Snowy Pictures!

A local resident took some pictures of the snowstorm earlier this weekend and shared them with us via Twitter. Check out a few below and look at the whole album on Flickr.




Photos from by J. Conor's Flickr

Reminder: Submit accident information and take Safer Streets survey

A member of our Facebook group uploaded the above accident photo this week, which shows an accident that took place last August on Summit and Columbia between a truck and a car.

Since our neighborhood walk-through with representatives from the DOT and Elected Official offices was postponed due to the snow last week, there's still time for community residents to submit photos, videos, or details about accidents and other traffic issues, as well as to take the COWNA Safer Street Survey.

Red Hook Hooverville

Gothamist and EphemeralNY posted some pictures last week of "Hoovervilles" around New York during the Great Depression. The above picture of one such Hooverville in "Red Hook off Columbia St." was included in both posts. Pretty fascinating stuff - especially in light of all the comparisons to the Great Depression that we've heard over the past year due to the recession.

For more information on Hoovervilles, check out a Wikipedia page here and a PBS Kids Big Apple History page here

Mother Cabrini/Meadow Halloween Photos & Thanks

Thanks to everyone who came out to Mother Cabrini Park and the Urban Meadow this past Saturday for the 8th annual Halloween party!

We'd especially like to thank the following businesses for their support of the event through their contributions of money, food, supplies, or time:

Everyday Athlete Studio / Everyday Athlete Kids
Cook Smarter (for the healthy treats!)
Denise Fasanello Floral Design
Coffee Den
Old Brooklyn Wine and Liquor Co.
Red's Tapas Bar
Brooklyn General
Jalopy
Cozy Quarters
Stop 1 Deli
Margaret Palca Bakes
The Word on Columbia St.
... and the members of the Urban Meadow who volunteered baked goods and time!

We have so many great businesses in the neighborhood that support these great FREE events at the playground and at the meadow, so show your support for them as well by shopping locally and mentioning your appreciation the next time you drop by!

Also thanks to Joan Millman, Daniel Squadron, and Brad Lander for coming out to the event and paying attention to our community!

{several photos above provided by Launa B.}

Progress @ Brooklyn Bridge Park

Brownstoner posted several photos this week (one of which is above) of progress being made at both Pier 1 and Pier 6 in the future Brooklyn Brige Park.

This particular phase involves the trucking in and installation of "gatehouses," which Brownstoner describes as follows:

Brooklyn Bridge Park received delivery of the gatehouses at both Pier 1 next door and Pier 6 down by Atlantic Avenue. The gatehouses, which, as we understand it, will house mechanicals as well as mark the entrances to the park, were manufactured off-site in New Jersey before being trucked in. They will eventually be clad in wood verticals using old growth long leaf southern yellow pine salvaged from the Cold Storage Building being demolished at Pier 1. How cool is that!

Columbia St. crash photos from 10/14 and 10/18

The following photos were taken by YumKim Yee, a member of the COWNA Public Services Committee. YumKim was also responsible for writing the letter to the DOT back in June that we previously mentioned.

We would like to urge readers to continue to snap photos like these, take note of dates and times, and submit them so that we can continue to document how dangerous this stretch of Columbia St. is.

Accident at President and Columbia on 10/18/09:




YumKim's comments:

Involved 2 cars on a Sunday afternoon of 10/18 where there were several injuries. Note the red car that went over the sidewalk & into the bushes in front of the building. By coincidence, this accident location is the very takes place where we asked DOT, 76th Pct & CB6 to install a traffic light/stop sign but was told that there was not enough incidents to warrant it.

Accident at Union St. and Columbia on 10/14/09 around 8am:

YumKim's comments:

Occurred at "8am" on Wednesday morning of 10/14. It involved a white van traveling s/bound on Columbia St. followed by a yellow taxi (I took the shot from my window above). Fortunately no fatalities from both cars (incl. taxi passengers) but you can imagine that someone could have been pinned between the taxi and pole/parked car...


And if you're just tuning in, don't forget the other crash that occurred on 10/18 within very shortly before the one pictured above

Accident at Columbia and Summit St on 10/18

One of our readers submitted this photo of an accident that occurred on Summit St. and Columbia st. within moments of the accident that happened at Columbia St. and President St. around 12:30

We're not sure if this is related, or if its some strange coincidence. We'd also like to point out that the above accident doesn't appear nearly as bad as the one at President (Edit: which involved 6 injuries) but that the combination of the two at the same time is quite scary.

"It Don't Pay..." Film Screening recap

On Sunday evening, a larger than expected crowd gathered in the empty lot next to Freebird Books to watch the movie "It Don't Pay to be an Honest Citizen." The movie was filmed in and around the neighborhood 25 years ago, and serves as a rare moving image account of what the neighborhood looked like in those days. Despite what turned out to be one of the coldest Autumn evenings this year so far, the crowd stuck it out until the end, laughing and clapping throughout.

After the film, Director Jacob Burckhardt spoke about the film, the neighborhood back then, and answered questions posed by audience members. Several local residents who appeared in the film and still live in the area also came out to the event and reunited.

Some audience members were unfortunately left standing, but stuck it out nonetheless. On the screen in the image above, the main character Warren yells down to the street below from his Woodhull st. apartment.


Some audience members brought their own dinners or drinks (including candle lighting and a tablecloth in one case)


After the film, Director Jacob Burckhardt and Freebird propietor Peter Miller discuss where some of the film locations were, and what remains or has replaced the buildings in each.

Burckhardt reunites with local residents who appeared in the film 25 years later.
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The NYTimes also wrote a piece on this event, and their camera and writing are admittedly much better than ours. Check out the post here.

It Don't Pay an Honest Citizen screenshots

Freebird Books, in anticipation of our co-sponsored film event on Sunday, posted some screenshots from the film "It Don't Pay to be an Honest Citizen," which was shot around the neighborhood 25 years ago.

Its interesting to see how some blocks have changed drastically and others have hardly changed at all. A few of the pictures are below, but head over to the Freebird site to see even more pictures as well as shots of the current locations and some detailed descriptions.

Van Brunt, looking North from President towards Union

Columbia between Union and President (East Side)

President St. near corner of Van Brunt (at the Church that
formerly stood there)

Thanks for the great weekend!

Thanks to everyone who made this great weekend possible! We'll be making posts over the next couple of days with some great pictures and videos from throughout the weekend, but in the meantime, we just wanted to get one picture from today's festival up and thank the following people and businesses:

House of Pizza and Calzones
Margaret Palca Bakes
The Coffee Den
and Old Brooklyn Wine and Liquor Company
(for sponsoring the Red Hook Jazz Festival today)

Carroll Gardens Association, Inc
(for putting the streetfair together yesterday)

PortSide NY
(for organizing the historic Dutch ship event that we caught the tail end of)

and all of the artists, musicians, community garden members, and local families, that dedicated their time and talent to the Art in the Gardens project and the Jazz Festival.

Rooftop movies with a view

Local residents Jennifer Adair and Ernesto Seman were featured in a NYTimes series about summer activities because of film screening events that they've been hosting this summer on their apartment building rooftop. Great idea and what a great view!!

Article here and slideshow here.

Image above from NYTimes.

Google Map image of Smith and 9th making big news...

Big sources including the Huffington Post and NYTimes are reporting on a heavenly image that appears in the Street View of Google Maps for Smith and 9th St:

image from Huffington Post via Google

Inside the Grain Factory

Two guys named Herman and Simon recently went inside the Red Hook Grain Factory, that huge abandoned building that sits along the water by the ballfields, and snapped some pretty amazing photos, which I highly recommend taking a look at.

Check out the photos here (unfortunately they don't allow for them to be shown on other sites!)

Also check out a description of their adventure here

Photo above from doobybrain.com

Signs of Spring pt. 2

All of the flowery trees in our neighborhood have been blooming over the past week or so, and these pictures, posted to our facebook group by local resident Matt, capture the beauty of it all so well

Signs of Spring

Even though the weather has been a little hit or miss overall lately, there have been enough good days to realize that Spring is really here. There have been other signs as well, such as the ones below:

Music in the streets @ JalopyCommunity gardens starting to bloom

....and Easter decorations

Snowy Weekend

Just in case you don't get out of the house today, here's what the streets look like (shots taken from Union, Columbia, and President)

Locked Up

Ever notice that there are a LOT of locks on the fence of the BQE bridge/overpass between Carroll and Summit St.? I snapped this picture while walking over it tonight. There are even more than what appears in this picture.

I love random stuff like this.

Operation Christmas Cheer 2008

While many of us enjoyed time off from work and the company of family today, many workers on the tugboats and barges of New York City's waterways had to remain at work and out on the water, away from home.

Fortunately for them, local organization PortSide NY has an annual event called Operation Christmas Cheer in which they deliver cookies and newspapers to the workers of this necessary industry.

Here's a description of the event (before-hand) from PortSide:

We show up in a small powerboat wearing silly Christmas hats, make a ruckus, and hand over a plate of cookies and newspapers (papers are hard to get when you work on the water). Tugs and barges work 24/7 and often work long hitches (two weeks on, two weeks off is typical). They frequently work national holidays and keenly miss their families on those days. They also feel the burden of working in obscurity, bringing you the stuff you use. The simple gesture of being remembered on Christmas means a lot to them. Just $600 covers the cost of a paper plate of Christmas cookies and a bundle of newspapers (New York Times, Daily News, and The Post) for 40 tugs and barges, plus boat fuel and sandwiches for the elves.

We weren't on the scene today, but the Tugster blog was and posted the following photos:


All pictures taken by Will Van Dorp. More available on the Tugster blog here.

Update: More pictures posted to Tugster here.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Carroll St. Bridge (re-post from MAS) / City of Water trailer

The Municipal Art Society posted an interesting piece about the Carroll St. Bridge yesterday (the picture above is from their Flickr). Did you know that it is a landmark and that "it is one of the oldest remaining bridges in New York City, and one of only four known “retractile” bridges in the United States"?

Definitely worth celebrating the fact that we have such interesting and historical things nearby.

Check out their entire post here and more of their Flickr photos here.

Also, speaking of MAS, we missed the chance to post about a recent screening of their movie about the NYC waterfront called "City of Water," but check out the official page for the film to learn more and see where it might be playing next. The trailer is below:



"City of Water" trailer from MAS on Vimeo.

The Red Hook Waterfront

Here are some recent (pre-snow) pictures i took while walking around Red Hook. The first three are at Valentino Pier. The others are a little further north from Wolcott St.