Red Hook "Doesn't Have That Doomed Feel"

We've know we've been down this this road before, but this latest take on Red Hook in this week's L Magazine, called "Blotto in the Hook," is a good read. The article is about a few of the cool spot in Red Hook like Sunny's, but the writing about Red Hook and the protection--at least, for now--afforded by its isolation from the rest of Brooklyn is particularly interesting:

Red Hook is, indeed, very far away. Very very far. Like you think once you’ve crossed the BQE you’re nearly there, but you’re not, you’re only halfway there. I know lots of people in this city are weird about buses, but if you’re going to Red Hook, take the bus.

The good news is that unlike other “up and coming” neighborhoods with a “population of artists” (cough Bushwick cough,) Red Hook isn’t just a cheaper, less American Apparel-ified version of the closer-to-Manhattan neighborhood it abuts. Red Hook is actually really really cool. Really! It’s got this weird old-timey industrial vibe, but it also feels homey and neighborhoody. There’s all this cool-ass architecture and cobblestones and little parks that drop directly into the East River, and coffee shops not chock-a-block with strollers and jerks. Best of all, despite all the recent pants-creaming over the place, it doesn’t have that doomed feel that most cool and discovered neighborhoods get, because the transportation is so bad. Ibanker Mcjackoff isn’t going to want to take the bus to the F train at five in the morning to make opening bell. (And c’mon, don’t give me this water taxi shit. Please.)

Great stuff. Especially that last bit, although we don't know if the writer considered the impact Ikea will have on Red Hook's feeling of being "homey and neighborhoody."