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January 4, 2024 Vol. 20 Number 39 www.BrooklynDowntownStar.com
Brooklynites’ Hopes for 2024 - Page 18
Serving Bushwick, East Williamsburg, Park Slope, and Downtown Brooklyn
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A Banner Year for Barclays Center
Every Thursday
Brooklyn Downtown Star
January 4, 2024
Letter From the Editor
Dear readers, Happy New Year! My name is Christine Stoddard and I’m thrilled to be the new community editor for BQE Media’s Brooklyn newspapers. New York City truly is my favorite city in the world, and I feel so fortunate to cover news, culture, and history here. I come to you from a life of freelance reporting, coupled with literary and artistic pursuits, including film and television. I began my journalism career as an intern for Washington Life Magazine and WashingtonPost.com, with early contributor gigs at the Grinnell Herald-Register
and Richmond.com, and staff positions at Virginia Living Magazine and the Arlington Catholic Herald. My work has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Bustle, Teen Vogue, Yes! Magazine, 25A Magazine, and elsewhere. You can find my books, such as Desert Fox By the Sea, Hispanic & Latino Heritage in Virginia, Hello, New York: The Living And Dead, in bookstores and libraries around the world. My editorial work and photography has garnered awards from the Catholic Press Association, Bustle Editor’s Picks, FOLIO Magazine, the Puffin Foundation, the Al Neuharth Foundation, and other fine organizations. I hold an MFA from The City College of New York-CUNY and continue my studies at Columbia University. In 2023, Brooklyn Magazine named me one of its Top 50 Most Fascinating People for my creative work. (Very humbling, yes.) I’m kicking off my tenure at the Brooklyn Downtown Star and Greenpoint Star with a three-part series called Year in Review. In this edition and the next two, you will find a slew of highlights, updates, and reflections from and about some of your favorite people, businesses, and organizations in our borough. How did their 2023 go?
What are they looking forward to in 2024? I’ll give you the scoop! The series will span stories on the Office of Brooklyn Borough President, Barclays Center, NYC Parks with a special emphasis on our Brooklyn gems, and more. Stay tuned for next week’s edition of Year in Review. And, yes, the week after that, too! While I’m here, let me invite you to pitch me and send me your letters, tips, and questions: cstoddard@queensledger. com. I’m on the hunt for fascinating folks and the stories blossoming in and around North and Downtown Brooklyn. Don’t be shy!
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YOUR AD HERE! $30 / WEEK FOR 10 WEEKS, $300 TOTAL CALL FOR DETAILS 718-639-7000
Yours in all things BK, Christine Stoddard Brooklyn Community Editor
Community Event Journal Now thru Sun., Jan. 7 - Winter Lanter Festival - Walk through a world full of lights and lanterns lovngly handmade by artisans, some with over 20 years of experience, and learn about the culture and craftsmanship of traditional Chinese lantern festivals. Queens County Farm, 73-50 Little Neck Pkwy, Floral Park
Now thru Mon., Jan 15th - Studio
Email us at news@ queensledger.com with your news and community events!
Skate - A 2,500-square-foot ice rin with outdoor seating,
warm drinks and snacks, sits alongside studio skate holiday market, chalet restaurant, a private dining room, and Under’s Speakeasy. A space for all occasions, from morning to night. 99 Scott Ave., Ridgewood
Now thru Sun., Feb 4th - Spike Lee: Creative Sources - Through an immersive installation
of objects drawn from Lee’s personal collection, take a rare glimpse into the world of Spike Lee (born in Atlanta, GA 1957; raised in Brooklyn), one of the most influential and prolific American filmmakers and directors. Tickets Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Pkwy, Prospect Heights
The Brooklyn Downtown Star is published weekly on Thursdays by Queens Ledger/Greenpoint Star Inc., 45-23 47th St., Woodside, NY 11377, (718) 426-7200. (c)2022. Single copy 35¢ at all newsstands. Yearly subscrip- tion inside Brooklyn is $22. Outside Brooklyn is $33. Bulk Mail Postage Paid, Flushing, NY, Postmaster. Send all address changes to Greenpoint Star Newspapers, P.O. Box 780376, Maspeth, NY 11378. Fax: (347) 507-5827.
Call us today at 718-639-7000 to advertise on Page 3 of the Brooklyn Downtown Star!
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Brooklyn Downtown Star
January 4, 2024
YEAR IN REVIEW
estate agent as well as in the neighborhoods I roam, and I hope that this has a positive impact on the communities at large, and not just for those who can prosper from it. I believe Brooklyn’s spirit lies in its legacy and its people, and I hope that as more newcomers discover our unmatched borough and neighborhoods, they come with a willingness to stay, contribute and learn from their new surroundings – to add to our growing, connected community. That is my hope!” Turning to neighborhood Face-Melissa Smith book groups, we asked Brooklynites what their hopes are for “I’d love to see less money alloour borough this year. Here’s how cated to police and more to keepthey answered: ing libraries open.” -Aaron Gold “Widespread, smart New York City zoning changes to allow for “Hoping that congestion pricing new housing to be built and more does not come to our borough and flexible use of storefronts, commer- that the ‘No bail’ law gets repealed cial space and hotels; streamline and that our Sanctuary City status New York City bureaucracy; more ends. And for homeowners, a propprotected bike lanes and a true erty tax rebate.” implementation of smaller class -Glenn Nocera sizes in NYC Public Schools in ways that do not negatively impact “In 2024, I’d like to know the access to a quality education for median rent (per bedroom) from all.” neighborhood to neighborhood in -Lee Solomon Brooklyn.” -Tom Dunn “I would love to see more people support the small busiThe views expressed here are nesses in the area. We have so those of respondents, which BQE many amazing small businesses Media does not necessarily agree yet so many have been closing due with or endorse. Some comments to rising rents and less customers have been edited for length and as big chains move into the area. clarity. Do you want to share your Open spaces such as the one at hopes for Brooklyn in 2024? Email the Bedford Slip to be utilized by your comment to brooklyndtresidents for recreational purposes, starnews@gmail.com by Jan. 10. • rather than it being taken over as another retail space.” -Natalia Rzeszutek
2024: Our Neighbors’ Hopes for a New Year
Above: Pedestrians enjoy a beautiful winter day outside of the Kings County Courts; below: Brooklyn Public Library’s iconic Central Library.
Below: An “Abolish the NYPD” sticker on a lamppost outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall. All photos by Christine Stoddard.
“I’d like to see the free concerts in Coney Island and Wingate come back. They were a staple for years, entertaining tens of thousands of Brooklynites but our wonderful mayor did away with them when he was borough president.” -Tony Sypa “There’s a lot of unused buildings that were built or storefronts that closed to be torn down with newer apartment buildings. I hope there are plans to put use to those places rather than just letting them rot. That way, more spaces become more than just unused places.” -Bryan Davis “Praying for the National Guard to be called immediately and all the Nazis in Brooklyn and the rest of the boroughs being dealt with accordingly.” -Irene Forsyte “For 2024, I am hoping for more togetherness and kindness, acceptance and self-reflection. Less judgment and more openmindedness. I see A LOT of new construction in my field as a real
Correction: Regarding the story in last week’s edition about the STooPS giving campaign, the swag bag was limited to those whose names were drawn during an Insgram Live event.
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Believe the Hype
Nostrand Avenue on Foot CHRISTINE STODDARD
cstoddard@queensledger.com
The Brooklyn Star this week, introduces our readers to Christine Stoddard, our new community editor. Christine will pen a weekly column on Brooklyn from the ground floor, called “Believe the Hype” While covering events and meetings is part of her everyday life, Christine will bring a whole new meaning to living in Brooklyn through the eyes of a journalist. Welcome Christine! “I’m gonna need a couple of dollars if that’s the case,” says a cockeyed man in a wheelchair, parked on the block of Nostrand Avenue just south of Atlantic. While he went through his ritual of asking for money in the street, I had the nerve to approach him with the excuse of a class reporting assignment. No mention of Columbia University because I knew better. We are in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the neighborhood I have called home for the past year, though I have lived in the general vicinity for the past seven. My brief conversation mate is someone I have noticed before, usually sitting a block or two closer to the Nostrand Avenue subway stop on the A/C line. His response implied what I’m reminded of day after day: By living here, I have already trespassed. Stop asking for more. Or at least give something in return. Embarrassed, I returned to the Monday rush hour crowd, wondering who had patience for me. After all, wasn’t I asking for free emotional labor? My ex, a white, college-educated Virginian in his late 20s at the time, used to complain that Central and East Brooklyn strangers “always” assumed he had money. Back then, we lived at the edge of Crown Heights in working-class Ocean Hill, just south of Bed-Stuy. My ex had all the visual markers of a suburban middle-class upbringing: L.L. Bean polos, R.E.I. khakis, New Balance sneakers. And he had the mannerisms, too: relatively quiet speech, strained “polite” smiles, the total lack of desire to dance to music blaring from sidewalk boomboxes. All that was missing from his Gentrifier-in-a-Bag Halloween costume was a Starbucks cup. (He didn’t drink coffee.) I, on the other hand, am more ambiguous because, though born and raised in the transient Arlington, VA, my parents are not from there. Both lived through poverty
Brooklyn Downtown Star
and El Salvador’s civil war, during which they met. My father, a native New Yorker, taught me, “School’s the place for the Queen’s English. On the street, you talk fast and slangy.” My mother, a Salvadoran immigrant, raised me to “never show you have money even when you do.” Still, I am not Black. My closest proximity to blackness is occasionally being confused for mixed race: half-Black, half-white. In Ocean Hill, a man who noticed me taking pictures with my DSLR on a lone winter‘s night in early 2020, stopped me to hit on me. Then he asked if I was “Spanish or Jewish,” as if those were my only ethnic possibilities in that neighborhood.
Back on this more recent Monday evening, most of the people who speak to me first are men who seem to choose to sexualize me. As I take out my DSLR to document one of the two pizzerias by the subway stop, a smooth man calls to me: “Hey miss, are you taking pictures today?” It’s not an innocent question. I ignore him, knowing that the follow-up will be, “Take my picture, darling.” This is a familiar script that sometimes turns hostile as I reject all advances. Casanova continues to say “hey” a couple more times from the van he’s leaning against, but I walk away. Once, during my first six months in Ocean Hill, a scorned catcaller spat on the ground and yelled “Welcome to Brooklyn, sweetheart!”
Ocean Hill, What’s In A Name?
A former city historian colleague of mine once explained that Ocean Hill is a historical name resurfacing in real estate marketing aimed at people like my ex and me: young, non-Black, middle-class, and from elsewhere. For decades leading up to 1960s, Ocean Hill was primarily Italian. During our 2016-2020 tenure there, it was largely West Indian and African-American. Many of our Millennial peers who were raised in Brooklyn called the area Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, or even Brownsville. Few had heard of this historical name so long out of use. They warned us that “Ocean Hill” was a gimmick—like how some real estate listings brand the Broadway corridor of Bed-Stuy and Bushwick as “Bedwick” or call eastern Bushwick “East Williamsburg.” Luckily, we were not paying “East Williamsburg” or “Bedwick” rent.
The Artist in Me
I consider putting up with the catcalling and begging as my price for living in Bed-Stuy. After all, most other aspects of living here make me happy. This is not my birthplace or childhood stomping ground, but it is my home. I benefit from a comfortable apartment and proximity to many lovely local businesses on Tompkins, Throop, Marcus Garvey, and Malcolm X. I shoot hoops at Potomac Playground (which reminds me of the Potomac River dividing Arlington from D.C.) and meet friends at Herbert Von King Park. My bodega guy has all my bad habits memorized. I know which dollar stores to hit up for which bargains. Since I first moved here, the neighborhood organization STooPS has supported my creative work, even securing a Brooklyn Public Library residency for me. The STooPS art crawl brings
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neighborhood old-timers and newcomers together for arts programming presented on stoops or, more recently, in block parties. I have met generations of neighbors through these events.
The Bodega Experience Maybe I deserve some of the tension. One early morning a few months ago, a 40-something man shimmied up to me while I waited for my bodega sandwich. When I wouldn’t chat, he complained “people come into this neighborhood and don’t want to talk.” Had I wanted to start a fight, I would’ve told him no woman owes him her time. Instead, I told him to have a
good day on my way out. My disregard for him had nothing to do with a gentrifier’s scorn and everything to do with zero interest in flirting. The fact remains that he perceived me as an outsider. Transplants flock to Williamsburg and Park Slope, where hallmarks of chichi suburban living abound: Whole Foods, The Apple Store, Urban Outfitters. I didn’t move to New York City to replicate my life in Arlington, just with more job opportunities and hipster cred. There’s also the fact that I cannot afford the aforementioned zip codes. But if I deigned to stomach another industry, maybe I could. I have the “right” education, the “right” passport, the “right” complexion. These checked boxes could afford me upward mobility if I wanted—mobility denied to many of my neighbors. Had I followed the path of many
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of my high school classmates, I could be making six figures at a government consulting firm now. Instead, I rejected that career option. Having the ability to say no comes with privilege. I never begrudged the transplants who moved to my native Arlington to work at the Pentagon or other federal government entities. I wasn’t sad when Shirlington, a neighborhood previously known for auto body shops and dark, empty lots, was converted into a lively avenue for shopping and dining. Perhaps I would have felt differently if I had generations’ worth of roots there or wanted to raise a family there. Now, the cost of living in Greater Washington, D.C. is almost as high as that of New York City. This economic upsurge only shifted during my lifetime, when Millennials flocked to the region to serve the Obama Administration. I don’t have to look hard to notice other transplants coming to Bed-Stuy. More white people. More polos. More Starbucks cups. The row of brownstones across from my apartment building is occupied largely by couples with small children. Still, this remains the neighborhood where just that during that same evening jaunt, I saw an unstable woman trash-picking on Herkimer off the Nostrand strip. She was already wearing one filthy boot, presumably gleaned from the pile before her, when she found another, mismatched but similarly calf-length. She slipped it on and sashayed in the street, many plastic bags hanging from her shoulders, shrieking as the bags shook. Each bag seemed to contain even more plastic bags. In the past, I had only ever heard this woman rasp “Money, please” outside the subway. I don’t ask to take her photo—it could turn transactional—and a candid feels voyeuristic. I remember the beggar in the wheelchair. Another time. I am still learning my place.
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Your Handy-Dandy 2024 Alternate Side Parking Guide Hang this on your refrigerator! Evade the dreaded orange paper on your windshield. (Though it’s tough to escape unscathed—the city collects over half a billion dollars in parking fines a year!) Here are the alternate side parking suspension dates for 2024: Monday, Jan. 1: New Year’s Day Saturday, Jan. 6: Three Kings’ Day Friday, Feb. 9: Lunar New Year’s Eve Saturday, Feb. 10: Lunar New Year Monday, Feb. 12: Lincoln’s Birthday Wednesday, Feb. 14: Ash Wednesday Monday, Feb. 19: Washington’s Birthday (President’s Day) Sunday, March 24: Purim Thursday, March 28: Holy Thursday Friday, March 29: Good Friday Wednesday, April 10 and Thursday, April 11: Idul-Fitr (Eid Al-Fitr) Tuesday, April 23, and Wednesday, April. 24: Passover Monday, April 29 and Tuesday, April 30: Passover (7th/8th Days) Thursday, May 2: Holy Thursday (Orthodox) Friday, May 3: Good Friday (Orthodox) Thursday, May 9: Solemnit of the Ascension Monday, May 27: Memorial Day Wednesday, June 12, and Thursday, June 13: Shavuoth (2 Days) Monday, June 17, and Tuesday, June 18: Idul-Adha (Eid Al-Adha) Wednesday, June 19: Juneteenth Thursday, July 4: Independence Day Tuesday, Aug. 13: Tisha B’Av Thursday, Aug. 15: Feast of the Assumption Monday, Sept. 2: Labor Day Thursday, Oct. 3, and Friday, Oct. 4: Rosh Hashanah Saturday, Oct. 12: Yom Kippur Monday, Oct. 14: Columbus Day Thursday, Oct. 17 and Friday, Oct. 18: Succoth (2 Days) Thursday, Oct. 24: Shemini Atzereth Friday, Oct. 25: Simchas Torah
Christine Stoddard is a published author, journalist, artist, and filmmaker named one of Brooklyn Magazine’s Top 50 Most Fascinating People. Send your comments and tips to brooklyndtstarnews@ gmail.com.
Previous page: the window of Stacy Adams, a men’s clothing store, on Nostrand Avenue. This page: fruit vendor’s wares on the sidewalk by the A/C Nostrand Ave. stop. Photos by Christine Stoddard.
Friday, Nov. 1: Diwali and All Saint’s Day Tuesday, Nov. 5: Election Day Monday, Nov. 11: Veterans Day Thursday, Nov. 28: Thanksgiving Day Monday, Dec. 9: Immaculate Conception Wednesday, Dec. 25: Christmas Day
GOT PARKING INTEL TO SHARE? SEND US YOUR COMMENTS: BROOKLYNDTSTARNEWS@GMAIL. COM.
January 4, 2024
Brooklyn Downtown Star
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YEAR IN REVIEW
2023 Highest Grossing Year For Barclays Center CHRISTINE STODDARD
cstoddard@queensledger.com
When you drive down Atlantic Avenue, Barclays Center cuts an imposing figure on the horizon, demanding your attention for its undulating architecture. When you emerge from the subway, going up that steep incline, you look up at Barclays Center for the duration of your ascent. Some compare it to a spaceship; others say it’s a futuristic garden, likely inspired by the rooftop lawn. However you see the Barclays Center, its heart has beat with the pulse of Brooklyn, day or night, for more than a decade. So how did the multipurpose entertainment arena fare this year? “2023 was an exciting year at Barclays Center—the highest grossing year in our arena’s history. And we are proud to share that we were also named a top 10 arena of the year by both Billboard and Pollstar,” said Laurie Jacoby, Chief Entertainment Officer of BSE Global, parent company of Barclays Center, in an emailed statement. “We hosted some of the best world-renowned talent throughout the year and welcomed millions of guests to the borough to enjoy a variety of shows as well as Nets and Liberty games.” More than 760,000 guests flocked to Barclays Center in 2023— and that number excludes Nets and Liberty games. Over the summer, Drake performed four sold-out shows, becoming the highest grossing artist in Barclays Center history. The year closed out with three sold-out Madonna Shows and two sold-out Travis Scott shows in December. Other 2023 sell-out successes include Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, two SZA shows, Blink182, Rauw Alejandro, Depeche Mode, Trilogy Tour with Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull and Ricky Martin, Illenium, 50 Cent and Busta Rhymes, and Asian pop/global superstars JJ Lin, Jackson Wang, Eason Chan and Aespa. It’s not all music, of course. Barclays Center is beloved for its sports events, too. This year was the highest grossing A10 Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament since they have been playing at Barclays Center. FOr wrestling fans, WWE continues to grow in popularity as each Barclays event has outsold
Above: a view of Barclays Center from its large foregrounding plaza. Below: a view of Barclays Center from Flatbush Ave. Photos by Christine Stoddard.
previous ones. In December, the WWE Friday Night Smackdown was the best-selling WWE Smackdown Barclays event, boasting the highest number of tickets sold for a WWE event since 2019. Across music and sports, two notable anniversaries this year included Barclays hosting its tenth NBA Draft and welcoming the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony back for the fifth time in arena history. 2023 also heralded a unique show for the arena: its first-ever Monster Truck Show, Hot Wheels Monster Truck. Because this was a first of its kind show for Barclays, a large number of ticket purchasers had never before attended an event there. “From hip hop, to Asian pop,
to Latinx concerts, our first ever Greek performer and family shows, it’s important that our programing at Barclays Center reflects the diversity found within the borough of Brooklyn,” said Jacoby. “And we are looking forward to continuing our success in 2024 with another exciting year of programming, including three Bad Bunny shows—the artist’s only NYC-area tour stop—, four Zach Bryan shows, and welcoming the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.” Curious about what Barclays Center means to Brooklynites, I posted in a few of our borough’s most popular Facebook groups to ask for highlights. One comment that stood out for feeling so representative: “The friendliest staff of any huge
U.S. venue ever,” wrote Wiley Gaby. “And I peed next to Bobby Cannavale at a Depeche Mode concert. So it’s been great for me.” In a follow-up comment, Gaby wrote, “My final show before the shutdown was there. My friends surprised me with a ticket to see Celine Dion. Until then I’d never considered myself a big fan and had wasted many years being eye-rolley about her. (My loss!) It was one of the best shows I’ve ever witnessed. I wept and I was blown away by the everything that is Celine. Then the world shut down. That night at Barclays sustained me for some dark days to come!” May Barclays Center continue surprising, blowing away, and sustaining Brooklynites in 2024.
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January 4, 2024
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