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Red Hook

We love Red Hook! and participate in its revitalization in many ways.  Red Hook is now a destination neighborhood for weekenders.  However, it still lacks many year round attractions.  PortSide NewYork aims to provide those, aboard the tanker Mary A. Whalen, with our own waterfront exhibit center, water-themed events, and a maritime trail that will guide visitors through local history and the growing list of activities, places to shop, dine or have a drink.  Newyorkology, based in Red Hook we have to add, has a good summary of Red Hook retail as of June 2008 which lists some soon-to-open establishments.  We also promote the Red Hook events of other organizations and retail venues. We believe our working waterfront is one of the main attractions and defining features of our neighborhood, and we continually seek ways to do programming that highlights it.

cruise terminal info Brooklyn Cruise Terminal website  and ship schedule

getting here: B61 bus, B77 bus, free IKEA ferry weekday and weekend, free IKEA shuttle buses

News Box:
PortSide Fundraiser Sat 6/13/09


 

CB6 references:

zoning map Red Hook + CB6

list of links to studies, history, local institutions and miscellania

other Red Hook Features


Red Hook is a rapidly reviving, mixed-use neighborhood. There is a large working waterfront, a burgeoning artist colony, and quality  artisanal food and craft emporia along our main drag Van Brunt Street.  We even have the freshest lobsters for sale in NYC!  Two large shopping magnets, Fairway and IKEA, now define the southern rim of the peninsula.  We are a destination for many reasons.

Red Hook has killer harbor views, 70 acres of city park space, 3 garden centers and and two waterside gardens designed by Lyndon Miller, noted landscape designer.  There are public access esplanades that are not public parks. You can take in water views from Columbia Street, IKEA, the swath from Beard Street Pier to Pier 41, and Valentino Park.  Our waterfront has attracted a Minke whale and a harbor seal

As to the city parks: Red Hook Parks  has one of the city's largest outdoor pools (occasionally enjoyed by local ducks), ballfields, leafy Coffey Park, the waterfront gem Louis Valentino Memorial Pier with one of the city's few designated boat launches for hand-powered boats (right).  See Red Hook Boaters for free kayaking there. 

"Taco Soccer" - in the park on Bay Street - great soccer plus a foodie fave, the  Latin American food vendors.   porkchop-express profiles each vendor; note links to each vendor at right of that page.  The open air market scene has been changed from that webpage due to Parks Department regulations, the vendors now operate out of food vendor trucks.

Mexican baseball league plays at Columbia Street ballfield near the grain terminal. More latin food there...

Added Value youth program, urban farm, and summer Saturday farmer's market at the Todd Memorial Ballfield.

Truck Farm a documentary project about a garden in a pickup truck, one usually found on Van Brunt Street.

Dance Theatre Etc Site-specific dance and events, art as civic engagement

Off the Hook  Plays by local teens, arts as empowerment

BWAC (Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition) non-profit art group hosts shows on the Beard Street Pier at foot of Van Brunt

Waterfront Museum (left) at the end of Conover Street, summer concerts, Circus Sundays, school programs--a PortSide partner.  Open house every Thursday from 4 to 8pm.

Kentler International Drawing Space small gallery with quality shows, and our oldest--established 1990.

Sunday's at Sunny's readings 1st Sunday of the month, coordinated by author Gabriel Cohen

 

Maritime Activity

Several maritime firms have located here in the past 15 years. There are over a dozen maritime support service businesses inland in addition to the marine businesses on the waterfront listed below. 

American Stevedoring, container port

Gowanus Industrial Park, subleases to other vessels, planned cement port

Hornbeck, tug and barge port

Hughes Brothers, tug and barge port

New York Water Taxi now part of Harbor Experience LLC, excursion boat homeport

Reinauer Transportation, tug and barge port

Cruise ship terminal

and we have historic maritime in the Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge

Why is the waterfront so decrepit?
A few reasons: mothballing by the Port Authority after a lot of shipping switched to containers and went to Jersey by the late 1970s, poor management (remember the Fishport?), warehousing of property, cleaner water re-introducing worms that eat wooden piers, cost of repair and permits. A word on permits below. More on the other factors in the future.

The photo below shows current identifiers on a historic photo of Red Hook at a peak period of economic activity. Sadly, many of these piers were removed during the years of Red Hook's economic collapse. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) regulations generally prohibit the reconstruction of piers once they are 50% gone, even if the piers have existed for decades or centuries.  As a result of Red Hook's dark years, we've lost much of our waterfront infrastructure, and therefore many options for future waterfront activity.  Many waterfront stakeholders in this city—from private homeowners and park planners to large industrial marine operators—have been trying to get the DEC to reconsider their pier permit policies.  PortSide NewYork has testified before the New York City Council Waterfronts Committee about these policies.  Read our testimony.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hook%2C_Brooklyn