Category Archives: Brooklyn Industrial Waterfront

Brooklyn Navy Yard By Bus

Posted on June 24, 2010 by Christina M. Rau

The Navy Yard in Brooklyn today stands as a private community of bustling artists and manufacturers near Vinegar Hill. The once castle-like gates at Sands Street have been truncated and now announce the Brooklyn impound. Many buildings could host scenes … Continue reading →

Posted in Brooklyn Industrial Waterfront, Navy Yards | Tagged Along The Shore, Historic Preservation, NEH | Leave a comment

Taxiing Along Newtown Creek

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Christina M. Rau

Thanks to Dan Campo and Peter Spellane, I now know everything I need to know about Newtown Creek. In fact, I am an expert, having also sailed on down and back with a narrated tour under the sun, the cool … Continue reading →

Posted in Brooklyn Industrial Waterfront, Newtown Creek | Tagged Along The Shore, Climate Change, sewage | 1 Comment

Ice Cream Is Good

Posted on June 21, 2010 by Christina M. Rau

After a longish tour of Newtown Creek on a NYC Water Taxi, under the Brooklyn Bridge, under the Manhattan Bridge, under several other bridges, past refineries, oil, sugar, workers in hard hats, manufacturing plants, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and some … Continue reading →

Posted in Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Industrial Waterfront | Tagged Along The Shore, sewage | Leave a comment

Waterworld V. The World Is Your Oyster: Rising Currents at MoMA

Posted on May 24, 2010 by Christina M. Rau

The Rising Currents Project on exhibit at MoMA in NYC offers some very interesting solutions about incorporating the natural world into the city structure. Mimi Hoang and Eric Bunge take on the area with the boundaries of the south mouth of Palisades Bay, … Continue reading →

Posted in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn Industrial Waterfront, Gowanus, Red Hook, Sunset Park, Verrazano | Tagged ecology, MoMA, New Aqueous City, Oyster-tecture, Rising Currents | Leave a comment

Cities Are Nature, Too: McCully’s City At The Water’s Edge

Posted on May 23, 2010 by Christina M. Rau

This story is not new nor is it unique to the New York area. Development impacts the environment. Chapter 6 of Betsy McCully’s City At The Water’s Edge, entitled “Muddied Waters,” discusses how the earliest colonization changed the fish population … Continue reading →

Posted in Brooklyn Industrial Waterfront | Tagged Climate Change, industrial pollution, sewage | Leave a comment

Cat Fight: Levinson’s The Box 6: Union Disunion

Posted on May 12, 2010 by Christina M. Rau

The ILA, lead by Teddy Gleason, and the International Longshoremen and Warehouseman Union, lead by Harry Bridges, acted like sixteen-year-old girls in a school-year-long battle for who has the best boyfriend. Seriously. Levinson’s retelling of the infighting and interfighting within … Continue reading →

Posted in Brooklyn Industrial Waterfront, Docks and Shipping, Red Hook | Tagged dock workers, Marc Levinson, The Box, Unions | Leave a comment

Returning: Shulberg’s “The Waterfront Revisited”

Posted on May 11, 2010 by Christina M. Rau

Ssmith asked, “have you experienced an altered or ‘constructed’ memory of a place that surprised you upon return after a long absence?” during last week’s discussion of David Thelen. Budd Shulberg is a storyteller; in the film, On The Waterfront, … Continue reading →

Posted in Brooklyn Industrial Waterfront, Docks and Shipping, Red Hook | Tagged Budd Shulberg, corruption, dock workers, Memory, On The Waterfront, Past, Reality, Unions | Leave a comment

NY Yards Bust: Marc Levinson’s The Box, 5: Battle for NY’s Port

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Christina M. Rau

Though New York City’s piers were inconvenient with main rail connections across the harbor in Jersey and the yards located inland, Levinson points out that they dealt with 1/3 of America’s sea trade. The advancements by McLean Trucking and the Port … Continue reading →

Posted in Brooklyn Industrial Waterfront, Docks and Shipping | Tagged dock workers, Marc Levinson, The Box | 1 Comment

Chaotic Docks: Marc Levinson’s The Box, 2: Gridlock On The Docks

Posted on April 29, 2010 by Christina M. Rau

The 1950s shipping industry should be called Mixed Cargo Chaos. Longshoremen found themselves having to be brutish in pulling and pushing carbon-black metals and spools and coils while simultaneously having to be sweet in cradling tropical fruit and other sweets … Continue reading →

Posted in Brooklyn Industrial Waterfront, Docks and Shipping | Tagged cargo, dock workers, Marc Levinson, shipping, The Box | 6 Comments

I Love Lucy: Jennifer Egan’s “Reading Lucy”

Posted on April 29, 2010 by Christina M. Rau

Time is not a match for love. Jennifer Egan’s reading of Lucy’s letters to Alfred, Lucy’s one true love, becomes not only a typical love story between two Brooklynites separated by a world war, but also an insightful tale of … Continue reading →

Posted in Brooklyn Industrial Waterfront, Navy Yards | Tagged Brooklyn Memories, Brooklyn Was Mine, Jennifer Egan, Love | 2 Comments