Red Hook Team discovery phase, November-December 2013

Our Red Hook team has been busy on the ground conducting research, mapping out the front and back of Red Hook, interviewing stakeholders and residents, represented by a diverse palette of organizations such as tenant associations, social and health services providers, and recovery efforts entities, to name a few. They made a point in “plugging in” existing community meetings, rather than creating their own. Their approach has been driven by a humble effort in listening and approaching these communities as outsiders and blank slates, at a time when a number of organizations, Federal, State and otherwise, have poured into these places to offer solutions for stronger, more resilient and sustainable places. Although our teams were warned of the general fatigue that the Red Hook community may feel, they have only found open hearts and hands.

NY Rising, Gov. Cuomo state-funded initiative, has been an inspiration for our team, whose members attended a number of their Red Hook-based community gatherings. Their website  includes interactive maps of Red Hook, and other Disaster-stricken areas in which they’ve been working to identify community needs since this fall.

The Red Hook Houses and the JR project near the NYCHA Houses. Photo: David Al-Ibrahim

Red Hook team storyteller James Andrews presenting Design/Relief at the Wednesday meetings of the Red Hook Houses, November 18, 2013