Life Above Sunset Park’s Library

Also: Jam Master Jay’s killer, Seltzer Festival, artist studios, beer and more!

Mar 03, 2025

There is no dedicated news coverage of Sunset Park — but Sunset Park makes news. This FREE weekly(ish) digest curates all the headlines from all the news sources that touch our neighborhood, which is one of the most vibrant in Brooklyn.

In this issue

For a mother and son, life above Sunset Park’s library
Priscilla Almodovar chats Fannie Mae, housing affordability, Donald Trump
Killer of Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay stabbed in MDC jail fight
Sean Duffy makes propaganda film on congestion pricing
One day, three designers and a New York garment industry in decline
Seltzer Festival judged by ‘Uncut Gems’ director is happening soon
What will happen to the New York artist studio?
The artists finding new ways to depict the human body
Brooklyn Org Spark Prize Winner: Technology for Families in Need (TechFIN)
A park with breathtaking views, cherry blossoms, and an Olympic pool is a hidden New York haven
A gorgeous pint of Guinness at Irish Haven

For a mother and son, life above Sunset Park’s library

BY THE NEW YORK TIMES: When Miguelina Minier heard that her local library was being renovated with affordable housing added on top, she applied. It was about the 40th time she had tried a housing lottery. … Ian Avilez can’t get enough of books. So much so that the first-grader is reading at a third-grade level. “I used to read to him when he was a baby,” said his mother, Miguelina Minier. His kindergarten teacher asked about Ian’s expansive vocabulary. “Why does Ian know words that I didn’t even teach him?’ I’m like, ‘We live on top of the library,’” Ms. Minier said. It’s true. Ms. Minier and her son live in the Sunset Park Library and Apartments in Brooklyn, which opened in 2023 with the residential part built above the library. The first library on this spot opened in 1905, and it lasted until 1970, when it was torn down. A new one opened in 1972, although, in time, it needed a lot of love. Ms. Minier remembers it well. She’s lived in the neighborhood for 20 years and she’s been going to the library since she was a teenager. “It was dark, very, very dark and it was small,” she said. “Sometimes they didn’t have the book that you were looking for.” When she developed an interest in criminal justice, she wanted to check out reference books about police academy exams. “They didn’t have them,” she recalled. … READ MORE

Priscilla Almodovar chats Fannie Mae, housing affordability, Donald Trump

BY USA TODAY: Priscilla Almodovar is one of USA TODAY’s Women of the Year, a recognition of women who have made a significant impact in their communities and across the country. Meet this year's honorees at womenoftheyear.usatoday.com. … A 4-year-old Priscilla Almodovar sat in the back of her mother's college classes. Watching. Waiting. Seeing how hard she worked. Now, as the CEO and president of Fannie Mae, every day Almodovar is surrounded by women also working hard. The now 57-year-old is one of USA TODAY's Women of the Year, a testament to her career in housing affordability, finance and the American dream. "When you invest in a woman, you're investing in her children, probably her parents," Almodovar tells USA TODAY from the Fannie Mae office in Washington, D.C., sunny and smiling, contrasting the bleak gray day. "Women just get involved and our wake is so much broader than just what we do day to day. And when you look at household formations, I mean, single women are driving household formation as well." … Almodovar's mother and father came to New York from Puerto Rico. She remembers the fourth-floor walk-up they rented before saving to buy their first home in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The purchase proved a big stretch for them; they had a renter on the second floor. But it also was that classic American dream story. "That home, when I look back, is what paid for me and my siblings to go to college," she says. … READ MORE

Killer of Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay stabbed in MDC jail fight

BY NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: Karl Jordan, one of the men convicted of killing Run-DMC legend Jam Master Jay, was stabbed in the MDC Brooklyn jail in Sunset Park, the Daily News has learned. Jordan, 41, survived the attack and was hospitalized after he was stabbed during a weekend fight at the Sunset Park lockup, where he’s being held as he awaits sentencing, sources familiar with his case tell The News. … READ MORE

Sean Duffy makes propaganda film on congestion pricing

BY STREETSBLOG: The Secretary is doubling down on the Trump administration's mistaken view that the toll is ineffective and a "cash grab" from "hard-working New Yorkers." Is it too much to ask that he clean off the camera lens? … United States Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is pivoting to video in his illegal attempt to kill congestion pricing. Days after Streetsblog's expertly deployed facts for a video to correct Duffy's misrepresentations of the toll, the secretary's team used government resources to make its own video — doubling down on the Trump administration's mistaken view that the toll is ineffective and a "cash grab" from "hard-working New Yorkers." … But President Trump has long argued that the toll will kill New York's economy because fewer people will drive into Manhattan — another easily debunked claim. "There's a lot of grandstanding in this discourse on congestion pricing and small business," said Ryan Frank, who owns a woodworking studio in Sunset Park and has made work-related trips to lower Manhattan since congestion pricing started. "A fact that I think is missed is that if you're running a business, if I save 20-minutes not waiting in traffic the toll is well worth it for me." … READ MORE

One day, three designers and a New York garment industry in decline

BY THE WASHINGTON POST: … According to a study by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., the New York fashion industry employs 50,000 fewer people today than it did in 2014. It’s a far cry from its heyday in the 1910s, when the garment industry accounted for 46 percent of the industrial workforce in New York City, according to the 1962 book “The Promised City,” by Moses Rischin. Today, just 6 percent of the city’s jobs are in fashion. … Mishkin is also fond of shouting out the names of the people who manufacture her wares. She gushes over Gabe and Gabi, who make up Naomi Nomi’s two-person in-house production team. There are also Jesse and Jonah, two men in the Garment District who inherited their button business from their fathers, who were best friends. Naomi Nomi also uses buttons from a factory in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, owned by Terry, who bought his inventory from Sherry, who died a few years ago. “The garment center is very familial,” Mishkin said. That applies to the people she works with and her literal heritage. “I come from a deep schmatta Lower East Side Jewish family,” she said. “Immigrants make clothes in America. That’s what they did at the turn of the century.” She gestured to the workers operating the sewing machines. “My grandmother was one of these women,” Mishkin said. “My great-grandmother was one of these women.”… READ MORE

Seltzer Festival judged by ‘Uncut Gems’ director is happening soon

BY EATER: A festival honoring all-things seltzer is happening in Sunset Park on Sunday, March 16, with a notable celebrity judge. The Brooklyn Seltzer Museum’s Brooklyn Seltzer Fest includes the National Egg Cream Invitational, where soda jerks will compete to see who can make the best bubbly milk-syrup-seltzer concoction. Judging the contest is notable New York director and actor Benny Safdie (known for co-directing very NYC movies like Uncut Gems and Good Time and acting in Oppenheimer). Competitors include Brooklyn Farmacy, S&P, and Lexington Candy Shop. … Tickets are $36 for adults and free for kids 17 years old and younger. … READ MORE

Brooklyn SeltzerFest Celebrates Fizzy Traditions, Tastings and National Egg Cream Day

What will happen to the New York artist studio?

BY ELLE DECOR: When arctic air grips New York City, artist Karyn Lyons bundles up and rests her feet on a heater as she paints nostalgic scenes of teenage longing in her unheated studio on West 137th Street. Lyons, who is in her forties, has been working in the 450-square-foot ground-floor space for six years. It has what she needs: ample wall space, a slop sink, and privacy. The setup would be perfect were it not for the lack of a creative community nearby. But she figures that’s a small price to pay for having a studio in one of the most vibrant cities in the world. “I wouldn’t be happy working anywhere else,” says Lyons, who shows with Turn Gallery. “It is worth the cramped studios, the occasional rat, and the lack of heat. … Painter Mie Yim, 61, is convinced her Bronx studio is the most affordable in New York. She got priced out of Chelsea and Industry City in Sunset Park, so she rented a 6,000-square-foot floor of a warehouse in Mott Haven with a partner, divided it into eight studios, and leased them below market rate to other artists. The area can be desolate, and there have been occasional shootings at night. “What are you going to do? I need a studio that’s affordable,” Yim says. “We have a toilet. We have light and heat. What more do you need? “Our floor is always full. It’s so great to have happy tenants and happy artists.” … READ MORE\

The artists finding new ways to depict the human body

BY THE NEW YORK TIMES: At a time of increasing anxiety about physical anatomy, figurative sculptors are breathing new life into one of the world’s oldest media. … “Did you know the word ‘norm’ came from a carpenter’s tool?” asked the Canadian-born artist Jes Fan, 34, who was raised in Hong Kong and lives in New York City. In his studio, an industrial loft in Sunset Park’s Brooklyn Army Terminal, supposedly normal bodies were nowhere in sight. We stood surrounded by cascading piles of partial casts of friends’ torsos, an undulating resin form derived from a CT scan of Fan’s pelvis and a metal armature draped in crinkled folds of yuba, the rubbery skin that forms on the surface of heated soy milk. In Fan’s work, soy has served as a symbolic androgyne. A source of both pharmaceutical estrogen and testosterone, it reappears in various forms — from solid bean to simmering liquid. A literal and metaphorical fluidity pervades the sculptures: They tend to look as though they’re oozing, dripping, melting and merging. “Everything’s transitory, nothing is stagnant,” he said. That philosophy, more and more, is guiding current approaches to the body.… READ MORE

Brooklyn Org Spark Prize Winner: Technology for Families in Need (TechFIN)

BY BK READER: Technology For Families In Need (TechFIN), a nonprofit based in Sunset Park’s Industry City that works to close the digital divide for low-income households, was named a 2025 Spark Prize winner by Brooklyn Org. The annual Spark Prize awards celebrate Brooklyn organizations that advance racial justice and alleviate critical challenges across the borough. Based in Industry City, TechFIN was founded a decade ago by Nigel Frankson, after his personal experience growing up without access to a home computer. When he later anonymously donated a computer to a mentee and his siblings, he saw firsthand how dramatically their educational and career opportunities improved. … READ MORE

A park with breathtaking views, cherry blossoms, and an Olympic pool is a hidden New York haven

BY ISLANDS.COM: … Brooklyn has plenty of beautiful parks to escape the NYC hustle and bustle, but Sunset Park is special. This spot has been a city park since the turn of the 20th century. It has all the green grass and wide walkways you'd expect from a city park, but it also boasts some of the best views of New York City's skyline. You can even catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. Most excitingly for those looking to beat the summer heat, it has an incredible, massive swimming pool. … READ MORE

A gorgeous pint of Guinness at Irish Haven

BY INFATUATION: For a gorgeous pint of Guinness in a room with a whole lot of history, there’s Irish Haven. The bar in Sunset Park has been open since 1964, and the walls are covered in framed photographs of notable past guests, like Aubrey Plaza, Mac Miller, and the cast of “The Departed” when they filmed a scene here in the early 2000s. (The one with the cranberry juice.) Behind the bar, a seasoned bartender will pour you a pint like it's not their first rodeo. From there, the choice is yours: grab a barstool under some green string lights or head to the room in the back to spend several blissful hours playing darts, pool, and foosball. … READ MORE

CALENDAR

Until Saturday, March 8: “I GOT A STORY TO TELL,” celebrating the art and narratives of Black women
Sunday, March 16: Brooklyn SeltzerFest and National Egg Cream Invitational
Thursday, March 27: Ode to a Cemetery: Photographing Green-Wood w/ Bethany Jacobson
Ongoing at Green-Wood Cemetery & Industry City