Red Hook is a neighborhood in Southwest Brooklyn that is surrounded by the Upper New York Bay. The Dutch in the 17th century named it for the color of its soil and its shape. Since the peninsula is surrounded by the Buttermilk Channel, Gowanus Bay and Canal, it was once a thriving port (NY Mag). However, Red Hook has been suffering and is only known businesses are its large Ikea and Fairway, a poor indicator of its economic health. Red Hook is also plagued with inefficient transit system and poor housing projects. Recently, Hurricane Sandy has made the neighborhood’s economic sustainability even more volatile. Since Red Hook is characterized as a manufacturing zone and cut off from the rest of Brooklyn by the Gowanus Expressway, its economic stagnation is attributed not only to its history of providing impoverished housing projects, but to the poor urban planning. As manufacturing ports moved from Red Hook to New Jersey, its only economy was abandoned, leaving it to become a neighborhood that could not economically sustain itself. To better understand contemporary Red Hook, this paper will examine its history, economics, government, and culture.