It's been a busy week in Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill, that testy little corner of Brooklyn where residents are up in arms about a number of developments--actual and proposed--in their midst. Here's where some things stand:

1) Downzoning: The push to downzone the neighborhood took some baby steps forward this week. The City Planning Department has agreed to change some arcane zoning regulations that define very narrow streets in the neighborhood as "wide" based on included the big "gardens" that in front of buildings from which the neighborhood got its name. A number of blocks have been defined as broad avenues (and therefore allowed for much taller buildings to be developed) even though they're barely wide enough to accommodate parked cars and one driving. A rally to push a City Council resolution calling for quick action on an overall downzoning is coming next week.

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RED HOOK—"Part of the problem in Red Hook is the stalemate between people who are pushing for more residential development and amenities for residents, and the forces of industry, some who would like to keep the place an industrial dumping ground. Having lived in Red Hook - the real Red Hook - for 5 years we've seen many of these fights. The push for a garbage dump, the Imlay Street building fight, the push to remove the container terminal (or at least ASI), and recently the blatant use of residential property for non-residential use."

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The corner of Dwight Street and Beard Street in Red Hook on April 1, 2006. The buildings are the old Todd Shipyard.

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It doesn't fit through the garage entrance. Conspicuous consumption: not just for Manhattanites anymore.
· Live from Red Hook: Streetwalking Scenes Part 3 [Curbed]
· Live from Red Hook: Streetwalking Scenes Part 2 [Curbed]
· Live from Red Hook: Streetwalking Scenes Part 1 [Curbed]

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In advance of this little experiment, we asked some Red Hook folks to alert us to possible topics of interest. This little piece of intel stood out:

I'm not sure if this fits your criteria for interesting red hook fodder, but there is a building on Van Dyke Street (right next to the methadone clinic building) that has been mysteriously gushing water for months. originally, it was just spewing out from the foundation of the house somewhere....then they built some sort of gutter that shoots it directly out into the street. regardless, there has been a constant fountain of water coming out of that dilapidated building since at least the spring. there was actually algae growing on the pavement for a while when it was warmer.

Folks, we chased the lead, and there is the proof in all its moist glory. Please say a kind hello to 130 Van Dyke, the Water-Gushing Building.

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A view down Beard Street in Red Hook on April 1, 2006.

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Red Hook Ballfields With and Without Vendors from rsguskind on Vimeo.
Now you see them. Now you don't. Here are the Red Hook ball fields with the taco vendors and without them.

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Degentri-what? Sophisticated hipster? Check. Stroller? Check.
· Live from Red Hook: Streetwalking Scenes Part 1 [Curbed]

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Real estate tsunami Barbara Corcoran lit the fuse on the Red Hook bomb, a bomb that—depending on your belief system—either went off, sputtered out, has yet to go off, or will never go off. In April 2005, Babs famously purchased 293 Van Brunt Street for $1.075 million, a building with two apartments and a storefront. Two years later, the storefront still sat empty after a hefty pricechop. The New York story on Red Hook degentrification reported that Barbara finally rented the space out at the reduced tally of $1,800/month, but has the process soured her on the Hook forever? We asked, and she responded, rather candidly:

I'm still holding the property and will for a long time to come. I paid a lot for it and sat with an empty storefront for over two years reducing the commercial rent inch by inch. I finally rented it a few months back to nice tenants who also own the wine bar ‘Tini’ farther down on Van Brunt. I have a fabulous piano player as a tenant on the top floor, which has guaranteed a high turnover on the floor below, but they’ve all been nice and have paid their rent on time. Now that I have a real paying tenant on the ground floor, which gives me a shot at breaking even, we’ve discovered a water seepage problem in the brickwork and I’ve just ok'd a $15,000 repair job in hopes of fixing it for good. It’s just great to be a landlord of an old building that sits on the water. And by the way, to get the commercial tenant I had to put in a whole new kitchen.

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We've already laid out some theories on the current state of Red Hook, but when you're dealing with a topic as loaded as degentrification, the hits just keep on coming. Here, some other thoughts on this charming-yet-gloomy (today, at least) square mile of Brooklyn:

The Detroit Theory: Burnlab filed a response to the New York story, and the sentiment is that—like Detroit—Red Hook is "stalled" but not "dead," In Burnlab's words: "I don't see either Red Hook or Detroit ever being truly gentrified places, due to blatantly obvious but seemingly insurmountable barriers. Red Hook is a bit simpler: a subway stop less than twenty minutes away would all but change everything (all but housing projects, crumbling infrastructure, etc.) Detroit is more complicated and an awful lot bigger, but there are perhaps quixotic yet theoretically plausible solutions there as well."

The Soul Theory: Meanwhile, what would a weighty social topic be without an opinion from David Byrne? Writing in his online journal after a trip to the Ball Fields in August, the Talking Head said: "I recently heard about an upcoming forum called 'New York: Is it in danger of losing it’s Soul?'. Red Hook, much of it anyway, still has plenty — but as the waterfront gets developed there is always the danger that the lure of big bucks will carve big chunks of that soul away. There are plenty of vacant lots and crumbling warehouses here — there were some suspicious large fires last year. As beautiful as dead tech is, I’m not suggesting that the areas with crumbling concrete and rebar spikes sticking up be kept intact, but that development be allowed to take place on a human scale and at a human pace." Red Hook: capturer of human souls.
· Live from Red Hook: A Curbed Network Blogathon [Curbed]

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A young hip urban male—in Red Hook—reading that very issue of New York magazine that chronicles the faults of his neighborhood. He appears to be deep into the story on bed bugs, but still, the message is loud and clear.
· Live from Red Hook: Streetwalking Scenes Part 1 [Curbed]
· Live from Red Hook: A Curbed Network Blogathon [Curbed]

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[The industrial revolution comes to Red Hook! c. 1982 1870]

To look forward, one must first look back. Right? Per our good friends at Wikipedia, the village of Red Hook was settled by the Dutch colonists of New Amsterdam in 1636, and named Roode Hoek. In Dutch "Hoek" means "point" or "corner" and not the English hook (i.e. not something curved or bent). Today, the area is home to about 11,000 people. Rather than continuing with this blatant cut/pasting from Wikipedia, let's take a look at the evolution of a little place called Roode Hoek from them to now, by way of a series of maps and such we've unearthed.

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