sustainableflatbush.org

sustainable, environmentally-friendly transportation

On Monday, September 15th, the Prospect Park Youth Advocates invite you & your familes and friends to a youth-friendly rally in support of a car-free Prospect Park.

Okay, now I can speak from first-hand experience: Summer Streets, New York City’s experiment with creating a car-free haven for pedestrians and cyclists, is truly fantastic!

For your viewing pleasure!
This is history in the making, folks. As Gil Peñalosa says in the film, Mayor Bloomberg and (especially!) Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan deserve credit for having the guts to try something new.

Due to a MOST unfortunate prior commitment I was unable to attend the historic kickoff of NYC Summer Streets on Saturday… but I did manage to grab a photo (camera phone, sorry!) of the last few precious car-free moments.

Union Square, car-free!

You may have already heard about NYC Summer Streets, the car-free celebration coming up in August. On the 16th we will be hosting a “feeder” ride from Flatbush to join the party, stay tuned for details! For now, enjoy this promo video courtesy of our friends at Streetfilms:

Obama Assails Remarks by McCain on Offshore Oil Drilling

Obama laid into McCain over his proposals to ease energy prices through offshore oil drilling, specifically his statement that it would provide “psychological benefit” — since the oil industry is already leasing land that it for some reason chooses not to drill on, and since experts [...]

I’ve been watching the buildup all day on Streetsblog in anticipation of this exciting announcement:
Emulating similar experiments in Paris, London, and Bogotá, Colombia, New York City will close off to traffic a 6.9-mile route from the Brooklyn Bridge to East 72nd Street on three consecutive Saturdays, giving New Yorkers to a chance to explore [...]

Another brilliant campaign from the Copenhagen Bike Culture blog. In that Nordic mecca for stylish cyclists, a relaxed bike ride to work, school, shopping, or socializing is just everyday transportation (no Lycra allowed!). I’ve already mastered the “Slow” part, but full membership seems to require stiletto heels.

Tour de Brooklyn 2008 starting line
The Fourth Annual Tour de Brooklyn was, once again, a great success. I’ve ridden in all of them and because the route changes each year, the TdB offers a wonderful opportunity to see parts of Brooklyn that may not be on one’s daily itinerary. This year after starting underneath the [...]

I’ve received a number of inquiries lately from folks wondering where to recycle CFL bulbs locally (the bulbs contain a small amount of mercury, and shouldn’t be thrown out with the trash). This Wednesday the answer is at Brooklyn Green Drinks, hosted by Center for the Urban Environment at their beautiful new home, a showplace [...]