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Bed-Stuy Blog reports that an Urban Farm Tour of community gardens in Brooklyn will be on the itinerary of visitors from the United Nations:

For two weeks in May, delegates from across the world will be visiting NYC as part of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. This is the first year of a two-year cycle in which the United Nations sets its policies on sustainable development. Agriculture is one of the major themes before the Commission.

New York City is a model for innovative urban food systems and agriculture projects, and the City Farms Tour will highlight several sites in Brooklyn, including sites in [Bed-Stuy]. We invite you to come out and be part of this exciting moment, when community-based food projects in your district are receiving international attention.

Hattie Carthan Community Garden (photo from BedStuy Blog)

The Tour will be held on May 10th (tomorrow!) and is open to the public. The announcement above is from the folks at Hattie Carthan Community Garden, which is part of the Magnolia Tree Earth Center, a cultural and environmental institution founded in 1972 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Other gardens featured on the tour are the Hollenback Community Garden in Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy Farm/Brooklyn Rescue Mission, and East New York Farms. Cooking, vermicomposting, and urban beekeeping workshops will be held along with tours of the sites.

photo by Flatbush Gardener

When I attended last year’s Brooklyn Blogfest at the Old Stone House in Park Slope, Sustainable Flatbush had been online for only a few weeks. Most of the names and people and language of the blogging world were very new to me, everyone at the event seemed to be from Fort Greene or Prospect Heights, and covering Atlantic Yards was the primary reason for many of the blogs’ existence.

This year’s Blogfest (held at the Brooklyn Lyceum) was much larger and more diverse, and the one topic we could all agree on was that the word “blog” has become inadequate to describe the many different forms an online journal can take. Brooklyn blogs range from highly trafficked sites that specialize in real estate trends to painfully personal virtual diaries, and everything in between. Text, drawings, photos, and video are all part of the expressive palette, and Brooklyn bloggers wield these tools with great expertise, creativity, and humor. It’s a pretty impressive bunch. Did I mention that I had a great time?

Like a true sustainability geek, I was thrilled to meet the Chair of Brooklyn’s Solid Waste Advisory Board and chat briefly about anaerobic digestion. But mostly it was great to get introduced to new people/blogs such as Brooklyn Ron, CyclechicNY, and Gardenfork; to see the faces behind recent favorites like Clinton Hill Chill Blog, BedStuy Banana, and Flatbush Pigeon; and to hang out with the folks from Reclaimed Home, Fading Ad Blog, and those perky youngsters from Supervegan. A lovely evening, and an inspiration to continue with this adventure of blogging.

This afternoon I received word of a petition supporting a re-design of Vanderbilt Avenue (Prospect Heights) to include separated bike lanes. By providing designated space for cars, bicycles and pedestrians, this design would meet what the Department of Transportation calls the “gold standard” for safety.

Full disclosure: I am a huge fan of separated bike lanes. I was signature #21.

If you think this is something we need here in Brooklyn, you can add your name to the petition here. And do it quick — rumor has it that if there are enough signatures by Monday this plan will get extra support from one of the elected officials below.

Physically Separated Bike Lanes, courtesy of Streetfilms

[Full text of petition]
To: Councilmember Letitia James, Assemblymember Hakeem Jeffries, State Senator Eric Adams, Community Board 8 Chairperson Robert Matthew, Councilmember David Yassky, Councilmember Bill deBlasio, Councilmember John Liu, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz & Rohit Aggarwala:

The Undersigned

———————————————

Sign the petition here!

May is Bike Month! So many great events, so little time… check our calendar for a somewhat Brooklyn-centric assortment of great stuff to do on a bike this month. Look for the events marked “BIKE MONTH”… can’t say we don’t make it easy!

Don’t forget to register for Tour de Brooklyn on May 25th!

Tour de Brooklyn 2005

I’ve recently learned from Streetsblog that a church choir director from the suburbs of Washington DC is leading groups around the nation in prayers for lower gas prices.

“God, deliver us from these high gas prices,” Twyman said. “That’s all they have to say.”

THAT should work, right?

According to a San Franciso Chronicle article, Rocky Twyman has been traveling around the country staging pray-ins: “God is the only one we can turn to at this point,” said Twyman, 59. “Our leaders don’t seem to be able to do anything about it. The prices keep soaring and soaring.”

To his credit, Twyman also points out that we mortals have to take some responsibility for ourselves:

Twyman knows his approach to gasoline prices may sound simplistic. He’s quick to point out that anyone praying for cheaper fuel also has an obligation to do something more active about the problem.

“People have to walk more, leave those cars at home, and carpool, man,” he said. “We have to become more practical.”

Well, yeah. And for a few extra spiritual points, how about this:

photo by ACUPOFGREENTEA

Have I mentioned that I’m a huge fan of New York City’s Department of Transportation Commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan? (Answer: yes, you’ve mentioned it.) She’s more like a rock star than a public official. She bikes to work, is a great speaker, and has traveled to cities all over the world in search of best-practice ideas for improving our streets and transportation systems.

Yesterday Sadik-Khan gave a talk at the Municipal Arts Society to unveil a new strategic plan for 2008 and beyond called “Sustainable Streets”. Many people were unable to attend because the reservations were at capacity a week before the event (it’s that rock star thing). Fortunately Clarence Eckerson of Streetfilms was able to wangle entrance for himself and his camera to record the event for posterity:

Streets

Thanks Clarence! You rock too!

These photos were taken at Sunday morning’s 14th Annual Ditmas Park West Tree Planting. It was a really nice way to meet neighbors, add some greenery to the landscape, and be part of a longstanding neighborhood tradition. Thanks to David Ford, Dan Shapiro, Ditmas Park West Neighborhood Association, and the whole crew. For more photos and reporting on this event visit Flatbush Gardener, and my Flickr Gallery.

Okay, it’s true: I haven’t been on the blog much these days. The last post was on April 19th; more than a day or two without posting in the blogging world is enough to make one feel like Rip Van Winkle. I could point out that a sudden (and welcome) avalanche of gainful employment took up most of my time; however one need only look at the prolific output of other Brooklyn bloggers (with Gowanus Lounge setting the bar at ridiculous heights for both quality and quantity of posts) to discount THAT excuse. Maybe I’ve been somewhat at a loss for words after Congestion Pricing failed to even get a vote in the state legislature. However, one commenter certainly wasn’t: check out the Longest Blog Comments Ever on Sustainable Flatbush here, from a gentleman who calls himself Mr. Brooklyn. Clearly he and I don’t see eye to eye on this topic, but nonetheless he took the time to stop by and express himself. Thanks, Mr. Brooklyn! No thanks to Silver and the State Assembly, however. To quote a text message I received on that fateful day from neighbor and Sustainable Flatbush stalwart Mark Levy, “F**k! Shelly Silver sux!”

My own relative lack of output here should not be taken as an indication that nothing is going on in the Sustainable Flatbush world, in fact quite the contrary. We’ve got a number of projects brewing behind the scenes, and some right out in public. On Sunday we had our Street-Tree Walking Tour, preceded by a morning of tree planting with the Ditmas Park West Neighborhood Association (photos coming up!). Planning continues for the Newkirk Avenue Block Party, produced in association with Flatbush Development Corporation and NYC Streets Renaissance, which will take place on June 21st. (By happy coincidence, this is the same day as Make Music New York, a citywide festival of live music performances, and it looks like we’ll have a few on Newkirk!) Our monthly meetings happen every second Monday of the month. The next one is May 12th, so if you live in the neighborhood (or not) and would like to get involved, please stop by!