WWNYC Neighborhood Smackdown: Red Hook “Meathook” Brooklyn VS. “El Diablo” Hell’s Kitchen
¿Quién es más macho?
Brooklyn’s Red Hook may have been the setting for H.P. Lovecraft’s terrifying short tale, “The Horror at Red Hook,” but don’t expect Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen—the setting for “West Side Story”—to go down without menacing finger snaps, a show-stopping dance number and a flurry of jazz hands!
These two NYC neighborhoods are well-matched in terms of their working class roots and vestiges of a bad-ass history that seem to inspire nostalgia in newer residents who seek out this authenticity in a neighborhood, although demand driven condo and co-op prices and merciless credit checks might be prohibitive to any apartment applicant who actually has a working class income or bad-ass history of their own.
For such NYC real estate seekers, Hell’s Kitchen past may trump Red Hook in terms of bad-assed-ness, but Red Hook is a serious contender to the title of Uber-Urban 'Hood of Industrial Chic in that it's about ten years behind Hell’s Kitchen in the relentless march of gentrification, so highly coveted Brooklyn condos, co-ops, apartments, and brownstones can be more easily hunted down here than in virtually any other NYC real estate market.
More specs for Hell's Kitchen's can be found here, but below are the components of the quality of whoop-ass that Red Hook brings to the chain-link octagon for the epic NYC Neighborhood Smackdown that is surely playing out with gratuitous brutality in your real estate addled brain:
RED HOOK
LOCATION
Red Hook is a peninsula in the East River on the southern edge of Downtown Brooklyn, so the only non-nautical border is the Gowanus Expressway and Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel approach that effectively lops this pointy “Southern Brooklyn” appendage.
POPULATION: Approximately 11,000
Hell's Kitchen: Approximately 42,000
AREA: .82 Square Miles
Hell's Kitchen: .91 Square Miles
AVERAGE RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY SALE PRICE (Mar-May '08): $773,750
Average Brooklyn Condo, Co-op, Home: $670,296
Average Hell's Kitchen Condo, Co-op, Home (Dec. '07-Feb. '08): $1,200,000
Average Manhattan Condo, Co-op, Home: $2,286,490
AVERAGE PRICE PER RESIDENTIAL SQUARE FOOT (Mar-May '08): $388
Brooklyn Average: $349
Hell's Kitchen Average: $778
Manhattan Average: $1265
TRANSPORTATION
Yeah, about that… Red Hook is very under-served by public transportation, contributing to the isolated quality of the neighborhood that some residents love but that others find annoying.
PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS, PS 15 AND PS 27
45% Read At Or Above Grade Level (2007 State Test Scores)
Hell's Kitchen: 71%
PUBLIC MIDDLE SCHOOL, PS 27
21% Read At Or Above Grade Level (2007 State Test Scores)
EATING AND DRINKING An industrial peninsula of Foodie heaven...
The Good Fork, 391 Van Brunt St. (at Coffey St.), 718-643-6636
Tini Wine Bar and Café, 414 Van Brunt St., 718-855-4206
Defonte’s Sandwich Shop, 379 Columbia St. (at Luquer St.), 718-625-8052
Sixpoint Craft Ales, 40 Van Dyke St. (at Dwight St.)
Hell's Kitchen: Lots of great places, but Restaurant Row (W. 46th bet. 8th, 9th Aves.) is it's own inner circle of Hell for area residents. Someone really ought to take down that sign:
Ikea, 1 Beard St. GRAND OPENING: Monday, June 18 9AM
Still no end to the media Swede-ing frenzy: NYSun, WNYC, NYO, Newsday, NYT
OPENING DAY SWAG ALERT!!!
Edible Schoolyard Project, Red Hook Farmer's Market, 6 Wolcott (at Dwight)
(Teenage Mutant Ninja Organic Farmers!)
Fairway Market, 480-500 Van Brunt St.
(Just like the one on the Upper East Side, but Brooklyn-ier!)
Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies, Pier 41, 204 Van Dyke St., 718-858-5333
(Why Al Roker can't keep the weight off...)
FUN
Waterfront Arts Festival
Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge, Pier 44, 290 Conover St., 718-624-4719
Red Hook Boaters, Louis Valentino Jr. Pier Park, 917-676-6458
Who says there is no free kayaking in NYC?
OF INTEREST
Statue Of Liberty: Red Hook is the only NYC neighborhood that gets a full frontal view of Lady Liberty, as Red Hook happens to be in the sight line of the land that that privilege is reserved for—her nation of origin, France.
Brooklyn Cruise Terminal: In 2006 this revamped industrial pier became the new home to that Grand Dam of floating wedding cakes, the Queen Mary 2.
Feast at the Red Hook Ball Fields: Apparently well worth whatever intestinal risk you might incur. The Department of Health tried to close these unlicensed food vendors and foodies and locals alike went all apoplectic. Their case is still pending.
Brooklyn’s Red Hook may have been the setting for H.P. Lovecraft’s terrifying short tale, “The Horror at Red Hook,” but don’t expect Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen—the setting for “West Side Story”—to go down without menacing finger snaps, a show-stopping dance number and a flurry of jazz hands!
These two NYC neighborhoods are well-matched in terms of their working class roots and vestiges of a bad-ass history that seem to inspire nostalgia in newer residents who seek out this authenticity in a neighborhood, although demand driven condo and co-op prices and merciless credit checks might be prohibitive to any apartment applicant who actually has a working class income or bad-ass history of their own.
For such NYC real estate seekers, Hell’s Kitchen past may trump Red Hook in terms of bad-assed-ness, but Red Hook is a serious contender to the title of Uber-Urban 'Hood of Industrial Chic in that it's about ten years behind Hell’s Kitchen in the relentless march of gentrification, so highly coveted Brooklyn condos, co-ops, apartments, and brownstones can be more easily hunted down here than in virtually any other NYC real estate market.
More specs for Hell's Kitchen's can be found here, but below are the components of the quality of whoop-ass that Red Hook brings to the chain-link octagon for the epic NYC Neighborhood Smackdown that is surely playing out with gratuitous brutality in your real estate addled brain:
RED HOOK
LOCATION
Red Hook is a peninsula in the East River on the southern edge of Downtown Brooklyn, so the only non-nautical border is the Gowanus Expressway and Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel approach that effectively lops this pointy “Southern Brooklyn” appendage.
POPULATION: Approximately 11,000
Hell's Kitchen: Approximately 42,000
AREA: .82 Square Miles
Hell's Kitchen: .91 Square Miles
AVERAGE RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY SALE PRICE (Mar-May '08): $773,750
Average Brooklyn Condo, Co-op, Home: $670,296
Average Hell's Kitchen Condo, Co-op, Home (Dec. '07-Feb. '08): $1,200,000
Average Manhattan Condo, Co-op, Home: $2,286,490
AVERAGE PRICE PER RESIDENTIAL SQUARE FOOT (Mar-May '08): $388
Brooklyn Average: $349
Hell's Kitchen Average: $778
Manhattan Average: $1265
TRANSPORTATION
Yeah, about that… Red Hook is very under-served by public transportation, contributing to the isolated quality of the neighborhood that some residents love but that others find annoying.
SUBWAYS: Ah, the sub-what now?
TRANSPORTATION TIME TO MIDTOWN, PEAK HOURS
B61 Bus to Jay Street/Borough Hall Subway Station: 25 minutes
→ A, C, or F Train to Midtown stops: 20 minutes
B77 Bus to Smith and Ninth Streets Subway Station: 10 minutes
→ F Train to Midtown stops: 25 minutes
Car, via Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel to Lower Manhattan: 15 minutes
Parking, Taking Subway to Midtown stops: 15 minutes
→ Driving to Midtown: depends wildly on traffic.
WATER TAXI: Van Burnt Street (by the Fairway) has direct service to lower Manhattan and is on a route with stops in other parts of Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan.
Hell's Kitchen: With all of the following transportation hubs in walking distance, infinite combinations of subway, bus, train, PATH, or airport shuttle can get you to almost any destination on the planet!
Time Square—42nd St. Subway Station (Grand Central Shuttle, S)
Port Authority Bus Terminal, W40th-W42nd Sts., 8th & 9th Aves.
Pennsylvania ("Penn") Station, W31st-W33rd Sts., 8th & 9th Aves.
PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS, PS 15 AND PS 27
45% Read At Or Above Grade Level (2007 State Test Scores)
Hell's Kitchen: 71%
PUBLIC MIDDLE SCHOOL, PS 27
21% Read At Or Above Grade Level (2007 State Test Scores)
EATING AND DRINKING An industrial peninsula of Foodie heaven...
The Good Fork, 391 Van Brunt St. (at Coffey St.), 718-643-6636
Tini Wine Bar and Café, 414 Van Brunt St., 718-855-4206
Defonte’s Sandwich Shop, 379 Columbia St. (at Luquer St.), 718-625-8052
Sixpoint Craft Ales, 40 Van Dyke St. (at Dwight St.)
Hell's Kitchen: Lots of great places, but Restaurant Row (W. 46th bet. 8th, 9th Aves.) is it's own inner circle of Hell for area residents. Someone really ought to take down that sign:
SHOPPING"Tourists! Proudly unfurl your maps of Manhattan in the middle of the sidewalk and be sure to elbow other pedestrians in the face or poke them in the eye when you point without looking! Ask Ask hurrying midtown residents and workers for directions to the Disney Store then get angry and refuse to believe them when, a) they give you directions that you did not expect, or b) they say that they do not know. And please do not forget to use others' reactions to your inconsiderate behavior as proof that all New Yorkers are rude but that you out-smarted them by being rude first!"
Ikea, 1 Beard St. GRAND OPENING: Monday, June 18 9AM
Still no end to the media Swede-ing frenzy: NYSun, WNYC, NYO, Newsday, NYT
OPENING DAY SWAG ALERT!!!
Edible Schoolyard Project, Red Hook Farmer's Market, 6 Wolcott (at Dwight)
(Teenage Mutant Ninja Organic Farmers!)
Fairway Market, 480-500 Van Brunt St.
(Just like the one on the Upper East Side, but Brooklyn-ier!)
Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies, Pier 41, 204 Van Dyke St., 718-858-5333
(Why Al Roker can't keep the weight off...)
FUN
Waterfront Arts Festival
Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge, Pier 44, 290 Conover St., 718-624-4719
Red Hook Boaters, Louis Valentino Jr. Pier Park, 917-676-6458
Who says there is no free kayaking in NYC?
OF INTEREST
Statue Of Liberty: Red Hook is the only NYC neighborhood that gets a full frontal view of Lady Liberty, as Red Hook happens to be in the sight line of the land that that privilege is reserved for—her nation of origin, France.
Brooklyn Cruise Terminal: In 2006 this revamped industrial pier became the new home to that Grand Dam of floating wedding cakes, the Queen Mary 2.
Feast at the Red Hook Ball Fields: Apparently well worth whatever intestinal risk you might incur. The Department of Health tried to close these unlicensed food vendors and foodies and locals alike went all apoplectic. Their case is still pending.
Labels: CULTURE, NEIGHBORHOODS, SCHOOLS
posted by Yannie at
8:36 PM
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