Red Hook Star-Revue August 2018 by George Fiala

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49. Baked: coffee & baked goods 57. Red Hook Coffee Shop 67. Black Flamingo: cafe, coffee shop 78. Camila’s Cafe: Coffee cafe 61. Dolce: Ar�sanal Gelato and Ice Cream

Venues/Event spaces

15. Liberty Warehouse: Event space 62. Pioneer Works: Arts Organiza�on, event/concert venue, gallery, exhibi�ons, radio sta�on 75. Atelier Roque�e: Event Venue 87. Jalopy Theatre and School of Music:

Sports & Fitness

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Coffee & Dessert

2. Brooklyn Waterfront Ar�sts 48. Jerard Studio: gallery 50. Kentler Interna�onal Drawing Space: gallery 58. Peninsula Art Space: gallery 60. Amorphic Robot Works: performance art 99. Cauv Design/Red Hook Atelier: gallery/event space

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12. Sunny’s Bar: Old-�me neighborhood saloon 13. Red Hook Winery 28. Botanica 29. Widow Jane Dis�llery 34. Rocky Sullivan’s bar 35. Six Point Brewery 36. Van Brunt S�llhouse 59. Red Hook VFW Post 7765 63. Brooklyn Ice House: Bar and Grill 73. Seaborne: Cocktail Bar & arcade room 88. 40 Knot’s bar 95. Other Half Brewery

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Wine Wine&&Cocktails Cocktails Small Smallbites bites Happy HappyHour: Hour: M-F M-F4:30-7 4:30-7

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1. Fairway Market & Cafe 4. Hometown Bar-B-Que 5. Brooklyn Crab 26. Steve’s Authen�c Key Lime Pies 32. The Good Fork-Seasonal New American 41. Fort Deﬁance: American cuisine and cocktails 54. Court Street Grocer’s: Sandwich Shop 64. Mark’s Pizza 65. Rita’s Cafe: Brunch and more 66. Kevin’s: restaurant: local seafood and bar 68. Grindhaus: American Restaurant 70. Red Hook Lobster Pound 76. Defonte’s: Sandwich Shop 83. Pizza Moto: wood ﬁred pizza 86. Jalopy Tavern: Bar, food, drinks, music 94. Mazzat: Mediterranean Restaurant 95. Alma: Mexican with a view

RED HOOK BALLFIELDS

38. Red Hook Recrea�on center: Pool and ﬁtness 39. Shipwrecked: Indoor miniature golf 44. Red Hook Pilates: Pilates and yoga classes 56. Cora Dance: Dance Studio 71. Brooklyn Sluggers: Indoor ba�ng cages 79. Crossﬁt Red Hook

Furniture & Design

46. KEEP: Ligh�ng Store 49. Kerry Quade: Planning, decor, produc�on 16. Fort Standard: Furniture Maker 22. Scanlan Glass: Glass blower 46. Supersmith: woodworking collec�ve/ art space 48. She-weld: welding classes and gallery 72. Recycled Brooklyn: Furniture Manufacturer 82. Brooklyn Slate Company: kitchenware 96. SHAPE Studio: Art furniture and fabricator 97. Apricot Studios: Fine finishing and Fabrica�on 97. Good Powdercoa�ng: finishing and Fabrica�on 97. Delaney Finishing: finishing and Fabrica�on 98. Shuya Design: Fine Furniture and Design

Museums & Books

43. Waterfront Museum: Mari�me history 18: Portside: repurposed oil tanker 37. Red Hook Farms: non-proﬁt organiza�on 40. Red Hook Library

Shopping

11. IKEA 27. Chelsea Garden Center: plants 33. Wooden Sleepers: Vintage menswear 42. Kempton & Co.: Handbags 30. Cacao Prieto: Chocolate factory 31. Dry Dock Wines & Spirits: Alcohol 43. Erie Basin: Jewelry 45. Live Poultry Designs: Bags, gi�s 47. Shook & Co.: hand cra�ed goods 51. Wet Whistle Wines: Alcohol 52. Bene’s Record Shop 81. Raaka Chocolate: factory outlet

Other Stuff

47. Red Hook Star-Revue: Newspaper publisher 21. Select Mail: direct mail service 24. Shared Brooklyn: coworking space 25. Brooklyn Motor Works: Motorcycle Repair Shop 53. The Walk-In: Salon/barber 55. Extreme Kids & Crew 69. Fulla Shirts: screen prin�ng 84. the LOOK Hotel 100. NY Prin�ng & Graphics, paper & tex�le prin�ng 101. Stop 1 Supermarket: neighborhood grocery

A day on the waterfront

Take any ferry to Red Hook, enjoy the neighborhood, then con�nue walking north, cross over Hamilton Avenue and you are in the Columbia Waterfront District, whose main shopping district is Columbia and Union Streets. With the shipping cranes on the le� (the Red Hook Containerport is a working port), keep walking north and you will get to the world famous Brooklyn Bridge Park. The park is home to restaurants, basketball courts, soccer fields, a hotel and real estate. Yes, people live in the park. Once you go the length of the park, you will find yourself in DUMBO! Once an gri�y industrial, it is now home to some of the priciest real estate in New York City, as well as a host of fine shopping and dining choices, as well at St. Ann’s Warehouse and (We tried to make this perfect, but in case we made a Jane Walentas’ carousel. boo-boo, let us know by writing lizgalvin78@gmail.com)

FREE AUGUST

2018

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P I R P G N I T R E R F Y

18 AUGUST 20

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"Welcome Home!" BEER! WINE! COCKTAILS! BACKYARD! LIVE MUSIC! 253 Conover St. Brooklyn, NY 11231 sunnysredhook.com (718) 625-8211 Red Hook Star-Revue

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Monday 5PM-12AM Tuesday 4PM-2AM Wed/Thurs/Fri 4PM-4AM Saturday 11AM-4AM Sunday 11AM-12AM

August 2018, Page 1

2018

T D O E I U G A

AUGUST 2018

FREE

FER R Y TRIPP I NG STAR TS P AG E 13

DUMBO

Atlantic Ave.

Sunset Park Bay Ridge

Rockaways

AND MORE

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

ARTS Red Hook Star-Revue

SPORTS

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FOOD

©Noah Phillips 2018 È

August 2018, Page 3

The

Red Hook StarªRevue

481 Van Brunt Street, 8A Brooklyn, NY 11231

August Happenings

email george@redhookstar. com to list your event. For more listings, check out our online community calendar at www.star-revue.com/calendar

(718) 624-5568 www.star-revue.com

George Fiala

A Liz Galvin

A E Matt Caprioli R: Nathan Weiser Erin DeGregorio C: Laura Eng, Religion Emily Kluver, Features Steve Farber@gmail.com Mary Ann Pietanza, Sofia Baluyut, Tina Portelli Ed Littleford, Brian Abate FOR EDITORIAL, ADVERTISING OR EMPLOYMENT INQUIRIES, email george@redhookstar.com. The Red Hook Star-Revue is published monthly. Founded June 2010.

Community Telephone Numbers:

Red Hook Councilman Carlos Menchaca (718) 439-9012 Red Hook Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (718) 492-6334 State Sen. Velmanette Montgomery (718) 643-6140 Gowanus Councilman Brad Lander (718) 499-1090 Park Slope Councilman Steve Levin (718) 875-5200 CB6 District Manager Michael Racioppo (718) 643-3027 76th Police Precinct, 191 Union Street Main phone (718) 834-3211 Community Affairs (718) 834-3207 Traffic Safety (718) 834-3226 Eileen Dugan Senior Center, 380 Court Street (718) 596-1956 Miccio Center, 110 East 9th Street (718) 243-1528 Red Hook East Dev. Office, 62 Mill St (718) 852-6771 Red Hook West Dev. Office, 55 Dwight St. (718) 522-3880

4 Sat.

The opening recep�on for ar�st Michael Buckley’s “Survey” will take place at Kustera Projects (57 Wolco� Street). The opening recep�on will go from 6 pm to 8 pm.

Red Hook’s 24th annual National Night Out Against Crime goes from 4 to 7 pm at Coﬀey Park. The event will promote policeTue. community partnerships, public safety and neighborhood unity with music, barbeque and community resources. If you have ques�ons, call 718-923-8261 or email scarter@nycourts.gov

A Back to School Festival will go from noon un�l 4 pm at Bush Clinton Park. There will be many informa�on tables Thur. with educa�onal opportuni�es as well as various community organiza�ons. There will also be arts and cra�s and carnival games. Also, at Bush Clinton Park, the 2nd annual Red Hook Recrea�on Center 3 on 3 basketball tournament will happen. Check in is at 9 am and games will start at 10 a.m. Par�cipants will include the Parks Department and youth organiza�ons (ages 12-17). Rosters will consist of four players, three on the court and one subs�tute, with all youth receiving a jersey and shorts. For more informa�on, contact Mauricio.cortez@parks.nyc.gov or 718-722-3211. Pioneer Works (159 Pioneer Street) will be having a community lunch sponsored by Joint Venture in their garden with their staﬀ, ar�sts-in-residence and others. Joint Venture is a nomadic restaurant founded by New York chef Danny Newberg. Lunch will include a beverage with vegetarian, gluten-free and dairy-free op�ons available. This lunch is from 12:30 to 2 pm with a $5 cash contribu�on. The Red Hook Library (7 Wolco� Street) will have an introduction to photography for kids. This is the perfect photography course for anyone new to photography or for experienced photographers who want to learn new techniques. The session will go from 3 pm to 4 pm.

Are you looking for a job or need help with your resume? The Red Hook Library will give the people the opportunity to meet Fri. with their trained staﬀ to get assistance with edi�ng, advice on your resume layout and �ps for the job search. Please bring a dra� of your resume.

11 12 Sat

Sun

There will be an Old Timers’ Day meet and greet at the Red Hook Library from 6:30 un�l 11:30 pm. The annual Red Hook Old Timers’ Day will take place at Coﬀey Park.

Hercules in Red Hook is a free, interac�ve performance featuring actors reading scenes from an ancient play. Each Thur performance is followed by community panelist remarks and audience discussion about the impact of violence upon individuals, families and communi�es. The actors featured will be Jumaane Williams, Ato Esssandoh, Kathryn Erbe and Frankie Faison. This will take place at 450 Columbia Street (The Flagpole) from 6 pm to 8 pm.

Old school rockers of “The Brooklyn Beat” will aid one of their own at Malcolm’s Kickin’ Fri Cancer Concert at Rocky Sullivan’s (46 Beard Street). All funds raised through this concert and accompanying GoFundMe crowdfunding page, www.gofundme.com/kickincancerconcert will go to support community musician’s Malcolm Smart’s treatment for mul�ple myeloma and to help launch his Rinky Roadshow.

The NYCHA Farm (near 30 Wolco� Street) will be having a compost workshop. Learn how to manage and contain food Sat scraps. For more informa�on, go to www. greencityforce.org/farmsatNYCHA. This workshop will go from 1 pm to 3 pm. For ques�ons, contact nefra�a@ added-value.org or saara@added-value.org.

76 Precinct Sector C Build the Block the Block neighborhood policing and safety mee�ng. Red Hook Library, the doors will Wed open at 6 pm with refreshments and the mee�ng will start at 6:30 pm. The mee�ng will be lead by Neighborhood Coordina�on Oﬃcers Class and Jovin and they want to hear from a range of voices to know about what it will take to make all residents feel safe and secure. The goal is to iden�fy policing and public safety needs in the community. The Red Hook Library will be serving free lunch to kids and teens 18 and younger every weekday during the summer un�l August 31. Come to enjoy fresh sandwiches, fruit and cold milk. Lunch will be served from 1:15 to 2 Monday – Friday. Family Zumba will be at the Red Hook Library every Tuesday during the month. The gym, theater, weight room and computer room will be available for ages 13 and up at the Miccio Community Center (110 West 9th Street) every Saturday of the month. This is a program sponsored by Good Shepherd Services, and it will go from 10 am to 5 pm. Call 718-243-1528 for more informa�on. On Tuesdays, from 5 – 7 pm at the Red Hook Community Jus�ce Center (88 Visita�on Place) there will be a CARES Wellness support group. Come to learn about coping strategies for dealing with stress, learn ways of relaxing and taking care of yourself and learn how to focus on healing and restora�on. Dinner and Metrocards will be provided. Call Red

ONGOING

E & P

Hook CARES at 347-404-9017 to learn more. Every Thursday of the month Broadly Entertaining will be hos�ng Thursday Night Trivia at Rocky Sullivan’s (46 Beard Street). The trivia starts at 8 pm and is free to play. The first-place winner a�er trivia finishes will get 50 percent off of their tab. Teen tech �me will happen every Friday of the month at the Red Hook Library. Teens will be able to play various games against in a friendly compe��ve environment. You will have the opportunity to try old games and play new ones.

NYCHA Satellite Police Precinct, 80 Dwight St. Main Phone (718) 265-7300 Community Affairs (718) 265-7313 Domestic Violence (718) 265-7310 Youth Officer (718) 265-7314 Red Hook NCOs Damien Clarke – Damien.Clarke@nypd.org; (929) 287-7155 Jonathan Rueda – Jonathan.Rueda@nypd. org – 917-941-2185

Page 4 Red Hook Star-Revue

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August 2018

BACK IN THE DAY SECTION:

This article appeared in the Brooklyn Phoenix weekly newspaper in 1986, written by Liz Koch and published by Michael A. Armstrong. It discusses an early Red Hook community organization. Courtesy Serif Press.

EVERGREEN LIQUOR STORE INC. 718 643-0739 196 Columbia Street, between Sackett & Degraw evergreenliquor@yahoo.com

Mon. - Thurs. 11 am - 10:30 pm; Fri & Sat. 11 am - 11:30 pm; Sun. 1 pm - 9 pm

SHARED BROOKLYN Coworking for Red Hook DESK AND OFFICE SPACE AVAILABLE IN OUR DESIGN CENTRIC COMMUNITY OF CREATIVE INDUSTRY PROS Address:

Red Hook Star-Revue

www.star-revue.com

185 Van Dyke Street Suite 205 Brooklyn, NY 11231

Contact: 347-927-8141 sharedbrooklyn@gmail.com www.sharedbrooklyn.com

August 2018, Page 5

RELIGIOUS NEWS BY LAURA ENG laura.eng59@aol.com.

CMY

A Baptist Church’s Jewish Roots

f I told you that a longstanding Baptist Church in Red Hook had been co-founded by a woman who had been born into an Orthodox Jewish family, would you find it hard to believe? Believe it or not, it’s true!

Religious Services

Christian Center

River Of God Christian

110 Wolcott Street, 646-226-6135, Secretary, Sister Roslyn Chatman. Sunday- Family Worship 11- 1 pm Scripture, Wednesday- At The Gate 12 noon, Prayer 7-7:30 pm, Bible Studies 7-8 pm, Thursday Prayer 7:30-8:30 pm, Fri. Youth ABLAZED Ministries 6- 7:30 pm, Senior Pastor, Donald Gray

Visitation Church

98 Richards Street, (718) 624-1572. Ofﬁce open Mon-Thurs. 9 am- 3 pm. Sat. Mass at 5 pm English; Sun. 10 am Spanish, 12:30 pm English. Community Prayer on Tuesday and Thursday at 8 pm. Call to arrange for Baptisms, First Communion, Conﬁrmation and Weddings.

New Brown Memorial Baptist

609 Clinton Street, 718 624 4780 Pastor A.R Jamal. Sun. School at 9:30 am. Sun. Worship at 11 am. Bible Study-Wed. at 7:30 pm. Communion every ﬁrst Sunday

Redemption Church Red Hook

767 Hicks Street (Red Hook Initiative), (347) 470-3523, RedemptionRedHook@gmail.com Pastor Edwin Pacheco Sunday Service at 10:30 am, Children’s Bible Study provided.

RH Ministries

72 Van Dyke Street (Corner of Richards Street), 718-624-3093, rhministries@bgtintl.com, Senior Pastor: Rev. David W. Anderson, Rev. Dr. Linda D. Anderson Sunday Worship Service at 11:00 am, Mid-week prayer on Wednesday at 7:30 pm, Pantry every Saturday at 9:30 am

St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church

157 Montague St., Brooklyn Heights. Phone: 718-875-6960, ofﬁce@stannholytrinity. org, Fr. John Denaro, Rector. Sunday Worship-Early Church at 9:30 am, Sunday School and Playgroup at 10:15 am and Holy Eucharist at 11:15 am, Weekday Worship on Wednesdays at 6 pm.

Stretching Far and Wide Global Ministry, Inc.

382 Hamilton Avenue, Studio B 1-800-948-9042 Archbishop Dr. Barbara Jackman, Overseer Rev. Dr. Dwayne Barnes, Pastor Services are held every Sun. @ 10 am Communion every First Sun. stretchingfar.webs.com stretchingfar@aol.com

St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish

467 Court Street, (718) 625-2270 Rectory Hours: Monday-Thursday 9 am- 11:30 am, 1 pm-4 pm, Fri. 9 am- 12 noon. Masses: Sat. 4 pm, Sun. 10 am, Monday- Thursday, 9:30 am.

Saint Paul Saint Agnes Parish

Church Ofﬁce 433 Sackett St (718) 6251717 Hours: M-F 2 PM-5 PM. E mail: stpaulandstagnes@gmail.com. Saint Paul, 190 Court Street- church open daily for prayer and meditation 7 am- 8 pm. Sat. Vigil Mass 5:30 pm, Sun. 7:45 am, 11 am (Spanish). St. Agnes, 433 Sackett St. Sat. Vigil Mass 4 pm (English), Sun. 9:15 am (English), 11 am (French), 12:30 PM (Spanish). M-T-TH-F-S 8:30 am St Paul’s Chapel 234 Congress St.; Wed. 8:30 am St Agnes.

Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary- Saint Stephen RCC 125 Summit Street at Hicks Street, (718) 5967750, info@sacredhearts-ststephen.com Ofﬁce Hours: Monday-Thursday 9 am- 5 pm, Fri. 9 am3 pm, Sat. 9 am- 1 pm Sat. Vigil Mass at 5:30 pm, Sun. Masses at 8 am, 10 am, and noon (Italian/ English) Weekday Masses Mon. at 12 noon and Tue. thru Sat. at 8:30 am. Confessions: Sat. at 4:45 pm and by appointment. Baptisms every third Sun. 1 pm.

St. Paul’s Carroll St (Episcopal)

199 Carroll Street, 718-625-4126, info@stpaulscarrollst.org, www.stpaulscarrollst.org, Sun. Mass at 11:00 am, Weekly Morning Prayer Mon.-Thurs. at 7:30 am, Weekday Mass on Fri. at 9:00 am, Church open for prayer on Sat. from 2-4 pm. Holy Days as announced.

Jewish Kane Street Synagogue

236 Kane Street, 718 875-1550 http://kanestreet. org/ Fri. night services, 6 PM Shabbat services, 9:15 AM Sun. Services 9 AM

Congregation B’nai Avraham/ Chabad of Brooklyn Heights 117 Remsen St., 718 596 4840 x18 www.bnaiavraham.com, www.heightschabad.com Morning Services: Sunday: 8:45am Monday- Friday: 7:45am Holidays (during the week): 8:45am Saturday: 9:45am Evening Services: Sunday: Shabbat candle lighting time Monday- Thursday: 9 pm Friday: Winter: 5 minutes before Shabbat candle lighting time Summer:

Congregation Mount Sinai

250 Cadman Plaza West, 718-875-9124, info@ cmsbklyn.org, www.cmsbklyn.org, Rabbi Hanniel Levenson Fri. services at 6:30 pm, Sat. worship at 10:00 am with Kiddush at 11:30 and Bible Study at 11:45. All are welcome.

A number of years ago, I read a 1995 New York Times bestseller entitled “The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother.” After reading it, I shared it with my mom, a Red Hook native who attended Visitation Church and with one of my dearest friends who happens to be Orthodox Jewish herself. I knew these two women, both of different faiths, would appreciate it. The book, a memoir by James McBride, details his own life as an accomplished writer and musician and that of his mother, Ruth McBride Jordan, born Ruchel Zylska, who was in fact born into an Orthodox Jewish family near Gdansk, Poland in 1921. When she was two, her family immigrated to the United States and Ruchel’s name was changed to Rachel Shilsky. Her father was a traveling rabbi who eventually found a congregation in Suffolk, Virginia, where he also was a storekeeper. Her mother was gentle and partially paralyzed from polio; her father was strict and abusive. Immediately after graduating high school, Ruth traveled to New York City (where her mother’s family had settled), changed her name to Ruth, and found work in her aunt’s leather factor. There she met a kind, young African-American man, also from the South, named Andrew “Dennis” McBride. When her family discovered her relationship with Mr. McBride, they sat shiva; she was considered dead to them. (Her family even kept her from visiting her mother on her deathbed.) It was then that Ruth started going to the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Harlem and found solace in the Christian faith. Ruth converted and became the church secretary there, while Mr. McBride became a deacon. In 1941, they were married by the Reverend W. Abner Brown in his

office at the Metropolitan Church. The McBrides and their growing family moved from Harlem to Brooklyn in 1950. Mr. McBride earned a divinity degree from Shelton Bible College and it was in 1954 in their apartment at 811 Hicks Street, #5A in the Red Hook Houses, that they began holding prayer services; the kitchen table, covered in a white table cloth, served as a pulpit. In addition to the McBrides, six other founding families — the Ingrams, McNairs, Floods, Bonners, Jacksons, and Taylors —shared their apartments for Sunday School and weekly services. The congregation was eventually able to move into a building at 177 Richards Street, but not without some lease troubles, due to the fact that the McBrides were an interracial couple. That building became the first official location of the New Brown Memorial Baptist Church, named for the late Rev. Brown. The church thrived and soon moved into a larger, heated building at 195 Richards Street. The McBrides had eight children altogether, and Ruth was pregnant with son James when Rev. McBride died after a short illness in 1957. She was left to raise the children on her own and, in desperation, reached out to her family, who refused to help. It was instead her late husband’s family and her Red Hook neighbors who came to her aid. The following year, Ruth met Hunter Jordan, an African-American man who worked for the New York Housing Authority. Believing that God had sent Mr. Jordan to her, Ruth fell in love, and, with the blessing of her friends and in-laws, married him. Mr. Jordan became a father to Ruth’s children; together, they had four more children. Mr. Jordan bought the family a house in St. Albans, Queens, but even after moving there, Ruth continued to travel with her brood to the New Brown Memorial Church for weekly services. As her son noted, “her Orthodox-Jewish ways had long since translated to full-blown Christianity. Each and every Sunday, no (continued on next page)

Page 6 Red Hook Star-Revue

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August 2018

Religion (continued from previous page)

matter how tired, depressed, or broke, she got up early, dressed in her best and headed for church.” Ruth experienced a full and loving home life with both her husbands and her children, something that she admitted she lacked while growing up. She and both her husbands had a deep belief “that education tempered with religion was the way to climb out of poverty in America, and over the years they were proven right.” Sadly, Mr. Jordan died in 1972 and Ruth once again faced the challenges of bringing up her children on her own. She worked many jobs and sought better schools for her children, even if that meant traveling all over the city. Ruth undoubtedly faced bigotry throughout her life, whether it was growing up Jewish in the South or due to her her mixed-race marriages. Despite those prejudices and having been widowed twice, she was able to raise twelve children, all of whom graduated from college and have been successful in their various fields, which include medicine, education, engineering, and music. Ruth herself earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from Temple University at the age of 65. She traveled in her later years and remained active in volunteering in homeless and church programs after moving to New Jersey. In 2010, she died at her home in Ewing, NJ at the age of 88. Ruth’s regard towards race can be summed up in a poignant exchange with her son James, who one day asked his mother about why she looked different from her children. She responded, “I’m light-skinned.” When he asked if he was black or white, she responded, “You’re a human being.” And when he asked “And what about God?” his mother answered, “God is the color of water.” Whatever your faith, you would be hard-pressed to not recognize the extraordinary bravery, resolve and faithfulness exemplified by Ruth Shilsky McBride Jordan. Her remarkable legacy lives on in her children and grandchildren and her Christian faith along with the vision of her husband, Reverend McBride, and the other founding families continues to live on in the New Brown Memorial Baptist Church. The New Brown Memorial Baptist Church is located at 609 Clinton Street and is led by Pastor A.R. Jamal. One of their current initiatives is the Sister Lee Music Program, a gospel music training program for children, ages 8 to 12, from the Red Hook Houses.

Bible Museum Trip on October 13. Cost is $115.

Sacred Hearts/St. Stephen Church Summit & Hicks Street New York Memory Center, a pioneer in the movement to bring evidencebased home and community solutions to adults living with memory loss, and to their caregivers, presents a free workshop: “Family Caregiving” on August 5 from 11:15 to 12 noon at SHSS Church in the Transfiguration Chapel. All are welcome! St. Agnes/ St. Paul’s Parish Hoyt & Sackett Streets/234 Congress Street Sister Innocentia’s Retirement - We will have a special retirement pot luck lunch for Sister Innocentia to celebrate her abiding dedication, hard work, and invaluable service to St. Peter, St. Paul & St. Agnes, in her 77 years as a Missionary Servant of the Blessed Trinity at St Paul’s on Sunday, August 12 in the lower hall starting at 12 noon. Please plan to bring a dish or dessert to share for lunch. Youth & Young Adult Group Defenders of Christ Mini Retreat / BBQ on Saturday, August 11 from 10 am - 5:30 pm at St. Paul’s. Mass will conclude our day. Monthly Fundraising Luncheon on Sunday, August 26 from 1:30 - 4 pm at St. Agnes Parish Hall. Tickets on sale now for $7. Annual Parish BBQ on Saturday, September 8 in St. Paul Courtyard at 12 noon. St. Mary Star of the Sea Church 467 Court Street Religious Education for grades 1-5 begins on Sunday, September 16. Registration forms are available in church, at the rectory or on our website: www. stmarystarbrooklyn.com. The cost per child is $100 and $180 for two children in the same family. Class size is limited so please do not delay in registering your child. Please visit our website www.stmarystarbrooklyn.com and click on the first picture on our home page... that will take you to our latest bulletin with all current events. Visitation BVM Church 98 Richards Street Summer Time with Jesus for children ages 9 to 12 from August 6 - 10. Cost is $50 for one child, $65 for two children and $75 for three children. Call 718930-0978 for information. Healing Mass on Wednesday, August 8 at 7 in Spanish and Friday, August 31 at 7 pm in English. St. John Bread and Life Mobile Soup Kitchen on Tuesdays from 1 pm - 2:30 pm and Fridays from 10 am - 12 noon (except first Fridays of the month).

THINGS GOING ON River of God Christian Center 110 Wolcott Street Baptism Service on August 19. Community Cookout/Back to School Bash with distribution of book bags on August 26. Big Hat Prayer Breakfast fundraiser for missions on September 22.

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August 2018, Page 7

Some progress in ballfield reconstruction by Nathan Weiser

he Parks Department came to the Red Hook Library to gave two important updates about the construction and remediation of the Red Hook Ball Field complex. Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Marty Maher said that construction of phase one–ball fields 5-8–will now be starting at the end of this summer instead of in the spring of 2019. “We encountered some challenges in our design and we informed you a few months ago that phase one of the project would start spring 2019,” Maher said. “Well, we are back again but with good news!” This timeline change was the major reason for the meeting. Maher thanked the elected officials in the district who have been pushing for this project and have tried to get it completed as soon as possible. “Councilmember Menchaca, Congressmember Velazquez and Speaker Ortiz have been tireless in supporting this project and getting us to cut through the red tape,” Maher said. “Of course, Community Board 6 and Mike Racciopo, Red Hook West and East Tenants Association and Parks Department staff were also helpful.” Eric Matus, chief of design for the whole project, reminded everyone that the completion of fields 5-8 will be by spring 2020.

Contractors moving in

“You will see a placement of temporary office trailers, a guard house construction fence, an entrance gate, installation of maintaining erosion control measures, a stabilized entrance and a catch basin insert,” Matus said. “Anything that is around the site that needs to be protected will be done in an efficient manner.” There will be a stabilized construction entrance to the four fields that will be located at the corner of Bay Street and Hicks Street. According to Matus, next to the construction entrance there will be a stockpile area for the contractor with two trailers set up. There will also be a construction fence around the area, which will have fabric over it to maintain dust control, so dust does not go throughout the neighborhood. Other ways that NYC Parks will be handling dust will include a water truck soil plow and an important perimeter fencing curtain, which will also surround the site. Before the trucks leave the site, it will be necessary that they be cleaned. NYC Parks has engineers that have been trained in what to look for in terms of cleanliness.

Tree removal

A striking visual change in the area will be the removal of many trees. There are two different reasons for this. One is that Parks has identified some trees as near the end of their life cycle. The other category of trees that will be removed are the result of the design approach for this project. A factor that goes into this is when soils are removed, the can’t remove soil too close to some of the trees because that would play a factor in the decay of those trees. A total of 52 trees will be removed during the first phase. The good news is that 62 new trees will be planted as part of the eventual reconstruction of the park. In addition, since there were community members that were concerned with trying to keep storm water on the site of fields 5-8, there will be a bioswale on the perimeter. “That is going to include over 5,000 perennials and ornamental grasses and 300 daffodils,” Matus said. “We are greening up the site quite a bit.” During the construction of phase one, the bus stop at Lorraine and Hicks street will be temporarily moved across Hicks Street. This is because they will have four segments of sidewalk that have to be reconstructed. Matus answered a question about lighting and said that fields 5-8 will not have sports lighting in that location. The only area where there is funding to add recreational lighting will be for Soccer Field 3 and Track One. Also, Field Nine, that currently has lighting, will keep its lights.

Brooklyn Parks Commission Maher says he has good news. (photo by Weiser)

Councilman Menchaca addressed the issue of lighting. He thought more of the complex should have lights. He added that the Council has been putting a lot of capital funding to ensure that more of the fields are lit. The councilman’s third topic was the issue that Jim Tampakis, a Red Hook businessman, brought up, about barging in materials via the water instead of having so many trucks coming in and out of the neighborhood. Menchaca said this issue should be considered since the water is a resource in Red Hook. “We want a plan that is not just discussed here in a meeting,” Menchaca said. “We want to know why we are not using our waterways to take in and take stuff out.” The Parks Department claims that barging is not feasible for this project. Menchaca closed with the jobs issue that has been brought up before. He

wanted Parks to understand that people who are trained to do some of the work relevant to this project should have the opportunity to join in these contracts. Margaret Gregor, who has been the on-scene EPA coordinator since 2015, reminded everyone why the area is contaminated and must be fixed and why the EPA is involved. In the 1920s, there was a lead facility at Hicks and Lorraine Street. They refined scrap metal into lead of a higher purity and would melt these metals down in big vats. The process of melting the metals would give off smoke emissions that would be sent out of the building by smoke stacks. “Once it is in the air, the lead drops out because it is heavy, and it lands in the soil and stays there for a very long time,” Gregor said. “Kids come into contact using the fields when they get dusty.”

The future

The second stage of remediation will involve baseball field 9 and soccer field one. The design was completed during June and NYC Parks anticipates construction to begin in fall of 2019 and be done by spring 2021. Phase three includes baseball fields 1-4 and soccer field 3 (including the track inside of the soccer field). Matus promised that this third phase should be done by the fall of 2021. The third phase involves replacing the current baseball fields with synthetic turf, and installation of a brand new track, The bleachers will be redone to be ADA compliant. They will also be adding adult fitness stations and a basketball court in both locations of this phase. “We are removing some of the handball courts because the community was interested in basketball, Matus added of phase three. “We are getting a full-size basketball court. We still have two handball courts in that location.”

“A total of 52 trees will be removed during the ﬁrst phase. The good news is that 62 new trees will be planted as part of the eventual reconstruction of the park.” Page 8 Red Hook Star-Revue

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August 2018

Formula E brings crowds to Red Hook again by Nathan Weiser

ace car enthusiasts and people looking for something new in Brooklyn were in luck on July 14 and 15 as cars raced at 140+ mph in the final stop of the worldwide Formula E circuit around Red Hook’s Cruise Terminal. Saturday’s race featured Lucas di Grassi, 33, of Brazil finishing in first place. Di Grassi is part of the Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler race team. “The Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler car was just a rocket today,” Di Grassi said after his win. “I had good fights with Dillmann, good fights with a lot of the drivers in fact.” Di Grassi, along with the other top three finishers, enjoyed a champagne celebration on the podium with the NYC Fire Department putting on a colorful water display in the harbor in the background. The E-Prix was packed with activities throughout the day. There were 1,000 plus complimentary passes given out to residents for the E-Village. The Allianz E-Village opened for fans at 7:00 am. Visitors could watch practice rounds from 7:30 to 8:15 and from 10:00 to 10:30. There was a tour of the pit area for grandstand ticket holders from 9:00 until 9:40 and a musical performance by Ryan Lawler in the E-Village, and then later on Breanna Barbara took the stage at 12:30. Fans who attended the race had an opportunity to race the course on a realistic simulation, testing their time against the professionals. Fans lined up to do this simulation. There were eight different food trucks by the grandstand area, including Gary’s Steaks, Toum, MacTruck, Deli and Gogz and Valducci’s. These trucks sported long lines as fans needed to get nourished and hydrated on this warm day. Moustapha Ndamusa, who lives in Brooklyn with his kids, enjoyed being able to bike to a Formula E race as he thought it was a great opportunity to see something new. “For me it is the fact that they even have the event here,” Ndamusa said. “I had never been to a Formula E race, so the fact that I even have an opportunity to come and the event is cool. If it wasn’t here I probably never would go to a Formula E or Formula One race. Ndamusa paid for one ticket and was able to get two complimentary passes for his kids. He liked the activities that they have for kids in the Allianz E-Village. He was not aware of everything in the EVillage initially until he walked over to that section with his kids. Next to the food trucks, there were two Formula E merchandise tents selling all types of gear. Audi Sport and Jaguar Panasonic had two major displays where they showed the newest models of their

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cars. BMW also had a display near the Jaguar showcase with the BMW 2019 i8 Roadster hybrid that can be charged in 1.5 hours, and the latest BMW 530. Will Estill very much enjoyed his time at the Formula E race in the Cruise Terminal. He lives in Pennsylvania and came up for the day with his girlfriend. He is a product specialist for BMW. Estill’s main purpose for coming to the race day was to take some photographs for the Instagram and social media for BMW. “I had a blast,” Estill said. “I spent a lot of time in the E-Village. The exhibits over there was really nice and they had a lot of new tech there. There was a big concept car. We did the RPM racing, that was cool too.” “This was my first Formula E race ever,” Estill said. “I really liked it and it was a lot of fun.” DHL had a massive booth towards the back of the E-Village with a remotecontrol car area, car simulations where people could drive with a head set and a virtual reality station. Christina Conroy came with two friends and got lucky as they walked up to the main entrance and asked-

The E-Village gets a thumbs up. (photo by Weiser)

how much tickets were but was then able to get three complimentary passes to the E-Village. She was very thankful to have free access to this event. “It was amazing of them to give out passes,” Conroy said. “It was so sweet because we saw it would have been about $90.

Conroy and her two friends were both born and bred Brooklynites and liked that Formula E is in Brooklyn since she lives close by. She was eagerly anticipating the race start and seeing and hearing the cars zoom by. “I am excited for the actual race,” Conroy added. “This is what I am waiting around for. Right now, we are just waiting around like sitting ducks.”

What Formula E meant to Red Hook Thousands of race fans flocked into Red Hook to watch the two-day Formula E Championship racing on on a July weekend, leading to a busy time for many local businesses.

bringing a sustainable and worldclass event to Red Hook. We look forward to continuing the dialogue with all of our neighbors as we plan for future years.”

Tourists came in with an appetite for more than racing, and many of the businesses close to the racetrack were packed.

“Distribution centers for complimentary passes to the E-Village (where the race occurred) included the Red Hook branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, the Red Hook Community Justice Center, PortSide, Good Shepherd at the Joseph Miccio Community Center and Brooklyn Borough Hall.”

Baked was swamped with tourists according to Sallie, who worked there Friday and Saturday. The Lobster Pond said the same thing, while Mark’s Pizzeria said they were busy the entire weekend and kept running out of food. Stop 1 Supermarket said that they were busier than usual, but not as busy as last year. A lot of places reported more business Saturday than Sunday, while some, including Fort Defiance, felt the race was a negative as compared to their normal weekend trade. Grindhaus was similarly not impressed. Formula E signed a 10-year deal to hold the races here. Felix Ortiz’s chief of staff Karen Broughton was upset at the lack of local hiring and hopes they do better next year. She feels there should have been a job fair in the neighborhood. Mike Hopper, Advisor to Formula E told us: “Over the last two years, we have met, spoken with, and worked with many of you. We continue to strive to be a good neighbor, while

Formula E and its local operations team, JAM Projects, paid for goods or services from the following Red Hook-area businesses: A&J Fire Extinguisher (265 Livingston Street, Brooklyn) - Fire extinguishers Baked (359 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn) - Catering Best Trails and Travel (5 Sigourney Street, Brooklyn) - Free Public Bus Shuttles Black Flamingo (281 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn) - Catering Brooklyn Fiber (67 35th Street, Brooklyn) - Site-wide Wi-Fi and internet needs Camila’s Café (358 Columbia Street, Brooklyn) - Catering Court Street Grocers (116 Sullivan Street, Brooklyn) - Catering DeFontes (379 Columbia Street, Brooklyn) - Catering Even Brooklyn Hotel (46 Nevins Street, Brooklyn) - Main Local Hotel

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F&M Bagels (383 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn) - Catering Fairway Market (480 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn) - Catering Fulla Shirts (269 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn) - Printing Home Town BBQ (454 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn) - Catering Look Hotel Red Hook (17 Seabring Street, Brooklyn) - Support Hotel Marks Pizza (326 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn) - Catering Mex Carroll’s Diner (192 Columbia Street, Brooklyn) - Catering Naturally Delicious (487 Court Street, Brooklyn) - Catering NY Printing & Graphics (481 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn) - Printing Red Hook Winery (175 Van Dyke Street, Brooklyn) - Local Beverage Rita’s (293 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn) - Catering Six Point (40 Van Dyke Street, Brooklyn) - Local Beverage Transportation Alternatives (11 John Street, Manhattan) - Bike Valet Waterfront Laundry (282 Van Brunt Street) - Local + Global Team Local hotel room nights - In addition to the master block at Even Hotel Brooklyn (which isn’t closed out yet), we used 330 room nights at The LOOK Hotel in Red Hook. This number does not include additional rooms that would have fallen outside of the local operations team hotel block, such as those used by teams, partners or race fans. — Brian Abate

August 2018, Page 9

Residents Gather to Give Input at North Gowanus Visioning’s First Public Meeting By: Erin DeGregorio

owanus residents and nearby neighbors had plenty to say at the first North Gowanus Visioning session, hosted by Council Member Stephen Levin’s office. Up for discussion were plans for the incoming CSO facility, the cleanup of Thomas Greene Park and the temporary location of the outdoor Douglass and DeGraw Pool.

tion at the Northend of the canal and work downward, removing materials, dredging out contaminated sediments, solidifying some of the deeper material and removing that material from the waterway.

Benjamin Solotaire, the North Brooklyn Community Organizer for Council Member Levin’s office, led the public meeting, held on July 25 at 313 Butler Gallery. He began the night by informing attendees that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has required the city to build Combined Sewage Overflow (CSO) facilities, one of which is currently scheduled to be by the head end of the canal – Nevins and Butler Streets. The purpose of the CSO facility, which will have an eight million gallon capacity, is to limit the amount of sewage into the Gowanus canal. Solotaire also emphasized to the crowded room that this is not a wastewater treatment facility; it is a holding facility.

“This is a lot of work and it’s going to take time,” he said. “I would suggest the timeframe we might consider – between 2018 and a time when the pool might be built – is something like 10 years.”

The head house is slated to be where the Gowanus Station building (234 Butler Street) is now, and is projected to take up 2.4 acres and stand 47 feet high (which does not exceed current buildings’ heights). Alicia West, the director of pubic design outreach for the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), showed that the building will feature terracotta and will have some transparency for individuals walking by to somewhat see the machinery inside, via projected slides. The underground tank is expected to take up one acre, but nearly two acres of land over the tank will become publicly accessible open space, as per the DEP. West presented proposed renderings of what the open space could like look. The slides showed green spaces with integrated seating areas, and potential opportunities for passive recreation, like pop-up movies, tai chi and outdoor performances. This open space vision would include materials of the neighborhood, such as cobblestones, weathered steel and concrete, and would be inspired by the industrial nature of the canal. “Our hope is that the design will be relative and reflective of the character of Gowanus, the canal and the layers of history that this neighborhood has,” West said. John Prince, the EPA’s Acting Director of the Superfund Program for Region 2, continued the conversation by addressing the EPA’s role in all of this. The EPA’s goals, in conjunction with the city’s, are to rebuild all of the borders and bulkheads around the canal’s edges and to create space along the edge of the canal. Prince also said there would be remedia-

Page 10 Red Hook Star-Revue

He also advised those in attendance to really think about the location of the temporary pool, as it was a major discussion point on the night’s agenda.

The room then split into five groups, with representatives for elected local politicians acting as facilitators and agency representatives going around to clarify and answer questions. It was during this hour-long discussion that residents shared their ideas and concerns for these proposed future plans. According to Solotaire, the EPA worked out an order with National Grid to remediate two-thirds of Thomas Greene Park (225 Nevins Street) – including the pool – due to many years of coal tar contamination underground from a former manufactured gas plant. As a result, some residents said that they would like to see an enclosed community space, connecting bike paths around the canal and a new skate park, due to its current popularity. Some also suggested off-season use ideas and events at the new park, including poetry readings, roller skating, pop-up stores, DIY events and an amphitheater. Sabine Aronowsky, a life-long resident of Gowanus and Park Slope, suggested during her group discussion that public restrooms be built as well in the park. She said there are no restrooms in Thomas Greene park now, and that only the pool facility has them; however, individuals cannot access them unless they are using the swimming pool. She also encouraged the idea that a designated space for barbecues be considered.

Alicia West explains the preservation that is planned. (Photo by DeGregorio)

affairs manager for Con Edison, told at least two groups that Con Edison is not looking to give up that property. “The way the current load forecasts are now we are planning to have to build a sub-station at that lot, and for it to be operational by 2025. We would have to have shovels in the ground in possibly four years,” Hohn said. With this confirmation from Con Edison, some community members then said they would like the temporary pool to possibly be in the area behind the Gowanus Houses Community Center or in the vacant space between Degraw and Sackett Streets. Other responses included a rooftop pool, a pop-up pool that would float on the canal and a pop-up pool that would mobilize between Gowanus

and Wyckoff Gardens. “The [pool] agreement is to replace it as it exists, but we want to look at potential options for how to improve,” Benjamin Solotaire told one group. Many would prefer a bigger, yearround, indoor pool that is handicap accessible to be built instead. As for additional features that could be at the interim site, residents said changing rooms and restrooms would be necessary. Solotaire said that he and Andrea Parker from the Gowanus Canal Conservancy would reconvene with the community again at a second meeting in the early fall, wherein a compiled report from this meeting would be assessed and addressed.

Yikes on Dikeman

“People are already bringing their own grills, so we might as well try to figure out and have the opportunity to have a barbecue area,” Aronowsky said. “On the weekends it’s barbecue central.” In terms of what should happen to the Gowanus Station building, some were all for preserving it, while others felt the building’s façade could be deconstructed and reused when making a potential entryway to the new permanent pool site or to the canal. But the biggest concern for the night was where could the temporary “Double D” pool be built within the neighborhood. Many agreed that the currently vacant Con Edison lot, located on Nevins Street between Baltic and Butler Streets, could be a good solution. However, Justin Hohn, the public

There is a factory on Dikeman Street that makes little red things that go on the top of ice cream sundaes. There is a house on Dikeman Street next to that factory. The picture above was taken in the basement of that house on August 1, 2018. A similar seepage has been occurring every few days for the past couple of weeks. The NYS DEP has inspected and declared it unsafe, but the homeowner has not been able to get the situation remediated. In the meantime, the house smells and the basement has to be mopped up every other day.

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August 2018

Recipe Roundtable adds spice to local tables by Erin DeGregorio

esidents from Red Hook and nearby neighborhoods are elevating their culinary games this summer at the Recipe Exchange Roundtable Series, held at Pioneer Works. This participatory roundtable comes in a three-part series and uses recipe exchanges and the history of select ingredients as a platform to discuss migration, immigration, cultural exchange, global history and contemporary issues. The first roundtable, held on June 13, focused on garlic, which led to a lively discussion about classism and rich versus poor. The ingredient for the second session last month, though, was the chili pepper. “Chili for me is about the exotic and really describes Western thought about the exotic/the other. One can be too spicy or not spicy enough, and how this is linked – the authenticity,” said Tahir Karmali, who is passionate about cooking and originally conceptualized the idea for the roundtable series while an artist-in-residence at Pioneer Works last year. “[Chili pepper] as an ingredient and its varietals tell us a lot about where recipes are from.” The night began with everyone going around the room, saying their names and talking about their first memories of consuming chili. Some attendees also shared that they originally come from different cities across the United States or from other countries around the world, like Armenia, Moldova, Russia, Peru and Georgia. Guest roundtable leader Bethany Tabor, who hails from Albuquerque, New Mexico, revealed chili has always been a staple ingredient in her life, saying a regular dinner was usually red chili enchiladas cooked by her mother. She also explained that the New Mexican farms harvest chili peppers from August to about mid-September, and then roast the peppers in a netted chili-roasting drum over a fire. “Probably one of my earliest memories of chili is knowing it’s fall – that school is starting – and smelling the chili in the air on a Sunday morning when grocery shopping with my parents,” she told the attendees. Tabor kept the conversation going by elaborating upon how spice in the United States is either on chicken wings or a part of Tex-Mex recipes. This Tex-Mex idea in the South and Southwest, she said, is the American appropriation of Mexican food (i.e. chili peppers that come from Central and South Americas). Her home state of New Mexico exports almost all of its chili to the surrounding states of Utah, Colorado, Texas and Arizona. She explained that these states also grow their own peppers, but that they take New Mexico’s growing strategies as well, in an attempt to replicate that special poblano taste and claim it as their own. The session then transitioned into a brief history of the chili pepper. Fruit-

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eating migratory birds, which couldn’t taste the heat of the chili, used to eat Central American and South American chilis, and then they migrated through Africa and Southeast Asia. “When [chili] traveled through the birds to Southeast Asia and Africa, the varietals were changed,” Karmali said. “Every place around the world had a very specific, different varietal of chili that they would grow out, and basically they would genetically engineer them to be either spicier or sweeter.” Karmali and Tabor also made four different chili sauces for participants to taste and enjoy that evening. But their goal was to put everyone’s taste buds to the test; having everyone sample each sauce and guess what country each recipe had come from. The recipes came from New Mexico, Kenya, Jamaica and Thailand – four different parts of the world with different agricultural limits. Tabor prepared her New Mexican chili sauce, made up of chili powder (from her hometown’s Sichler Farms, but purchased at Whole Foods), oil, flour, garlic powder and water, that had simmered for 20 minutes earlier that day. Karmali, who was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, made a sauce that is made daily in Kenyan restaurants that serve bhajias (thinly sliced potatoes dipped in a chickpea or graham flour batter that are then deep-fried) with chilis. The duo also served a sweet Jamaican sauce, made with brown sugar, bell peppers, vinegar and homemade allspice, which was cooked longer to not be overbearingly hot. The last sauce offered for tasting and guessing came from Thailand. Traditionally the sauce would be put on rice before eating curry, but Karmali recommended that it would be good to eat on top of jasmine rice as well. Roundtable attendees were also asked, after RSVPing, to submit unpublished recipes that use the chili pepper; these in turn were handed out on paper at the July 18 session. During that time they discussed the recipes’ origins and why their recipes are personally or culturally significant to them. The intention is for people to learn more about each other and to have new recipes to take home for future use.

Tahir Karmali and Bethany Tabor are chili specialists (DeGregorio photos)

“I definitely prefer chili to other types of traditional Russian spices, like garlic, mustard or horseradish. Perhaps, this is one of the reasons preventing me from feeling a strong Russian identity,” she wrote. “I prefer identity on my own. And hot chili plays here an important role.” Karmali noted that more people actually came to the last two roundtables and that he received more recipes than expected. With such a positive momentum going, he would like to put all the submitted recipes and shared stories from the exchanges into a consolidated book. And though the series will end this month, Karmali hopes this new

type of culinary conversation will continue in the future. “I would love for people to inspire their friends to do this in groups and use this tradition [to] open more dialogs outside our usual socializing situations,” he said. The next and last recipe exchange roundtable will be about potatoes, with particular attentions to immigration, migration and ownership. It will be held at Pioneer Works (159 Pioneer Street) on Wednesday, August 15, 7-9 p.m. Register online at eventbrite.com/e/ recipe-exchange-roundtable-potatoes-tickets-44188845025.

“Chile rellenos are a fairly common dish in New Mexico,” Tabor wrote in the mini recipe packet that was distributed amongst the attendees. “In my family, when my grandmother made them, it signified a special occasion. My uncle would always request this dish to be made for his birthday. Twenty-eight years after [my grandmother’s] death and now my mother makes this dish, still, for my uncle on his birthday. This meal and recipe is a sort of relic, made always in memory of my grandmother.” Participant Lilia Voronkova wrote in the packet that she fell in love with the chili pepper about 15 years ago and now adds the ingredient to everything, including tea.

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Trying out the sauce dip

August 2018, Page 11

FERRY TRIPPING

Start your bay Ridge day with a turtle by Erin DeGregorio

For many, August is the ﬁnal month to celebrate summer with last-minute plans, when school is right around the corner again.

Botanical Garden (entrances on Shore Road between Bay Ridge Avenue and 72nd Street) has multiple gardens with a variety of flowers, trees and cacti. It is also home to many animals including east coast native turtles, bees and native birds, as per its official website. It will be hosting a free outdoor movie series located inside NBG on the center lawn. “My

in front of the children’s playground at Owl’s Head Park. This modern-day fairy tale, starring classic characters from “The Three Bears,” finds Baby Bear and his friend Goldilocks, whose mission is to help change the Big Bad Wolf into good. Performance will take place at 11 am on Thursday, August 23. Bring a lawn chair or blanket and light

Arts & Culture: One of the neighborhood’s most anticipated summer events is the Summer Stroll on Third Avenue. Designated streets along Third Avenue are closed off for pedestrians to stroll along and enjoy Bay Ridge’s infamous restaurant row. Kids and adults alike can play games, win prizes, have an outdoor dinner, listen to live music, and support the local businesses. It will take place on Friday, August 3 (68th-80th Streets) and Friday, August 10 (80th-90th Streets), 6-10:30 pm

But you don’t need to travel far or long to have fun. The new South Brooklyn route of NYC Ferry, operated by Hornblower, provides new ideas for local day trips—all for the price equivalent to a Metrocard swipe. The

The Family Arts Culinary Event (FACE) of Fifth Avenue offers live music, children’s entertainment, delicious dining, and original artwork along Bay Ridge’s other most popular avenue. It will take place on Friday, August 17, 5-10 pm on 5th Avenue from 73rd to 83rd Streets.

Red Hook Star-Revue took the ferry to different destinations along the South Brooklyn line and here are the coolest things to do on your next adventure.

Bay Ridge

Landing right on the American Veterans Memorial Pier (Bay Ridge Avenue and Shore Road), you can have picnics and take in the great views on either side (the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to the left and the Manhattan skyline to the right, when facing toward the direction of Staten Island). Early birds can watch the sun rise, and run/jog/walk or bike on Shore Parkway Greenway that spans seven miles. The greenway, with scenic waterfront views of the New York Bay, starts at the pier and ends at Bensonhurst Park at the intersection of Bay Parkway, the Belt Parkway’s Shore Parkway off-ramp and the Shore Parkway South Service Road (Shore Road South). Health/Outdoors: The Narrows

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Leif Ericson Park (located between 66th and 67th Streets, from 4th Avenue to Fort Hamilton Parkway) has playgrounds, dogfriendly areas and the Vahalla basketball courts on 5th Avenue. The park design depicts a Norse theme in honor of explorer Leif Ericson and the local Scandinavian-American community.

Some people just have all the fun! (Owl’s Head Park photo by George Fiala)

Big Fat Greek Wedding” (2002) will be shown on Friday, August 10, and “The Day The Earth Stood Still” (1951) will be shown on Friday, August 24 – both starting at sundown (though the Narrows Botanical Garden recommends attendees to come early and see the sun set). Bring a comfy blanket or chair, and invite your friends and family. Call 718-7484810 after 3 pm for a recording in case of inclement or possible inclement weather – no rain dates unless announced. Owl’s Head Park (entrances along Colonial Road at 67th and 68th Streets) has wide-open fields, playgrounds, basketball courts and the Millennium Skate Park for kids and teens to play. Free City Parks Puppetmobile will present “The Big Good Wolf”

refreshments. Adults can let their summer stress melt away with yoga sessions inside Owl’s Head Park. Evening Yoga with Erica Ginger will take place across from basketball court on Wednesdays, August 1, 8, 15 and 22, 6:30-8 pm weather permitting. Bring your own yoga mat and props/supplies you might need. There is a suggested donation of $5. Yoga in the Park – with instruction provided by Bobby Boles (Yoga in Bay Ridge), Nancy Cummings (Bikram Bay Ridge Yoga) and Irina Volkov (Lucille Roberts Yoga Bay Ridge) – will be held on Saturday, August 11, at 9 am and Monday, August 20, at 7 pm Sessions will take place across from basketball court.

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The SWB Parks Task Force Concerts in the Park 2018 series will take part on 79th Street and Shore Road. On Tuesday, August 14, Back To The Fillmore Sounds from the Fillmore East will perform. On Tuesday, August 21 the Bay Ridge St. Patrick’s Parade presents “Irish Night on Shore Road” featuring the Canny Brothers. All concerts are free, open to the public and begin at 7 pm In case of inclement weather or for more information, call Senator Golden’s office at 718-238-0644. Don’t forget to bring a blanket and chair.

Family Fun: Stop by the Bay Ridge home that’s famously known as the “Gingerbread House” (8200 Narrows Avenue) because – yep, you guessed it – it looks like it came right out of a fairy tale story you heard as a child. James Sarsfield Kennedy, a Brooklyn architect, designed

August 2018, Page 13

FERRY TRIPPING Sunset Park

Bay Ridge’s Botanical Garden, close to the ferry terminal, boasts a large collection of local turtles. (photo by George Fiala)

and built it in 1917 for shipping merchant Howard E. Jones. The house is made from large, natural rocks and boulders, and has stained glass panels and handcarved stone fireplaces. It was designated a landmark in March 1988 by the Landmarks Preservation Commission because it was an “important and rare example of the Arts and Crafts style of architecture in New York City.” The 1988 Landmark Designation Report also states that there was a “conscious reference to the rural cottage and an attempt to project its ‘homey’ environment.” Though you can’t go inside, the Gingerbread House is magical to see in person and could be worthy to post on your Instagram. Be on the look out for Bay Ridge Rocks hidden throughout the neighborhood. Bay Ridge Rocks are homemade, painted rocks, which are often decorated with colorful animated characters and imagery or uplifting messages by both kids and adults. The rocks are placed in public places (like on lampposts, nearby tree stumps and inside potted plants outside businesses), rediscovered and posted onto the official Bay Ridge Rocks Facebook page by strangers, locals and members of the Facebook group – which now has more than 3,300 members since its inception 18 months ago. You can be a part of the fun in person at their monthly painting party – this month on Friday, August 3, 6-10pm, in front of coffee shop Cocoa Grinder on the corner of 3rd and Bay Ridge Avenues.

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Sweets & Eats: Mike’s Donut Shop (6822 5th Avenue) is the ultimate mom-and-pop eatery that has been in the neighborhood for the last 42 years. Thirty-five different types of donuts are baked on the premises twice a day, including favorites like Boston Creme, French Crullers and powder jelly. The shop also sells a variety of muffins, breads and coffee, of course. Skinflints (7902 5th Avenue) is a bar and restaurant that hits the spot with its burgers served on English muffins, BBQ baby back ribs and chicken picatta. Fun fact: Before Skinflints opened in 1975, the Meyer & Blohm Ice Cream Parlor used to serve Bay Ridge residents in the very same space. Leske’s Bakery (7612 5th Avenue) has always been the go-to spot for Nordic-style pastries since 1961. The bakery is known for its black-and-white cookies, kringles and bear claws. It closed in 2011 but was reopened in May 2012 by two Bay Ridge residents. Schnitzel Haus (7319 5th Avenue) has been in Bay Ridge since 2007, serving authentic German/Austrian cuisine from two generations’ worth of family recipes. The restaurant has 10 German draft lines and an extensive variety of bottled German and Belgian beers. Plus they offer live music every weekend.

Landing right at the Brooklyn Army Terminal (140 58th Street), ferry riders can explore the sights and stories of a century of work at the terminal. The Brooklyn Army Terminal was a supply base for the American military for nearly 50 years, employing more than 20,000 people during World War II. Two-hour-long guided, walking tours are offered on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month at 11 am The tour discusses what made the Port of New York the envy of the world in the mid-20th century; why it went into decline; and how Brooklyn’s working waterfront is being revitalized today. Attendees will also enjoy views of the New York Harbor, examine the architecture and infrastructure and step inside the Terminal’s atrium, where military cargo trains once rumbled through to be unloaded. Advance ticket purchase is required – tickets can be purchased online through Turnstile Tours. General am ssion is $22 per person, with discounted rates available for seniors, children and veterans. Plus, Sunset Park – the actual park (41st-44th Streets between 5th and 7th Avenues) – provides amazing views, especially at dawn and dusk, of the Manhattan skyline and the rest of the neighborhood at its highest peak. Health/Outdoors: Jump in and cool off at the Sunset Park Pool (7th Avenue between 41st and 44th Streets) this summer. Outdoor pool hours are 11:00 am -7:00 pm daily, with a break for pool cleaning between 3 and 4 pm Sunset Park (41st-44th Streets, between 5th and 7th Avenues) also has wide-open fields, playgrounds, basketball courts and a soccer field for kids and teens to play. Families can help beautify Sunset Park this summer before the trees’ leaves fall in a few months. Volunteer to clean up the park with Parent Child Relationship on Sunday, August 5, 9 am –12 pm, at the Sunset Park Recreation Center (43rd Street at 7th Avenue). Dance your day away at Salsa Sunday, presented by Willie Villegas. Live salsa music, dancing and drink specials will be offered to attendees. This free-admission event will take place on Sunday, August 19, 1-6 pm , at 237 36th Street.

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Need some time to stretch out your body after a long day (or week) of work? Sunset Yoga with Jes Allen sessions – with live sound tracks – are available for all-levels. They will be held in the Industry City Courtyard 3/4 (237 36th Street) on Friday evenings (August 3, 10, 17, 24, 31), 7-8:30 pm There will be a limited supply of yoga mats, so please bring your own in case.

Buy fresh locally grown vegetables, fruits and more at the 6th Avenue Sunset Park Greenmarket (6th Avenue and 44th Street). It is held every Saturday, 8 am -3 pm , until November 17. Farmers Market Kids Nutrition Workshops are also held there every Saturday, 9 am -2 pm , until October 20. For every $5 you spend using SNAP/EBT, you get a $2 Health Buck for fresh fruits and veggies. Greenmarket is a program of GrownNYC. Bush Terminal Park (Marginal Street between 44th and 50th Streets) is a waterfront park with views of the area’s tidal pools and the Bay Ridge Channel. This site, which was once a port complex, was cleaned up and opened as a public park four years ago. There are also two multi-purpose soccer and baseball fields and a nature preserve. Visitors can enter at 43rd Street, when the park is open daily, 8 am -8 pm Arts & Culture: Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis Escher, who was famous for his mathematically-inspired woodcuts, lithographs and mezzotints, once said, “My work is a game, a very serious game.” Individuals can now see “Escher: The Exhibition and Experience” until February 2019. In addition to the 200+ Escher works on display, the exhibition includes scientific experiments, play areas and educational resources that help visitors of all ages to understand the impossible perspectives, disquieting images and seemingly irreconcilable universes which Escher combined to create a unique artistic dimension. It’s on view at Building 6 in Industry City (34th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues), seven days a week, 10 am to 7 pm on Fridays through Wednesdays and 10 am to 9 pm on Thursdays. Sunset Park Library (4201 4th Avenue) invites you to join the adult book discussion about “Carnegie’s Maid,” written by

August 2018

FERRY TRIPPING Sunset park—home to industry & fun by Erin DeGregorio

Marie Benedict and published in January 2018. The book club will meet on Thursday, August 16, 6:30-8 pm Are you a big fan of indie rock? Come to “A Night With Guided By Voices” with indie band Guided By Voices and special guest Park Doing on Thursday, August 16. Spin and Pitchfork have called Bee Thousand one of the best records of the ’90s, and Amazon picked it as #1 on their list of “100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums Of All Time” Doors open at 7 pm and show starts at 8 pm at Industry City Courtyard 1/2 (274 36th Street). Alternative rock singer/songwriter Kevin Devine will be playing alone, with The Goddamn Band and as a member of Bad Books on Thursday, August 23. Special guests Remember Sports will also perform. Doors open at 7 pm and show starts at 8 pm at Industry City Courtyard 1/2 (274 36 th Street). Luna, the New York-based quartet, and special guests Acid Dad will be playing on Friday, August 24. Industry City Courtyard 1/2 (274 36 th Street). Every year Rooftop closes out the summer with a festive night of short films about late summer, life lessons and things coming to an end. Rooftop Films will present “Closing Night” on Saturday, August 25, 8:30-11:30 pm , at Industry City Courtyard 1/2 (274 36 th Street). Tickets cost $16 online and at the door. Rock and Roll Playhouse is hosting free family concerts with live bands and face painting with The Cheeky Chipmunk. Be sure to stop by with your children every Wednesday (August 1, 8, 15, 22, 29), 5:30-7:30 pm , in Industry City Courtyard 1/2 (274 36 th Street). Have some extra time to spare this month? Melody Lanes (461 37th Street) offers Family Night every night, 5-7 pm , with am nimum of one adult and one child 16 and under. Family Night costs $16 per person, which includes 2 games of bowling and shoe rental, and popcorn and a small soda for each child. Glow Bowling is also available, starting at 7

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pm every Friday and Saturday. It is open Sundays through Thursdays, 9 am -12 am , and Fridays and Saturdays 9 am -3 am Sweets & Eats: Johnny’s Pizzeria (5806 5th Avenue), which is within walking distance of the ferry, is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year. Though a Papa John’s chain store opened right next door 11 years ago, the family owned and operated establishment didn’t falter – Johnny’s continues to have a loyal customer-base and a reputation for great Italian food that’s made freshto-order. We recommend their

one hard cider on tap from local brewmasters. It is open Mondays through Saturdays, 9 am -8 pm , and Sundays, 10 am -6 pm Blue Marble Ice Cream (220 36th Street) sells Brooklyn-made, organic ice cream, shakes, floats and coffee. Flavors at your choosing include peanut butter confetti, strawberry sorbet, midnight mint cookie and more. It is open Mondays through Fridays, 8 am -4 pm , and Saturdays and Sundays, 12-5 pm Food Network Magazine declared Tacos El Bronco (4324 4th Av-

Saturday (August 4, 11, 18, 25), 10 am -5 pm Shoppers can check out and spend the day at Bed Bath & Beyond, buybuy BABY, Cost Plus World Market and Face Values at the Liberty View Industrial Plaza (850 3rd Avenue, between 30th and 31st Streets). Have you ever wanted to make jam from scratch, but never knew how? Learn how to make homemade jam that you can use for your bookmarked recipes with Larissa Raphael. The cooking demonstration will take place on August 10, 6-7 pm , and on August 12, 3-4 pm , at 71 at BEYOND (inside the Liberty View Industrial Plaza, 850 3rd Avenue, between 30th and 31st Streets). Learn the art of canning with strawberry preserves and zucchini pickles with Dana Jacobi. The demonstration will take place on Saturday, August 11, 3-4 pm , at 71 at BEYOND (inside the Liberty View Industrial Plaza, 850 3rd Avenue, between 30th and 31st Streets).

9.11 Tribute Park Centerpiece (photo by Erin DeGregorio(

squares, calzones and meatball parmigiana heroes.

enue) to have the tastiest taco in New York in their “50 States, 50 Tacos” search. The Mexican restaurant serves tacos, tostados, burritos, burgers and more.

Can’t get enough of Baked in Brooklyn’s flatbread crisps, pita chips and sticks? The Baked in Brooklyn store (755 5th Avenue) is attached to the bakery, which takes up half a city block. You can see the bakery’s huge mixers, ovens and rolling racks through the store’s floor-to-ceiling windows. The store also sells fresh artisanal bread, gourmet sandwiches, bagels, fancy cheeses, meats, spreads and more. It is open Mondays through Saturdays, 7 am - 7 pm , and Sundays, 8 am -4 pm

The most recognizable restaurant in the neighborhood is George’s Restaurant (5701 5th Avenue) – with its aqua exterior and peach borders. It serves everything your taste buds could desire from morning ’til night, including spinach and feta cheese omelettes, triple-decker sandwiches and meatloaf. We recommend their grilled roast beef and mozzarella cheese sandwich with a side of fries.

Bay Market Kitchen (850 3rd Avenue) serves waffles, Williamsburg-based Toby’s Estate Coffee and casual American cuisine, including hamburgers, homemade veggie burgers and chicken sandwiches. It also has six beers and

Shopping: The Brooklyn Flea is moving outdoors where you can find some of Brooklyn’s best vintage and antique items, crafts and select Smorgasburg vendors. Stop by Industry City Courtyard 1/2 (274 36 th Street) every

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Green-Wood (Sunset Park entrance at 35th Street and 4th Avenue) offers historic trolley tours every Sunday and Wednesday, 1-3 pm , this month. Visitors can hear stories about Green-Wood’s permanent residents, see views of Manhattan and learn about the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776. Visit their official website for more information and to purchase tickets.

The Rockaways If you feel like you need to es-

cape the hustle and bustle of the city and would rather have warm sand between your toes, look no further than the Rockaways in Queens. Though the Rockaways aren’t a stop along the NYC Ferry’s South Brooklyn line, you can take the ferry to Sunset Park and transfer onto a Rockaways-bound boat. When you land at Beach 108th Street and Beach Channel Drive, the beach and boardwalk are within walking distance – just a few blocks away on the other side of the peninsula. Don’t forget your towels, beach blankets, sunscreen, coolers and anything

August 2018, Page 15

FERRY TRIPPING The Rockaways—more than the beach by Erin DeGregorio

else you made need for your day at the beach! Health/Outdoors: Explore what the peninsula has to offer by biking on the brand new boardwalk (along Shorefront Parkway), which has designated pedestrian and bicyclist pathways. Enjoy the warm weather and cool breezes by picking a nice spot on the beach, and settling into your chair with your favorite book and sunscreen by your side.

Get ready to dance and work out all at the same time this summer at Zumba Under The Stars with Lisa G. Classes take place every Thursday (August 2, 9, 16, 23, 30), 7:30-9 pm , at the Beach 108th Street Roller Rink.

at the Beach 94th Street Plaza. Weekends are filled with lots of options for families who want to make the most out of their trip to the beach. Summer Fun at Rockaway Beach, held on Beach 98th Street and Shorefront Parkway, offers free lawn games, kids activities, a book share program and more. The event takes place 10 am to 4 pm on weekends. Come watch the 75th Golden Globe Awards winner “Coco” (2017) through the Movies Under the Stars series. It will be shown for free on Saturday, August 11, 8-10 pm , at Beach 94th Street, off

grill menu. The restaurant has at least 24 different draft beers on tap, and am rket where hungry customers can pick up their favorite dishes to go. After a long day at the beach, stop by Caracas Rockaway (Beach 106th Street on the boardwalk) for a cold, refreshing drink. The establishment serves Venezuelan arepas, empanadas, and frozen sangrias. Outdoor music is provided every Friday and Saturday night. Ice cream is a summertime staple that can always put a smile on

Lace up your running shoes for the End of Summer Half Marathon & 5K, starting and finishing on the boardwalk by Beach 102nd Street. The races will take place on Saturday, August 25, 7:30 am and 10:30 am respectively. Visit rockapulcorun.com for more information and to register. Arts & Culture: Rockaway’s The Castle – better known as “The Wedding Cake House” – is hosting “Lightning Whelk,” a group exhibition that draws inspiration from the Lightning Whelk mollusk, a sea dwelling snail. Materials from the historical landfill at nearby Dead Horse Bay are also used for the show. Its last weekend on display will be the weekend of 8/3-5, from 1-7 pm , at Beach 117th Street and Newport Avenue. Celebrate West Indian culture with a day of music and dancing at the Rockaway Caribbean Carnival. This free event will take place on Saturday, August 25, 11 am -9 pm , at Beach 94th Street, off Shorefront Parkway. Family Fun: What’s more fun than playing games and winning a prize on the boardwalk? Kids’ Boardwalk Games are held Wednesdays through Saturdays, 2-7 pm , at the Beach 94th Street Plaza. Kids’ Programs are also held on Tuesdays, 11 am -12 pm ,

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Caracas Rockaway (photo by Erin DeGregorio)

Shorefront Parkway. Sweets & Eats: The Wharf Bar and Restaurant (416 Beach 116th Street, behind the Gulf gas station) has the best sunset view on the peninsula. It offers breakfast, lunch and dinner on the bay everyday and is cash only. There is also live music and an outdoor bar for those who want to plan a weekend dinner or evening out. Chef Whitney Aycock’s Whit’s End (97-02 Rockaway Beach Boulevard) serves pizzas, fish, burgers and more to Rockaway locals and visitors. Menu items include arugula salad, sausage & peppers and their ‘Effin’ Good Burger’ (hamburger with cheddar, hot pepper jelly and arugula). Rockaway Beach Barbeque – also known as RBQ’s (97-20 Rockaway Beach Boulevard) – is the best place to visit when you’re in the mood for some smoked barbequed meats and an American

your face. Uncle Louie G (9210 Rockaway Beach Boulevard) serves a variety of Italian ices, soft-serve ice cream, vegan ice cream and smoothies. Plus this location also has an outdoor space to enjoy your frozen treats. Just a block from the ferry and the beach is Board Walk Bagels & Delicatessen (108-01 Beach 108th Street). Its famous bagels are hand-rolled and baked fresh on the premises, and lunch and dinner specials are available. This deli is the perfect place to pick up a freshly sliced, cold-cut sandwich and side snack before you venture off to the beach. Shopping: Rockaway Beach Surf Shop (177 Beach 116th Street) is NYC’s largest and oldest surf shop, being family owned and operated for more than 46 years. The store sells bathing suits, sandals, and Rockaway Beach t-shirts and apparel. For those who want to be a little adventurous, surfboards (ranging from beginner to

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advanced) and stand-up paddleboards are also sold there. Boarders Surf Shop (192 Beach 92nd Street) has been serving surfers and the Rockaway community since 2004. Bicycle, surfboard, bodyboard and surfboard locker rentals are available at their Beach 97th Street boardwalk location. The shop also has a full line of surf accessories and any last-minute beach essentials that you may have forgotten at home. Neighborhood boutique Lana’s Loft (114-04 Beach Channel Drive) sells women’s clothing, accessories and gifts. Their clothing aesthetic is casual, trendy and suited for the Rockaway beachside lifestyle, but they also sell party dresses for special occasions. Memorial Parks: On November 12, 2001, American Airlines Flight 587 crashed into Belle Harbor after taking off from JFK International Airport, killing all 260 passengers and crew on board and five people on the ground. Flight 587 Memorial Park (200 Beach 116th Street) was built and opened in November 2006 All 265 victims’ names are inscribed on the wall, in addition to a poem by Dominican poet Pedro Mir that reads, “Despues no quiero mas que paz” or “Afterwards I want only peace.” 9/11 Tribute Park (Beach Channel Drive between Beach 116th and Beach 117th Streets) serves as a tribute to those in the neighborhood who died during September 11. The waterfront park is scenic and quiet, and provides visitors and community members with the chance to reflect. Tribute Park was initially an empty lot during the attacks, and the Twin Towers were visible from the spot. The park, which opened in November 2005, includes a mosaic centerpiece, a gazebo that honors the memories of 70 local residents killed, and a granite rock engraved with the names of all 343 firefighters who died.

NYC Ferry News and Fun Facts

The latest introduction of larger vessels to the NYC Ferry fleet is

August 2018

FERRY TRIPPING

Atlantic Avenue Damascus Bread and Pastry Shop, 195 Atlantic Avenue Ghassan Matli beams behind the counter, introducing his baker and friend, the man who’s been making by hand the exquisite collection of tempting pastries behind the glass for 28 years. Matli himself has been there for 30 years, running the shop for the third generation of the Halaby family since the shop opened in 1928, “same spot, same business, same location...same recipes.” There are refrigerated cases lining the walls of the shop as well, bursting with containers of hummus, baba ghanouge, and more, all made daily. Open 7 days a week, with everything made on the premises, the place is usually bustling by lunchtime. A 30-year Brooklyn Heights resident picks up a bag of pita bread. “This shop is what gives this area character, the authenticity is a destination.” Another rushes in pleading, “I need my weekend falafels,” before a man in his 20’s quietly picks out a vegan pie. Moments later Matli hands a piece of pistachio baklava to a customer. “That’s made with love. Phyllo, pistachio, a little bit of butter and honey. Love.” Two for the Pot, 200 Clinton John McGill has been selling coffee and tea (the two for the pot) in his shop on Clinton Street since 1973, sourcing fresh roasted beans from nearby reliable suppliers, some of whom have been there since day one. A one time manager of McNulty’s in the Village, McGill has a deep knowledge of the coffee business in New York City and brings an understated humor to his trade. “Coffee became a bigger deal in recent years, where small roasters visit far flung places to source coffee, sort of like that’s the holy grail. I carry a lot of very good coffees that are very fresh, but it’s not a religious pursuit for me.” In addition to fresh, roasted coffee and tea, McGill stocks an array of coffee and tea barware, spices, and UK, NZ and Aussie pantry staples. And of course, tea and coffee pots. Montero Bar & Grill, 73 Atlantic A crowd was milling outside Montero Bar & Grill around midnight on a Thursday, laughing over cigarettes near a gleaming red Ducati parked out front. Originally from England and Nigeria respectively, Martin and Reena had come over

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from Manhattan to enjoy the sunset over the river. Brandy and her beau were in from Crown Heights. Katy, a British filmmaker from Williamsburg, was there to meet up with a group of fellow female filmmakers. “There’s a really good mix of people, you go in and everyone here is real.” Inside, it was still packed while a few patrons were belting out a version of Born to Run. Images from a nature documentary danced across a big screen tv inside. When Montero first opened in its current spot in 1947, the people who came were longshoremen on their way to or back from the piers just a few blocks away. “It always changes. Nothing stays the same. It keeps going,” Pepe Montero said, taking his leave from the crowd and heading back into his bar. Shelsky’s of Brooklyn, 141 Court Street When you see the chalkboard on Court near Atlantic with the Instagrammable zinger, you know you’ve found it. Shelsky’s is the real deal: inimitable smoked fish and meats served up with compassion for empty stomachs and souls unhinged by the reigning political order. From house brined pickles to their hedonist’s ratio of cream cheese to bagel, Shelsky’s is always right.

by Steve Farber (stevefarber@gmail.com)

Hook until Sandy forced him to Crown Heights. Their eclectic gift shop is a treasure trove of offbeat, hilarious and often thoughtful gifts, from phone controls for airplanes, to handmade unicorn horns and socks printed with unprintable advice you can silently dispense simply by crossing your legs. If you can’t find a gift here, you don’t know your friends well enough or you need John McGill supplies Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill with new friends. fine coffees, teas and specialty food items at his shop, Two for the Pot. (Atlantic Avenue and Dumbo photos by Steve Adam Yauch Park Farber@gmail.com) or the egg?/ I egged the chicken Tucked into a corner then I ate his leg.” Another of his both under the blare of the BQE pseudonyms, lederhosen wearing, and in a quiet elbow of Brooklyn red-bearded Swiss movie direcHeights, this shaded park with tor Nathanial Hornblower whose bronze bears playing in streams cousin built wooden helicopters of water slyly captures a slice of is, incredibly, another coincidence Brooklyn’s dichotomous flow – of Yauch’s eternal duality... Hornand is named for sorely missed blower Cruises is the official NYC Beastie Boy, Adam Yauch. This ferry operator. Brooklyn Buddhist adroitly solves the world’s oldest riddle with: “Which came first the chicken

Happy Hour Monday-Friday 4-7pm Select beers $5, $6 wells, $7 select wines

Books are Magic, 225 Smith Street With quite possibly the coolest name for well, anything, Emma Straub and Michael Fusco-Straub opened this essential independent bookstore in spring 2017 to pick up right where the belated BookCourt left off... and immediately forged their own identity. With shelves stocked with quirky selects, hard to find titles, best sellers and a large dedicated kid’s section, you’d think that was enough. You’d be wrong: readings every night, children’s storytime every weekend, weekday hours open until 9pm, and more… Communications Coordinator Colleen Calley assures visitors with a laugh, “there’s always something happening!”

228 Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11201 (718) 488-0430 www.brazenheadbrooklyn.com FREE WINGS every MONDAY @ 5pm catered by the GUMBO BROS TRIVIA NIGHT with our Jeopardy Champion AUSTIN ROGERS *please call for details FREE CHEESE plate every WEDNESDAY @ 5pm and a $1 off all wines FREE BAGELS every SUNDAY with your $6 Mimosas or Bloodys ALL DAY

Exit9 Gift Emporium, 127 Smith Street Founded with his business partner Christy Davis, owner Charles Romano hung his hat in Red

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FERRY TRIPPING

looking up in dumbo

by Steve Farber (stevefarber@gmail.com)

the street’s namesake and steam engine messiah, Robert Fulton, who finally united the Village of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan with regularly scheduled ferry service with his vessel, the Nassau, in 1814.

Montero’s has been lighting up the night for over 70 years. (Farber photo)

Espresso Me, 88 Atlantic Avenue Newish to the neighborhood and planted firmly next to the ruins of Long Island College Hospital stands Espresso Me – but don’t let the name fool you. Espresso Me may start at beans but isn’t done until they’ve made you lunch and dessert, and will have you back for gelato, tea, fruit smoothies and donuts. It’s a laptop and kid friendly space, with a small separate area for kids and a mellow vibe. A recent visit found Bethanie foaming milk while Victoria helped a customer decode neighborhood open secrets layered into their themed sandwich menu. “The Brooklyn Heights and the Cobble Hill are the exact same sandwich,” she began with a smile, then, “except the Brooklyn Heights has avocado.” Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 6 Beach Volleyball Courts It was a sweltering 91 degrees on a summer Saturday in Brooklyn Bridge Park and Mike was brushing sand off his forearms, laughing and chatting strategy with his daughter. After cutting his beach volleyball teeth back in the day on the shores of Chicago’s Lake Michigan, he rounds up his family to meet up here. On the ferry it’s practically direct, he says, “From Bay Ridge to the beach! It’s fun, it makes the commute as much fun as playing.” Picnic Peninsula and Tables Diana and Yareli had claimed a table and were setting up a birthday party for Diana’s 5 year old son before everyone else arrived. The birthday boy sat calmly in his stroller, clearly saving energy for

Page 18 Red Hook Star-Revue

the party to come. Tables in the park are first come first served. “You show up, you set it up if you find a table... it’s amazing. Soccer Fields at Pier 5 Uriel and Jason watched their friends play on one of the soccer fields with lower Manhattan just across the water. “It’s nice now, but it’s even better at night, the city gets all lit up.” Erwin Wurm: Hot Dog Bus Austrian artist Erwin Wurm has transformed a vintage VW bus into a nebulous, bun colored food truck sculpture that recalls an vintage Oscar Meier “wienermobiles” first started in the 1930’s. Wurm’s Hot Dog Bus is serving free allbeef hot dogs every weekend in August. It’s a whimsical experience of public art wrapped in a blanket of fast food overconsumption… with free hot dogs as bait (1 per person).

Surrounded by signs for Etsy and a few centuries worth of brick, glass, steel and cobblestones, it may be hard to imagine that Dumbo—a mash up moniker attributed to the same imperiled tribe of 1970’s artists who fled SoHo—once shimmered so brightly with towering trees, fresh springs and fertile soil that the pair of late 18th century brothers who bought the parcel called it Olympia, a utopian nod to the site of the ancient Olympic games, then only recently discovered. While the springs have long since gone, the energy transforming Brooklyn all along the waterfront is as palpable as ever… here are just a few tips to help you plug in and get lost in Dumbo... Brooklyn Historical Society Dumbo, 55 Water Street Your first, best stop may be the Dumbo outpost of the Brooklyn Historical Society. Opened in 2017 in the 19th century Empire Stores, the Society’s current exhibition, Waterfront, is a deeply curated multimedia examination of Dumbo’s past and future relationship to the water, from manufacturing to climate change, frequently explored through the experiences of people whose lives – willingly or not – were bound to Dumbo. Smack Mellon, 92 Plymouth Street

Dumbo

If you’d like to spend the afternoon at work or play in Manhattan, your feet will hit the gangway at Pier 11 from Dumbo in less than 5 minutes thanks to one of 23 highspeed catamarans with names like Ocean Queen Rockstar. However, the first ferry crossings from Brooklyn to Manhattan began in the 1640’s on an ad hoc basis, with Breuckelen farmers rowing travelers across the East River at the end of a well worn Lenape trading path that evolved into today’s Old Fulton Street, taking off pretty much from where the ferry docks now. And of course it was

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Running for 22 years now (in their current space at the corner of Water Street since 2015), Smack Mellon is a non profit arts org nurturing underrepresented and emerging artists, while also mentoring underserved high schoolers throughout the year. Summers are devoted to guest curators; the current show, Laugh Back, was inspired by activist Desiree Fairooz’s arrest during Attorney General Jeff Session’s confirmation hearing —for laughing out loud. Incorporating live performance, high-def video, photography, sculpture and more, the show pokes a delirious and subversive finger at claims to power. Follow up at smackmellon. org for more info Gleason’s Gym, 130 Water Street In Dumbo now for 21 years after opening in the Bronx in 1937, the legendary Gleason’s Gym is first a family, then a boxing gym. Visitors are welcome to come in to snap photos for a small fee, and anyone is welcome to come in and train. On a recent, rainy weekday, boxers drilled footwork in one ring while a trainer taught combinations in another. The sense of purpose in the place is infectious, no one is sitting still. Amid the constant thrum of gloves on bags, Teresa Arca bubbles with the warmth of a den mother who might have a baseball bat under the desk. No one really wants to find out. With over 1200 members, she keeps track of who’s coming and going. On cue Teresa stops a headphone wearing teenager heading out the door in a t shirt and shorts. “Hey, honey, you’re going running? It’s raining. Have fun with that.”

Hitting the bag at Gleasons. (Farber photo)

August 2018

Pedro’s, 73 Jay Street When you’re ready for old school Dumbo, head down the three stairs of the small building guarding the corner of Jay and Front Street and let yourself in to Pedro’s. In continuous operation longer than anything else by a long shot, Pedro’s has been serving Mexican food with lots of love at good prices since 1970 when it was first opened by Pedro and Rose – both of whom are still there virtually every day. Rose was born in Dumbo, just a few doors down the street. You’ll spot her, shy and smiling in the back or waiting tables herself, and that’s her son behind the bar – it’s a family business, run the old fashioned way, where everyone has a name and a home when they walk in the door. By the way, if you’re looking for the oldest bar in Dumbo, you’ve hit the jackpot. When Pedro and Rose bought the business, the previous owner used to shut down at 4. In the afternoon. Now she keeps the doors open until midnight, making sure everyone who comes in is well fed and most importantly, happy. Matchaful Cafe, 25 Jay Street In place only since last November, Matchaful is a busy pop up inside Brooklyn Roasting Company at Jay and Plymouth Streets. On a recent weekday, Maria Mejia handled the bar, making several of their popular Coco Vanilla Zen matchas. “Matcha is more in tune with your body,” Maria said, “it’ll pick you up really smoothly and leave you feeling vibrant.” The brainchild of Hannah Habbes, Matchaful serves a single estate USDA organic matcha cultivated in Japan, and is decorated in an understated, industrial chic decor. At the counter, a mother teased with her daughter over what to order. So far, this is Matchaful’s only location, but clearly not for long... Berl’s Brooklyn Poetry Shop, 141 Front Street A friend visiting town for the New York Poetry Festival on Governor’s Island had only one other ferry stop to make: Berl’s. A beautifully, uniquely curated shop, Burl’s specializes in chapbooks, micro and independent press poetry books, and then is sure to display them gallery style with each cover in plain view along the walls or laid out on table tops at finger height. With plenty of events, including live readings and performances. Check out berlspoetry.

Pedro’s has been serving up Mexican vittles since before Dumbo was Dumbo. (photo by SteveFarber.com)

com for more info

lights up every night at Superfine.

Superﬁne, 126 Front Street

Drop in on Superfine any day of the week until 2 am, weekends until 4 am. Superfine.nyc

In 1996, Cara Lee Sparry and her roommates, Tanya Rynd and Laura Taylor, used to run an occasional supper club out of their John Street loft. After one night ended at 5 am, after the food had been devoured, after their friends had gotten engaged on the roof, and the fashion show was over, when the disco ball started reflecting the rising sun... the three of them collapsed to the floor and looked at each other. One of them said, “This should be our job.” Armed with a puckish smile and boundless good-natured energy, Cara Lee laughs hard when she remembers. “The three of us have our own discrete set of talents, and when we get together, we can show people a really good time.” Superfine has been going strong for over 20 years now. There’s great music and good times, but the focus has always been on the food and always organic. “We really wanted to prove to people that you could eat food that was picked from the earth or caught from the ocean that day. Or be from a farm where an animal isn’t tortured. And you don’t have to spend so much money for it.” Operating out of a horse stable she and her partners converted in 2011, Cara Lee shows a visitor carefully hand drawn graffiti that’s at least 100 years old, amazed that it’s still there. Some things are built to last. Those rooftop friends that got engaged are still married... and the disco ball still

dumboLUV @Olympia Saturdays 4-11pm Thom Abbey has a been quietly building a reputation for fresh, inventive small plates in Dumbo. If you haven’t been to Olympia on a Saturday night, you’re missing out. For the better part of ten years, Thom has developed daily working relationships with local farmers, butchers, fish and cheesemongers, but has plated everything he’s made in other people’s homes as a private chef. In May 2017, that changed, when he started using Instagram to announce every Friday night his Saturday menu based on what he’d sourced earlier that day. Recent dishes range from strawberries and feta with smoked black pepper wrapped in phyllo with a tease of balsamic reduction, to a lemony roasted pygmy hen served with grilled new onions. Speaking smoothly with a polite accent that belies his Tidewater, Virginia upbringing, Thom says, “The goal is to kind of create trust where, instead of becoming known for a specific dish, we decided we want to inspire the confidence in people to know that if they just show up, they will be satisfied with an amazing menu,

even if they won’t know what it is going to be.” For a chef who’s been cooking in other people’s homes for the last 10 years, there’s no place he’d rather be than his own kitchen. dumboLUV at Olympia, 54 Jay Street, Saturdays 4-11pm Follow Thom Abbey on instagram @eatdumboluv Olympia, 54 Jay Street Just off the corner of Water Street on Jay sits this upscale casual neighborhood gem, perfect for couples or catching up with a friend or two whose thoughts you actually want to hear. Anchored by a dozen or so stools which stretch along a beautiful, hand formed zinc bar at the center, small plates come out quickly and succulent, such as a bloomy ricotta with wildflower honey on crostini, or a special of fresh summer tomatoes slicked with olive oil, sea salt, cracked black pepper, and a small shower of basil. The real stars however are the wines and cocktails; it’s hard to go wrong with the happy hour $5 Moscow Mule, but the Ella – named for owner Karen Johnson’s young daughter – packs a subtler summer punch, with Bombay gin and St. Germain, topped with healthy splash of prosecco and a twist of lime.

54 Jay Street (corner of Water St)

DUMBO, Bklyn.

Wine Wine&&Cocktails Cocktails Small Smallbites bites Happy HappyHour: Hour: M-F M-F4:30-7 4:30-7 718-624-7900 718-624-7900 www.OlympiaWineBar.com www.OlympiaWineBar.com

Red Hook Star-Revue

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August 2018, Page 19

MARK JUPITER H A N D M A D E

I N

D U M B O

C U S T O M F U R N I T U R E AT I T S F I N E S T SHOP AND SHOWROOM 202

PLYMOUTH

S T R E E T, B R O O K LY N

MARKJUPITER.COM Page 20 Red Hook Star-Revue

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718-401-6600 August 2018

George Bromfield is a loyal Fairwayite by Nathan Weiser

eorge Bromfield, 63, has certainly earned the title “Mr. Fairway.” He has been with the upscale grocery chain since 1985, two years after arriving in New York from Jamaica, and has never left.

customers who may need assistance. The assistant general manager also prioritizes cleanliness, ensuring that no products have passed their expiration dates and that the store is following Department of Health codes.

“I love this company,” Bromfield said. “I came to this country with nothing. Everything that I have, my three daughters all went to college, is because of this company.”

“In regard to this store, I am a fixture. Of all the faces, I am the most recognized face.”

Bromfield was the first security guard in the flagship location on the Upper West Side. When Fairway opened its Red Hook location 12 years ago, Bromfield came with it as floor manager and then assistant general manager, his current position. “I was here two months before the store opened and have never left,” Bromfield added. “Fairway loves to promote from within, and I love that about them.”

Moving up

In 1985, a young George Bromfield saw a classified job listing in the NY Daily News for a security guard. He’d been working odd jobs since arriving in New York, and decided to apply. “I got my uniform and I went to work the same day,” Bromfield said. “When I went, there were three owners and I met all three. They were so impressed with my job the first day that one of the owners came to me and said do you want to work with me instead of working for the [security contractor]?” This stroke of luck was a mixed blessing, however: the security contractor sued Bromfield for breach of contract. “They sued me and gave me papers and I took it to Fairway,” Bromfield said. “Older Jewish man, love him to death, he said ‘Mr Bromfield, don’t worry.’ He took care of the case, it went to court and the judge awarded Epic Security one dollar. They had no case.” Bromfield said that he spent about 20 years at the location on 74th and Broadway. He was a security guard for about five years and then became a front-end manager. “The front-end manager takes care of the front, the cashiers,” Bromfield said. “I did that for a few years and then I became a floor manager.” The floor manager assists the general manager and Bromfield excelled at that role for a few years before being promoted to assistant general manager. His role as assistant general manager keeps him on his toes as his responsibilities are wide ranging and multi- faceted.

The Red Hook Edge

According to Bromfield, there are unique aspects about the location on Van Brunt that give it an edge over other branches. “I am not knocking the others, but I think we are cohesive and work more as one,” Bromfield added. “I make a big difference, I know I do because I have been around a long time.” The setting of this location also makes it unique. “This is a destination,” Bromfield said. “People drive down here and have a view. There is no other supermarket in New York City that has what we have behind the cafe, where you can sit and look at the Statue of Liberty.” Bromfield, who describes himself as a very friendly people person, very much enjoys the neighborhood of Red Hook and all the connections that he has made over the years. “I love Red Hook,” Bromfield said. “I want to end my career here. I have a few more years. This is where I want to end because 99.9 percent of the people in this neighborhood are my friends.” Area businesses that he is close to include Sunny’s, Brooklyn Crab, Hometown, the liquor store, the print shop and the kitchen fixture place on Van Brunt, among others.

asted Fairway Market as well as the rest of Red Hook—the only part of the store that survived was the building itself. “Everything you see down here, the refrigeration, the shelving...everything had to come out,” Bromfield said. “We spent months down here cleaning up and then when the construction phase began, Fairway sent all of us to different stores since we were not needed anymore since the construction people were here.”

Bromfield, who lives in the Bronx now, was living in Long Island when Sandy happened, so when the construction phase commenced he served as an assistant general manager at Fairway’s Douglaston location. It took eight or nine months for Fairway to open again after Hurricane Sandy. In the interim, Bromfield would come down one a week to check on the store’s progress. “We had a grand opening,” Bromfield said. “It was like a rebirth. We had

T-Park Fun

According to Bromfield, in the last few years, partly due to the addition of Brooklyn Crab and Hometown BBQ, Red Hook has become a real destination and a hip neighborhood. He says that it changes even more on the weekend. In some ways this has increased business, but an obstacle has been the increased competition from similar businesses that have opened in neighborhoods not too far from Red Hook. “We have competition with Whole Foods opening and Trader Joe’s,” Bromfield said. “When you have other stores, they will take away some customers. The customer count obviously is down because of competition.” One regret that Bromfield has is that not as many low-income residents of Red Hook are shopping at Fairway as did in previous years.

“I focus a lot on the operations, a lot on the compliance, a lot on the maintenance and a lot on customer service,” Bromfield said about his position. “Those things to me are the fundamentals.”

“We used to get a fair share of the lowincome residents,” Bromfield said. “I am thinking all of the time about how we can get more of the low-income people to come down and shop, because we have stuff that they want.”

Mr. Fairway can usually be seen walking around the store making sure everything is working the way it should be and making himself available to

Bromfielf added that the change started a little before Hurricane Sandy.

Page 22 Red Hook Star-Revue

George tidying up a display. (photo by Fiala)

Sandy

The Parks Department has been setting up shop in T Park this summer offering Red Hook kids opportunities to play Nok Hockey and other fun games. At least four Parks Department employees were manning their tent the other day. If you can’t afford summer camp - this is the next best thing. The parkie also told us about a FREE day of fun for kids on Thursday, August 9. A Back to School Festival will take place at Lorraine and Henry Street. In addition to information tables manned by local community organizations, there will be arts and crafts, carnival games, 3 on 3 basketball and just regular fun. The festivities go from noon to 4 pm.

Hurricane Sandy back in 2012 dev-

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August 2018

Taste the Hook: Ample Hills Opens, Reveals Red Hook Flavor by Adrian Bacolo

n 2011, the owners of Ample Hills Creamery opened their doors in Prospect Heights. Last month in Red Hook, the homemade ice cream shop unveiled its 10th and most ambitious location yet – a 15,000 sq. ft. factory, bakery and interactive museum located inside the Beard Street Warehouses. The Red Hook factory represents a milestone for Ample Hills, and perhaps its most pivotal address since it was founded. With nine other stores to supply, one more coming to Los Angeles later this summer, and a national shipping business, the expansion was one of necessity. “We needed to build out a factory where we could produce a lot more ice cream than we currently can,” says coowner Brian Smith. (Currently Ample Hills churns out 100,000 gallons of ice cream each year. That volume is now expected to quintuple.) Smith runs the business with his wife Jackie Cuscuna. The shop’s name comes from a late 19th century poem by Walt Whitman that describes a Brooklyn long since gone, a “Brooklyn of ample hills”. For the couple, their ice cream is Brooklyn born-and-raised, so that’s how they wanted to keep it. “We knew that that factory needed to stay in Brooklyn,” Smith says. “We just didn’t want to have the story leave Brooklyn, even though it would have been a lot less expensive to build the factory in Jersey or upstate New York.” Smith says it was always top of mind to open a factory in Red Hook, even as he and Cuscuna explored other industrial areas like Bushwick and Sunset Park. But the waterfront neighborhood had its, well, hooks in the couple. That Ample Hills would eventually find itself here is kismet. Around a decade ago, Smith and Cuscuna looked to move into the wa-

terfront community. It never quite worked out. Then two years ago a lease was signed to develop a production facility in the Civil War-era warehouse on the Red Hook Channel. Their “massive project” was underway. Smith describes the new facility as 50% dairy plant and 50% bakery. Similar to the Gowanus location, the Red Hook factory will produce ice cream as well as the mix-ins – the cookies, peanut butter cups, and peppermint patties that get scrambled into popular flavors like Ooey Gooey Butter Cake and Chocolate Milk & Cookies – but on a much larger scale. Visitors will get to witness this firsthand thanks to a self-guided interactive tour that begins in the storefront and continues into a grand backroom where two expanded windows look into the hot and cold areas of ice cream production. The idea, Smith says, was inspired by Ben & Jerry’s who also opened their Vermont factory to the public. But Waterbury, VT Red Hook is not. Smith credits the neighborhood with possessing a compelling “raw, fierce quality,” in part because of its location. “It’s cut off from subway lines,” he says. “It sticks out into the Atlantic. There’s a sense of a connection to the water, to places unknown that has a magic feel.”

Leroy Hutchison dishes out a scoop. (photo by Adrian Bacolo)

Sweet-toothed customers can expect to find chocolate fudge pieces that have been salted – a nod to the sea – along with chopped up home-made stroopwafels – hello, original Dutch settlers – all mixed into burnt sugar ice cream – a final, fitting tribute to the Revere Sugar Refinery that once

operated on Richards Street. Now that’s cool. ----Ample Hills Creamery Red Hook 421 Van Brunt St. Brooklyn, NY 11231

Those ingredients, combined, make for more than rich storytelling. It turns out they also make solid ice cream: each Ample Hills offers a flavor that’s specific to the neighborhood that tells the story of that region. Simply called the Hook, Smith says they wanted to communicate some of the history of the buildings along the waterfront, buildings that once stored everything from cotton to coffee and, yes, cocoa beans.

serving Red Hookers since 2006

Tuesday night is Burger Night... tempura onion rings, free toppings, burger +beer=$20

Wed. is Ramen night! Come on over!

No job too big or too small

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

B & D HEATING 391 Van Brunt Street (718) 643-6636 Red Hook Star-Revue

218 29th Street 718 625-1396

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August 2018, Page 23

NEWS AND NOTES compiled by Nathan Weiser

Letter to NYCHA

I am respectfully requesting the following pieces of information to clarify your statements in your letter of July 25th to Director D’Ancona:

Dear Interim Chair Brezenoff :

In your letter you state: “[u]nder new leadership NYCHA will review its operations regularly in order to assess potential compliance gaps.” How often does NYCHA review its operations in order assess its compliance gaps?

(editors note—this letter was shared to us by the Congresswoman. It has been edited by us for space) I’m writing to you this afternoon because I’m, once again, deeply concerned with the New York City Housing Authority’s (“NYCHA”) ongoing operations and maintenance challenges that were recently described in local media reports. Last week, the New York Times and New York Post published stories indicating that NYCHA’s operational problems extend far beyond its failures to inspect and remediate for hazardous lead levels. These reports suggest NYCHA has not met requirements in many other areas including staff training, tenant protections and emergency management plans. I find it troubling that I learned about these latest issues through media reports rather than being told by NYCHA directly. As a senior member of the House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee, and as the highest ranking New Yorker on the Housing and Insurance Subcommittee, which oversees all matters pertaining to public housing, including NYCHA, my staff and I have long endeavored to maintain an open dialogue with NYCHA. I expect forthright transparency from this agency whose operations have a direct effect on the quality of life for thousands of my constituents. Unfortunately, in recent years, NYCHA has exhibited a pattern of obfuscation and has been less than forthcoming.

The letter continues: “NYCHA will develop an approach to address areas of noncompliance as appropriate.” Please provide a detailed explanation of this “approach”. Please elaborate whether this strategy has been implemented or, if not, when NYCHA expects it to be established and executed. Lastly, the letter says: “NYCHA expects additional areas will be added to the list [of potential violations] as the reviews continue.” Please provide a more comprehensive explanation of the areas NYCHA might be in violation. Please provide a detailed description of what NYCHA is currently doing to remedy the situation. Given these latest developments and the gravity of the situation, I respectfully request your response in the next thirty (30) days. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Sincerely Yours,Nydia M. Velázquez, Member of Congress

Artist Jaimie Bell Wins Brooklyn Poster Project Contest

After graduating from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Communications Design, Bell swiftly became one of the pioneering artists who made the derelict and rather dangerous neighbor-

hood DUMBO her home. A Dumbo artist for over 20 years, her paintings start from the ground up and like the East River itself her images ebb and flow from one to another and soon you are wading in a story of your own choosing. Jaimie’s canvases employs gouache, charcoal, acrylic, chalk, conté crayon & ink as her work navigates around her. She records data, collects information, gathers evidence from the streets and puts them together with her own and found graphic art. @jamiewalkerstudio www.jaimiewalkerstudio

Old Timers return

The annual Red Hook Old Timers’ Day will be coming up Sunday August 12. There will also be activities associated with Old Timers’ Day on August 9 and August 10. The Old Timers’ Day weekend will bring many people who grew up or used to live in Red Hook back to the neighborhood. They will be able to connect with people they had not seen in a long time. On Friday, August 10, there will be a kids jam at Melo Park (wine park). This event will go from 2:00 to 6:00 pm and is for kids ages five to 12. On Saturday night, from 6:00 to 11:00 pm there will be an all-white affair with a splash of red event. This party will be at the Red Hook Library (7 Wolcott Street). The organizers are still looking for donations for this event. If you are interested in donating for these events and what they will have at them then go to: https://www.gofundme.com/redhook-old-timers-weekend-2018.

Citibike Expansion

Citi Bike is expanding their low-cost memberships. Previously only available for NYCHA residents, New Yorkers who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will be eligible. To apply for this discount, SNAP recipients can visit the Citi Bike website at citibikenyc.com and enter their EBT card number or NYCHA tenant ID. NYCHA residents already enrolled in the discount program don’t need to reapply. The new memberships, available for $5 per month, do not require an annual commitment like traditional memberships that cost $169 a year for unlimited 45-minute rides.

NYCHA Gas Outages

Hundreds of residents in the Red Hook Houses have suffered gas and electric outages this summer. Many NYCHA developments have had residents that have been unable to use their stoves this summer. More than 100 residents in Queens lost gas earlier in July. Krystal Vega, a Red Hook resident and mother of two, has been cooking on a city-issued hot plate as a result of being without gas. “But the hotplate sparks so I can barely do anything,” Vega said. “I can’t make anything major.” The outage in Vega’s building affects 124 residents. According to a NYCHA spokesman, a gas leak was detected in the basement, which prompted repairs. The gas is expected to be restored by September.“

The Healthy Geezer by Fred Cicetti Q. How important is exercise when you are a senior? Is it worth the risks of hurting yourself? All the current scientific evidence shows that geezers should exercise, even though many older people think it could harm them. Study after study demonstrates that seniors hurt their health a lot more by being sedentary. If you’re inactive, you deteriorate. Physical activity can help restore your capacity. Most older adults, regardless of age or condition, will benefit from increasing physical activity to a moderate level. Warning: If you want to begin a new exercise program, you should consult your physician and request a list of exercises that are best for your age and physical condition. Four types of exercise are important for your health. These are exercises for strength, balance, stretching and endurance. Strength exercises build muscle and raise your metabolism. Doing these exercises will help to keep your weight down. Balance exercises help prevent falls and, therefore, will keep you from breaking yourself and los-

Page 24 Red Hook Star-Revue

ing your independence. Each year, U.S. hospitals have 300,000 admissions for broken hips; many of them are the result of falls. Stretching exercises give you more freedom of movement. And endurance exercises raise your pulse and breathing. Here are 10 tips to make any exercise program safe: 1) Don’t hold your breath during strength exercises. This could affect your blood pressure. 2) When lifting weights, use smooth, steady movements. Breathe out as you lift or push a weight, and breathe in as you relax. 3) Avoid jerking or thrusting movements. 4) Avoid locking the joints of your arms and legs into a strained position. 5) Some soreness and slight fatigue are normal after muscle-building exercises. Exhaustion, sore joints, and painful muscle pulls are not normal. 6) Always warm up before stretching exercises. 7) Stretching should never cause pain, especially joint pain. 8) Never bounce into a stretch; make slow steady movements instead.

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9) To prevent injuries, use safety equipment such as helmets for biking. 10) You should be able to talk during endurance exercises. Measuring your progress can motivate you. Test yourself before starting to exercise to get a baseline score. Test and record your scores each month. The following are some tests you can use, if your doctor approves. * For endurance, see how far you can walk in exactly six minutes. * For lower-body strength, time yourself as you walk up a flight of stairs as fast as you can safely. * For upper-body strength, record how much weight you lift and how many times you lift that weight. * For balance, time yourself as you stand on one foot, without support, for as long as possible. Have someone stand near you in case you lose your balance. Repeat the test while standing on the other foot. Remember, above all, exercise should make you feel better. All Rights Reserved © 2018 by Fred Cicetti

August 2018

StarªRevue

AUGUST ARTS

EDITED BY MATT CAPRIOLI

August music preview

hen I moved to Red Hook four years ago, I fell in love with our proximity to the water, the seclusion from the “rest” of the city, the Pioneer Works garden and the friends I made at Bait and Tackle. A musician in a past life, I started attending bar shows at Jalopy and more recently Saturday nights at Bene’s Record Shop. While I have run into some very serious and well-known musicians living in Red Hook, it wasn’t until I started compiling this list

RED HOOK SHOW CALENDAR Bene’s RECORD SHOP

360 Van Brunt St. 718-855-0360 All Shows 8:30 pm, unless noted. AUG 4, 7 pm Tomas Pagan Mo�a - Vocals/ Guitar Premiers songs from upcoming release: “Soul Loss Symphony” AUG 9 William Robertson’s* Open Mic Bring your instrument, Bring your voice! All Ages Welcome AUG 11 CP Unit Saxophonist/composer Chris Pitsiokos’ composi�onal outlet for quartet with razor sharp twists and turns and wailing walls of sound. Chris Pitsiokos* - saxophone Sam Lisabeth - guitar Henry Fraser - fretless bass Jason Nazary - drums + Spring Breeding (las vegas) Tyler Gutleben - Vocals/ Drums Caress Silverii - Saxophone/ Synth Wes Alvarez - Bass Luke Bernier - Guitar Noisy Jazz/Experimental Music. Not for the faint of heart. For fans of Psycho-Jazz. AUG 19 Val Jeanty - percussion/ electronics Val Jeanty is a Hai�an-born composer, percussionist and turntablist, who uses technology to lead listeners into her dream- like expressionism of Afro-Creole and “Afro- Electronica®”

Red Hook Star-Revue

of concerts that I realized we have a ton of shows happening in our neighborhood every month. If you would like a concert listed in future editions of the Red Hook Star Revue, please email me at star.revue.music@gmail.com. I also am hoping to review recordings by local artists. If there is something you would like to suggest, please email the artist’s name, record, and release date. I will try and listen to as many as possible. There are a plethora of shows coming up and I hope everyone

composi�ons. + Tanya Kalmanovitch* - viola Mat Maneri - viola Known for her uncommonly diverse interests, Tanya Kalmanovitch has con�nually stretched the boundaries between classical, jazz and improvised music. Brooklyn Born Mat Maneri has been hailed as a leading improvisa�onal voice of his genera�on, his “virtuosity is everywhere apparent.” - Jon Garelick + jaimie branch*- trumpet Karen Ng - alto sax Tcheser Holmes - drums A ﬁrst mee�ng between three abundantly crea�ve improvisors. AUG 23 William Robertson’s Open Mic Bring your instrument, Bring your voice! All Ages Welcome *******************

JALOPY TAVERN

317 Columbia St. 718-625-3214 jalopytavern.biz Every Friday, 9 pm Papa Vega and the Rocket 88’s blues/rock’n’roll/rockabilly AUG 5, 8 pm Jalopy Follies! Watch a live band score a silent ﬁlm in the backyard. AUG 8, 8 pm Wyndham Baird, Solo set. AUG 9, 8 pm The Troll Smashers (Aus�n, TX) Roots Music AUG 15, 8 pm Luis Betancourt, Solo set AUG 16, 8 pm Audra Rox Presents: 3rd Thursdays at Jalopy! Luis Betancourt and Jen Milich

Aug 19, 8 pm Jalopy Follies! Aug 21, 8 pm Eli Smith of the Downhill Strugglers, Solo set *******************

JALOPY THEATRE

315 Columbia St. 718-395-3214 jalopytheatre.org Every Tuesday Night, 9 pm Open Mic Night, sign up by 9 sharp! Each performer gets 2 songs or 8 minutes. Every Wednesday, 9 pm Roots n’ Ruckus - hosted by Feral Foster. Real deal folk music in NYC. Free! AUG 3, 9 pm Dromeno Balkan Dance Music. AUG 4, 8 pm Lone Piñon (New Mexico) Chicano string band stylings from northern New Mexico, South Texas, Arizona, and Mexico. + Tepeyolohtli Tradi�onal music and dance from the center of Guerrero, Mexico, with strong African and Spanish inﬂuences. Juan Lucero - vocals/vihuela Cecilia Ortega - tarima Montse Olmos - cajon de tapes Luisa Bas�das - violin Rudyck - bass AUG 5, 7:30 pm

Michael Daves Sunday Residency w/ Andy Statman Statman describes his performances as, “spontaneous Americanroots music and personal, prayerful hasidic music, by way of avant garde jazz,” he joins Michael Daves, an indemand bluegrass musician with nods to experimental jazz.

can make at least one. Music is the healing force of the universe and our artists are important! If I can recommend one show this month it would be the Sun Ra Arkestra, under direction of the great Marshall Allen, on Aug 4 at Pioneer Works. Marshall Allen is 94 years young going on 25. He has been with the Arkestra from the start and is a sight to behold. If you are reading this paper too late for the Arkestra, too bad, but don’t despair! You can catch

AUG 9, 8 pm Show, 10 pm Raga Jam Brooklyn Raga Massive Weekly: Saxophone Brothers + Dan Weiss This show will feature Indian Classical Indo-Jazz Impressions. **Raga Jam: Free entry to musicians who come at 10 and are ready to play!** AUG 12 + 26, 3:30 pm Old�me and Folk Slow Jam with Hilary Hawke Every 2nd Sunday, come join in on the fun, or listen. Aug 12, 7:30 pm Michael Daves Sunday Residency w/ Tony Trischka Intl. Bluegrass Music Assoc. Banjo Player of the Year 2007, Tony Trischka, joins guitarist Michael Daves. AUG 16, 8 pm, 10 pm Raga Jam Brooklyn Raga Massive Weekly: Brandon Terzic - Oud Terzic will bring his amalgama�on of African/ Hindustani/Arabic styles ﬁltered through the downtown NYC improv aesthe�c to BRM. AUG 19, 7:30 pm Michael Daves Sunday Residency w/ Darol Anger Fiddler, composer, producer and educator, Darol Anger joins Michael Daves. AUG 26, 1:30 pm

Fiddle Workshop with Bruce Molsky

The workshop takes a hands-on approach to old �me fiddle. Dig into old-�me music’s unique phrasing, rhythm and syncopa�on, intona�on, etc. Aug 26, 7:30 pm Michael Daves Sunday Residency w/ Bruce Molsky Molsky has become known as one of the most influen�al tradi�onal fiddlers of his genera�on, tonight he joins guitarist Michael Davis.

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Smokey Hormel on August 8th and 15th at Sunnys. If it’s too late for that one, catch local Viola wizards Tanya Kalmanovitch and Mat Maneri at the Record Shop on August 19th.

*******************

PIONEER WORKS

159 Pioneer St. pioneerworks.com All Shows 7 pm unless noted. AUG 3 Maia Friedman (Dirty Projectors), Renata Zeiguer, Opal Hoyt (Zenizen), Zoë Brecher (SAD13) w/ Guest Dancers from Loni London Dance Project + Harmony Tividad (Girlpool), Ellen Kempner (Palehound) AUG 4 Sun Ra Arkestra, directed by Marshall Allen The Sun Ra Arkestra is one of the most influen�al ensembles across any genre of music ever. If you don’t know, now you know. + Bearcat London Born, Philadelphia based DJ/Producer draws from deeply personal experiences and Diaspora roots, and isn’t afraid to delve deep. AUG 12 Second Sundays with music resident, Abdu Ali Bal�more based Abdu Ali has released five musical projects, all notable for their idiosyncra�c blend of punk, futurism, jazz, Bal�more Club Music, and rap music, with lyrics yielding poe�c uprise. Unapologe�cally black, gay, and queer, Abdu Ali’s work is bold, raw, and most importantly life-affirming. AUG 17 Mark Ernestus’ Ndagga Rhythm Force with: Mbene Dia�a Seck - vocals Assane Cisse - guitar Mangone Ndiaye Dieng drum kit Ibou Mbaye - keyboard Modou Mbaye - talking drum Fatou Wore Mboup - dance Bada and Serigne Mamoune Seck - sabar

A collabora�ve project between a revolving assembly of Senegalese sabar musicians and German techno pioneer Mark Ernestus. This will be their ﬁrst-ever American appearance. AUG 22 Aïsha Devi feat. Asian Dope Boys Swiss-born, Nepalese-Tibetan musician Aïsha Devi will channel ancient incanta�ons and hi-ﬁ beats in a visual and sonic performance incorpora�ng Asian Dope Boys’ visceral movements, all shrouded in the grotesque yet sacred contemporary imagery of Chinese ar�st Tianzhuo Chen. *******************

ROCKY SULLIVAN’S

46 Beard St. 718-246-8050 rockysullivansredhook.com Music Every Friday and Saturday at 9 pm for weekly lis�ngs check: www.facebook.com/rocky. sullivans.1 *******************

SUNNYS

253 Conover St. 718-625-8211 sunnysredhook.com EVERY SATURDAY, 9 pm Bluegrass/Folk & Country Jam Bring your axe! AUG 8 + AUG 15, 10 pm Smokey’s Round-Up A late night Raucous Western Swing dance party with virtuoso guitarist, Smokey Hormel. Three sets! ******************* * denotes a known Red Hook-er

August 2018, Page 25

StarªRevue NOTABLE Thru Aug 15

Aug 25 - Sept 3

BOOK UNDER THE BRIDGE has two more events in August. Local bookstores select readers to entertain people on the steps of Granite Prospect in Brooklyn Bridge Park. On the 6th, Greenlight Bookstore features poets Elizabeth Acevedo, Camonghne Felix, and Safia Elhillo. The series wraps up on the 15th with WORD bookstore hosting their own favored poets. 334 Furman Street (718) 222-9939

The Metropolitan Opera hosts its annual OUTDOOR FESTIVAL AT LINCOLN CENTER. Admission is free, but performances are often crowded, and early attendance is encouraged to snag one of the 3,000 chairs. This season features comedies like L’Elisir d’Amore by Donizetti and melodramatic classics, including Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Madame Butterfly. 10 Lincoln Center Plaza (212) 875-5456

Thru Aug 17

Aug 26 - Sept 16

RESTAURANT WEEK is upon us, so

everytime you eat out be looking for deals. Some local participants include Buttermilk Channel (524 Court Street); Benchmark (339a Second Street) and Talde (369 Seventh Avenue). If you’re feeling fancy, on Aug 3, The Long Beach International Film takes place at Allegria Hotel (80 W Broadway, Long Beach) from 6pm to 9pm. Tickets to the evening retreat are $125 for the best local beer, wine, and culinary creations.

Thru Aug 26

Pioneer Works host queer artist Matthew Morrocco’s exhibit “ORCHID: RGB.” After a well-received exhibit of intergenerational photography of gay men, Morroccoo balances concealment and declaration with this formally curious show. First in a series of exhibits at PW. 159 Pioneer St (718) 596-3001

Thru Sept 7

At Sunny’s, photographer ULLI GRUBER showcases her kinetic work taken on a two hour road trip Woodstock (see Picks for more information). 253 Conover St (718) 625-8211

Aug 1 - 21

At Open Source Gallery, street photographer and documentarian Xyza Cruz Bacani’s poignant “WE ARE LIKE AIR” follows migrant workers from Hong Kong, Singapore, New York and the United Arab Emirates. This is a continuation of the public art portion hosted throughout the city in June. The opening reception is Aug 1 7pm-9pm. 306 17th St (646) 279-3969

Aug 5 - 28

Small Editions is teaming up with the popular art publisher Hauser & Wirth to talk women in publish-

Page 26 Red Hook Star-Revue

The DREAM UP FESTIVAL hosts two dozen original works from playwrights across NYC. Each performance is located at the Theater for the New City. 155 1st Avenue in Manhattan (212) 924-0496 KusteraProjectsMichaelBuckland_ThreeLeggedRace.jpg

ing at PS1 on Aug 16. It’s part of the “RECTO/VERSO: ART PUBLISHING IN PRACTICE” series 22-25 Jackson Avenue at 46th Avenue, Long Island City (718) 784-2084

Aug 4 -31

Quixotic media artist MICHAEL BUCKLAND BRINGS HIS WORK TO KUSTERA PROJECT, this increasingly lauded gallery on Wolcott. From the press release: “His art embraces and elevates the quotidian: cardboard boxes, toys, movie titles, cheese slices, light bulbs and everything else you might fall over in the run of a day.” Join gallery owner Anna Kustera on Aug 4, 6pm-8pm for an opening reception. 57 Wolcott Street (718) 522-3811

Aug 22

The BROOKLYN POSTER PROJECT is accepting poster submissions by Brooklyn artists through Aug 22. Backed by the ad agency Superheroes NY, the selected work will featured on the back of the September Red Hook Star-Revue. DUMBO artist Jaimie Walker was selected for the month of August. Submit your work at brooklynposterproject.com

Aug 30 - Sept 2

The NYC UNICYCLE FESTIVAL wraps up August. The long-distance races also include unicycle sumo, basketball, and hockey. In its ninth year, the festival also hosts workshops, so anyone can learn how to pedal on a unicycle. Aug 30 opens at 3pm with a horde of rider from Brooklyn Bridge to Coney Island. Sept 1 and 2 the fun happens at Governor’s Island. cirkus@bindlestiff.org

Aug 7, 14, 21

The Jalopy Theater hosts a fun and intimate OPEN MIC NIGHT EVERY TUESDAY. Bring your guitar, poem, and/or well-oiled voice. Sign up begins at 9pm. The order is randomly drawn, and everyone gets 8 minutes. No cover. 315 Columbia Street (718) 395-3214

Aug 11

The Portside Museum, along with Red Hook Community Justice Center, hosts A TOUR OF HISTORIC AMISTAD ship. It will tell the story of the 1839 uprising of slaves from Sierra Leone, and their eventual freedom after a Supreme Court victory. 190 Pioneer Street (917) 414-0565

Frank’s Museum 1992 Photo Credit JR Rost.jpg

Reunion for a Cause Rocky Sullivan’s hosts a “KICKIN’ CANCER” BENEFIT CONCERT for bassist Malcolm Smart, long-time resident of Park Slope and owner of the first dog daycare in Brooklyn. The rock-filled event will reunite some of the most beloved musicians in Red Hook: Rome 56 (Arthur Lamonica of The Shirts), Frank’s Museum (led by Frank Ruscitti) and Formaldehyde Blues Train (FBT), reuniting for the first time in a decade. Other acts include Jeannie Fry and the Lifers, J.R. Rost, Al Lee Wyer, Squirrels from Hell, Pocket Monster, and The Moe. All funds will go to pay for Smart’s treatment for multiple myeloma. Once he recovers, he plans to launch the Rinky Roadshow. The van will have a mobile recording studio that will inspire random sing-songwriters collaborations across the country. The music kicks off at 8pm. Tickets are $10 but you’re going to want to give more. 46 Beard St (718) 2468050. Further donations at www.GoFundMe.com/KickinCancerConcert

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August 2018

StarªRevue REVIEWS Becoming Blonde

nly 2% of the world’s population has naturally blond hair, and nearly 100% of them are white. Yet for many people the world over of all cultures and ethnicities, skin colors and genders, commit to the often painful process of bleaching their hair. Why is this look valued so highly? Renowned visual artist John Lucas and best-selling poet Claudia Rankine use prose poetry, found objects, and photography to interrogate this question in their exhibit “Stamped.” The show is the culmination of over two years of work on the part of Rankine and Lucas, who are married. The show begins with a long list of chemicals that make up “Natu-

ral Blonde” hair dye, starting with a tone-setting paragraph. Here’s an excerpt: “It might be a failing that I want people to laugh but I badly do want them to perform amusement on my watch because there is always worry that we are already dying.” This brimming sentence reveals the show’s focus on the honest and inauthentic ways people display themselves for one another; the artist as the one who “watches;” the sinister pun in “dying”; and the dark undertone present when people alter their bodies to appease a social bias like blonde hair being the best hair. The photos are close-ups of different dyed-blond hairstyles from across race and gender,

presented in provocative framing. “These photos with the large white margins are meant to look more like museum objects,” Lucas told me on the July 27 reception. “The use of the stamps is Claudia’s idea, that blond hair is a kind of currency, one that takes you places.” He was referring to the title piece, a series of nine images of different dyed hair printed out on hundreds of postage stamps. Rankine also emphasized her partner’s input. “He has the eye,” she told me. “It was his idea to use video images,” she said pointing to another part of the exhibit. Along with the photos, the artists also collected impromptu street

interviews with people who had bleached their hair, asking what motivated them. Selections of the conversations are played on loop from speakers hung in the center of the room. Interviewees knew they were treated better with blond hair, yet few made the association with whiteness. It’s this sort of naiveté that the exhibit addresses. —Diehl Edwards Stamped, Pioneer Works, Third ﬂoor through August 26th

Connecting us all to the river

fter the captivating exhibit New York Archipelago by Filmmaker and photographer Thomas Halaczinsky, Red Hook’s floating museum continues to explore Red Hook’s rich aquatic history with Santa Cruz artist Wes Modes. This is his fifth year presenting “A Secret History of American River People” (Waterfront Museum hosted Modes last year as well). On a shantyboat he built himself, the artist has drifted down the Mississippi, Tennessee, and Sacramento Rivers. So far, he’s covered over 1,000 miles. Here, Modes aims to combine

art and folklore. He’s especially interested in those raised near rivers, and bringing attention and understanding to the specific challenges they face. The boat collects more and more stories wherever it goes. “I seek out the stories of the first people on the continent and people living in Black and Latino communities. I try to find our elders who grew up here and remember a different time and a different river.”

In person, the piece gains traction more by the atmosphere than the visuals. Modes is a scrappy, genial man, ready to regale with everyone. He’s serious about collecting

stories, and the spirit of the place is the strength here. But visually, the piece is underwhelming. Photos of Modes’s cruises were projected on eight diaphanous curtains on either side of the barge museum. The shantyboat was upriver for most of the exhibit, so overall, there wasn’t much to look at. On July 31, the shantyboat will be ready for tours at the North Brooklyn Boat Club in Greenpoint. Modes also plans for an artist’s talk at the Waterfront Museum on Aug 2.

There’s still plenty to do at Waterfront Museum, and a trip there,

even if the static art isn’t much at the moment, is welcoming, informative, and always entertaining Matt Caprioli A Secret History of American River People, Waterfront Museum, Through Aug 16

eighth Grade: A coming of age movie

rt is so often about outsiders looking in; so many films and novels depict an outcast, whose observational distance reflects the artists’ own experience. This is the lens I imposed on my viewing of Eighth Grade, which depicts a girl’s last days of middle school in hyper-realistic detail.

pool party.

Writer-director Bo Burnham follows the protagonist, Kayla, as she survives the various indignities of being a girl at the threshold of womanhood. I went to see the movie at BAM, where the audience was full up with other women who interacted with the film, empathetically groaning as they watched Kayla change into a tragically unflattering green swimsuit at some popular bitch’s

Of course, who knows what was really true of my fellow viewing audience, but I felt a kind of solidarity in the theater. Seeing the movie at BAM made it easier to believe that I was not watching a film about a very average middle school girl, as other reviews have suggested— I was watching a film about the budding awareness of a young artist. From my vantage, Kayla, who frequently records mo-

Red Hook Star-Revue

I wondered if there was something special about seeing this movie in Central Brooklyn, where I often feel that I am in the good company of other artist-nerdintellectuals who have chosen to lead lifestyles alternative to those in the corporate cultural center of Manhattan.

tivational YouTube videos despite knowing that hardly anyone will watch them, was preparing herself for a life of artistic creation.

Eighth Grade provides catharsis to those of us who have survived adult and adolescent lives rife with social “awkwardness”— a platitude that Burnham is able to define through close rendering of moments of anxiety and petty power play. In one of the best and most excruciating scenes of the film, a high school boy gives Kayla a ride home and without asking, climbs into the back seat of the car and tries to pressure her into a sexual situation. In response, Kayla is anxious and self-conscious as she narrowly avoids an incident of assault. I could hear women in the audi-

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ence muttering to themselves, “oh no; oh shit.” I remember excusing myself inelegantly from a would-be sexual situations as an adolescent. I berated myself for my “awkward” behavior afterward.

But Burnham’s empathetic portrayal helped me come to terms with this incident; to see responses like Kayla’s as the only rational ones to the pressure of an older boy. Kayla herself articulates her state of being in lyrical terms: “I’m really nervous all the time… I feel like I’m on line for a roller coaster but the relief never comes.” Kayla was not merely an average middle school girl, but a poet, observing herself and the world.—Shayna Goodman Brooklyn Academy of Music,30 Lafayette Ave (718) 636-4100

August 2018, Page 27

StarªRevue ART A Conversation with Small Editions

he curse and joy of running a small book bindery is you never know what’s coming next.

Since opening in 2012, Small Editions co-founder Corina Reynolds has bound an 8,000-page book; helped smuggle alcohol to librarians; and created a photographer’s portfolio that was four feet wide. Along with fine art productions, she works with architects and ad agencies. The tiny company, in the Columbia Waterfront District, also takes on more personal projects, such as a grandfather’s Letters to my Grandson James and (my personal favorite) The Scion. After a printmaking degree in San Diego, Kelly worked for the graphic designer William Kelly. Kelly taught her about book binding, letter press, and. intaglio. “(Kelly) could tell that I was really interested in printing as a democratic distribution of ideas,” Reynolds says. She founded Small Edirtions with her friend Kimberly McClure, which combine their love of bookbinding and knowledge of contemporary art. “It happened all at once,” Reyn-

by Matt Caprioli

forte is the hands-on care and individual attention they can give to smaller projects. Production Manager Molly McGeehan said, “Larger production companies can use the fine cloth material, they can do the large stamping. The thing they can’t handle is someone showing up with five different boxes of etchings that have to be carefully attended to.” The kind of binding required for one wide, horizontally focused project, Room after Room (where each page was approximately two feet wide) wouldn’t be possible at a traditional company. “Crazy” ideas are encouraged at Small Editions (see some examples below). As McGeehan said, “I feel like we’re a good avenue to give instruction and advice and walk clients through a process that might seem overwhelming.” Tucked Away Small Editions lies on Sackett Street, just as Van Brunt comes into its own. It’s a loud construction area, so they keep their bee-yellow door shut most of the time. Near the waterfront, they’re always subject to the elements. “The things that blow out of the yards is crazy,” McGeehan said. “Once, a dumpster escaped from the back fence and was careening down the street. Corina and I had to go out in the pouring rain try to corral it back.” There is a wall of books for sale in the warehouse. Most of their revenue comes from book and print manufacturing. The humble room has gone places. Their books have travelled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Walker Art Center, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cranbrook Art Museum, and more.

The wall at Small Editions (photos by Matt Caprioli)

olds said of the founding. “We really took our interests and made it into our lives.” The Small Editions touch Small Editions has relied on word of mouth to bring in a steady stream of commercial and artistic projects. While they do outsource certain projects, their

Page 28 Red Hook Star-Revue

“We love that people in the neighborhood know we’re here for them for their crazy book projects. We’re also very proud of the publishing we do with artists.” You may see them around. “If we get drinks after work we usually end up at Sunny’s. We’re big Sunny’s fans.”

The artists In 2014, Small Editions started displaying some of the great work they came in touch with. Here are just a few highlights: DAVID HORVITZ Mail artist David Horvitz produced a series of liquor books targeted at librarians. The intent was for these books to become part of a museum library collection. The boxes, like A Juniper Tree by Barbara Comyns, came in pairs. When a collector bought one, by contract, they had to donate the other to a library. They also agreed to keep the liquor refilled at all times. One lawyer balked at the obligation. “David was so amused by those type of outcomes,” McGeehan said. “He’s a very playful artist and always has fantastic ideas.” Another idea was for “cat booklets.” “When open,” McGeehan explained, “the only content was a full-size, full-bound image of David’s cat, Damien. The front was a foil cover that were scratches from Damien.” Horvitz, after several frustrated months of getting his cat to scratch foil, raided the litter box to source the scratches. The books were donated to libraries and bookstores. “If you’re ever in a used bookstore,” Reynolds said, “You’ll see that cat that’s hanging out with the stacks eternally. He wanted to mimic that with a cat booklet.”

Small Editions is located at 60 Sackett Street, west of Van Brunt.

bought and sold in contemporary settings. As McGeehan explained it: “The artist has to decide if they’re going to try and win their own work back, which is a big deal for them to have a piece in the permanent collection of a renowned institution, or, do they try to lose and figure out what the other artists are doing, then possibly win all the money for themselves.” SHERYL OPPENHEIM Sheryl Oppenheim’s Black Hours was the first piece Small Editions exhibited. The small run (15 total copies) has 14 acrylic silkscreen prints that were printed by hand and bound at Small Editions. JULIANA CERQUEIRA LEITE For A Potential Space with the Brazilian sculptor Juliana Cerqueira Leite, master book binder Sarah Smith used Coptic binding with a looping braided stitch. The interior is a laser cutting (get ready Carolee Schneemann fans) of the inside of the artist’s vagina.

MELISSA BROWN Performance artist Melissa Brown arranges Texas Hold Em for art institutions, with her fascinating work, Rules of the Game. It’s a trenchant look into how art is

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JESS UNDERWOOD Bushwick painter Jess Underwood continues to explore chance and slippery realities in God is Die, a saddle stitched book currently on display when you first walk in.

August 2018

StarªRevue PICKS

Ulli Gruber’s windows at Sunny’s

or a photoshoot of the bassist Dave Holland, the artist Ulli Gruber was unexpectedly sent a private car from a production company. Feeling lucky for the car in lieu of a bus all the way to Woodstock, Gruber took advantage of the private drive and immaculate fall day to take photos throughout her twohour trip as the sun was rising. The result is window (e)motion, a fun, visually playful celebration of the road. “I love travelling” Gruber said, “by plane or bus or subway. Any-

Lose your head with ‘Comemadre’ In the first few pages of Roque Larraquy’s spectacular novel, Comemadre, I was gearing up for a slightly twisted love story between a doctor and a nurse in a mental hospital in 1907 Buenos Aires. Instead, what I got was absolutely demented: a cerebral thriller that gave you the best of absurdism with the quiet morality of classic satire. Here’s the rare, beautiful book that makes you want to be a better person: immediately. Larraquy’s debut novel was published in Argentina eight years ago, but only last month has this slim splendor been available as an English translation, thanks to Coffee House Press in Minneapolis. The novel opens to the charming, callous Doctor Quintana attempting to seduce a nurse (she’s the head nurse--a fact that soon becomes significant). Sensing that he’s an a-hole, Ms. Menédez ignores him. Meanwhile, Quintana and his fellow doctors start talking about the possibility that people, after they get their heads chopped off, have nine seconds of total consciousness to speak. Twirling

Red Hook Star-Revue

where where you give up your power to drive. It’s like being in a baby carriage. Whatever happens, happens.” Gruber has lived in the Bronx for the past two years but had lived in Red Hook for 18 years after she moved from Austria in 1997. She sas she could work day and night and couldn’t afford current Red Hook prices, but remains thankful for the neighborhood that so thoroughly formed her. “This feels like a homecoming,” Gruber said of the exhibit at Sunny’s Bar. their respective mustaches, they each wonder hmm, how can we test this? It’s not a spoiler to tell you that they do test this urban myth. They test it again, and again. They do so by recruiting vulnerable people to take part in their innocuous-looking guillotine project. Dozens and dozens of people agree to lie in a chamber that seems no more threatening than a heart pressure chair. A blade suddenly slices their neck as they calmly sit upright. Now with a head on a platter, the doctors lean in to record the head’s final words, hoping beyond hope that the final phrase each head utters will forecast what to expect in death. Larraquy uses this absurd situation to emphasize the everyday cruelties we place on each other. To watch Dr. Quintana’s growing fear of his own flexible callousness in regard to others was stirring, to say the least. The second half is equally brilliant, and, focusing on a drawing prodigy, is less gory and a welcome relief to the first half. At first, the second half seems as disparate as possible, but in harrowing ways it all soon connects. This is a remarkable feat

All the images come from a single trip to Woodstock, and the photos show the kind of euphoria and morning curiosity Gruber had in those early hours. “I felt inspired,” Gruber said. “I wanted to capture the mind that travels while we travel.”

focus. They suggest an internal world. They hint at what we’re missing right now. We don’t have to record everything perfectly.”

You get that here with overlain images, curves that are variously resolute and blurry. Perhaps inspired by the propulsive inspiration of Holland, Gruber’s images have a quick, flick of the wrist, quality.

“I hope people respond,” Gruber said. “I hope it makes them want to take a bus anywhere and enjoy the ride.”—Matt Caprioli

“I like when things are out of that’s as powerful (if not more so) than Lisa Halliday’s literary smash hit, Asymmetry. This book is truly unforgettable. —Briana Murphy

Art tours around the Gowanus What better way to learn about the local arts scene than to take a tour with a local artist? On the second Saturday of every month, collage artist Rich Garr leads in-depth art walks as part of the volunteer-run Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club. Since the late 90s, Garr has been leading art walks, starting with the Cleveland Museum of Art before joining the Brooklyn Museum. Things got serious in Gowanus when he rented his own studio in 2004. In an email exchange, Garr wrote, “I found the neighborhood fascinating, and reminiscent of The Flats in Cleveland (also a former industrial powerhouse along a polluted waterway [Cuyahoga River] which would infamously catch on fire during its bad old days.” Garr has found the best spots around Gowanus through years of biking and daily updates with gallery openings and local news. If you join him from a walk, you’ll likely pass the canal front spot

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Gruber said the fun-loving vibe of Sunny’s is the perfect spot for these photos (we couldn’t agree more).

window (e)motion Sunny’s Bar, 253 Conover Str between the Gowanus Dredgers Boathouse and the Carroll Street Bridge. Work by street artist “Wolf Tits” is a must see, as is the “Welcome to Venice Jerko” message sprayed across from a new luxury condo. “Jerko” is also right near the Brooklyn trolley powerhouse. “There’s so much to discuss with just that building alone. And there’s wildlife in the water now, too. That’s a whole thing!” The walk’s great if you want a boots-on-the-ground understanding of the stakes between long-term residents and newcomers. On each tour, Garr talks about the art community and local residents working together to avoid the “blanket gentrification” that overtook Williamsburg. “Everyone likes a good fight,” he said. “Folks like to see who’s fighting, and what they’re fighting for. And the world-class art around the streets just spices it all up.”—Matt Caprioli Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club 165 2nd St Reservations through GowanusCanal.org

August 2018, Page 29

Erie Basin despoiled by real estate interests By Robbie Giordano

am standing in the middle of Erie Basin. Five years ago it was probably the most pristine and vibrant piece of water in the whole New York harbor, from at least the George Washington Bridge down, all the way to Jamaica Bay, which has some very nice pieces of water as well. I am looking at the Thor Equities site thinking, what a travesty. I am thinking how was this allowed to happen and how can we not let it happen again in an environment that was so delicate and fighting so hard to regain position here in the New York harbor, which is one of the most transformed places on the planet. Hundreds of species of fish migrated through here, lived here on an annual basis and reared their young here, because it was such an ideal place full of available food and good water climate and the cleanliness of the water. The waters here used to be crystal clear, believe it or not. There were places where the water was crystal clear due to the amount of filter feeders and due to the lack of pollution. I am here trying to catch bunker, which is my primary bait fish. I use it to catch striped bass in these waters. I have seen with my own eyes, over the

It was due to fisheries management, a complete moratorium on the fishery, a very careful and select process of being able to harvest striped bass with each fish individually being accounted for and recorde and kept track of. It really has made a tremendous difference. The striped bass is a very hearty fish and it grows fast. It is a very large part of the economy for New York State. It is a very valuable resource. I am thinking how many of these individual bass, with a lot of them reared here in Erie Basin, were affected? How many generations, how many actual fish were taken out of the New York State economy, if we want to look at it from this perspective, by Thor Equities?

Environmental retreat

I know for a fact that, after watching these waters. that what they have done here has completely reversed a process that has taken so many years. To gradually fight back and get to a place that had not been seen in such a long time. The species of fish that was actually holding in Erie Basin, due to the fact that it is open at both ends, it is hard to imagine that being next to one of the most polluted waterways, which is the Gowanus. Mind you the Gowanus is a dead ended piece of water and anything that was dumped in there stayed in there.

I fished in the water last year for two weeks and there was a piece of Styrofoam roughly in the same place as it was the day before. Mind you this piece of Styrofoam has been picked up by the tide, taken out and brought back in and where it wound up was There are still large fish to catch in these waters, as Gior- exactly where it started, at least for that period of dano shows in a recent photo. time until it became dislast 25 years, the waters make an un- rupted and took a lodging somewhere believable comeback, creating a path- else. Keep that in mind. That is in a way for other species to follow. very actively moving piece of water.

The Gowanus Bay is stagnating and has been used as a dumping ground for A to Z for a very long time. The unique thing about Erie Basin is that the one end that is open on the south end of it near the impound yard, which is actually an island, people think it is connected to the mainland, has a phenomena. When the tide is running out and the ocean wants to come in, the ocean says I am the ocean, I am going to start coming in, and it actually forces itself against the outgoing tide and against the flow of the river. It gets pinched against the shoreline, which is closest to the Brooklyn side, and there is a deep channel running all the way from Breezy Point Jetty right to the mouth of Erie Basin.

Erie Basin is special

There are other places of what you could call a tributary, but it is not a relief. They all dead-end. They don’t flow through. The cold clean ocean water funnels into Erie Basin. I have seen 10 feet of visibility here and then you go into where Fairway is, and you look down and you can only see two or three feet due to not necessarily pollution, but the turbidity. It is amazing what I have seen happening here over the last seven or eight years. When Thor Equities decided to grab this piece of land and propose a bogus development to evoke stimulation of the community, and buy the piece of land for X amount of dollars, they built a bulkhead in a very environmentally unsound process. They pushed out anywhere from 20 to 40 feet of extra land by building a bulkhead out as far as they could, paid X amount of dollars to have that done as quickly as they could and gained X amount of dollars’ worth of land as quickly as they could. Who owned that land that they did not pay for, by the way? They now have built out a piece of property which the perimeter of it by at least a minimum of 20 feet deep. How much is that worth per foot? I

Red Hooker Robbie Giordano

would like to know. How much did they gain? How many striped bass did they remove, not just from the whole New York harbor, but from the whole eastern seaboard? The bass come from all over to spawn. All their young from down the river find Erie Basin, which is an excellent place for them to grow to a mature size where they can go out into the ocean and repeat the cycle. In my estimation there were more than a million individual striped bass, never mind the potential accumulation of generations spawned by them. There are a million easily, perhaps tens of millions. How much is that worth to New York State? How much did they remove from the New York State economy of natural resources by doing what they did? It was very unsound and very unethical and very unfisherman-like in my opinion and they need to be held accountable for it. We need to make sure something like this does not happen again in this very special place. Red Hook resident Robbie Giordano makes a living fishing off the Red Hook waters, as well as in other ways. These are his opinions.

A basketball game for the community by Nathan Weiser

he third annual Unity in Community day took place on July 28, and this year it was in a brand-new location.

BBQ and Mz. Hunyz Kitchen and Catering. The Red Hook Diabetes Support and Education Program provided ice water.

The game, which puts 76th precinct and NCO officers on the same basketball court as local youth, was played at Coffey Park. There was a basketball game for young kids, a middle school game, a high school game and an unlimited contest for ages 18 and up.

Other donors included Defontes and C-Town.

Organizer Janet Andrews made the switch in order to try something new. “We did it in the Miccio Community Center the first year, the second year we did Tee Park and for the third year I said let’s go do it in Coffey Park,” Andrews said. Free food was provided by Hometown

Page 30 Red Hook Star-Revue

Councilman Carlos Menchaca was at the Unity in the Community event early in the afternoon.

some seniors watching the baseball games. Andrews wanted to make sure the seniors are not forgotten. “We can’t every forget about the seniors since these seniors are part of this community.” Towards the end, at about 5:30, the NYPD Community Affairs brought a rock climbing wall that was placed near the bathrooms. This brought a long line of mostly younger kids but even a grandfather.

After the high school game, which provided the most skilled players and highlights to that point, a talented spoken word poetry performer took the microphone. Later on, there was also a young rapper who performed two songs.

The officers, who organized the line and put everyone into a harness, so they couldn’t fall, encouraged everyone before beginning and while on the wall.

Andrews was happy that the rain stayed away and that the children were having a good time. There were

For safety reasons, everyone was able to try the climbing wall unless they were wearing a dress or open toed

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shoes. Carter Murray, who is the CEO of Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB), an advertising agency, sponsored the Unity in the Community basketball event this year. His donation paid for all of the t-shirts. (Each team during the day had their own color t-shirt.) Andrews once worked for FCB as a receptionist. Murray found out about what Andrews has been doing in Red Hook and wanted to be involved in the neighborhood. “Anything that I give towards the neighborhood, he is going to be my number one sponsor,” Andrews said. “He wants to help the inner city community. I am grateful to Mr. Carter Murray.”

August 2018

The Brooklyn Poster Project

JaImie Walker

A Dumbo artist for over 20 years, Walker's paintings start from Calling all visual artists! From Red Hook to Brownsville. Creative advertising the ground up and, like the East River itself, the images ebb and agency SuperHeroes New York is changing this back cover into a poster. flow from one to another and soon you are wading in a story of After Jaimie Walker, we're giving the stage to another Brooklynite to your own choosing. Her canvases employ Goache, charcoal, design the September back cover of the Red Hook Star Revue. Help save acrylic, chalk, conte crayon, and ink as her work investigates the the world from boring posters. Enter your work for the September issue world around her. If you would like to see more artwork by Jaimie by August 22 at brooklynposterproject.com Walker, check out her website at jaimiewalkerstudio.com or follow her on Instagram @jaimiewalkerstudio

Page 32 Red Hook Star-Revue

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August 2018

StarRevue

FOCUS

ON DELIS

by Brian Abate SMITH & FIRST PLACE

“School is over so we have no customers,” said Alex A., while laughing after I stopped in at Qiao Feng Delicatessen on the corner of Smith Street and First Place. The deli is located across the street from P.S.58 and is usually filled with kids begging their parents for junk food and sugary drinks after school. Alex said that business has been slow since the school year ended, but that has its perks. He can catch up with some of the regular customers he’s gotten to know. He laughs with a man who tells me he has been coming to the deli for years. Bob from Mini Mart

Alex, a New York City native, has worked in delis for just over 10 years. He started at Qiao Feng in 2014. When he got the job, Alex wasn’t sure how long he would stick with it but said the job has worked out well. He doesn’t have much of a commute, which he said makes the job less stressful. Alex said he hasn’t had to deal with crime and working during the day isn’t very exciting. He said that all the exciting customers show up at night.

Mo from Columbia Deli

“A lot of the people that show up during the night shift are drunk so that’s always interesting,” said Alex. “They’re always in a good mood, joking around and they usually buy a lot of stuff too.” “I wish we could get some more people in during (the students’) summer vacation but for now I’m enjoying the slower pace,” said Alex. “It’s kind of nice.”

HUNTINGTON & COLUMBIA

Ahmed from Wolcott Deli Grocery

Waseem Saeidi from La Nueva Candy Store

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Mohammed Azokari has been working at Deli & Bagel during the past year and said that the bodega underwent renovations approximately five months ago. He helped a line of customers who had walked in while the owner’s cat, Oreo, lounged happily in the shade. Azokari is from Dyker Heights, but his father owns Deli & Bagel, which is why he decided to work there. “We’ve definitely had a lot more customers since the renovations,” said Azokari. “We’ve had more people because of the nice weather too.” Azokari said he’s never had any issues with shoplifting at the bodega and that workers have a good relationship with customers. This place is very friendly,” said Azokari. “The customers are like family. Everyone who comes in is pretty nice and polite.”

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CLINTON BETWEEN MILL AND CENTRE

Anthony, a co-owner of Family Food Center, a block up from the Post Office, said his son, Basher, now helps him out with the bodega. Anthony had another business on Lorraine Street for five years but someone bought the property. He has been a co-owner of Family Food Center since it opened in 2007. “I used to work in Coney Island with my uncle and we originally wanted a supermarket but things didn’t work out,” said Anthony. “I began as a worker but I kept on saving my money and worked my way up.” Anthony also credits his family for working with him and helping him out. “We’ve always helped each other,” said Anthony. Anthony said that over the years, customers and workers at the Family Food Center have developed a mutual respect for each other. “When the same people start to come in here a lot, we get to know each other,” said Anthony. Even though there have been some shoplifters there are many more good people than bad ones. “The people from the neighborhood are like family,” said Anthony.

KANE & HICKS

Bonafide Delicatessen & Cafe, which opened at 118 Kane St, 25 years ago, has survived multiple robberies in the past year, and continues to bring in lots of local customers. Tamer Kassis, a co-owner of the deli, said that there had never been any issues with robberies until the past year, so additional security cameras were added to prevent future robberies. “Personally I feel safe but my peace of mind isn’t fully there with the store,” said Kassis. “Nothing like this ever happened until the past year.” Despite that, the deli is still popular. Customers can be seen sitting outside the deli at tables from early morning till late at night. The deli is open from 6:45 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends, although the hours change seasonally according to Kassis. “Honey club and Italian sandwiches are our most popular foods,” said Kassis. “A lot of people also buy lattes or cappuccinos.” Kassis is especially busy helping

customers in the afternoon. Hard work has been the driving force behind the deli’s success said Kassis. His father opened the deli and his mother is a co-owner. Kassis, who commutes from Long Island to get to work every day said that his father originally opened up the deli to give his kids a better life. He has followed in his parents’ footsteps. After 25 successful years, Kassis offered advice to other mom and pop shops trying to get started. “It take months of preparation mentally and physically,” said Kassis. “You need to stay dedicated because it’s going to be a struggle mentally and physically.”

LORRAINE & COLUMBIA

Waseem Saeidi has worked his way up to become the co-owner of La Nueva Candy Store on the corner of Lorraine Street and Columbia Street. He worked at a bodega in the Bronx and then began as a worker at La Nueva Candy store before becoming an owner approximately a year and a half ago. It took him seven years of savings to become a co-owner. “I’m from Queens but there were no busy stores there so I looked all over The Bronx and Brooklyn for a store on the corner because they’re always busy,” said Saeidi. “I got lucky here and the store has been doing really good.” He added that the the bodega has a lot of regular customers who always greet him when they shop there. “I always try to give the customers that stop by discounts,” said Saeidi. “They’re the best customers.” On the other hand, there are also of drug addicts and shoplifters who come in according to Saeidi. There is a glass counter protected a lot of the items the bodega sells. “I don’t call the cops,” said Saeidi. “I’m not petty and I see that some of the people are hungry.” Despite that, Saeidi said he feels the business has been a success and he has plans to make it even better. “I’d like to make some renovations and I’d really like to buy a franchise,” said Saeidi. “I’ve got some cousins who have saved up and I want to work with them. I’d need at least 10 people to start a franchise and I want to do that with family and friends.”

VAN BRUNT & PIONEER STREET

Bob from Mini Mart on the corner of Pioneer Street and Van Brunt Street has been working there for the past three years, alongside his friend who owns the bodega. They worked together at another bodega almost 25 years ago, became friends, and are now reunited. “Even though I’m not from around here, being friends with the owner is what made me want to come to Red Hook for work,” said Bob. “I help him out.” Despite enjoying his work, Bob said that inspectors gave the bodega multiple tickets for small things during an inspection. “They did the same thing to some of the other places too, but we’ve taken care of that and haven’t had any more problems with them.”

VAN BRUNT & WOLCOTT

Stop 1 Supermarket, located on the corner of Walcott Street and Van Brunt Street, takes pride in treating customers like family and getting to know regulars, according to Gabby, who has worked there for three years. “We love our customers and know about 90 percent of them by name,” Gabby said. Customers say that kindness means a lot to them. “I moved away from Red Hook and I missed this place so much,” said customer Toni-Ann Fernandez. “Now that I’m back, I come here all the time.” Other customers agreed. Mike, who has worked at Stop 1 Supermarket for three years alongside his brother, Sam, said that begins from the top, with the supermarket’s landlord, Gregory O’Connell.

“The customers are all really nice to me,” said Bob. “Once in a while you get one who’s not [nice] but we do our best to soothe things down.”

“He’s a great person,” said Mike. “Always fair to us.”

PIONEER SUPERMART

“Since then we’ve tried to do little things, like having lollipops to give out to kids,” said Gabby. “It’s very friendly. Since Sam and Mike are brothers, some of the customers can’t tell them apart so they would joke that they’d been working the entire day.”

Carmen Lorenzo has owned the Pioneer St. Supermarket for the past 32 years, even though she hadn’t originally planned on opening a store. Lorenzo, who is from the Dominican Republic, was told by a friend that there was an empty space on the corner of Van Brunt Street and Pioneer. “The guy wanted a restaurant but I said that a bodega would be better and so that’s what I did,” said Lorenzo. Lorenzo’s husband worked in construction and she had two children, which helped prepare her for the dedication needed to own a bodega. Part of that dedication is a 2 or 3-hour drive from Westchester. Lorenzo said that she had to cut down the size of the bodega about 14 years ago because of increased rent. Since then there have only been minor changes and the business in still going strong. “Every day something new breaks,” said Lorenzo. “The air conditioner, the machines etcetera. Everything is money, money, money, so you need to work hard every day and you can’t complain.” Lorenzo still believes the positive aspects of her job outweigh the negative aspects. “I love Red Hook because the people are always nice to me and take care of me,” said Lorenzo. “There are so many nice, beautiful people, and I appreciate it.”

Carmen Lorenzo Pioneer St. Supermarket

The brothers took over a few years ago, after the original owner retired.

“I’m from the neighborhood and working here just kind of happened, but I really enjoy it,” she said.

WOLCOTT & RICHARDS

Ahmed worked at and owned delis all over New York City before co-owning Wolcott Deli Grocery. Before that, he worked at a smoke shop in New York City, then worked his way up.

Mike, Gabby and Sam from Stop 1 Supermarket

“I owned a bodega that was on Cypress Avenue [in The Bronx] for a while, but I lost it,” said Ahmed. After that, he moved to Bay Ridge and became the co-owner of a new bodega. I stayed there for 12 years and have good memories, but eventually I sold my share,” said Ahmed. “I ended up here.” “Why’d you come to the hood?” asked a customer who overheard us. He started laughing. “I like it here,” he said, while handing the lady her change. “Five-star sandwiches!” shouted the man who was next in line. Basher from Family Food Center

August 2018

Red Hook Star-Revue

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August 2018, Page 21