Pacha Patrol
Things continue Going Just Fine at the newly opened Pacha (140 Stewart Ave.). As Brooklyn Paper’s Kirstyn Brendlen reports, the club’s head of security is a human thumb/ex-cop named Henry Daverin, who racked up 18 misconduct incidents—all against African Americans—during his time in the force. He had a long history of illegal stops and searches, along with needless, violent arrests. (Don’t miss the great bit where Pacha owner Kabir Mulchandani accidentally hits Brendlen with a Reply All.)
On the other hand, reviews for the club itself seem to be good, praising its open spaces and luxurious but chill, “indoor block party” atmosphere, per Sheila Lim in EDM Identity.
Election Fever
Plenty of hay will be made about the Commie Corridor turning a darker shade of pink last week, but considering all the campaigns defeated by DSA candidates had engaged in divisive rhetoric or other shenanigans, the election may as well have simply been a referendum against the idea of Being A Dick.
In Brooklyn, and some parts of Queens, Claire Valdez beat Antonio Reynoso, a fellow progressive whose campaign all but positioned Valdez as a transplant. Over in Manhattan, Darializa Avila Chevalier beat Adriano Espaillat, whose campaign had been chided by Mamdani for engaging in “anti-black sentiment” in all but positioning Avila Chevalier as a Haitian. (She isn’t, Espaillat was later forced to admit). It seems the Espaillat campaign may have also overestimated public devotion to Kamala Harris, when he ran on pointing out that Avila Chevalier criticized Harris on Twitter long before running.
The Fever Persists
David Orkin beat Jenifer Rajkumar—whose campaign had been accused of falsifying signatures, including the signature of at least one member of Orkin’s team. Team Rajkumar was last seen in a Hellgate report being told by a cop to leave a polling place “like, four times” on the day of the election.
Also in Brooklyn, Christian Celeste Tate beat Erik Dilan, whose campaign canvasser allegedly hurled transphobic slurs at Tate canvassers, per a report in the substack State of the Left. Dilan is the son of Martin Dilan (a local labor organizer once instructively referred to him as “his Mini-Me”), whose defeat by Julia Salazar in 2018 marked a turning point for the Brooklyn DSA. (Here, you can see Dilan hijacking a Community Board 4 meeting to campaign, for which he is castigated by City Council Member Sandy Nurse, one of Bushwick’s two city reps.)
Post-Obama reform group New Kings Democrats also had a good night, with almost two dozen of their candidates winning district leader races in Brooklyn, including activists Carmella Charrington and Omar Hardy, who the Dem party had tried to kick off the ballot. (Charrington has since come under fire for Instagram posts that Jewish Insider muckraker Will Bredderman called a “vitriolic antisemitic screed.” Various DSA members have since distanced themselves from Charrington.)
Over in South Brooklyn, and some of lower Manhattan, former Gowanus councilman Brad Lander defeated AIPAC-backed Dan Goldman for the Democratic nomination for Goldman‘s seat in Congress. Like a 90s bumper sticker on a car headed to Lollapalooza, voters declared: Mean People Suck.
The Fever Persists II: Jeffries Adjusts Tie
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, for his part, admonished the mayor by saying Mamdani’s winning endorsements would have “work to do” with Congressional Democrats (due to Mamdani, as CNN reported, “Forcing Out Democratic Incumbents”). Not really how Winning usually works, but the idea that victory comes with stern repercussions probably says a lot about the state of the Democratic party. State Attorney General Letitia James also said she was “disappointed” with Mamdani and warned people not to “blow up” the Dem Party, saying, “That’s what MAGA has done.”
On election night an image of Jeffries was hit with chants of “You’re Next!” at Valdez’s victory party at 99 Scott (99 Scott Ave.). The unflappable Jeffries later responded to questions about a 2028 primary challenge by saying, “When you ask me a serious question, I’ll give you a serious answer.”
#Demilitarizebrooklynnavyyard
Four protestors were arrested at the Brooklyn Navy Yard this month as local activists continue to call for the eviction of Crye Precision, a company that manufactures tactical camo gear used by the DHS & Israel on the city owned industrial site.
The movement scored a major victory this spring: Israeli drone manufacturer Easy Aerial was given the boot when the Navy Yard decided to not renew their lease after over a year of demonstrations. (Although a Navy Yard spokesperson denied that the decision had been influenced by the protests, the Easy Aerial CEO himself blamed “pressure from the mayor’s office” and even claimed security over his site “suddenly became more lax” once Mamdani was in office, per a report in the New York Post.)
The fight against Crye Precision might not be as easy, considering they have up to twenty years on their lease, but the movement has been going on since early 2025 and shows no signs of slowing. They even talked to the mayor about it when he showed up in Bushwick last month to campaign for Valdez.
Renegade Landlord Sparks Zombie Meltdown
The Real Deal has a report on the latest PR escapade of Humberto Lopes, NYC’s resident Mamdani-hatin’ renegade landlord, which involved hiring actors to play zombies to protest Mamdani’s proposed rent freeze. It didn’t make too much sense to begin with— aside from the fact that ‘Mamdani’ sort of rhymes with ‘zombie’— plus zombies are not so much part of the cultural zeitgeist these days anyhow— but things quickly spiraled from there.
It seems many of the zombies gained class consciousness and began breaking character after discovering the politics behind the gig, with one actor later telling Hellgate, “at least half of us… were like, ‘we’re not doing this shit.’”
A two-year rent freeze on stabilized units passed Thursday.
Burn Zone
Despite the then-present immolation of a 174-year-old church, one thoughtful person decided to give a drone documenting the destruction a courtesy flash.
If you get the feeling there’s more fires than usual these days, you aren’t wrong: according to the Knickerbocker Beacon there have been more so far in 2026 than in the last twenty years. It might just be lithium batteries. Then again, you can’t really blame the online Fire Truthers, considering Bushwick’s deep history of being torched by landlords for insurance money.
Know something? Email: grimesquare@gmail.com.
Brian Jones Kraft is a writer who has been living in Bushwick for over a decade and a half. He has previously written extensively about the legacy of Andrew Cuomo, David Dinkins and that mural on the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Evergreen.
Top photo of Book Club Radio at Xanadu, taken by Nicholas Krywucki.
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