The former crack capital of USA – Red Hook

On an overcast October Saturday, I decided to head into another Brooklyn neighbourhood, in search of a Haitian exhibition titled Potoprens (Haiti’s capital is Port-au-prince) at an artist space called Pioneer Works. I had to take the F train to a subway station in Carroll Gardens before it was about a 20 minutes walk.

As I reached the Smith-9 St. station, it was drizzling but I decided to brave the weather in search of Red Hook’s famous street food. However, as I walked through the deserted streets, I realised why no one was outside – the wind was incredibly strong, that I decided to go without my umbrella, in fear that it would get spoilt. As I walked under the Gowanus expressway, which loomed over the streets below, I could discern a palpable difference in the atmosphere, as the shops were replaced by run-down warehouses.

Thankfully, they soon gave way and I emerged at the Red Hook Park, with no one out and about due to the stormy weather.

From the corner of my eye, I spotted the food truck which I was aiming to try for lunch that day – the Red Hook Food Vendors. I believe over the summer months, there may be even more food trucks. I made a beeline for a food truck that specialises in El Salvadorian pupusas.

Admittedly, I have never had pupusas before but I did have something similar elsewhere near Gowanus, Brooklyn, which was called arepas at a place called White Maize (and loved it). Therefore, I was pretty enthusiastic to give pupusas a try.

After ordering, I made some small talk with the abuelas manning the store and another customer with whatever little Spanish I knew (variations of muy delicioso). The purple coleslaw was a good counterbalance in terms of its acidity and sourness to the crispy, savoury pupusa, which was filled with meat. There was also a mildly sweet white sauce that went well with the whole consortium of flavours.

I wolfed up every last bit of the pupusa and thanked the abuelas and continued deeper into Red Hook along Bay St. There was an IKEA up ahead, which was probably the reason most people ever do visit Red Hook and I was contemplating getting some meatballs. However, I decided to save the calories for something more unique to the neighbourhood for dinner later on and soldiered on despite the wind growing steadily stronger.

I turned the corner of Bay St into Columbus St and the entire area was devoid of people and appeared to be pretty run-down industrial buildings. I wondered if it was always this empty or it was because of the weather that made people opt to stay in for the day. The industrial buildings soon gave way to the large swathes of housing projects in the area, known as the Red Hook Houses.

When the Red Hook Houses were first unveiled in 1938, rent was only $6 a month and were hailed as a major milestone in the area of public housing. In 1940, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Red Hook Houses and had positive remarks despite noting that the closets did not have doors.

This prosperity did not last, and along with most of New York City, was in dire straits in the 1980s and beyond. In the 1990s, Life Magazine called Red Hook the “crack capital of the USA”. I found another photo dating back to 1988, with one man carrying an Uzi sub-machine gun, which was apparently their go-to weapon at the time.

In recent years, the area does seem to have turned a corner in terms of crime, so I was okay with walking through these projects to get around.

I walked through most of the projects along Columbus St. uneventfully and wanted to cut across Coffrey Park to get to Van Brunt street on the other side. At this point, I spotted three guys on the other end of the park, heading in my direction. I decided to err on the side of caution and made a detour around the perimeter of the park instead since there was no one else in the vicinity and I was still in the heart of the housing projects.

The rain was starting to pelt down and I was eager to get to my destination. To my relief, I spotted the sign stating ‘Pioneer Works’ and proceeded to head in.

At the time I visited, Pioneer Works had an exhibit titled PÒTOPRENS, featuring Haitian artists and the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince. I was surprised that the space spanned three floors and was pretty colossal too.

With my limited understanding and memory of the exhibit, a lot of the Haitian artists used whatever materials were lying around to make these elaborate sculptures, with an assortment of metal parts, stone and wood carvings and Voodoo flags.

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Also, what was intriguing to me was that it was Haitian tradition to keep loved ones close by – even after death. Therefore, some of the sculptures used skulls of the artists’ relatives or family members.

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The second floor featured a lot of photos featuring daily life of Port-au-Prince, including the LGBTQ nightlife. Some of these photos took me by surprise, as mental images of Haiti that outsiders often conjure up do not give justice to the vibrancy in these photos.

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Also on the third floor, was the most random standalone information board – feauturing mollusks. There was also a mini theater featuring various videos and documentaries of life in Haiti which were interesting to watch.

I stayed behind to listen to a talk by some distinguished members of the Pioneer Works community and some invited artists but fatigue was already getting to me and sadly, I don’t remember much about the talk, other than an African American artist who would punctuate parts of her speech with Haitian songs and verses – her voice was really good.

Subsequently, it was time to grab dinner in the area and I knew just the place that would satiate my hunger. I emerged into the cold of the night and to my dismay, it was still raining. I turned the corner of Van Brunt Street and saw my dinner spot – Red Hook Lobster Pound.

The interior was similar to that of a sports bar, with Red Hook paraphernalia lining the walls. I was pretty ravenous so I ordered one of their signature lobster rolls along with a key lime pie.

I think they hit the mark on balancing the mayo-to-lobster ratio, although I wish the butter on the toast was more pronounced. The dash of green onions on top was also refreshing to bite into.

I haven’t had many key lime pies since I’m usually not a fan of sour food in general, but found this to be all right in terms of its sourness, although the overall taste to me was nothing to write home about. Again, I am no connoisseur of key lime pies, might be worth a shot if you’re ever in the area.

Red Hook is one of the least accessible neighbourhoods in Brooklyn as there is no subway stop nearby. As I exited Red Hook Lobster Pound, the bus to the nearest subway stop raced to the bus stop just in front of me. Faced with the prospect of waiting in the rain for more than half an hour for the next bus (with no shelter), I decided to walk it out, even though it meant having to cross the Red Hook Houses again.

The streets were rather dimly lit, with hardly a soul in sight. As I reached Columbus Street again, the winds picked up and ruined one guy’s umbrella. Angrily, he tossed it on the ground and stomped away. I made sure to keep some distance between him and me.

After what felt like an eternity, I finally reached the subway station and snapped one final photo of the area (and it was still raining).

That ends my day in Red Hook – the next post will likely be about the (in)famous Brownsville neighbourhood, which has the reputation of being the murder capital of NYC.