Red Hook Star-Revue, New Years edition

Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com New Years 2015, Page 1

SOUTH BROOKLYN’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER

The Red Hook StarªRevue

NEW YEARS 2014/2015 FREE

IN THIS ISSUE:

LOOKING BACK AT 2014

The Star-Revue wishes all a happy and healthy new year!

Page 2 Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com New Years 2015

Happenings, etc.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT - NEW YEARS EVE


proudly introduces our new website

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friends of the Red Hook Library

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

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

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

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


(continued on page 19)

Still Recovering from Sandy

The year began with Red Hook still in recovery mode from the hurricane

which ravaged its streets barely a year earlier. The Red Hook Houses were still being heated by ineffi cient temporary boilers and dangerous mold conditions were still cropping up.

Local businesses, which for the most part survived the ca-tastrophe, were still burdened by losses both physical and in their bank accounts.

Many local homeowners still had major rebuilding to their basements and fi rst fl oors, and were confounded by a confus-ing process of loans and grants, exemplifi ed by the glaring in-effi ciency of the city’s Build It Back program.

Build It Back?The new city Comptroller, Scott Stringer, held a town hall at PS 15, listening to tales of woe from locals as well as visi-tors from the Gowanus Houses and the Fifth Avenue Com-mittee. The new mayor came to offi ce pledging to straighten out the program, which had as of yet not sent a penny of re-lief to the neighborhood. This was due partly to a desire to mitigate fraudulent claims and partly by the bureaucracy.

NYCHA was hamstrung as it was negotiating with FEMA and its insurance companies to release recovery funds. After months of promises, they fi nal-ly were able to replace the boil-ers with more effi cient models, although still temporary. They will hopefully be announcing a FEMA settlement in the next month which will be used to fi nally replace the boilers that

were destroyed by Sandy fl ood-waters.

Resiliency was still a favorite word in the media and locally. The governor, in the midst of re-election year, made a huge promise of $200 million to create some sort of fl oodwall around Red Hook that will prevent a repeat of 2012. This came in the midst of another state program, NY Rising, in which the community was tasked with the creation of re-siliency projects using a $3 mil-lion state grant.

They came up with almost one hundred individual projects which were presented to the community at an event at 351 Van Brunt Street, where every-one was invited to vote their opinion.

Red Hook CoalitionThe Red Hook Coalition, a group of local non-profi ts put together to suck up some of the grant moneys that became available right after the storm, was busy spending it in the cre-ation of a resiliency program they called Restore Red Hook.

A coordinator and consultant was hired, and a committee was formed. Through private and public meetings held at PS 15, the Miccio Center and the South Brooklyn High School, a disaster response plan was cre-ated and circulated throughout the neighborhood, designating people and areas that will see the neighborhood through the fi rst 72 hours of any future di-saster.

Ready Red HookThe entire neighborhood, as well as its local leaders and elected offi cials, took part in a readiness day. This was a walk

through, last September 13th, where the plan was put into ef-fect.

Stations were set up at pre-arranged locations, including IKEA and the Miccio Center, where relief operations were to be coordinated in the next emergency.

Local LeadersFinally, a series of training events brought together near-ly seventy residents, many of them residents of the Red Hook Houses, each week start-ing in July, to the Red Hook Initiative. This program, also sponsored by funds from the Red Hook Coalition, included training in fi rst aid and emer-gency preparedness, and en-couraged local leadership as people got to know each other over a healthy meal following each session.

Barnacle ParadeThe Barnacle Parade, which was an ad-hoc celebration of Red Hook’s creativity and ec-centrics that sprung forth on the fi rst anniversary of Sandy in 2013, became a bit more or-ganized this year.

Perhaps a sign of the trust that Captain Justin Lenz has earned from the community, the 76th precinct was notifi ed and even participated in this year’s pa-rade, which featured a home made garbage truck fending off a home-made Sandy monster.

As Red Hook continues to re-cover and to prosper, one can imagine the Barnacle Parade growing into somewhat of the citywide event that the small Halloween parade, begun by some puppeters in Greenwich Village, has morphed into over the years.


A contentious year for our parks

Don’t fence me out might be the most descriptive word for what was a very

strange year for Red Hook’s public parks.

Coffey ParkWithout a hint of notice, a fence sprung up around the north end of Coffey Park one day back in April, along with a couple of paper signs indicating that the park would be closed for a year due to “planned” ren-ovations.

At the next meeting of Com-munity Board 6’s Parks Com-mittee, it was explained that there had been a plan in place since before Sandy to pave the paths, removing the paving stones, as well as adding a few benches and barbecue pits.

This plan was the result of an innocent capital fund project put in place by former Council Member Sara Gonzalez. Sandy was used as the excuse for not informing the community or asking anyone what kind of renovation was desired.

Many questioned the abandon-ing of the paving stones, as well as the loss of the park during the summer season. Perhaps the biggest question remains the need for a full year for this renovation. The work has been proceeding at a snail’s pace, due in large part to the ability of the contractor to stretch the job out for the full year. It is a rare day when a worker or two is spotted in the park.

Hopefully Comptroller String-er will look into this flaw in city contracting procedures. The entire renovation could prob-ably be done in three months or less of steady work.

Valentino Pier ParkWhile many in Red Hook were upset at the loss of Coffey Park, an even more vocal group was outraged when similar fencing

showed up around Valentino Pier Park one day.

The new Councilmember, Car-los Menchaca, who was some-what absent around the Coffey Park issue, quickly put together a town meeting regarding Val-entino Pier Park. The meeting, held at the Red Hook Library, brought together all the dis-parate elements of Red Hook, including the most vocal ones. Facing the angry crowd was Brooklyn Park Commissioner Kevin Jeffrey, who took a harsh scolding in stride, acknowl-edging the fact that these Red Hookers needed to know what was happening ahead of time.

It turned out that someone at Parks was worried that the bulkhead at Valentino Pier was degrading due to the occa-sional pooling of salt water that occurred at its head.

He explained that there were some discretionary funds avail-able for repairs, and they de-cided to bundle that fix along with a fix of the water foun-tain and an upgrading of some paths. Obviously, they never expected any local outcry, as they thought they were doing a fix. He apologized over and over again, and left a final deci-sion to Menchaca.

Looking to cut their losses, Jef-freys spoke about yet another parks project looming over Red Hook. Luckily for him, this was still in the planning stage, and could still be altered with community input.

Million dollar toiletsMenchaca decided to have Parks go ahead with the paving project, but said he expected full community participation in this new project, which turned out to be another capital fund allocation from Gonzales. This time it was for a bathroom at Valentino Pier Park.

It turned out that the bathroom

had a $2.4 million budget. Most of that was because the Parks Department has a sort of one size fits all bathroom design for all parks, big or small. In ad-dition, bathrooms are not re-ally called bathrooms, they are “comfort stations,” and include changing stations, heat and hot water, and other amenities.

In addition, FEMA designated the area a flood plain since Sandy, which brought a whole host of new requirements need-ed to build bathrooms at the park.

This extra $500 million was already funded using a combi-nation of funds controlled by Menchaca and Borough Presi-dent Eric Adams, meaning that both had already signed off on the project.

The bathroom plan was first presented at another CB 6 Parks meeting - this one at the Miccio Center. What was pre-sented - the result of a design competition held by the Parks Department that nobody in the room, which included ar-chitects, seemed to have ever heard about. The local paper had never heard about it.

The result was pretty much a monstrosity, occupying a chunk of the Coffey Street side of the park, built up on a plat-form to avoid flooding.

After a lot of backroom wheel-ing and dealing between a re-cently formed local parks group and the city council office, a second meeting was held at PS 15’s gym.

Parks was invited back to pres-ent an amended plan, but after a polite reception, and despite the presence of relatives of the fallen firefighter that the park is named after, the plan was vot-ed down with a show of hands.

The money however, is still planned for future parks proj-ects, according to Menchaca.


Living Red Hook East & WestHurricanes come and

go, but NYCHA liv-ing continues on with

complaints of falling plaster, untended elevators and lob-bies, and garbage left to fester.

However, its possible that a mix of a natural disaster and a new city administration is finally bringing some tangible improvements.

Some improvementsFollowing Sandy, NYCHA administration pledged better service. A few things that are observable are improved light-ing, removal of a lot of the scaf-folding that seemed to serve no purpose, asbestos removal on some of the roofs, and more front door locks that are work-ing. And the loud, dirty tem-porary boilers installed after Sandy have been replaced by less loud and less dirty but still temporary boilers.

The Fine Fair supermarket never reopened after Sandy. The store still remains vacant. However, the grocery store on Lorraine, rechristened The Red Hook Super Mart, expanded to pick up the slack. Lorraine Street also saw the opening of a dollar a slice pizza parlor.

RHAPP, on the corner of Richards and Lorraine, offers free tutoring for neighborhood kids. And the library finally was granted Saturday hours.

TragediesA couple of tragedies struck deep. Daniel Cruz, an employ-ee of Prospect Park, was seized with an attack of asthma as he was preparing dinner for his children. Realizing it was seri-ous, he told his wife Tynisha, a transit employee, to call an ambulance.

She became more and more frantic as no ambulance ar-rived, and she finally corralled a policeman whose phone call brought three. It was too late,

however, and Cruz was de-clared brain-dead by the time he got to Methodist Hospital.

Some thought that a possible reason for the delay was scaf-folding that blocked a view of building addresses. Others thought that the closing of LICH meant that new ambu-lance drivers were unfamiliar with the neighborhood.

Another tragedy occurred when 14 year-old Nicholas Soto was killed early one morn-ing by a car on Hicks and Lor-raine. Soto was an honors stu-dent who traveled to a school in Harlem. He was crossing Lorraine to catch the bus when he was hit. A town meeting was called by Menchaca and attended by Captain Lenz of the 76th. It was decided that a school crossing guard was needed, and Menchaca prom-ised to look at other solutions.

A murder which is just in the process of being solved rocked the community this fall. Life-long resident Tony Sterling was killed in a hallway by a bul-let to his leg. His funeral filled the Calvary Church as he was eulogized by large numbers of family and friends.

CentennialOn a cheerier note, Virginia Graham’s 100th birthday was celebrated at New Brown Bap-tist Church as a large number of family and friends spoke of her many kindnesses, as she sat happily listening.

Graham played a major part in the formation of New Brown back in the1940’s, and it is TA President Lillie Mar-shall’s church. She made sure that Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez and Assemblyman Felix Ortiz showed up to honor Ms. Graham. A traditionally delicious southern style meal was served downstairs after the service.

A couple of events tradition-ally held each summer at Cof-fey Park were forced to relocate this year due to the park’s tem-porary closing.

Red Hook East and West Fami-ly Day were held on the grounds of the Houses, and the annual Homecoming Day was held at Bush-Clinton (Tea) Park, and, with the cooperation of the 76th Precinct, around the pool as well.

The day turned out pretty mag-nificently, as long lost friends found each other again, as hap-pens at so many reunions. As opposed to years past when a certain animosity between the partiers and the police seemed to exist, this year the police made themselves inconspicu-ous, and their Captain, Justin Lenz, enjoyed the festivities.

Senior CenterThe Red Hook Senior Center, across from the library on Wal-cott Street, was destroyed as a result of Sandy. Since then, the seniors have been getting together in cramped quarters in the basement of the Miccio Center.

Money was allocated for the renovation of the former Head Start next door by Sara Gon-zales. It is to become the new Senior Center. However, no-body heard anything about it for over a year, except for the new councilman, who has heard from the TA Presidents and the Assemblyman’s office.

It was finally revealed at a re-cent meeting that plans are in-deed made for the renovation, and that it would be ready for use by the end of 2015.

The Head Start had use of the backyard, which made for a nice sized park. The people who headed the Miccio meet-ing didn’t seem to know about the backyard, which leaves it open for new ideas.


Running for office

Tragedy on Mill Street

Concert on the piers squashed

Since Democrats rule the roost at this part of town, it was the primaries that

hosted all the action this elec-tion season.

Long-time Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez faced weak opposition this time around, and with very little effort she won her 11th term.

Assemblyman Felix Ortiz has been in office just about as long as Nydia, and usually faces lit-tle opposition himself.

This is where things got a little complicated. Last year Nydia, fresh off a challenge from Vito Lopez protege Erik Dilan, men-tored a political newcomer, Carlos Menchaca, against in-cumbent, and fellow Puerto Rican, Sara Gonzalez, in the

Sunset Park/Red Hook city council race. Some say this was in payback for Sara’s alleged ties to Lopez/Dilan.

This year, a challenger to Or-tiz came as a Sunset Park resi-dent of Mexican heritage, Ce-sar Zuniga, decided to make the race. Menchaca, originally claiming to not endorse any-one, came out a few days before the election, campaigning to-gether with Zuniga at the 36th Street subway stop on Fourth Avenue.

Velazquez had always claimed to support Ortiz, who is Chair of the NYS Assembly/Senate Puerto Rican & Hispanic Task Force. She indeed came a few days later to campaign with Felix at the very same subway

stop. This brought into real life the expression that politics makes for strange bedfellows, as Carlos and Nydia had spent much of the past year together in support of many of the same things.

Felix Ortiz won his race hand-ily, in a race notable for a tiny turnout.

A much better turnout elected Jo Anne Simon in the Assem-bly district to the north, cov-ering Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Boerum Hill and Park Slope.

Joan Millman is another long-term incumbent who decided to retire. In what initially was not expected to be much of a race, she seemed to be handing

over the reigns to the Female District Leader Jo Ann Simon. Simon is a lawyer who has been active in civic affairs as Presi-dent of the Boerum Hill Asso-ciation.

At a meeting of the Indepen-dent Neighborhood Democrats where many in the club expect-ed to be giving her the endorse-ment, members were met by a fresh face, Pete Sikora, at the door, and a large turnout ended up endorsing Sikora, who also had the endorsement of the Working Families Party, by a small margin.

The endorsement divided the club and made it a race notable for three acrimonious debates. Sikora, a political newcomer, received 38% in a 3 man race.

Khadijah James is a familiar figure around Red Hook and at this newspaper. She is a health care worker in the neighbor-hood and is often seen giving free blood pressure checkups for the Addabo Center at fairs throughout the neighborhood.

One day we received a frantic call telling us of a tragic turn of events that had befallen the husband of her relative Tyni-sha Rogers-Cruz.

Both Tynisha and her husband Daniel had full time jobs, Tyni-sha with the Transit Author-ity and Daniel at the Prospect

Park skating rink, where he worked nights.

One night, while preparing din-ner for their three daughters, he suffered a severe asthma at-tack, and he couldn’t breathe. Tynisha frantically called 911, but for twenty minutes no am-bulance showed up. She finally ran outside and corralled a lo-cal policeman, who was able to finally get the ambulance.

LICH had closed their emer-gency room again, and by the time Cruz arrived at Methodist Hospital it was too late. He was declared brain-dead.

Being an organ donor, Cruz was put on life support, and was at the hospital for three days until his parts were harvested for use in living people.

He grew up in the Rocka-ways, and his funeral, held at Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, brought mourners from all over, including Councilman Carlos Menchaca.

Daniel Cruz loved his daugh-ters and wife more than any-thing, and they mourn his loss every day.

The Escape Music Fest was to be a two day alternative music festival held at Pier 9 in the Columbia Waterfront District. It was unusual in that the Containerport has rarely been host to any events other than the unloading of container ships. A downturn in the local shipping economy has forced the containerport operators to seek additional income, and this event was chosen.However, due mostly to political pressures, the Port Authority rescinded their permission and the festival ended up moving to Governors Island.


Red Hook SummerIt was a summer of gorgeous weather and lots of outdoor activities. IKEA hosted a festival sponsored in part by the Star-Revue featuring local businesses and perform-ers.

Dance Theater Etc. held their annual Red Hook Fest, and the Red Hook Houses held a successful Oldtimers fest despite their forced move from Cof-fey Park.

The second annual Pig Festival was also held at IKEA, bringing barbecuers and musicians from all around in a food and beer fest at the beginning of September.

Fairway held a barbecue cook off in their backyard where competing local firehouses presented their best dishes before local judges. Prizes were awarded by the new bor-ough president Eric Adams.

And as is the norm in New York City, many blocks were cordoned off for parts of weekends for neighborhood block parties, where everyone gets a chance to mingle with their neighbors.

The end of summer was marked by the return of the Harvest Festival at the Com-munity Farm, still recovering from the effects of Sandy.



Happy Holidays! from

Buone Feste!

“Happy Holidays from our family to yours

C.S. SCOTT ENTERPRISESCommercial / Residential Construction

60 Coffey StreetBrooklyn, NY 11209www.csscott.com718-797-9555


Nancy’s UNISEX HAIR SALON

Full Service• Highlights/color • Keratine• Straighten/relax • Weave/braids

718.852.9089 142 Union [email protected] Brooklyn, NY 11231

Corine A. WalwynCPA

ACCOUNTING, INCOME TAXES, AUDIT.IRS REPRESENTATION. BOOKKEEPING OBAMACARE (ACA).NOTARY PUBLIC. BUSINESS SERVICES. INSURANCE. .

www.walwyntax.com Fax 718 488-7707email: [email protected]

1 West 9th StreetRed Hook

718 488-7700718 612-6243

RED HOOKPIZZA RISTORANTE

MARK’S

326 Van Brunt Street (bet. Pioneer & King) Open daily 10 am to 11 pm, Sundays 11 am - 10 pm. Free Delivery Available

(718) 624-0690 (718)624-1628 Fax (718)624-2145 All Credit Cards Accepted ($10 min)

COUPON SPECIAL #1�eat in or delivery�

One 18” large pie

10 Wings �hot, bbq or plain�

2 Liter Bottle of Soda

$21

COUPON SPECIAL #2�eat in or delivery�

One 16” Square pie

10 Wings �hot, bbq or plain�

2 Liter Bottle of Soda

$25CashOnly

CashOnly

EVERYBODY IN RED HOOK GOES TO

Happy New Year!

EVERGREEN LIQUOR STORE INC.718 643-0739

196 Columbia Street, between Sackett & [email protected]

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

tea and coffee in the am, beer and wine in the pm

517 Court Street, corner West 9th (718) 522-4410www.teaffee.com www.facebook.com/Teaffee

EnvironmentFor two years, residents near IKEA have been complaining about the smell of burning tar coming from this roofi ng contractor on Coffey Street.

Finally, the company agreed to meet with community members and local politicians, and an amicable settlement was reached in which the burning of the tar would take place else-where, while the company was allowed to remain on its premises.

A victory for mixed use and local government intervention.


Our 76th Precinct minds the storeFrom our interview with 76th Pre-cinct CO Justin Lenz:

“As the police captain, Lenz wants to maintain a safe and comfortable community. Thus far it seems he’s been mostly successful. He’s had to deal with very little negative feedback, and has even gotten positive feedback from neighbors. He remembers a recent call he got from a mother in the commu-nity – her young son had been playing with a ball on the side-walk, and when it rolled out into the street a patrolling of-ficer got out of his car to hand it back to the kid. The mother felt compelled to call Lenz and thank him for the officer’s pro-fessionalism, but he felt it was unnecessary.

“I appreciate the call, don’t get me wrong,” he says, “but people videotape us all the time do-ing great work and no one ever knows about it.”

In another minor disturbance recently, police were called as a crowd was leaving a bar around closing time. “It was 4:03 am and everyone was coming out of the bar. What do you expect? Everyone was being loud and boisterous.” But within three minutes of the police arriving,

everyone dispersed and no ar-rests were made.

He later found out that people had been videotaping the of-ficers from a window across the street without them know-ing. Though he figures that this is just another example of the kind of good work they do every day, Lenz did use the opportunity to address his offi-cers. After congratulating them for their effective policing, he used the case as proof that “you never know who’s watching.”

However, he sees this as a posi-tive thing. “If you go to work every day thinking the whole world is watching how you in-teract with people, it steps up the professionalism.” Of course the captain and the commu-nity have certain expectations of their officers, but Lenz has hopes and expectations of the community, too.

“The entire system is based on what the community believes are its issues when it comes to quality of life.” This is why he says communication between the police and the community is so important. “I want to know about crime… I can’t solve it if I don’t know about it.”

To an extent, the communi-cation he describes does exist. He happily admits, “there’s the dedicated members of the com-munity that come to every com-munity meeting, the activists that are really involved in the issues that affect the neighbor-hood, that guys like me get to meet all the time. They’re not afraid to tell me when they think we’ve screwed up and something needs to be fixed. I love to have that rapport.”

And that rapport is effective. When the residents communi-cate with the police, the prob-lems are often taken care of. Whether making complaints, or better yet as witnesses, the police rely on community mem-bers to address their problems. Unlike his previous assignment, working Narcotics in East New York, Lenz says that in this neighborhood there are typi-cally a number of cooperative witnesses for any crime. He says that most of the quality-of-life crimes, things like car break-ins, are only a handful of peo-ple, anyway. “We continuously arrest them,” he explains, “and when they’re in jail all the com-plaints go down.”


Those who make it a neighborhoodThere are too many of us here in Red Hook that make it the wonderful place it to mention here. But at least here’s a start (going clockwise from the up-per right photo on this page).

Eric Adams was a State Sena-tor from a district south of us, and up until lately we had lit-tle to say about him. Howev-er, in the wake of the current police angst involving the mayor and the police union, Adams has shined. He writes in the Daily News: “We’ve been trapped for far too long in a seemingly binary struggle between people who purport-edly support police and those who speak for the commu-nity.

It’s a nonsensical divide. This is not Sophie’s Choice.” We applaud his words.

Next to Eric is Buddy Scotto. He has worked for the Car-roll Gardens community from back in the days when it was called Red Hook. He has worked for housing, se-nior citizen centers and the reclaiming of the Gowanus Canal. And at the age of 86, he is still at it, with a vigor that might surprise you.

Greg O’Connell came to Red Hook in the early 1990’s with a crazy idea. That was to take decrepit and ramshackle warehouses off the hands of the Port Authority for what was then considered a fool-hardy price.

He developed a vision of a

Red Hook put back to work, and pretty much single hand-edly did so. We were delight-ed to see him this summer at an event attended by local businesspeople that probably wouldn’t even be here were it not for his work.

Frances and Hal Brown are two community leaders who now head the Red Hook East Tenant’s Association. They are picture with Bea Byrd, who is a lifelong Red Hook resident who now sits on the board of the New York Hous-ing Authority, and makes sure that Red Hook is heard. She is a former president of Red Hook West Tenants.

The current Red Hook West President is the well known Lille Marshall, pictured with Dan Wiley who represents Nydia Velazquez in the dis-trict. Among many other things, Lillie has been instru-mental in the creation of the ambitious community farm on NYCHA property adja-cent to Walcott Street.

Mr. Lopes, as he likes to be called, says he is the third largest landowner in Red Hook. He came into the news last year as the devel-oper of the BASIS School, which is just now making its huge presence felt on Bay and Hicks Street. He is also cur-rently developing townhous-es on his property on Coffey Street.

We love Pete the Balloon Man, and wish we’d run into

him more often.

Jay McKnight is both a fa-mous entertainer and presi-dent of the local Lions Club. Here he is helping give away toys on behalf of the Lions Club.

Brian McCormick is one of the founders of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, which is putting Red Hook bicy-cling on the map, as part of the 14 mile greenway along the Brooklyn shoreline. He is pictured with the proprietors of a new ale house that is just opening now next to the fa-mous Pok Pok on Columbia and Kane Streets.

We thought that this photo of Gertrude Dorf, taken by our ace photographer Micah Rubin, is so great that we’re using it again. She graced the cover of our Thanksgiv-ing issue, at a turkey dinner thrown by Felix Ortiz at the Miccio Center.

Everybody knows Frances D’Angelo better than us, and we consider ourselves lucky to have met her. She is a lifelong resident of Luquer Street, across from DeFon-tes. This picture was taken at the Luquer block party last summe.

Finally, we include a photo of Phaedra Thomas, former head of SBIDC, who we haven’t seen much around here lately, although she sent us a pretty inspired letter a few months ago!


The Gowanus Canal

NY Rising

Participatory BudgetingWe imagine that Participatory Budgeting (PB) is one of Councilman Menchaca’s favorite programs. He always loves to say that the input of the people is the most important feature of our democracy.

Last year he inherited $2 million that was allocated for PB by his predecessor. He followed through and held a series of sessions in which delegates were appointed and plans received from the community.

The whole idea of this is to provide direct neighborhood input into the spending of discretionary capital funds. It is a program of the NY City Council, with its roots in the Socialist Brazilian government of Lula, back when he first took office in 1989.

One of the pioneers of it NYC is Councilman Brad Lander, who started the program in his district two years ago. Plans from the community usually include improve-ments to schools, parks and roads.

Menchaca points out that in addition to bringing power to the people, it has served to point out to city planners ways in which they need to improve. As he stated in a recent assembly, why do the people have to vote to put air conditioning in public school auditoriums. One would think that most public officials attend at least some public school graduations and have had to put up with the June sweat.

The Red Hook PB is gearing up right now. For information to get involved, either as a delegate, or with a proposal, call the Councilman’s Sunset Park office. A handy phone directory can be found on page two of this newspaper.

NY Rising is a statewide program touted by Governor Cuomo as providing funding for locally formed resiliency ideas. Red Hook was guaranteed $3 million in funding for one or a couple of projects. A committee was formed and met faithfully, com-ing up with over ninety potential ideas. These included a relief center network, emergency backup generator for health and social services provider, resiliency con-struction workforce training, Local financial assistance program for small businesses, start-ups and homeowners/tenants, solar-powered emergency lights for Red Hook Houses stairwells, Red Hook Houses microgrid feasibility study, new ferry landing at or near Atlantic Basin and a Red Hook drainage study.

This was a much quieter year than 2013 in Red Hook as re-gards the Gowanus Canal Su-perfund cleanup. Last year the community was pretty well torn up over the proposal to create landfill out of dredged materials from the canal. This landfill was to be placed at the foot of the canal, onto private property owned by the Gowa-nus GBX.

Many in Red Hook thought it a ridiculous idea to place po-tentially toxic material in the neighborhood. Others thought it a splendid business opportu-nity. The EPA left it up to the

community to decide.

This year, the controversies have stayed mainly in Gowanus.

One concerns a public park on Third Avenue and 3rd Street. The park includes a large out-door swimming pool, and the EPA suggests closing it for a few years while the city places a huge receptacle underneath it to hold storm sewage over-flows. This is not yet a resolved issue.

Other controversies concern the future of Gowanus itself as it faces a possible rezoning.

Councilman Brad Lander

held a series of community meetings he dubbed “Bridg-ing Gowanus,” as the neigh-borhood debated the speed at which gentrification would proceed. In ways similar to Red Hook, Gowanus is host to both residential, commercial and industrial activity.

With the prospect of a cleaned up Gowanus, and its location between Carroll Gardens and Park Slope, real estate devel-opers are salivating at poten-tially lucrative tall buildings full of luxury condos.


HUB

Libraries

Moves

The Red Hook HUB is a Sandy inspired proj-ect with original funding from the AIGA, a graphic arts organization.

The idea grew out of communication short-comings experienced by some communities during the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Three communities were chosen to de-velop communication ideas, and Red Hook is one of them.

With the support of the Red Hook Coalition, a HUB website was created, and three outdoor implementations were designed.

One of them is a ticker at 351 Van Brunt Street, the other is a bulletin board outside the library, and the third will be another large bulletin board to be placed outside the Miccio Center.

If nothing else, they have redefined yellow for the neighborhood!

Golten Marine, who began their worldwide ship repair business in Red Hook, finally succumbed to market pressures and sold their original headquarters next to the Red Hook Containerport for upwards of $20 mil-lion, and moved away.

Their moved also sent UHURU packing to the wilds of Red Hook.

Another move to Red Hook was done by this newspa-per, who moved from their original home at 101 Union Street, to an office with direct views of the famous Red Hook Sunset, all the way to the foot of Van Brunt Street. We are at 481 Van Brunt, inside the home of NY Printing & Graphics, and invite all to stop by and say hello!

After a ceremony attended by all the local politicians cel-ebrating the rebuilding of the Red Hook public library, one might have thought that things would be more normal at this community amenity.

Little did most of us know that starting from even before San-dy, a NYC privatization project, begun by Mayor Bloomberg, was plotting to use the library as a guinea pig for their big idea of taking over underutilized city spaces for profitable ideas benefitting non-profits.

As we wrote in an editorial at the time:

“Spaceworks was set up with the mission of converting what they decide to be underutilized space in city properties into af-fordable practice space for art-ists. They are basically a real es-tate company which uses a mix of public and private funds to manage public spaces. They are headquartered in a renovated building in Gowanus, and no doubt view Red Hook as a gen-trifying area to exploit.

Spaceworks has spent the last

two years grooming our ac-claimed local dance troupe, Cora Dance, to be a supporter of their plan. Cora’s founder, Shannon Hummel, spoke be-fore the public meeting. She framed this situation as their seeking of community support for Cora Dance, allowing Cora Dance to better support the community.

That is a false argument. This community loves Cora Dance, and wants it to remain in Red Hook and continue to provide a platform for local children to excel. But this community also wants, and deserves, a world class public library. The Space-works plan would diminish the library footprint, replace almost half of it with a practice space renting for $12 per hour. Cora Dance, by the way, rents out it’s practice space for $9 per hour, and is not privy to the NYC capital budget, as is Spaceworks, whose bribe to the library is $650,000 of NYC capital funds.

The Red Hook Library already has over a million dollars al-located to it for renovations. Spaceworks’ supporters claim

that the library is underutilized so it should be downsized, and receive rental income for half it’s space. We believe that the Brooklyn Public Library sys-tem should do a better job at its mission, which is “to ensure the preservation and transmis-sion of society’s knowledge, history and culture. ” Nowhere in this mission statement does it say that they should rent out space to anyone.

Let’s concentrate on making our library a world class insti-tution. More books and library activities would make it more desirable. The better it is, the more utilized it will become.

This is not to say that Cora Dance is unworthy of our sup-port. Real estate developers will become rich exploiting the now desirable Red Hook real estate market. That is where Cora and other arts organizations should seek ad-ditional support. It should not be at the expense of helping a lazy library system to achieve quick and easy answers to their problems.”


Good Theater

Bad TheaterThe closing of Long Island College Hospital ended a bitter two year commu-nity struggle.It was decided somewhere in the upper echelons of NY State government that Brooklyn had too many hospitals, and mon-ey losing ones at that.LICH has had a twenty year history of misman-agement, the past three years of it by NY State itself, as it was given to SUNY Downstate to run as a neighborhood and teaching hospital.SUNY soon found out that it had a cash cow on its hands, and after milking it of supplies and interns and residents, de-cided it ought to be able to shut it down and sell it off to developers of luxury condos.

The genesis of a Red Hook per-forming arts group took place at the Jalopy theater last spring, and again this fall with the production of playwright Mark Spitz’s Up for Anything, pro-duced by local Carlo Vogel. As we wrote in the Star-Revue:

“Vogel kept the energy high and added nuances to each charac-ter. Each actor played out their own story with much aplomb. They brought their own con-troversies and neatly joined the main plot.

Lines were delivered with punch, and despite the high drama, the audience fell quickly into the arms of the scenario. With just

enough reality to keep the un-believability suspended, we bought into not only the cir-cumstance, but each and every character.

With lines like, “that’s as big as it gets?” (Arthur to Walter), and “this one’s got an attitude,” (Cheryl about Walter’s erec-tion), the audience was split-ting their sides with laughter from beginning to end.

Cheryl hears her police radio, but can’t find it; she spins in circles as if a dog chasing her tail.

Goode, a little mixed up at the

idea of hiding from Vera, con-ceals himself against the wall while holding a plant to cover his face.

When things get noisy in the apartment, Belknap bursts into the apartment with Goode and screams, “Can’t you keep it down?!?” to which Walter re-plies, “No, I can’t!”

Peter tells his dramatic story of nearly being caught by the po-lice with grandeur as he reveals how close he was to being caught with one handcuff around his wrist and a stolen police baton in his sock.”

The state immediately faced a huge battle from both the neighborhood and the nurse’s union. It also became a factor in the mayoral race, as little noticed candidate Bill de Blasio grabbed citywide headlines for his advocacy of the community fight.Unfortunately for the neighborhood and the nurses, the power of the state and the real estate industry won out in the end, as LICH was finally closed. It will now become an emergency room sur-rounded by luxury con-dos, the plans for which are still being developed, and are bound to be a continuing story as the Cobble Hill community faces both LICH condos and high rises at nearby Brooklyn Bridge Park.


No job too big or too smallToilets, Boilers, Heating, Faucets, Hot Water Heaters, Pool Heaters.B & D HEATING507 Court Street 718 625-1396

Star-Revue Classifi edsPLUMBING

Licensed Electrical ContractorsCommercial • Residential • Industrial

Free Estimates

Violations RemovedAll Types of WiringEmergency Service

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

[email protected]

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

EMERGENCYSERVICE

AuctionsBuy or sell at AARauctions.com. Contents of homes, businesses, vehicles and real estate. Bid NOW! AAR-auctions.com Lights, Camera, Auction. No longer the best kept secret.

Auto DonationsDonate your car to Wheels For Wishes, benefi ting Make�A�Wish. We offer free towing and your donation is 100% tax deductible. Call (855) 376�9474

Help WantedAIRLINE CAREERS begin here Get FAA approved Avia-tion Maintenance Technician training. Financial aid for qualifi ed students – Housing available. Job place-ment assistance. Call AIM 866-296-7093

$8,000 COMPENSATION. EGG DONORS NEEDED. Women 21-31. Help Couples Become Families using Physicians from the BEST DOCTOR’S LIST. Person-alized Care. 100% Confi dential. 1-877-9-DONATE; 1-877-936-6283; www.longislandivf.com

Home ImprovementSave $ on your electric bill. NRG Home Solar offers free installation if you qualify. Call 888�685�0880 or visit nrghomesolar.com. HIC# 1427914, HIC# 5972, Wc24767h12, H11586400000

Land For SaleCatskills 9 Acres $29,900 2 hrs Tappanzee Bridge the best deal in Greene county, beautiful woodland. long road frontage, surveyed, easy access thruway, Wind-ham Ski Area and Albany, bank fi nancing available 413 743 0741

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

Lots & AcreageWATERFRONT LOTS-Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Was 325K Now from $65,000- Community Center/Pool. 1

acre+ lots, Bay & Ocean Access, Great Fishing, Crab-bing, Kayaking. Custom Homes. www.oldemillpointe.com 757-824-0808

Real EstateDiscover Delaware’s Resort Living Without Resort Pricing! Milder winters & low taxes! Gated Com-munity with amazing amenities! New Homes $80’s. Brochures available� 1�866�629�0770 or www.cool-branch.com

WantedCASH for Coins! Buying ALL Gold & Silver. Also Stamps & Paper Money, Entire Collections, Estates. Travel to your home. Call Marc in NY: 1-800-959-3419

“ART & ANVIL LIBERTY INC” (RED HOOK) IS CURRENTLY SEEKING:• Skilled welder-fabricator experienced with wrought iron railings, fencings, gates,

furniture etc. Necessary experience of no less than 3 years.

• Blacksmith assistant. Training provided.

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

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

Rates start at $30 per issue.

No job too big or too small

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

Pool Heaters.

B & D HEATING507 Court Street 718 625-1396

Memories of gift shop-ping with my mother at McCory’s, as a

young child of no more than seven, are the inspiration for this essay. Walking down the toy fi lled aisles, I was seduced by a M-16 toy machine gun, like the ones seen being used by soldiers in Vietnam War mov-ies. I pleaded with my mother to buy it for me. What could have gotten into my young mind to be seduced by such an object?

To better understand the issue that I intend to cover in this essay, let’s consider a young 34-year old man who is 5’11”, with a chronic shortage of breath, high blood pressure, high cho-lesterol, and susceptibility to a heart attack at any time. Obvi-ously an unhealthy person, he must take the necessary steps to change his physical diet as his body’s vital alarm system has warned him that his way of living is unhealthy. Paral-lel to this example, hundreds of thousands of young Ameri-can men and women have been victims of gun violence in wars, in our inner cities, and in our suburban communities while America has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. This country is unhealthy and must soon take the necessary steps to change the its mental diet, as our social conditions alarm system has warned us that our way of living is un-healthy.

When analyzing the problem that confronts us, when put into its proper perspective, one can easily concur that it is a simple math problem: not one of algebra, but basic arithmetic. What .- • we ingest into our minds affect us in a negative and positive way, just as the food we ingest into our bod-ies physically does. We are a refl ection of what we eat both mentally and physically. The primary reason we fi nd ourselves seduced by guns and violence is rooted in our mental diet, what’s fed into our minds. And just as the physical body begins to suffer from an unhealthy diet, so too do our social conditions suffer from an unhealthy mental diet.

In the last 40 years, the images seen on televi-sion and the big screen, as well as in the music played on our radios, have been systemati-cally nurturing violence. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, we witnessed a spike in the vio-lence broadcasted on television where even the programs that were geared towards children became agents of violence. Programs such as “Fat Albert,” “Scooby-Doo,” “The Jetsons,” and “The Jackson 5,” to name a few, were being replaced with violent programs such as “G.I. Joe,” “He-Man,” “Thun-dercats,” and “Transformers,”

which

enticed young minds toward guns and violence. Even na-ive programs with innocent appearing characters such as “Tom & Jerry,” Woody Wood-pecker and Bugs Bunny all dis-played acts of violence where someone or something would eventually become damaged or hurt.

To show cause and effect of this type of psychological se-duction: in the 1980s, the 3:00 cinema would broadcast Chi-nese movies in which children in the Red Hook housing proj-ect complex in Brooklyn, New York, where I grew up, would rush indoors to watch entic-ing acts of Kung-Fu that kept our eyes glued to the television screen. Come 4:00, most of us were eager and ready to try out the karate moves we had just witnessed on television where we all became Ninjas and Sam-urais.

Parallel to this example, the case that I’m currently incar-cerated for becomes unique as is serves to highlight how young minds are seduced to recreate the images of violence portrayed in movies, though with much more consequence. “Lethal Weapon” was a popu-lar movie that came out in the early 1990s.

This movie showcased the actor Mel Gibson si-multaneously fi ring two guns at his foes. This act of bravado looks good on the big screen; how-ever, it is actually reck-less and irrational in real life to try to simultane-ously fi re and control two high-powered weapons. Needless to say, in the environment I grew up in, its recreation proved unimaginably tragic.

As a result of the violent images and messages fed to our minds on television, the mov-ies, and radio during the early 1980s and right up to this very day, our communities have lit-erally become a recreation of battle fi elds. This has left mil-lions dead or incarcerated be-cause of violent crimes.

While this has been tak-ing place in our inner cities, America’s culture of racism and discrimination across eth-nic groups and class has desen-sitized whites as well as middle class America towards the ills of our violent culture. However,

as of late, as this social illness has begun to spread towards America’s suburban communi-ties (i.e. Sandy Hook, Colum-bine, Virginia Tech, District of Columbia), white and middle class America has begun to feel the ill effect of this unhealthy culture themselves, in which we all have become fat and full of violent thoughts and persua-sions. In effect, we all have be-come criminals, contributors, enablers as well as victims to the cycle of violence.

Need I say that the entertain-ment industry, the NRA, the government, America corpora-tions, ourselves, parents, and our peers are all accessories to the crime of consumption. Our diet of violent images and mes-sages being fed to us through television, movies, and radio is killing our kids. To understand the mechanics of this violent culture and still sit back and do nothing, while continuing to feed violent images to ourselves and our children, America has systematically become a popu-lation of perpetrators ...

Khary Bekka is currently serving a prison sentence of 25 years to life for his participation in a gang fi ght that led to the shooting and death of beloved PS 15 Principal Patrick Daly, back in 1992.

OPINION: PSYCHOLOGICAL SEDUCTIONby Khary Bekka


Documents

Red Hook Star-Revue, New Years edition