Hey Neighbors -
Ward 6 is back on Saturday to make sure you have some juicy Brooklyn news to read on this frigid day (feels like -4!).
First, WELCOME new subscribers! And no, you did not miss my welcome email. It’s been four months since I launched Ward 6 and a welcome email is still on my to-do list. Please have a look around Brooklynward6.com to see all the stories I’ve published so far, including last week’s dispensary reviews and a few months ago's popular post and helpful guide: Help! My dog Likes to Pee on Flowers.
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PICKLE ANYONE?
Except for a brief period when I covered science and medicine at NBC News, I have never been a beat reporter. So I love, love that my beat is now our corner of Brooklyn, where I can walk/job/bike and stumble upon stories. It’s definitely a bit harder in this frigid weather.
This brings me to my latest stumble– Velto Pickleball Club in Red Hook, upstairs from the Tesla service center (see news below) on Van Brunt St. Given that opening day is TODAY, it was tough to reach one of the owners by phone. So while I waited, I watched on @veltopickleballclub, one of the owners, Jawad Mourabet, turn their journey, starting in July, when they signed the lease, into a social media mini-series. In more than thirty “episodes,” he reveals their architectural drawings, introduces his interior designer, and in one episode, even shares all the construction mistakes they made, costing an extra $18,400. For a former McKinsey and Company employee, Mourabet is a natural on camera.
Your host: Jawad Mourabet (view of the BMT, construction, an almost finished Velto
Here’s what Mourabet and his co-owner, Ali Ahmed, didn’t tell you on IG. Why pickleball? Mourabet said he watched, during the pandemic, as his non-athletic mother started playing and got “addicted.” A self-described “mediocre player,” he experienced firsthand how welcoming and fun the sport is, regardless of your level of play.
I’ve played a game or two of pickleball, but I’m not all-in like a few of my friends, which makes me an outlier, according to journalist and writer Derek Thompson.
For the fourth consecutive year, pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the U.S. In 2024, 19.8 million Americans participated in pickleball, a 45.8% increase from the 2023 figure and an incredible 311% increase from three years ago.
When I told a friend and pickle enthusiast about Velto opening, he was surprised to learn that the club is just three blocks from Red Hook Pickleball, which opened this summer. Mourabet is aware of the optics and sensitive to any possible criticism, but says there is room for both clubs, given the sport’s popularity and their different offerings.
Red Hook Pickleball 262 Van Brunt
Both clubs have cushioned courts (Velto has 4, Red Hook has 5), but Velto is selling itself as a premium brand with a Stay and Play co-working space (a little tough with the noise?) for an extra $10, cameras to record games and watch replays. And there is merch - Pickleball Club hats for sale for $34.99.
“I’ve promoted health and wellness my whole life,” says Mourabet. He wants it to be a place to “just have fun and for people to feel part of a community.”
I went down a slight rabbit hole as I waited to hear from Mourabet and learned that one of the building's landlords is an old friend of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, and a partner on many real estate deals. Who was the original tenant of the building? I learned that, too, thanks to Brownstowner - it used to house Golten’s, the ship engine repair company.
ELON MUSK VACATES RED HOOK: The Tesla service center is permanently closed as of yesterday, January 23rd. The nice folks inside said their 10-year lease is up, so Tesla will operate from its Gowanus location and Flushing, which is under construction.
DO YOU LOVE BROOKLYN AS MUCH AS I DO?
Now you can share your Brooklyn story as part of the Neighborhood Stories Project that aims to put “the community in the archive” by gaining insights from regular New Yorkers. The NYC Department of Records and Information will permanently preserve the interviews.
EXPRESS YOURSELF!
Remember that gawd-awful Ryder Cup weekend when hundreds of helicopters flew non-stop above our Brooklyn neighborhoods because people paid $1200 for a 12-minute flight to the Long Island golf tournament? Well, with the World Cup and Sail250 this summer it could happen again.
Now you can tell the Mayor how you feel about noise and air pollution from the helicopters. Thank you to Stop the Chop NY/NJ for sharing information about NYC’s first comprehensive Environmental Justice (EJNYC) Plan that includes this survey.
“You can then describe your experience.. and offer specific ideas for solving them. For example, commuter flights to and from JFK airport and the Hamptons cut across a vast swath of Brooklyn at very low altitudes, and tourist helicopters flying six days a week from the Downtown heliport inflict noise and air pollution on up to 2 million residents of Brooklyn…”
Stop the Chop
WHEN A NEIGHBOR QUIETLY DISAPPEARS
I learned the other day that ICE arrested a neighborhood fixture (sorry, I can’t use his name or where he works) while he was at work. I hadn’t seen this person in a month or so and assumed he found a new job. Then I asked his co-worker, who stood silent for a moment, maybe unsure whether he should tell me. He said, “ICE.” He told me how they would FaceTime every day to pass the time, and not long after their last conversation, ICE arrested him at work. ICE sent him to a facility in Newark and then to Texas. His co-worker said he visited him a few times in Newark “to give him hope,” but they’ve now lost touch. I’ll provide updates as I get them and, hopefully, share his name and where he works.
Brooklyn father detained by ICE on his way to celebrate his son’s birthday.
Check out Harkaudio.com for clips from six different podcasts about this week in MN.
LET’S DO LUNCH
It’s restaurant week (until Feb. 12), and here’s a taste of the BK establishments that are participating: Barbalu Bklyn, French Louie, Red Hook Lobster Pound, Indian Table, Verde, and Aromi.
Red Hook Tavern is a James Beard semifinalist, says Eater.
UPDATE: BROOKLYN WATERFRONT
The City’s “vision plan” for the 122 acres just blocks from where most of us live is just ONE proposed idea for transforming the waterfront, designed by people who don’t live in our communities. So come check out alternative community-driven ideas for the Brooklyn Marine Terminal! There will be exhibits from The Pratt School of Architecture and so much more. Great opportunity to ask questions and learn from your neighbors. Friday, Jan. 30th, from 6-9 PM (351 Van Brunt). Sign up here.
IS OUR CONGRESSMAN MOVING TO STATEN ISLAND?
Rep. Dan Goldman is not moving moving, as in his wife and kids and all. A state judge ruled this week that MAGA Nicole Malliotakis’ district dilutes the voting power of non-white residents of Staten Island. This could mean that our congressman, Dan Goldman’s district, becomes part of Malliotakis’ district, and the two of them square off in November, leaving Brad Lander unopposed and on an easy path to victory. The judge will review redrawn maps in February.
THE HOUSE AT THE CENTER OF ‘WEST END GIRL’
What a difference $7ook makes. In case you haven’t heard, singer/actor Lily Allen and ex-husband, David Harbour of Stranger Things, found a buyer for their Union St. home after lowering the price. Call me lame, but until news broke that their house was on the market, I’m not sure I would have cared or even known about Allen’s new must-listen album, West End Girl that Rolling Stone describes “an odyssey of betrayal and heartbreak, an investigation of the way we perceive ourselves and the people we wake up next to every morning, and a litmus test for how honest we’re allowed to be in art and life.”
Fun fact: Remember Paul Manafort from President Trump’s first administration? He also owned a house (that sat empty) on the same Union St. block.
NEWS FROM THE COURT STREET JOURNAL:
“I have somehow gone half a decade in this neighborhood without dining at Marco Polo, but The Infatuation’s review of the restaurant will be the thing to make me change that (The Court Street Journal ).” Sadly, me too. But by coincidence, I told my husband a few weeks ago that it is time.
“I enjoyed this story about architect James Biber and his late wife, graphic designer Carin Goldberg, renovating their Carroll Gardens brownstone over two decades. The vision to transform “a wreck” into something of taste and the patience to make small, continuous tweaks spoke to me. And they did it together (The Court Street Journal).”
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Early last year, I gave up on my Google calendar and bought a simple Muji paper planner. There’s something about having my calendar on my desk, right by my computer, that I just love. Apparently, it’s now a trend, along with trendy hard-to-buy Japanese brand planners, according to The New Yorker’s One and Off The Avenue column last week. The article also mentions that the Filofax is back! I was way ahead on this trend, too, and still use mine from high school, though I don’t carry it around with me as I used to.
Jan. 24, TODAY from 3 - 6 PM | The Unconventional Steel Guitar Jamboree at Jalopy Tavern, 315 Columbia St. Great way to spend this frigid day! Free!
Jan. 28th, Wed. 7 PM |Books are Magic on Montague, Sara Levine (The Hitch) with Roxanne Gay live and on YouTube. $
Jan. 29th | Thurs. 5 - 8 PM, Eleventh Hour Art opening reception for Everyday Legends with Brooklyn Heights photographer, Nathan Benn, who spent decades at National Geographic and later, as head of Magnum Photos. 61 Atlantic Avenue. F
Copy of original from 11th Hour Art
Feb. 3, 6:30 PM | Center for Brooklyn History, Book launch of “Freedom Lost, Freedom Won:” Eugene Robinson and Darren Walker in Conversation. 128 Pierrepont St. Free
Feb 5th, 7:30 PM |Words and Waves at Red Hook Record Shop. Readings and presentation of Thomas LeGrega’s surf film. 360 Van Brunt St.
IN THER OTHER NEWS..
A Coney Island Banksy Moves to CT: The 13-year-old Banksy mural, Tagging Robot, on a Coney Island building was sold–wall and all–to a bar in Bridgeport, CT. If you want to know how they moved the artwork, check out this video from Fine Art Shippers. (Coneyologist/Gothamist/NYPost)
2-for-1 Broadway Tickets: I’m not sure which shows are available, but I’m certainly going to try to score some tickets during NYC’s Broadway Week throughu Feb. 12th.
See you next week. JLH