Sunday March 9: The Kensington Blogade

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On Sunday, March 9, the Brooklyn Blogade visits Kensington, courtesy of Bad Girl Blog:

Time for “Show & Tell”: Bloggers are encouraged to be brave and give a reading from one of their best blog posts. Or bring along your laptop and a screen and show us your best pics. Or just tell us about your best post. Please plan to limit your presentation to about five minutes so everybody can have a turn.

WHEN: Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 12noon

WHERE:
Old Brick Cafe
507 Church Avenue, between Ocean Parkway and E. 5th Street
Kensington, Brooklyn

RSVP REQUIRED. See Bad Girl Blog for details.

Related Posts

Blogade

Links

Bad Girl Blog

Atlantic Yards Camera Club

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Update 2008.02.12: Since the original post, I’ve added several more links to posts and photos from the other photographers who were present.

Photographers in a flurry
Photographers in a Flurry

Amid snow flurries and near-zero windchills, a stalwart group of about two dozen Brooklyn photographers, bloggers, citizen journalists, community activists, media and supporters gathered for a “photographers’ rights free expression mobilization.” We stood around in the freezing cold to talk and take pictures.
DSC_8189

DSC_8190

DSC_8191

Storm Approaching

Bloggerazzi (Dave Kenny)

DSC_8217

Party City

Fence as Art

Related Posts

My Flickr set

Links

Atlantic Yards (Flickr photo pool)
Brit in Brooklyn
Dope on the Slope
Fading Ad Blog
featherrock’s Picasa Web Album
No Land Grab
not another f*cking blog! (threecee)
Picture New York

The February 2008 Brooklyn Blogade

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Blogade at Faan

Eleanor Traubman of Creative Times and her partner, Michael Sorgatz, hosted the February 2008 Brooklyn Blogade at Faan, a Chinese restaurant at 209 Smith Street.

Blogade at Faan

Eleanor Traubman and Michael Sorgatz
Eleanor Traubman and Michael Sorgatz

Eleanor Traubman
Eleanor Traubman, Creative Times

Adrian Kinloch, Brit in Brookyln
Adrian Kinloch, Brit in Brooklyn

Morgan Pehme, Brooklyn Optimist
Morgan Pehme, Brooklyn Optimist

Frank Jump, Fading Ad Blog
Frank Jump, Fading Ad Blog

Katia Kelly, Pardon Me For Asking
Katia Kelly, Pardon Me For Asking

Joyce Hanson, Bad Girl Blog
Joyce Hanson, Bad Girl Blog

Rob Lenihan, Luna Park Gazette
Rob Lenihan, Luna Park Gazette

Petra, Bed-Stuy Blog
Petra, Bed-Stuy Blog

Chandru Murthi, I’m Seeing Green
Chandru Murthi, I'm Seeing Green

Faan

The Table is Set
The Table is Set

Place Setting
Place Setting

Iced Tea
Iced tea

Abacus Wall Divider
Abacus Wall Divider

Detail, Abacus Wall Divider
Detail, Abacus Wall Divider

Black & White Mosaic Mao
Black & White Mosaic Mao

Curious
Curious

Related Posts

Blogade

Links

Brooklyn Optimist
Creative Times
Fading Ad Blog
Luna Park Gazette

Call for Volunteers for 2008 Victorian Flatbush House Tour

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Wraparound porch at 1306 Albemarle Road in Prospect Park South, one of the homes on last year’s tour.
1306 Albemarle Road, Prospect Park South

Via Flatbush Family Network

It is that time again!! Time for the annual Victorian Flatbush House Tour. I am writing to ask for your help in promoting this year’s event and in getting HOMES and VOLUNTEERS.

The Victorian Flatbush House Tour will take place this year on Sunday, June 8. It will start at 1pm and will run until 6pm. Each year, the tour features about 11 homes from the various neighborhoods that are open for visitation. More than 600 people attend the tour, with participants coming from all 5 boroughs, the greater metro area and beyond!

We are in need of lots of volunteers to help with the house tour. It takes over 100 volunteers to put on a successful tour each year. That includes the 80+ volunteers that are needed the day of the tour to meet and guide guests through the homes AND it includes the volunteers that are needed to plan and organize the tour over the several months preceding the actual tour.

If you, anyone in your association, or anyone you know, are interested in helping with planning or volunteering for this year’s tour, please contact Robin Redmond at Flatbush Development Corporation at (718) 859-3800. Come get involved and help us showcase our beautiful neighborhoods.

We are also in need of homes to be on the tour this year. We have already had a couple of neighbors offer to have their homes be on this year’s tour so we have a start but, there is still a need for more. If you would like to suggest your home, or a neighbor’s home for being included in the tour then please, call Sidney Wormsby at (718) 791-8707.

Thanks for your help and support.

Related Posts

Victorian Flatbush at risk from inappropriate zoning, October 23, 2007
2007 Victorian Flatbush House Tour, June 10, 2007

Links

Victorian Flatbush House Tour, Flatbush Development Corporation (FDC)

Endangered Coney Island Community Gardens

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Update 2008.02.05: Added link to More Gardens! Web site. This is one of the topics on the agenda for their general meeting this Thursday evening. See my Google Calendar in the sidebar for details.

Community Gardens in Coney Island. Map Credit: OASIS
Map of Community Gardens in Coney Island

West of the subway stations and main attractions at Coney Island lie several community gardens, shown in light green on the map above. City community garden activists have identified three of them, highlighted on the Google Map below, as critically in danger of being lost to development.


View Larger Map

These three endangered gardens are under the jurisdiction of NYC’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). They do not have the protection conferred to most other community gardens in New York City by transfer to Parks or purchase by the Trust for Public Land.

Surf Side Garden
2829 Surf Avenue, corner of West 29th Street

Unity Tower Tenant Association
1917 Surf Avenue, corner of West 20th Street
Founded in April 1993

Senior Citizens Block Association of Mermaid Ave
2917 West 20th Street, between Surf and Mermaid Avenues

Links

More Gardens!
Gardens To Close as Coney Prepares for Building Boom, Brooklyn Eagle, March 5, 2008

Cortelyou Road Crocus Watch

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Update 2008.03.06: The Crocuses are blooming!

Despite this morning’s brief snow flurry, Spring is nearly upon us. That means that the 1,000 Daffodils and 400 Crocus which dozens of neighborhood volunteers planted along Cortelyou Road last fall will soon bloom. The crocuses are already up and may bloom within the next two weeks.

This is a good time to remind businesses, building owners and managers, residents and visitors along Cortelyou Road that tree pits contain live plants. They should not put bags of garbage in them. This is especially important now that the plants are coming up.

Most building and business owners do not use the tree pits as dumpsters. I’ve only seen it done twice in the past two months. But all it takes is one thoughtless dumping of garbage, and the whole season of growth in that tree pit will be destroyed.

Beyond not damaging what’s growing there, any care that owners and businesses can take to keep tree pits neat and clean will make a big difference. Keeping the tree pits clear of litter is the single most effective thing they can do. Just like graffiti and broken windows, keeping after trash shows that people care for the area, and are watching out for it.

Over two dozen people turned out to help plant the tree pits last fall. That’s a big turnout for something that was organized very informally. This shows that residents value the new streetscape along Cortelyou Road. Studies have shown that people spend more time, and are willing to spend more, on commercial streets that have green, growing things. Keeping the tree pits clean and free of trash is not just neighborly. It’s good business as well.

Related Posts

Tree Pits are not Dumpsters, November 18, 2007
The Daffodil Project Plantings on Cortelyou Road, November 4, 2007
1,000 Daffodils for Cortelyou Road, October 27, 2007
The Daffodil Project: Grief & Gardening #5, November 26, 2006

Links

The Daffodil Project

Raccoon Fight

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I just heard a raccoon fight in my backyard. It’s the first time I’ve seen a raccoon here in the winter.

I didn’t know it was a raccoon fight at first. When I heard the ruckus, I looked out from the second floor porch, but couldn’t see anything. I went downstairs with a flashlight and looked out from one of the back bedrooms. I saw what I thought was a cat hiding behind one of the Adirondack chairs.

I went back upstairs to the back porch. Then I heard the screeching and screaming again. Decidedly un-catlike. I could tell it was coming from the corner of the yard, but I couldn’t see anything. I thought it might be just beyond one of our neighbors’ fences.

Then I saw it, lumbering into view. One of the big mama-jama raccoons. Unhurried and unconcerned. Probably the winner of whatever altercation had just ensued. In the beam of my flashlight, it turned to look up at me, then stood on its back legs to get a better look. Satisfied, I guess, it went under my back neighbor’s deck.

It was all over in less than five minutes, so no photos from tonight’s squabble. You can find photos in my related posts.

Related Posts

Flatbush Wildlife Report: Raccoons and Opposums, July 9, 2007
Midnight Photo Blogging: Raccoons in Brooklyn, July 31, 2006

Happy Imbolc! (Groundhog Day)

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Happy Groundhog Day!

“Flatbush Fluffy”, the resident mammoth marmot, shown above, did not see his shadow this morning. We had torrential rains all day yesterday and into the night. The sun has only just broken out this morning. So I guess we’re having a short winter. My crocuses have been poking up for the past two weeks, ready to make a break for it.

Staten Island Chuck concurs.

Not that there’s been much winter here this year. It’s the first New York City January without snow in 75 years.

Meanwhile, other parts of the country were hammered with record snowfalls this winter. And right now China and other parts of the world are recovering from severe winter weather.

Heavy Snow in China, NASA Earth Observatory

Related posts

Happy Groundhog Day! (2007)

Wanna Fight Crime? Plant Trees

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Do street trees increase or decrease crime? In an urban setting, does increased vegetation interfere with police surveillance of criminal activity? Or does the increase in community “surveillance” from more people spending more time outdoors, because it’s more pleasant, deter crime even more than police surveillance would?

According to Joseph Murray, biology instructor at Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave, Virginia, it’s the latter:

Police tend to believe more vegetation means less visibility. A study in 2001 looked at subsidized housing units with varying amounts of vegetation around them. The most calls to the police came from the building with the least vegetation. Those with more vegetation tended to draw residents who demanded benches and well-maintained playground equipment. Then, people were out there watching.
– Urban Forestry Has Crime Prevention Role, Patricia R. McCoy, Alliance for Community Trees, January 22, 2008

We need to internalize more sophisticated models of the impact greening and gardening can have on urban communities. It’s much more than “neighborhood beautification”; at least, when it’s done well, it is. People need green growing things around them to be healthy, to reduce stress, to connect with neighbors, and to feel positively about belonging where they live. Gardening builds and supports community resiliency to respond creatively and constructively to internal and external crises and pressures. Gardening builds community. As it should.