Redhook

My storm through the Brooklyn Waterfront continues.

Yesterday I spent a few good hours biking through Redhook. There are arguments over the exact borders of this neighborhood, but for the purposes of this blog, its anything on the west side of the BQE as far south as the Gowanus Canal.

I almost lived here once. I really wish i had. Maybe its my fascination with industrial neighborhoods, or the writer in me that likes the underbelly and seediness of the docks after dark, or the photographer that likes the rough and rusty buildings next to giant collapsing cranes. Perhaps its just the way it is removed from the rest of New York...in every way possible. There are no subway stops, no developed neighborhoods. I was riding down the main strip yesterday (Columbia) and it was the first chilly day of fall. I smelled the distinct and nostalgia inducing smell of a wood burning stove. where else can you find that...while looking out at the Statue of Liberty?

More than anything about my little journey I'm finding, I am addicted to interesting waterfronts. Redhook is all waterfront. Most of it is closed to the public, being the largest post civil war docking port. In fact, as i found out yesterday while walking around the old Beard St. Warehouse pier that after the civil war Brooklyn became so filled with large red-brick warehouses that it earned the nickname "The Walled City."

The inner part of redhook has grown to a very eclectic neighborhood. It has the same feel as former industrial areas turned artsy enclaves as places like Williamsburg or Greenepoint but has much less pretension (probably because it is very far removed, physically, from other parts of the city). There are great little cafes and bars and one of my all-time favorite restaurants, Alma's of the corner of DeKalb and Columbia.

As the sun was setting i headed toward the Pier again. There is a great old abandoned train just sitting on the walkway outside of the entrance to the NYC water taxi. There is also a waterfront piazza outside of the Fairway market that is open to the public. From the water's edge you can see the Verazanno Bridge, the Bayonne Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, and lower Manhattan.

The sunset was spectacular. As you may be noticing i have become very fond of finding great places to watch sunsets...a hobby i hope to pass on to as many of you as I can.

Check out this website for more Redhook Stuff: http://www.redhookwaterfront.com/_hi.main/index.html

and as always...my fickr site.