We are often asked where Freebird Books resides. Is it Red Hook? Cobble Hill? Columbia Heights? Bounded by the Buttermilk Channel, Atlantic Avenue, the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel (now called the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel), and most prominently the BQE trench, the "Columbia Street Waterfront" (not to be confused with Columbia Heights, which is by the Brooklyn promenade) is a small neighborhood betwixt and between.  Though not Red Hook proper--we are a shorter walk to Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens, and are equidistant to Brooklyn Heights--it does bear comparison.  Long defined by the working port and giant cranes along its shore, Columbia Street is more residential and less industrial than 50 years ago. The photos here help give context to the area as it has shifted from a site of shipping and storage, to gentrification and green spaces. In particular the period of the 1960s to early '80s, when containerization of the port, a declining infrastructure, and depopulation struck the neighborhood hard. Many of the images document how the Puerto Rican community (that lived beside the better known Italian-American neighborhoods of Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens) rallied to save their streets, reclaim abandoned lots, and mobilize their youth.