Bike helmet decorating (photo by Keka Marzagão)

Throughout the day, passers-by stopped in to chat, listen to various live music acts, decorate their bikes and helmets, pick up helpful NYC biking guidelines provided by Transportation Alternatives, decorate the sidewalks with chalk, get food and drink from Vox Pop Café, and most importantly, fill out our pedestrian survey requesting their opinions about the safety (or lack thereof) of Cortelyou and Stratford Roads. Everyone from toddlers to the elderly stopped by and took part in our party, which lasted from 10AM to about 6PM.

Along with the approximately 60 surveys that were filled out in person on Sunday, at least 40 more have been filled out online. Hopefully these can serve as further testament to the Department of Transportation that permanent action at this intersection is necessary, be it a four-way stop sign or a traffic light or some other design from their toolbox. As Cortelyou Road accrues more businesses and development, the number of pedestrians, cars and bicycles will only increase, which will make it that much more of a concern. I think that our Block Party was a great demonstration of a fun and creative way to take on issues on a community level that affect the whole city. Now if only we can have a block party for Queens Boulevard!

(UPDATE: We now have 140 surveys! Thanks to everyone who participated!)

Garden Brainstorming (photo by Keka Marzagão)

As Jeremy described in his last blog post, on June 16^th we had part two of our brainstorming sessions for the new community garden we’re creating with Flatbush Reformed Church, in the backyard space of 890 Flatbush. Thirty people attended this meeting, and were able to see the garden spaces and participate in a vision collage of ideas for the garden spaces.

Here’s what some people want to see (I tried to include everyone’s ideas, so skim as needed!):

- WHAT WE WANT TO GROW:

• herbs (examples: basil, medicinal herbs, rosemary, cilantro, thyme, parsley)
• fruits (grapes, berries, fruit trees, avocados, apples, peaches, cherries, watermelon)
• veggies (pumpkins, squash, brussel sprouts, eggplant, artichokes, salad greens, radishes, beans, chickpeas, root veggies, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, scallions, ginger, kale, legumes, swiss chard, zucchini, bell peppers, leeks, green beans, cucumbers)
• wine harvesting
• flowers

- FOOD-BASED EDUCATION PROGRAMS: youth-run mini-CSA for neighbors, cooking classes and demos on nutrition, medicinal herb workshops

- ART/CULTURAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS: art workshops and art and culture curriculum

- BIKE PROGRAMS: bike riding lessons in parking lot, bike maintenance workshops

-  YOUTH PROGRAMS: education programs with local schools, summer/weekend activities for kids, garden visits from schools around the city

-  GARDENING PROGRAMS: gardening 101 info sessions, Haitian community sharing of traditional farming knowledge, how-to start a backyard garden, sustainability education, solar installation demos, vermicomposting how-to’s

Gathering Ideas (photo by Keka Marzagão)

- SEASONAL PROGRAMMING: spring hat parade, Halloween party with campfire-style ghost stories, pumpkin carving

- THEATER: small performances on the porch, showcase edible plants with “plant of the week” shows for community

- FOOD EVENTS: monthly potlucks, barbeques, tea parties, lemonade stand

- OTHER EVENTS: leaf collection in the fall, plant swaps, party to design the garden sign, live music, acupuncture, garden book club, farm trip, porch party to meet neighbors

- Inter-generational gardening

- GARDEN AREAS: fragrant garden, butterfly garden, kid garden, discovery garden, meditation bench, cactus/low water garden, pollinator garden, pumpkin patch, vertical gardening for fenced area, maze path line with flowers, tree beds

- GARDEN INFRASTRUCTURE: murals, sculptures, long table for potluck, beehive, birdhouse, greenhouse, sundial, solar lighting/lanterns, water fountain (solar powered), rainwater catchment, compost, treehouse, swing, hammock, bike parking, welcome gate with info on how to join, living wall/structure that kids can play in

- GARDEN TECHNIQUES: lasagna gardening, 3 sister planting (corn, beans, root veggies), companion planting, permaculture, container gardening (with recycled containers), raised beds, recycled container planters, cold frames, organic fertilizers

- Heal the soil!

- Keep seed library for future

- Make how-to guide for other aspiring urban gardens

- Recycling on church grounds

- Wind power/human power/solar power/whimsy

- Chickens!

Based on the ideas that people offered, and what the land requires (for example, high concentration of lead in the soil = building raised beds for our plants instead of growing directly in the soil), Chris Kreussling, the Director of our Urban Gardens and Farms Initiative, and others are working together to create several possible designs for our new garden.

On August 1^st at 3pm Sustainable Flatbush will host a community potluck to engage in discussion, eat tasty food, and vote for our favorite garden design!

What to do if you’d like to be involved:

• Bring your ideas and something to eat/drink to August 1^st event
• Sign up to stay informed on the Flatbush Church Garden listserv, and get updated on events, plantings, and community meetings
• Email us to submit your design ideas

I look forward to seeing everyone at the potluck, and to breaking ground soon!

I Love Brookln from our 2008 Newkirk Block Party (photo by Anne Pope)

Can’t make it to the party? Fill out our survey online and make your voice heard! Survey results will be shared with Community Board 14 and the NYC Department of Transportation, with the goal of bringing traffic calming infrastructure to Cortelyou Road.

Funding for this event provided by Citizens Committee for New York City’s Love Your (NYC) Block campaign

Garden Site Visit (photo by Keka Marzagão)

Chris led us out of the church to see the two plots on which the garden will be cultivated: one small but sunny plot is bound by two brick walls and a fence which will remain open to the public, and the other plot is located in the front yard of the pick-up site of the Flatbush Farmshare CSA. It has high shade from a few stately oak trees and is quite a bit bigger. Immediately, people began brainstorming ideas for how to best use the space. We all went around and introduced ourselves, our respective homes, and what motivated us to come to this meeting. The group was a mix of young and old, native New Yorkers and transplants, and gardeners both experienced and novice. It was really exciting to see that people actually cared enough about this new community garden to take time to come, and I get the feeling that many of them (and hopefully others, too!) will become the backbone of the project.

Garden Visioning (photo by Keka Marzagão)

Back inside the church, we spent the rest of the brainstorming session writing down our ideas on large pieces of paper and getting to know one another. The range and quality of suggestions and ideas was really stellar. Some listed vegetables, fruits and other plants they’d like to grow. Other suggestions included a variety of different events that the garden could be host to, from classes to potluck dinners to small concerts. One person even drew a little plan-view map of the garden with possible paths and beds. Overall, I think the participants’ ideas could be grouped into a few main hopes for the garden: that it will become a community space, one where neighbors can get to know each other and work together, that it will be a place to learn about and grow food, and that it will be a quiet, green nook in an otherwise bustling area. I’m looking forward to doing my part to ensure that the garden becomes all of those things.

Go to the People;
Live among them;
Love them;
Learn from them;
Start from where they are;
Work with them;
Build on what they have.
But of the best leaders,
When the task is accomplished,
The work completed,
The people all remark:
“We have done it ourselves.”

–Lao Tzu

Today I say goodbye to Sustainable Flatbush, and to all of you, dear readers. Thank you all for coming to the events, for participating and engaging with each other and for supporting Sustainable Flatbush.

Dassa at Brooklyn College Earth Day (photo by Keka Marzagão)

And to the SF-ers: Anne, Keka, Jocelyn Cohen, Chris, and Mela (and Madeline & Maikel, honorary SF-ers and true gardeners). Thank you for opening your organization and your hearts to students like me. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute something — something small, to be sure, but something at least — to the sustainability movement to which you are all devoted.

I wanted my last post to be about what I learned, but how can I encapsulate an entire semester in a single blog post? So instead I found a poem to express the thoughts for which I don’t have adequate words. Lao Tzu’s poem, above, captures what I have discovered over the past semester while working alongside the wonderful folks at SF: That giving to the community is not about passing down wisdom from up above; it’s about supporting people and giving them the opportunity to learn. And SF has given so many people — has given me — the opportunity to learn. For that, I will always be grateful.

So goodbye everyone, and here’s to many more years, and many more events, of giving others the chance to learn something new. What can be better than that?

Sustainable Flatbush, Flatbush Food Co-op, and Ditmas Park West Neighborhood Association present a special Earth Day film screening of NO IMPACT MAN.

This movie is all about taking a new look at the way we impact our environment. Colin Beavan sets out to experience life without any automated transportation, electricity, no more non-local food and overall to make as little impact as possible for one year. No problem right? That is, until his wife who has completely different ideals from that of Beavan and their daughter is brought into the fray. How will this family cope with the new way of living? How will they be tested and what will they find out along the way?

As for me, after doing a little bit of research what I found interesting was the fact that the family had to give up a lot for that one year. I haven’t seen the movie yet so I would like to see what kind of strain it put on their relationship. All the struggles they endured and how they overcame, as well as learning from them what I can do to make less of an impact on environmental degradation. Isn’t that interesting? Shouldn’t all of us give this a thought and come see what this family has accomplished?

COME SEE AND FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF!

Flatbush Food Film Forum presents a special Earth Day film screening of NO IMPACT MAN
sponsored by Sustainable Flatbush, Flatbush Food Co-op, and Ditmas Park West Neighborhood Association

WHEN: Wednesday, April 21st at 7pm
WHERE: Prospect Park Temple Isaac, 1419 Dorchester Road (entrance on Marlborough)

Free popcorn provided by Flatbush Food Co-op! Kosher snacks available for purchase

Peaches or Parking Spots? (photo by Flatbush Gardener)

Brooklyn College has plans to reorient (but not expand) the student athletic track, thereby cutting into a parking lot that is positioned nearby. To make up for the spots that will be lost, the college plans to bulldoze the garden, replace it with approximately 24 parking spots, and leave the community gardeners with a paltry plot, to be laid out and regimented by Brooklyn College Facilities.

You can help! You can raise your voice and tell Brooklyn College how you want the new garden to be configured. You can share with the college the value of a community garden. Share your priorities and interests — let the college know what you think!

A Part of the Garden (photo by Flatbush Gardener)

Join the community, the students, and the faculty for a Town Hall Meeting. There will be two meetings: One in the afternoon (12:30), and one in the evening (6:30).

When: Thursday, 15 April 2010, 12:30 p.m. & 6:30 p.m.

photo by christheobscure

We’re excited to invite you to another Monthly Volunteer Gathering at Vox Pop Cafe with Sustainable Flatbush! (Our second one, yay!) We’re going to be talking a lot about our next big event of the spring, the Neighborhood Energy Forum on March 20th. We all want to learn about how to make our homes more energy efficient, right? Who doesn’t like saving money and the environment at the same time?

Come learn about the event, share your energy-related stories (or any story, really!), and mingle with others in your community that see the need for change. Also, there’s delicious coffee and food at this one-of-a-kind café we love to hang out in!

Make sure you stay after the talk to enjoy some groovy live Blues music.
WHEN: Tuesday, March 9th, 6:30-8pm
WHERE: Vox Pop Cafe, 1022 Cortelyou Road

See you there!
Maria & Nicole

Campus Road Community Garden welcome sign

The Campus Road Community Garden was founded in 1997, under the auspices of the South Midwood Residents Association (SMRA), according to the Daily News. The agreement to build the garden was negotiated between the then-current President of Brooklyn College and Ms. Toby Sanchez. The plot’s location was considered provisional — it would be moved to a more permanent location when the college had more money.

As the years passed, the college left the garden alone. It grew slowly, about two or three thousand square feet more than its original 6000 feet, and now encompasses about forty members. Growers, who pay $30 a year for a plot, raise vegetables, flowers, and herbs. The garden hosts collaborative learning experiences for high school students, and this past September, hosted a Brooklyn College Slow Food eat-in.

The Garden, as viewed from the outside

But the Campus Road Community Garden is now in danger. Brooklyn College has awoken from its green-dreams slumber and discovered that, in order to broaden its running track, it must cut into its parking lot. How to create more parking spots to compensate for the old ones taken down? Why of course — demolish the Campus Road Community Garden!

I had the privilege of speaking to Madeline Nelson, a community-oriented activist and a staunch supporter of all the Campus Road Community Garden symbolizes, about the situation. She read me excerpts of the original contract – and some of the requirements are so unusual, I have to share them. Did you know that the gardeners must leave plots for academic programs, and  if Brooklyn College’s president wants flowers from the garden, the growers are required to give some?

She also shared with me the growers’ response to Brooklyn College’s claim that the gardeners have extended their boundaries beyond what the contract permitted. Madeline pointed out that the contract never specified borders for the garden’s northern and southern sides; only the eastern and western sides had specifications, and to ensure the garden kept within those boundaries, a pathway was built in the spring of 1997. In any case, Madeline explained, the garden expanded slowly, and Brooklyn College was aware of every foot the garden grew. The growers never attempted to hide the gradual plot-by-plot expansion, and besides, Brooklyn College received an annual list participants – they were fully aware of when more people where added to the garden’s roster.

I asked Madeline if she could explain Brooklyn College’s affirmation that the garden’s current location was always considered provisional, and growers thus could not protest when the college announced the garden would be moved.

She explained that it was “verbally understood” that the garden was on a ten-year plan, and eventually something was going to be done so the school could expand its athletic field. But, she went on to say, the gardeners understood that the expansion would be for academic purposes – for the students to have a better athletic area. But not for a parking lot!

Touring the Garden

Brooklyn College’s official stance on the creation of a new parking lot is that they are legally required to add more spots to make up for those lost to the new athletic field – a question of state law. The growers, however, question this sudden need for more parking. Mass transportation and the recent surge of bike-riding have lessened the need for parking. And, if it is indeed a matter of state law, Madeline asked me, has Brooklyn College done its “due diligence”? Has the college asked the state for an exemption? Have they explained times have changed – that with more buses, bicycles, and trains, the parking lot just isn’t necessary?

Madeline also outlined several of the gardeners’ own proposals, all of which would protect the garden while still getting the parking that Brooklyn College insists it needs.

First, there is the massive Target parking lot right next to the university, which never seems to be at anywhere near full capacity – a “hugely underutilized” facility, Madeline calls it. As it is, Target offers special rates for those who come to park early, but has the college ever attempted to negotiate a special student lot in Target’s parking area? Target would get more potential consumers, and Brooklyn College would have a place to which they can send students’ cars.

If Target will not cooperate – and we don’t know if they won’t, because the college has not taken up the proposal – Madeline pointed out that by the new West Quad Building, there is more empty land, full of trees and shrubs that are not as developed at the ones in the garden. She actually suggested to Brooklyn College personnel that the athletic track be expanded there, and then the parking be put elsewhere, but the response was negative: “Nice idea, ain’t gonna happen.”

One flower, one bee. One garden, an entire ecosystem.

But it gets worse. In the new garden, Brooklyn College wants a new organizer – instead of the current one, who is part of the community and has over sixteen years of experience in the garden, the college wants to put in a faculty coordinator. What does a teacher from the college know about a garden that someone who actually works in the garden does not? Furthermore, the garden would also fall under the jurisdiction of Brooklyn College Facilities Planning and Operations – the very same Facilities whose Assistant Vice President, Steve Czirak, called the garden a “weed patch”!

What has gone wrong? How can Brooklyn College sacrifice this working ecosystem, as Madeline calls it, for a parking lot? Where has the college failed?

What Brooklyn College has failed to see is that the community garden has done just that – created a community. Growers, nature lovers, and curious students all bond over the patch of greenery; people find new roles as planters, as admirers, and as eaters. The community garden has taken what we all know – that food must be grown before it can be eaten – and made it something we understand. But by dismantling years of devotion, sweat, and hard work, Brooklyn College is refusing to see just how valuable the community garden is – something so much more meaningful than fifty parking spots!

Are you prepared to let the college raze all this -- for a parking lot?

The gardeners are not taking this sitting down, and neither must you. Destroying a valuable piece of local culture  – not to mention a haven for flora and fauna in the veritable desert that is the college — to build more parking spots is the ultimate in cruel ironies. And you can help! From the comfort of your own home, sign an electronic petition here, and join the Facebook group devoted to the garden here. Interested in taking a more active role? On Wednesday, February 24, 2010, Community Board 14 (at the CB14 District Office, 810 E 16th Street) is holding a meeting at 7 PM – and the life of the community garden is the hot topic of the night. So show your face, and your support, and let Brooklyn College know that a garden is a thing of beauty – and should be enjoyed, if not forever, for at least many years to come.

All photos courtesy of Flatbush Gardener. Thanks to Madeline Nelson for graciously giving her time and allowing me to interview her for this piece.

Greening Flatbush: Garden Where You Are is an afternoon of short demonstrations and hands-on workshops on a variety of gardening and urban agriculture topics, including:

• - gardening for kids
• - starting seeds indoors
• - growing herbs and microgreens on your windowsill
• - vertical gardening
• - growing sprouts in your kitchen
• - composting with worms in your apartment
• - how to join the Flatbush Farm Share CSA
• - preparing healthy food (cooking demo with a Just Food Community Chef)

… and much more!

“Garden is a verb,” says Chris Kreussling, Director of our Urban Gardens & Farms Initiative, which is sponsoring the event. “It’s not just a place you visit. It’s something you do.” The Urban Gardens & Farms Initiative is centered on modeling sustainable horticulture practices, promoting urban agriculture and food sovereignty, and building community through neighborhood gardening and beautification.

Sustainable Flatbush programs provide opportunities for residents to learn about and get involved in working toward the goal of a sustainable neighborhood, while simultaneously building community and fostering local self-sufficiency.

“Hearing about what others are already doing can inspire people to work with their neighbors to take action,” says Kreussling, who also authors a local gardening blog, Flatbush Gardener. “We want to build community through gardening.”

Snacks and coffee will be available (courtesy of Flatbush Food Co-op and Vox Pop Café).  Bring your own mug!

Greening Flatbush is on Sunday, February 21, from 2 to 4 pm, at the Dorchester Senior Center, 1419 Dorchester Road, located on the corner of Dorchester Road and Marlborough Road. Take the Q train to Cortelyou Road.

$3 suggested donation. Space is limited, click HERE to register.

If you have questions about this event, feel free to contact us.

Help us spread the word! Click here to download a PDF version of the flyer to print and put up in your building, community center, congregation, etc. Invite your neighbors to join in the fun!