Red Hook is a neighborhood that never really takes off.

Seemingly always on the verge of getting hot, Red Hook remains one of those Brooklyn neighborhoods whose potential feels unrealized. But given this potential, what holds Red Hook back?

The neighborhood does have a lot to offer. A beautiful waterfront with a view of the Statue of Liberty. Cobblestone streets lined with buildings featuring Dutch inspired facades. There is an Ikea and a Fairway. You can hear the ocean in Red Hook. Boats bob off the neighborhood piers.

But why is Red Hook always in a state of “Almost?”

It begins, with getting there.

Consider this recent commute from Manhattan: Delays in downtown service, lead to re-routing in a race to make the New York Water Taxi, which sails every 45 to 60 minutes and which represents the only direct connection with Manhattan. Miss the ferry, and wait, or take the F train to the Ninth and Smith Street station, and from there either catch a cab, or a bus or walk half an hour. There is no closer subway stop.

The problems do not stop there.

In the 1920’s Red Hook was one of the busiest freight ports in the world. But as the shipping business changed and the ships stopped calling at Red Hook, jobs dried up and people moved out, leaving behind empty docks and abandoned warehouses. In the 1960’s, the mayor, Richard Wagner, appointed real-estate developer James Felt as his Planning Commission chairman. Felt had a vision for the city, one that designated Red Hook for industrial use, further reducing its appeal as a place to live.

That appeal diminished further when Robert Moses, who in his multiple commission roles oversaw the transformation of the city, built the Gowanus Expressway, which cut Red Hook off from the rest of Brooklyn.

Today, the expressway effectively functions as a menacing tunnel through which those who walk from the subway must pass, dodging cars, and waiting at traffic lights. It is not a pleasant walk.

“It is definitely a chicken and egg aspect,” says Eric McClure, transportation co-chair of Community Board 6. “If transportation networks exist, it makes it much easier for people to move to Red Hook, work there. But if you wait, you’re not going to get that kind of development and resurgence if there’s not transportation to serve it.”

The board recently came up with a solution — a public bike share. Citi Bike will be setting up bike stations throughout Red Hook and surrounding neighborhoods. The stations will be up and running within the year – in contrast to a long discussed and now moribund plan to build a streetcar system in Red Hook. The city’s Department of Transportation deemed that plan too expensive and logistically difficult, given the neighborhood’s narrow streets.

In addition, while the city hopes to launch a ferry system in 2017 it is unclear whether the ferries will dock at nearby Atlantic Basin. And even if they did, says McClure, the ferries will not be integrated into the mass transit system, meaning that there will be no free transfers to busses and subways.

McClure is left hoping for a more robust bus system.

Back in 2008, there had been plans to expand the B77 and B71 bus routes to go through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, and connect Red Hook to Manhattan. Just two years later the 2010 MTA budget cuts eliminated the B71 bus route and discontinued the B77, adding alternative service via the B61. The B61 is currently the only bus line servicing Red Hook. Since the other two routes were cut, B61 has had problems with overcrowding and punctuality. Red Hook community groups have advocated for bringing back the B71, which ran on Union Street to Cobble Hill and served the Columbia waterfront just north of Red Hook. McClure said that it might help some transit connections to Red Hook, but there is currently nothing on the table specifically for Red Hook proper.

“The shame of it is that you’ve got a significant public housing component in Red Hook, which is of course underserved by public transportation and it’s because they don’t have the voice that other neighborhoods do for pushing for service,” says McClure. “Arguably these are people that need the service the most.”

That population lives in the largest public housing projects in all of Brooklyn, the 2,878-unit Red Hook Houses. Most of Red Hook’s residents live there. The Red Hook Houses are a vast public housing project that itself represent an obstacle – a politically and socially difficult obstacle — to development, or as some critics might put it, gentrification.

“The tricky part is how do you reconcile residential development and economic growth with the whole issue of gentrification and displacement?” asks McClure.

But the presence of the Red Hook Houses does not necessarily preclude development, says Lance Freeman, professor of Urban Planning at Columbia University. New luxury housing, he says, could attract new residents, who in turn would attract new businesses to serve them.

This would not mean that residents of the Houses would be pushed out. Even if the neighborhood does undergo gentrification, that doesn’t affect the rents in public housing.

“Public housing is one of the best ways to help people living in a neighborhood that is undergoing gentrification to be able to stay without their housing costs rising,” Freeman says.

But even if transportation and development come, there remains the legacy of zoning laws.

Walking around the neighborhood, next to nearly every new coffee shop or bakery is an empty lot or abandoned property. John McGettrick, co-chair of the Red Hook Civic Association, says that he would like to see those sections now zoned for industry rezoned to allow for light industrial development mixed with residential and commercial development.

But, he adds, “We do not, under any circumstances, want high rise fortresses on the water and the level of overdevelopment that’s taken place in neighborhoods like Williamsburg. We’re a village. We want development and redevelopment on a human scale.”

Meanwhile, developers are seeking out possibilities in Red Hook. Estate Four, a development firm based in Los Angeles, is working on a mixed-use project called the Red Hook Innovation District. The plan is to turn a century old, three-story factory complex on Coffey and Ferris streets into a space for stores, offices and performances.

And in January, Tom Fox, founder of the New York Water Taxi, proposed drawing on Red Hook’s past by making a service yard for his ferries.

“You could have mariners, you could have boat repair, you could have ferry repairs, there’s many ferries in the city on runs, they need a place where they can berth, be repaired and fueled,” says McGettrick, an advocate for bringing back the neighborhood’s maritime use. “You can have fishing boats that come directly into Red Hook by either the Atlantic or Erie basin, and they, in turn, could provide fresh fish for the community and also for restaurants in the area.”

But Fox’s plan has yet to gain approval.

Estate Four also faces some difficulties in its five-year, $400 million venture. Renovating the building has enormous costs and there are industrial-zoning restrictions they have to deal with, like the zoning laws prohibiting residential development.

Finally, what makes Red Hook so alluring can also undermine its future: its proximity to the water. Hurricane Sandy devastated Red Hook, flooding almost all the homes and businesses in the area. There is still storm damage to be repaired in places like Red Hook Houses. Sandy stalled development and made investors wary. Although the city proposed a $200 million plan for an integrated flood protection system in Red Hook, it could be years until the plan becomes a reality.

With it all, McGettrick, for one, believes Red Hook’s best days are still to come. “We’ve had some bumps in the road,” he says, adding that Red Hook “is headed in the right direction.”