Lehigh Valley Barge no. 79

Lehigh Valley Barge No. 79 is an old wooden railroad barge built in 1914, the only surviving one of its kind. Today it houses the Waterfront Museum, floating at pier 44 in Red Hook. They discovered the barge in 1985 in Edgewater, NJ. After 9 years of repairing the ship and removing the caked mud, it’s virtually back to its original condition. Amazing that this old ship floats!

                      

As part of the museum, they have a school, or “floating classroom,” aboard the barge. Here, kids can learn about boats, i.e. “knot-tying, why boats float, identification of the different types of vessels that crisscross the harbor daily.”

As if the boat couldn’t get more kiddie-friendly, it also holds regular circus shows in the summer. “Showboat Sazzam” features jugglers, clowns, magicians, acrobats –everything you could want at a circus all in this little boat! It’s cool that this discovered old ship is being put to good use, the people who found it had a cool and interesting idea for what to do with it. It’s a great tool for promoting education of the harbor, and a cool one too.

STORM KING

Storm King mountain has had a few names before this quite epic one was settled on. Henry Hudson called it Klinkesberg, due to it's wrinkled ridges. Dutch colonists gave it the name Boterberg, as the curved mound resembled a lump of butter. But 19th century writer, Nathaniel Parker Willis gave it the name that stuck. He says, "the tallest mountain is looked upon as the sure foreteller of a storm...He seems the monarch, and this seems his stately ordering of a change in weather."

In the mid 60's Storm King was the focal point of a monumental environmental battle. The Scenic Hudson Preservation Coalition fought to save Storm King, as Con Edison proposed to build a pumped-storage hydroelectric plant that would cut through the mountain. After a 17-year battle, Scenic Hudson gathered support from 20,000 people world wide and forced Con Ed to abandon their plans. The judge agreed this project would effect aesthetic properties of the land -- a surprising ruling at that time. This case marks the first time environmental law was seen as a new legal specialty, and is a cornerstone of environmental battles. It's good that Nathaniel Parker Willis's name for the mountain stuck. Perhaps today it is not seen as the ruler over the changing weather, but over the change in social climate.

Dutch New York. Kind of.

One aspect of Dutch New York is that this history goes unrecognized. When you search "Dutch New York" in Google, the first thing that comes up is this:

http://thedutchnyc.com/about/

It's the website for a hip, upscale soho restaurant that has virtually nothing to do with Dutch history of New York. In fact, taking a look at the FAQ page, they ask, "what does the Dutch mean?" and they answer, "Nothing really. It's just an American joint that serves food, wine and spirits." If anything, this is a testament to how our Dutch history is lost today, and how many New Yorkers are blind to it. The only remnant of anything Dutch about this restaurant is the oyster selection, which I'm sure many of its patrons overlook. Today, Dutch New York might not mean anything to a lot of its residents.

Here's a home-made commercial for the Dutch, somewhat inspired by the one on the "about" page:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/pgd4tl

Raccoon stand-off

 It was around two in the morning when I turned up my street heading home. Trash day was the next day, and the street was decorated with endless piles of garbage bags, the aroma of which was not pleasing to me even in such a groggy state. In the distance, out of a garbage pile, a four-legged thing leapt out. At first I thought nothing of it, figured it was just one of the many 19^th st. cats that roam the block. I kept moving, heavy-footed, but the creature wouldn’t budge, its green glowing eyes fixed right on me. As I got closer I noticed it was much fatter than any cat, and saw a long, fluffy tail pointed straight – RACCOON! I stopped there, caught right in those bright green beams. I didn’t move, he didn’t move – for about 30 seconds. Did it just hiss at me? (at least I thought it did, could’ve been making that up though). I couldn’t tell if the bastard was frothing at the mouth, but I wasn’t going to take my chances. It slinked away eventually, so I kept moving, slowly, cautiously.

Nat

Gowanus

The Gowanus neighborhood, originally a marshy tidal inlet, is extremely affected by the manmade canal that was once a creek. In 1849, the canal was built as a result of minimal dock space in Manhattan. In the late 1800’s gas and oil plants started popping up around the canal, which led to constant pollution and raw sewage in the soil and water (pretty much up until today). The BQE, built directly above the canal, also adds to the pollution what with its oil runoff. In the 1950’s Red Hook and Carroll Gradens was a heavily mob-run territory, and many bodies were dumped in the Gowanus canal.

Today Gowanus residents are growing more concerned about the state of the canal and the health risks it can cause. The mosquitoes are horrible around there, and “hurt more” (according to one Gowanus dweller). Bloomberg, developers, and the GCCDC refute the idea of the superfund, saying that cleaning the area would be a swifter process if private investors developed and swanked up the neighborhood. However, the EPA received a record number of signatures for a petition for the superfund (even though a petition isn’t necessarily needed to enact a superfund).

During the hurricane, our friends living close to the canal had to evacuate their apartment. We, too, were concerned and went to higher ground, seeking refuge on 22^nd st and 7^th ave in park slope. Although we don’t live directly on the canal, we recognize the issues and problems that face the residents of Gowanus, and we also feel the sense of community that has been built around it.

http://www.gowanuscanal.org/

http://www.gowanusyourfaceoff.com/?p=3603

http://gowanus.org/gccdc/

Nat/Hardy

Gowanus/Park Slope area c. 1609

Before Dutch colonization of Brooklyn, the Lenape and Canarsee Native Americans inhabited the land, which was mostly a rolling green landscape with abundant wildlife. The neighborhood’s original name, Gowanes Creek – named after Chief Gowane of the local Canarsee tribe – was an inlet of small creeks in the saltwater marshland of south Brooklyn. In 1636 Gowanus was made into one of the first Brooklyn hamlets, extending back then to Sunset Park (which encompasses where I live now, 19^th st. and 5^th ave.). Dutch settlers would fish for large oysters and send them back to Europe, which became Brooklyn’s first export. Weird to think of this “creek” as anything other than the polluted canal it is today.