March 2013

SOUTH BROOKLYN’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER

The Red Hook StarªRevue

MARCH 2013 FREE

Presorted Standard RateUS Postage

PAIDBrooklyn, NY

Permit 84

The Red Hook Star-Revue101 Union StreetBrooklyn, NY 11231

(continued on page 5)

PJ Hanley’s hung in there until St. Patrick’s Day. This photo was taken just before the last last call on March 17th. Some call Hanley’s Brooklyn oldest bar. It has been in business since 1874, but is now in bankruptcy court. (photo by Kimberly Gail Price)

InsIde:FaIrway’ re-openIng

specIal sectIon

begIns page 9

Despite last week’s unanimous vote by the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate to shut down Long Island College Hospital (LICH) and liquidate their assets to pay down a significant portion of their own

debt, hospital workers remain resilient and determined.

SUNY doesn’t have the power to close the hospital; only the Department of Health (DOH) has the authority to close a public medical facility. LICH’s existence lies squarely on the state’s shoulders. Until then, hospital employees maintain they will continue operating the hospital as usual. “LICH IS OPEN FOR CARE,” they proclaim at rallies, forums and candlelit vigils - even in the offices of DOH.

Julie Semente, a registered nurse for the past 30 years in LICH’s ICU, says: “SU-NY’s actions over the past 2 months have stunned everyone. Lying about LICH real estate not being a factor in the closure decision while railroading through the process illegally was bad enough. Now shutting the community out of the process by holding a public hearing for LICH in Westchester is just making Downstate appear even less credible. But the community’s anger is going to fall on top of Gov-ernor Cuomo. All of the SUNY Trustees except for the student representative, are the governors appointees. From Red Hook to Brooklyn Heights to Dumbo, people won’t forget that their only hospital was closed and their lives were put at risk while under Cuomo’s watch.”

In 2012, LICH served more than 100,000 patients, admitted over 58,000 people to through the emergency room and delivered 2,000 babies. Sixty-six of their physi-cians in thirty-five specialties were ranked among the best in the nation. Services in pulmonary (lung), nephrology (liver), neurology (nervous system), and neuro-surgery (brain surgery) are ranked among the top in the nation.

LICH provides emergency, primary and mental health care for a wide-ranging number of citizens from all socio-economic levels. They are also a designated stroke, cardiac angioplasty and neurological and neurosurgical center.

LICH began in 1858 as a medical school and a hospital. LICH started having rela-

Beyond closure votes, lIcH supporters rally on

by Kimberly Gail Price

tively small annual deficits around the mid 1990’s. The Board of LICH opted to take on an outside partner to maximize their cost efficiency, according to Toomas M. Sorra, MD and President of Concerned Physicians of LICH. They eventually merged with Continuum Health Partners in 1998.

LICH had never faced closure before being “plundered by Continuum,” she said. But in 2008, Continuum sold off approximately $50 million worth of properties for real estate development.

After a decade of mismanagement from 1998-2008, Continuum sent warning no-tices to the employees of LICH, planning to discontinue women and children’s services as well as dental services. DOH refused to allow it because the services were vital to the surrounding communities.

“Nothing has changed since then, except that the population of the community we serve has exploded. If LICH was too vital in 2008 to shut down even just a few services, it’s even more vital now,” wrote Semente.

Continuum then filed formal complaints in 2008 with the State Health Depart-ment to terminate their partnership with LICH.

Continuum was also aligned with St Vincent’s in Manhattan when their doors were permanently shuttered. St Vincent’s was over $1 billion in debt and they were forced to close in 2010.

“Brooklyn is growing in leaps and bounds. We need to keep this hospital open for care,” says LICH kidney dialysis RN Maribel Agosto. photo: New York State Nurses Association

Page 2 Red Hook Star-Revue www.RedHookStar.com March 2013

Star-Revue Community Calendar

Community Board 6: all meetings at 6:30 pm

Thur Mar 28 Landmarks/Land Use Committee Meeting, LICH, 330 Hicks Street (6 pm)

Mon Apr 1 Environmental Protection/Permits & Licenses, P.S. 32 Samuel Mills Sprole, 317 Hoyt Street, Auditorium

other meetingsWed Mar 27 7:00 pm Red Hook Civic Council Meeting, PS 15 auditorium, 77 Sullivan Street

Tue Apr 2, 7:30 pm 76th Precinct Community Council Meeting, 191 Union Street



MARCH 2013 VOLUME 4 NO. 4

Table of ContentsCommunity Calendar ........ 2 Fairway ..................9-16Happenings ...................... 2 Art review ................. 17Newsbriefs ........................ 4 Spoof/Crossword . 18,19Elizabeth Bergin ................ 8 Classifieds ................ 23

STaff

Kimberly G. Price ......................................Editor/Publisher

George Fiala ......................................... Graphics/Publisher

Brian Clancy ...................................................Theater/Arts

Vince Musacchia .................................................Cartoons

Eric Ruff .............................................................. Calendar

Alliyah Leocadi ........................................................Intern

ContributorsMary Anne Massaro, Mary Ann Pietanza,

Member

@RedHookStarwww.facebook.com/redhookstarrevue

718.624.5568 - editorial & advertising 917.652.9128 news tips101 union street, Brooklyn, ny 11231 [email protected]

HappeningsSaturday, March 23The Brooklyn Arts Exchange presents the Progress Awards. Cocktails hour 7:30, Awards Program 8:15. Special guest appearance by noted cabaret performer Molly Pope. Tickets range from $35 - $125. 421 Fifth Avenue, at 7th Street (718) 832-0018

tueSday March 26Brooklyn’s own Doll Parts is a Dolly Parton cover band, of all things. Made up of young but seasoned musicians with a background in not only country and western, but hip hop as well, Doll Parts is rapidly set-ting new trends in popular bar music. They are appearing at 9:30 pm at another place growing in popularity, The Way Station, a friendly bar with an intimate side room with a stage. 683 Washington Avenue, at Bergen Street in Prospect Heights.

thurSday, March 28Date Night at the Jalopy Theater. Jalopy has been offering a special dating package every Thursday night. Dinner for two and a show are offered for just $45. This Thursday’s show features Dawn Landes, a Kentucky Born country singer who sings the kinds of songs that Gram Parson’s might have, as she compares the ups and downs of romance to the rigours of bull riding. Dinner at 7 pm, show starts 8:30 pm. Jalopy 315 Columbia St, (718) 395-3214

Friday March 29Good Friday Processionals, Visitation Church begins at 10:45 am at Visi-tation Church steps, 98 Richards Street; Sacred Heart/St. Stephens bei-gins at 7 pm on the church steps at Hicks and Summit Sts. See page 22 of this issue for further details

tueSday, March 30The famous unsanctioned fixed bike race, the Red Hook Crit, returns to the Cruise Terminal at Red Hook’s Pier 11. Men’s and woman’s foot rac-ing begins at 7 pm, the actual bike race at 9 pm. It’ll be all over by 10 as that’s when the prizes are awarded. 72 Bowne Street

OngOingDuring March and April the Brooklyn Museum will be having many pro-grams available for kids, teens and adults of all ages. Some of these programs include a performance by jazz vocalist Antoinette Montague and the Brooklyn-based indie composers Charly & Marguax, A panel discussion about women artist and the body along with a variety of art-making classes and workshops. The BM is located at 200 Eastern Parkway. For more info call (718) 638-5000

Community Board 6: All meetings at 6:30 pm

Other Meetings



Due to popular request, the Red Hook Star-Revue is now available by mail. Annual subscriptions are only $24. Each issue will be sent directly to your mailbox by the US Postal Service.

In less than three years, the Star-Revue has won praise from local and civic leaders for hard hitting coverage of local government, institutions and businesses. From our coverage of the waterfront to local schools and community groups, the Star-Revue casts a beacon on events that make Red Hook the unique Brooklyn community it is.

Special Offer! For a limited time, new subscribers will receive both issues from November 2012 that chronicle Hurricane Sandy. These issues have already achieved national recognition and are incred-ible keepsakes of the tragedy and rebuilding of the Red Hook community. These prized editions will be mailed upon receipt of your $24 subscription payment.

suBscrIptIon forMYes! I need to keep up with new of my favorite neighborhoods. Please sign me up to receive the Red Hook Star-Revue via the US Mail.

1 year, $24 2 years $46 3 years $ 64Please mail my subscription to:

Name ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Address _____________________________________________________________________________________________

City______________________________________________________________State___________ Zip ________________IN ADDITION, I WOULD LIKE TO ORDER GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR SOME LUCKY FRIENDS (please list name, address and term on a separate sheet)

I enclose $________ for my subscription order. Please make checks to the Red Hook Star-Revue. You may also pay by credit card, please write credit card number/type/exp. date and secret code on the back. Credit card orders may also be called in to 718 624-5568, or emailed to [email protected]. Send all mailed-in orders to The Red Hook Star-Revue, 101 Union Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231.

GET THE STAR-REVUE BY MAIL!

FREE WITH YOUR ORDER:

1 copy each of our first two post Sandy editions.

Destined to become collector items.

Red Hook Star-Revue www.RedHookStar.com March, 2013 Page 3

Have you always wanted to have a voice in how public funds are spend in your community? This

is your chance. Participatory Budgeting - now in its second year in New York - allows residents within specific districts to decide how $1 million in government funds will be spent.

In many diverse neighborhoods through-out New York City residents have been working since September to present proj-ects ideas that were submitted by the community. In August and September, district committee members held meet-ings to organize the process where they made decisions about how to market, re-cruited volunteers and organized informa-tion through smaller groups. The district committees then chose volunteers to form budget delegate groups.

Voting in AprilIn October and November, the district committees also facilitated assemblies throughout the district. Residents came out to offer suggestions on projects they would like to see in their neighborhoods. The budget delegates then evaluate each idea and evolve it into a plan by deter-mining how much time and money the project will take. In the spring, each dis-trict holds one or more expos to showcase the projects for residents who will vote on them in the first week of April.

Every resident 16 and older can vote on projects they want the $1 million to be used for. But even though your local Council members are in charge of this but they are not a part of the process. The volunteers from their districts organize, facilitate and decided on the whole thing.

PBP began in 2005 at the world Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. In 2009, Politicians in Chicago tested the process within their districts. Two years later in 2011, four local councilmembers in New York opted in for their districts, including Brad Lander of District 39. Last year, more than 3,000 residents voted in District 39. The top seven projects were chosen in-cluding renovating the dysfunctional bathrooms in PS 241.

In 2012, four more councilmembers chose the process, as did the original four for a second year in a row. “Thanks to four more Councilmember’s who are willing to try something new, over one million New Yorkers will be deciding how to spend city funds on projects in their comminutes” Lander said.

Levin joins LanderStephen Levin, District 33, is one of the new councilmembers to get involved this

year. “After seeing the success of partici-patory budgeting in neighboring districts, I’m proud to join my colleagues in utiliz-ing the participatory budgeting process this year,” he said.

This month, Lander and Levin’s districts, along with the other six districts citywide, are hosting their expos. The expos will showcase all of the projects that will be on the ballot in April. The community will also be able to ask questions about each project and decide how they think the money should be spend.

PBP non-profit organization is also seek-ing part time interns for the summer of 2013. They have up to three internship positions available which will focus on policy, design and communication. Each of this internship will also include admin-istrative and operations work. For more work on this internship, visit www.par-ticipatorybudgeting.org and the PBNYC website at pbnyc.org. Each District will be holding expos throughout the month of March

Expo Dates and LocationsDistrict 33 (Stephen Levin):Sunday, March 23 @ 2-5 pm City Tech Atrium at CUNY, 300 Jay Street

Voting Dates and Locations

District 39~tuesday, April 2:7:30 am-8 pm Councilmember Lander’s District office, 456 5th Avenue, 3 Floor Wednesday, April 3:7:30 am-8 pm Councilmember Lander’s District office, 456 5th Avenue, 3 Floor thursday, April 4:7:30 am-8 pm Councilmember Lander’s District office, 456 5th Avenue, 3 Floor saturday, April 6:10 am-7 pm Kings Bay Y at Windsor Terrace 1224 Prospect Avenue (@ Vanderbilt)10 am-7 pm Carroll Gardens Library 396 Clinton Street (@ Union)10 am-7 pm Old Stone House 336 3rd Streetsunday, April 7:10 am-5 pm Beth Jacob Day Care Center 1364 46th Street10 am-5 pm Park Slope Armory YWCA 361 15th Street10 am-5 pm Carroll Park House (Carroll and Smith Street)District 33~Monday, April 1:10:00 am - 5:00 pm Council Member Levin’s District Office 410 Atlantic Ave6:00 pm - 8:00 pm People’s Firehouse 113 Berry St.tuesday, April 2:10:00 am - 5:00 pm Levin’s District Office6:00 pm - 8:00 pm People’s FirehouseWednesday, April 3:7:45 am - 9:30 am P.S. 34 , 131 Norman Ave 10:00 am - 5:00 pm Levin’s District Office6:00 pm - 8:00 pm People’s Firehousethursday, April 4:10:00 am - 5:00 pm Levin’s District Office6:00 pm - 8:00 pm People’s FirehouseFriday, March April 5:7:30 am - 9:30 am P.S. 31 75 Meserole Ave7:45 am - 9:45 am P.S. 8 37 Hicks St8:00 am - 10:00 am M.S. 8 105 Johnson Street, 8:00 am - 10:00 am P.S. 38 450 Pacific St

10:00 am - 4:30 pm Independence Towers Senior Center 114 Taylor St10:00 am - 5:00 pm Council Member Levin’s District Officesaturday, April 6:10:00 am - 5:00 pm Greenpoint Public Library 10:00 am - 5:00 pm Wyckoff Gardens 2 66 Wyckoff Street10:00 am - 5:00 pm El Puente Community Cen-

ter 80 Clymer Street 10:00 am - 6:00 pm People’s Firehouse

sunday, April 7:10:00 am - 4:30 pm Independence Towers Senior Center 114 Taylor St10:00 am - 5:00 pm Wyckoff Gardens Commu-nity Center 280 Wyckoff Street10:00 am - 6:00 pm People’s Firehouse

the $1 million proposal in your communityby Alliyah Leocardio and Kimberly Gail Price

When reconstruction is complete, Van Brunt Street will return to being a two-way street and Hamilton Avenue North will be one-way, port-bound. One of the pro-posed Participatory Budgeting projects in our area revisions the corner, creating a community oasis. The envisioned Hamilton/Van Brunt community Plaza will:

• Increase safety by narrowing the pedestrian crossing distance• Reduce confusion for drivers• Create a green art space and garden• Provide seating areas• Absorb storm water• Maximize parking for local businesses• Include an internet hot spot

This project could be another opportunity to beautify Red Hook. With Council-man Brad Lander’s designated Participatory Budgeting dollars, we can make a difference in the community. But we need your votes. If you are a resident living in District39,voteforthisprojectatoneofthelocalvotingcenterthefirstweekinApril. If this project receives the most votes, this eyesore will one day be a lovely spot for the entire neighborhood to enjoy.FOR MORe INFORMATION ON THIS PROJeCT AND OTHeR PROJeCTS IN DISTRICT 39, VISIT WWW.PBNYC.ORG

one idea of many being considered

This was the scene at Brad Lander’s expo at the Park Slope Library, March 21.


Star-Revue

News BriefsSmith & 9th Street to re-openAfter many long months of waiting Red Hook’s only train station to be reopened, MTA has finally set a date. The tran-sit authority announced on Thursday, March 21 that the station is scheduled to resume service on April 22, 2013.

The station had previously been under partial renovation for years and was fully shut down in July 2011. MTA pro-jected that it would take 9 months to complete the project. In 2012, MTA reposted signs delaying the reopening. Originally the station would reopen in the spring, then in the summer, and fi-nally in December. After almost two years, the work is about complete.

The station that MTA boasts is the highest in the world now houses a 14 foot tall mosaic, closed circuit security cameras, new lighting and an enclosed escalator leading up to the station. The most recent sign postings indicate the renovation cost around $32.3 million. G Line under reviewMTA has announced they will be conducting a full line review of the G train. The decision was made shortly after state senators Daniel Squadron and Martin Dillan sent letter urging the MTA to undertake the project. The senators along with straphangers felt this is a necessary step to improve service. The review is scheduled to be completed by June 2013. SBA further extends deadline The U.S. Small Business Administra-tion’s (SBA) has extended their deadline for physical damage to March 29, 2013. All people that are still struggling from the hurricane still have time to apply for

federal assistance. Additionally the SBA has relocated from The American Le-gion in Broad Channel to the Commu-nity Church of the Nazarene, 1414 Cen-tral Avenue in Far Rockaway on March 1st. Business hours are Monday-Friday 9 am-6 pm, Saturdays 9 am-3 pm. For more info call 1 (800) 659-2955 or (800) 877-8339 for the hearing impaired. Brooklyn Recovery Fund grants repairs

The Brooklyn Recovery Fund an-nounced the recipient organizations are receiving more than $1.3 million to support physicals improvements to homes and businesses located in Brook-lyn’s coastal communities most severe-ly affected by Sandy. The grants range from $120,000 to $225,000 and will be given to the communities of Red Hook, Coney Island, Canrise, Gerritsen Beach and Sheepshead Bay.

Carroll Gardens library offeringsThe Brooklyn Public Library Car-roll Gardens Branch is having a event Tuesday March 19. Meet photogra-pher Thomas Rupolo, writer Joan Ma-rans Dim and artist Antonio Masi as they share their visions of our Bridges and South Brooklyn. This event is free and light refreshments will be served. Signed books also will be available for purchase. This event is located at the Carroll Gardens Library Auditorium 396 Clinton Street (Corner of Clinton and Union). For more info call (718) 596-6972

Park volunteers honoredPartnerships for Park hosted a special event on Wednesday, March 13,recog-nizing over 150 volunteers and commu-nity groups who contribute over 97,000

hours of time annually to making Brooklyn playgrounds and parks clean-er, more colorful and more engaging public spaces. Community groups and volunteers spoke about positive changes in the parks they work in.

Brooklyn Museum events The Brooklyn Musuem will be showcas-ing several new exhibits and events in the coming months.

The Brooklyn Museum is proud to an-nounce that the third exhibition in the second season of Raw/Cooked will be on view from April 12- July 7. The showcase will show the work of Wil-liamsburg artist Michael Ballou. The Final exhibition of the second season of Raw/Cooked will presented work of Caitlin Cherry, selected by Joo.

The first major exhibition of Behind Closed Doors: Art in the Spanish Amer-ican Home, 1492-1898 will debut at the Brooklyn Museum September 20, 2013 and will be on display through January 12, 2014. This exhibit will be the first major event in the United States that will explore the private lives, power struggles and collecting practices of Spain’s new elite world. From there it will travel to three other venues that will be announced at later dates.

The museum will also host jazz vocal-ist, Antoinette Montague and Brooklyn based indie composers Charly and Mar-guax, a variety of art making classes and workshops and their monthly Target First Saturdays. Brooklyn Museum is lo-cated at 200 Eastern Parkway.

Aquarium ReopensThe Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has announced they will partially reopen the hurricane dam-aged aquarium in late spring of 2013. The exhibits that will be reopening will include Glover’s Reef; exhibits in the Main Hall: Coral Triangle of Figi, Great Lakes of East Africa, and the Flooded Forest of the Amazon; outdoor

spaces of Sea Cliffs: walrus, sea lions, harbor seals, sea otters and penguins; and a fully re-modeled Aquatheater with a new sea lion demonstration. In addition, educational programs at the facility will resume on a limited basis. 212 Members of Congress File a DOMA Case before U.S. Supreme Court In Washington this month, 212 mem-bers of Congress filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court. The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) Sec-tion 3 defines marriage for the purpose of federal law as “only a legal union be-tween one man and women,” exclud-ing same-sex couples from all marriage based federal responsibilities and rights. A total of 172 members of the House and 40 members of the Senate – in-cluding LGBT Equality Caucus group signed the brief. These 212 members are participating because they believe that the Section 3 of DOMA is uncon-stitutional.

Theflushingtunnelworkthathaslongclosed Degraw Street between Hicks and Columbia seems to conclusion as half of itwasfinallyreopenedtotrafficrecently.


We are across from Coffey Park(718) 923-9880

The state awarded SUNY Downstate a $40 million grant in October 2010 to acquire and operate LICH, making the hospital a secondary campus for SUNY.

In an October 14, 2010 press release from former Governor David A. Pater-son, he said, “One of our main health care goals is to ensure that all New Yorkers have access to high quality care in their communities. The HEAL [Healthcare Efficiency and Affordabil-ity Law for New Yorkers] grant is an important investment in the future of healthcare in Brooklyn and will allow SUNY Downstate to create another campus to better serve local residents and continue to train the next genera-tion of physicians.”

In October 2010, John C. LaRosa, then President of SUNY Downstate said, “This agreement will also strengthen Downstate’s education and training mission, and preserve Downstate’s standing as the hub of medical educa-tion in Brooklyn. Equally important, critically needed healthcare services in Brooklyn will be safeguarded.”

On May 29, 2011, SUNY pur-chased 18 separate LICH properties for$205,350,000.

In June 2012, LaRosa, who had been president of the hospital for 13 years, unexpectedly resigned, right around the time that SUNY’s fiscal year ended and the Comptroller began their an-nual audit. LaRosa was replaced by Dr. John Williams who was formerly the

president of Verras Health Care Inter-national, a hospital consulting firm.

The following timeline summarizes ma-jor LICH developments since that time:

January 17 - NYS Comptroller, Thom-as D. Napoli released an audit showing the fiscal crisis of all of SUNY Down-state including LICH. “The Hospital [SUNY] is facing potential insolvency within a matter of months... experienc-ing cash deficiencies of approximately $3 million every week.”

January 17 - SUNY Chancellor, Nancy L. Zimpher issued a press release regard-ing the audit.

“Many of the Comptroller’s findings - none of which we dispute of consider to be a surprise - are issues already remedied or currently being addressed at Downstate. SUNY System Administration has recruit-ed a strong new leadership team at Down-state that is developing a comprehensive, fiscally responsible plan to ensure medical education and quality healthcare continues for the people of Brooklyn.”February 1 - Carl McCall responded to a letter sent by elected officials on Janu-ary 24, 2013. He provided a list of rea-sons for the fiscal crisis, including, “the complexities of the State system that limits expeditious decision making and action by SUNY hospitals, including procurement, contracts, capital projects, and state employment rules. “

“The Chancellor and the State Univer-sity Board of Trustees have requested that the newly appointed leadership team at Downstate provide recommen-

dations for immediate action to mitigate losses, one of which was the possible ces-sation of operating LICH as a full service inpatient hospital.”

February 7 - SUNY held a Board of Trustees meeting at the College of Op-tometry in Manhattan

The meeting was announced on Febru-ary 4, only 3 days prior.

Those wishing to speak had to first regis-ter for a time slot as well as announce the subject of their comments by Wednes-day February 6 at noon and were allotted 3 minutes each.

February 7 - Crain’s published an ar-ticle entitled, “Downstate Wants New Hospital”

“SUNY Downstate executives want to build a brand-new hospital to replace crumbling University Hospital, funded by the proceeds of selling Long Island College Hospital.”

“The brazen scheme is highly specula-tive, given that it requires both state ap-proval of LICH’s closure as well as the state’s blessing of a new hospital.”

“ The new hospital would be privatized.”

February 8 - Board of Trustees of SUNY Downstate voted unanimously to close LICH

February 8 - Jeff Strabone, former presi-dent of the Cobble Hill Association (CHA), proposed to change the zoning at LICH.

February 14 - Less than one week after the vote, unions, neighborhood assem-blies elected officials and supporters held a rally that was attended by hundreds at

the Kane Street Synagogue

February 18 - CHA met with Council-man Brad Lander to discuss zoning chang-es.

February 20 - New York State Nurses Association, 1199 SEIU United Health-care Workers East, Concerned Physicians of LICH, LLC and Kathleen Campbell Petitioners filed a lawsuit against SUNY and their trustees.

Kings County Supreme Court Justice, Judge Betsy Barros issues a temporary re-straining order preventing SUNY from implementing their February 8th decision or communicating such intent to DOH

February 25 - Lander, Markowitz and other elected officials request that the De-partment of City extend the Cobble Hill Historic District’s 50 foot height limit to LICH, as proposed by CHA, “in order to prevent out-of-context development.”

February 28 - The Brooklyn Heights Association sent a letter to Governor Cuomo stating, “Let’s be clear, the Berger Work Group, appointed by Health Com-missioner Shah, did not recommend closing LICH. On the contrary, when it issued its report on Brooklyn health care in 2011, it advised Downstate to consider consolidating all Downstate inpatient ser-vices at LICH.

February 28 - The Brooklyn Paper pub-lished an article entitled “LICH-EROO! State wanted to save hospital before kill-ing it.”

“ The university told the state comptrol-ler that the deal was better than it looked on paper because Long Island College

Inside the lIcH time line



Letters to the editor

(send yours to [email protected])

editoriAL:

epa plan not good for red Hook

Saying Farewell To A Red Hook MascotThere is something about seeing a famil-iar face in your old neighborhood that gives you a warm feeling. This story is not about a man, but man’s best friend.

Pete Waldman or “Pete, The Bal-loon Man” as known to all was always seen out and about with his best friend “Shadow.” Shadow has been a part of the Red Hook community for over 10 years. Pete rescued him when he was only 3 years old. Shadow was severely injured and abandoned on Conover Street when Pete found him. Pete spent days nursing him back to health.

From then on, they developed a very special bond. There wasn’t a time when you did not see one without the other.

Pete and Shadow were regulars in the VFW post, Sonny’s Bar, The Ice House and many other neighborhood estab-lishments.

Everyone knew and loved Shadow and he grew to become a mascot of the Red Hook community. And Shadow’s love extended outside of Red Hook, traveling with Pete on his balloon making adven-tures to places like Florida and Minne-sota. Until three years ago when getting around began to take its toll on Shadow, he retired in Pete’s hometown in Min-nesota. We got word that Shadow passed away on Friday March 15, 2013. It was a sad day for all us in Red Hook who had come to know and love Shadow. And she will be missed by all. We will always think of her as our friend and mascot.

Re: NYCHA editorialIf it affects you, you are already speaking out. If you are a neighbor and it doesn’t affect your housing, get to know your neighbors and speak out with them. All our voices make a collective spirit...- Martine Bisagni

LICHTHANK YOU SO MUCH for the well-written article about LICH. You men-tioned very important points that other papers will not - especially the misman-agement. Your article made it clear & hit the nail on the head - LICH is not dying - its being killed to pay SUNY

debts in East Flatbush & elsewhere. The communities that LICH serves should not have to pay with their lives for years of SUNY & Downstate financial mis-management.

Unfortunately, the governor and the mayor and even mayoral candidates like Quinn have been silent in this fight. The silence of The mayor & the candi-dates is troubling because this is not just a LICH issue. This is a city issue because all the other hospitals in Brooklyn will be strained past their limits if LICH is closed. How can city hall be silent? One wonders if their silence is because many of the communities that use LICH are under-privileged communities of color? Don’t those patients matter?

LICH is still open for care & we’re try-ing hard to keep it that way. Thank you for an excellent informative article. Ju-lie, RN from LICH

SludgeRegarding last [issue’s] article about Gowanus sludge: What part is the most not contaminated? The whole f---ing thing is contaminated, hence a super-fund cleanup. None of the sludge can be deemed less contaminated than the rest of it, or was the writer thinking Gowa-nus sludge comes in grades like eggs , grade A sludge, grade B, or super jumbo sludge? I am awaiting to see samples perhaps at Whole Foods. - Tom Fagan

Editor’s note: Varying levels of con-tamination in the Gowanus Canal was determined by the EPA, not reporters. The Star-Revue used various reports, studies and presentations from the EPA over the past two years. In addi-tion, the varying degrees of contamina-tion refer to the soil levels beneath the waters, not the actual water. While the water flows freely within the ca-nal, the different layers of contaminat-ed sediment remain mostly stagnant.

Laugh out loudDear Editor, I saw your response to the NYT article. First of all, your “too many commas in the headline” made me laugh out loud (and by that I mean literally, not just in a lazy lol sort of way, because I refuse to use that acronym... if it can even be labeled as such). Secondly, a resounding “bravo!” for your words. I have friends in Red Hook. I sincerely love your community and I know - even from way over here in Los Angeles - that you are very much “there” and rebuild-ing with vim and vigor. Stacy Conde

Happy subsciberThank you for keeping me on your mailing list; the paper is essential, in-formative and a great resource. Keep up the great work. - Felix Palacios, NY City Council

Later this year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be mak-ing a decision about where to dump tons of toxic sludge from the Gowanus Canal. The key word here is toxic.

Several meetings were scheduled to explain the process. The EPA is ask-ing our community to vote yes or no to a plan that would expand the shore line and bring semi-toxic materials to the neighborhood. And for a few more short weeks, we have a chance to voice our concerns.

According to their recommendation, all of the sludge would be dewatered in the area. After the sludge is dewatered, it then must undergo detoxification and then disposed of. The most toxic sludge would then be shipped out of the area for detoxi-fication and disposal. The least toxic third would be dealt with locally. The effects for Red Hook is spelled out in one sentence of their 34 page report:

Option G—On-site stabilization of lesser contaminated sediments and placement in on-site CDF—would be evaluated based upon community acceptance and the approval of NYSDEC and other appropriate governmental regulatory authorities.

To our knowledge there has been very little - if any - acceptance.

We heard the EPA say that they only want good things for us. They are here to help save our ecosystems which is why they work for this benevolent government agency in the first place.

When we asked what good their plan would do for the Red Hooker, Mr. Tsiamos thought for a second before responded that they are enabling us to be able to fish again.

We guess he must think we’re a bunch of ignorant Huckleberry Finn types, walking around with our stuff danglin’ in a sack at the end of a pole, completely happy with a li’l restin’ time neath a tree between fishin’ and dranken.

For years Red Hook was a forgotten neighborhood in Brooklyn. Crime and drugs proliferated. Industry receded. NYCHA stopped policing here. The 76th concen-trated their efforts on the surrounding white neighborhoods. Trolleys were replaced with double fare buses. Port Authority allowed the waterfront to disintegrate into dilapidated empty buildings. The piers rotted away. Park funding was cut to next to nothing.

Decades later, we have taken great strides to overcome the past. Meanwhile, the EPA seems to have struck a deal with a private operator who purchased the ill-fated Eastern Grain Terminal building for a song.

A detoxification facility would be built here, and the supposedly safe sludge would be added to the Red Hook shoreline. This extra land would be created on the property of Gowanus Bay Terminal (GBX) - a cement company owned by John

Quadrozzi, Jr. He has said that the sludge would be beneficial for the local econ-omy in at least two ways. By deepening the terminal’s pier, larger ships could be berthed. Secondly by giving him extra land onto which he plans to build an “eco-friendly” 21st century co-generation facility. This is a waste burning facility that would create electricity which he would sell back to Con Edison.

Truck traffic just became the smallest of our concerns. Imagine the conditions of living in the vicinity of an enormous garbage pyre. Think paper mill. Or even better, a sulfur plant.

When asked in public hearing show this plan would benefit anyone but John Quadrozzi, the response is always that it would save $37 million in costs by having the sludge stay in the area.

The cost of invoking this dirty plan is not taxpayer money, but is billed to the par-ties responsible for the pollution. Why should we save the offenders $37 million in exchange for leaving contaminated sludge so close to our recreational facilities?

Although the material will be treated, not all of the toxicity can be completely removed. There will still be potential hazards in the dredgings.

The EPA maintains that the plan is perfectly safe. But has the EPA ever used this specific model in the past, and what affect did it have on that community? During all of our research, the Star-Revue has found no similar project to compare this one with. If this is their first round model, how can they guarantee with 100% certainty this is not harmful?

The simple answer is that they cannot. We would be at the mercy of time to determine our fate. Logic suggests that agreeing to this hideous plan - potentially infecting our neighborhood - would be a terrible mistake.

The Environmental Protection Agency, in name suggests something that we re-quire. Protection. As a community, we need to make them aware that we need their protection from this outrageous notion. Protect our health. Protect our com-munity. Protect our children and all of Red Hook’s future generations.

We suggest that our readers respond to the EPA by signaling their disapproval for this plan. Sign the petition located online at http://notoxicredhook.com/.

There are currently no alternatives on the table. As a community of activists - the little people who step up and take on the giants with an air of courage and confi-dence - we need a different proposal.

Red Hookers will not be victims of a convenient plan. Red Hook will not be any-one’s dumping grounds. We don’t want decades of filth and toxicity in our com-munity. It’s time to start this conversation.



Historically, there is little known about the personal life of Eliza-beth Burgin. For those of us in-

terested in her acts of heroism, we don’t know, for instance, when she was born or when she died. We don’t even know where she was born, (though some claim it was New York), when she was married, or if she was widowed.

What is known about Elizabeth Burgin

is that she lived during the American Revolution on the shores of Brooklyn’s largely rural terrain perched above New York Harbor overlooking Wallabout Bay, (present day Brooklyn Navy Yard vicinity.) What is also known is that she was a mother of several children. We know that she was empathetic to the cause of feeding and comforting the hundreds of American revolutionary soldiers who were held captive aboard British prison ships moored in Wal-labout Bay during their occupancy of New York in 1779. We also know that she helped to free 200 of those soldiers, but we haven’t a clue how.

Elizabeth Burgin was every bit a mys-tery, as she was a heroine. Some believe she came to be part of the infamous Culper Ring - a spy network - by way of General George Washington. Burgin

purposely found herself in the company of an associated American officer. This officer doled out instructions for her to help the American soldiers escape right under the noses of the British soldiers, accomplishing what some historians might deem the “first major great raid in U.S. History.”

Some believe perhaps her frequent, nurturing visits to the soldiers caught the attention of this same, particularly ambitious American officer. He sensed her certain ability to carry out a precise escape plan that he had already devised while spying on the British - a plan that would not work without her. The plan mainly sought to release captive officers. It happened over an extended period of time and eventually came to the attention of General Washington and Benjamin Tallmadge - the head of

the Culper Ring.

These are theories, but there is some evidence linked to Elizabeth Burgin’s direct contact with General George Washington. Letters written between the two suggest - without actually saying

elizabeth Burgin - a mysterious revolutionary War heroineby Mary Ann Pietnaza

- that the plan could have indeed been part of a planned intelligence operation. Another letter from General Washing-ton to Tallmadge was intercepted by the British, who used their own intel-ligence to discover the anonymously mentioned American officer, George Higday, as Washington’s subject matter. The British captured Higday on Long Is-land. His wife, fearful that he would be hung, revealed Elizabeth Burgin’s role as an accomplice to freeing the American prisoners. This fact is mentioned in one of Burgin’s letters.

The British were outraged that a woman had indeed managed to dupe the Brit-ish guards so blatantly and were dumb-founded that they had not thought to count the prisoners as a means of secu-rity. They immediately put a bounty on Elizabeth Burgin’s head of 200 pounds. This staggering amount - to save face, no doubt - was the equivalent of a sol-dier’s salary for twenty years!

So begins the story of Elizabeth Burgin’s plight as a captive herself. The events that surround her captivity lead us to discover that her heroic acts of bravery continue as we piece together the cir-cumstances that brought her into his-tory’s small spotlight. With only the clothing on her back, leaving even her small children behind, she fled. For a month’s time, she took cover farther east on Long Island with the support of “friends.” In one letter, she mentions that eventually a “William Sheriddon came to Long Island in a whale boat and I made my escape with him, we be-ing chased by two boats half way to the Sound then got to New England.” She chose Philadelphia as her escape-to des-

tination.

Once in Philadelphia, her focus switched to recovering her children as well as finding a means to support her-self within the onset of poverty-stricken conditions. She appealed to the Board of War for help. Through her letters to General Washington, it was revealed that he was clearly distraught over her “disturbing circumstances” as a refugee. She asked for a flag of a truce to return to New York to retrieve her children; her request was granted with great honor. But after arriving in Elizabeth Town, (now known as Elizabeth, New Jersey), and waiting four weeks for the arrival of her children, she resigned to leaving all of their belongings behind to be sold and donated to the American cause. She was then awarded a lifetime pen-sion from Congress in recognition of her Revolutionary efforts. It is believed that she lived out the rest of her life - mysteriously - in Philadelphia.

A typical whale boat probably much like the one used to transport Burgin from Long Island to Philadelphia

The route of Culper Ring, the American spy network organized by Major Tallmadge under the orders of General George Wash-ington in 1778

Anillustrateddepictionofanunidentifiedfemale spy during the Revolutionary War

Help Wanted at the Red Hook Star-Revue

Reporters needed for news coverage in Red Hook and her environs. Enthusiasm more important than experience. Learn on the job.

Full and part-time positions available.

Call Kimberly Gail Price

718 624-5568or email:

[email protected]

101 Union Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231 718 624-5568 [email protected] www.RedHookStar.com


The anticipation began Tuesday, February 5 on Fairway’s twitter feed. The beloved Red Hook gourmet supermarket would

reopen on March 1st. Foodies from Red Hook and beyond greatly missed their Fairway after the store was gutted by Hur-ricane Sandy floodwaters. The re-opening of Fairway would bring more normalcy back to their lives.

Local stores were excited as well. The Red Hook Lobster Pound moved up their own reopening a month to join Fairway. The Red Hook Winery also reopened March 1st with a day-long wine tasting. Kevin’s, the Van Brunt seafood restau-rant, was able to open the weekend prior to and prepared a special sign that Fair-way customers would see on their trip up Van Brunt.

Politicians jumped on the bandwagon as well. Our mayor, borough president and US Senator joined others in the celebra-tion that took place in front of Fairway, Friday morning. A makeshift stage was erected facing the parking lot. Festoons of green and yellow balloons tadorned the freshly painted parking spaces. Seven rows of folding chairs were set up in front of the stage to accommodate VIP’s. Be-hind the chairs, mass media set up a long, wooden platform for filming and photog-raphy. Fairway suppliers were given tables at the far end of the lot to set up dem-onstrations of products and provide free samples. A large crowd gathered to join the festivities. Hardy shoppers formed a line behind green shopping carts, await-ing the magic hour of 11 am when Fair-way would finally open their doors for business.

Day begins with musicThe Brooklyn Sym-phony, a quintet that once played at Ebbets Field, provided the warm-up music. At 9 am, Danny Glick-berg, great grandson of Fairway’s founder Nathan Glickberg, walked to the podium to welcome the gathering and introduce the PS 15 choir. The choir led the crowd in the National Anthem, which was fol-lowed by a little less than one hour of speeches.

Charles Santoro, Fairway’s chairman, spoke first. He set down the themes for the day. He reassured all that Fairway’s highest priority was always to reopen the store. No employees were ever laid off; they were all given jobs at other loca-tions as well as transportation to and from work. He thanked the Red Hook com-munity for their support and mentioned that the Red Hook store hosts over a mil-lion customers each year. He talked of Fairway’s continuing support of the Red Hook community. He said that the day’s celebration was not only about Fairway, but of the whole community’s ongoing recovery from Sandy’s devastation.Mayor Bloomberg spoke next. He pro-claimed it “a great day for Red Hook. Fairway is open, Miss America is here,

I think Marty Markowitz is getting fer-klempt!” He explained how his office helped Fairway reopen as fast as humanly possible. The city helped both financially and in cutting bureaucracy. He noted the reopenings of the Lobster Pound and Red Hook Winery and suggested everyone go out later for some lobster and wine. He closed his speech with perhaps the most truthful statement of the day, saying “Sandy’s silver lining was seeing neigh-

bors helping neighbors, lending a hand to those in need and coming together for the common good.”

Howie Glickberg, grandson of the found-er and until recently Fairway’s CEO, spoke next. First, he unwrapped a large package and gave it to the Mayor. It was a painting of Bloomberg made by Floyd, a Fairway employee. Bloomberg accepted the austere portrait graciously, but with-out mentioning where he would hang it. Glickberg also handed Bloomberg a Fairway bag full of onion bagels, lox, and a schmear of cream cheese - which the Mayor seemed to accept a bit more eagerly.

Glickberg then recounted Fairway’s his-tory in Red Hook. He was introduced to the building by Greg O’Connell, Sr., who told him “we have a wonderful building for you; we want you to open up a food store.” Glickberg described seeing the “dilapidated “ building, accepted the of-fer, saying “we had a vision.” He called the opening of Fairway in 2006 a “reju-venation of Red Hook.” He continued, “Red Hook at that time was run-down. We helped bring Red Hook back up. When we moved in, the neighborhood now had a place to buy good food, all of the local businesses had an anchor, and we created foot traffic.”

Next, he described Sandy. He spoke about driving through Red Hook the day after. Red Hook was without electricity. Every

building was flooded. His own store held five feet of water. The total devastation left his with “tears in my eyes.” He was determined to rebuild Fairway as well as helping all of Red Hook. He reiterated Fairway’s helping hand, including the do-nation of 6,000 Thanksgiving turkeys. He thanked all those who helped Red Hook Fairway get back on its feet, including the politicians. He also earned a laugh when he said that he could have sat between

Marty Markowitz and Bloomberg on the dais, or next to Miss America. He looked straight at the mayor and said, “and I chose you two.” To which Bloomberg quipped “I was thinking you were smart until then,” and everybody laughed again.

Before giving up the stage to lifelong Brooklynite, Senator Charles Schumer, Glickberg held up a ReStore Red Hook T-Shirt. The shirts were being sold inside Fairway, with all proceeds going to the fund that aids local businesses. In addition to helping ReStore Red Hook with T-Shirt sales, Fairway was taking donations at the cash registers, matching the 100% of donations up to $20,000. Schumer, who

might be starting to look a bit like the late Mayor Koch, reiterated what a great day it was. He said “it’s a great day for the Schumer family, cause our own personal supermarket is open again!” Running through all the reasons he loves Fairway, he emphasized the cheese selection. “The first day, we were all here at the original 2006 opening, and I knew Fairway was special because they were featuring cheese from yak milk from Mongolia! Can you imagine... in Brooklyn!”

One of Schumer’s favorite themes is di-versity. He pointed out that one of the great things about Red Hook was the wide variety of ethnicities and economic classes that get to mingle. He pointed out how the Fairway was a great example of this. He pointed out how the Fairway

aisles feature foods reflecting this diver-sity of tastes. It is a supermarket and a gourmet shop, all at the same time.

Fairway’s secretThe gourmet selection at supermarket prices is a big part of what has made Fair-way a popular and expanding grocery chain. Fairway began as a fruit stand in 1933. It grew through the years and by the 1970’s, grandson Howie, together with two partners, started turning the original small Manhattan market store into the monster shopping bazaar it is today. One of the differences between Fairway and most other supermarkets is that Fairway does not charge their suppliers for shelf space. This is a big reason for their varied selection - as small brands can compete for shelf space as equals with the giant corporate brands. People appreciate that they can find a craft maker of organic yo-gurt seated right next to Dannon.

The love fest continued with Borough President Marty Markowitz. After a shout-out to a deputy mayor, CB6’s Craig Hammerman, Miss America, Greg O’Connell and many others, Markowitz returned to applauding Fairway. He told how his wife Jamie comes to Fairway once a week and shops for “non-fat yo-gurts, fruits, veggies, fresh fish and coffee beans.” He continued saying, “and while she’s occupied, I slip away and walk straight to the appetizing, prepared food counter, cafe, coffee, bagel, bialy, danis-hand wait for my wife to finish shopping.”

The crowd’s desire to enter Fairway was growing, but there were still a few more speakers. Their speeches were brief. Ken Adams spoke for Governor Cuomo, Da-vid Meade, executive Director of South-west Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation (SBIDC) spoke about Fair-way’s great employee policies, mention-ing that many of Fairway’s workers live in Red Hook. Howie then introduced two local businessmen well known to Star-Revue readers.

smaller businesses representedThe first was Ron Kyle. Ron and his wife Mary live in Red Hook and own Dry Dock Wine + Spirits. He spoke of ReStore Red Hook, formed after the storm to help lo-cal businesses reopen. Most businesses in the area took tens of thousands of dollars in losses, he said. Many of them have re-ceived no financial help except the grants that ReStore Red Hook has been able to provide. ReStore Red Hook has raised almost half a million dollars, money that has been shared among their fifty mem-bers.

St. John Frizell, owner of Fort Defiance, followed.

“I have to admit that there were a few days in the beginning, when I didn’t know whether I was going to be able to reopen. But then the volunteers showed up. First a handful, and then a dozen, and then hundreds of them, walking the

re-openIng day

“Sandy’s silver lining was seeing neighbors helping

neighbors lending a hand to those in need and coming

together for the common good.” - Mayor Bloomberg


by George Fiala


Punxsutawney Phil

didn’t see his shad-

ow a few weeks ago,

and many hibernat-

ing New Yorkers are cursing

him under their fogged breath

for not making good on his

promise for an early spring.

But you wouldn’t have known

it in Red Hook the first week-

end in March. Streets were

full of locals and shoppers

who figured shadows or no, it

was a good weekend to get out

on the town.

Fairway’s re-opening certain-

ly provided a helpful push.

The ribbon cutting ceremony

emceed by Mayor Bloomberg

and Miss America kicked of

the New Year for the retailer.

The Lobster Pound and Red

Hook Winery also re-opened

March 1st. And many other

local businesses felt the surge

of the crowds too.

The Star-Revue took a stroll

around Van Brunt. We want-

ed to speak with the employ-

ees manning the field, those

at the forefront of the ac-

tion. Despite their long days,

employees and owners alike

filled up in on the highly an-

ticipated opening weekend of

Fairway. Brooklyn CrabBrooklyn Crab was back in business very shortly after Hurricane Sandy

swept through. Despite their reopening, business remained very slow. But all of that changed once Fairway cut the cer-

emonious ribbon.

Valerie Chisholm, events coordinator, was tending bar when we stopped by. She was wearing a cheery, upbeat atti-tude and her normal bright smile. She claims there has been a “noticeable dif-ference” since the reopening and that Brooklyn Crab is “back on the map.”

BakedMatt Evans was working behind the coffee bar over at Baked. He chatted with us while preparing our coffee, tak-ing great concern for the fussiness of the editor’s detailed requests. He talked about how Baked was very lucky after the storm and lost very little inventory. They were able to reopen immediately, giving those without power and heat a warm place to sit and have a hot cut of java.

Baked is pretty well-known in the neighborhood and has retained its regu-lars. But Matt said they have definitely had “a lift” in busi-ness, and that they were “super busy” over the week-end. “We have a ton of regulars, but we’re also seeing a lot of new faces too,” he added.

As for the neighborhood, Matt says, “Everyone is back in business. There’s a feeling like we’re going to get back there. The last three days have been wild!”

Baked donated $1 of every cookie sold over the weekend to ReStore Red Hook.

Dry Dock Wine + SpiritOver at Dry Dock Wine + Spirit, Amanda Johnson was clerking. As with so many other local businesses, Dry Dock Wine + Spirit suffered greatly from the swell of Sandy. They relo-cated what they could salvage into an

unused storefront until their permanent location could be renovated. They were able to reopen as soon as the power in their temporary store was turned on.

Amanda talked about the initial week-end of Fairway’s grand re-opening - and the differences she saw in business. Fri-day and Saturday were “pretty crazy,” she said. “There are definitely more people walking around. I miss the quiet a little bit, but I guess it’s good for busi-ness.” She also mentioned that Fort De-fiance down the block had completely run out of desserts that first Friday, another big sign that businesses were booming all around.

She also told us a little about Dry Dock’s plans to move back into their permanent space. They are expecting the move in the next few weeks, hope-fully by the end of March.

Hope & AnchorLike Baked, Hope & An-chor had very little damage and were able to reopen quickly in the aftermath of Sandy. Their basement was flooded and they needed repairs, but they were able to keep their doors open during the process.

Tina Cocadiz was serving tables and tending bar when we arrived. She said that brunch on Saturday and Sunday were “quite busy,” and that Sunday brunch seemed to be the busier of the two days. She also said that the evenings were fairly busy as well, but “we tend to be fairly busy on weekends nights any-way.” She told us that Hope & Anchor brought in extra staff in anticipation of the weekend.

Red Hook Vol-unteersRed Hook Volun-teers, an organiza-tion formed as a result of Hurricane Sandy, culminated as a result of local need. The original members were on site before the winds died down. After occupying several storefronts up and down Red Hook’s main drag, they have finally been able to inhabit a per-manent home at 360 Van Brunt Street.

They are just settling in to the space where they have already begun to re-

cruit and organize more volunteers, dis-play local artists’ work and set out lavish displays of birthday cake.

Mike Elders’s one birthday request was to have a cake. Twelve differ-ent desserts showed up at their new office. They kindly sent an enormous box of leftover desserts with us.

Over the weekend, they had 75-80 vol-unteers, as opposed to their normal 25. They are still helping with mold reme-diation throughout the neighborhood. Students from Millbrook School, an upstate boarding school, were helping them collect food and hand out flyers.

Red Hook Lobster PoundLobster Pound is among the many that suffered massive damage during the flood. During their renovation process, they still managed to maintain their position at the well-known Brook-lyn Flea throughout the winter. They also reopened the same day as Fairway, pushing their intended opening up by almost four weeks to take advantage of the extra foot traffic. Mayor Bloomberg was their first customer when they were finally able to reopen their doors Friday morning.

On Sunday night, Mac Walton and Danny Lewis were cleaning up after a long, busy day. The two employees concurred that business was fairly busy. “We had a rockin’ weekend,” Mac said. He also said that business seemed busier this year than it was at the same time last year. Mac is one of only three employees that works for the Lobster Pound post-Hurricane Sandy.

Red Hook WineryRed Hook Winery also reopened their doors for the first time on March 1st.

around toWn

Dry Dock had to open an outpost as their shop suffered extensive damage.

Baked happily welcomed back Fairway.

Fairway shopping bags once again make their way down Van Brunt.

Red Hook’s coffeehouse, Baked, opened soon after the storm as they luckily avoid-edthefloodwaters.

HopeandAnchor,onthesameblockasBaked,onlysufferedafloodedbasement,andhasbeenfeedingRedHooksincesoonaftertheflood.

(continued on next page)

Brooklyn Crab, across from Fairway, suf-fered during the supermakets closure

by Jared Grabow and Kimberly Gail Price


streets of Red Hook in their muddy boots and work gloves, looking for some place just to dig in and get dirty. And it was their energy and their spirit that got us through those dark, early days. “ He went on to praise Red Hook Initiative who helped coordinate so many of those volunteers. He thanked Fairway on behalf of ReStore Red Hook, for realizing that the recovery efforts are not over yet. He urged every one to keep coming back to Red Hook, “the greatest little town in the biggest city of America.”

The finale of the ceremony was presided over by Mallory Hagan - the newly crowned Miss America. She first introduced the Brooklyn School of Inquiry, who sang and danced in their green Fairway hats. The multitude of speakers - all wielding scissors simultaneously cut the ribbon. The huge throng of shoppers swept through the front doors. Fairway, their employees and customers were finally back home, and the resto fo the day was business as usual. A lot of usual business!

They suffered not only massive damages to their building, but also lost about half of their inventory. When more than five feet of water entered their space, the wooden casks of wine floated off of their racks and taking in salt water into their aged product. While the space could be renovated, the ruined product could not be replaced.

Owner, Chris Snyder is thrilled to be re-opened, and would have never thought about moving anywhere else. He and Sandra Nicholas, tasting room man-ager, spoke about coming back to life. Their warehouse has been completely renovated, and they have restocked a good number of barrels. Sandra said that Fairway’s reopening is crucial to their success. “It’s really common for people to stop by to pick up a bottle or

two of wine on their way home.”

Red Hook Winery also held a wine tast-ing Friday, inviting people to come in

around toWnand sample their selections with ac-companying cheese and bread. They have also set up a small shrine to the Red Hook community, emphasizing the strength and character of the neighbor-hood throughout the rebuilding process. Pictures, hand-written notes and cut-outs are pinned up as a reminder to visi-tors, as well as the owners of the amaz-ing feats they have overcome.

Chris Nicolson, the winery’s head wine maker also gave us a special tour. Hun-dreds of barrels lie in waiting for the proper aging. Metal equipment glim-mered with cleanness and the concrete floors were immaculate. Chris men-tioned that there was still much work and recovery to be done, but from all appearances, the Red Hook Winery looks brand new.

In preparation for the next storm, the majority of product will be moved off-site. Everything else will be taken up-stairs to higher ground. But for now – with the worst behind them – they are ec-static to be back in business.

Hot Wood ArtsMegan Suttles, artist and

curator, and her hus-band Mike Beck, musician, opened Hot Wood Arts be-hind Fairway at 481 Van Brunt last sum-mer. Despite the close proximity to the water, their space took on absolutely no water. “We were so lucky,” Megan said. “We just went around the neighborhood asking how we could help.”

The art studio rents out very af-fordable space for artists to work

in. Visitors can watch the artists work through glass doors. The two also hold benefits and exhibitions in the space. They have had few visitors thus far, but are optimistic that they will begin to see more people as the weather changes and they spread the word.

Megan and Mike are currently working with Pratt students who lost their entire portfolios in the recent fire by offering

them studio space to rebuild their collection.

Kevin’sKevin and Caroline Parker, owners of upscale seafood restaurant, Kevin’s, were also devastated by Sandy. But in the aftermath, they took the opportunity not just to rebuild but also to improve upon their space. They reopened the weekend before Fairway’s

grand celebration. They could not reopen until landlord finished repairs on the storefront. But

they were pleased with his reaction and work “He was great, actually,” Caroline said. “He asked what improvements we would like and he gave them to us - in-cluding this new floor.”

The restaurant’s charm has been en-

hanced by wainscoting, more tables and a brand new counter as well. Be-fore the storm, the old counter was inherited from the former deli owners and took up a good portion of the res-taurant. After the storm, the counter had to be replaced. They replaced the old, bulky one with a smaller one that takes up about half the space of the old

one. The new counter is pushed fur-ther toward the back of the restaurant near the kitchen, allowing more room for seating.

On Friday, March 1st, Kevin was in a good mood and had plenty of sand-wiches and soup to dish out. Caroline was surprised by amount of Fairway customers that stopped by for brunch. “We assumed they would simply eat in the Fairway café, but we were pleasantly surprised by the afternoon business gen-erated by drivers to and from Fairway, making us a habit,” she said.

Kevin noted they had missed some items they purchased from Fairway, like smoked salmon, smoked chorizo, but es-pecially the fresh squeezed orange juice.

The flurry of activity provided a stark juxtaposition to the “ghost town” refer-ence some ill-advised, out of touch NY Times reporter recently made. But any-body with an inside perspective knew that Red Hook was alive and would be ready when the foot traffic returned. By all accounts – even without any love from the groundhog – Red Hook cer-tainly still has its mojo.

fairway re-opens with a celebration(continued from page 9)

Ron Kyle, who spoke at Fairway’s re-opening, presides over a busy cash register at Dry Dock Wines + Spirits.

Red Hook Volunteers, at 360 Van Brunt, was giving out dessert.

Chris Snyder of Red Hook Winery with .....

Kevins was able to create a beautiful room as they rebuilt from the storm.

The Red Hook Winery scheduled a wine tasting the day Fairway reopened.

Page 12 Red Hook Star-Revue www.RedHookStar.com March 2013 Page 13 Red Hook Star-Revue www.RedHookStar.com March 2013


Fairway’s re-opening cer-emony was a love fest. Politicians, businessmen and even Miss America came to-

gether to speak with admiration about the specialty supermarket that opened in Red Hook in 2006. Bagel and lox mentions were interspersed with kudos about jobs and economic development, while hun-dreds of shoppers eagerly waited to enter a supermarket closed since Hurricane Sandy. The building they stood in front of, bear-ing the address of 480-500 Van Brunt, has stood in silent watch of Red Hook’s vicis-situdes for the past 140 years.

This building, called at various times NY Stores, Van Brunt Stores, Red Hook Stores, and now Fairway, was built in 1869 when Red Hook was a bustling seaport community. The opening of the Erie Ca-nal brought large amounts of cargo - espe-cially grain - from the midwest to the NY Harbor. Entrepreneurs took advantage of Red Hook’s expanse of the waterfront as well as the proximity to Manhattan. They built the Erie and Atlantic Basins, along with acres of warehouses and grain eleva-tors. Red Hook was changed from a sleepy Dutch agricultural community into one of Brooklyn’s fastest growing neighborhoods.

Boomtown red HookThe Civil War greatly expanded Red Hook’s importance. Shipping to New York became essential, creating spillover that was brought to Red Hook. Barges start-ed bringing cotton, hemp, jute, indigo, leather, fruits, tobacco, vegetables, cocoa beans and coffee and manufactured goods in addition to grain. Manhattan ports were

overcrowded, and their warehous-ing efficiency was never as great as Red Hook’s. Man-hattan’s waterfront was mostly pub-licly owned; while Brooklyn’s were

mostly pri-vate. Private ownership re-stricted pub-lic access but also meant the piers were better

maintained. Owners built their warehous-es close to the dock, lowering the cost of transportation to storage facilities. Lower costs drove more business into the hands of Red Hook’s privately owned waterfront.

In 1869, William Beard, the Irish immi-grant who built the Erie Basin, erected the 5-story building at the foot of Van Brunt that originally was Red Hook Stores and now houses Fairway. “Stores” refers to the term storehousing, another term for ware-housing. The storehouse was built close to the bulkhead, allowing goods to be offload-ed from the ships and readied for quick transport into the building.

According Harold Seybert, one-time part-ner in Fairway, the building “had don-keys on the top floor that were whipped and pulled to work the pulley system that brought up the 100-pound bags of coffee.” The cast iron shutters that are still carefully preserved protected the goods inside from frequent storms coming off the sea.

The steady building of warehousing facili-ties far outpaced those of Manhattan and New Jersey. Cargo shipped by rail to New Jersey started being sent over to Red Hook on barges. Over time, however, the need for warehousing diminished. What was once Red Hook’s great advantage became a disadvantage by the early 20th century because advances in transportation made it possible to bypass warehouses.

Red Hook slowly declined from its posi-tion as a shipping and manufacturing hub.

The invention of shipping containers also played a roll in Red Hook decline. Instead of physically loading and unloading large sacks of goods by hand, the standardization of ship-ping containers, as well as their stackability, enabled large quan-tities of cargo to be loaded and unloaded by one person operat-ing a crane. Each container was packed for a specific purchase. Offloaded and stacked, they were then hitched to trucks and driven directly to the customer. Less demand for storage erased a large portion of Red Hook commerce.

Large new container terminals sporting the oversized cranes were built in the New Jer-sey ports closer to the interstate highway. Red Hook’s business left for Jersey.

BQE a further setbackThe building of the Brooklyn Queens and Gowanus Expressways added to Red Hook’s problems. Movement in and out of Red Hook became more difficult by the barriers these highways created. Red Hook was referred to as a forgotten neigh-borhood. People from surrounding areas stopped coming to Red Hook. Those we re-mained found that commuting in and out of the area became increasingly difficult. Red Hook emerged as a home to the bur-geoning crack cocaine trade in the 1970’s and 80’s, and crime skyrocketed.

The city was not completely unaware of the situation. Since many of the jobs lost were union jobs, there was strong political pressure to save them. In the early 1970’s the city - at the urging of the local branch of the International Longshoreman’s Asso-ciation (ILA) - considered a plan to build a new containerport. By 1975, the plans had scared many Red Hook residents into selling their buildings at distressed prices. They were concerned that the city would condemn the buildings to make room for the containerport. The containerport was never built, but the losses remained.

All of these factors contributed to a major population decline. Red Hook’s population , 21,000 in 1950, fell to 10,800 by 1990.

Gangs and drug use flourished, especially in the public housing. Life Magazine wrote up the Red Hook Houses as an example of crack killing a neighborhood. In 1992, the beloved principal at PS 15, Patrick Daly, was killed by a stray bullet during a gang and drug related incident.

Many point to 1992 as a watershed year. Lo-cal real estate developer, Greg O’Connell, Sr. purchased the Beard Street Piers and other waterfront properties from the Port Authority and started bringing them back to life. This was also the year that the lo-cal community board, Community Board 6 (CB6) started work on a report, called 197-A, a guidline for the revival of Red Hook.

NYC revised its City Charter in 1989. The charter defines the exact role and functions of city government. One of the changes

gave local governments the power to pre-pare comprehensive community planning reports to be approved by the City Coun-cil. Once approved, these reports would serve as a guideline for city agencies in their community dealings. CB6 was one of the first community boards to utilize this new power and hundreds of meetings over the next two years preparing this report.

The 197-a report, named after the law that gave CB6 this planning power, was called “Red Hook, A Plan for Community Re-generation.” It was finished in 1994, and approved with changes by the City Coun-cil in 1996.

The reports objectives were stated as follows:

1. Promote opportunities for the rede-velopment of Red Hook’s main as-set - its people - including improved housing, social services and youth services, and the expansion of the residential community

2. Support the preservation and ex-pansion of industrial maritime ac-tivity where it is currently solidly positioned in the northwest and southeast sections of Red Hook

3. Promote employment and business opportunities for local residents

4. Promote new residential develop-ment in the context of an economi-cally, socially and physically inte-grated community

5. Guide future development in a way that minimizes conflicts between in-dustrial and residental communities

6. Strengthen, support and expand the burgeoning arts community

7. Improve access to, egress from, and circulation within Red Hook by pub-lic transportation

8. Strengthen existing retail commer-cial areas

9. Revitalize and create public access to the waterfront, one of Red Hook’s major assets

Another major goal was to bring Red Hook’s population back to its 1950 level of more than 20,000 residents. More people would increase economic activity from within, creating stable new jobs and busi-ness opportunities. To achieve this goal, affordable housing was needed. The build-ing at 480-500 Van Brunt was singled out in the report as a prime area for new hous-ing.

The warehouse had become city property in 1980 after the owners fell behind in taxes. Half of it was rented out to Wally Shapiro, who still conducted a warehous-

HIstory

Art:

Pictured with Greg O’Connell Sr., are Carol Lattmann, Louise Wadsworth, Paul Kroehnke and Will Wadsworth. They came from upstate NY and Massachusetts with Mr. O’Connell to help with Sandy relief after the storm. (Star-Revue photo) (continued on next page)

John McGettrickby George Fiala


ing business; the other half was vacant. CB6’s report indicated that city renova-tion could create 150 affordable apart-ments.

The Planning Commission ultimately struck this section out of the report. They felt that renovation would be too costly. Local leaders, including John McGettrick, Lou Sones and Florence Neal took up the cause of residential use. Neal, an artist, had bought a building at 351 Van Brunt, which she and her husband renovated and opened as the Kentler International Drawing Space.

Greg O’Connell Sr. had a different idea. O’Connell was a visionary who began purchasing Red Hook properties when nobody else wanted them. He recalls the days of cyclone fences and packs of rov-ing dogs. In 1992, he purchased 28 acres of the waterfront from Port Authority for around $500,000. There were no other bidders for these run-down properties.

The purchase included the Beard Street Piers. Rather than demolishing the di-lapidated buildings, he slowly restored the Civil War era warehouses and rented them to small businesses that needed af-fordable large spaces. His vision was a bal-anced growth of the community by main-taining its mixed use zoning in which residential and commercial activities ex-ist side by side. He believed that a decent place to by food was crucial for commu-nity regeneration.

O’Connell explained the genesis of Fair-way in a 2005 interview:

“About 15 or 16 years ago, one of Fair-way’s principals was importing olive oil for his store, and he rented warehousing space here at one of my buildings. The product was so good and so well accept-ed, that he looked to expand into other related lines. When I bought the Beard Street Warehouse, he was one of the first tenants, and he doubled the space. Later, when I became interested in [the build-ing now being developed for Fairway], I was looking for a business that I thought would be good for the community. And if you walk around Red Hook, you’ll find that the supermarkets here are generally expensive, poor quality and not so clean.

Also, I learned that one of the best busi-nesses to put into an inner city is a su-permarket, because it employs locally. So here we had a Fairway, which at the time had just opened up in Harlem, where it employed hundreds locally. The commu-nity in Harlem loved it, and it had quality products and pricing. I thought that it was a perfect match. I spoke to them, and we managed to make a deal.”

O’Connell’s idea was stongly opposed by those who had signed on to the original idea of housing. A large supermarket was thought to be out of place in the neighbor-hood. Another fear was the potential traf-fic a busy store like Fairway would bring to Red Hook’s sleepy streets. McGettrick and Sones, both housing advocates, were joined in their opposition by Red Hook’s City Councilman Angel Rodriguez, the seat now held by Sara Gonzalez.

In the meantime, McGettrick, head of the Red Hook Civic Association, and Sones, who led Groups Against Garbage Sites (GAGS), were both active in the fight against waste transfer stations placed in Red Hook.

A waste transfer station is a place where garbage is collected be-fore shipment to its final des-tination. City garbage is often placed on barges and shipped to landfills in other states, such as P e n n s y l v a n i a . Any community with access to the water is a prime can-didate - which Red Hook certainly is. However, Brooklyn Heights also quali-fies based on that reasoning. However, government rarely tries to place garbage facilities in wealthy neighborhoods. In ad-dition to the stench and noxious gases as-sociated with these dumping sites, garbage truck traffic adds even more discomfort to the situation. They are generally placed in poorer neighborhoods where opposition might be smaller. Red Hook had 20 simi-lar facilities, at that point; the city wanted to add another one.

In 1998, the Giuliani administration proposed a waste transfer station for the southwest part of the Hook. The Civic Association and GAGS , along with ac-tivists like Wally Bazemore and Pete Mo-rales, mounted a furious campaign against it, and the plan was defeated.

The neighborhood celebrated the victory with a party at David Sharps’ Waterfront Museum, the historic barge that is now docked across from the Fairway build-ing. Speeches were made; drinks were consumed. According to a contemporary article in NY Magazine, Councilman Rodriguez - with O’Connell in the audi-

ence - mounted a fiery speech about the future of Red Hook. He vowed to block the approvals needed to build Fairway and instead push for housing and waterfront access.

When the time came for that City Coun-cil vote, however, Rodriguez shocked the community - especially McGettrick - by turning around and voting in favor of Fairway.

The explanation behind Rodriguez’s flipped vote erupted in scandal. He was caught attempting to extort O’Connell in exchange for his vote. He approached the ex-detective and demanded over a million and half dollars in cash and real estate considerations. O’Connell went to city authorities who brought in the FBI. O’Connell was fitted with a recording device and taped Rodriguez demanding money. Rodriguez was disgraced, resigned from office, and was eventually sentenced to 52 months in jail.

There were still other fights ahead. Mc-Gettrick, Sones and the Beard Street Association filed a lawsuit that sought a

scaled-down version of Fairway.

The lawsuit added ex-pense and time, but was eventually shot down. Construction began with the blessing of many, including Craig Hammerman, CB6 Dis-trict Manager. He was quoted in the NY Times saying, “Residents have noted a significant lack of services and goods in the community. We

would welcome healthy competition for food at discount prices.” While acknowl-edging potential traffic problems, he add-ed “as long as there is a benefit, more peo-ple are inclined to see a positive tradeoff.”

Finally on May 17th, 2006, Fairway opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony in front of the store. Senator Chuck Schumer and Borough President Marty Markowitz attended. Fairway proved to be a huge hit, earning kudos for bringing their merchandising to Brooklyn, hiring locals and creating public access to the water-front with views of the Statue of Liber-ty and Red Hook’s famous sunsets.

McGettrick’s fear of the traffic proved warranted when a fatal accident oc-curred six weeks later. At the be-ginning of July, a woman was hit on Sullivan Street by a van that had just left the Fairway

HIstory

parking lot. Before Fairway’s opening, the only traffic light on Van Brunt from Fair-way to Hamilton Avenue was one that had been recently installed by the Cruise Terminal. The Department of Transpor-tation (DOT) had not thought to upgrade traffic safety in advance of the new store.

Neighborhood activism finally shamed DOT into installing multiple signals and traffic calming to slow down speeding shoppers. Traffic calming refers to delayed stoplights.

Above Fairway, O’Connell built 45 mar-ket rate apartments, which are fully rent-ed. He also donated space to non-profits, including Martha Bower’s Dance Theatre, Etc. Antique trolley cars were displayed behind the store next to a dining area where shoppers could enjoy lunches while viewing the Statue of Liberty. Over 300 union jobs were created. Many local stores have come to depend on the extra busi-ness that Fairway brought to Red Hook.

Lou Sones, once a foe, now says “I changed my mind after seeing the amount of people and interest it brought into the community.”

However, there is still no love lost be-tween McGettrick and O’Connell. Mc-Gettrick still talks about broken promises, and O’Connell remembers the fights. But it can be argued that without either of them, Red Hook would not have come as far as it has since those dark days of the 1980’s. Wally Bazemore calls the foes, “two titans swinging at each other. It’s a waste of energy. They are both an asset to the community.” Craig Hammerman calls them both winners.

The building once called the Red Hook Stores began life as a storehouse for goods arriving on sailing ships and cargo lad-en barges. It is once again a storehouse stocked with ample supplies of exotic products unimaginable in 1869. The same space that was once used to store products is now a merchant for these goods.

“When the time came for

that City Council vote,

however, Rodriguez

shocked the community -

especially McGettrick - by

turning around and voting in

favor of Fairway.”

Red Hook Industrialist William Beard


Brooklyn Eagle, July 23, 1872 Page 2

tHe sHore lInedocks, pies and Warehouses

from the delaplaine House to atlantic dock

WHat Was seen on a tour of oBservatIon - Brooklyn’s Mammoth Wharves and store-

houses - repositories of Wealth

When Robert Fulton started the first steam ferryboat, the Nassau, plying between New York and Brooklyn, a little more than fifty

years ago, and the entire water front if this city showed only half a dozen insignificant docks - had any person then said that in fifty years there would be docks, piers and warehouses along the whole length of the shore from Gowanus Bay to Hunter’s Point, about twelve miles, and that millions upon millions of dollars’ worth of merchandise would be stored where there was only waste land, such person would have been looked upon

as insane. But such a state of things has come to pass, a n d Brooklyn can now b o a s t of hav-ing more

wealth stored in the warehouses on its shore line, than any other city in the United States has. New York has more docks than any other city, but it has had the send the great bulk of the wealth brought to its port to the city to be stored. The increase of the value of property on the water front, and the construction of large piers and warehouses have been exceedingly rapid. Then changes in a dozen years in this respect have been astonishing, even to Young Americans. The natural advantages of Brooklyn for shipping and storage pur-poses, attract commercial men to it more and more every year. One line of ocean steamers already runs from here; another is soon to follow, and there is pros-pect of others still in the future. What is needed for the accommodation of more ocean steamers is longer piers on the river front, between Red Hook and the Navy Yard. There are ample pier and dock facilities in connection with the great warehouses of this city, but not enough long piers available for ocean steamers between the points named. ...

But it is more especially the purpose of this article, and of others to follow it, to show how great is the dock and warehousing business of this city; and, with this object in view, a reporter of the Eagle has made a tour of obser-

vation from Gowanus Bay to Hunter’s Point. The pres-ent article embraces the result of these observations. The Delaplaine House is taken as a landmark. It is sit-uated on a hill at the southern extremity of Gowanus Bay, where the shore makes in from the general line that is observed from the Narrows up to this point. Just below this house is the first dock, and on it and the adjoining land are the Phenix Chemical Works...

On Hamilton avenue near Third avenue, with a large frontage on the water, are the works of the South Brooklyn Saw Mill Company. Here logs are hauled in on one side, and in a short time turned out planks on the other.

Between this point and the Gowanus Canal a large amount of filling in has been done, but as yet no buildings have been erected.

On the strip of land between Gowanus Canal and Court street, great improvements have been made in a few years. This Knickerbocker Ice Company have here three good sized frame buildings, and are con-templating the erecting of a large ice house where a reserve supply can be stored to meet the increased demand caused by extreme warm weather. There are several extensive stone yards, a foundry, and other im-provements where a few years was only swamp land.

West of Court street, and occupying the low, swampy land from the Bay to Hamilton avenue and away round more than a mile to Van Brunt street, near where it is intersected by Elizabeth street, are above five hundred shanties, of all sorts and sizes. They are huddled together in groups, in many places close to pools of foul, stagnant water, and in others, closer to the shore, where the kindly tide cleanses in some degree their surroundings. Some of the shanties are built on plies driven in the dirty black mud. In and around these miserable hovels are to be seen poor, worn-looking women, dirty, ragged children, and oc-casionally a lazy pig or roving goat. The smell from the neighborhood is very offensive, and, were it not for the breeze which generally prevails, would be un-endurable. The wonder is not that the people die in great numbers in the locality when epidemics prevail, but that they can live there at all. They are greatly to be pitied if poverty compels them to live in such plac-es, and the person who would lift them up out of their present way of living would be doing a good work for the cause of humanity. The same locality will afford excellent sites for factories and warehouses when filled in. Mr. Beard, the principal owner, being asked why the work of filling in had not been commenced, replied, “Material for filling it would cost considerable now; in a few years it can be procured for nothing. “After passing this swamp land, the first thing met of importance is the dry docks, for there are two of them. They are owned by a company, of which G. H. Brad-bury is president, and J.P. Robinson and Wm. Beard prominent members. The property of the company embraces twenty-six acres, and comprises an extensive water front, with twenty-eight fee of water in the chan-nel. The docks are built of timber, and are each 485 feet

long. A vessel is floated in, the gate or entrance port, consisting of a floating caisson, is then closed, the water pumped out of the dock and the vessel is left in the dock, where it can be repaired. The docks are the larg-est in the world, and there is no vessel which they can-not accommodate, except the Great eastern. the longest vessel ever docked here was one of the White Star line of steamers, which was 475 feet long, being within ten feet of the extreme length of the dock. The last vessel in the dock was the Great Western, which is 375 feet long. There is not being doing now at these docks, as the vessels generally, particularly steamers, are in the midst of the busy season, and do not lay up for repairs unless obliged to; beside, they are not as subject to damage at this time of the year as during the more severe weather.

Near the dry docks there is a large storehouse, where goods are stored from vessels undergoing repairs. ..

Turning from Elizabeth to Van Brunt street, and going down the latter to its terminus, large warehouses and extensive docks are to be seen on both sides of the street. That on the east side the warehouse of Wood-ruff, Robinson and Bear, where Mr. Beard, familiarly known as “Billy Beard,” is found, and from him con-siderable information is obtained....

On the dock at the foot of Van Brunt street there is a yard for storing railroad iron, 400 feet long and 150 feet wide, in which there are stored 100,000 rails at the present time. A large grain elevator is now being built upon the dock, about midway of the warehouse, by Mr. L.E. Mansfield, for Mr. Beard. It is 90 feet high, and 32 feet square. From the top a magnificent view can be had of New York, Brooklyn, Jersey shore and the bay. The elevator will be finished in about one month, in time for the Fall trade. It will be capable of transferring five thousand bushels of grain per hour each way, and at the same time weighing and cleaning it. Its total cost will be about $25,000. At these docks there is 28 feet of water, being more than sufficient for the largest vessels. As to the value of the property and the amount of busi-ness done, it is impossible to get any definite statement from the owners, but both are immense and would have to be reckoned by millions of dollars.

William Beard has done more to improve property along the shore than any other man. He is a “self-made” man and decidedly “original.” He w as born in Ireland about sixty-eight years ago, came to this country when a young man, and commenced to earn his living as a laborer. He first dug cellars, and, having made enough money to buy a horse and cart, took con-tracts for digging. He gradually increased his capital and business until he became one of the largest con-tactors in the city. For some years past docks and ware-houses have constituted his specialty. He first bought land around Red Hook Point about thirty years ago. In 1849 he purchased 150 acres, from Conover Street to

Mompje’s Hook, for less than $30,000, and has since added as much more land in the same locality to his possessions. It is a plan of his to build docks and ware-houses from the foot of Van Brunt street to the foot of Court street.

HIstoryBefore 1898, Brooklyn was it’s own city, with its own daily newspapers. The Brooklyn eagle began publishing in 1852. The following two articles, originally publishedinthe1870’s,offermuchflavorand insight into Red Hook’s history.


The converted factory space known as the Invisible Dog Art Center in Boerum Hill provided the setting for 600

Highwaymen’s latest performance piece “The Record.” The center - renowned for its staging of performance and visual art since 2009 - takes its name from its former incarnation as a belt and jewelry factory where the Invisible Dog novelty toy was reputedly invented. Evidently even when this was a place of industry rather than art, it was also a place of cre-ation.

On entering the space, there was cer-tainly an eerie feeling of a former life to the building. This was my first time at the center or to a show by the perform-ing company, 600 Highwaymen. I had read a brief synopsis of the show, but still had very little idea what to expect. I ventured across the space to the empty seating area.

I sat and watched other patrons file in and hang their coats before joining me on the benches. What was going to un-fold beneath the white canvas suspend-ed from the ceiling?

Finally, the blinds were raised at the front of the space allowing passers by on the street a view directly into the space, while simultaneously providing a reflective image of us, the collective audience in the window pane. Both of these factors put the audience into the show making us acutely aware of the subjectivity of who was actually being observed.

The piece began with a lone performer walking into the middle of the space and performing abstract movements. After a few moments, he was joined by another performer executing her own separate, yet somehow connected movements. The soundtrack of a nearby cello and a recording of different sounds seemed at first to deliberately jar me as this new piece was being birthed and then mel-lowed with time. More and more per-formers began to occupy the space and I

began to settle into the experience, al-lowing it just to be with highly specific choreographed movements.

The piece is aptly titled “The Record.”

audience, are as much a part of as the performers.

Essentially we were observing people as individuals and their relationship with others in the world around them. It could have been any 35 people, it could have been 35 of the people seated in the audience or even 35 of the people exiting the nearby subway station who stopped to peer through the front window to see what was go-ing on. My favorite moment happened when a young girl turned and smiled at a young schoolboy with crooked collar and askew tie. Having quite possibly never noticed one another until this ex-act moment, they connected. He either kinesthetically sensed her warmth or correctly interrupted the audience reac-tion to this moment and spontaneously smiled back. The piece created many spontaneous organic moments like this, which is the essence of great theatre.

Speaking with artistic director, Abigail Browde, I learned that “The Record” was conceived from an original idea from her co-artistic director, Michael Silverstone. An experiment brought together 35 in-dividuals to create a living document.

After the performance, I spoke with one of the performers to get an idea of what the experience of performing in “The Record” was like. Yael Shavitt, a na-tive of Israel and recent graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts found working on this piece to be in-vigorating. “It was very different to any other rehearsal process I had ever done. It really was exhilarating.” Yael has act-ed in numerous theatrical productions in both Manhattan and Brooklyn over the last year and isn’t easily fazed. But this experience of venturing into the unknown took her out of her comfort zone. “It wasn’t until right before the first performance that I realized how scary it was that I had never rehearsed with any of these performers.”

Yael believes any experience that takes her out of her comfort zone helps her

600 Highwayman an experience at Invisible dogby Brian Clancy

grow as an artist. “Once I was on stage I realized I was both a performer and a viewer as I had never seen any of the other performers before. While main-taining my focus, I took in as much as I could. That really gave me a feeling of total immersion in the performance, that I was somehow connected with other performers.”

Indeed, that feeling of being connected is essentially what I took from the piece as a viewer. As I sat there in the space and as I walked home that night I felt just a little bit more connected with my fellow man and the world around me.

600 Highwaymen is an award-winning theater company under the artistic di-rection of Browde and Silverstone. They are dedicated to creating a body of original, immersive productions that re-imagine the live theatrical experience for an audience.

The Invisible Dog Arts Center at 51 Bergen Street hosts events which in-clude visual art exhibits; dance, theater, and music performances; film screen-ings; literary arts and poetry readings; lectures and community events.

Upcoming events at Invisible Dog

FRIDAY MARCH 22 – 7.30PM – READING – Writers from the Benning-ton College MFA Program and Beyond converge. Featuring acclaimed novelist Alice Mattison, Liz Arnold, Jeremy Old-field, T. Glen Coughlin, Willa Carroll, Amy Herrick, Jackie Corley, Julia Licht-blau Alice Mattison, Brooklyn native and Bennington faculty member, has written six novels and five story collections.

FRIDAY MARCH 29 – 8pm – MUSIC – MATE is a series, curated and organized by Richard Garet, dedicated to sound and moving image presentations that are derived from ideas, processes, material, and media experimentation. This series attempts to present from within a large spectrum of today’s experimentalists, the work of art-ists that are vigorously contributing to our cultural landscape.

“As I sat there in the space

and as I walked home that

night I felt just a little bit

more connected with my

fellow man and the world

around me.”

It basically serves as a portrait of 35 in-dividuals simply being themselves in a moment in time, running for just under an hour. It could be described as an es-say on life told through the microcosm of this performance in which we, the

The Record is a performance piece by the group 600 Highway. (photo by Maria Baranova)


The Blue Pencil Lunar Revue

A spoof publication of the Red Hook Star-Revue, no information below is meant to be true or offensive.

Second weekend in March proved to be a hellish one as a monstrous blizzard named Professor Telescopis inca-

pacitated the entire city. Blankets of white madness cloaked buildings, cars and everything else in his path with total mayhem. Meteorologists estimate that nearly one-third of an inch of snow fell dramatically upon most of NYC.

Residents braced for the soft, fluffy horror with massive shopping sprees for canned goods, toilet seats and classic Monopoly boards that still con-tain the tiny model iron. “You don’t know how valuable that little guy’s gonna be one day,” a local resident commented. “I don’t wanna still be looking for it in 20 years on some fu-turistic E-bay site. Better to just have it now.”

Sales clerks at Home Depot, Lowe’s and Dollar General said plain white toilet seats were on backorder indefi-nitely as sales preceding the storm skyrocketed. It could be as long as ten months before homeowners and rent-ers alike will be able to find the re-placement porcelain. And don’t even ask about a colorful, decorative kind.

Local business owner, Sashie Me-nokin claimed to have shut down her bustling xylophone business at clos-ing time Saturday night and wasn’t able to re-open until the following morning at the start of regular busi-ness hours. The damage to her busi-ness was so extensive that not one sale was made between 2 and 5 am on her website. “I think maybe people were too frightened to even log on to the internet,” she lamented. “I don’t blame them; it was a scary time.”As for the actual avalanche, the af-fects are enormous. Flower pots and tree guards were completely covered. Traffic cones had dustings all over their bases. Bus stops were barely visible through the blinding snow-fall. Many automobiles were declared

totaled from the massive clumps of snow falling consistently on their alu-minum structures.

Some mocked Professor Telescopis, defying his fury by building statues and strangely shaped androgynous men out of the powdery vileness. Several sandcastle-like snow structures liked the side-walks of Van Brunt. Other simply defied the blizzard’s consequences by leaving mocking foot prints.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg expects it will take several hours for all of the snow and ice to melt. Temperatures are not supposed to rise above 45 until at least noon, delaying all Sunday morning activities indefinitely. Many residents will be forced in-doors until the havoc erases itself. Or even worse they may have to brave the great coldness if circumstances re-quire it. Local politicians are demanding that people only take this chance in life or death circumstances.

The MTA stopped buses and trains on the streets and tracks exactly where

they were as soon as they heard the prediction of Telescopics. Anonymous sources claim that just because the storm has passed and the snow has melted, does not mean this will be an easy or quick recovery. “It’s just an-other unnecessary set-back that we didn’t see coming,” the source said. “It will probably take many months, if not years for us to get our s--t to-gether. The least expensive way for us to handle the damage will be to charge extra fare. Single ride tickets may increase to $15. But we are fully

committed to not taking advantage of our communters [sic].”

Dry cleaners and launderers reported great swarms of people coming to col-lect their blankets and coats in prepa-ration for the storm. “We didn’t even clean most of them,” Shirley Asdf-ghjkl told us. “Nobody seemed to care cause they were just so darn cold. They basically just paid us and took their stuff back. But that didn’t shock me too much. I knew how awful this mess was gonna be.”

In lieu of an early spring prediction by Punxsutawney Phil, many see this

as a major setback. Boilers had to be turned back on. Hats, gloves and scarves were dug out of the bottom of drawers after being sworn off for the season. Every clearance item of Ma-cy’s Winter Closeout has been marked back up to full price.

The one – and probably only nice thing that the storm may have produce was the appearance of the Gowanus Ca-nal. For a few hours, it was shiny and sparkly. Carroll Gardens resident, Elo-ise Mc Finkerfie said, “For a few min-utes, it almost looked clean. It was kinda pretty.”

Comments:I guess that stupid groundhog was having a bad hair day. He lied to the whole world, and I am mad at him. Snow does not equal spring. Early showers and pretty flowers is what spring is. SinceRely, MicHelle HutcHey

If we had a Republican president, this never would have happened. It is just another example of how our liberal thinking has failed us. Clearly, Mother Nature is conservative. Remember that next time you vote, people.

GARRiSon HucklebeRRy

HuGe BlIzzARd duStS BRooklyn, HeAvy MACHIneRy BRouGHt In

by Glock N. Shpeel

If we all had guns, we could’ve scared away the storm with bullets. I bet this never would have happened if Profes-sor Telescopis knew we were armed.

GeoRGiA buttleSkiThis is exactly the type of thing that happens when we rename our tunnels and bridges. Nothing but bad stuff has happened to the community since the Battery Tun-nel was renamed the Hugh Carey something or other. It is just silly. I’m sure Duracell doesn’t appre-ciate the name-change anymore than I do. JiMMy tHootHound

We should teach our children manners. This has nothing to do with the snowstorm, but I think that this is a good time to start talking about it. At least when we talked about snow, we could be polite. MARy PoiuytRe

I agree with Mary. We could use this time while we are incapacitated in our homes, businesses or stuck on this damn MTA bus to have meaningful talks with our kids. Why not take advantage of the time, instead of wasting it? SAM McGHee

Think about the environmental effects this storm will have! Where will all of the runoff go? Straight into your toi-lets and bathtubs! Who wants to uri-

nate in contaminated water that used to be snow? This is an OUTRAGE!!!

betty MARoon


The Red Hook StarªRevue crossword

Star-revue Puzzler #26 by george Fiala

ACROSS 1. JFK’s brother 4. Harrison in Star Wars 7. Walmart’s founder 10. Yastrzemski or Sagan 11. French one 13. Fertility goddess 15. 1969 World Series outfielder 16. Kind of truck 17. Half a round of golf 18. Kind of a nudnik 20. Hedonist’s opposite 22. “Bon ____” (witticism) 24. Church seat 25. Romantic gesture 29. Like some tempers or apples 32. Smell 33. Vermont’s crop 34. Word with done or liked 35. Joined 36. To reduce severity 38. Jackie’s second 39. With baba or balls 40. They can be solar 44. It can shoot your eye out 48. Seized auto 49. Approves 51. Abate 52. Wine additive 53. After tax 54. Falsehoods, homonym 55. Goes with outs 56. Network that shows Net games 58. Acid for hippies

19. Bunnies do it 21. Essential piece of early animation 23. Given in court 25. Fight 26. Carole King’s record label 27. Clump of grass 28. “Rat-a-____” 29. Wrap 30. Hard working insect 31. Ruby or Sandra 34. Weight 36. “___ we not men?” 37. Pencil point 38. Tiny matter 40. AARP members

41. Abominable snowman 42. Rumplestiltskin did this 43. Amusement park game, with ball 45. Part of LGBT 46. Not new 47. Nintendo console 50. Van Brunt and Columbia are examples (abbr).

Answer to previous puzzle

Add local media to your marketing plan.

we will show you how advertising in the Red Hook

Star-Revue can lead to increased profits.

call today

718 [email protected]

DOWN 1. Spaghetti sauce brand 2. Wilma’s husband 3. Jewish ethnic music 4. Jabba was one 5. Indonesian cow 6. You are holding one 7. Tendon 8. “Play it ____ __ lays” 9. Cooper or skirt 10. Fire 14. Federal agency

1 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 13 14

15 16 17

18 19 20 21

22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29 30 31

32 33 34

35 36 37

36 38 39

40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47

48 49 50 51

52 53 ` 54

53 55 56 57

What kid doesn’t love to come out and see their favorite TV character? On March 16, the

little ones were able to do just that, as they got to spend the day with the Eas-ter Bunny. Sacred Hearts-St. Stephens Church, located on Summit Street, hosted their annual Brunch with the Easter Bunny in Cabrini Hall.

The event was catered. the menu in-cluded scrambled eggs, home fries, pancakes, French toast, fresh fruit and bagels, along with accompanying con-diments, coffee, juice and milk. Plates were served with heaping portions of everything the diner requested.

Multiple tables were set up with white plastic table cloths. Each table had jumbo size crayons and several optional pictures for the children to color. Around the room, children’s artwork was on display. ‘

The Easter Bunny was in good spirits, giving welcoming hugs and waving to

those who were too timid to approach. When he hopped around the room, he carried jingling bells to announce his presence.

For picture time, the bunny sat in an ornate chair surrounded by colorful flowers. Each child had a chance to sit on his lap and have his or her picture taken.

While talking to local residents and kids, everyone was enjoy the event. In addition to brunch, kids were able to get their faces painted, have their picture taken with the Easter Bunny and have story time with him.

When I first arrived, I ran met Isabella & Gabriella, two little girls, who seem really excited to have a chance to meet the Easter Bunny. They were there with their mom, grandmother and great-grandmother. Talk about generations!

The brunch also included a raffle for an Easter basket. Raffle tickets were $1

each, and all proceeds went toward other events the church will be host-ing later this year. The brunch has been go-ing on for 10 years and is always a suc-cess. St. Ste-phen’s holds many events for children throughout the year including a Halloween carnival and Brunch with Santa Claus. The fol-lowing Sunday, March 17, St. Stephen’s performed their annual blessing of the children during their 10 am mass with Bishop Chappetto.

the easter Bunny has already appeared in carroll gardensby Alliyah Leocardio

After a delicious breakfast and an early afternoon with the Easter Bunny, the event came to a close. The day was filled with excitement, joy and laughter. St. Stephen’s Easter Bunny had hosted another successful brunch.

Not only did these kids get to pose with the easter Bunny, but they had a hot breakfast, drew, had their faces painted, and got their picture in the Red Hook Star-Revue. (photo by Leocardio)


Hospital’s prime Cobble Hill land could be worth as much as $500 million,” the article read.

State University spokesperson, Robert Bellafiore was quoted several times in the article, saying, “The fact of the matter is that zero consideration has been given to the real estate factor of it. It is so cart be-fore the horse, it’s not even funny.”

The stark juxtaposition of the two op-posing facts created a flurry of comments among the readers. “Bob from Brooklyn” wrote, “If SUNY in fact valued LICH property at $500 million AT THE TIME OF ACQUISITION ... well, that sort of belies SUNY’s recent assertion that the value of LICH’s real estate was never even considered.” Another commenter, “allen” wrote, “bob [sic], you caught that too? methinks they had an unintentional slip of the tongue.”

Thursday, February 28 - A Power Point presentation was posted on the SUNY Board of Trustees website entitled “A Fu-ture for Downstate Medical Center.” On page 4 of this document, SUNY explains their three-stage plan

Phase 1 – Secure $150 million in Sta-bility Funds from New York State.

$150 million is needed to keep the opera-tion going and support mission critical items, while we work to fix many of the underlying problems that contribute to these losses.

Phase 2 – Restructure the Operation for Sustainability

a) Proceed with the restructur-ing of the operation of Downstate Medi-cal Center.

b) Cease inpatient operations at LICH. The operating losses are signifi-cant and assumptions for the acquisition, particularly related to patient volume,

were significantly flawed.

c) Pursue legislation which will increase the flexibility of the organiza-tion to support a more financially sus-tainable operation.

Phase 3 – Pursue a Brooklyn Solu-tion and Long-Term Sustainability for Downstate Medical Center

Develop a plan for creating a Brooklyn hos-pital consortium, including significant af-filiations and partnerships that will serve to make Downstate Medical School the medi-cal school for hospitals in Brooklyn. Explore the potential of the consortium to develop a new hospital for central/northern Brooklyn

March 1 - One day after the previous post, another Power Point Presentation was posted entitled “SUNY Hospitals & A Healthier New York: Capital Briefing.” Page 14 listed the outstanding debt of their hospitals as of January 31, 2013:

Upstate: $187,542,000

Downstate: $191,329,000

Stony Brook: $251,818,000

March 8 - Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Johnny Lee Baynes extends the tempo-rary restraining order against SUNY

March 12 - Nurses delivered almost 30 pounds of petitions to Dr. Nirav Shah, Commissioner for the Department of Health. They turned the event into a ral-ly, waiving their iconic signs and chant-ing their consistent message. “LICH IS OPEN FOR CARE!”

March 14 - Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Johnny Lee Baynes voided the Feb-ruary 8 vote because SUNY violated the Open Meetings Law.

March 14 - The Brooklyn Paper reports that SUNY did discuss LICH as real es-tate.

“State officials justified their controversial move to make a public meeting private by confessing they were discussing the hospital’s $500-million property holdings

in secret one day before announcing the plan to shutter LICH, according to legal documents.”

“Among other topics, attendees of the closed-door meeting talked about ‘the proposed sale of LICH realty title,’ said one affidavit, filed by Lora Lefebvre, the university’s associate vice chancellor for health affairs. That is quite a reversal.”

March 15 - State Assemblywoman Joan Millman, and State Senators Daniel Squadron and Velmanette Montgom-ery sent Cuomo a letter requesting the shutdown be halted until the Empire De-velopment Corporation could conduct a study on the economic impact of the closing.

March 19 - SUNY votes unanimously for a second time to close LICH

The vote was held in Purchase, New York - nearly 40 miles away from the facility.

LICH workers organized and bussed over 100 workers and community members to the hearing.

Squadron released a statement saying, “SUNY again demonstrated a disturbing lack of transparency, holding its vote on the future of LICH in Westchester. But still we made our voices heard - for our com-munity and for Brooklyn.” Squadron also noted that the location of the hearing was a “slap in the face to all those impacted.”

In response to the accusation that the vote had been scheduled upstate to dis-courage supporters of LICH to attend, Board Chairman Carl McCall claimed the meeting had been scheduled months in advance. However, SUNY only knew five days prior to this second vote that they would have to reschedule the hear-ing and revote on the issue.

March 20 - Caregivers held a candle light vigil and march through Brooklyn Heights after SUNY’s unanimous vote to close LICH, “to remind community that we are still here,” said Semente.

March 21 - LICH employees receive

WARN notices, or notices of termina-tion, effective June 18, 2013 - exactly 90 days after the vote, the time limit mandated by the state before a proposed closure. The letters were postmarked on Wednesday, March 19, suggesting that they were already prepared to mail out the day of SUNY’s second vote to termi-nate LICH.

March 21 - Caregivers met with senior community group in Gowanus and Red Hook to raise awareness.

March 23 - Caregivers will participate at 12 pm meeting at Borough Hall that Marty Markowitz has called to address the issue.

March 23 - Caregivers will attend the Civic Association meeting to raise aware-ness in the Red Hook community at PS 15 at 7 pm.

March 28 - caregivers will hold a forum for the Red Hook community at 6:30 pm at PS 15.

For now, LICH as they say is still “open for care.” Hospital workers and commu-nity members are fighting side by side on a daily basis to keep it that way. Ironi-cally, the very lives that LICH has saved time and again may be the same ones that save the existence of the hospital.

“ We are not afraid of termination let-ters,” Semente says. “ We have confi-dence that the Department of Health will recognize its responsibility to the care of the community.”

Downtown Brooklyn may face many unnecessary challenges with the loss of LICH. In a 2008 interview with the NY Times, Judy Stanton, former executive director of Brooklyn Heights Association states quite clearly the importance of LICH’s survival. “If your child was hav-ing an asthma attack, and you couldn’t rush to LICH where there are pediatric specialists to give the right dose, then yes, your child could die.”

suny’s conundrum(continued from page 5)


Star-Revue Guide to area restaurants

red hookBAKED 359 Van Brunt St., (718)222-0345. THE BROOKLYN ICE HOUSE 318 Van Brunt St., (718) 222-1865. BOTANICA 220 Conover St (at Coffey St), (347) 225-0147. DEFONTE’S SANDWICH SHOP 379 Columbia St., (718) 855-6982. F&M BAGELS 383 Van Brunt St., (718) 855-2623. FORT DEFIANCE 365 Van Brunt St., (347) 453-6672. THE GOOD FORK 391 Van Brunt St., (718) 643-6636. HOME/MADE 293 Van Brunt St., (347) 223-4135. HOPE & ANCHOR 347 Van Brunt St., (718) 237-0276. IKEA One Beard St., (718) 246-4532. MARK’S PIZZA 326 Van Brunt St., (718) 624-0690. NEW LIN’S GARDEN RESTAURANT 590 Clinton Street, (718) 399-1166RED HOOK LOBSTER POUND 284 Van Brunt St., (646) 326-7650.ROCKY SULLIVAN’S 34 Van Dyke St., (718) 246-8050.

Columbia Waterfront ALMA 187 Columbia St., (718) 643-5400. CALEXICO CARNE ASADA 122 Union St., (718) 488-8226. CASELNOVA 214 Columbia St., (718) 522-7500. FERNANDO’S FOCACCERIA RES-TAURANT 151 Union St., (718)855-1545. HOUSE OF PIZZA & CALZONES 132 Union St., (718) 624-9107.JAKE’S BAR-B-QUE RESTAURANT 189 Columbia St., (718) 522-4531.MAZZAT 208 Columbia St., (718) 852-1652. PETITE CREVETTE 144 Union St., (718) 855-2632.

TEEDA THAI CUISINE 218 Columbia St., (718) 643-2737.

Carroll gardens/Cobble hillABILENE, 442 Court Street, 718-522-6900, BACCHUS, 409 Atlantic, (718) 852-1572BAR BRUNO, 520 Henry St., 347-763-0850, BAGELS BY THE PARK, 323 Smith Street, (718) 246-1321BAR GREAT HARRY, 280 Smith Street (718) 222-1103BOMBAY DREAM, 257 Smith Street (718) 237-6490BOURGEOIS PIG, 387 Court Street, (718) 858-5483BROOKLYN BREAD CAFE, 436 Court Street (718) 403-0234BUDDY’S BURRITO & TACO BAR, 260 Court Street, 718-488-8695, BUTTERMILK CHANNEL, 524 Court Street (718) 852-8490CASA ROSA, 384 Court Street, 718-797-1907CHESTNUT, 271 Smith St., (718) 243-0049COBBLE GRILL, 212 Degraw Street, (718) 422-0099COBBLE HILL COFFEE SHOP, 314 Court Street, (718) 852-1162CODY’S ALE HOUSE GRILL, 154 Court Street, 718-852,6115COURT STREET GROCERS, 485 Court Street, (718) 722-7229CRAVE, 570 Henry Street, (718) 643-0361 CUBANA CAFE, 272 Smith Street (718) 718-858-3980 DOWNTOWN BAR & GRILL, 160 Court street, 718-625-2835DUBUQUE, 548 Court Street, (718) 596-3248EM THAI KITCHEN, 278 Smith Street, (718) 834-0511ENOTICA ON COURT, 347 Court Street, (718) 243-1000F LINE BAGELS, 476 Smith Street (718) 422-0001FIVE GUYS, 266 Court St., 347-799-2902FRAGOLE, 394 Court Street, (718) 622-7133FRANCESCO’S RESTAURANT, 531 Henry Street, (718) 834-0863FRANK’S LUNCHEONETTE, 365 Smith Street, (718) 875-5449

GHANG, 229 Court Street, 718-875-1369HANA CAFE, 235 Smith Street, (718) 643-1963LE PETITE CAFE, 502 Court street, 718-596-7060LING LING YOUNG, 508 Henry Street, (718) 260-9095MARCO POLO RISTORANTE, 345 Court Street, 718 852-5015MAMA MARIA’S RESTAURANT, 307 Court Street, (718) 246-2601MEZCALS Restaurant, 522 Court Street, 718-783-3276

NATURES GRILL, 138 Court street, 718-852,5100, NINE-D, 462 Court Street, 718-488-8998, OAXACA TACOS, 251 Smith Street (718) 222-1122OSACA RESTAURANT, 272 Court Street (718) 643-0055P J HANLEYS, 449 Court St, 718- 843-8223PALO CORTADO, 520 Court St, 718-407-0047PRIME MEATS, 465 Court Street, 718-254-0327 or 0345,PALMYRA, 316 Court street, 718-797-1110RED ROSE RESTAURANT, 315 Smith Street, (718) 625-0963SALS PIZZA, 305 Court Street, (718) 852-6890SAM’S RESTAURANT, 238 Court Street, 718-596-3458SAVOIA, 277 Smith Street, 718-797-2727

SOUTH BROOKLYN PIZZA, 451 Court Street, 718 852-6018STINKY BROOKLYN, 261 Smith Street, 718 522-7425SWEET MELISSA, 276 Court Street, (718) 855-3410 TRIPOLI, 156 Atlantic Ave, 718 596-5800VINNY’S OF CARROLL GARDENS, 295 Smith Street, 718 875-5600VINNY’S PIZZERIA, 455 Court Street, 718 596-9342VINO Y TAPAS, 520 Court Street, 718-407-0047ZAYTOONS, 283 Smith Street, 718 875-1880

gowanusMICHAEL AND PINGS, 437 Third Av-enue, (718) 788-0017COTTA BENE PIZZA, 291 3rd Ave, 718 722-7200LITTLENECKS, 288 3rd Ave., (718) 522-1921


art & community calendarIf you have an event you would like listed in the Red Hook Star-Revue calendar, please email [email protected]

BenefitsMar 21 Dance Theatre Etcetera’s Ben-efit Party Thursday March 21, 2013, 6:00pm-9:00pm The Brooklyn Crab 24 Reed Street Brooklyn NY 11231

Children Thru March 31 Classes focusing on self esteem, problem solving, socialization, conflict resolution, and free expression through art, music and creative move-ment. For children from Birth to 7 yrs Who’s on First 1st Place (Clinton/Henry) (718) 243-1432

Every Sat 10:30-11:30am Story Time with Carol & Friends for Ages 4-6 at the Carroll Gardens Library with Carol Tronha of the Cobble Hill Playschool Carroll Gardens Library 396 Clinton St (Corner of Clinton & Union) (718) 596-6972

Every Tues 10am GoGo 1 Pre Crawlers & 11:30am GoGo 2 Creeping, Crawl-ing &Pulling Up Element 518 Henry St (Union St) 2nd floor studio (718) 643-6064

Every Wed Wed’s 6:15-7:45pm Carroll Gardens Library Chess Club. Improve your chess and learn from an expert chess player All-Ages welcome! Bring a Chess Clock for Blitz Class Carroll Gar-dens Library 396 Clinton St (Corner of Clinton & Union) (718) 596-6972

Every Mon 10:30am Babies and Books for Babies and Tots (infant-18 months) Books for babies, learn fun songs & Rhymes and meet other families in your neighborhood in this program - Meeting Room of the Library, Carroll Gardens Li-brary 396 Clinton St (Corner of Clinton & Union St) (718) 596-6972

Every Fri 1-2:30pm Arts & Crafts - Get Crafty with Bobbie the Volunteer Recom-mend ages 2 & + Meeting Room Carroll Gardens Library 396 Clinton St (Corner of Clinton & Union St) (718) 596-6972

Church/synagogueEvery Thur 6pm Choir Practice w/ Emili-ana; in home Blessings and Masses, by appointment. Languages available: Eng-lish, Spanish, Italian, Germen. Contact Lori Burkhard (917) 971-5522 Visitation of Our Blessing Virgin Mary R.C. 98 Richards St @Verona

Class/Workshops Every Mon 4-4:45pm Children’s aikido (ages 4-5) 5-6 pm Youth aikido (6-13) 6:30-8pm Adult aikido, Aikido of South Brooklyn 205 Columbia St (718) 612-6334

Every Tue 7:15-8:15am Adult Aikido, 4-4:45pm Children Aikido (ages 4-5), 5:15-6:30pm open Mat, 7-8pm Adult Ai-kido, weapons, Aikido of South Brooklyn 205 Columbia St (718) 612-6334

Every Wed 6:30-8pm Adult Aikido, Ai-kido of South Brooklyn 205 Columbia St (718) 612-6334

Every Thurs 4-4:45 Children’s Aikido (ages 4-5), 5-6pm Youth Aikido (ages 6-13), 7-8pm Adult Aikido, Aikido of South Brooklyn 205 Columbia St (718) 612-6334

Every Fri 4-4:45pm Children’s Aikido (ages 4-5), 5-6pm (ages 6-13), 7-8pm Adult Aikido, Aikido of South Brooklyn 205 Columbia St (718) 612-6334

Every Sat 9-10:30am Youth Aikido (ages 6-13), 10:45-12:15pm Adult Aikido, Aiki-do of South Brooklyn 205 Columbia St (718) 612-6334

Every Wed Feb13-Apr5 Arts in Books for Adults Pre-Registration is Required Carroll Gardens Library 396 Clinton St (Corner of Clinton & Union) (718) 596-6972

Every Mon 7am Everyday Athlete, 9am Everyday Athlete for babies Noon Mom-my & Baby Bungee Everyday Athlete 136 Union St (718) 852-6300

Every Tues 6:30am Everyday Athlete + Yoga Everyday Athlete 136 Union st (718) 852-6300

Every Wed 9am Everyday Athlete for Baby’s, Noon Mommy & Baby Bun-gee, 7pm Everyday Athlete + Metabolic Strength Everyday Athlete 136 Union St (718) 852-6300

Every Fri Everyday Athletes Beginners Everyday Athlete 136 Union St (718) 852-6300

Every Sat 9am Everyday Athletes open class Everyday Athlete 136 Union St (718) 852-6300

Every Thurs 7:15-5:15pm Yoga in Red-hook $10 or pay what you can Cora Stu-dio 201 Richards St (Coffey/Van Dyke St.) (718) 858-2520

Every Mon thru June 9 3:30-4:30pm Creative Movement with Courtney Ages 4-5, 4:45-5:45pm Modern II with Court-ney Ages 9-13, 5:55-6:55 CYC (Cora Youth Company) Ages 9-18 Nadia & Guests (Invitation only), Cora Dance 201 Richards St (Coffey/ Van Brunt St (718) 858-2520

Every Tues thru Mar 26 11-11:45 am Dance Baby Dance! With Luisa ages 2-3.5, Discover Dance (Pre-Ballet, Tap, and Creative Movement combo) with Dana Ages 4-5 Cora Dance 201 Rich-ards St (Coffey/ Van Brunt St) (718) 858 2520

Every Wed thru June 9 3:30-4:30pm Big Fun Dance (Modern Technique with Jazz/Hip hop with Sarah B. Ages 6-9, 4:45-5:45pm Hip Hop Ages 9+ Sarah B & Solomon Cora Studio 201 Richards St (Coffey/Van Dyke St) (718) 858-2520

Every Thurs thru June 9 3:30-4:30pm Ballet I with Courtney ages 6-9, 4:45-5:45pm Ballet II** with Courtney Ages 9+, 7:15-8:15pm Yoga Teen/Adult with Jolene Cora Studio 201 Richards St (Coffey/Van Dyke St) (718) 858-2520

Every Fri thru June 9 3-4pm The Works! (Drama, visual arts, music, story-telling and more!) Ages 5-8 Cora Studio 201 Richards St (Coffey/Van Dyke St) (718) 858-2520

Every Sat thru June 9 9:30-10:30am Zumba** Teen/Adults with Sarah F. Cora Studio 201 Richards St. (Coffey/Van Dyke St) (718) 858-2520

Every Sun thru April 7 5-7pm Sense Writing for writers of all levels $430 Ja-lopy Theatre and School of Music 315 Columbia St (718) 395-3214

galleriesSun Mar 17 4:40 pm Artist Talk: Jennifer Williams and Jason Varone 440 Gallery 440 6th Ave. (Park Slope) (718) 499-3844

Thurs-Sun 1-8pm thru Aug 31st New Collections of Local Artists FREE Brook-lyn Collective Gallery 212 Columbia St (Union/Sackett) (718) 596-6231

Polar Light: Greenland photography of Rebe Bass Fotrman and the Greenland drawings of Zaria Forman. A climate change awareness exhibition held in conjunction with Al Gore’s “The Climate Project” Look North Inuit Art Gallery 275 Conover St Suite 4E (347) 721-3995

Sat-Sun Mar 2-31st Joanie Turbek and Matt Rubby “Dream Team” Lorraine Gal-lery 183 Lorraine St (Clinton/ Court St) (347) 409-8957

museums Every Sat Sats 12-7pm Refreshments, 5-7pm Evenings, 5-10 pm Above and Beyond, a three-year retrospective of the art if William and Kathleen Lazia Micro Museum 123 Smith Street (718) 797-3116

Every Thurs (4-8pm) & Sun (1-5pm) Free Boat tour & open hours The Water-front Museum Lehigh Valley Barge No. 79 290 Conover Street (718) 624-4719 ext 11

music Wed Mar 20 9pm Roots & Ruckus ft Feral Foster, Foghorn and more! Free Jalopy Theatre and School of Music 315 Columbia St (718) 395-3214

Thurs Mar 21 7pm Date Night at the Ja-lopy Tavern & Theatre $45, 9pm Jan Bell $10, 10pm Ana Egge$10 Jalopy Theatre and School of Music 315 Columbia St (718) 395-3214

Fri Mar 22 Noon Freetown Produce Festival- Three Day Pass $75, Freetown produce Festival Cooking Class with Black Pot Supper $20, Freetown Pro-duce Festival- Friday day pass $30, 7pm Freetown produce festival dance class, bands & black pot supper-dubl Handi, Stephanie Jenkins, Kristen Andereas-sen, Rosie Newton, Chris Eldrige, Mi-chaela Anne, Bailey Cooke and Erin Du-rant $15 Jalopy Theatre and School of Music 315 Columbia St (718) 395-3214

Fri Mar 22 41 Players 9 pm, Bait and Tackle, 320 Van Brunt St 718-451-4665

Sat Mar 23 The Strung Out String Band 9 pm, Bait and Tackle, 320 Van Brunt St 718-451-4665

Sat Mar 23 Noon Freetown Produce Festival $37.50, 7pm Freetown Saturday Night Bands and Blackpot supper-brain cloud and The Revelers Jalopy Theatre and School of Music 315 Columbia St (718) 395-3214

Every Monday 8-11pm The Star The-ater Acoustic Jam 101 Union St (Colum-bia/Van Brunt St) (718) 624-5568

Every Thur 8pm The Star Theater Elec-tric Jam Dim lights and loud music- join

your local neighbors and make some great music with us 101 Union St (Co-lumbia/Van Brunt St) (718) 624-5568

tastings Fri March 22: cabernet sauvignon 5:30-8:30, free Chilean cab from a family owned winery in the Maipo Valley, that specialize in the production of red wines. Dry Dock & Wine & Spirits 424 Van Brunt St (718) 624-5921

Sat March 23: 4:00-7:00, free Distilled by 2 brothers in Catalunya this 100% pure vodka, is made from 100% grain, and is 100% headache free. Dry Dock Wine & Spirits 424 Van Brunt St (718) 624-5921

Walking toursDaily 10am-1pm A historical walking tour of Brownstones Brooklyn featuring the childhood home of Al Capone, the history of the Williamsburg Bank and the Revolutionary War battle site the Old Stone House, Real Brooklyn Pizza lunch included $40 A Tour Grows in Brooklyn 1212 64th St. (212) 209-3370

Fitness/BodyEvery Mon 6:30 am & 7pm TRX Boot

Camp (Advantages Package Required) Trainer: Nick, Body Elite, Body Elite & Fitness Center 348 Court Street (718) 935-0088

Every Tues 7:45pm TRX Strength Train-er: Nick, Body Elite & Fitness Center 348 Court Street (718) 935-0088

Every Wed 7am TRX Basic Robin & 7pm TRX Basic Robin, Body Elite & Fitness Center 348 Court Street (718) 935-0088

Every Thurs 7 am TRX Basic Robin & Rachel, Body Elite & Fitness Center 348 Court Street (718) 935-0088

Every Sat 9:45 am TRX Circuit Robin, Body Elite & Fitness Center 348 Court Street (718) 935-0088

Every Sun 11 am TRX Basic Robin & Rachel, Body Elite & Fitness Center 348 Court Street (718) 935-0088

annual good frIday celeBratIonsGood Friday around these parts is always a great show. The two largest Catholic Churches - one in Red Hook and one in Carroll Gardens have a long history - and a long history of Good Friday processions.

Sacred Heart and Saint Stephen’s Church, on Summit and Hicks Street, represents a merger of two local churches, both of which date back to the 1860’s. The current build-ing was erected in 1875. Visitation Church, at Richards and Verona, dates back to the 1850’s. Their building is from 1896. Both are beautiful examples of Gothic architecture and are worth a visit just to see the history.

The Good Friday Visitation processional precedes St. Stephen’s, so an intrepid sightseer can be part of both. It starts at 10:45 am at the church and for the next two hours winds through Red Hook, passing through the Justice Center parking lot, then towards Coffey Park and meanders around the Red Hook Houses. Anyone is welcome, and will follow Father Claudio as he speaks at each station.

The historic Sacred Heart/St. Stephen processional is an elaborate affair that begins at the church steps at 7 pm. The statues of Christ and Mother Mary are carried through the streets of Carroll Gardens followed by women in black and everyone else.

Both affairs are not to be missed, no matter what your religious persuasion. Good Friday is on the 29th of March this year.


JABUS BUILDING

CORP.Serving Red Hook for over 25 yearsSpecializing in Construction and

Historic Preservation• New construction• Renovations, additions and extensions• Masonry specialist• Concrete floors/radiant heated• Concrete/bluestone sidewalk repair• Flue linings, chimneys and fireplaces• Demolition and waste removal• Violation removals• Landmark Preservation contractor

Jim & Debbie BuscarelloPHONE: (718) 852-5364

Fax: (347) 935-1263 www.jabusbuildingcorp.com

[email protected] License #0883902

Trade Waste License #1135

Help Wanted

Licensed Electrical ContractorsCommercial • Residential • Industrial

Free Estimates

Violations RemovedAll Types of WiringEmergency Service

Vito Liotine(718) 625-1995(718) 625-0867

[email protected]

137 King StreetBrooklyn, NY 11231Fax: (718) 935-0887

EMERGENCYSERVICE

No job too big or too small

Toilets, Boilers, Heating, Faucets, Hot Water Heaters,

Pool Heaters.

B & D Heating507 Court Street 718 625-1396

101 Union Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231 718 624-5568 [email protected] www.RedHookStar.com

Star-Revue ClassifiedsHelp Wanted Help Wanted Help Wanted


Documents

March 2013