Brooklyn Greenway Columbia Street Park Element Session 2/2

This park element will truly be a boon to the Columbia Waterfront and the nascent Greenway.  Take this opportunity to provide your input and learn more about one of Brooklyn's finest open space innovators, the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative.  Be sure to check out the Briefing Book (pdf warning!) for the site.  From BGI:

How can we make a great thing even better?

Join Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, Regional Plan Association, and your neighbors as we begin the visioning for a new public open space on Columbia Street between Kane and Degraw Streets.


When the Van Brunt Street reconstruction and the Gowanus Flushing Tunnel construction are complete, the 80-ft deep area on the west side of Columbia Street is planned to become an open space element of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway. It is one of three open space nodes that we are either designing or commencing the community visioning process.

On February 2nd, we will share the background research that has been compiled to date and invite you to share your ideas for the kinds of improvements and facilities that would be most beneficial to the Columbia Waterfront community.

The meeting details are:
What: Columbia Waterfront Park Visioning Meeting
When: Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011, 6:30-8:30 PM
Where: The Union Street Star Theater, 101 Union Street

Please RSVP to info@brooklyngreenway.org with Columbia Waterfront Park in the subject line. We will send you a link to background information to help prepare you for the discussion on February 2nd.

Planning for the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway is made possible by the New York State Department of State with funds provided under Title 11 of the Environmental Protection Fund sponsored by the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President.

Brooklyn Greenway Party Thursday at FIND

The Brooklyn Greenway Initiative is one of my favorite local activist organizations, and their annual fundraisers are consistently a great time. Attend the party this Thursday to support the terrific work they're doing to unite the people of Brooklyn with their waterfront. From BGI:

“FIND” Your Way to the Greenway...for BGI's Fall Party!
Thursday, November 4th, 6:00-9:00PM
We're excited to be partnering again with FIND Home Furnishings for a fall benefit to support the development of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway. We will also be acknowledging Council Members Brad Lander and Steve Levin for securing BGI's first City Council funding, and Waste Management for supporting BGI's stewardship programs!
Join fellow greenway supporters for great food, drink, music and raffle prizes on Thursday, November 4th, 6:00-9:00PM. Tickets are just $25, or two for $40. Get your tickets today!
There will be plenty of room to spread out and raise spirits and funds over drinks & food from local restaurants, including 5 Burro, Lilla Cafe, Red Hook Lobster Pound, Rocky Sullivan's, Union Market, Fort Defiance, Six Point Craft Ales, Alma, Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies and Nine Cakes, along with live jazz music from Hot Johnsons in FIND's expansive showroom at 9th Street and the Gowanus Canal.
Don't miss your chance to win one of many raffle items from FIND, Brooklyn Winery, RICE, Rolling Orange Bikes, Massage Therapy by Gerald Pulis, Ground Up Designers, Urban Oyster, Red Hook Lobster Pound, Bar Tano, New York Water Taxi, Circle Line Downtown, Water Taxi Beach, and more!
Thanks to our major event sponsors aptsandlofts.com, Con Edison, FIND Home Furnishings, Industry City Associates, and S Clubs Fitness Spa & Lifestyle . Additional sponsorship provided by Brooklyn Bridge Realty, Cozen O'Connor and Waste Management.

Buy Tickets!

More Halloween Fun at Brooklyn Bridge Park

Attention area adults!  After you've had your fill of karaoke and cider at Carroll Park the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy Junior Committee is sponsoring a Halloween party on Saturday in order to raise funds for the free public programming in the park.  Free programming is the lifeblood of a great public space - and who doesn't love a good Halloween Party?  Details below:

ALL HALLOWS EVE BASH


DATE: Saturday, October 30

TIME: 8:00pm-1:00am

LOCATION: One Brooklyn Bridge Park (360 Furman Street, entrance through retail on waterside of building)

Join the Conservancy's Junior Committee for our first Halloween party, at One Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Enjoy cocktails - including Blood and Sand, a signature Halloween cocktail provided by Highland Park Scotch Whiskey, music, dancing, a costume contest, video decoration by local artist Geoff Matters, festive atmosphere and more! All proceeds support free public programming in Brooklyn Bridge Park.
TICKETS: All ticket prices include admission, drinks, music, food, dancing and costume contest!

Mischief Maker: $400 Friend Pack for 10 - (deadline pushed to 10/29 due to popularity)

Prankster: $100 VIP tickets (includes a special gift bag with the new book, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race, Highland Park Scotch Whiskey, Conservancy-shirts and more!)

Trickster: $50 in advance/ $65 at the door
To buy tickets: https://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/index.cfm?objectid=EE3D2660-3048-7098-AFA3EB22366DD228
For questions, e-mail Samantha Dodds (sdodds@bbpc.net) or call 718-802-0603 x22
**Must be 21+ to enter

Halloween Karaoke at Carroll Park!

The Friends of Carroll Park are sponsoring two great, super fun Halloween events.


Costume Karaoke Party (this looks especially great)
Saturday, October 30th

Come dressed as your favorite rock star! Party with your friends and family near the park house from 5:00 – 9:00 and sing some of your favorite songs with Lion’s Roar Karaoke and their 10,000 song library. Hot cider will be available, and some snacks if we can muster them! Suggested donation of $1 per song to benefit Friends of Carroll Park.

Halloween Parade
Sunday, October 31

Gather at 12:30 p.m. in the park and we’ll parade up Smith Street toward Warren, then back down Court Street to the park. The first 100 kids to show up will receive free noisemakers. Step on out to have some fun showing off your costumes!
Both events are sponsored by Scotto Wines On Court Street

Red Hook Mercado

Oh yes. Mia and I will definitely be checking this out. I really miss the old atmosphere at the Red Hook Ballfields food vendors. The Parks Department did us all a serious disservice by forcing the vendors into trucks.

A seasonal outdoor weekend market will open on Van Brunt Street, the main drag of Brooklyn’s once-barren Red Hook neighborhood. Called Red Hook Mercado, for the Spanish word for market, it will include the open-air cooking of some of the vendors who cater to the weekend crowds at the Red Hook ball fields, as well as other well-known food vendors.

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/a-market-for-red-hook/?ref=dining

Thanks to Barbara Brookhart for passing this on.

Brooklyn Bridge Park Meeting Tomorrow 4/21

Via Cobble Hill Association:

Tomorrow, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21

Regina Myer, President of the BBP Development Corporation, will be coming to discuss the transfer of the park to the city and update the community on development plans and activities for Pier 6.

6:30 PM
LONG ISLAND COLLEGE HOSPITAL
339 HICKS STREET
(ATLANTIC & HICKS STREETS)
BROOKLYN,NEW YORK 11201

We encourage residents to attend this meeting and ask questions about this transfer, the continuing lack of community input on park elements and design (particularly the recreational facilities for which our association has long advocated), the extraordinary costs to build and maintain this park, and the continuing endorsement by the Mayor of private housing inside park borders.
Posted by Dave 'Paco' Abraham at 4/20/2010 01:01:00 PM

We're #1!

Carroll Park is #1. Congrats to Glenn and Katia and the rest of the Committee to Improve Carroll Park!

Brooklyn Greenway Benefit June 18th

The Brooklyn Greenway is having their annual gala event on June 18th, and Mia and I are looking forward to it. lats year was a lot of fun, and this year it will be even better with great views from Erie Basin Park. Tickets are $60, which benefits a terrific cause, and includes beer and wine as well as a "Swedish Smorgasbord".

It's My Park Day: Carroll Park

I've been down for a few days with a bug. Swine flu? Captain Trips? SARS? In any case, it beat me down quick but I'm back on my feet as of today.

But before I was floored by that malignant pathogen, on Saturday Mia and I spent a few hours helping to spruce up Carroll Park with the Committee to Improve Carroll Park and other volunteers. I posted a few iphone photos online in a public album. Check them out here.

Thanks to Glenn, Katia, Sara et al, as well as NYC Parks Department for organizing this and giving us an opportunity to help out.

Brooklyn Greenway: Columbia Street Cleanup Saturday

Come out this Saturday for a fun way to give back to the community by cleaning up Columbia Street:

Saturday, April 4, 10:00-11:30am
Columbia Greenway Clean-Up
Lend a hand at BGI’s monthly cleanup along the new Columbia Street section of the greenway. These cleanups are held in cooperation with the Columbia Waterfront Neighborhood Association, in order to keep the newest section of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway free of trash and other debris.

Tools, trash bags, work gloves provided, but please make sure to dress warmly!
Meet at BGI’s office, 145 Columbia Street between Kane and Degraw
(Ring BGI’s doorbell on left-hand side of residential entrance)
RSVP to Brian: bmccormick(at)brooklyngreenway.org


BGI is doing great work opening up the waterfront and inland communities to pedestrians and cyclists . . . putting a stretch of green through Brooklyn that makes safe public park space more accessible to all of Brooklyn. Join Mia and I on Saturday as we pitch in to help. This is my favorite type of community service.

Photo of Columbia Street stretch of the Greenway from Brownstoner.

A Fresh Steaming Pile From The Brooklyn Paper

And I mean that in the nicest way.

The Paper excreted a podcast on a fantastically functional, fecally-focused feature of a Fort Greene community garden.

A community garden in Fort Greene has installed a solar-powered, composting toilet — and, naturally, Editor Gersh Kuntzman loaded up on high-fiber cereal and coffee to offer his review

Red Hook Ballfields Vendors: Benepe Responds

I wrote a letter to Adrian Benepe to voice my concern over the potential removal of the delicious treats I walk a mile to get on weekends. He was good enough to reply, and I think the positive pressure exerted by the community and elected officials is making a difference:

June 22, 2007

Dear Constituent:

Thank you for your email regarding the food vendors at Red Hook Park in Brooklyn.

The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation has been issuing "Temporary Use Authorizations" to two separate groups to operate a food market at the ballfields in Red Hook Park. We began the process a few years ago in an effort to legalize the vendors at Red Hook, helping them become a permanent fixture in the neighborhood, and the park users have benefited from their presence. They enhance and diversify the Red Hook neighborhood, and particularly our ballfields, by serving great food at reasonable prices. Unfortunately, once it became clear that the Red Hook markets would regularly be open for more than 29 days a year, we could no longer legally renew their temporary permits without opening up the concession to the public solicitation process.

I would, however, like to correct a common misperception that we are offering the site to the "highest bidder." In order to comply with the concession regulations in the New York City Charter, we will issue a Request for Proposals (RFP). This will allow Parks to evaluate proposals based on qualitative criteria such as operating experience and planned operations. We plan on releasing a RFP shortly for the operation of vending markets at the various ballfields at Red Hook Park; the term of the license will be six years. This process will give the selected vendors the permanence and regularity that they deserve.

We have received positive feedback regarding the Red Hook vending markets and we look forward to the active participation of the existing vending groups at Red Hook in the proposal process.

I appreciate your taking the time to write.

Sincerely,

Adrian Benepe
Commissioner

Now I want a pupusa and some plantains to go with.

NYMag: Renderings of Governor's Island Design Competition

Renderings and blurbs on 5 competing plans accompany the article. Interesting stuff.

UPDATE:
My favorite so far.