Just a reminder that tomorrow evening’s Imagine Flatbush 2030 Workshop #2 will begin at 6:30pm on the Brooklyn College campus.
Tomorrow: Imagine Flatbush 2030 Workshop #2
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Tag Archives: Events
Upcoming Local Events
Some quick notes of things happening within a couple blocks of me over the next few weeks. Details for all these events are available from the Google calendar in the sidebar.
This Weekend
Saturday December 8 and Sunday, December 9, 1-6pm, Prospect Park South resident Karen Friedland hosts an Art Show and Sale.
Sunday, December 9, 10am-3pm, P.S. 139 has their annual Holiday Craft Fair.
Next Week
Wednesday, December 12, starting at 6:30pm, Imagine Flatbush 2030 Workshop #2 at Brooklyn College.
Next Weekend, Sunday December 16
1:45-4pm, Beverley Square West Holiday Caroling. Meet at the Tot Lot at Cortelyou and Argyle Roads at 1:45pm.
3-5pm, Cortelyou Road Tree Lighting, at the Tot Lot.
3:30-5:30pm, The Regina Opera, at the Victorian Place Cultural Center / Temple Beth Emeth.
12/13: Hearing on Parks’ use of artificial turf
Field 11, part of nearly 40 acres of artificial surface at the Parade Grounds, on Caton Avenue south of Prospect Park in Brooklyn
Next Thursday there will be an oversight hearing on the use of artificial turf in NYC’s parks:
The New York City Council Parks and Recreation Committee will hold an oversight hearing on the use of artificial turf in the City’s parks. New Yorkers for Parks published, “A New Turf War: Synthetic Turf in New York City,” which provides background on this issue and offers recommendations for determining when and where to use artificial turf in city parks and athletic fields. New Yorkers for Parks will use this opportunity to voice some of the recommendations of our policy report on the topic.
– The Dangers of Fake Green Grass
The hearing will be held from 10am-12pm, at 250 Broadway, 14th Floor Hearing Room.
New York City’s Department of Parks & Recreation (DPR) has become increasingly reliant on synthetic turf as a replacement for asphalt and natural grass athletic fields across the city. Through the installation of the “new generation” of synthetic turf, DPR seeks to increase community access to fields as well as to solve the maintenance challenges of grass and the aesthetic and safety problems associated with asphalt. This surface offers all-weather playability and lower maintenance costs than grass; however, synthetic turf has some negative environmental impacts and requires a significant capital investment. The important environmental benefits of natural turf, such as its ability to absorb and filter rainwater and pollutants, and to decrease the impact of the urban heat island effect, must be considered in the debate.
– Executive Summary, A New Turf War, Spring 2006
Sign: Lawns Closed, Union Square Park, Manhattan
Links
The Dangers of Fake Green Grass, Katia Kelly, Pardon Me For Asking
Parks Dept. denies health study of synthetic turf, April 4, 2007, Patrick Arden, Metro New York
A New Turf War: Synthetic Turf in New York City Parks, Spring 2006, New Yorkers for Parks
Notes from Imagine Flatbush 2030 Workshop #1
Your host, reporting the observations of his breakout group to the larger assembly at IF2030 Workshop #1. Credit: Municipal Art Society.
Yesterday’s Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC has brought wider awareness of and interest in Imagine Flatbush 2030. For those who are curious about the process, or might even be interested in attending Workshop #2, here are the notes which the Municipal Art Society facilitators compiled from the first workshop back in November.
Imagine Flatbush 2030 kicked off on Monday, November 19 at Temple Beth Emeth, with a preliminary stakeholders meeting. (A list of approximately 150 stakeholders was cultivated with help from FDC, neighborhood groups, and elected officials. Stakeholders who attended were asked to serve as project ambassadors and assist with outreach for the next meeting.) [At least three of us who live within the study area and write about it on our blogs – Sustainable Flatbush, Brooklyn Junction, and I – attended the first workshop.] Approximately 50 of those invited attended—representing Brooklyn College, tenant associations, city government, homeowners associations, the local YMCA, merchants groups, community development groups, and civic and faith-based groups.
After an introduction by the Planning Center to MAS, Jane Jacobs, and the goals of the project, Elizabeth Yeampierre, Executive Director of UPROSE led a discussion of the meaning of neighborhood sustainability, the Mayor’s PlaNYC, and why neighborhoods needed to create their own agendas to work in tandem with the Mayor’s plan.
Attendees were asked to work in groups to brainstorm neighborhood assets and challenges, as a way of beginning a dialogue. Six groups produced observations that they first recorded on paper, then shared with the entire group at the end of the workshop. [A full transcript of all the notes from all groups will be available from MAS. I’ve asked for a copy as soon as its available. In my group, we covered both sides of two large sheets of paper!]
Shared observations about Flatbush’s assets included:
- diversity (cultural; economic; ethnic; racial; religious);
- proximity to Prospect Park;
- good public transportation;
- good schools;
- proximity to Brooklyn College;
- distinctive, historic neighborhood character;
- strong and active community-based organizations;
- aesthetically pleasing;
- long tenure of many residents;
- and locally-owned businesses.
Shared observations about challenges included:
- lack of neighborhood parks;
- school overcrowding;
- lack of space for artists;
- lack of active ways to engage youth;
- lack of space for public assembly, such as community, senior, and youth centers; gentrification;
- lack of affordable housing;
- traffic;
- achieving energy efficiency in buildings;
- gang activity (both real and perceived);
- lack of parking;
- and inadequate sanitation in some areas.
Some interesting macro-level impressions: the neighborhood is large and varies in character and composition from place to place and consequently assets and challenges vary from place to place.
Next step: Workshop 2 at Brooklyn College Conference Center, Wednesday, December 12. [Note: This will start at 6:30pm, not 7pm as reported in these notes as sent out to Workshop #1 participants.] Agenda: public forum to identify sustainability goals.
Related Posts
Posts tagged “Imagine Flatbush 2030”
Links
Municipal Art Society
Flatbush Development Corporation
Sustainable Flatbush
Brooklyn Junction
12/12: Imagine Flatbush 2030 Workshop #2
Imagine Flatbush 2030 Winning Logo, Credit: Imani Aegedoy, 11-9-2007
Next week, on Wednesday, December 12, the second community workshop of Imagine Flatbush 2030 will be held at Brooklyn College:
Come and participate in a special dialogue about the future of Flatbush. The Flatbush Development Corporation (FDC) and the Municipal Art Society (MAS) are inviting you to take part in Imagine Flatbush 2030—a community visioning and dialogue process—designed to get you together with other Flatbush community members to collectively create a more sustainable neighborhood. If you care about the environment, community health, protecting diversity, ensuring affordable housing and a whole host of other community issues, this is the meeting for you!
When: Wednesday, December 12th @ 6:30 pm
Where: Brooklyn College Student Center, 6th Floor
East 27th St. & Campus Road
(ramp entrance near Amersfort Place, see map below)
The star highlights the location of IF2030 Workshop #2. The closest subway stop is the 2/5 Brooklyn College-Flatbush Avenue / Nostrand Avenue station. North is to the lower-right in this map.
For more information and to RSVP, please contact Sideya Sherman, at the MAS Planning Center, at 212/935-3960 or via email at ssherman@mas.org.
Please be advised that there will be a supervised homework room provided for school aged children. If you need to bring a child, please contact us in advance.
Refreshments will be served
Related Posts
IF2030 on the Brian Lehrer Show, earlier today
The Albemarle Road Pedestrian Bridge, November 25
Imagine Flatbush 2030, November 20
Links
TODAY: Imagine Flatbush 2030 on the Brian Lehrer Show
UPDATE: The podcast is available from WNYC’s Web site, or through the widget below.
I just learned of this a few minutes ago. Today on the Brian Lehrer Show:
Susan Siegel, outgoing executive director of the Flatbush Development Corporation (FDC)and Zenobia McNally, local resident and business owner and Eve Baron, director of The Municipal Art Society Planning Center and the project manager for Imagine Flatbush 2030, discuss their efforts to create a community-directed development plan for Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood.
The Brian Lehrer Show airs weekdays at 10AM on 93.9 FM and AM 820 and Tuesdays through Saturdays at 1AM on AM 820. The call-in number is 212-433-9692 (or 212 433 WNYC).
Related Posts
The Albemarle Road Pedestrian Bridge, November 25
Imagine Flatbush 2030, November 20
Links
Making Jane Jacobs Proud in Flatbush, The Brian Lehrer Show
Imagine Flatbush 2030, Municipal Art Society
Sustainable Flatbush General Meeting
Just a reminder that TOMORROW, Monday, December 3, is the next general meeting for Sustainable Flatbush.
The Gardening Committee will report on plans for a public community-wide educational event in late February.
December 8, Red Hook: Observing the Edge
This looks interesting:
Brooklynites know better than anyone the havoc that development can wreak on a habitat. So on Saturday, Dec. 8, the Kentler International Drawing Space in Red Hook will host an artist’s talk on “Observing the Edge,” the gallery’s current show, which features works on paper relating to flora and fauna with habitats threatened by progressive development.
… anyone who has seen plants, or any other living creatures, displaced by development will surely want to take notice.
– Cutting ‘Edge’, Daniel Goldberg, The Brooklyn Paper
(Note: The Brooklyn Paper gave the date incorrectly as 12/4.)
Contact
Kentler International Drawing Space
353 Van Brunt Street
Red Hook/Brooklyn, New York 11231
Tel: 718-875-2098
Email: info@kentlergallery.org
Summary of the Kickoff Meeting of the Gardening Committee of Sustainable Flatbush
Updated 2007.11.30: Added the complete list of ideas which came out of the brainstorming session.
Last night I hosted the kickoff meeting for the Gardening Committee of Sustainable Flatbush. Clockwise from lower left in the photo are Mela, Anne, Lashonda, and Bruni.
At the end of the evening, I asked if someone was willing to co-chair, and Bruni volunteered. She will report to the general meeting next Monday. What follows is my summary of how the evening went.
We opened with some quick introductions, everyone helped themselves to tea and cookies, then we settled in for a quick brainstorming session. As you can see in the photo above, my little card table wasn’t big enough to hold all the ideas we generated in just a few minutes. Next time I’ll use a bigger table.
Next we reviewed everything each of us had written while grouping and clustering the cards. For example, we had clusters for ideas related to composting, schools and youth, gardening techniques, street trees, and community. This sparked more discussion, questions and answers, and more ideas.
The strongest theme to come out of the meeting was “community.” Each of us feels strongly about the connections between community and gardening. I talked about my experiences with the Daffodil planting on Cortelyou Road. Bruni talked about her experiences with a community garden, and the community of gardeners, in the East Village. Others talked about their desires to organize people in their buildings, and on their blocks.
We decided to focus on a single near-term action: a public community meeting in late February. The idea is to get people excited about the possibility of doing something with their building, their block, their neighbors in 2008, and connect them with opportunities to learn more and organize. I’ve contacted BBG’s Brooklyn Greenbridge to see if they can do a Flatbush-oriented version of their “Greening Up Your Street” program. Even if not, we’ll be able to put some kind of program together.
We don’t have a date yet for our next meeting. We’re thinking it might be sometime in January. When we have a date, it’ll be announced here and on the Sustainable Flatbush motherblog.
I’m inspired by this definition of community gardening:
What is a Community Garden?
Any piece of land gardened by a group of people.
– American Community Gardening Association
By this definition, we can create “Community Gardens” everywhere:
- Tree pits
- Median strips
- Planter boxes
- Grounds and foundation planting areas of apartment/coop/condo
buildings
Imagine turning our streets into community gardens …
I’ll close with this photo. This shows the state of our table workspace after we had done the grouping and clustering. Visit the Flickr photo pages for this and the opening photo; they have notes with the text from some of the cards. This photo also shows that my home-made, from scratch, double Callebaut bittersweet chocolate chip cookies were well-received.
The crayons were popular. I also ended up with some nice drawings and doodles on the paper covering the card table. I’ll have to get some photographs of those as well.
Ideas
Here’s the complete list of ideas, in alphabetical order, which came out of our brainstorming session.
Adopt a tree
Apartment building gardens/landscaping
Aromatic gardening
Assisting renters in taking/using green space in or around buildings
BBG/Brooklyn Greenbridge
Benches around tree pits (wood benches)
Brooklyn College Garden
Buddy gardening
Build community
City repair (Portland model)
Community composting
Community garden
Compost
Demonstration gardens
Donate food grown to families with food challenges
Educate neighbors about types of trees in neighborhood
Engage youth/children
Find neighbors with farming experience
Food, not lawns
Gardens/farms in schools
Green roofs
Ground cover for older tree pits
Grow food
Guerilla gardening
Highlight/profile local gardeners
Kids education (PS 139, PS 217, and at other local schools)
Lawn care practices
Library Plaza Garden
Million Trees NYC
Planting in Newkirk Plaza
Public composting
Rain barrels
Rain gardens
Red Hood Community Farm
School compost
Sponsor a tree
Street arboretum
Tree signs
Vermi-composting
Window boxes
Xeri-scaping
Monday, 12/3: Sustainable Flatbush December Meeting
This month’s Sustainable Flatbush general meeting will be next Monday, December 3, from 7 to 9pm.
At the meeting, Gardening Committee co-chair Bruni will report on last night’s kickoff meeting and our plans for a public community event sometime in late February 2008.