Author: Becky Bratu (Becky Bratu)

The Brooklyn Ink is kicking off our Bedford Avenue Project today with a walk down the 10.2-mile-long avenue. Ink reporters Vegas Tenold and Joe Deaux are braving the cold to bring you life as it happens on Brooklyn’s longest stretch of road. Want to ask Vegas or Joe a question? Email them at vta3@columbia.edu and...

By Becky Bratu and Michael Keller Self-described girls who like girls, Kristin Russo and Dannielle Owens-Reid started Brooklyn-based EveryoneIsGay.com this spring.

By Becky Bratu “Where did you hear about it?” The Pulp & The Bean coffee shop owner Tony Fisher asked the young Korean man who had just ordered his recently launched Dieci drink, which is nothing but 10 shots of pure espresso in a cup. “A Korean paper? Wow, could you print it for me?”...

by Becky Bratu Twenty-five minutes after it opened for business, Judaica World on Kingston Avenue in Crown Heights was already bustling. Customers wove in and out to check out the sale. With Hanukkah only two sundowns away, holiday-themed merchandise was prominently displayed. From behind the counter, Ephraim told me that business was going well. Although...

By Becky Bratu This spring, Mike Kunitzky opened LaunchPad in a building he bought three years ago on Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights. An amateur photographer and self-professed art aficionado, Kunitzky describes LaunchPad on its website as “a creative gathering place focused on the arts, community programs, technology, and anything else that captures the imagination.”...

Throughout most of Brooklyn, the housing market has rebounded from the slump that followed the economic collapse of 2008. While the number of new properties being sold in America is currently the lowest in recorded history, Brooklyn has seen an increase in total sales and sales prices in the past year. But the health of...

Brooklyn, like the rest of the country, heads into the midterm elections amid voter anger and dissatisfaction with the ailing economy. The Brooklyn Ink looked at the numbers, and talked with the residents to see how statistics figure into their discontent.

Local Organization and Panamanian Community Clash By Becky Bratu Years ago—some say about 10, others as few as seven—gun-toting drug dealers were among the few who preferred to do business on Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights. Most others weren’t brave enough. Today, Franklin is one of the neighborhood’s main commercial drags. Lined with trees, coffee...