Help give away millions as the last day of participatory budgeting ends tomorrow.

Hello Neighbors -

Happy Saturday. I finally made it down Court St. to try Court Street Grocers’ Vegitalian that the New Yorker raved about a few weeks ago. It’s not cheap, but the good news is the sandwich is huge and you can enjoy it for lunch and dinner!

Love hearing this from readers, “Great issue. I upgraded.” You, too, can upgrade if you love Ward 6 and support local news.

Post #30 (what?!): Red Hook FC wins its first home game; Columbia St. gets a little safer; help give away millions; too little too late for the Brooklyn Marine Terminal? Bar Ferninando’s opens and readers review Bar Bruno’s; BK bookstore crawl, Nosy Neighbor answers a reader’s question

In case you missed the news, our hometown soccer team, the Red Hook Football Club, won 3-1 last Saturday at the Red Hook ballfields.  Harry Sankey, Anderson Asiedu and Alberto Pangrazzi scored for the win.  Tons of fans showed up on a gorgeous day.

Manu of Carroll Gardens is one of those fans, “Good football players and sane fans getting together to have a good time with no serious expectations on the results or individual performances. A refreshing and fun way to watch a game!”

Watch tomorrow’s away game a The Record Shop in Red Hook @ 7P.

Next home game: April 25th @ 4:00 PM | Red Hook Field 5

The intersection of Columbia and President streets will soon have a new crosswalk and stop sign after a community group lobbied DOT for new safety measures after an elementary school girl was hit late last year. DOT did not rule out a traffic light in the future, but further studies are needed, according to a Zoom meeting last week with Brooklyn Borough Commissioner Kevin Bray and Deputy Borough Commissioner, LeRoy Branch Jr.  Planters will also be installed for extra safety precautions. 

DOT is also studying Columbia and Summit St.

On the other end of Columbia St., a Cobble Hill family is also working with DOT to improve safety at the crosswalk between the two Van Voorhees playground/ballfields. This summer, you can expect a new pedestrian signal and other “signal infrastructure,” though, I’m not sure what that means.

He shared these two videos as examples of how unsafe the intersections are for people, especially kids  https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ygsn2zVmKnD9Puhg6

If you want to complain about this intersection, he shared these resources:

The last suggestion, reminds me of something I did a few weeks ago when I was fed up with the dangerous drivers along Columbia St. where I jog or walk almost daily.

After almost getting hit by a car, I walked into the 76th Precinct on Union St to show sopmeone, anyone all of the pictures I’ve collected of crazy drivers. I showed an officer a photo that I thought for sure would do the trick, as the driver could not wait with the rest of the cars for the light to change, and instead drove illegally on the other side of the street in what would soon be oncoming traffic.

The nice officer informed me that even though I had a photo, which clearly showed the license plate, the NYPD could not do anything unless they witnessed the illegal act themselves. He mumbled something about adding patrols on Columbia St. 

Have you seen any patrols on Columbia St.? I have not. Not now. Not ever.

I plan to attend the precinct’s community meeting next month, on May 6th at 7:00 PM at 125 Summit Street. Please join me.

If you have photos you want to share, please send them to me at [email protected]

Every year, NYC residents get a chance to vote on how to spend $24 million in taxpayers money. Each city council district gets roughly $2 million for things like AC in school auditoriums and cafeterias, public events, library upgrades, including Carroll Gardens, tree guards, immigrant support and in Cobble Hill, money to convert the neighborhood’s only community garden or “The Secret Garden” on Degraw St. from a private to a public space. 

It’s called Participatory Budgeting and in 2011, NYC was the first in the U.S. to try it. Los Angeles started a few years ago and tons of cities outside the U.S. also participate.   

Fun fact: PB started in District 39!

Voting ends tomorrow, Sunday! Make it a family activity, as you have to be at least 11 years old to participate.

“It’s fab. Great juicy well-seasoned [burger] and love the roasted poblanos topped with melted cheese and a nice sesame seed bun that holds up.” Andrea Strong, The Strong Buzz newsletter

“The vibe is awesome with dimmed light and music, and everyone is super nice. Need to get into a rhythm so it’s not perfect yet, but everyone is working hard to make it happen,” Nadine of Carroll Gardens.

“I’m happy to see it busy and lively again. Good energy,” says Emily of Carroll Gardens. Her teenage son’s review, “The fries are better.”

Starting today, 34 Brooklyn independent bookstores, including Liz’s Bar and Books and Books Are Magic, start the borough’s second annual Bookstore Crawl! And if you can’t participate, you are still allowed to attend the afterparty next Saturday at the Center for Fiction near BAM.

You have a week to complete the crawl. And winners receive discount coupons, and if you visit all 34 BK bookstores, you'll be entered for a chance to win a special grand prize.  

On a whim, I got free tickets to a Books are Magic event on Thursday night, where I learned about the Whiting Award for emerging writers and heard each of the 2026 winners read from their work. Brooklyn local and last year’s winner, Sidik Fofana, hosted the evening. 

I count our blessings almost daily that we have Books are Magic and Liz’s Bar and Books, two independent bookstores owned and operated by writers. 

When I got home, I saw that Vogue (via Brooklyn Eagle) interviewed Emma Straub, the owner of Books are Magic, with her personal bar, restaurant, breakfast place and more in “Emma Staub’s Guide of her Tiny Village’ of Brooklyn” 

Ward 6 reader Jon asked me a few months ago about 364 Henry, a shell of a building straddling Henry and Court St. There’s been scaffolding up as long as I remember,  Halloween skeletons between the cracks in the fence and other strange faces to block a clear view inside the property.

I’ve walked/jogged by this place more times than I can count and for such a curious journalist, I’m surprised I’ve never looked into it before now.

Well, Jon, here’s what I found out.

John Quadrozzi Jr. owns many businesses throughout Brooklyn, including a cement company that he inherited from his father, John Quadrozzi Sr., who died in 2004. According to his obituary, both the Time Warner Center and Trump World Tower, among many of the city’s iconic landmarks, were constructed with the company’s cement.  

Quadrozzi also owns the haunted-looking former grain building near IKEA, shrouded in a cascading black substance (could not confirm its mold as some have reported), that’s visible when driving south on the BQE. It’s part of Guadrozzi’s larger GBX-Gowanus Bay Terminal with industrial and other tenants. 

According to locals, David Bowie’s Valentine’s Day music video was shot in the grain building and Quadrozzi also allowed theater performances to take place on his property, including the 2013 adaptation of Enemy of the People, and Caravan Stage Theater the following year.  (some lovely reflections from Chris Hammett’s “notes for nobody but myself,” who was involved in the 2013 production about the play, the meaning of the location, and larger community issues).

In 2018, Quadrozzi added the Prospect Park Stables to his portfolio, run by his daughter. And more recently, he made headlines for his campaign to save the S.S. United States, an historic and largest ocean liner ever built in this country, according to Gothamist. Quadrozzi lobbied to relocate the ship from Philadelphia to New York, instead of its intended fate of becoming Florida’s next artificial reef. Quadrozzi’s plan never came to fruition.

Quadrozzi owns both a carriage and a rowhouse, which he purchased in the early two-thousands. A decade later, the Landmarks Preservation Commission brought legal action for “demolition by neglect…for failure to repair the building (LPC).” A charge that Quadrozzi adamantly denied. 

According to LPC, despite having required permits approved, Qaudrozzi never moved forward and has since paid more than $500,000 in fines.

A sharp-tongued dispute between LPC, the judge, Quandrozzi and his lawyers has continued ever since. Various court orders with deadlines for new plans and additional permits to rebuild the property came and went, say city lawyers. 

Last month, I listened to a virtual hearing that the Judge said I could attend but not write about. However, the court documents I read before and after the hearing were consistent with what I heard during the Zoom hearing. Needless to say, the tension continues between the judge and Quadrozzi’s lawyers over the best way forward.  

Quadrozzi was ordered to pay $10,000 by March 30th, which he did, and Brooklyn architect and consultant, Karen Litven, who has worked locally and with the LPC on prior projects, will serve as the liaison moving forward. 

The NYC Economic Development Corporation, the quasi-city agency behind the controversial “vision plan” for the Brooklyn Marine Terminal is now inviting the public to attend the BMT Task Force and BMT Development Corporation meetings that have been closed to the public.

This lack of transparency has created enormous distrust between the residents and the NYC Economic Development Corporation. It was the Task Force, with oas chair, that voted in support for the controversial ”vision plan” only after cancelling many meetings at the last minute when it was clear Goldman did not have enough YES votes.

Last year, three Columbia St. Waterfront residents sued the city for violating its open meetings law. It’s unclear if the change in policy is because of the lawsuit.

This is how Deputy Mayor Julie Su described the change in policy.

While many residents I spoke to welcome the new arrangement, and hope it’s a sign that the EDC, under Mayor Mamdani, will be different.  However, there is so much distrust that it will take more than open meetings to repair the relationship.

“Too little too late. They [EDC] already spoiled and tainted the whole process,” says Sam, a longtime resident of Carroll Gardens.

"The damage can’t be corrected by following the law moving forward.  We should commend them for doing so but never forget that it took a lawsuit for them to do that,” says John Leyva who is one of the residents who sued the city. “I feel for this community to be made whole the only recourse is to do it all over again.”

Overall, many in the community were disappointed with EDC’s interaction with local residents throughout the entire process. While the EDC likes to talk about the number of meetings it held with the community, I witnessed myself a missed opportunity for a genuine exchange of ideas about the redevelopment of the 122 acre waterfront.  The EDC appeared unwilling to engage with residents, some of whom are urban planners, architects, artists, designers, community organizers, historians, you name it, who would have loved to be a part of such a monumental development project. 

It’s not over though, and I welcome readers to attend the meetings and continue to demand a more thoughtful process and a redevelopment proposal worthy of our waterfront.

RSVP here for the Task Force meeting on April 23rd and here for the BMT Dev. Corp. meeting on Thursday, April 30 from 2 - 4:00 PM.

Check out the The Col. St. Waterfront Association or The Cobble Hill Association. As our Assemly Member Jo Anne Simone reminded us: your public comments DO NOT hate to be formal. The people overseeing this proposed developement DO NOT live in our communities and have no idea about which corner, for example, are congested and dangerous, or how schools are overcrowded and on and on.

You can still submit written testimony about landlord problems here that will be used for future housing policy recommendations.

TODAY! April 18th - 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM  Earth Day on Governors Island: “Live demos from the Gov­er­nors Island Cli­mate Pilots, com­post scav­enger hunt, bird­ing tour, tree tour, ham­mock grove sound bath, bike lessons for kids, open art studios, puppet show, and more.”  Free.

TODAY! Saturday, April 18, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM: Col. St. Waterfront Association’s Community Clean-up Day and Scavenger Hunt, celebrating Earth Day. Human Compass Garden, corner of Sackett St and Columbia St. Please register here. (rain date Sunday, April 19. 

Sunday, April 19th at 1:00 PM | Know Your Rights training with the Churches United for Fair Housing (CUFFH), Council Member Shahana Hanif, and Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon. Learn how you can work with neighbors to keep our community safe. Please RSVP to receive the address.

Sunday, April 19th | Hamlet Unplugged, a FREE community performance @ 5:00 PM | BAM - featuring the cast of the National Theatre’s upcoming production.

Due to a delay in the arrival of the show’s set, the cast will present a special performance without full staging, followed by a talk-back with the cast and creative team. This unique event is open to students, seniors, families, and community members.

Tickets are free but required. Learn more and reserve tickets here: 

Tuesday, April 22nd, 6 - 9:00 PM Resilient Earth Day hybrid event:  Did you know “freight traffic is projected to grow by nearly 50% by 2045. Red Hook's waterfront is at the center of decisions being made right now — on freight, housing, climate, and jobs.  The more our community understands how freight systems work, the stronger our voice in shaping what comes next. Show up, get informed, and help us make the case.”

April 25th 15-year-old Brooklyn Org’s BK Volunteer Day!  Sign up. 

Thursday, April 30 | 2:00 – 4:00 PM - BMT Dev. Corp meeting. 

Thank you for reading! JLH