Events for a Brooklyn Gardener-Blogger

Posted on 2007-04-28 by admin

[Updated 2007.05.01 21:00 EDT: Added Merchant’s House Museum Plant Sale.]

Some quick notes on upcoming events, most of which I’ve previously written about.

This Weekend

Today and Tomorrow, April 28 & 29, 10am-6pm
Sakura Matsuri at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

The single most popular annual event at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, tens of thousands of people turn out for the Cherry Blossom Festival every year. Entrance lines and waits are long. BBG’s Blossom Status Map shows that the only cherry trees not in bloom at BBG right now are those that have already finished their show. This will surely pump up the crowds even more.

Rain is predicted both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. This morning started out beautiful and sunny, with blue skies, but it’s already clouding over. The rains will keep the crowds down. I have other commitments this weekend, or I would be there right now.

Next week

May 1-3, hours vary
Brooklyn Botanic Garden Plant Sale

This may be BBG’s second most popular annual event. The Garden closes early on Tuesday, May 1, to re-open for the Members-Only Preview Sale from 4:30-8pm. This is a feeding frenzy of plant fanatics. If you’re not already a BBG member, you can purchase a membership on-site. I’m going to try stopping by there after work on Tuesday if I can get out early enough. Anyone can visit the public sale on Wednesday, May 2, from 9am to 7pm, or Thursday, May 3, from 9am to 12noon.

Thursday, May 3, 11am-5pm
Second Annual Battery Plant Sale, The Battery, Downtown Manhattan

After September 11, the Gardens of Remembrance were planted along The Battery, at the southernmost tip of Manhattan. The plants and gardens are now entering their fifth year. As in any mature garden, the plants need to be divided and replanted. The extra divisions go into their plant sale.

The post card says the plants are “organic, pest-free, and hardy.” They have to be “hardy”. They’re growing more or less on the shore of downtown Manhattan, subject to winter winds and salt spray. Judging from the plant list for last year’s sale, selections are varied and interesting. Most of the plants, all perennials, require or prefer full sun. I could use some in the developing sunny, mixed border along the south side of the house. The only chance I have to get there is on my lunch break.

Following Week

Sunday, May 6, 10am-12noon
Merchant’s House Museum Annual Plant Sale

Located in Manhattan at 29 East 4th Street, between Lafayette St. and the Bowery, the Merchant’s House Museum plant sale benefits the Museum’s Garden Fund. Selections include divisions and seedlings from their historic garden, such as astilbes, hostas, and epimediums.

Thursday, May 10, 8pm
Second Annual Brooklyn Blogfest

This will be at the Old Stone House in J. J. Byrne Memorial Park at 5th Avenue and 3rd Street in Park Slope. I’m really looking forward to meeting some of the other Brooklyn bloggers I read. And I should have my Flickr cards in hand to give out. Collect the whole set!

Vote! (Again!)

Posted on 2007-04-24 by admin

I voted on my way to work this morning. If you’re a registered voter in Brooklyn’s 40th City Council District, please vote today for your next City Councilperson.

Una-Gene made their first appearance in my neighborhood this morning. Both Mathieu Eugene and Una Clarke were on the sidewalk of P.S. 139, my polling place, in Beverley Square West.

RANT

Eugene looked scared. He seemed genuinely baffled as to why people in my neighborhood were angry with him for wasting our votes and hundreds of thousands of dollars by refusing to prove he was eligible to take the seat for which he was elected and calling for a second special election. Like Senator Charles Palatine in the film Taxi Driver, throughout both campaigns Eugene has vapidly parroted the words “the people.” He should not be so surprised that not all “the people” are grateful to him for mentioning us.

Not to mention the questions surrounding funding for his community organization. Or the validity of calling himself a “Doctor,” clearly something he learned from Yvette Clarke.

Of course, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place if Yvette Clarke hadn’t thought she could do more damage make more money as a U.S. Congresswoman.

They can’t respond to a written questionnaire. They can’t show up at a local candidate’s forum; even Sharpe – whom Eugene had removed from the ballot at the time but was just last week reinstated by a judge – showed up for that.

But they can show up to intimidate voters hobnob with their fellow wizards at the steps of the polling place. That’s where Una and her cronies were this morning: on the sidewalk in front of the entrance to the polls. I’ll post the photographic evidence when I get home late tonight.

They seem to believe that residency laws don’t apply to them. Maybe electioneering laws don’t apply to them, either.

Or maybe the only reason they showed up this morning is to create yet another election crisis to manipulate in their favor. Electioneering and voter intimidation at the polls … might that be enough to invalidate the election altogether, or at least the results from a polling place where votes are likely to go largely against them?

Masters of Chaos they are, Thing One and Thing Two.

/RANT

Extra-Special Election for Brooklyn’s 40th City Council Seat, Yesterday
Eugene and Schiffman sole candidates for 40th District, April 11 & 12 [Note: Wellington Sharpe was reinstated last week and is on today’s ballot.]
Eugene challenged on grounds he refused seat, April 10
Where’s Eugene?, March 23
Vote!, February 20
Landscape and Politics in Brooklyn’s City Council District 40, February 14
40th District Forum on Preservation and Development, February 8

Map: Brooklyn Coastal Storm Impact Zones

Posted on 2007-04-17 by admin

[Updated 2007.04.17 21:40 EDT: Removed bad link in title.]

This maps shows Brooklyn impact zones for Category 1 through 4 coastal storms. OASIS recently added this layer to their already invaluable Web mapping service.

You can view the live map, where you can zoom in or out, select different layers and labels, and see how your neighborhood is affected.

1911 New York Dock Company Lithograph

Posted on 2007-04-14 by admin

Greetings, visitors from Maritime NY Cultural Resources. If you find this post interesting, you may also want to check out my other posts about Red Hook.

I’ve notified Community View that at least one of my photos, Pier 41, has been copied to and is being used without attribution on the same page. This is a violation of the Creative Commons under which I make my photos available. If you are the author of the page, please remove the copies, link to the photo page instead, and provide correct attribution. If you know the author of the page, please let them know about this situation.

[Updated 2007.04.14 22:40 EDT: Mystery building identified!]

1911 Lithograph of the New York Dock Company holdings on the Brooklyn Waterfront

This is one of the items we found in the basement of our house after we bought it. I’m calling it a “lithograph” just because I don’t know what else to call it. It’s in poor condition, as you can see from the closeups. I wanted to photograph it and share it in case others know more about what this is. Here’s a contemporary view from roughly the same perspective using Google Earth.

It provides an interesting snapshot of the working Brooklyn waterfront owned and operated by the New York Dock Company early in the 20th Century. It ranged from East Red Hook, Atlantic Basin and Columbia Waterfront, North to Brooklyn Heights and Fulton Ferry.

Downtown Manhattan.

Mystery: I don’t recognize the tallest tower here. My first thought was that it was the Woolworth Building. However, the details and colors of this tower are nothing like the Woolworth.

Update: Josh Jackson of Built Environment Blog identified it as the Singer Building, which was the tallest building in the world for a few years, from 1906 to 1908. It looks like it was a magnificent building. It was demolished in 1968 for One Liberty Plaza.

The Woolworth Building opened in 1913 and was the tallest building in the world until 1930. If this view was of that time, it should be visible here. It’s not, so that places this image before 1913, consistent with the copyright notice of 1911 in the applied label at the lower right.

The label reads:

Bird’s Eye View
of Property of
New York Dock Company
““The Premier Warehouses and Terminal””
New York, U.S.A.

Copyright 1911, by
New York Dock Company

Some details of the waterfront from South to North.

East Red Hook

Atlantic Basin

Columbia Waterfront

Columbia Waterfront to Brooklyn Heights

There are some nice details of New York harbor as well.

Statue of Liberty. You can really see the condition problems here.

Ellis Island

Governor’s Island

Breaking News, Brooklyn: Eugene and Schiffman sole candidates for 40th District

Posted on 2007-04-11 by admin

[Updated 2007.04.12 10:00: Added excerpts from and link to article from Hard Beat News.]
[Updated 2007.04.11 22:20: Added link to Board of Elections official Candidates List.]

April 11

In a tantalizingly brief notice, The Politicker observed less than two hours ago:

Mathieu Eugene and Harry Schiffman are the only candidates on the ballot for the April 24 special election in Brooklyn, a Board of Elections spokeswoman told me.

More later when I learn more.

April 12

This morning, HardBeatNews – “Daily Carribean Diaspora News” – carries the story:

The new election was set to be contested by [Mathieu] Eugene, [Harry] Schiffman, Jamaican Wellington Sharpe and two other Haitian candidates, Gina Faustin and Darly Brutus. But Eugene and his side challenged the candidates based on residency, voter registration and eligibility.

While Eugene did not contest the BOE clerk’s report, which placed Schiffman, the lone Jewish candidate on the ballot, he challenged each of Sharpe’s 1,727 signatures. This led to strong objections from Sharpe’s lawyers and testy arguments between the representatives.

Although some commissioners expressed concern that registered voters on Sharpe’s petition were being discounted, the clerk’s report on to Sharpe’s petition was amended from 812 valid signatures to 832, omitting over one hundred of Sharpe’s signatures which his campaign submitted as valid, causing him to fall short of the 1,002 needed to be on the ballot.

This outraged Sharpe representatives who vehemently argued that under the law every signature of registered voters who reside in the District is valid. Rickford Burke, Sharpe’s campaign manager, argued to Commissioners that once the Board has determined that a petition signer is registered to vote in the District, whether they signed the address at which they are registered or another addressed in the District, the signature is valid according to case law. This argument was supported by Steve Richmond, Counsel to the Commission as well as some Commissioners, leading to confusion among the Commission.

The Commission subsequently rejected the clerk’s report. But after realizing that this action automatically placed Sharpe on the ballot, the Commission reversed itself and allowed the clerk’s report as amended to stand, throwing the matter to the Supreme Court for resolution.

Their wording of this last paragraph is interesting. They imply that the Commission ignored their legal Counsel and reversed their decision in order to deny Sharpe a place on the ballot.

This reportage is marred, to my eye, by tagging it with the God-baiting headline “Could Brooklyn’s 40th District Drama End With A Jewish Councilman?“. In a previous article on this issue, they refer to him as “Jewish-born Brooklyn resident, Harry Schiffman.” (They don’t specify the geographic boundaries of “Jewia”.) This morning’s article is also accompanied by the most unflattering photo of candidate Schiffman I’ve seen yet; he looks like someone just woke him up from a long train ride.

Links:

Board of Elections Candidates List for the April 24th Special Election [PDF]

Eugene challenged on grounds he refused seat, April 10
Where’s Eugene?, March 23
Vote!, February 20
Landscape and Politics in Brooklyn’s City Council District 40, February 14
40th District Forum on Preservation and Development, February 8

News, Brooklyn: Eugene challenged on grounds he refused seat

Posted on 2007-04-10 by admin

While of little interest to those outside Brooklyn’s 40th City Council District, the serial comedo-drama (drami-comedy?) that is our super-special election takes another twist. I heard about this last night at our neighborhood association meeting. It’s been reported in several venues this morning:

The Wellington Sharpe campaign has filed a Request for Judicial Intervention ( RJI ) in the Brooklyn Supreme Court to invalidate Mathieu Eugene’s Nominating Petition. There will be a hearing on the matter on April 12. Sharpe is a candidate in the April 24 th City Council 40th District Special Election.

The Sharpe campaign in a statement insisted that “The 40th District seat became vacant as a result of Eugene’s declination of the office and his refusal to execute his Oath.”
– Residency and Eligibility in the 40th, Room Eight

It would be morally satisfying to see Eugene go down in this way. But NYC election politics has nothing to do with justice, and my cynicism for politics is surpassed only by Eugene’s.

The section of law cited in the Request reads, in part:

Every office shall be vacant upon the happening of one of the following events before the expiration of the term thereof:
… His refusal or neglect to file his official oath or undertaking, if one is required, before or within thirty days after the commencement of the term of office for which he is chosen.

Eugene himself, the putative winner of the first special election, requested the second special election just so he wouldn’t have to prove he lived in the district he was elected to represent at the time he was elected. But again, a decision on this Request will probably hinge on the timing of Eugene’s “refusal,” which came after the Board of Elections certified his win, but before he was sworn in. Of course, he refused to be sworn in, because that would have required proof of residence.

Got it?

Sharpe is another carpet-bagger. He also didn’t live in the district when he began campaigning for the first special election. By apparently moving in before the date of the first previous special election, he seems to demonstrate at least some basic competencies Eugene lacks: the ability to read a calendar, and to know what day it is.

Petition challenges will also be heard by a judge this Thursday. Hopefully, that evening we’ll know who we can vote for in two weeks on April 24. Again.

Where’s Eugene?, March 23
Vote!, February 20
Landscape and Politics in Brooklyn’s City Council District 40, February 14
40th District Forum on Preservation and Development, February 8

Another reason to loathe real estate brokers …

Posted on 2007-04-06 by admin

Trying to locate their recent report on sales figures, I idly browsed the Corcoran (“Live Who You Are”! Be All That You Can Be!) Web site for my neighborhood. I don’t expect to find Beverley Square West. I would hope to find Victorian Flatbush. They’d don’t even list Flatbush. I found what I expected:

Ditmas Park: Runs from Parkside Avenue to the north, Ditmas Avenue to the south, Ocean Avenue to the east and Coney Island Avenue to the west.
– Corcoran Neighborhood Guide to Ditmas Park

Lest one quibble “Oh, it’s just a real estate name,” they continue in the second paragraph:

… This landmarked district …

WRONG! The landmarked Ditmas Park Historic District lies only within the boundaries of Dorchester and Newkirk Avenues, and Ocean Avenue and the B/Q line. The only other landmarked area within the boundaries they describe is Prospect Park South. The rest of their “Ditmas Park” is not landmarked.

It’s worse than that. They have no idea where they are.

Their descriptions conflate several neighborhoods – some landmarked, most not – and get basic information wrong. They provide the wrong school number for P.S. 139. There’s this:

These homes were originally built for the likes of the Guggenheims and films stars like Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.

Again, not in Ditmas Park. The Guggenheim Honeymoon Cottage is in Beverley Square West, my neighborhood. The Pickford/Fairbanks House is in Ditmas Park West.

And there’s this:

Many have porches and garages and sit on wide tree-lined streets with English sounding names like Argyle and Rugby.

Only the streets between Coney Island Avenue and the B/Q lines – half the area they claim to describe – carry these names, borrowed from the status of Prospect Park South. Four different neighborhoods span those streets from Parkside to Ditmas, and none of them are Ditmas Park.

The boundaries they give describe only part of greater Victorian Flatbush; they omit half the neighborhoods. Extending the southern boundary from Ditmas Avenue to Avenue H, between Coney Island Avenue Ocean Avenue lie West Midwood, Midwood Park, and Fiske Terrace. The latter two are proposed Historic Districts and are on track to become landmarked. Extending the eastern boundary to Flatbush Avenue, the Albemarle-Kenmore Terraces Historic District lies east of Prospect Park South, between Ocean and Flatbush Avenues, and South Midwood lies between Ocean and Bedford Avenues, and Foster Avenue south to Brooklyn College.

I’ve never had any dealings with Corcoran. We tried working with them when we were shopping for our home three years ago. They had yet to “discover” this area, and so had nothing to show us. Their reach had only extended to Windsor Terrace at that point, and we went to one open house there.

And, don’t bother trying to find a house a house on their Web site. You won’t find any. They only have “townhouses” …

Other Gardens: Red Hook’s Summit Street Community Garden

Posted on 2007-04-02 by admin

[2007.04.05: Corrected some typos.]
[2007.04.02 21:00: Updated with my notes from Saturday’s visit.]

Locations of Gowanus Nursery (red outline) and nearby Community Gardens (labelled light green areas) in Red Hook

A pleasant discovery when I visited Gowanus Nursery on Saturday is that there are three community gardens within one block of each other:

Summit Street Community Garden, at the corner of Summit Street and Columbia Street
Backyard Garden, at the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Van Brunt Street
Amazing Garden, at the corner of Carroll Street and Columbia Street

I was able to visit the first two gardens before and after, respectively, I visited Gowanus Nursery. This post is about the Summit Street garden. I’ll have another for the Backyard Garden.

Let me walk you around the garden, roughly in the order I experienced it.

The garden is surrounded by a simple and attractive green steel fence. A really nice inviting feature is the round, head-sized hole interrupting the vertical bars in the gates. Yes, I tested them; they really are head-sized. You can stick your head through and look around inside without the bars in the way. It’s a simple touch, a grace note, but it says, to me, at least: Sorry we weren’t here when you were. Please come back again.

Entrance Gate

But the gates were open when I got there. Just inside the gates is a dry-laid bluestone landing area, with dry-laid brick paths guiding you forward. The walls of the adjacent buildings ahead of you are at the North side of the garden. We’ll see the border there in a bit.

Entrance Path

I got to meet and speak with two of the gardeners, Kevin King and Claire Merlino. They explained that all the brick and stone used in the garden came from the buildings which used to stand here.

Note to all demolition sites: There is no excuse for throwing out brick and stone in dumpsters destined for landfill. Every garden wants brick and stone. Gardeners, community and others, have lots of creative uses for these durable and attractive materials.

The Rock Garden

To the right of the entrance is the rock garden. Whenever you have to clear a building site for gardening, you will have building debris which is unsuitable for paving, wall-building, and so on. This got piled up near the edge of the property, with the thought that it would eventually get cleared away. As time passed, it also got put to creative reuse, and became a rock garden.

Rock Garden

Iris reticulata in the Rock Garden

Erica carnea, Spring Heath, in the Rock Garden

Community in the Garden

The garden got its start in late 1993. The first clean-up was in Spring of 1994. Trash and rubbish had to be removed, but they also needed cleanfill.

There are three building lots here. With the buildings collapsed, there was a large central depression which had to be filled. Gardeners used rocks to tag piles from the nearby Snapple warehouse excavation which they could use for fill in the garden. One of the workers on the site went one better and selected the darkest material he could find and delivered it to the garden; darkest, because it was contaminated with oil from the excavation site. With that teachable moment, the workers came back and removed the “good” stuff and replaced it with the real soil the gardeners had tagged.

Every community garden also needs to balance common and individual planting areas. I like these raised beds as a flexible solution for private planting areas. They’re rectangular with 2:1 proportions; I’m not sure if they’re 4×8 foot or 3×6 foot. Members can subscribe to a full- or half-bed. I also like that the beds are aligned but not on a regular grid, which creates interesting paths through the garden.

Planting Beds

Every community garden also needs to coordinate the needs of the garden with the availability of its members. To the left of the entrance is this sign-up station. The book and pencil are protected, and the stand itself is an attractive garden feature.

Sign-Up Station

The West Border

Along Columbia Street is the West Border, one of the common areas.

West border

Daffodils and Crocus

The North Border

Opposite the entrance on Summit Street, against the adjacent building, is the North Border.

The North border

Hellebores and Narcissus in the North border

There seemed to be hundreds of Iris reticulata in bloom when I visited. Claire said that there would have been more except that the squirrels considered them a delicacy and devoured most of what had been planted last fall.

Finally, Claire is looking for someone to adopt this Castor Aralia tree. Leave a comment if you or someone you know is interested.

Kalopanax septemlobus (syn. K. pictus), Castor Aralia

Event, Brooklyn/Queens: Compost Giveback, May 12, 13, 18 and 19

Posted on 2007-04-02 by admin

Compost Demonstration Area at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

This Spring’s Compost Giveback for Brooklyn and Queens will be held at the Spring Creek Composting Site the second and third weekends of May: May 12 & 13, and May 18 & 19. NYC residents (no businesses) can take away as much compost as they can shovel and transport. They can also purchase compost bins for $20, which is a bargain.

You really need private transportation to take advantage. Bring your own shovels. Heavy-duty puncture-resistant garbage bags, such as contractor’s bags, are ideal. A wagon wouldn’t hurt, either.

The compost bins are high-quality, made from recycled plastic. They come folded flat for transport and snap together for assembly, no tools required. They have a compact footprint, but are big enough to get some heat into the heap. In the photo above, the taller, skinnier black plastic composter in the center of the photo is similar or identical to the discounted model.

Links:

Cinder Block & Razor Wire: Opening Day at Gowanus Nursery in Red Hook

Posted on 2007-03-31 by admin

It was a beautiful day to visit Gowanus Nursery. I bought six plants, just enough to fill the two shopping bags I brought. They threw me off when they gave me an extra Columbine, a survivor from their old location which they were giving to customers today to celebrate their re-opening. They also had some beautiful pre-planted trough gardens. If I’d had personal transportation I would have given them more attention.

This space is on a much wider lot than their old 3rd street location, better suited to wandering amongst the generous displays of plants. They have lots of elbow room to bring in more plants, and spread out their stock as it gets larger during the season. Construction of shelters and other structures was still going on when I visited. Will be interesting to see when everything’s put together.

Many more photos below. Or visit the Flickr set.