If you live and work in Red Hook you’ve probably come across housing and climate activist Karen Blondel. Last month Blondel received new, city-wide recognition when she was one of five New Yorkers presented with the annual “David Prize,” a no-strings-attached gift of $200,000 to locals doing on-the-ground work in their communities. She says she will put her windfall back into the Public Housing Civic Association, which she started, and to create fellowships for young residents. We will discuss all of that, plus growing up in Coney Island, starting her career in cooking and catering, and then training as a computer-aided designer, construction inspector, a civil engineer inspector and more.

 

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