Can we just say no to Happier Grocery in Carroll Gardens?

Hey Neighbors - 

Happy Saturday. I saw the 9/11 memorial lights for the first time this week as I walked home from dinner last night. They took my breath away. I stopped, looked up, and remembered.

When I worked at 60 Minutes, September was insanely busy as the season began at the end of the month, and everyone competed to have their story in the show’s premier. I didn’t have time to notice how many cool events were happening in our corner of Brooklyn other than the Atlantic Antic. There is soo much going on this month! I could have done a MARK YOUR CALENDAR only post today!

Some housekeeping…As long as you are a registered voter, you can apply online for a ballot by mail until Oct. 24th or in person until Nov. 2. And if you haven’t registered yet, stop by the Dodge YMCA this Tuesday from 4- 8:00PM.

🍸Please join me to celebrate Ward 6’s first anniversary on Sept. 24 from 6:00 - 9:00 PM (more details to follow). Some wonderful local businesses are participating: Fro, Buzzy, Five Acre Farms, Warby Parker, Red Hook FC, The Oyster Master Guild, and more to come soon.

Let me know if you have ideas for other businesses ([email protected] or ward6_brooklyn). 

Post #51: what I saw on my recon mission to Happier Grocery;; yes the dangerous on-ramp on Atlantic Ave will remain open for now; Mark Your Calendar! sliding scale college courses in Gowanus and more!

If you like Ward 6 and you read every Saturday, please consider helping support hyperlocal news and my ability to keep publishing.

Our hometown soccer team slaughtered (can I say this?) their opponents last weekend. It was a beautiful day with a crowd from as far away as Queens. If you missed last Saturday’s game, the RHFC plays again today at 2:00 PM at field #5 in Red Hook. 

A group of humanities professors who met in grad school will soon offer the same seminars they teach at colleges and universities in Gowanus for a sliding scale for “any adult who wants to learn.” Think neighborhood book group with highly educated guides.

I looked up, Blaise Pascal, one of the authors in an upcoming critical thinking series and was blown away by a prescient quote of his from the 1600s. Did he see something, we all are struggling with only now with our addiction to pocket computers and ear buds?

“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

Check here for info and October course offerings.

Yes, I buried the lead but we’ve been down this road before with false promises of the library reopening. This time, I’m feeling confident that in Nov/Dec 2026 it will really happen. I’m not just saying this because Ward 6 broke the big news earlier this week with the help of Councilmember Shahana Hanif’s office.

Once the elevator is finished (yes, this gives me some pause), the library staff will finally get their building back for the finishing touches: shelves, chairs, design, etc…

When I read last week that a real estate developer/co-owner of SOHO’s Happier Grocery bought the former Rite Aid on Smith St. and the surrounding property, I immediately planned a recon. mission to check out the Canal St. store. 

I didn’t hide my intentions from the 2 or 3 employees I chatted with, which was the right approach since they all confirmed Carroll Gardens is in the works. One worker did add, “It’s way off, you know how construction can be in NYC.” 

I’m just gonna come out and say it: Happier Grocery does not belong in Carroll Gardens. Or, conversely, maybe I don’t belong here anymore?!  Hmmm…

The pretentious vibe and minimalist design did not feel welcoming. If Happier Grocery was only a store, I guess this wouldn’t matter, but Happier is also promoting a lifestyle brand with its market as a gateway to its upstairs workspace and community events.

I could be making this up, but there were plenty of other gawkers like me walking around, transfixed by the uber-high prices. To be fair, I did find 3 oz of roasted salted Spanish peanuts for $4.99 and a 1.8 fl oz of imported Spanish bubbly water for $3.99.

If you remember Portlandia, or you’ve never seen it, I recommend watching this iconic scene, “Is the Chicken local?” That’s how I felt walking around.

Take Happier’s Vera Salt: “Microplastic-Free. Salt Crystals with Gourmet Peppercorn Blend. Sourced from an Ancient Spring. Harvested by hand Via Traditional Methods.” Its biggest selling point, I guess, is that it’s microplastic-free from a “pristine underground spring in the Spanish foothills” instead of the ocean.

Sounds good to me, although I don’t know enough about salt to know if what Vera Salt is promoting is worth buying, or the price – $13.19 compared to Trader Joe’s 26.9 oz for $1.99.  Also, if I’m going to spend extra money for a healthier product, is salt, which I use very little of, the way to go? 

I grew up in N. Cali., so I have a high tolerance for foodie-type stuff. One of the first “farm-to-table” restaurants opened not far from my house, and organic, chemical-free food was always available. My mom wouldn’t let me eat grapes or other food for what seemed like my entire childhood due to farm labor practices or if pesticides were used. But nothing about Happier Grocery felt authentic.

When I first walked in, my eyes locked on Ballerina Farm Farmer Hydrate and DryWater: “Earths most complete hydration.” I chuckled at the silly names. But as I checked out every aisle and floor, silly named products are abundant at Happier Grocery. Take Ballerina Farm’s Farmer Protein with Bovine Colostrum and French Saffron-scented Laundry Sauce.  ** more on Ballerina in a sec.

In case you don’t know what French Saffron smells like: “A romantic, sensual scent with cherry, red currant, strawberry, saffron, freesia, raspberry, salted caramel, oakmoss, guaiacwood, tonka, and amber.”   Yup, I can totally smell it now. The price? $33.99 for 30 pods versus 66 Seventh Generation pods for $18.99.

Some of you may have heard of Ballerina Farm, the name of Hannah Neeleman’s family farm and company based in Utah. The former ballerina turned social media phenom, mother of nine and member of the LDS Church, Neeleman is often described in articles as the Queen Bee of Trad-wives. 

Minimalist packaging is another trademark of Happier, which I happen to appreciate. Though I’m not sure I need New Zealand Grass Fed Whey unless you can convince me it’s a good thing to ship the whey from the other side of the world, even if the country has enviable farming policy (who knew?). 

Happier only sells Coterie: The Diaper brand, which Wirecutter and some parenting sites I checked out agree performs well in urine tests compared to other brands. The company, founded by an investment banker, also became EWG Verified in June. However, if you can’t afford diapers that are four times as expensive as other brands, I wouldn’t shop at Happier.  

If Happier Grocery comes to Carroll Gardens along with its lifestyle brand of other offerings (workspace, clubs, etc..), there’s a very good chance it would be way bigger than its store/building on Canal St. given how much property the owner bought near Carroll Park. 

As I said last week, practically speaking, we already have at least 10 grocery stores–of all varieties, from Union Market to Mr. Beets–why do we also need Whole Foods and possibly Happier Grocery? Can’t we just say NO, to the slow creep of more luxury-ification of our neighborhoods?

Love to know your thoughts: [email protected] or ward6_brooklyn

Is it just me, or is the Mamdani Administration moving at warp speed on a ton of massive initiatives? It’s hard to keep up!

The latest: can Mamdani go where plenty of NYC mayors have failed and actually repair the aging BQE before something really bad happens?

There is no simple solution, and fixing it means getting the city, state and the feds, who all have some piece of it, in a room to hash it out. Now you know why it’s been in deep paralysis for way too long.

If you need a refresher, this WGBH/WNYC event is a great way to catch-up.

What is this Administration proposing? They’ve decided the best way to move forward is to repair and renovate only the section of the BQE, 1.5 miles, that NYC controls. This includes the Triple Cantilever below the promenade and not the dangerous northbound entrance to the BQE on Atlantic Ave.  This is of HUGE importance around here.

Here are the proposed temporary roads DOT says it needs to build and later remove, to repair the BQE.

A local source of mine says she questions if the proposed 1.5-mile cut-out is even possible. “Even if they say they are staying between Atlantic Ave and Sands St., they will touch and definitely impact state-owned highway.”  We will see.

And what about the treacherous intersection on Atlantic Ave and Hicks, is it here to stay? (Note: there is also a luxury tower under construction on Hicks across from the hospital, which adds another layer of complication.)

Check out the BQE Center Project Overview for more information and dates for the DOT public meetings in October.

The big question for many of us residents, especially south of Atlantic Ave, is how the BQE renovation and the 122-acre controversial BMT debacle can possibly coexist. From day one, when the NYC Economic Development Corporation first introduced its “vision” for the waterfront, the community asked this question.

Rather than taking us seriously, the EDC downplayed the BMT-BQE question. And it wasn’t just us— people who lived in the area—with intimate knowledge and experience walking the streets, wondering how could a new neighborhood with 20,000 new residents get built adjacent the looming construction nightmare, the inevitable aging BQE renovation.

Brooklyn Heights resident and former DOT Commissioner Hank Gutman, who also sits on the BMT Task Force and the BMT Dev. Corporation (BMTDC), warned the EDC countless times that it was an enormous mistake to steamroll ahead with the quasi-city agency’s largest redevelopment project on its books without knowing what will happen with the BQE, especially whether the trecherous entrance on Atlantic Ave would remain open or closed.

This was the kinder, more gentler Gutman who had been warning the EDC, for more than a year, with a range of strong emotions.

The EDC often responded to the community like an impatient, petulant child when we brought up such issues. How could it possibly get its 122-acre redevelopment project off the ground, if they had to wait for the city to greenlight the BQE renovations? was their common refrain.

So, instead they moved forward and assured us the EDC was in “coordination with the DOT.” To prove its point, the EDC said they had even written some letters to the agency. Then when it released the final controversial “vision plan,” they wrote it will “..not address: local and regional effects of the BQE.” 

The DOT released its proposed BQE timetable, and voila, the two projects will, in fact, overlap and for a decade.

The upshot: maybe this means the EDC will, in the near-future, have actual data to work with when it models the impact of the BQE entrance remaining open and the 10-year BQE construction site, on its largest redevelopment site on EDC’s books.

So the next time it presents to the community another traffic mitigation strategy (see my post here about it) for its proposed new waterfront neighborhood and its 20,000 residents (and their cars and their Uber/Lyft cars for hire), as it did in July (in mid-summer), it will be based on real facts, not magical thinking.

Although I’m not sure any of us, who have shown up for every EDC meeting since the beginning, will ever trust how a new neighborhood can be absorbed into an already congested corridor along Columbia Street from Red Hook to Atlantic Ave and the surrounding area. (See my post here about Congress St.) And this is NOT, the only problem of this magnitude with the EDC’s “vision plan.”

Not for this post, but this type of magical thinking- create a “vision plan” without the necessary facts/data/studies has defined this entire BMT process. This is even true for the EDC’s crown jewel– the 30+ luxury towers it’s proposed building, the majority in BMT North, as they call the area near Atlantic Ave (and yes, by the BQE).  

Hank Gutman and others have asked again and again, does the EDC have any idea whether the waterfront property, predominantly 19th-century infill, can absorb this kind of weight or whether it will be prohibitively expensive to build. 

Now that Mamdani’s DOT says it will move forward without resolving the onramp, I’ll be paying close attention, especially to the impact on the BMT’s environmental review (EIS), which is currently underway.  

More reading: BK Residents will Get a Say on the New BQE Plan; A Missed Opportunity: Mamdani’s BQE Plan; A BK architect’s streamlined design, which got a lot of attention when it was first published. 

This summer, some days felt more like the tropics, with intense, almost daily short bursts of afternoon rain. Mother Nature is up to something, whether it’s El Niño and/or the new norm. 

Recently, you may have noticed construction along the outer edges of Red Hook. It’s part of the Red Hook Resiliency Project to shore up the flood-prone neighborhood. 

The Bureau of Coastal Resilience, which is overseeing the project along with 15 others, got some much-needed love from the Mamdani Administration with an infusion of $43.2 million. You can read more about the Bureau and the money here. 

For a city with 520 miles of coastline, the Bureau, according to Voices of the Waterfront, has operated with only SIX staff! This money will help the city hire 69 more people. Six!

If you want to learn more about the Red Hook project: ProPublica and from PortSide NewYork’s Waterstories, the long and twisted history of NYC’s “plans” to protect Red Hook.

Today! Starting at 2:00 PM - 9:00 PM | The Brooklyn Americana Music Festival, Dumbo, underneath the Manhattan Bridge. Free

Today! 5:00 PM | The People’s Runway at Borough Hall Plaza. First come, first serve. Register here.

Tomorrow (until the end of September) outdoor workouts (Pilates, Yoga, Zumba) continue at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Check out the schedule. 

Tomorrow, 1:00 - 4:00 PM | An interactive Urban Heat Walk through our Red Hook. Together we’ll explore how shade, trees, pavement, buildings, and public spaces shape our experience of extreme heat. Your voice helps shape what comes next. Register here → 

Tomorrow, 12-6:00 PM | Second Sundays at Pioneer Works: celebrate student creativity, hands-on activities, solar observing, community science and so much more | free  @159 Pioneer Street

Thursday, Sept. 17th 9:30 AM Java with AssemblyMember Jo Ann Simon, 288 Smith St.

Thursday, Sept. 17th  BMT Dev. Corporation meeting, Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street. Details will be posted here.

Saturday, Sept. 19, 10 - 5:00 PM | The annual Carroll Park Fair with shopping, entertainment, and community activities. 

Thanks for reading! JLH (11:53 AM, and no, I didn’t finish writing on Friday!)