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Who's Who at PortSide NewYork

Carolina Salguero, Founder and Director. Prior to PortSide, she worked around the world for 14 years as a freelance documentary photographer and writer, and won awards for challenging and dangerous assignments.  Her specialty was in-depth, self-initiated projects. She has been researching, documenting, boating and advocating on behalf of New York City's waterfront for since 1998.  In 2002, she completed a 2 1/2 year project on New York City tugboats for National Geographic which introduced her to the port.  In 2003, she launched www.waterfrontmatters.org for her Brooklyn Community Board 6. The site focuses on the issues pertaining to Brooklyn Piers 6-12, aka the Red Hook Containerport.  She has a "six pack" (six passenger) captain's license from the Coast Guard. Her family is involved in the marine business. Her uncle Ross Gannon, a builder of wooden boats, co-founded the renowned shipyard Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway. Her brother Antonio Salguero has worked as a commercial fisherman in Alaska and is a boat designer and builder at Port Townsend Shipwright Co-op.  (Photo: Stefan Falke)

Elaine Carmichael, the principal of Economic Stewardship, Inc., is PortSide NewYork’s urban planner.  She is a national leader in land-use planning and regional economic analysis with a focus on tourism development and community revitalization.  She has planned waterfronts nationwide, created many museums, attractions, and tourism programs.  She has also planned for governmental agencies in New York City.  Her work is heralded for being site-specific and responsive to community needs and character.  She brings interdisciplinary gifts to the table and creates innovative, evocative projects.  She doesn’t apply formulas or just rely on throwing lots of money at a situation.  She does revitalization with soul.  She has extensive experience in areas that are blighted, challenged or dubbed outright problems--as was our Red Hook not so long ago..

Tim Ventimiglia, a graduate of Cornell, is PortSide NewYork’s museum exhibit designer.  He is a Brooklyn resident, an architect and a faculty member at the Parsons School of Design. He is also a lead planner with Ralph Appelbaum Associates Inc, the largest interpretive museum design firm in the world.  He has directed a wide variety of domestic and international projects and handles interpretive master planning, research and program development, urban planning, and architectural and exhibit design.

Erica Reynolds, Purser, handles finances, research and admin support. She has a rare combination of artistic ability and business acumen.  In 2006, She completed an MFA at Pratt in printmaking; and her last job before working for PortSide was running a $2 million Brooks Brothers Store in Dallas. She can also weld.

John Weaver began his career on stage, first as performer then in production, in theatre and television. From staff Director at WABC-TV he turned to producing and directing commercials for twenty five years, becoming a Senior Vice President at Young and Rubicam. John's father in law was captain of the Mary Whalen for twenty years.  Turning from the commercial world, the ship has become the focus of his creative energies. He is launching PortSide's volunteer program as well as using his background to develop performance events and fundraising efforts.

Henry Silka, Researcher Maritime Trail. Henry is originally from Brooklyn but defected to the left coast some time ago where he is Research Associate with the Los Angeles Maritime Museum.  He returns to NYC annually for historical research; and thanks to the internet, is in steady communication with us and historical records the rest of the time.

Hillary Hughes, legal counsel, of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, a national law firm with over 700 attorneys and other professionals in nine U.S. offices and a global reach throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Canada, serves as outside general counsel to PortSide.

The Flotsam Project
This project will be the first youth program at PortSide NewYork.  It will clean Red Hook’s two beaches of flotsam and make benches from the collected pilings. These benches will be placed in public locations in Red Hook.  The program will teach carpentry skills, community service, ecological stewardship via collaboration with the Army Corps and DEP. We are seeking a shop space ashore to launch this program.

Gary Baum will be the lead carpenter of The Flotsam Project.  He grew up on the upper west side and for thirteen years has had his home and landscape carpentry business in Red Hook. He is very active in grassroots community life. He has started community gardens and outdoor film festivals, and he volunteers regularly at music events. 

Victor Alicea will be the second carpenter of The Flotsam Project.  He is a licensed general contractor, skilled welder and beloved neighborhood character.  Because he was a runaway teen who pulled his life together, and because he lives in the housing projects to this day, Victor is particularly sensitive to the disadvantages and pressures suffered by youths growing up the projects. His background, street cred, and charisma make him a special asset to the PortSide NewYork team. Victor is also the father of two teenage boys and a twenty-nine year old daughter.

Partners

Once PortSide is up and running, and the Pegasus wheelhouse restoration is complete, we will team up with the Pegasus and the Museum barge to create youth programs, deckhand training, and exhibits and cultural events and move them around the harbor. 

Participation concluded with the Business Plan:

Adriana Cutolo-Beyer, of Mindjog Communications, created PortSide NewYork’s logo and identity kit.  She has won awards for websites, logos, and identity creation.  She has designed innovatively for photographers, architects, and book publishers.  She created Carolina Salguero’s current identity kit, logo and website. 

Capt. Kris Lindberg worked on maritime outreach and research during the creation of the business plan. He has hands-on experience in maritime operations and in planning. He has 100 ton master’s and 150 ton mate’s licenses.  Originally from Seattle, he has worked on vessels for ten years including tugs, cruise ships, power yachts, sailboats and dinner boats.  He worked as a mate on tug and barge runs from Seattle to Alaska and as an emergency spill responder for three years.  May 2005, he graduated from NYU with a masters degree in planning with a specialty in transportation and environmental planning. 

Nevin Gussack, is a Librarian at Broward Community College/North Regional Library in Florida.  He provides web-based research for PortSide NewYork.  He has worked for two years with Carolina Salguero on www.waterfrontmatters.org  researching media stores and data in public domain archives and uploading this information to the website. PortSide NewYork’s own website will replicate many of the sections on www.waterfrontmatters.org  and ultimately replace that site, a task for which Nevin is perfectly prepared.  

Terrence McCarthy, business analyst, worked on the financial side of PortSide NewYork’s business plan.  He has provided management consulting services for over twenty years to clients including Fortune 500 companies, financial and technology leaders, and government agencies. He co-founded Neoteric, a pioneer in communications and risk management consulting.  He is known for his out-of-the-box thinking, pragmatic problem-solving skills, financial analysis and research and has been a featured speaker at conferences on three continents.  As a long-term Brooklyn Heights resident, he is intimately familiar with the streets and businesses in the PortSide area. He is a musician and connoisseur of the arts with a collection of vintage guitar amplifiers and 7,000 compact disks, and as such is a rich source of ideas for PortSide NewYork’s cultural programming.

Warren Winter, Director of Sales at WorldPictureNews, advised on creation of the general waterfront image archive, maritime 9/11 archive and construct the print sales marketing plan.  He is a photo production whiz and a national leader in negotiating licensing agreements with newspapers—expected to be a major source of PortSide NewYork’s image bank. He has working relationships with newspaper editors around the country and is a proficient photo researcher.  He has developed e-commerce photo websites and been a sales rep for both spot news and feature photography.