Ofer chats with Susan Donoghue, President of the Prospect Park Alliance and the park administrator. At the nonprofit, Sue works closely with the City to help raise 11 million dollars annually and over 50 million dollars in capital funds to improve and operate Brooklyn’s 585 acre park. Seen as Brooklyn’s backyard, Prospect Park was built in 1867 by Central Park’s Frederick Law Olmsted. Much like the rest of Brooklyn, Prospect Park has experienced a rebirth.
Ofer sits down with Steve Hindy, co-founder and co-chairman of Brooklyn Brewery, one of the largest craft beer makers in the United States. Steve and his neighbor founded the company in 1988 following a dream to bring brewing back to Brooklyn. Always a pioneer and a risk-taker, Steve made a number of key decisions that helped make Brooklyn Brewery an international success story.
In the first episode of the new year, Ofer Cohen sits down with Jill Eisenhard, the Founder and Executive Director of the Red Hook Initiative (RHI). Jill has recently announced that she’s stepping down from the non-profit that she founded in Red Hook, Brooklyn, back in 2002. In their conversation, Jill looks back at her work to empower residents of the City's second largest public housing complex in one of Brooklyn's last industrial neighborhoods, which is home to nearly 10,000 residents.
In this episode of HeyBK, Ofer Cohen sits down with New York City Councilmember Brad Lander. Brad’s district spans established neighborhoods including Park Slope and, the once mainly industrial area, Gowanus which is now on the verge of redevelopment. In their conversation, the Councilman talks about his journey as a suburban kid who became fascinated by cities.
Ofer meets with Carlo Scissura, President & CEO of the New York Building Congress. Carlo was recently appointed Chair of the NYC Mayor’s committee in charge of evaluating the plan to fix the crumbling BQE. He has been an advocate and key player during Brooklyn’s redevelopment and construction boom over the last two decades. Born and raised in Bensonhurst and now a resident of Bay Ridge, Carlo is truly rooted in Brooklyn and his career has reflected so.
In this episode of HeyBK, Ofer sits down with Chad Dickerson, the former CEO of Etsy, a multibillion-dollar online marketplace for handcrafted goods based in DUMBO. Chad left Silicon Valley for the young startup in 2008 and led the company - through many hurtles - to become one of NYC’s greatest Tech success stories.
On this episode of HeyBK, we journey to South Brooklyn to one of the most famous places in the world – Coney Island. Ofer Cohen speaks with Dick Zigun, the “unelected mayor” of Coney Island, a playwright, a circus fanatic, and the creator and leader of the annual Mermaid Parade. Dick has spent decades advocating for this unique pocket of NYC and its great potential which has not come without its own course of challenges and interesting events.
