Garbage and Free Stuff in Red Hook, Brooklyn

I crossed the Hamilton Avenue Footbridge from Carroll Gardens to Red Hook on April 19 and again on August 2 of 2025. On both occasions, I turned on Hicks Street toward Nelson Street. On both occasions, I saw eye-catching garbage and/or free stuff.

On Hicks between Luquer and Nelson Streets, there is a chain-link fence separating the sidewalk from a still-empty lot (see lot from the Footbridge on June 25, 2024). On April 19, I noticed that someone had affixed an empty paper coffee cup to the fence (see location).

Someone, for some unknown reason, had gone through a surprising amount of effort to use what appears to be a rusty wire to tie that coffee cup to the fence. There also appears to be a piece of a black trash bag tied connected to the wire. I went by not long after and the coffee cup was gone, rendering this short-lived peculiar public art display ephemeral.

But while the public art display was ephemeral, I learned on August 2 that the disposable paper coffee cup may be unexpectedly evergreen (or everbrown).

Recalling my April 19 fence sighting, I looked in vain for something unusual on the fence when I walked the same block on August 2. While I did not see anything attached to the fence, I did find something laid along side the fence at the corner of Hicks and Nelson (technically on Nelson between Hicks and Henry Streets).

Before I address the obvious subject of this photo, please direct your attention to the brown object laying on the sidewalk in the bottom left of this photo. I did not notice it when I was taking the photo, but on close inspection, it appears to be the same-style coffee cup I photographed in April, now lacking a lid. I am unsure whether it is the same coffee cup, it would have had to withstand a significant amount of rain and other natural abuse over the past few months, but it is situated just about under where I found the hanging coffee cup back in April.

Setting aside the coffee cup, I took the photo to capture the two unusual looking blue chairs with white legs. Are these the newest entries in my collection of photos of appealing free discarded furniture? On closer inspection, this free stuff may be a bit worse for wear.

The left chair looked to be in decent shape, but the seat on the right chair is visibly broken. I was curious where these unusual looking chairs – which somehow remind me of public transit seating or something that may be found in a government waiting room – came from. There are some New York City buildings in Red Hook, but none of them would explain the presence of these two chairs on the corner. I am also curious whether the right chair was broken when it was placed on the corner. Note that the chairs are very neatly placed, both positioned in the same way with their backs to the fence and with the left (non-broken chair) carefully positioned so that its leg goes cross the fence-corner boundary. It is as if someone hoped that people would use or take both chairs, and this effort would seem wasted if one of the chairs were broken. Perhaps that chair was broken after it was so neatly situated.

(I will also note that the neat presentation of the chairs is somewhat marred by the presence of the garbage and dirt around their legs.)

Consider this article an extension of my 2022 and 2024 posts documenting walks across the Hamilton Avenue Footbridge. While the Footbridge is short, the journey can continue into Red Hook, by staying on Luquer Street, or by turning onto Hicks.