SPRING IS IN THE AIR, AT LEAST FOR TODAY, AND MORE NEWS FROM WARD 6

"Ward 6 gives me news I care about that I don't see anywhere else,” JB of BK Heights

Hey neighbors,

Happy Saturday. One week closer to Spring. Love watching the snow fall, but it’s time to shed my winter coat for a cute sundress and open-toed shoes. 

Got a tip? Email me: [email protected] or @ward6_brooklyn.

Post #23: Red Hook Love, more big real estate deals in Cobble Hill, Mamdani listens to renter woes, boring but imp.-property taxes, the BQE slowly crumbles, Cong. Goldman downplays district drama, Mark Your Calendar!

First, Timeout deems Red Hook the  “coolest neighborhood” in 2025. Now, The New York Times is reporting Red Hook as “the best dive bar neighborhood in the city and maybe the world.” Wow. 

This rousing endorsement was in response to a reader who asked the Food section editor for a family-friendly dive bar to visit on their trip to New York City in April. The Times raved about the Brooklyn Ice House on Van Brunt, “The burger, a famous dive-bar menu bellwether, is best in class, with a patty that has got to be three inches tall…”  If you want a local perspective.

While I’m talking about Red Hook, the Court St. Journal shared this yesterday: Have you heard of the Red Hook cocktail? It’s a little bit of Manhattan and a little bit of Brooklyn, with “a bittersweet bite.” And, wait, there is more from CSJ! Red Hook Tavern is one of the toughest places to get a reservation in New York City, and Guy Fieri loves Defonte’s.  Thank you Court St. Journal!

What do Red Hook residents think of all this attention?

What Red Hook doesn’t have is the fabulous Chocolate Room. I regularly splurge for The Chocolate Room’s chocolate-covered graham crackers. Other than Guido’s brand that my SIL regularly buys for me, this Court St. institution has me addicted. I never knew who owned the place until this week’s News12 story.

I reported a few weeks ago about the sale of an entire Cobble Hill block, part of the former Long Island College Hospital footprint, to Rockrose Development. This week, another parcel, a former parking lot across from the new NYU Langone building, changed hands and is now owned by Sunrise Development, a commercial and residential firm with other projects in our area. 

You can see FXCollaborative’s architectural renderings to see how the last developer envisioned the building. I spoke with Amy Breedlove, the former Cobble Hill Association (CHA) president, who worked closely on the Long Island College Hospital project for years, about how quickly the new owners can start building. Breedlove said the new owners can build based on the already-approved plans, even with slight modifications. I’m trying to confirm with the developers. 

The sticking point, Breedlove pointed out, is that the CHA fought for no resident parking in the new building to avoid cars coming and going on busy Hicks St. The parking was supposed to be on Pacific St., which another developer now owns.

As expected, I heard lots of horrific stories from renters at Thursday night’s Rental Ripoff hearing organized by the Mayor’s office. It was the first of five scheduled meetings, one in each borough, and after it wraps up the Office to Protect Tenants Rights will release a report within three months.

Leslie Duncan, a retired fashion industry worker from Flatbush, told me it took more than a year and a judge’s order for her landlord to fix a massive hole in the ceiling of her top-floor apartment. People also talked about illegal fees added to their rent, lack of hot water for months, and overall, inhuman living conditions.

Renters could speak one-on-one with city housing employees, instead of a typical hearing where participants testify publicly. One woman told me she was disappointed by the format, as she wanted everyone in the room, including the hordes of journalists (at times, there seemed to be more journalists than renters) to hear about her landlord and his inexcusable—and I’m sure illegal—behavior. She has a point.

More coverage from The City.

Another record week for Brooklyn property sales.  A little hard to stomach after hearing the rental stories.

The Brooklyn Eagle reports a five-bedroom, five-bathroom Cobble Hill brownstone on Douglas St. sold for $9.4 million. Gulp. The mysterious  Eckstrom storefront on Henry and Warren St. is the developer on the project.  

And this week, Bloomberg reports on a growing phenomenon of wealthy New Yorkers buying two adjacent Brownstones and combining them into a single-family home in “The Rise of Manhattan Mega-Mansions.”  

While we haven’t seen this in our area of Brooklyn, we do have what’s called roll-ups, according to the Community Board 6, when a multi-family building converts to single-family home. As the Bloomberg story points out, this loss of units adds to the neighborhoods’ housing shortage, citing Carroll Gardens as an example.  

More from New York Magazine.

Take my Brooklyn building. Every year we’re faced with double-digit tax increase, while our Brownstown neighbors across the street are not. It trickles down to us, the owners, through maintenance increases, which is pricing a lot of people out of their apartments.

I’m embarrassed to admit I haven’t followed, as closely as I should, the ongoing debate about the way-past-its-prime BQE cantilever.  If you can relate, I have the CliffNotes (definition: quick summary of books that people used in high school to avoid reading an assigned book. Not a teacher approved substitute) version for you.

I highly recommend watching WNYC’s live-taping “What to do with the BQE,” from last week with Big Dig podcast host Ian Cross, transit reporter Stephen Nessen, Polly Trottenberg, former NYC Department of Transportation commissioner and current dean of NYU’s Wagner School, and Lara Birnback, ED of the Brooklyn Heights Association.

My CliffNotes:

Why do I keep writing about the this week after week? Midterms, midterms, midterms. The Democrats might pick up a seat in this solidly Republican district if Trump-aligned Rep. Nicole Malliotakis loses her appeal. Our Congressman, Dan Goldman, is her main democratic rival right now. 

Goldman addressed his take on this in an interview with the New York Editorial Board, an informal group of veteran local journalists, according to their Substack. Goldman downplayed the redistricting lawsuit:

I was disappointed that this group of mostly local NYC journalists, who write for publications like The City, New York Focus, and the Daily News, did not ask Goldman about our community’s displeasure (kind description) with Goldman as the head of the Brooklyn Marine Terminal task force. 

If Malliotakis’ district is not redrawn in time and Goldman faces former Comptroller Brad Lander (our former councilmember) in the primary, the NY Editorial Board said Goldman could be at risk in Brownstown-Brooklyn because of his position on Israel. While I agree that this is a huge issue for many of our neighbors, I also know the Brooklyn Marine Terminal is a critical issue for his constituents in our corner of Brooklyn. 

(On Thursday night, I went to the first Rental Ripoff meeting that the Mayor’s office organized, and who did I sit next to? A member of the NY Editorial Board! And yes, I told her I was disappointed.)  

I first wrote about it a few weeks ago, as a way to complain about the helicopter noise that bombarded us during the Ryder Cup weekend. With the World Cup this summer and Sail250, commemorating our country’s 250th anniversary, we need to make sure the Mayor knows that commuting via helicopter or taking sightseeing tours impacts our corner of Brooklyn. If you want to get involved, Stop the Chop NY/NJ

TODAY! 10 AM - 6 PM | Apotheke one-day warehouse sale - up to 70% off | 459 Van Brunt St. 

March 1, Sunday. 4 - 6:00 PM | Hands off NYC Brooklyn Resisters. Meet your neighbors, listen to music, learn different ways to fight back, and get your free whistle!

AMNY, “Ice Raid In Brooklyn”

March 2, Monday, 5 PM - 7 PM | Knitting Club at Swallow Cafe on Atlantic & Clinton 

March 3, Tues. | 6 - 8:00 PM Borough Hall |  Open Plans New York - learn about calmer, quieter, and truly local city streets. “Co-hosted by the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office and Open Plans—a proven, neighborhood-wide approach to reducing unnecessary cut-through traffic and making streets safer, healthier, and more community-oriented. 

March 5, Thurs. | 6:30 - 8:00 pm @ Christ Church: Join your neighbors in assembling toiletry kits for residents of the New Sunrise Shelter on 3rd and Bond. The Cobble Hill Association will provide all supplies. RSVP

March 7 | Ward 6 finally sees actor Michael Shannon’s R.E.M. tribute band!

Save the date |  March 10, 6 - 6:45 PM | Jalopy Theater | Community meeting with the Department of Transportation | Come one, come all to support your neighbors on Columbia St, who, after an elementary school student was hit by a car late last year, immediately began to lobby the DOT to implement safety measures on a stretch of Columbia St. There are two intersections, including the one where she was injured, without stop signs or traffic signals. As a result, cars race down this portion of the street.  We must pack the house! 

March 10th | Free music series begins at BAM. 

Save the date: March 11th, 6:00 PM |  Sacred Hearts and St. Stephen Church, 125 Summit St. | Join local community groups, AM Jo Anne Simon, Councilmember Shahana Hanif, and the NYCEDC to understand this phase of the Brooklyn Marine Terminal “vision plan.”  Great way to learn about this phase of the proposed project.

Remember: this is a proposed plan and a lot must happen before it’s shovel-ready, if we ever reach this stage.  There is still time to learn and get involved. 

You will learn how to submit testimony or speak publicly on 3/16 about your concerns. The EDC went forward with its “vision plan” without doing impact studies, which makes it even more challenging to weigh the viability of what they proposed.

For example, I plan to ask the City to conduct a study that examines the impact on PS29 and BHS on Court St., with construction vehicles using Kane St. as their entry point to the BMT area.  Displacement of Columbia St. Waterfront residents is another concern if the city builds luxury towers, and the cost of remediating old industrial land, drawing on lessons learned from Gowanus. 

March 16th | 6:00 PM | NYCEDC virtual BMT hearing, where you can testify or listen to the concerns of your neighbors. You can register to attend or testify at this session here.

Thank you for reading! See you next week.