PlaNYC 2.0

Streetsblog has posted a reaction to the plan.  I haven't had a chance to read it all yet.

This document is really a catchall roundup of the various programs the City is implementing and/or plans to implement.  I would really like to see the elimination of minimum parking requirements in the zoning code and better pricing of the City's on-street parking resources.

CB6 Environmental Protection, Public Safety, & Permits and Licenses Meeting Tonight

And it's a full agenda after our last meeting was blizzarded out.  Conveniently located at PS 58, 6:30pm.

Jan 24 Public Safety/Environmental Protection/Permits/Licenses
Presentation and discussion with a representative for the Department of Environmental Protection on the NYC Green Infrastructure plan, a a new plan to utilize "green infrastructure" improve the quality of waterways around New York City by capturing and retaining stormwater to reduce sewer overflows.

Presentation and discussion with a representative for the Stormwater Infrastructure Matters (S.W.I.M.) coalition, a Citywide coalition dedicated to ensuring swimmable waters around New York City through natural, sustainable stormwater management practices in our neighborhoods.

Presentation and review of a cabaret license application submitted to the Department of Consumer Affairs on behalf of Paris Burlesque Club at 18 Commerce Street (between Columbia/Richards Streets).

Presentation and review of an on-premises liquor license application submitted to the State Liquor Authority on behalf of Paris Burlesque Club at 18 Commerce Street (between Columbia/Richards Streets).

(Laid over from November) Presentation and review of a renewal unenclosed sidewalk cafe permit application submitted to the Department of Consumer Affairs on behalf of Stone Park Corner LLC at 324 5th Avenue (northwest corner 5th Avenue/3rd Street), to permit 11 tables and 22 seats.

(Laid over from December) Presentation and review of an on-premises liquor license application submitted to the State Liquor Authority on behalf of 381 7th Avenue Restaurant LLC at 381 7th Avenue (between 11th/12th Streets).

(Laid over from December) Presentation and review of an on-premises liquor license application submitted to the State Liquor Authority on behalf of 140 Business LLC at 140 7th Avenue (between Carroll St/Garfield Pl).

(Laid over from December) Review and discussion of potential addition to the Brooklyn CB6 Responsible Development Policy.

PS 58 Auditorium
330 Smith Street
(at First Place)
Brooklyn, NY 11231

Despite that address, if I recall correctly we always enter from the Carroll Street side.

E-Recycling Sunday @ Prospect Park

The time has come to recycle those old cell phones and broken computer gear gathering dust in the junk drawers, closets and dark corners of your home.  These products typically contain toxic elements such as heavy metals and should never be tossed out with your regular trash.  Get some fresh air and walk them over to Prospect Park this Sunday.  From my inbox:


This weekend is the electronic waste recycling event at 
Prospect Park. The Lower East Side Ecology Center will be visiting our 
district again to relieve us of our e-waste and make sure it gets reused or 
recycled.

Sunday, January 16, 2011, 10am to 4pm, Rain or Shine 
Drop Off Site: Prospect Park entrance at Prospect Park West and 3rd Street, 
Brooklyn 

They accept... working & non-working computers, monitors, printers, 
scanners, keyboards, mice, cables, TV's, VCR's, DVD players, phones, 
audio/visual equipment, cell phones & PDA's.

Downloadable flyer for the event is available here:
http://www.brooklyncb6.org/announcements/#8

Best, Craig

Craig R. Hammerman
District Manager
Brooklyn Community Board 6

First Gowanus Superfund CAG Meeting Is Tonight

Didn't get your fill of the Gowanus at last night's CB6 meeting on the Flushing Tunnel?  Bop on over to the American Can Factory tonight at 7:00 for the first Community Advisory Group meeting on Superfunding the Gowanus Canal.

Pardon Me For Asking has the details.

Late Reminder: Gowanus Canal Session TONIGHT

May 11, 2010
7:00 - 9:00pm
PS 32, 317 Hoyt Street (at Union)

Katia has more details posted at Pardon Me For Asking.

CBID Honors South Brooklyn Coalition

The Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats had their Annual Awards Dinner this past Sunday night. Among the honorees was a confederation of community activists that spanned several neighborhood civic organizations (dubbed the South Brooklyn Coalition for the sake of brevity) who united to support Superfund designation for the Gowanus Canal. Katia has the summary, pics, and video.

The dashing fellow in the blue shirt? That's me.

Earth Hour; Lights Out March 27th

From our esteemed colleague Paco at the Cobble Hill Association:

On March 27th, from 8:30pm to 9:30pm, a world wide event will take place called Earth Hour. It is a simple yet bold way to acknowledge climate change: turn off your lights. In 2009, nearly one billion people in 4,100 cities in 87 countries in each of the seven continents turned off their lights to observe Earth Hour.

And the best part is it won't cost you a cent.

http://cobblehillassociation.blogspot.com/2010/03/earth-hour-is-on-horizon.html

Gowanus Superfunded

Via Pardon Me For Asking, some good news for the polluted Gowanus Canal.

I saw the rumor this morning via the Courier and had my fingers crossed. My view has always been this was the only possible outcome from the moment DEC made the request to EPA to list the Gowanus Canal.

Opponents of Superfund were laboring under the illusion that Superfund designation would leave a cloud over the Gowanus . . . when in reality Superfund cleanup was the only way to clear the air once the referral was made. The die was cast when DEC had the integrity to make the request; Gowanus and Superfund would be discussed in the same breath thousands of times over the ensuing months. But the designation only acknowledges the underlying issue: the Gowanus Canal is heavily polluted. We could bury our heads in the muck like (soon to be) mutant ostrich, or face the issue head on.

Now let's get about the process of cleaning up.

http://pardonmeforasking.blogspot.com/2010/03/superfund-gowanus-canal-gets-listed.html

Cold Ironing: Reduce Port Emissions In NY Harbor

The Brooklyn Paper has an article on a setback in a Red Hook blogger's quest to reduce port emissions through "cold ironing". Cold ironing means that a ship turns off its diesel engines at port, instead plugging in to the electrical grid to reduce emissions. From the brooklyn paper article:

The missing piece, the Port Authority and city claimed, was discounted electricity from Con Edison, because the standard rate for the juice is too high to justify turning off the diesel engines in favor of plugging in.

But the state Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, nixed the so-called “shore power” idea on jurisdictional grounds in April, telling the Port Authority and the city to negotiate instead with the New York Power Authority, the port agency’s main supplier of electricity.

If I read the article correctly, there is still hope. It's a matter of working with the Power Authority to make this happen. It looks like the City and Port Authority were barking up the wrong tree - but this isn't over yet. Reducing the emissions from these ships should be a top priority.

Local Groups Organizing To Support Canal Cleanup

Signs are sprouting up in the neighborhood and now there is a website as well, calling on the EPA, local officials and residents to support the Superfund designation of the Gowanus Canal.

As I've stated before: either the canal qualifies or it doesn't. If it does, we can't pretend that it doesn't and try to shove the genie back in the bottle. Like it or not (and there certainly has been some organized opposition to designation) the state DEC completely changed the equation when they requested Superfund designation for the canal. We need to listen to what the scientific experts have to say and then clean up the canal to the fullest extent possible. From what I've heard, bringing in the EPA is the most effective way to make this happen.

I am hopeful that this administration will put federal dollars into cleaning up polluted sites as a stimulus measure and as good environmental policy. $600 million has already been committed to the Superfund, and I will wager there is more to come.

Whatever happens, cleaning up the canal is long past due. In addition to remediating the site, we need to make some serious investments in sewer infrastructure to eliminate the CSO issue going forward. New York is an old city, and much of our sewer infrastructure predates modern standards (like separate sanitary and storm sewers). It's past time that the Federal government committed additional resources to upgrading these antiquated sewers that dump raw feces into our waterways every time it rains.

The EPA has been giving NYC DEP a pass on CSO discharges under a consent decree established several years ago. It's time to stop giving us a pass and give us the resources to clean up our waste. The good news is, the Obama administration actually believes in governing, providing basic services, and cleaning up the environment . . . so fixing our sewage problem is a distinct possibility.

Gowanus Superfund Meeting Last Night

Found In Brooklyn has a useful summary of last night's festivities for those who could not make it.

Gowanus Canal Superfund Hearing

Below are the details for an informational meeting regarding the nomination of the Gowanus Canal for Superfund designation:

Congresswomen Nydia M. Velázquez and Yvette Clarke invite you to a

A Public Information Forum with US EPA

Regarding the Gowanus Canal Nomination for Superfund


Tuesday, April 14, 7:00 PM
PS 32 Auditorium 317 Hoyt Street
(between Union & President Streets)

Bring Your Questions!


EPA personnel will be on hand to explain the Superfund program and nomination process.

Oh, I predict a packed house for this one.
(Photo of Canal from Wikipedia)

Gowanus Canal: Superfund Site?

This still needs some digesting. First heard rumors on this last Thursday, but without any substantive detail. Below is the press release issued by EPA, in full (emphasis added):

Press Release

Region 2 - New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands




Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn Proposed for EPA Superfund List


Contact: Beth Totman (212) 637-3662, totman.elizabeth@epa.gov


(New York, N.Y.—Apr. 8, 2009) – Thanks to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to add Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal to the Agency’s Superfund National Priorities List (NPL), the waterway will once again become an asset to local residents. The proposed listing would allow the Agency to further investigate contamination at the site and develop an approach to address this contamination. The Gowanus Canal is severely impacted by contaminated sediments as a result of its history hosting heavy industry. EPA is asking for public input on its proposal to list the Gowanus Canal.


“By proposing to list the Gowanus Canal, EPA can ensure that a thorough investigation into the source and extent of the contamination can take place,” said Acting Regional Administrator George Pavlou. “The sooner we get the listing underway, the sooner EPA can begin its work, so that one day the Gowanus Canal can be used again to benefit the people of Brooklyn.”

The 100-foot wide canal extends about 1.8 miles from Butler Street to Gowanus Bay in Brooklyn, New York. The adjacent waterfront is primarily commercial and industrial, and consists of concrete plants, warehouses, and parking lots, with proposed residential use. The canal is also surrounded by residential neighborhoods. The waterway is used for commercial as well as recreational purposes, and a public fishing area just downstream of the canal in Gowanus Bay is fished daily. [Ed. Note: Really? I'll have the chicken, thanks.]
The canal was built in the 19th century to allow industrial access into Gowanus Bay. After its completion in the 1860s, the canal became a busy industrial waterway, acting as the home to heavy industries, including manufactured gas plants, coal yards, concrete-mixing facilities, tanneries, chemical plants, and oil refineries. It was also the repository of untreated industrial wastes, raw sewage and runoff.

Although most of the industrial activity along the canal has stopped, high contaminant levels remain in the sediments. The extent of the contamination traverses the length of the canal. Sampling has shown the sediments in the Gowanus Canal to be contaminated with a variety of pollutants, including pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), metals and volatile organic contaminants (VOCs), and significant contamination associated with coal tar.


With the proposal of this site to the NPL, a 60-day comment period will begin during which EPA solicits public input regarding this action. For instructions to submit comments go to http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/pubcom.htm or contact Dennis Munhall, Region 2 NPL Coordinator at (212) 637-4343 or munhall.dennis@epa.gov. Once the site is placed on the NPL, EPA will expand its investigations to further define the nature and extent of contamination.

To date, there have been 1,596 sites listed on the NPL. Of these sites, 332 have been deleted resulted in 1,264 sites currently on the NPL. There are now 67 proposed sites awaiting final agency action. There are a total of 1,332 final and proposed sites around the country.


To find out more about the NPL Site Listing Process, visit: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/npl_hrs.htm. For a Google Earth aerial view of the Gowanus Canal: http://www.epa.gov/region2/kml/gowanus_creek_and_gowanus_canal.kmz. (Please note that you must have Google Earth installed on your computer to view the map. To download Google Earth, visit http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html).

Vapor Intrusion Law: Food for Thought on Gowanus Residential Development

The Chair of CB6 was thoughtful enough to share this article from the New York Law Journal with the Community Board.

This is something to think long and hard about when contemplating the Gowanus rezoning and the appropriateness of concentrated residential development on these contaminated sites. An excerpt:

Vapor intrusion is a potentially harmful condition in which volatile chemicals in soil and groundwater emit fumes that enter buildings; such chemicals are often present at old industrial properties, or where a former industrial property has been redeveloped for commercial or residential use.

In the past, many state environmental regulators, including the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), had not included vapor intrusion as a consideration when granting closure for cleanup of contaminated properties because the general thought was that chemicals could stay in the ground under a building, as the foundation was a barrier preventing contact with those chemicals.

More recent evidence has shown this is not always the case, as some chemicals can penetrate foundations at levels that raise health and safety concerns for the occupants. However, NYSDEC and other state regulatory agencies granted hundreds of site closures without always accounting for the possibility of vapor intrusion exposures.

Over the past several years, NYSDEC and the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) have been investigating the vapor intrusion issue, including reopening "closed" remediation cases and setting new standards for human exposure. Other states (e.g., California, New Jersey) are taking similar steps with respect to vapor intrusion.

Thus the concept of the new law clearly is a good one. However, NYSDEC, which is largely responsible for enforcement of the Tenant Notification Law, has to date offered no formal interpretive guidance on the applicability of the law or how it will be enforced. As discussed further below, there are numerous vague and undefined terms and ambiguous provisions in the statute that have created confusion and challenges for the regulated community members and their advisors.

The whole article is worth reading for those that don't mind getting into the weeds of a legal discussion.

Electronics Recycling: SATURDAY 11 - 4 in Cobble Hill

Thanks to Paco Abraham of Cobble Hill Association and Tom Gray of Bill deBlasio's Office for bringing this to our attention (and for making it happen!)

Electronics Recycling -
Saturday, November 1st.... 10am - 4pm
Schoolyard of Brooklyn PS 29, 425 Henry Street, entrance is on Baltic between Henry & Clinton St in Cobble Hill

We will accept Working and non-working:
-Computers (laptop & desktop), Monitors
-Printers, scanners, fax-machines, copiers
-Network devices (routers, hubs, modems, etc.)
-Peripherals (keyboards, mice, cables, etc.)
-Components (hard drives, CD Roms, circuit boards, power supplies, etc,)
-TVs,VCR & DVD Players
-Radios/Stereos
-Cell Phones, pagers
-PDAs,Telecommunication (phones, answering machines, etc.)
-Media (SMALL QUANTITIES of floppies, cd's, zips, VHS tapes)

-Sponsored by Councilmember Bill DeBlasio, the Cobble Hill Association, and PS 29 PTA.

Remember, all of these items have toxic chemicals and heavy metals that leach into surrounding soils if not disposed of properly. They also contain some exotic elements that can be recycled into new components, obviating the need for new mining . . . so it's a win - win.

CB6 Land Use Committee Mtg: Public Place Site

An important meeting to attend. See you there.

LANDMARKS/LANDUSE COMMITTEE
THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2008
TIME: 6:00 PM

P.S. 32 - AUDITORIUM
317 HOYT STREET
BROOKLYN NY 11231

A G E N D A

- Presentation and introduction by representatives for the Department of Housing Presentation and Development of the development team selected by the City of New York to develop “Public Place,” the City-owned 6-acre parcel at the southeast corner of Smith & 5th Streets (Block 471, Lot1).

There's more on the agenda, but this is the main attraction.

Brooklyn Greenway Initiative

Last night was a gala fundraiser for the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative. They are making real progress on the Greenway, which has already beautified stretches of the Brooklyn waterfront.

More good things to come, with stretches by the Brooklyn Navy Yard and ultimately a wider berth along Columbia Street. The picture above includes an unbuilt stretch passing between One Brooklyn Bridge Park and the soon-to-be park itself, and was taken before many of the attendees had arrived.

We like what these guys are doing. Check out their website and pitch in if you can.
http://www.brooklyngreenway.org/

Gowanus Rezoning

I haven't had a chance to get into the details, and I missed the meeting due to the IND endorsement meeting, but Pardon Me For Asking Gowanus Lounge and Brownstoner were there, and they took notes.

Last night was the unveiling for the "Gowanus Framework" . . . and the most contentious point will probably be the proposed 125' height limit on several blocks close to the canal.

More on this later when I've had a chance to review.

Electronic Recycling Drive on Smith Street

Thanks to Tom Gray from Bill deBlasio's office. I've had a bag of junk in my closet fro months now, which I'll be parting with tomorrow for good and all.

N BROOKLYN
Saturday May 31, 10am-4pm
Sunday June 1, 10am-4pm
Monday June 2, 4pm-7pm
Smith Street between Carroll and President Streets

The Department of Sanitation is holding electronics collection events in all five boroughs this spring, for more information please click here.

Gowanus Goes Green - Next Sunday June 1st

This looks like a lot of fun . . . and who can argue with environmentally friendly fare, food, and entertainment? I took my niece to see sokme music at The Yard last summer. It really is a great space. The combination of trees, the adaptive reuse of the silos for studio space, and the location right on the Gowanus made for a very pleasant experience. I regretted then that they weren't selling refreshments, but it looks like this time around they'll be stocked up. Details below and available in full at the Gowanus Canal Conservancy.

Come celebrate the Gowanus Canal and its watershed at an all day festival on the banks of the canal! Showcasing an assortment of environ-mentally-conscious products andservices from Brooklyn businesses.Great music, organic and natural food,educational workshops, kids activities and more for the whole family!!!! Free admission for the public.

The Yard - Carroll Street on the Canal(between Bond and Nevins Street)
Sunday,June 1, 2008 - 11:00am to 6:00pm
featuring The DEFiBULATORs playing at 12:00 and 2:30

For more information on exhibiting or sponsorship, please contact Lauren Collins at (718) 858-0557 or lauren@gowanus.org.

Check it out!
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