Red Hook Neighborhood

The best part of this listing is that, in the virtue of Unilocal,it’s within the Gowanus neighborhood, so it wreaks havoc on bookmarks. Red Hook, though, is certainly one of the better waterside neighborhoods, and I really don’t feel it’s as underserviced by mass transit as you always hear, unless you’re completely immobile.

Seems like most reviews about the neighborhood of Red Hook on this page are either not very useful or contains wayy too much information. I mean if we want to know the entire history of this hood, we’ll Wikipedia it correct?
That being said I’ll try to keep it short and sweet (yeah right!!). Red Hook is the only NYC neighborhood that is NOT served by a subway station. Therefore, to get around without a car, you can take the bus (B61) that does a loop through the neighborhood to downtown Brooklyn where you can transfer to the A, C, F, N, and R trains at Jay St/​Metro Tech Station or the 2,3,4,5 trains at Borough Hall Station. To get to and from Manhattan Island, you can pay $ 5 (FREE on weekends) and take the IKEA Water Taxi that departs from Pier 11 to Ikea’s Dock in Red Hook and back in less than 20 minutes. The trip is much more exciting and faster than the Staten Island Ferry.
The main commercial ‘drag’ in Red Hook is Van Burnt Street where you will find a handful of eclectic shops, art galleries, bars, and restaurants. Red Hook’s streets are so calm and peaceful and empty that it seems like a ghost town — -even on WEEKENDS!
With sweeping views of New York Bay, the quiet and calm cobblestone streets, occasional street art scene, and an industrial vibe (it used to be one of the nation’s busiest shipping centers), Red Hook has a character all its own. It’s the big city infused with the flavor of New England, and it’s become home to artisans, musicians, beekeepers, rooftop gardeners and a host of creatives and entrepreneurs. With its stellar food scene, eclectic shopping and stunning views of the Statue of Liberty, Red Hook is filled with treasures waiting to be discovered.
I hope Red Hook doesn’t get too gentrified and lose its character to become another Williamsburg with overpriced clothing shops and expensive condos and towers occupied by hipsters living off trust funds (not that I have anything against them) because really, too much gentrification can get tiring and boring. And please don’t bring in a subway line here because I like it the way it is, harder for people to… which means less crowds and maintaining the community feel of the entire neighborhood

Step 1: Make time machine.
Step 2: Travel back to 1990.
Step 3: Buy an apartment in Red Hook for $ 10,000.
Step 4: Travel back to 2011 and sell it for $ 3 million.

50% of Red Hook gets 1 star
50% of Red Hook gets 4 stars
Let me elaborate:
If you want to come here and you’re not in the area, the only option (other than driving through the biggest pot holed streets in Brooklyn) is to take the B61 bus which runs through the area. If the only thing you know about Red Hook is that’s where all the Latin food trucks are during summer weekends by the ball fields, or that there’s an Ikea and a Fairway (both very close to there) then you already know the highlights of the area but not the real flavor of Red Hook. Half of Red Hook is full of ghetto unsavory areas, low income housing, and a real history of drug problems and crime (none of which are completely gone).
The other half is full of industrial buildings, old school blue collar businesses, long time Brooklyn residents, and a recent addition of artist studios, and high quality stores and restaurants. The area roughly west of Van Brunt is old school with spots of gentrification (unless you want to try one of the awesome Latin food trucks on a sunny summer weekend, there’s no reason to go east of Richards Street).
Another highlight to the area is Louis Valentino Park, really the closest you can get to the frontal view of the Statue of Liberty while standing on dry land (other than going to the island itself of course). If you find yourself in Red Hook go to Hope and Anchor for an amazing burger, The Brooklyn Ice House for the best dive bar experience, and Baked for an awesome brownie.
Other facts:
In 1776 Fort Defiance was built in Red Hook (no longer here) to aid in the American Revolution during the Battle of Brooklyn. George Washington described the fort as «small but exceedingly strong».
In the early 1900s Al Capone got his start as a small-​time criminal in Red Hook (he was born closer to the Brooklyn Heights area in 1899)
In the 1920s Red Hook was the busiest shipping port in the world.
In the 1940s-​1960s Notorious mobster, Joe Gallo («Crazy Joe») who was born in the area was very active in the mob scene and operated mostly out of the Red Hook area.
In the 1990s LIFE named Red Hook one of the worst neighborhoods in the country and the «crack capital of America»
In 2008 Real World Brooklyn took over a large former industrial building overlooking the bay (many local residents did not want them here and even kept them from coming into their businesses).

magnificent night rolling in like
a silent foghorn
prussian blue and smoky darkness
enveloping rusted citadels
homely window boxes.
like a tugboat, stronger than the flighty oblivious flesh and blood
and alianthus weeds resurfacing despite the
gentrified plantations of now
coexisting through mockery and airbrushing and odd
arrangements
still, these things pale and become lost in the utterness of light and sky.

I want to be helpful and educate the hipsters who moved here from the M states or Ohio or Kansas as to why we make fun of them. Hipsters are not hip. New Yorkers see hipsters as naïve and clueless.
Red Hook is one of the areas that hipsters have moved into. Although I give them credit. They are also pioneers. While people who were born and raised in Red Hook spend their entire lives trying to get out hipsters have made it safer and even «cool» to move in. How do I know this? I used to live in Red Hook as a kid and I was one of the only white people in Red Hook at the time. I was probably the only one and known around as” the white girl.“
That was a few decades ago. I am actually Swedish, Hispanic and Japanese. I look mostly Swedish which is why I was refereed to as the white girl. But if you look closely at my pictures you can see in my eyes the Japanese. The Hispanic you can only see in pictures of other family members which I will include in this review.
But I knew what Red Hook was and lived there because I could not afford anything else. I have also lived in Park Slope, and other Brooklyn neighborhoods, Queens, the upper East side of Manhattan, the upper West side of Manhattan and several other Manhattan neighborhoods. But I have roots in Red Hook Brooklyn. It used to be called by residents «Little Vietnam.»
Everyone I know there wants to get out and doesn’t seem to be able to while the” hipsters” are moving in. I know a few nice hipsters who live in Red Hook Brooklyn. One is a really good person with a high profile career that moved here because his job moved him to Red Hook from an M state. But to those who escaped Red Hook it is funny that people actually want to move there now. I lived at 426 Columbia street. The PJ’s. So when I call someone a hipster I have earned it.
Red Hook is the only part of New York City that has a full frontal view of the Statue of Liberty.
I was just moving out of Red Hook when they filmed the movie Straight out of Brooklyn. The family members I know who stayed in Red Hook all died before they reached their sixties either from AIDS related complications or violent death.
Though I really appreciate the renovation that is going on in Red Hook, I know it’s roots and would never move back under any circumstance.
Grand Theft Auto IV is based on Red Hook.
Taz the wrestler is also from Red Hook.
Al Capone is said to be from Red Hook.
In the 1990’s LIFE named Red Hook as one of the «worst» neighborhoods in the United States and as «the crack capital of America.»
Patrick Daly, the Principal of P. S. 15, was killed in 1992, in the crossfire of a drug-​related shooting while looking for a pupil who had left his school. The school was later renamed the Patrick Daly school after the beloved principal.
Red Hook is the site of the largest public housing development in Brooklyn, the Red Hook Houses which accommodate roughly 5,000 residents. Red Hook’s current eclectic mix of living artists and industrial businesses create a neighborhood coined «Residustrial» in 2008 by artist and resident John P. Missale. Red Hook also contains several parks, including Red Hook Park.
Red Hook is full of history, most of it colorful and much of it not good. Red Hook was at one time full of Santeria. I suspect that is how they came up with the name Botanica for the bar.
A Botanica is where those who practice Santeria get their religious wares.
In Red Hook Santeria was mostly from older Puerto Rican women who were Catholic and used the magic arts in addition to their religion. It is a religion of mixture. It is mixed with the magic arts, folklore. superstition and Catholicism.
The few original residents of Red Hook call the hipsters the crazy rich white people who moved in and laugh as they pass. If you are one of the crazy white people who moved in now you know why they laugh.
Red Hook is also the location where the transatlantic liner, the RMS Queen Mary 2, docks in New York City.
The beginning of the Red Hook renovation is said to have started with the building of IKEA which was controversial at the time. The residents were concerned with traffic congestion among other things. Once a free ferry service for shoppers from Manhattan proved more popular than expected.
Now Red Hook is popular for the Red Hook Ball fields.
The popularity of Red Hook will always be funny to me.
But the renovation is certainly fascinating. I may always laugh when I see the clueless hipsters paying big bucks to live where I tried so hard to escape from but I am also grateful to them for renovating a dying neighborhood with beautiful unique views of the Statue of Liberty.