Response to Red Hook Star Revue’s “Beard Street Compromise”
Jul 20, 2017 158 beard street,bar,beard street,brooklyn bars,community board 6,community meetings,narrow water brewing,red hook,red hook bars,red hook residents,red hook star revue,victoria hagman
At the beginning of the month the Red Hook Star Revue published this article about the bar, Narrow Water Brewing, opening on 158 Beard Street. Many Red Hook residents had concerns about this establishment opening at this location and spoke up recently at a community meeting. Realty Collective owner and CB6 member, Victoria Hagman, was at this meeting and believes the article misrepresented her involvement in the matter. She wrote a letter to the paper last week and we wanted to share that letter below:
I am writing in regards to the article published by the Red Hook Star review on July 4th titled, “Beard Street Compromise?”.
In this article it states I, Victoria Hagman, was the listing Broker for 158 Beard Street. Although I am the owner of Realty Collective LLC, I had no participation in this lease negotiation. I have never met the landlord and until the CB6 Permits & Licenses Committee meeting on June 26th I had also never met the tenant. An agent of Realty Collective was hired by the landlord to lease out this property. I regret not communicating this formally at the meeting but since I had no participation and connection to the deal I misjudged making that declaration.
This article also states that I made statements of support for Narrow Water Brewing at the CB6 meeting. At no time during this meeting did I make an argument in support or against Narrow Water Brewing. I did advocate for the community to participate in the process and take advantage of what leverage the process afforded it, as did several other CB6 members. I was surprised to hear that some thought I was in support of this application. I spoke strongly about the many struggles Red Hook faces and that it was important to address these issues to all government agencies, including the SLA but I did not make any arguments in favor of this application. What I did offer at the meeting was reasoning as to why the community should participate in the process, and I still feel strongly that working together is the best way to address the community’s concerns.
I am happy to discuss this matter in more detail with any other entity or person that desires.