Tag Archives: Flatbush

Two Flatbush Churches Receive Grants

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Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church, Dorchester Road between East 18th and East 19th Street, Ditmas Park Historic District
Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church

Four Brooklyn churches are among the 66 religious properties statewide that received preservation funding from the New York Landmarks Conservancy.
– Four Brooklyn Churches Receive ‘Sacred Sites’ Grants From Landmarks Conservancy, Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Two of the four in Brooklyn are in Flatbush.

Holy Innocents Roman Catholic Church, on Beverly Road between East 17th and East 18th Streets in Beverly Square East, was awarded a Robert W. Wilson Sacred Sites Challenge Grant Pledge of $40,000 for the restoration of its copper roof.
Holy Innocents Roman Catholic Church, East 17th Street

Holy Innocents Roman Catholic Church

Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church in the Ditmas Park Historic District was awarded a grant of $10,000 for window restoration. FTC has got a hell of a lot of windows. I’m sure that $10K doesn’t begin to scratch the surface. I suppose it’s probably for their stained glass, rather than these.
Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church, Ditmas Park

Here’s a view from the inside.
Interior, Flatbush-Topmkins Congregational Church

The other two are St. George’s Episcopal Church of Bedford-Stuyvesant, which received $6,000 for stained glass restoration, and St. Philip’s Episcopal Church at 334 MacDonough Street in Stuyvesant Heights/Bedford-Stuyvesant, which received $10,000 for the restoration of its tower, masonry and roof drainage.

Links

New York Landmarks Conservancy
Holy Innocents Roman Catholic Church
Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church

Park Circle Mulchfest 2008: Sunday, January 6

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219 trees were chipped at this location on Saturday, 564 on Sunday. The two-day total was 783. Not bad for the first time at this location.

I left Saturday about 12:45pm, so I didn’t get to see how the rest of the day went. When I arrived Sunday morning, there was already a full corral of trees waiting to be chipped. I don’t know how many of them were left over from Saturday. It’s likely that many of them were dropped off overnight.
Sunday Begins

There was a much bigger turnout of volunteers today than yesterday. It took a while for everyone to get signed in this morning.
Volunteer Registration

It’s a good thing we had all the volunteers on hand. There were several large truckloads delivered during the day.
Offloading another Truckload of Trees
Offloading Another Truckload of Trees

As expected, many more people brought their trees today rather than yesterday. There was a pretty regular stream of arrivals. Most of the folks brought their trees by car, but they also walked, as this couple did, wheeled their trees in laundry and shopping baskets, and even biked them in.
Bringing the Tree

The chipper didn’t operate constantly all day. We’d build up a large batch of trees, then the Parks staff would crank up the chipper and polish off the pile quickly. When the timing was right, and the chipper was active, folks dropping off their tree got to watch their very own tree getting chipped.
Saying Goodbye to the Tree

In the interest of photos of garden bloggers, here’s an action shot of me bringing a tree from curbside to a Parks pickup truck. It’s not in my garden, but it’s somewhat gardening-related. Several of the Parks staff and some of the volunteers addressed me as “Santa”.
Loading the Truck
Loading the Truck
Loading the Truck

Guardian of the Tools
Guarding the Tools

Related Posts

My Mulchfest posts
Park Circle Mulchest 2008 [Flickr set]

Links

Mulchfest 2008, Parks

Park Circle Mulchfest 2008: Saturday, January 5

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Update 2008.01.06: I’ve added a post with photos from today.

Trees check in, they don’t check out.
Tree Corral
Today I volunteered for the city-wide Mulchfest at the Park Circle location. I had a great time, and I’m going back tomorrow.

The 3rd Street entrance to Prospect Park has been the focus of past years, and it was this year as well. By 11am, we heard that they had already handled over 300 trees. All the media were there, as well as the Parks Commissioner.

This is the first year that chipping is being done on-site at Park Circle. It was slow to start at 10am, but the pace picked up during the morning, and by the time I left around 12:30pm, I estimate at least 200 trees had been chipped and shredded, with more arriving every few minutes. Parks trucks went out with staff and volunteers to cruise the streets in the area for trees left for curbside pickup. They brought those back to park Circle for chipping. That was the source for most of the trees, though we had several drop-offs as well.

Because today was Three Kings Day, many people in the area of Park Circle had not yet taken down their trees. Tomorrow should be even busier.

Assembly Line

The chipper empties into the back of a specialized dump-van/track. A couple of times during the day, the truck backs up and dumps out a huge pile of mulched Christmas trees.

MorBark Action Shot

The mulch is available for residents to come by and pick up. I got four big bags of it to use in my backyard. Parks staff and volunteers also moved the mulch to mulch trees around Park Circle. We’ll be doing more of that tomorrow, as well.

Finished Mulch Dump Action Shot

Two of the volunteers at Park Circle were from the radio station Hot97. They sent a small crew over from 3rd Street to Park Circle. I think they interviewed everyone there, including me. So sometime in the next week there will be a very brief (about 10 seconds) video of me on their Web site.

Thank You Very Mulch!
Thank You Very Mulch!

Related Posts

My Mulchfest posts
Park Circle Mulchest 2008 [Flickr set]

Links

Mulchfest 2008, Parks
HOT 97 at Mulchfest 2008

Post-Holiday (r)E-Cycling This Weekend

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This weekend, Saturday and Sunday, January 5 and 6, from 1-5pm, you can drop-off electronic equipment for recycling at 462 Marlborough Road, Flatbush, Brooklyn. [GMAP] [MapQuest] The closest subway stations are the Cortelyou Road and Newkirk Avenue stops on the Q train. However, note that this weekend the Manhattan-bound Q train is running express (Newkirk and Church Avenue stops) from Kings Highway to Prospect Park.

This event is sponsored by Sustainable Flatbush, the Lower East Side Ecology Center and Flatbush Development Corporation. For details and more information, see Sustainable Flatbush Post-Holiday Recycling.

Let’s follow Brenda into the woods …

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Brenda of Crazy Stable has launched a new joint, and wants us all to tag along:

Here’s the deal: I hereby commit to walking or cycling in Brooklyn’s magnificent Prospect Park every day for a year, with as few exceptions as humanly possible, and then showing or telling you at least one cool thing I encountered, through this new blog. … I invite the blogosphere: Come to Prospect Park with me every day. Unimaginable marvels await us, if I can only get my butt out of this house.
– Can Prospect Park change my life?

She’s off to a good start, with a post yesterday and today. She has some evocative shots of Prospect Lake today, likening it to Lake Lachrymose.

So let’s visit Brenda and give her encouragement, especially on these cold winter days:

Determined to keep my resolution for a second day running, and undeterred by bronchitis, I ventured as far as the water’s edge for 10 minutes or so. Incredibly, joggers were stretching and running around in the dark and frigid morning. I detest the cold; I come to manic life during a heat wave, but cold is my Kryptonite. I’m actually scared of going out tomorrow, with wind chills in the single digits.
– A codgery of coots

New Blog on the Block: Real Flatbush

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Discovered via Google Alerts, and added to my Brooklyn blogroll a few minutes ago: The Real Flatbush, a blog “for Non-pretentious people who live in Flatbush.”

From yesterday’s opening post:

It seems that there has been a number of blogs pertaining to my neck of the woods lately. There is a disturbing trend with all these blogs. … They all seem to want to “change” Flatbush.
– Chief Joseph, Dan, The Real Flatbush

Dan identifies race-baiting in the Ditmas Park Blog in “a number of Micro-aggressive messages pertaining to Blacks living in the area.” Dan has more to say about white folk moving to Flatbush:

So I saw this chinese restaurent on Cortelyou road and Rugby Road called New Neighbor. They had a new neighbor special and a brand new cheesy OPEN sign. New furniture. I’ve been to this take out place before our fair skin brethen started to move in. … I’ve never seen cheap chinese food take out places going out of there way to look presentable. I guess all you need are a few lighter skin priviledge people to be treated like a human being. … You gotta love this brand of racism.
– New Neighbor

That would be New Neighbor Kitchen at 1404 Cortelyou Road.

A New York times story about a women from New Orleans who had a great career. She is now living on hard times. I wonder if something like that could ever happen to our new neighbors of lighter persuation at Flatbush.
– Sad Story

As one of Dan’s new, melanin-challenged neighbors I’m curious to see how this develops.

It does not require many words to speak the truth. – Chief Joseph

Flatbush Facts: Brooklyn’s Noisiest ‘Hood

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It makes a body proud. Flatbush is Brooklyn’s noisiest neighborhood, measured by the number of noise complaints to 311.

[In Flatbush] 2,058 noise complaints were made to the city’s 311 hotline from July 1 to Nov. 20. Williamsburg fell just three complaints behind, followed by Bushwick and Brownsville.
– Flatbush tops loudest in Brooklyn, NY Daily news, December 11, 2007

This year, DEP complaints in Brooklyn surged by approximately 23%, from 3,914 to 5,101 calls, officials said. Citywide, there were more than 135,589 complaints in the nearly five-month period – about a 25% hike over the same period in 2006.

Brooklyn’s top noise culprit is construction-related din, which is handled by the DEP and clocked in at 2,300 complaints.

Other pesky rackets plaguing the borough include … barking dogs, which annoyed Brooklynites enough for them to dial 311 1,263 times from July until last week. Ice cream truck jingles drew 261 complaints and loud music spurred 119 calls. Car noises, including honking horns and alarms, also made the top-10 list of complaints for the borough.

Links

Air & Noise, DEP

Notes from Imagine Flatbush 2030 Workshop #1

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Your host, reporting the observations of his breakout group to the larger assembly at IF2030 Workshop . 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 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

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Imagine Flatbush 2030 Winning Logo, Credit: Imani Aegedoy, 11-9-2007
Imagine Flatbush 2030 Logo
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 . The closest subway stop is the 2/5 Brooklyn College-Flatbush Avenue / Nostrand Avenue station. North is to the lower-right in this map.
Imagine Flatbush 2030: Location of Workshop#2

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

Imagine Flatbush 2030, Municipal Art Society