Every year since 2007, we’ve  transformed the same parking space on the corner of Cortelyou and Argyle Roads in Brooklyn into a public park (with real grass!) and day-long festival on Park(ing) Day. Park(ing) Day is an annual international event where citizens, artists and activists around the world collaborate to temporarily transform parking spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: public places for a day.

This year Sustainable Flatbush will celebrate our success in turning the vision of PARK(ing) Day into a year-round reality! We’ve created a partnership with the newly-formed group Friends of Cortelyou Library and NYC Department of Transportation to install benches and planters in front of the library so it can serve as a permanent public space for relaxation, reflection and friendship. Park(ing) Day 2011 will feature activities for all ages including a puppet show, live music, art projects, a writing workshop, and even a hula hooping class! We’ll present information about our projects in the neighborhood and interactive workshops on how to live more sustainably in the city, with topics such as composting, gardening with native plants, renewable energy with the SunBike (before it heads off to Maker Faire for the weekend!) and more!

Playing cards at Cortelyou Road Park, 2010 (photo by Keka Marzagão)

The mission of PARK(ing) Day is to call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat. For four years we’ve brought this discussion to the heart of Brooklyn by creating Cortelyou Road Park in front of the Cortelyou Library. The library’s plaza had no seating or other amenities, but since 2007 our temporary park has spilled into the plaza and transformed it into a vibrant urban oasis on Park(ing) Day.

Park(ing) Day is an opportunity to create a community gathering place, and to make a statement about how we utilize public space. In our neighborhood, despite all the beautiful homes and lawns and gardens, the amount of publicly accessible green space per person is much lower than the city average*. On Park(ing) Day we take 160 square feet of concrete that would normally be occupied by one automobile, and transform it into something magical that is enjoyed by hundreds of people, a place where neighbors can interact and build community.

Stop by on Friday September 16th to celebrate the newly revitalized Cortelyou Library Plaza with us!

• Check here for the day’s events schedule.
• If you’d like to volunteer for this event, please email us or call 718-208-0575.

Puppet show at Park(ing) Day 2010 (photo by Keka Marzagão)

WHAT:

Park(ing) Day 2011

WHEN:

Friday, September 16th, from 8am to 6pm

WHERE:

in front of the Cortelyou Library, corner of Cortelyou and Argyle Roads

If you have questions about this event, please email info@sustainableflatbush.org or call 718-208-0575

* Source: Municipal Arts Society’s Imagine Flatbush 2030 report

Street Tree Walking Tour of April 2009 (photo by Keka Marzagão)

The 4th Annual Sustainable Flatbush Street Tree Walking Tour will be Sunday, April 17, the day after the Plant Swap. (It’s a busy weekend for us!) We’re following the same route as past tours, so if you’ve only been able to enjoy our fall foliage in the past, come enjoy the spring blooms!

Once again tours leave from Sacred Vibes Apothecary at 11am and 12noon. Your tour guides will be Sam Bishop of Trees NY, neighbor and gardener Tracey Hohman, and Sustainable Flatbush’s own Chris Kreussling (aka Flatbush Gardener). On the tour, you can see:

• Acer platanoides, Norway Maple
• Aesculus hippocastanum, Horsechestnut
• Amelanchier, Serviceberry
• Betula nigra, River Birch
• Cercis canadensis, Redbud
• Cornus florida, Flowering Dogwood
• Cryptomeria japonica, Japanese Red Cedar
• Ginkgo biloba, Ginkgo
• Gleditsia triacanthos, Honey Locust
• Liquidambar styraciflua, Sweetgum
• Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Dawn Redwood
• Pinus strobus, White Pine
• Platanus x acerifolia, London Plane
• Pyrus calleryana, Flowering Pear, Callery Pear
• Quercus palustris, Pin Oak
• Quercus robur ‘Fastigiata’, Columnar English Oak
• Sophora japonica, Japanese Pagoda Tree, Scholar Tree
• Tsuga canadensis, Eastern Hemlock
• Ulmus americana, American Elm

… and many more.

When: Sunday, April 17. Tours set out at 11am and 12noon. The tour lasts 90 minutes to 2 hours.
Where: Tours leave from Sacred Vibes Apothecary, 376 Argyle Road, just down the corner from Cortelyou Road, across the street from the Tot Lot, catty-corner from the Greenmarket. The route is about a mile in length, looping back to where we started.
Suggested Donation: 5$

PARK(ing) Day Sidewalk (Photo by Elisabeth Deogracias)

September 17 2010: PARK(ing) Day

PARK(ing) Day is an annual and international event that SF has participated in since 2007. Along with thousands of other individuals spread throughout the globe, on PARK(ing) Day we reclaim the 120 square feet of space, which is labeled every other day of the year a parking spot, into a small but powerful public place for the community to enjoy. With so many families and young children in the Flatbush neighborhood, SF’s “Cortelyou Road Park” was a place full of child’s play. From puppets, to painting, to percussion, PARK(ing) Day 2010 entertained the young and young at heart while sending a clear message about the need for increased usable public space in Flatbush.

Bike Decorating Activities at the Traffic Calming Block Party

July 18 2010: Traffic Calming Block Party Organized by SF and executed with the help of local volunteers, the Traffic Calming Block Party raised awareness about the importance of ensuring that our streets are safe for pedestrians and bicyclists. With live music, bike decorating, sidewalk chalk drawing, and tasty food and drinks provided by the late (and lamented!) Vox Pop Café, this event had all the fixins’ of a summer block party. Helpful NYC biking guidelines provided by Transportation Alternatives and a pedestrian survey engaged guests in a discussion of street safety, particularly on Cortelyou and Stratford Roads. These surveys will be compiled to create a study that can be used to advocate on behalf of the community’s needs for safer streets.

Spring and Fall Street Tree Walking Tours

Fall 2010 Street Tree Walking Tour

This spring we held our fourth Street Tree Walking tour, now a semi-annual event. Local horticulturists Chris Kreussling (aka Flatbush Gardener) and Tracey Hohman led residents around Victorian Flatbush by foot, while giving a thorough account of the diverse local canopy. This event reminds us that streets are not separate from nature, but can in fact be places where one can connect to foliage. In addition to increasing knowledge and appreciation of the local environment, the walking tour impresses upon residents the important role street trees play in absorbing stormwater runoff, as well as filtering air pollutants released into the atmosphere. More recently we hosted the fall complement to the Street Tree Walking Tour series in late October. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and participants were guided along the streets of Flatbush by Chris and special guest Sam Bishop, Education Director at Trees New York. Sam and Chris described the identifying features of various tree species as well as some of the urban planning history that has shaped the current canopy. With over forty participants total, the fall walking tour was certainly a success!

It’s been quite  a busy year for SF, but the advocacy continues on without a doubt! Keep an eye out for our upcoming events and in the meantime consider these words from the NYC Department of Transportation’s May 2009-released Street Design Manual:

“The streets of New York are often seen as permanent fixtures of city life, and in some ways, they are. But our streets are also dynamic, and their character and uses can change as the city continually evolves and reinvents itself.”

And as residents, we have the right to a voice in how that evolution transpires.

Washington State DOT Hot lane visualization

On December 17th, in a seminar put on by the University Transport Research Center, Associate Professor of Transportation Engineering at Washington University Yinhai Wang explained how HOT lanes could be a potential solution to that problem. HOT lanes are a combination between an HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lane and a toll lane.  Either high-occupancy vehicles or single-occupancy toll paying vehicles could make use of the lane. The argument for installing HOT lanes is to make more use of HOV lanes. Studies found that the HOV lane is underutilized by drivers unless it is in the morning peak hour.

In his lecture, Wang discussed what the best HOT lane design and rate would be. Some in the audience question the validity of the argument that it would decrease congestion. If you build more lanes and decrease travel time, it would attract more drivers and therefore create congested driving conditions. I would suggest that an implementation of HOT lanes should include using the toll revenues to fund public transit along the same traffic corridor in order to encourage more people to use public transport and other alternatives to driving.

Check out more information about HOT Lanes here!

Open House participants and storyboards (photo by Ernest Skinner)

I was very pleased with how knowledgeable and open about the process representatives were. One of my major concerns was that in one section of the route on Bedford Avenue the SBS bus and bicycles run in the same lane. One representative explained that the thought behind this portion of the design was that a wider bus lane would be able to accommodate both buses and bicycles. Within the bus lane there would be lines dividing the spaces that the bus and bicycle would use. The representatives also acknowledged the problem with the design and openly admitted that it is still being discussed and possibly reworked.

The highlights of the event were the delicious snacks and a working SBS bus outside of the event!

SBS bus! (photo by Ernest Skinner)

Bus Rapid Transit is a cost effective, efficient and easy way to improve speed and reliability of bus service for commuters along major traffic corridors. The New York City Department of Transportation in conjunction with MTA New York City Transit is looking for public input about the design of the Select Bus Service plans on Nostrand and Rogers Ave. The open house allows the public to speak with the project’s staff individually and provides a venue to promote community engagement in the planning process.

(For more information and summary of the design and progress of the project check out this link!)

When
Monday, November 15, 2010
From 6:30 pm- 8:30 pm

Where
Brooklyn College Student Center (Campus Road and East 27th Street)
Bedford Lounge, 2nd Floor

Directions:
2 or 5 to Flatbush Ave/Brooklyn College, Q or B to Avenue H

I first became interested in urban planning my senior year in high school. After hearing how the Atlantic Yards project was going to change the landscape of downtown Brooklyn I wanted to know learn more about how the planning process worked. I wanted to learn how communities could be more involved in the decision making process. Although GWU did
not have an Urban Affairs major, many of the planning courses were incorporated into the Geography major. Studying Geography opened my eyes to more ways of looking at the world; not just the nuts and bolts of the facts, locations or statistics but to how the environment, politics, economics are intertwined and related.

I studied abroad in Tokyo for one semester and took a course focusing on architecture, urban planning and development. In this course, we had to choose a problem in the built environment and think of creative solutions based on others’ ideas and our own. I chose to focus on how to make Tokyo Station a final destination rather than a place to pass through.
This project piqued my interest in transportation planning. Through this project I learned that transportation could be used as a way of controlling the way people interacted and the way culture and information were dispersed throughout a city. A transportation hub can connect people to more places, making more locations accessible and enhance the culture of the surrounding area.

I am excited to be working with Sustainable Flatbush on the Livable Streets initiative. I am interested in the dynamics of major transportation corridors and the economic and cultural effects of transportation planning. I am also interested in diversifying modes of transportation as well as increasing safety for drivers, bikers and pedestrians. I look forward to working with Sustainable Flatbush towards that goal.

Dress up yourself, dress up your bike and come to our next Ditmas Ride this Friday (10/29) at 7:00 pm. Of course you can join us if you or your bike are not dressed up. We will meet in front of the Qathra Cafe on Cortelyou Road between Stratford and Westminster.

Please spread the word to other bicyclists who might be interested in cycling together. If you or your friends like to be kept in the loop then you can add yourself to the Ditmas Rides email list here. You can also subscribe to our RSS newsfeed.

The purpose of the Ditmas Rides is for us to have fun and to celebrate and spread a way of getting around we already enjoy. There is no planned route and we the participants will decide where we would like to go shortly before the ride starts. Ditmas Park has a lot of small streets so hopefully we can have a joyful and stress free rides. I myself am planning to bring my daughter Nona Lily along and hope that other parents will bring their children as well.

I am really looking forward to seeing everyone soon.

Thanks, Rene

P.S.: It would be nice if some of you could RSVP so we can wait for you if you end up a little late and be encouraged doing it since we know that there will be other people showing up as well.

WHAT: Ditmas Rides Costume Bicycle Ride
WHERE: Meet in front of Qathra Cafe, 1112 Cortelyou Road (between Westminster and Stratford)
WHEN: Friday, October 29th at 7pm

Victorian Flatbush Street Tree (photo by Keka Marzagão)

After the success of last year’s fall walking tour, this Sunday, October 24th, Sustainable Flatbush will be holding our 2nd Annual Fall Street Tree Walking Tour! This year it has even been listed as a NeighborWoods Month event!

The tour will take advantage of the colorful fall foliage in the backdrop of the beautifully picturesque Victorian section of Flatbush. The rich history of this area includes the trees, some of which are more than a century old. These natural landmarks dot the Flatbush area, and are an important aspect of the Victorian charm here.

The tours will leave at both 11 AM and noon that day from the Sacred Vibes Apothecary on Argyle Road, and will be led by our two expert tour guides, Sam Bishop of Trees NY and Sustainable Flatbush’s own Chris Kreussling (aka Flatbush Gardener). They will share some interesting details and facts about the trees of the area, the different types of trees and their characteristics, and the benefits of having trees in the context of urban areas. So whether you are interested in learning more about the flora of the area, or you just want to admire the beautiful sights to be seen during this time of year, this Sunday is sure to be a great experience!

WHAT: Sustainable Flatbush 2nd Annual Fall Foliage Street Tree Walking Tour
WHERE: Meet at Sacred Vibes Apothecary, 376 Argyle Road, Brooklyn
WHEN: Sunday, October 24th at 11am

Suggested donation $5

I headed out to Flatbush at 7:00 am to await the arrival of the sod that would transform the black pavement into a large rectangle of space soft enough for babies to stretch their little limbs. And stretch—and paint and cry and drum—they did. The site was located in front of the public library, across the street from a public playground, and within a block from the local elementary and middle schools. Needless to say, kids were the main participatory constituency.

Puppeteer Ronny Wasserstrom entertains the crowd

We had a thoroughly entertaining puppeteer, Ronny Wasserstrom of Playdate Puppets, with us throughout the day, delighting babies and accompanying parents alike. Stephanie Huffaker from Garbage of Eden Design was working all day with children, up-cycling costumes made from newspaper and markers. Louise Bruce from Compost for Brooklyn, a new community composting site and native plant garden on Newkirk Avenue, was providing information on composting and took all our cardboard waste with her at the end of the day. The grass drew in most of the crowd, as people were invited to stay and snack on donated treats from the Flatbush Food Co-op and relax in the sunshine. Sustainable Flatbush Energy Solutions Director Jocelyn Cohen gave demonstrations on solar-powered generators. To close out the day’s programming, Richie Barshay provided us with some beats and melodies as the sun began to lower.

Relaxing at Cortelyou Road Park

I had never heard of Park(ing) Day before participating in this event. As I talked with people who dropped in because they were curious about the crowd or the fact that people were literally laying in the street (protected by a lattice and a cone perimeter!), I realized that the intent behind Park(ing) Day was not necessarily obvious. We were situated directly in front of the public library which has a “public plaza” taking up much of the corner of Argyle and Cortelyou roads. Without any kind of seating or inviting elements, the plaza is unfortunately a barren, under-utilized potential source of public space that is sorely needed in the Flatbush community. Throughout the day, I interviewed students, parents, nannies, and community members about their thoughts on public space usage in the city. The results were resounding: more people-friendly space, with green if possible, is very much wanted and needed in the city. Their responses will be compiled in a short video documenting Sustainable Flatbush Park(ing) Day 2010, so check back for that post.

As we rolled up the last of the sod, packed up the bikes, and swept the street, the parking spot gradually returned to an empty space with no visual remnants of the community engagement that had transpired.  A unique event in the environmental/social justice movement, Park(ing) Day was not a fundraiser, nor a protest, but simply a fleeting reminder of the need for community interaction in a public setting. As Sustainable Flatbush continues to work on the Livable Streets Initiative, we will be thinking about how we can improve access to people-friendly streets to everyone.