Bay Ridge, Brooklyn's own hyper-local progressive podcast! Join us as we interview local progressive activists and politicians, analyze neighborhood politics and policy proposals, and keep you up-to-date on one of Brooklyn's fastest-growing progressive hotspots.
Episodes
Monday Jul 20, 2020
Monday Jul 20, 2020
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!
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Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material
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Wednesday Mar 25, 2020
Wednesday Mar 25, 2020
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.
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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!
Tuesday Feb 11, 2020
Tuesday Feb 11, 2020
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.
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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!
Tuesday Dec 31, 2019
Tuesday Dec 31, 2019
Happy New Year!
Uh oh... 2020? Already!? There's no doubt, this year is going to be tough. A national election is going to sweep across the district, and local conservative hopefuls are already vying to undo the 2018 Blue Wave. Meanwhile, we're in the midst of a Democratic primary where candidates are shifting position at the top of the polls almost daily. How do we gear up and organize in the midst of this chaos?
Fear not. We have two stellar guests in the studio today, Tyler and Matt. They've been organizing locally for South Brooklyn for Warren! Together we'll discuss how to keep our energy reserves up, help out our fellow activists, and successfully bridge the divide between local and national issues. 2020 is here. It's game time.
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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!
Tuesday Nov 19, 2019
Tuesday Nov 19, 2019
Our very first live episode!
Join us at the Owl's Head Wine Bar with Henry Stewart as we do a book talk in front of a live "studio" audience! We'll chat about Henry's latest book, "How Bay Ridge Became Bay Ridge", which chronicles the history of the neighborhood from Nyack settlement to rural Dutch farmland to suburban neighborhood.
We'll drink some wine, chat with the audience, and demolish a few persistent neighborhood myths along the way! Was "Bay Ridge" really a named in order to avoid association with Yellow Fever? How involved was Bay Ridge in the slave trade? How did our turn-of-the-century Athletics Clubs treat their female members? Why did the military occupy all of Shore Road Park during World War I? And where did our farmers get all their manure??? These are just a few of the topics we'll touch on as we go on a whirlwind tour of Bay Ridge's past.
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Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material
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Sunday Nov 03, 2019
Sunday Nov 03, 2019
Continuing from our last episode, we dig into the latest economic controversy in Bay Ridge: the proposed 3rd Avenue Bay Ridge BID.
We already dug into what a BID actually does in our 5th Avenue BID episode in January... but how does a Business Improvement District actually happen in the first place? To find out, we invited members of the new 3rd Avenue BID steering committee to swing by the studio!
We'll talk about the trials and tribulations of their attempt to transform the existing Merchants of 3rd Avenue group into a BID. We'll learn what their vision for the avenue is, address some concerns about what a BID might mean, and why they decided to make this change in the first place!
We'll also learn a bit about why we might choose to oppose a BID... but more importantly, how we can break out of the binary narrative that currently exists around the economic future of Third Avenue.
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Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material
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Monday Oct 14, 2019
Monday Oct 14, 2019
The stores are closing! The Avenues are vacant! Or are they? Today, we're talking Storefront Vacancy rates.
Join us as co-host Erik interviews our other co-host Dan, who has been walking around the neighborhood since January collecting some hyper-local data about our commercial vacancy rates. We'll learn what can lead us to think that there is a vacancy "crisis", what the actual numbers are, and how we can begin to move away from a narrative that centers the concerns of property owners and get back toward the concerns of mom-and-pop merchants.
We'll also get a bit of data literacy about how storefront vacancy surveys are conducted, and how we classified and improved our data over time.
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Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material
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Monday Sep 23, 2019
Monday Sep 23, 2019
Bay Ridge is known for excellent schools... but how do we define excellence?
On today's show education correspondent Erik Shell swings by the studio to talk about school metrics, and how they can help us demand better school policy. We'll look at the data we use to rank local schools, how to redefine the narrative around education, and what we can do to demand politicians develop more progressive policy platforms.
We will also go over recent developments in educational policy for 2019, including the controversy around SHSAT and the Gifted and Talented program.
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Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material
Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook
Monday Aug 05, 2019
Monday Aug 05, 2019
The progressive action group Fight Back Bay Ridge is one of the largest grassroots activist groups operating in the neighborhood. They've distributed yellow bags at the Summer Strolls to highlight climate change and pollution. They'be put on informational town halls. They've protested, they've educated, they've registered voters, they've cleaned up trash on the sidewalk. But today, we're going back to the very beginning: Election Night 2016.
Sally was sitting in her Bay Ridge apartment, watching the election results that changed the course of the nation. But what she, her friends, and her family decided to do next changed the course of the neighborhood.
Join us as we interview the first few members of Fight Back Bay Ridge about the early days of the group, how they got their name, and how they organized into what they are today. We'll also take a peek into what's next for the group, and how you can get involved.
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Check out the show notes for background info and bonus material
Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook
Sunday Jul 14, 2019
Sunday Jul 14, 2019
Bay Ridge art galleries? Yes, they exist, and they're growing rapidly. Today on the show we are sitting down with local gallery impresarios Jeannine Bardo and Elena Soterakis. Jeannine is the founder of the Stand4 gallery on 78th street, and together they run the BioBAT Art Space a short walk north at the Brooklyn Army Terminal.
We'll explore the origins of Bay Ridge's burgeoning art gallery movement, and take a peek behind the scenes of how a show is put together. Along the way we'll learn about the many local artists who are increasingly looking toward their own neighborhood for studio space. Finally we'll explore how science, activism, and environmentalism are woven throughout the local art scene!
Be sure to check out our show notes and more at: www.radiofreebayridge.org/episode/bay-…bike-network
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