down here.”Performance will include a post-show talk-back with John Hockenberry, host of public radio’s “The Takeaway,” Tickets at BAM.ORG/dance/2014/stories, $5-25. 321 Ashland Pl

SBIDC holds the second “Introducing Stronger Together” event, providing a wide variety of free services to residents of local NYCHA developments from 2-7 pm. FREE 621 Degraw StreetLego Club, Red Hook Library, 7 Wolcott Street, 4:30 pm

SATURDAY, JANUARY 31Sacred Hearts-St. Stephens New Year Brunch and Retreat from 8:30 am-12 pm with Mass at 8:30, coffee and cake at 9, and a reflection at 9:45. FREE 108 Carroll Street

Brooklyn Cajun Jam at Jalopy Theater led by Jesse Lége from 2-5 pm. Traditional Cajun & Creole music of southwest Louisiana. Musicians are encouraged to bring their instruments. 315 Columbia St

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7Target First Saturday celebrates Black History Month at the Brooklyn Museum from 5-11 pm, including film, live music and hands-on art. Museum admission is FREE and includes entrance to galleries and events. 200 Eastern Parkway

ONGOINGThe Heights Players perform The Graduate based on the 1960s classic movie Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm through January 25. Tickets $20. 26 Willow Place

JustArts: Photography Program at the Red Hook Community Justice Cen-ter. Applications from young adults 14-18 are being accepted through Feb 13. Program runs from March through May. 718 923-8263

Bridges - Resume workshop, 2 - 4 pm, Thursdays Jan. 22 and 29. Red Hook Library, 7 Wolcott Street.


proudly introduces our new website

www.Star-Revue.comFor Editorial, Advertising and Help Wanted Inquiries,

email [email protected], or call 718 624-5568

The Star-Revue is published by Kimberly G. Price & George Fiala

RELIGIOUS SERVICESCATHOLICVisitation Church98 Richards St, (718) 624-1572. Office open Mon-Thursday9 am - 3 pm. Saturday mass 5 pm; Spanish mass at 7 pm. Sunday 10 am English, 12:30 pm Spanish. Community Prayer Tuesday and Thursday, 8 pm. Youth Group Meetings on Friday, 4:30 - 6 pm. Baptisms are held every other month. Please call to arranged for baptisms, communions and weddings. We will visit the sick upon notification.

Saint Paul and Saint Agnes Parish St. Paul’s Church - Rectory & Church Office 234 Congress Street (718) 624-3425 Hours: M - F 830am-12 St. Agnes Church Office 433 Sackett Street, 718-625-1717 Hours: M-F 1pm-430pm Email:[email protected] St. Agnes: Saturday 5pm Vigil Mass Sunday 9 am (English), 11:30am (Spanish) St. Paul’s: Saturday 5pm Vigil Mass Sun-day 8 am & 9:30am (English); 11am (Spanish) Monday & Tuesday 8:30am (St. Paul’s) Wednesday & Thursday 8:30am (St. Agnes) Saturday 8am (St. Paul’s) http://stpaul-stagnes.org/

Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary - Saint Stephen Roman Catholic Church125 Summit Street at Hicks Street [email protected] Saturday Vigil Mass 5:30pm Sunday Masses: 10am & 11:45am (Italian/English) Weekdays Masses: Tuesday Through Saturday 8:30am Confessions: Saturdays 4:45pm and by appointment. Baptisms: Every Third Sunday At 1pm. Please call the rectory one month before to make arrangements. Sick Calls: Please call the rectory to arrange for the sacrament of anoint-ing whenever anyone is seriously ill. Marriages: Please call the rectory at least 6 months ahead for an appointment with a priest http://www.sacredhearts-ststephen.com

St. Paul’s Carroll Street 199 Carroll Street Parish Office: 718-625-4126 Sunday Mass at 10 am Weekday Morn-ing Prayer - Mon.-Thurs. at 7:30 am Weekday masses as announced Holy Days as an-nounced (please see the Calendar) Church open for prayer Tues. 6-8pm & Sat. 2-4pm http://stpaulscarrollst.weebly.com/

JewishKane Street Synagogue 236 Kane Street, (near Tompkins Place) 718 875-1550 http://kanestreet.org/ August 29 - 30, Shabbat Shoftim Candle Lighting 7:14 PM Shabbat ends 8:17 PMFriday night services, 6:00 PM Shabbat morning services, 9:15 AM Sunday Morning Services 9:00 AM

Congregation B’nai Avraham/Chabad of Brooklyn Heights117 Remsen St., 718 596 4840 x18 www.bnaiavraham.com, www.heightschabad.com Morning Services: Sunday: 8:45am Monday - Friday: 7:45am Holidays (during the week): 8:45am Saturday: 9:45am Evening Services: Sunday: Shabbat candle lighting time Monday - Thursday: 9:00pm Friday: Winter: 5 minutes before Shabbat candle lighting time Summer: 7:30pm Saturday: Shabbat candle lighting time

If your religious institution isn’t listed here, let us know by emailing [email protected] Thanks!

Community Telephone Numbers:Red Hook Councilman Carlos Menchaca .............718 439-9012Red Hook Assemblyman Felix Ortiz ....................718-492-6334Red Hook State Senator Velmanette Montgomery .718-643-6140Gowanus Councilman Brad Lander .....................718 499-1090Park Slope Councilman Steve Levin .....................718 875-5200CB6 District Manager Craig Hammerman ...........718 643-3027

76th Police Precinct, 191 Union StreetMain phone ....................................................718-834-3211Community Affairs ...........................................718 834-3207Traffic Safety ....................................................718 834-3226

Eileen Dugan Senior Center, 380 Court Street .......718 596-1956Miccio Community Center, 110 East 9th Street ......718 243-1528 Red Hook East Dev. Office, 62 Mill St...................718 852-6771Red Hook West Dev. Office, 55 Dwight St. ...........718 522-3880Brownstone Republicans ..... [email protected]

NYCHA Satellite Police Precinct, 80 Dwight StreetMain Phone ...................................................(718) 265-7300Community Affairs ..........................................(718) 265-7313Domestic Violence ..........................................(718) 265-7310Youth Officer ..................................................(718) 265-7314Auxiliary/Law Enforcement Coordinator .........(718) 265-7378Detective Squad ..............................................(718) 265-7327

Friends of the Red Hook Library

The Red Hook Star-Revue is interested in helping form a friends group for our library at Wolcott Street.

A strong neighborhood library needs volunteers willing to put in some time.

If we can find enough interested people we will go ahead with it.

If this interests you, please send an email to George at [email protected]

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EDC has been criticized for being bot-tom-line oriented at the expense of the public. Social justice groups complain that worker concerns are given short shrift. One of those complaints comes from Bandworkers, an advocacy group for food workers.

A few years ago, EDC and Goldman Sachs partnered on an initiative to pro-vide loans to small food manufacturers. Brandworkers wanted to make sure that that the applicants treat their workers fairly. The food industry has a reputa-tion for exploiting workers, especially the many immigrants in that profession.

EDC would not involve Brandworkers in the loan process, saying that these were matters for regulators, not for an economic development agency.

In Red Hook, many feel that EDC has ignored neighborhood wishes. The Cruise Terminal and the Pier 11 shed are public properties, yet the neighbor-hood is given very little say in their us-age. A few years ago a local group was interested in community and business uses for the shed and were generally ignored. The community has asked for ferry service from the Atlantic Basin, and a local ferry company, NY Water Taxi, was willing to do so. Instead, a competing service, BillyBey was given control of the Basin, without running any ferries.

The Cruise Terminal, which opened in 2006 and at one point had a ships berthed 44 days a year, is currently down to 17 days. Some think that EDC is not supportive of the terminal, that their focus is on the Manhattan Termi-nal that they also operate.

Public use of EDC’s waterfront is mini-mal. In 2012, EDC planned to bring a summer concert series to the neigh-borhood, but cancelled it at the last minute. EDC has made many promises regarding PortSide and cultural uses of the Basin, but never followed through on any of them.

Missing moneyFormer Comptroller John Liu per-formed an EDC audit in 2010 and found financial discrepancies on the amount of money they owed NYC - and what was actually paid. Liu called EDC “a powerhouse agency, but we have very little understanding of what comes in and out of it. You cannot see anything that is going on.”

Must decide over the holidaysJust before Thanksgiving, EDC told the City Council of their intent to have SBMT’s lease transferred to them. They demanded a term of 49 years. A Decem-ber 15 hearing was scheduled by the subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting and Maritime Uses to consider their request.

Three top EDC executives appeared be-fore the committee to make their case. The committee includes Councilmem-bers Stephen Levin and Inez Barron. Carlos Menchaca, who represents both

Sunset Park and Red Hook, and David Greenfield, chair of the Land Use com-mittee, joined the regular committee members for this hearing.

EDC’s COO, Zachary Smith made the initial presentation. He was joined by Andrew Genn, Sr. VP, Ports & Trans-portation and Josh Nelson, VP in their transportation department.

Menchaca, who is just beginning his second year in the City Council, had an earlier run-in with EDC. Vane Brothers, a Baltimore tug boat and barge company that leases space at Gowanus GBX, want-ed to rent space on Pier 4 at the Brooklyn Army Terminal (BAT) to store empty barges. That space is currently public space and many locals fish there.

BAT is one of the other Sunset Park properties run by EDC. The neigh-borhood was upset that EDC would consider leasing part of the pier. Both Menchaca and Community Board 7 approched EDC with their concerns. Faced with controversy, Vane Brothers decided to store their empty barges else-where, and EDC, who hadn’t really re-sponded to the community, complained about losing a sale.

EDC’s Dec. 15th presentation to Menchaca and the rest of the council was a bit mysterious. They insisted that it was vital for them to have complete control of SBMT, but when asked why by Menchaca and Greenfield, they could or would not get into any specif-ics. The most they would say was that their intention was to start off with

Carlos Menchaca stands up to EDC (continued from page 1)

Four reports, all recently issued seem to set the scene for a move of the Red Hook Containerport to Sunset Park.


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four or five years of short term leases, and then would seek one large tenant to take a long-term lease for the whole space.

They needed to be able to rent space quickly, or else risk losing sales to ter-minals in New Jersey and Philadelphia. They insisted that the phone was ring-ing off the hook with companies look-ing to use the terminal, but when asked who was calling, they could only name one potential customer, the New York Wheel, who needed a large space to work on the giant Observation Wheel planned for Staten Island.

Menchaca kept asking whether EDC would do anything to encourage poten-tial lessees to hire locally. He was also cu-rious about job training and the preserva-tion of public spaces on some of the land.

EDC’s representatives seemed like ex-asperated real estate agents who knew what they were doing and incredulous anyone would doubt their expertise and good intentions.

In the end, EDC failed to persuade the council, and a few weeks later the coun-cil pulled an expected vote that was supposed to turn over the Master Lease to EDC immediately.

The Daily News reported “The city’s economic development czar is furious.” Kimball was quoted saying, “This is go-ing to send a chilling message to po-tential operators that Sunset Park may

not be open for business.” He seemed to doubt that Menchaca had the knowl-edge to do his job. Kimball was again quoted in the Daily News: “Sitting across the table it was clear that he didn’t understand what was happening here and he overplayed his hand.”

Menchaca in fact did his homework, and asked pertinent and probing ques-tions, while acting as an honest broker for his constituents. The committee has called EDC back to the table for anoth-er hearing on January 27.

Red Hook ContainerportLast September, the Red Hook Con-tainer Terminal LLC came before the Parks Committee of Community Board 6. The LLC had leased Pier 9A for a two day music festival without notifying the community. Greg Brayman, President of Phoenix Beverage who also serves as the terminal operator, came to explain the circumstances behind the book-ing of the festival and stayed to answer questions.

Business has been slow at the terminal, and the additional income from the weekend rental was needed. Towards the end of the meeting, someone asked Brayman about his lease arrangement in Red Hook. “Four years left,” he an-swered, and then, almost as an aside, said he believed the plan was to move everything to Sunset Park afterwards.

Mike Stamatis, the Terminal President, stood close behind Brayman as he made that statement, but when asked after-wards, disavowed it. Stamatis also ap-peared at the recent City Council hear-ing to speak in support of EDC’s request.

The Port Authority (PA) bought the Red Hook piers in the 1950’s when there was still much break-bulk activity in the NY harbor. The containerport was built

in the 1980’s, and the Cruise Terminal was opened in 2006. At one point PA planned different uses for Piers 1-6, but faced with opposition from Brooklyn Heights, gave over the land to the city, and it eventually turned into Brooklyn Bridge Park. It is not a secret that the PA would like to be free of the Red Hook containerport as well.

However, the status quo has been main-tained, even during a crisis period when the previous terminal operator, Ameri-can Stevedoring, was evicted. Political pressure to maintain a working water-front, and the last NYC maritime facil-ity has kept it open.

Those same polit-ical sensitivities may be what pre-vented EDC from giving the City Council any hint of their plans for the South Brook-lyn Marine Ter-minal.

All EDC would say was that they would start out with a series of short term leases, and at some point in the future try and rent the whole campus to one large operator who would make a substan-tial investment in the facility. If the Red Hook Container Terminal were to move, this would be the timetable.

The Citizen’s Budget CommitteeJust this month, the Citizen’s Budget Commission (CBC) issued a lengthy study on the financial future of the Port Authority (PA). The Citizen’s Budget Commission is a non-profit organiza-tion that tries to affect public policy especially as it involves NY City and State finances and taxation. They call themselves non-partisan, but their lead-ership is heavily weighted in favor of business and real estate interests.

The group was founded in 1932 by John D. Rockefeller. Very few, if any labor of social justice interests are posted on their website. Instead, it is scattered

with articles advocating higher fares for the PATH and bridges and tunnels; denouncing the high cost of municipal garbage collection, and criticizing bo-nus payments made to city workers.

“Someone asked Brayman about the lease arrangement

in Red Hook. “Four years left,” he said, and then the

plan was to move everything to Sunset Park.”

EDC and the City Council(continued from page 3)


Andrew Genn, Zachary Nelson and Josh Nelson of EDC appear before the City Council committee.


This bias is obfuscated by the word “Citizens’ in their name and “non-par-tisan” in their description. The press regularly cites CBC reports as coming from a watchdog agency.

The CBC report looks for ways to re-duce losses in PA maritime activities. The great majority of PA run piers are in New Jersey. The Cruise Terminal and the Red Hook Container Terminal are their Brooklyn properties, and the report recommends their closing. “If Brooklyn [Cruise Terminal] and Red Hook were closed and the property made available for development, the amount of vacant land in New York City’s Community Board 6 - including Red Hook, Gowa-nus, Carroll Gardens and portions of Cobble Hill and Park Slope - would in-crease more than 175%.”

The report also says that “sale of this land could generate additional revenue for the Port Authority.”

This selling off of public assets to cov-er operating losses brings to mind NY State’s plan to sell of the money losing Long Island College Hospital to private interests. The LICH sale led to a feeding frenzy among luxury condo developers. This would no doubt increase exponen-tially if the Columbia Street waterfront opened up to private interests.

However, the report gently avoids that potential controversy, instead hypothe-sizing “market-rate and affordable hous-ing, commercial, parks and public facili-ties such as schools.”

While this report focused on the PA, the authors include a paragraph about the city-owned South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. They point out that it is better suited to accommodate maritime traffic, as it is “better connected to the rail net-work East-of-Hudson.”

Railroads were the subject of a recent Waterfront and Industrial Develop-ment meeting chaired by State Senator Velmanette Montgomery. Mark Hoffer of the PA made a presentation of their Cross Harbor Freight program. That program’s goal is to reduce truck traffic in the region.

While most of the country is criss-crossed with freight trains, the only way to cross the Hudson by rail is north of Albany. Otherwise, freight stops in New Jersey and has to be trucked over

to the city and Long Island. Congress-man Jerry Nadler has been a longtime advocate of a freight tunnel under the Hudson River. Such a tunnel has been envisioned for over 100 years; the origi-nal purpose of the PA was to build one back in 1920. Facing too many obsta-cles, they built car tunnels under the Hudson instead.

The report, called “Cross Harbor Freight Program,” spells out ten op-tions for bringing rail traffic from New Jersey to Brooklyn. Five involve over-the water methods, the other five are variations on a tunnel. The waterborne alternatives can take up to 600 trucks off the road daily, while the rail tun-nel can remove as many as 5,000 truck trips. However, the waterborne alterna-tives are pegged to cost from $100-$600 million, while the tunnel could cost as much as $11 billion. All the waterborne plans involve the barging of railroad cars from New Jer-sey to a Port Authority facility on 65th Street, at the intersection of Bay Ridge and Sunset Park. The Sunset Park wa-terfront is filled with train tracks, many of them even going into buildings, where intermodal facilities were a big thing in the 20th century. The 65th Street train line extends through Brooklyn and con-nects with rail lines west of the Hudson. Alleviating truck congestion is a major PA goal, especially as it looks ahead to greater volumes over the next 25 years.At one time, Red Hook was connected by rail to Sunset Park, but those rails were destroyed. Being able to barge

trains loaded with containers from Jersey, as well as being able to unload containers in Sunset Park directly onto trains fits in with PA plans.

Red Hook uses six large cranes to un-load container ships. The containers are layed out in the yard and trucks then hitch up and take the containers to their eventual destination. The cranes can themselves be put on barges and floated up to Sunset Park for relocations. The workers, all ILA union members, can just as easily work in Sunset Park as in Red Hook. Their main concern is hav-ing the work. Less truck congestion can mean more ships (services) coming to load and unload cargo.

Finally, the City Council has just com-pleted a report on manufacturing in New York. This was also presented at

the Waterfront Working Group meet-ing. Titled “Engines of Opportunity,” the report highlights a turnaround in manufacturing employment that seems to be taking place. It is focused on higher paying jobs, and suggestions some changes in existing zoning regu-lations that have boosted commercial and residential uses at the expense of manufacturing. As more products are being made in Sunset Park for sale both locally and globally, having a nearby in-termodal container facility makes sense.Putting all this together, it seems rea-sonable to speculate that there is a behind-the-scenes plan to relocate the Red Hook Container Terminal. Carlos Menchaca, in stopping the EDC express, has started a process in which both communities might have a piece of the opportunities presented by the Brooklyn waterfront.

481 Van Brunt Street #8A (across from Fairway) 718 624-5568 [email protected] www.Star-Revue.com


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EDC and the City Council(continued from page 4)

At one time, Sunset Park was full of railroads. Freight was taken to and from factories and warehouses.

This old map illustrates the area’s train connection. The green line shows how freight from New Jersey could connect with the rail system this side of the Hudson.


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PORT AUTHORITY PITCHES RAIL AT LOCAL MEETING

by George Fiala

On January 7, State Senator Velma-nette Montgomery held another in a series of working meetings on water-front and industrial development. The meeting took place at the YWCA on Atlantic Avenue. It featured a presen-tation on the Port Authority’s ship to rail initiative called the Cross Harbor Freight Program.

The room quickly filled with a host of local VIPS. There were representatives from CB 16, Pratt, SBIDC, Uprose, CB 7, the International Longshoremans Union, Bed-Stuy Restoration, 99 Solu-tions (Bush Terminal lobbyists), NYC Economic Development Corporation, Empire State Development, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Portside NY, Joni Yoswein, Walter Mosley, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Jerry Nadler, Gowanus GBX, Felix Ortiz, David Ehrenberg of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Others in the audience included newly appoint-ed District Leader Paige Bellenbaum, and Marilyn Gelber, who was there to hear her one-time associate at the NYS Dept. Of Environmental Conservation, Mark Hoffer, make the Port Authority presentation. Representatives of the City Council were there to distribute a new report on industrial zoning.

Diana Reyna, assistant to Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, and Councilmember Carlos Menchaca both spoke about the tide in favor of manu-facturing. This is the basis of the new Council report recommending zoning changes that would help industry. The

report, Engines of Opportunity, calls IBZ zon-ing a failure for industry.

Hoffer’s pre-sentation was both scholarly and instruc-tional. This was despite his slightly dis-tracting habit of speaking with his eyes closed.

“We have a serious prob-lem,” he told the audience.

“We have a one-dimensional freight

system.” Because of a lack of rail access, most deliveries to the New York market have are shipped by truck.

He used a map to show how freight trains must make major detours if they want to reach the city. The only way across the Hudson is either to barge across, or detour hundreds of miles to go north of Albany to get to the only rail-way bridge that crosses the river.

As NYC’s population increases, truck traffic, which is already at capacity, will have to increase to get “food, medicine, clothes, goods we use,” as Hoffer liked to say, to local markets.

According to Hoffer, and others who have studied this problem over the past century, one solutions is to place railroad cars onto floating barges to transport them from New Jersey to Bay Ridge, where there is a connection with a freight railway system that was built many years ago.

The second solution would be a freight tunnel under the Hudson. This is what Congressman Jerry Nadler has champi-oned for thirty years.

The problem is money. A tunnel would cost between $7 and $11 billion dollars, while the cost to improve the floating rail barge system is in the hundreds of millions. The entire capital budget for the Port Authority is only $2.3 billion over the next decade. Until the money is found, it seems that the rail barge sys-tem will have to suffice.

Hoffer emphasized that whatever is de-cided, action must be taken soon so that something is in place before the roads become impassable.

The plan is currently in the public com-ment stage, and there will be a public hearing at Brooklyn Borough Hall on Tuesday, February 3, 2015 from 4 - 8 pm.

Mark Hoffer shows the audience where the break in the rail system lies. (photos by George Fiala)

Lou Pernice, local ILA President, wants to know who is going to train the next gen-eration of skilled dock-workers


Lack of building manager and superintendent cause huge garbage problem at 135 Richards Street

by George Fiala

It was an unpleasant holiday sea-son for residents of the 16 story NYCHA building at 135 Richards Street. The building lost both their

superintendent and manager, which re-sulted in a lapse in garbage pickups from the incinerator chutes.

The incinerators are no longer used - the garbage falls to the basement and is normally regularly cleaned out and dis-posed of by NYCHA workers. For some reason, the garbage wasn’t picked up for almost a week and nothing was done about it. The stack of garbage reached up to the eighth floor, with tenants complaining of unbelievable filth and stench in the hallways.

Councilman Carlos Menchaca and As-semblyman Felix Ortiz were notified by a group of tenants, including Marilyn Torres, which resulted in NYCHA up-per brass checking out the situation and ordering a cleanup.

Both Ortiz and Menchaca followed up with NYCHA to make sure that the service continued. A recent trip to 135 Richards confirmed that the chutes were clear and bags of garbage gone.

Some tenants have organized around the issue, and a meeting was held last Friday to continue to monitor the situa-tion, which took way to long to fix.

The photo below to the left was taken by Menchaca on one of his visits to the build-ing. The one on the right was taken by the Star-Revue on January 13th, showing the problem solved for now. The photo of the flyer was taken by Karen Broughton of As-semblyman Ortiz’s office.

Red Hook West TA Presi-dent Lillie Marshall informs the Star-Revue that a new manager has begun work, and hopefully services will return to better than normal.


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Red Hook is undergoing a re-naissance. At least according to a recent The Real Deal article that sees the acceler-

ated growth in market rate housing and commercial construction as “livening up this remote Brooklyn community.”

Such “livening up,” however, is often accompanied by diminished affordabil-ity and displacement, disproportion-ately affecting working class families and people of color. Already, 48% of Red Hook residents are rent burdened, renters that - as outlined by U.S Depart-ment of Housing and Urban Develop-ment - devote more than a third of their income to housing.

With 160 Imlay Street, the BASIS School, and Est4te Four’s 1.1 million square foot waterfront office project on the horizon, the question of how to en-sure Red Hook doesn’t become another case study of gentrification carries in-creasing urgency.

Red Hook is not alone in experiencing a crisis of affordability as the mismatch of stagnating wages and rising rents has left more than half of the city’s rent-ers rent burdened. Amidst this back-drop, Mayor de Blasio’s “Housing New York” plan has brought some hope that a progressive housing policy can reverse some of these trends.

While the reach of de Blasio’s Plan - cited as the most ambitious municipal housing initiative in American history - is commendable, its reliance on tradi-tional affordable housing mechanisms may fail to generate the long-term af-fordability that many New Yorkers need.

The prevailing model of affordable housing development - utilizing public money and tax abatements to incentiv-ize private developers to include afford-able units - is hardly accessible to New Yorkers that need it most. The formula the city uses to determine affordability, Area Median Income, standing now at $85,900 for a family of four, makes many of these “affordable” units created on the private market out of reach for low income neighborhoods and households.

The shortcomings of traditional affordable housing development measures are forc-ing advocates, community organizations, and policy makers to seek a new blueprint that creates real affordability. One model gaining increasing visibility and momen-tum is the community land trust (CLT).

With roots in the 1960’s civil rights movement when organizers worked to provide land ownership opportunities to African American farmers, the CLT model is being revived as a mechanism to create permanent affordable housing

in low-income neighborhoods.

At its core, a CLT removes housing from the speculative market by separating the ownership of property from the owner-ship of the land. The owner of the land is often a nonprofit, community-based organization that retains ownership of the parcels in perpetuity. Buildings on CLT land can range from single-family homes, rental buildings, condos, co-ops, to commercial spaces. Currently there are over 200 CLTs across the country, including several that can serve as tem-plates for application in Red Hook.

Founded in 1959, the Cooper Square Community Land Trust has housed generations of low-income families in the Lower East Side through a combina-tion of CLT, Mutual Housing, and Lim-ited Equity Cooperative models. The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, granted the power of eminent domain in 1984, repurposes abandoned proper-ties and provides permanent affordabil-ity in one of Boston’s most disinvested communities. In San Francisco, over 21 households filled with families and senior citizens were preserved after a decade-long organizing campaign led by the San Francisco Community Land Trust. These are just a few examples proving the feasibility of community ownership models to counterbalance displacement pressure and ensure long lasting affordability.

Given this backdrop of crisis and op-portunity, a coalition of non-profits, housing developers, academics, com-munity residents, and local elected of-ficials convened to form the New York City Community Land Trust Initiative (NYCCLI). The Initiative, of which the

local community based Carroll Gardens Association (CGA) recently became a member, fights to “preserve the right of extremely low income people to live in the city by supporting Community Land Trusts and other community-led hous-ing and neighborhood development” through technical support, research, popular education, grassroots organiz-ing, and advocacy.

NYCCLI has four working groups in-cluding Education and Outreach; Leg-islation, which is defining a CLT legis-lative and policy agenda; Governance, which is developing the governing structure framework for equitable and sustainable CLTs; and a pilot project group, that is actively working to im-plement a CLT in East Harlem. This

Development without displacement: ensuring affordability in Red Hook by Ben Fuller-Googins

Left unchecked, the growing

specter of real estate

speculation will transform

Red Hook into another

enclave of gentrification.

These townhouses are planned for Sullivan Street across from PS 15.

multi-pronged approach aims to lay the foundation for a citywide alliance spear-heading community driven neighbor-hood planning.

With a progressive councilmember committed to innovative policy initia-tives, a strong network of community based nonprofits, and rich history of resident led grassroots organizing, Red Hook already possesses the foundation to implement Southwest Brooklyn’s first community land trust. Left unchecked, the growing specter of real estate specu-lation will transform Red Hook into an-other enclave of gentrification.

Community Land Trusts are a proven model that can counterbalance dis-placement while providing affordability for generations to come.

Samantha Dodds, Jason Douglas, Rosalie Wysokowski, Donna ONeill (Ridge-wood Savings Bank), John Leighton Head Librarian, Akwesi Asante, Instructor, and a friend of the library (photo by George Fiala)

Friends of Carroll Gardens Library receive $1000 from the Ridgewood Savings Bank

On January 8th, the Friends of the Carrool Gardens Library held a press event to announce a generous dona-tion from the Ridgewood Savings bank. The bank, with a branch on Court Street, contributed $1000 to continue the programs of Akwesi As-ante. Asante teaches a very popular Senior Wellness class at the library every Thursday morning. Over 229 seniors are registered for the program, and at least 30 show up each week.

Mr. Asante, who lives in Park Slope, also teaches at the Dodge YMCA, pro-viding music instruction for children.

The library has a rich catalogue of programs, most of them instigated by their chief friend, Harriet Lieb-stag. Some of the others include meditation, aerobics and knitting.

The Carroll Gardens Library is lo-cated at the corner of Union and Clinton Streets.


It was barely a few days before Christmas when my son, John reminded me that we had not yet bought fish for our traditional

Christmas Eve Fish Fest. I admit, I was dragging my foot about the whole holi-day in general since the only surviving patriarch in our family was hospital bound with a stroke - and then, a seri-ous fall. I spent more Christmases than I had ever wished in my life with grand-parents passing on before the holidays that I had slipped into a melancholy mood.

John cajoled me into taking heart and forging on with the holidays as usual. He assured me that we could modify and adapt to whatever the circumstanc-es called for. In the spirit of Christmas, he offered to accompany me to lighten the mood and make an afternoon of it together.

Before I knew it, we were Brooklyn bound talking up a storm about Christ-mases past, when I realized none of my children had ever taken the shop-ping excursion with me to buy the fish. When they were small, the fish came duly delivered, courtesy of my father. When they were teenagers and young adults - after my father had passed - they were in school or working. The task belonged solely to me. A task that involved re-inventing the process of where to get the best fish for my buck...that my father would have approved.

It took several years, but I finally man-aged to tweak the hunt down to a sat-isfactory outcome. My purchases, with little help from those whom I would have expected it, were made in several markets and at various times to coor-dinate the timing and preparation of the days leading up to the Christmas Eve finale. However, on this day, there was only time to get everything in one day. These were the thoughts that were running through my head when my son interrupted them. “Are we going to get everything at the Fulton Fish Market?” he asked. Logical question since, yes, that is exactly where my father used to get most of his fish.

“No.” I replied. “They moved to the Bronx many years ago, and, truthfully, I never thought to trek that far a dis-tance, especially before the holidays, when it’s a madhouse.”

I explained to him the routine I had developed in Brooklyn - mostly in and around the neighborhood. “You’ll see,” I told him. “We’ll do good.”

Like myself, John maintained an inter-est in ancestral connections and senti-ment to his grandparents. Following in their footsteps - or honoring what they valued most - is of particular impor-tance to him. His question prompted me to recall those Fulton Fish Market excursions my siblings and I took as little kids with his grandfather back in the sixties.

“Oh my God, it was always soooo cold,” I told him. “He woke us in the middle of the night and we had to take a bus and train to get to Manhattan. When we got there, the fish mongers were yelling at the tops of their lungs, trying

to lure customers to their tables. There were fires in steel barrels everywhere to keep us from freezing to death.” John laughed.

“And, of course, Grandpa had to double check everything they were selling. We just wanted to hurry up and get back home so we could get back into our beds in time for the radiators to start clanging and hissing so we could warm up. Forget it! That never happened. In-evitably, Grandpa would always come across some fishmonger trying to sell him old fish, but passing it off as fresh - the ultimate insult! ‘Jesus Christ,’ he’d tell the guy, ‘go sell it to your mother, then, not me.’ That usually started an argument and we wanted to crawl un-der a hole somewhere.” We laughed hard together. I, vividly remembering that scenario; he, envisioning it - ac-cent, hand gestures and all!

“Can we go to the Bronx next year?” John asked, as his laughter settled a bit. “I’d like to really see what that was like. I mean, to see the open market and what Grandpa was best at doing.”

“Well, you could see some of that here, in Red Hook and Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, all of it. He shopped for fish here, too.”

“Yeah, but it’s all different now.”

I thought about that. “Yeah, that’s

true,” I whispered to myself. I won-dered how long I could hang onto to Red Hook as I knew it in its prime for my generation. How many more changes needed to take place before I could say it’s over. It’s been over. Throughout the years, my kids looked at storefronts I had pointed out to them that once were. Buildings that are no longer standing that held many memories. Buildings that have replaced landmarks. Churches that once served congregations, not tenants. There’s no going back, I thought sadly.

We arrived at our main fish “market” on Douglas Street, a huge wholesale garage that sells to the public during Christmas. It was uneventful for my son, I could see, as he roamed from one freezer chest to another as we selected boxes of frozen lobsters, calamari and octopus. He was hankering for a real fish experience.

Instead, we headed to Whole Foods - a last minute decision. I couldn’t think of a better place, actually, that would have the remaining scallops and shrimp I needed that would be of de-cent quality. And I could pick up all the sides and other ingredients I need-ed there as well.

It was my second time at Whole Foods in Gowanus since its opening, and

Christmas seemed to be the perfect time to be there. Purveyors of all kinds were in full force with tastings. A cou-ple of them with samples of oysters from Connecticut and the North Fork was a huge score for us. We didn’t mean to, but we found ourselves slurping down more than our share - they were that good! So, we bought a dozen to make up for their loss. Hey, it was Christmas. “Grandpa would have enjoyed these,” I

told my son, “but he may have thought the price was high. Yet if you asked me, I’d say he would’ve bought five dozen.”

We continued our little roam-about, sampling pizza from Third Avenue and yogurt in Park Slope, both made from scratch with locally grown fresh ingre-dients.

“Really, when you think about it, John, this concept of the neighborhood hasn’t really changed.” I told him that when we were kids growing up there, our food stores weren’t much different in their preference for fresh, locally grown produce and artisinal products. We just never called them “artisinal.”

I pointed out the cranberries gently bobbing in a box of cool water, simu-lating their water-filled bogs when har-vested, waiting to be picked. And how a lot of the produce was packed in net-ting as opposed to plastic bags; we had brown bags or paper wrappings for our foods.

Our sustainability efforts were never planned, nor were they an ideology, we just lived it. Having our own gar-dens, cultivating and composting our back yards fed us nutritiously and saved our earth without ever thinking about it. It’s more of a movement now - for obvious reasons - with short and long term goals that have a huge impact on

our future. Those organic practices and vibes are still the pulse in the area. “In a way, the past still resonates here.” I said, reassuring myself as much as John.

Our afternoon shopping came to an end as we decided to have dinner together upstairs at the Roof Café. There were hipsters frolicking with their kids in the play area. A roof-top greenhouse with rows of healthy looking produce sat ad-jacent to the café. The table tops in the restaurant looked like recycled wood planks from long ago. We passed a sign that explained that the outside con-struction of the Third and 3rd Whole Foods was built with bricks from the old Westinghouse Building in New Jersey.

I reminded John that when we were in Italy, we had learned that many ru-ins had been dismantled to re-use the materials for newer buildings. It had to stop, though, lest they removed history in its entirety. (i.e. the Coliseum).

I told him the story of our own garden in Red Hook. “Being the farmer that he was, Grandpa dug out most of the back yard to make a huge garden bed. ” I said. “As he dug, he came across the founda-tion of a building. There were several houses we knew of in the area that were built one behind the other. You would walk through the hallway of the first building to the back yard, to get to the second building behind it. That prob-ably explained why public records show two house numbers for one parcel for some addresses. It was in our case. Any-way, he dug up all those bricks and left it in the back yard, in case, as he said, ‘we need it for something else.’ Well, John, the two long strips of brick that is on our driveway at home are none oth-er than those bricks from Luquer Street. We found that ‘something else’. Waste not, want not. We went ‘green’ and it saved a lot of money!”

Our food came. Burgers made from grass-fed cows, brioche rolls and fresh vegetables on the side. We were given old mason jars for our drinks, fittingly characteristic of the old neighborhood, and, of all things, in place of napkins, we were given the cotton, restaurant-

Our sustainability efforts were never planned, nor were

they an ideology, we just lived it. Having our own gardens,

cultivating and composting our back yards fed us nutritiously

and saved our earth without ever thinking about it.

Our backyard in Red Hook that was dug up to make use of the most space for a garden. The bricks my father dug up were from the foundation of an old demolished building.

Red Hook today is firmly rooted in Red Hook of the pastby Mary Ann Pietanza



EDITORIAL:

Breaking the chains of corporate interests

Speaking truth to power can involve a personal sacri-fice. Getting into a position where power will listen is a

big achievement. It takes courage to risk that position if the truth is not what the powers that be de-sire.

Carlos Menchaca, our City Councilman, did just that the other week. He used the power vested in his position to refuse the NYC Economic Develop-ment Corporation’s (EDC) re-quest to control a pier in Sunset Park. By standing up to EDC, - and for the community - Menchaca put himself in a position contrary to the mayor’s office.

EDC’s function is to attract business to New York. They are a city agency, but operate outside normal city over-sight. They claim that to properly manage city properties, they need the flexibility of a private development company to quickly grant leases.

The deals EDC cuts as they do the city’s business are not always in the best interests of local residents. For example, there have been many local complaints about EDC’s management of the Atlantic Basin. They have not acted on Red Hook’s desire for ferry service to Governor’s Island. They re-neged on a promise to berth the Mary Whelan there.

Their staff is not representative of the local community. EDC President Kyle Kimball, comes from the world of in-vestment banking.

What EDC asks for is to act like a pri-

vate development company. These companies act in the best financial interests of private property. But EDC manages public property. The role of government is to steward the land of

the people for the best interests of all the people.

Councilman Menchaca position gives him authority over EDC’s request for full control of the development of South Brooklyn Marine Termi-nal. Menchaca represents the largely blue collar population of Sunset Park and Red Hook, and he asked reason-able questions about local hiring and maintaing a balance between public and private uses of the Terminal. He was not satisfied with EDC’s answers and so did not immediately grant their request.

It is obvious that EDC is not used to opposition. Their response was to say that Menchaca doesn’t know what he is talking about and, as reported in the NY Daily News, “walked away from the table.”

Menchaca simply wants to do the job he was elected to do, which is to advo-cate for the community. In this case, he bravely stood alone against an en-

trenched and powerful city agency.

Menchaca was elected along with the mayor as a “new progressive.” While these words may have been simply

a strategy for some politicians to gain power, it looks like Menchaca is taking his mandate serious-ly; he is working hard to change things for the betterment of his constituents.

Our councilman is modest, but what he

just did was truly iconoclastic. We ap-plaud him for that.

Red Hook ContainerportIf our speculation is correct, the Red Hook Containerport will not have their lease renewed in 2019. The pros-pect of suddenly vacant prime Brook-lyn waterfront brings the possibility of multiple scenarios.

A huge line of interests, led by luxury

condo real estate developers, will be interested in the property. Others in-clude advocates for affordable hous-ing, open space, entertainment ven-ues and industry.

One only has to look at the contro-versies that have surrounded Brook-lyn Bridge Park over the years to get an idea of the battles ahead.

Councilman Brad Lander has had his hands full dealing with these interests in Gowanus. He has been walking a fine line between industry, parks, his-torical preservationists and real estate interests.

The final story is not yet written, al-though the face of Carroll Gardens is already changed forever as the Light-stone project begins to rise alongside the Gowanus Canal.

Our guess is that dealing with the fu-ture of Gowanus will be child’s play compared to the future of the Colum-bia Waterfront District’s shoreline, if and when the Containerport exits.

“ Menchaca simply wants to do the job he

was elected to do, which is to advocate for

the community. In this case, he bravely stood

alone against an entrenched and powerful

city agency.”

Coffey Park update

Last April, without much notice, fences went around the northern end of Cof-fey Park. The community was later informed that the Parks Department had received money from the City Council to perform renovations. These renova-tions consist of removing the paving stones from the pathways in favor of an asphalt surface, as well as some cosmetic changes to the area around the flagpole area and some new benches and barbecue pits. The renovation was promised to be finished in a year. It has been a rare day when any workmen can be seen, meanwhile, the park sits desolate. The con-tractor now has a little over two months to finish. We will keep you posted.


Mark’s Corner

BY MARK SHAMES


Brooklyn has a lot at stake in the debate over how to prioritize New York State’s investments. Waterfront revitalization,

freight rail expansion, Brownfield reme-diation and expansion mean jobs and healthier neighborhoods for Brooklyn.

That’s why I have introduced the Urban Restoration Bond Act. This bill would place the following question before the voters in a referendum at a November general election: Should New York make up to $2 billion available through bond-ing for projects to repair and restore our state’s infrastructure? A “yes” vote could provide the resources to bring progress to Brooklyn and all New York.

It is also why I will be working with Governor Andrew Cuomo to explore state efforts to supplement federal Super-fund dollars and provide tax credits for the cleanup of Brownfield sites. As you know, Brownfield sites are areas contam-inated by toxic wastes from past industri-al and military project left unprotected. The elimination of Brownfields is a key step to protecting the health of our kids as well as to a healthier economy.

This an especially opportune time to in-vest in Brooklyn’s infrastructure. Look no further than the Panama Canal. In less than two years, the Panama Canal is scheduled to open up a new channel that will accommodate ships carrying double the cargo of those that it can accommo-date currently. As a result, Eastern sea-board ports are scrambling to prepare for a new maritime-based economic boom. I want Red Hook and the rest of Brook-lyn to be ready for this influx of freight.

Until now, I have assiduously refrained from comment on the growing tensions between minority communities together with the activists attached to their issue and the New York City Police Department. I figured I would only get myself into trouble with

both sides by commenting; my voice will hardly be the spur to a resolution of the conflicts in any event. However, since it continues to absorb nearly all of the energy in the City and dominates the news, what else is there to talk about? Frankly it is my main worry that this will sabotage all other aspects of administration’s agenda.

I joined with all New Yorkers and the nation in mourning two of our local police officers, as well as, those out in Nevada who died in unprovoked at-tacks and otherwise in the line of duty. I also fell empathy over the death of any innocent civilian and unarmed criminal in an interaction with police that has gone wrong.

I have never had anything but positive interactions with members of the police force. I admire all that I have met through my various community activities. That being said, over the years I have heard numerous firsthand accounts from my middle class male friends of color of unwarranted stops by police officers. If they are being stopped, such stops have been pervasive in the larger black community.

This is not a problem that is suddenly upon us; it has been a continuous, slow boil throughout our history. It has bubbled over in the past, and now, as other issues have been resolved, this simmering pot has again moved from the back burner to the front.

There is an underclass. It is often overly comprised of or conflated with peo-ple of color. That segment of our society has always received the lion’s share of scrutiny from law enforcement. When we equate threats to order with people of color, one result is fathers like our mayor warning their sons to be particularly careful of authority. Another is resentment - of what amounts to disrespect - of law-abiding people. On the other hand, we don’t even bother to warn children to be wary of adolescent black men because it is from that pervasive fear that this issue arises.

None of this is essentially the fault of the police. Maintaining order and pub-lic safety is the job. They often are interacting with people at their worst, as well as the worst of people. I could not do their job. I would not want their job. I have the utmost respect for those on the job.

They make quick judgments. Their lives may depend on it. They go to work each day wanting to do good. They go to work each day knowing they may end up in harm’s way. Sometimes things just go wrong but sometimes they are rash and sometimes mistaken. When things go wrong innocents or minor miscreants may die. When rash decisions or mistakes seem to be made in your community rather than someone else’s, you are more likely to see intent. I don’t see intent, but neither do I see coincidence.

The new city administration has placed an emphasis on reform to avoid or at least cut down on deadly incidents and bring a new respect and understand-ing between the police and the policed that. I wish that police officers, partic-ularly those who have shown a shameful disrespect for our elected leaders - as well as their outrageously intemperate union boss - would have an epiphany and embrace these efforts.

When I started writing this piece, I focused on the excesses of the demonstra-tors as the primary impediment to reform and better community police rela-tions. Now the focus has shifted.

If you believe, as I do, that the administration is sincere and will carry through on reform, then you desperately want there to be the civic space in which to act. If the rhetoric, and violence that it seems to spawn, and the disruption in our streets is unabated, that space will close. Reform will wither, and all the other progressive initiatives of the administration will be put in jeopardy.

Many of my best friends believe that there ought to be special prosecutors or our attorney general should be appointed to investigate police involved deaths. I do not.

In my experience it is rare that a police officer is convicted - even if indicted - and criminalizing even highly flawed police action will not make for a better police force or safer streets.

When an officer is acting outside of his authority or with a particular animus or motive than an indictment is appropriate. Local prosecutors are capable of indicting in those circumstances. However, the police may not be allowed to act with impunity either.

Now is the time for Brooklyn to prepare to upgrade waterfront terminals so that our terminals can benefit from the new class of mega-ships that will be fully loaded with freight and will need rail-ways to transport cargo to its final desti-nation. We must ready our ports for this expansion with on-dock rail capability and near-dock intermodal facilities.

This is a crucial time to improve eco-nomic growth at the same time as im-proving infrastructure. It is the trifecta of infrastructure improvements: water-front revitalization; possible Brownfields clean-ups; and expansion of rail-based economy all in one.

I look forward to continued work for our Assembly district in Albany and with our congressional delegation and city administration to find ways to revitalize our waterfronts and expand freight rail for the benefit of all New Yorkers and the economy of our state.

THE KEYS TO BROOKLYN’S WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENT

By Assembly Member Felix W. Ortiz

Goodbye to a friend

It was somewhat of a surprise last year when Joan Millman decided not to run for re-election in the 52nd As-

sembly District.

She replaced the much loved Eileen Dugan, who served in the Assembly un-til her untimely death from breast can-cer in 1996.

Dugan was a tough act to follow, but Joan served with distinction, continuing Dugan’s work on the waterfront. Mill-man cites with proud her contribution to the building of Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Joan was always friendly to this paper, posing with copies of our paper as far back as our first year. She always engaged us in conversation when we brought the new issue to her Smith Street office, and scolded us when we forgot to do so.

One of the best things we heard her say was at an emergency meeting of the Cobble Hill Association on the subject of the announced sale of Long Island College Hospital by SUNY Downstate.

SUNY contended that they were no longer able to sustain losses at the hos-pital, implying that it was more valu-able to the state for its value as real es-

tate property.

Joan told the audience that in fact, the hospital was the best bargain around. Many of her friends had received great treatment at the hospital over the past year, and surprisingly, not one ever re-ceived a bill for services rendered. No wonder they lost money!

We wish Joan the best in her new posi-tion with NYC’s Dept. for the Aging.

Joan, packing up on her last day of work last December.

Felix Ortiz has represented Red Hook and Sunset Park in the State Assembly for two decades.


Building Quality Pre-K ProgramsBy Wally Bazemore and Megan Brown

According to recently released graduation statistics, a child growing up in New York State has a one in three chance of graduating high school prepared for college or career. The odds are even worse for children growing up in high-needs communities.

The dire statistics make the de Blasio Administration’s efforts to enroll every four-year-old in pre-k programs even more important—and more urgent.

There is endless research that shows that providing students with excellent learning opportunities at a young age gives them a leg up on their future.

Families in wealthier communities have long known this to be true. The battle for acceptance into prestigious pre-school programs is well documented, with families seeing these opportunities as essential pathways to great secondary schools and universities.

In lower income communities, where many parents have historically turned to area day care programs or rely on family members for their childcare, kindergarten is often a child’s first exposure to school. Therefore, it’s not surprising our students continue to underperform compared to those in more affluent areas.

Luckily, this is starting to change. With the addition of tens of thousands of new pre-k seats this year, including many more in the Red Hook, families are jumping at the chance to give their children the same advantages as everyone else. City officials deserve a lot of credit for enrolling many new students in such a short period of time. Now it’s their responsibility to ensure each of the programs they attend are of high quality, whether they are run in an existing public school or out of a community based organization.

One of the most promising programs I’ve seen in our own neighborhood is pre-pave, a program in its second year that enrolls the majority of its students from the Red Hook Houses.

This year, more than 120 families applied for just 36 seats at pre-pave, drawn to its strong academic program and the social emotional development it provides every student. Tour a classroom and you’ll find that every minute of every day is a learning opportunity—at lunch children take turns handing out plates, pouring milk and water and learning to use utensils. There are two certified teachers in each classroom, even though the city only requires one.

A recent external assessment noted that pre-pave’s students are making notably more progress than the national average and other major school districts with comparable student populations. Not only did the program score high in the areas of emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support, but the school’s in-ternal assessments showed that students have made strides in the skills that will be essential when they enter kindergarten, including upper case letter identification, lower case letter identification, and letter sound iden-tification.

These are exactly the types of early learning programs our neighborhood needs and that the city needs to con-tinue to support. But it’s already easy to see challenges on the horizon. Several programs across the boroughs have already been shut down for quality control issues. The city needs to identify those high quality pre-k’s that it wants to model and encourage best practice sharing across programs.

Additionally, the real estate issues that have plagued the traditional public school system could easily begin to trickle down to pre-k programs. In the case of pre-pave, for instance, the program has outgrown its current space and must find a new home for next year. If not, it will close. There is no other option. Having the city identify appropriate public and private spaces for preschoolers would be a good first step to nipping this issue in the bud.

As a city, we have taken major steps forward in making all children ready to learn by kindergarten. Ensuring that those steps lead to many more children prepared for college and career is the next hurdle, but one we can overcome with the right planning and commitment.

Wally Bazemore is a longtime Red Hook resident and community activist. He was a founding board member of Pave Acad-emy Charter School. Megan Brown is the Director of pre pave, a high-quality pre-k program serving Red Hook families.

Beginning in January, it will be illegal to discard electronics such as computers and their peripherals, televisions, fax machines, VCRs, DVD players, print-ers/scanners, video game consoles, MP3 players, tablets, and small servers in the trash or at the curb. See the NYC E-Waste website for details.

The Department of Sanitation is send-ing a mailer to all New Yorkers that ex-plains the electronics disposal ban and lists recycling options.

We recommend that our residents take advantage of our local drop-off site the Gowanus e-Waste Warehouse operated by the Lower East Side Ecology Cen-ter (LESEC), conveniently located at 469 President Street (corner of Nevins Street) in Gowanus. The warehouse is open five days a week including: Tues-days, Thursdays and Fridays from 10am to 5pm, Wednesdays from 12pm to 7pm and Saturdays from 10am to 4pm.

For a modest fee LESEC is also avail-able for special collection events in collaboration with local groups. These

style dish towels that we used as kids. My son recognized them right away as the towels my father used to wash and sanitize from Sam’s Restaurant on Hamilton Avenue after Sam tossed them out for garbage!

“He was ahead of his time, really,” I emphasized to John, thinking to myself how he was one of the lone thinkers of his time. An earth friendly, inher-ent recycling enthusiast, and an early seedling of a foodie, with much of the same entrepreneurial concepts that could be seen all around Red Hook and Williamsburg. Smorgasburg, slow food, wine making, city farming, canning, foraging mushrooms - all examples of the commonality he had with the cur-rent day hipster movement. “Every-where I turn,” I told John, “I see rem-nants of Grandpa’s ideas for food-based businesses here.”

We went home that evening, uplifted and expecting to trim our tree. My friend from Red Hook called me, just minutes after we had arrived. “Did you hear about the two cops that got shot in Bed-Stuy?” she asked. I had not.

In the midst of enjoying an afternoon out with my son in the neighborhood - something I would not have been able to do had Red Hook and the sur-rounding areas not been gentrified, if gangs were still running amuck, or subcultures inciting riots, and drug ad-dicts and dealers making the streets a challenge to shop, go to school or work - I was unaware that two officers were killed execution style.

I sickened at the thought of how each of the actions during the previous few weeks were causing reactions, in much the same pattern it did in the 60s and 70s. Images of liberation parties and their offshoots were coming back to life in my head. It was those riots that left the deepest groove in our memories as Red Hookers more than anything. It crippled our freedom and reinforced our belief that we were not safe, not wanted and not prepared for resolution, in a peaceful way.

It comes in cycles, perhaps, and my worst fear at that very moment was that Red Hook as we know it now, could be at the tip of becoming what it was. All over again.

OP-ED

From our Community Boardevents are often sponsored by local civic associations, elected officials and other community-based organizations. If you are interested in organizing an event, please contact LESEC at (718) 858-8777 or [email protected].

From Brad LanderWe are pleased to announce that Gowa-nus United has reached a settlement with DOCCS to reduce the number of parolees reporting to the Gowanus facil-ity by two-thirds (from 6,000 to 2,000) and to establish community-based re-porting sites in neighborhoods through-out the borough.

This is a real win/win. It is better for our community, better for parolees, and better criminal justice policy. Our community will still do more than its fair-share, serving one-third of the borough’s parolees (far more than our share of Brooklyn’s population), but the reduction will make it work much bet-

ter for residents and small businesses in the area. And the changes will make it much more realistic for ex-offenders to meet the conditions of their parole, and successfully transition back to the com-munity.

The new parole facility will still be a significant change for our community, with approximately 130 parolees per day. DOCCS has agreed to meet on a regular basis with community represen-tatives and to provide information on an ongoing basis. My office will work closely with them, community mem-bers, businesses, and our local NYPD precincts, to address the issues that arise.

Pietanza(continued from page 9)

Red Hook Hub seeks submissionsAre you promoting a community event or meeting? The Red Hook HUB is looking for submissions! The Red Hook HUB is a public communications sys-tem that provides residents with a plat-form for sharing and gathering commu-nity information.

Visit redhookhub.org or the Red Hook Library Board to post information and check for upcoming events. Also, follow the HUB on Facebook, Twitter & Ins-tagram at redhookhub.


In 1967, The Graduate earned Mike Nichols an Academy Award for Best Director of the year. The film was nominated in six other catego-

ries. It was the highest grossing film of all time in the 1960s and has since be-come a beloved classic film still capable of speaking to the masses.

Benjamin Braddock has just received his college degree. The whole world is an opportunity for him, but he’s feel-ing uncertain about his future. The wife of his father’s business partner, Mrs. Robinson seduces him. Ben eventually meets and falls in love with Mrs. Robin-son’s daughter, Elaine. Mrs. Robinson is furious and does everything in her pow-er to keep Ben away from her daughter.

In 2000, Terry Johnson adapted Calder Willingham and Buck Henry’ screen play into a stage script. For the 2014-15 Heights Players’ season, Cameron McIntosh took on the enormous task of bringing the show to Brooklyn commu-nity theater as his first mainstage direc-torial debut.

A daunting taskIn a director’s note, McIntosh writes, “To capture the visual and emotion-al dynamics of Mike Nichols’ iconic and monumental masterpiece seems a daunting task...There are countless ways to approach this; it’s a matter of picking one and fully committing to it.”

The character driven show was present-ed in a thrust - or three sided space. The characters must fight viciously for what their driving force is. Furthermore, each character has to figure out what he or she wants in front of an audience whom are most likely well acquainted with the famous film.

In some ways, McIntosh was successful in demonstrating the power and com-monality of the story. The juxtaposition of the grounded Mrs. Robinson is versus Ben’s unsettled anxiety is unmistak-able. The high energy of all the charac-ters pushes the plot quickly along.

However, much of the show is rushed, not allowing the actor’s emotions to emerge. The characters are flat and two-dimensional in a show that requires high stakes and emotional attachment. The fast paced timing of opening scene did not allow the audience to settle into the world of the theater, and the banter continued throughout the remainder of the show.

Lines were too rushed to be connected with other actors. The swiftness of the script gave viewers heart palpitations; they were offered no time to breathe. Actors seldom even paused for punc-tuation within the lines. The audience saw nothing organic happen onstage be-cause of this hastiness.

In addition, the hurried dialogue was often hard to follow, even for those fa-miliar with the film.

Through other characters’ dialogue, we learn that Ben is extremely intelligent, active and an over-achiever. Despite the character’s lack of direction, Sam Kinsman portrays no sign that he has any other quality other than pacing anxiety; his feet rarely stop moving and his lines are delivered without intent

or emotion. His interactions between Elaine and Mrs. Robinson have no distinction between his differing rela-tionships with them. His mannerisms and behavior become stagnant and re-petitive. Actors cannot replace emotion with movement.

Mrs. Robinson is a complex character with many layers. Ben must be drawn to her for some quality that he identifies as attractive. She uses her charm and warm manipulation as allure. Mindy Cassle plays the lead role as bossy and mean. Ben pursues her simply because the script tells him to do so because she gives him no other reason.

Cassle lacked layers that make her de-sirable: smoothness, seductiveness, charm. Her manipulation and passive aggressiveness not masked by allure and seduction, leaving the audience won-dering why Ben ever called her in the first place.

When the tables have turned and Ben is pursuing Elaine, Cassle is not vicious enough; her nasty edge is too soft. Her stakes are not high enough, and she does not deliver the cruel jilted lover the script demands.

Kristen Seavey (Elaine) seemed to be waiting for her next cue. She seemed unaware of what was happening on stage around her. The rushed delivery of lines did not allow emotions to un-fold for her. Her overly quick tempo produced a sharp edge that eroded any attempt at emotion she might have stumbled upon.

Seavey’s part requires that she represent the sweet innocence her mother is lack-ing. Elaine’s appearance and wardrobe are naïve. However, she needed to em-ploy more naivety in her mannerisms, delivery and responses.

Mr. Robinson, played by R.L. Swartz, was the only character in this produc-tion worthy of compassion. He was well animated and displayed a full range of emotions towards Ben from “almost my son” to “despicable trash.” Although in theme with the rest of the production with quickly delivered lines, he was ca-pable of portraying emotion and letting the story unfold before him. As a result, his reactions from the audience re-ceived the biggest laughs and the most sympathy. This actor was grounded and full of life in every scene.

Simple set leads to chaosThe set was a simple model that could be manipulated into a variety of spaces. The main piece was a black platform that transformed into a bed, a front porch, a wedding altar and a bus.

The creativity of design was negated by the execution of scene changes. Scene changes became disruptive and chaotic; too much attention was drawn to them. If the audience is going to be watching, set changes either need to entertain or be a part of the show, not “Hold on while we rearrange a couple of things!” The changes need to be better orga-nized and executed.

During the love affair between Ben and Mrs. Robinson, McIntosh created a span of time by having ensemble mem-

bers pull the bed across the stage. The effective use of lighting gave the illu-sion of varying times of days and differ-ent scenes.

McIntosh’s one faux pas during this scene is that the bed lacked sheets. Being able to see both actors partially clothed and trying to suspend reality as they sim-ulated lovemaking proved difficult.

This story’s final two scenes in the wed-ding chapel and the escape to the bus are the climactic points and where the story ends. Both were rushed so badly that the climatic events that end the show barely began to elapse before they ended.

The audience is just barely able to inter-pret Elaine’s wedding when Ben begins banging on the upstairs window. Elaine’s wedding march was a sprint down the aisle. Efforts to prevent Ben from tak-ing Elaine were unconvincing. Elaine’s groom gave no reaction from that his bride was leaving him at the altar.

Just as the wedding scene ended, the chaos of the scene change disrupted the show. As Elaine and Ben escaped the

Heights Player’s The Graduate falls flat of expectationsby Kimberly Gail Price

chapel onto the bus, they seemed the happy couple riding away to paradise, as opposed to the uncertainty of “what’s next” that the film leaves us with. The play ended abruptly, as the script in-tends, but the full weight of the circum-stance never materialized.

Those with a certain nostalgia for the movie may be pleased with the script and execution. However, even they would be disappointed in the actors’ portrayal of Willingham and Henry’s cult film.

Following the production, murmurings of Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft were plentiful. Community theater should not have to live up to those ex-pectations. However, as director, McIn-tosh needs to allow his actors to experi-ence their full range of emotions - even during productions.

The Heights Players perform The Gradu-ate based on the 1960s classic movie Fri-days and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm through January 25. Tickets $20. 26 Willow Place

Ben (Kinsman) takes Elaine (Seavey) on an obnoxious first date. (photo courtesy of the Heights Players)


34 VAN DYKE ST, BROOKLYN, NY 11231 (718) 246-8050

THE STAR-THEATER JAM HAS MOVED TO ROCKY SULLIVAN’S!

EVERY MONDAY 8 - MIDNIGHTBRING YOUR AXE!

With great sadness, The Heights Play-ers reports the passing of its founding member John Bourne on Friday, Janu-ary 9, 2015.

John Bourne was one of the founding members of the Heights Players, Brook-lyn’s oldest self-sustaining community theater organization. In 1956, a small group of people interested in theater held its first meeting as the Heights Players. John Bourne was at that meet-ing and from that moment on, he was committed to the organization. His legacy with the Heights Players will never be matched and the organization celebrated this legacy in 2012 by nam-

Litter Basket ManufacturingSBIDC has entered into an agreement with New York City Council to oversee the design, manufacturing and place-ment of 10 litter baskets in three neigh-borhoods in Council District 38: Sunset Park, Windsor Terrace, and Red Hook, Brooklyn. SBIDC seeks a qualified local vendor to manufacture the litter baskets.

SBIDC will evaluate the best responses and choose the most qualified local ven-dor. 10 litter baskets will be completed. Each litter basket will have a distinct neighborhood name fabricated within them. The distribution of the litter bas-kets will be as follows: two in Red Hook, two in Windsor Terrace, two in Sunset Park (4th Ave.), two in Sunset Park (5th Ave.), and two in Sunset Park (8th Ave.).

On January 13, Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams announced a plan developed by Brooklyn Greenway Initiative to prevent up to half a billion gallons of stormwater from entering the combined sewer system annually, which will contribute to a dramatic reduction in the release of raw sewage into the East River and New York Harbor during heavy storms.

The plan also recommends approaches to protect Red Hook and Sunset Park from future coastal flooding. The office of the Brooklyn Borough President has sponsored funding from the New York State Department of State for planning and implementing the Brooklyn Water-front Greenway over the last ten years, including the funding for this study.

New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton (center) was the guest speaker at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s recent Newsmaker Break-fast, which was sponsored by Investors Bank and held in the MetroTech Center. During the presentation, Commissioner Bratton discussed the value of businesses in Brooklyn building strong relationships with their local police precincts.

He also provided a thorough update on a range of topics from community polic-ing to the historically low crime across the City.

Shown in the photo above are: Brook-lyn Chamber of Commerce’s President Carlo A. Scissura, Commissioner Brat-ton, Investors Bank COO Domenick Cama, and Chamber Chair Denise Ar-besu. In the second row are: Investors Bank’s Business Development Officer Mario Biagio, New York Regional Man-ager Ana Oliveira, and Sr. Lending Of-ficer Michael Cama.

Lorraine Street Center Director Ms. Jes-sica Figuly has been named the Bumble-BeesRus Employee of the Year. Bumble-BeesRus operates a popular pre-school facility at 76 Lorraine Street.

Shannon Hummel/Cora Dance, which has operated out of The Cora Studio in Red Hook since 2009, is proud to head to BAM Fisher January 29-31, 2015 for “Stories”, with performances from the professional company (with danc-ers Sarah Burke, Katie Dean, Solomon Goodwin, Calia Marshall, Shannon Hummel, Nadia Tykulsker, and guest performer Cynthia Thompson), as well as CYC/Cora Youth Company (which includes Mykie Laidlow, Phoebe Pfaff-man, Olivia Reibel, Claire Sifton, and Mateo Vidals). The event features two world premieres, including “Cluck”, a solo for Nadia Tykulsker, and “Enough”, a solo for Katie Dean, along with a re-staging of the acclaimed 2013 work, “down here”, which premiered at The Cora Studio and is performed by Dean

Local Director named Employee of the Year

Heights Player founder John Bourne passes at 90

ing the theater after him and bestowing the title of President Emeritus on him, on the occasion of his retirement from the Board of Directors.

John served as President of the Heights Players for twenty years, from 1968-1989. He then remained on the Board of Directors as Member At Large from 1989-2012. His love of theater went far beyond having a leadership role in the group, as he also directed 46 plays, assistant directed five, produced six and acted in numerous productions over the course of 54 seasons. Many audience members more fondly recall his great service as the house manager of 247 plays.

In November the Heights Players com-munity gathered to celebrate John’s 90th birthday during an evening’s per-formance of The Boys From Syracuse.

The Heights Players Board of Direc-tors will announce plans to hold a me-morial service for John Bourne soon. Details will be provided when they are available.

John’s famous smile captured in a cast photo of Waiting in the Wings.

Greenway CSO plan announced

Cora Dance heads to BAM Fisher

photo by Steve Pisano.

and Calia Marshall. In addition to those works, Red Hook-born Solomon Good-win joins Shannon Hummel to preview an excerpt of a duet, and guest perfor-mances including members of the Cora Youth Company will happen through-out the evening.

“These works started in a really different way for me, because when I endeavored to open this community space in Red Hook which was a home to our com-pany but also to education programs, suddenly I was introduced to hip hop dancers and improvisors, and a variety of different styles that I hadn’t been as exposed to,” said Shannon Hummel, the artistic director of Cora Dance and choreographer for the evening of dance works premiering at BAM later in the month. “I decided to begin working individually with each of these people. I’ve really loved finding a common lan-guage between myself and the dancer when each of these dancers is so dis-tinctly different. Each of the new works and work in progress are really simply conversations between myself and the dancers and where we meet on a certain thing that we share.”

“Cora has always been about people and I love that each one of the stories that are a part of this show is a little bit of the story about that person. To find a way where each of these individuals who are very different- their approach is differ-ent, their technique, their backgrounds, their histories are different from one an-other, and the one thing that they all embrace is a love of dance, and a belief in their point of view on it, and also a willingness to meet and collaborate with an alternate point of view.”

“This is a show about the things that belong to all of us- whether we are younger, or older, or in the middle, we struggle, we love, we lose, we laugh at ourselves- it is those things that make us who we are, and so it’s a celebration of everyone who comes.” by Katie Dean

Bratton breakfast


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LegalREAL ESTATE CLOSINGS Buy/Sell. Expd Attorney, Real Estate Broker, ESTATES/CRIMINAL MATTERS Richard H. Lovell, P.C., 10748 Cross Bay, Ozone Park, NY 11417 718 835‐9300. www.LovellLawnewyork.com

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Resume by fax (347) 529 6353 or by e-mail [email protected]

To place an ad in this section call 718 624-5568 or email [email protected].

Rates start at $30 per issue.

PART TIME BUILDING SUPERINTENDENT

New York Quarterly Meeting’s Brooklyn Quaker Meetinghouse in downtown Brooklyn, seeks a part time building superintendent to manage building’s maintenance and repair needs and supervise two full time custodians.

Candidates should have sufficient years spent in managing building maintenance. The right candidate will have good communication skills and experience in doing simple plumbing, electrical and woodworking repairs, including boilers.

Work hours are 16 a week, divided in 3 days. The salary for this position is based on experience.

If you wish to apply, please send a resume with employment history to:

New York Quarterly Meeting, c/o Red Hook Star-Revue, 481 Van Brunt St., 8A, Brooklyn, NY 11231

No job too big or too small

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The focus ought to be on better proce-dures and training, leading to the weed-ing out of those officers who cannot adapt to such procedures. This should be done through a disciplinary regime with teeth. When criminal investigations are concluded often months later, there is little or no scrutiny of the subsequent internal disciplinary determinations.

Those, whose goal extends beyond the administration’s reform agenda to the ending the “broken windows” policy, may see no recourse but to continue to petition for change through demonstra-tions. I wish they wouldn’t. I think they are wrong.

The marijuana laws seemed to me to be a pretext, but enforcement of them has been changed. Nonetheless, there is a strong argument that other minor offenses are correlated to further bad behaviors. The refusal of so many on

Shames(continued from page 11)

our police force to enforce the law in accordance with departmental policy - should it go on long enough - may serve as an experiment that proves that policy is in fact unnecessary, and therefore we can both reduce police overtime and live without the revenue generated by such tactics.

Even if the demonstrators are right, I think continuing disruptions are a tac-tical mistake, but it is their prerogative to protest. In this New Year, should demonstrators interfere with everyday life, those charged with running the city must be prepared to make arrests. Those engaged in civil disobedience must ac-cept arrest as the reasonable price of their commitment to conscience.

As an update since this article was originally written on December 23 and further edited on December 30, 2014, apparently there will be arrests at any further Grand Central “die-ins” and demonstrators are clearly curtailing their activities.

Breakfast at Rocky’sby George Fiala

Besides being one of the best Irish bars in New York City, Rocky Sullivan’s is where the working class of Red Hook go after work to relax, enjoy a hockey game and have pizza or some good Irish stew. No matter what, one always has a friend at Rocky’s.

Now one can enjoy Rocky’s before work as well. This month they have expanded into the early morning hours. Breakfast is now served between 8 am and 11 am, Mondays through Saturdays.

The food is freshly made in their kitch-en, and the menu was created by George Kornienko, one of Rocky’s owners, but better known as their star bartender.

The fare includes a heaping bowl of oat-meal topped with a generous portion of blueberries, for $5; bacon or fried chick-en sliders with eggs and cheese, served with home fries for $8; a breakfast pizza, also for $8.

The topper, or perhaps perfect game, is the Sandy Koufax special - named after the great Jewish Dodger pitcher. For $10 you get a hefty portion of smoked salmon atop a pita replete with red on-

ions, grape tomatoes and cream cheese.

Of course, this is a bar, and if you would like to start your day with a Bloody Mary or Mimosa, this can be done for a measly $3. And yes, Rocky’s has coffee as well.

We think this is a great idea, and ad-dition to Red Hook, as long as one re-members to go to work afterwards!

The sliders look good.

The Irish oatmeal is good and healthy!


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Star revue january 2015

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