Falconworks Artists Group will present new work in the ongoing ”Off the Hook” performance series. Off the Hook consists of original plays written by young people age 12-16 from Red Hook, and performed by the workshop participants alongside professional actors from throughout New York City. The shows are the culmination of a three-month workshop in playwriting and acting.

The performances will take place on Friday, December 14 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, December 15 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the auditorium of PS 15-The Patrick F. Daly School on Sullivan Street (between Van Brunt and Richards Streets) in Red Hook. Admission is free. Call 718-395-3218 for reservations and information. Also, visit www.falconworks.com.

This week’s New York Magazine offers their 2 cents (or 4,600 words) on the present state of Red Hook. The article is the latest follow-up on last summer’s Timeout article which declared that the neighborhood had “Arrived.”

Since then, Red Hook’s buzz has waned while two bars and a restaurant have closed—prompting the New York Post to write “Call it ‘Dead Hook’”.

New York Magazine’s Adam Sternbergh took a more in-depth approach in the article entitled, “The Embers of Gentrification.” Sternbergh quotes many residents as he pops into local bars, restaurants and last month’s “A Taste of Red Hook” fundraiser for the Red Hook Initiative. While eulogizing the neighborhood’s “It”-status, he summarizes that a failure to gentrify Red Hook could have positive implications beyond Hamilton Ave.

In that sense, Red Hook is lucky to be Dead Hook: on the firebreak of super-gentrification, the neighborhood was spared, rather than consumed. And in the future, when we look back at these gold-rush years, we might remember Red Hook not as the Wild West outpost that was the last hot neighborhood to gentrify, but as more like the Alamo—the first hot neighborhood that didn’t.

Richard Desroche, Isaac Mizrahi & Paulette LoMonaco
invite you to a special Art Auction on November 1, 2007 at CRG Gallery to benefit Good Shepherd Services.

Silent Auction opens at 6:30 PM

Live Auction begins at 7:15 PM

Silent Auction closes at 8:00 PM

Good Shepherd Services (GSS) is a leading youth development, education, and family service agency that serves over 18,000 program participants a year. We give vulnerable youth in New York City the opportunity to take ownership of their future, making a difference today and for the next generation.

When

October 31, 2007   7:30 am - 9:30 am

Where

Brooklyn Borough Hall
Joralemon St. (bet. Adams & Court Sts.)
Brooklyn

Transportation for Red Hook and Gowanus residents will get worse before it gets better, according to a Metro report. The NYC Transit Authority has announced that repair work on the Culver Viaduct will require a 12-month closure of the Smith and 9th St. station. Estimates suggest the station could be closed for most of 2010.

“The bottom line is quite simple: The infrastructure work and system upgrades that comprise this project are necessary for the continued and future safe operation of the current F and G service,” said NYC Transit spokesperson Paul Fleuranges.

The paper also quotes Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman:

“We’ve jumped a step somewhere. We might have been blazed over … It would be an outrageous inconvenience,” he said, while acknowledging the project’s goals were positive.

The project is slated for completion in mid-2012. In addition to  structural improvements to the crumbling viaduct, the project will also extend the G line to Church Ave. and rehabilitate an express track–potentially paving the way for an express F line. 

Meeting location : Red Hook Justice Center