Radio Free Bay Ridge

There's another hyper-local gallery in Bay Ridge. Underland Gallery, a brainchild of Hannah Salyer, Ester Kwon and Maxim Elrod, opened softly in October 2021, just before the COVID Omicron wave. Shaded by trees and with a mysterious cat-headed-sea-serpent adorning the gas lamp outside, Underland is a strange chimera of performance space, art gallery, and community center. Join us as we explore this unique community space occupying an entire floor of gallery and performance space in Bay Ridge's brownstone belt between 5th and 4th Avenue. How do such unique galleries come to be? What does it take to get one running? And what's next for Underland? ---- Check out Underland at UnderlandGallery.com ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!

CW // Alcohol Use The Democratic party has problems that stretch all the way down to its roots. But reformers and activists have been trying to bring democracy to its namesake party. Join us as we chat about how party politics works at the hyper-local scale with local District Leader candidate Mark Hanna, who is running in Assembly District 64 in northern Bay Ridge. At this scale, it's all about good governance... and Bay Ridge District Leaders are part of how we get there. We'll talk about opening up transparency around judicial screenings so that you can actually understand who those judges on your ballots actually are. Mark will also discuss the challenges involved in running, and how embedded party machines work to maintain patronage and power. Oh, and we got a little tipsy since it was St. Patricks Day... ---- District Leaders have their primary on June 23rd! Be sure to vote! ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!

On today's episode, we sit down with local author and journalist Jessie Singer about her new book "There Are No Accidents: The Deadly Rise of Injury and Disaster - Who Profits and Who Pays The Price". Jessie's groundbreaking book has received national attention. It explores how, and why, we seem to dismiss preventable deaths and injuries as "accidental", rather than confront the dangerous conditions that make these supposedly random events inevitable. We'll explore how corporations and profiteers fail to keep us safe, and we'll find some examples right here in Bay Ridge. From car dealerships and unsafe streets, to the opioid epidemic, to trips and falls, we'll see who profits from our unsafe environment. We'll also explore how we can demand change, nationally and at home in our own neighborhood... and change our own thinking about "accidents" along the way. Check out the book, which is available now, and listen in as we discover that in Bay Ridge, there are no accidents. ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!

Today we're checking in with State Senator Andrew Gounardes. Now into his second term (and seeking a third), Senator Gounardes has been part of a revolutionary period in Albany. The State Senate, under Republican control for nearly a century, has transformed into an uncharacteristic flurry of activity. New bills have been passed left and right. Gounardes, an original member of 2019 Blue Wave, has been through it all. Now, with nearly fifty (as of recording) bills passed, we sit down with our local State Senator to ask how a bill becomes a law in Albany. Where do the ideas come from? What is the process for writing a bill? How does he manage to keep up during long legislative sessions at the State Capitol? Join us as we learn how our State Senator accomplishes the one job so many other politicians ignore: legislating.  ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!

We're back for a new year! To kick things off, we're delving into the history of racing dragons in Bay Ridge... fictionally, at least. Our guest is local author Katharine Dow, author of the short story The Brooklyn Dragon Racing Club, set right here in Bay Ridge. We'll chat with Katharine about the story and its influences. Katherine will discuss how her recent move to the neighborhood (in the middle of the pandemic!) influenced how she's grown to understand Bay Ridge. Along the way we'll also discuss good hangouts for writers in the neighborhood, and more! You can grab Katharine's story as part of the anthology "Dragons of a Different Tail 17: Unusual Dragon Tales" from Cabbit Crossing Publishing in both digital and paperback editions! ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!

We've got a new contributor to the podcast! Meet Ember, perhaps one of the biggest fans of Bay Ridge ever. Together, we're going to update our old podcast episode called "Welcome To Bay Ridge", intended for new (and new-at-heart) residents. Get our recommendations on where to eat! Learn what "The Hole" is! Find out what restaurant has the most attractive servers! Does Bay Ridge have a travelator? And where can you find the local waterfall? Have you seen the parrot man? Tune in and find out the answers as we geek out about Bay Ridge, our nation's capitol. ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!

Over 120 former Bay Ridge residents are homeless and in city-run shelters at any given time. And how many shelter beds do we have in our neighborhood to help them? Zero. Instead, we send our former neighbors away to other communities to be sheltered and cared for. It is fairly clear that Bay Ridge is not doing its fair share. In this episode, we're going to explore previous attempts at sheltering our unhoused neighbors in Bay Ridge, going back into the 1980's. Along the way, we'll dissect and tear apart the tactics that NIMBYs use to push the responsibility we have to shelter the homeless onto other neighborhoods. Most importantly, we'll make the case for creating two new emergency shelters in Bay Ridge. This proposal is entirely our own and isn't a part of any city agency or politician's plan. We hope that, by starting this dialog at a community grassroots level, we can finally prove that the original concept of "Fair Share" in the 1990s was not inherently flawed. We hope that we can prove that neighborhoods can welcome shelters with open arms. If you agree that Bay Ridge can read the way, please sign our petition below, and listen on! ---- Sign The Petition: https://www.change.org/rfbr-shelter ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!

For years, spiritual spaces have been key to progressive organizing in Bay Ridge. In today's episode, we say goodbye to Reverend Robert Emerick of the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church. Bob is being forcibly retired after seventeen years in our community. We decided to sit down with Bob and reflect on how he and his congregation have let their spiritual and moral beliefs guide them through controversy, making innovative economic, civic, and educational decisions along the way. Reverend Bob began his tenure in Bay Ridge during the tense and much-debated decision to sell the famed Green Church building, then the home of the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church. The press and protests faded after the church's demolition and a new school went up on the site. But for Bob and his congregation, the story had just begun and the possibilities were endless. ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!

For the past year, Bay Ridge has struggled with the pandemic. We've lost loved ones, and there has been grief both public and private. But early in 2020, politicians began to push their own narratives. At a moment when we all should have been talking about staying safe and healthy, conservative politicians fought back against masking, lockdowns, and social distancing. The story they pushed was tempting to many: they used peoples fears about the economy to override science and safety. On today's episode, Ed Yoo returns to the show. Ed is the Director of Strategic Research at the NY State Nurses Union, but today he's speaking to us as a local Bay Ridge resident. We last spoke to Ed in early 2020 about a proposed Emergency Room that was in development for the old Victory Memorial hospital site. A year later, so much has changed. Ed will help us analyze how Bay Ridge responded to COVID. We explore how early COVID data was hidden or flawed, and lay into both Democratic and Republican politicians who used fearmongering about the economy to undermine our pandemic response. Along the way we uncover some disturbing data that is yet to be revealed about our local hospital system, and make some armchair predictions on what a true post-COVID economy might look like for our local stores and businesses. ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!

Join us as we sit down with NY11 candidate Brittany Ramos DeBarros. We'll explore the dangers of partisanship and how military contractors and war profiteering have left troops tokenized, demoralized, and without basic services. To counter these forces, we'll explore how our district can engage with a Just Transition framework and invest in demilitarizing our civic systems. By removing our reliance on militarism and nationalism, we can build a leaner government that maximizes health and sustainability. ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!

Our long-awaited episode digging into Nicole Malliotakis's legislative history... such that it is. We'll go over her voting record before digging into a very unusual bill that leads us on a journey back to the 1970s. We'll unravel a web of land-grabs, NIMBYism, political backstabbing, racism, and legal maneuvers to keep Staten Island segregated. And how, aware or not, Nicole's only legislative achievement has its roots in Staten Island's long history of oppression and exclusion. ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!

We are joined by Bay Ridge resident and former NYPD officer Mike DeCillis to discuss how we can meaningfully reform a broken police force, and transition it into a police service that keeps us safe without violating our civil rights. From training to culture, we'll explore key flaws that Mike has witnessed firsthand, and figure out how to reform *our* NYPD. ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!

Whether it is giving some money, to volunteering, to simply going out and enjoying what the neighborhood has to offer, there are many ways to give back this holiday season. Here are a few of them. --- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!

The school year has been a total mess. So lets figure out how we can do better, and what we should have done different. In today's episode, we're joined by our Senior Education Correspondent Erik Shell. We'll dig into why we should have kept school closed during the pandemic, and how poor leadership and systemic inequality led to a botched hybrid-learning system. We'll debunk Educational Policy arguments made by the CDC, and explore how New York's school system has historically handled pandemics in the past. Finally, we'll look at some major policy initiatives we can undertake to ensure something like this doesn't happen again. ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!

An episode over two years in the making! Join Dan and our guest John Hagan, a local social studies teacher, as we analyze our local racist monuments. Yes, Bay Ridge is host to multiple Confederate monuments. How did they get here? Why are they still up? And why should we tear them down? Find out! We'll expose a never-before-discovered history involving the United Daughters of the Confederacy, greedy Rectors, and a  Lost Cause mythology. Along the way we'll talk about cool Union Generals, Thurgood Marshall's connection to Bay Ridge, and why Robert E Lee disliked living in Brooklyn. As we go, John will connect our local happenings to a broader context of Reconstruction, resurgent racism, and Jim Crow. By the end of the show, you'll be equipped to tear apart any argument for keeping these racist monuments standing! ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!  

It's seems like longer, but it's been four years since the 2016 elections. And now more than ever, our vote matters in the upcoming election. But frustratingly, it seems like things are getting in the way of an easy, simple election day. From Postal Service shenanigans to COVID-19, never before has our electoral process been more fraught. So today on the show, we're going to do a quick guide on how to vote in a pandemic. We'll let you know the key deadlines for this years election, and some of the ways you can make your voice heard in addition to going to the polls on election day. We'll cover Absentee Ballots, how to mail them, and some of the common ways people mess them up. We'll also go over Early Voting, which is a great way to avoid the crowds but still get your vote counted on Election Day itself. ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!  

Join us for a walking tour… of the future! On today’s episode, co-host and transit nerd Dan will bring us on a walking tour of Bay Ridge and Sunset Park in an alternate future where The Triboro has been built... a proposed passenger rail line running along the old train tracks north of Bay Ridge. But it's not just about a rail line. We'll explore multiple ways that communities can regain control over their local development, and push for a vision of their neighborhood that promotes equity and sustainability. This includes mixed-use development, local job creation, Community Land Trusts, eco-friendly development, and more. And at the end, we'll tie it all together with an interview with the folks at the Regional Plan Association, who proposed The Triboro back in the 90's! Sit in and relax as we explore an idealized future of our neighborhood, and what it might become if we take development out of the hands of developers. ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!  

We're back from our Coronavirus hiatus with a celebration for our 50th Episode... and the return of a lost co-host! We couldn't think of a more important topic for this occasion than the 2020 Census that's currently underway in Bay Ridge. Join us as we discuss how the pandemic and the federal goverment has thrown the census into disarray, and how local activists and politicians are working to ensure we get an accurate count. We'll join Councilman Justin Brannan to discuss how local government is often hobbled by bad census data, especially when it comes to local services, whether it's school funding, road construction, or poll translation. We'll also join activists from Fight Back Bay Ridge and The Arab American Association of New York to see how local organizers are pivoting to digital outreach in order to raise awareness about the census. Finally, we'll look back and share a few memories about our last three years, as well as giving some sneak peeks about what's to come, including an all-new way to support the podcast. Thanks to all of our listeners for an amazing three years, and here's to many more! ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!

Something is happening at the old Victory Memorial hospital site in the 90s... a new Emergency Room! But the hospital itself isn't reopening. Instead, we're getting a satellite ER run by Maimonides. Technically it's known as an "Off-Campus Emergency Department". What does that mean for the community? What kinds of services can we expect? And are there any downsides? Our guest Ed Yoo will guide us through what's in store, and how we can make sure Bay Ridge has a voice in the process. We'll also dig into what conditions led Victory Memorial to close in the first place, how single-payer healthcare can revitalize community health outcomes, and how we need additional hospital capacity in the face of new challenges like COVID-19. ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!

Our origin stories for Bay Ridge's activist groups continues! Today we're going to hang out with three founding members of Bay Ridge For Social Justice. One of the older and more progressive groups in the neighborhood, they were formed in 2015 to explicitly counter racism, state and police violence, islamophobia, and homophobia... all while promoting grassroots organizing outside of the electoral system. We'll talk to our guests Yasmine, Sherry and Danielle about the first two MLK Marches Against Hate in Bay Ridge, how the group dealt with the Trump election, and how they organized in the fallout of the Pulse Nightclub shooting. Importantly, we will confront the group's failures in addition to their successes. Finally, we reflect on how much Bay Ridge has changed since the group's formation and where we can go from here, including the need to create more LGBTQ-friendly spaces in Bay Ridge and build stronger bonds with neighboring communities of color. ---- Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and analysis!