The Brooklyn Ink

Gowanus: The Background

by Matthew Huisman
The Environmental Protection Agency now has the legal authority to go after The City of New York and eight other polluters who for decades contributed to contamination of the Gowanus Canal. The EPA was granted the power after labeling the 1.8-mile canal that divides Red Hook and South Brooklyn from Park Slope a [...]

I’m Still Here

A 92-year-old Holocaust survivor fights her eviction.

‘Til death do us part

By Althea A. Fung, Danielle Bengsch and K. S. Nikhil Kumar
Canarsie couple Elliot and Hunny Reiken have been married for 61 years. The couple met in the Catskill Mountains when Elliot and his twin brother Danny were performing at a hotel where Hunny and her twin sister Bunny were waitresses. The two couples married in [...]

Skiing on One Leg and a Big Heart

by Van Tieu
After being shot in the back and losing his leg at the age of 15, Ralph “Putt” Green, a star quarterback, yearned for another sport to love. He searched for years and then found it in the snow.
It was in the Poconos, far from his home at the Roosevelt Projects in Bedford Stuyvesant, [...]

A Lonely Search for Life-Saving Cells

More than 100,000 Americans find out each year that they have a life-threatening disease, like leukemia, requiring a bone marrow transplant. About 30 percent of the patients in need of a transplant find a match within their families.

Flatbush Church with Haitian Connection

The First Haitian Church of the Brethren in East Flatbush provides constant counseling — sometimes late into the night — to grieving congregants.

Beekeeping Still a Crime of Passion

By Mary Plummer
Megan Paska so missed the outdoors when she moved to Greenpoint that she turned to a life of crime: beekeeping.
Paska is one of hundreds of beekeepers around the city who’ve been keeping bees illegally. Wednesday about a dozen beekeepers came before a Department of Health panel to try to change that. They spoke [...]

Tenants Homeless after East NY Blaze

Residents struggle to salvage possessions while they wait for assistance from local agencies.

Remembering Benny Lyde

Benny Lyde was killed four years ago. This spring, his alleged killer is set to stand trial for his murder.

Breakfast for dinner in Bed-Stuy

There’s always something new cooking at Jenn de la Vega’s BedStuy apartment/publicity company