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

Serviceberry bush on Church Avenue

Brooklyn Native Plants Tour May 15th, Spring Planting at the Garden May 21st, and Celebration with Flatbush Farm Share CSA June 8th!

Thanks to all who came out for our first spring planting at the garden on April 30th! We were able to score some beautiful native plants from the 12th Annual Wildflower and Native Plant Sale at Westchester Community College for the first installation of the Church Avenue streetscape, including a beautiful Serviceberry (Amelanchier) bush. The edible garden also looks great, and we’ve now planted okra, cauliflower, collards, cherry peppers, green beans, and more in sub-irrigated planters created from reclaimed materials!

There are several exciting events in the works for the garden over the next month, please save the dates! Events will take place at the backyard space of the Flatbush Reformed Church, at Kenmore Terrace and East 21st Street, unless otherwise noted.

Sunday, May 15th, 12-3pm

special off-site event: Native Plant Garden Tour

As part of NYC Wildflower Week, our own Chris Kreussling (aka Flatbush Gardener), Director of Sustainable Flatbush’s Urban Gardens and Farms Initiative, will partner with Compost for Brooklyn to provide a tour of two native plant gardens in the neighborhood. The self-guided tour begins at Compost for Brooklyn, Newkirk Avenue and East 8th street, and continues to Chris’s home garden.
Register here for this free event (and for directions).

Planting the Church Avenue streetscape

Saturday, May 21st, 11am-4pm

Spring Planting and Potluck: Native Plants Edition!!!

Join us for a special spring planting day and potluck meal!

This is our second installation of spring planting days at the the Church Avenue Communal Garden. We’ll focus on beautifying the Church Avenue streetscape and preserving our urban ecosystem with plants that are native to the New York City region.

Enjoy a beautiful day outdoors at the historic Flatbush Reformed Church! A composting demonstration and workshop will be held from 11-12. Bring food or drinks to share with your fellow gardeners.

Wednesday, June 8th, 4-8pm

Spring Planting Celebration and Potluck with the Flatbush FarmShare CSA!
Join us for a potluck social at the Church Avenue Communal Garden to celebrate our spring plantings and the first day of the season for the Flatbush Farm Share CSA! We’ll have info tables, wine tastings, live music, and more. Bring finger food and/or drinks to share.

See you at the garden!

(photos courtesy of Alexandra Corrazza)

The Church Avenue Communal Garden is a new community garden located on the grounds of the historic Flatbush Reformed Church property at Church and Flatbush Avenues. The project is a partnership between Sustainable Flatbush and the Flatbush Reformed Church, and will include a rain garden and community space, an edible garden, and a native plant streetscape along Church Avenue. As we begin our first planting season this spring, the garden will become a community space for Flatbush residents to participate in workshops and events around nutrition, composting, container gardening, native plants, and local food, including special activities for youth. For more information email emily@sustainableflatbush.org or call 718.208.0575. Come get your hands dirty with us!

Last year's abundant tables at the Flatbush Plant Swap!

The 2nd Annual Flatbush Plant Swap is coming up soon! On Saturday, April 16, Sustainable Flatbush and Flatbush Food Co-op will be hosting a free community plant swap. So prepare your cuttings, divide your perennials, or just get excited to pick up some horticultural tips… and take a plant home to start your own indoor or outdoor garden!

Lucky neighbor took home a beautiful young flowering tree

Last year’s inaugural plant swap was a huge success; we saw many people of all ages come and go throughout the day bringing plants, taking plants, sharing gardening knowledge and just hanging out to enjoy the sun.

Click here to see our photos from last year’s event.

From noon to 3pm, rain or shine, we will be in front of the Co-op again this year. So come out and join the fun!

Remember, you don’t have to bring something to take something.

Everyone goes home with a plant! Children and adults alike are welcome!

What: Free plant swap

When: Saturday, April 16, 12-3 p.m., rain or shine

Where: Flatbush Food Co-op @ 1415 Cortelyou Road (between Marlborough & Rugby Roads)

Greening Flatbush 2011 – held this past Sunday, February 27th – was a huge success! Thank you to everyone who came out and to everyone at the workshop tables.  We had an amazing turn out, over 100 participants!

After much time and effort put into decorating and preparing our room at the Flatbush YMCA, we were able to sit back and enjoy all the great knowledgeable people who came to do workshops! From learning how to grow our own mushrooms, planting using plastic bottles, learning about urban farms in the area, the new garden to be opened on Church Avenue, sprouting our own seeds, how to make the best use of trees in our area, and the oh-so-popular Earth Dumplings,  it was a day packed with exciting info.  Attendees enjoyed a great raffle and snacks and a fun time was had by all.

If you missed out we hope to see you next year and once again thanks to everyone involved!

Click here for more photos from this year’s Greening Flatbush!

.

When I founded Sustainable Flatbush in 2007, I knew that I wanted to make a difference in my Brooklyn neighborhood. Thanks to the time and talents so generously shared by friends and neighbors, three years later that seed of an idea has evolved into something powerful: a community-based incubator for urban sustainability that truly belongs to the people it serves. With a committed Advisory Board and volunteer staff, and supported by our fiscal sponsor Open Space Institute, we’ve grown Sustainable Flatbush into a catalyst that inspires neighbors to create a new way of living while simultaneously building community and fostering local self-sufficiency.

Today I’m writing to ask for your help, to insure we will be able to expand and sustain our community programming that reaches hundreds of Brooklynites every year. With your support, Sustainable Flatbush will continue bringing neighbors of all ages and backgrounds together to mobilize, educate, and advocate for sustainable living in our Brooklyn neighborhood and beyond. Our models are both adaptable and replicable, as evidenced by groups throughout the city who have sought our advice on how to begin their own initiatives.

Sustainable Flatbush works on the neighborhood level to address society’s greatest challenge: how to live more sustainably, and meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This requires rethinking almost everything we do: how we heat and cool our homes, how we get around, where our food comes from, how our public space is allocated, how we dispose of the waste we generate, and much more. Over the past three years, Sustainable Flatbush has formed more than 20 partnerships and engaged over 1000 Brooklyn residents in activities stemming from our four key program areas: Energy Solutions, Livable Streets, Urban Gardens and Farms, and Zero Waste.
Here are just a few examples of our accomplishments in the past year alone:

Neighborhood Energy Forum:

This in-depth seminar and vendor fair connected 80 participants with education and resources to make their homes and buildings more energy efficient.

Church Avenue Communal Garden:

Our second community garden project, located at the historic Flatbush Reformed Church, launched with democratic discussions of garden designs and mobilized plenty of volunteers ready to get their hands dirty.

Greening Flatbush:

Celebrating the local urban gardening movement, this annual event presented more than 50 participants of all ages with how-to lessons in composting with worms, growing sprouts in your kitchen, cooking healthy at home, starting seedlings, and more.

Park(ing) Day:

For the fourth year in a row, we transformed a parking space into a grassy park with art activities and live music. This vibrant temporary green space was enjoyed by hundreds of neighbors, and sparked dialogue about how our public space is allocated.

Project LeafDrop:

In response to the city’s decision to stop picking up fall leaves, Sustainable Flatbush volunteers joined forces to divert over 1,700 pounds of leaves from the landfill to instead be reused by local gardens as the compost for their next planting efforts.

These projects are just a few of the reasons why the Sierra Club New York City says they:

“…would encourage neighborhood groups everywhere in the City to seek inspiration for their own green efforts from Sustainable Flatbush”

Marlo Thomas – who featured our work in her “Hero Next Door” series on AOL – states that Sustainable Flatbush is

“…galvanizing [the] community to help the environment”

and Streetfilms declares:

“We need a better planet and Sustainable Flatbush is a vital part of that equation”.

Be part of the equation today. Please make a donation to Sustainable Flatbush and support our local urban sustainability efforts. A monthly or one-time donation will have a huge effect as Sustainable Flatbush grows in its reach and impact. Click here now to make a tax-deductible donation.

To learn more please explore our website, friend us on our Facebook page, or follow us on Twitter.

We thank you for your support and hope to meet you at one of our upcoming events.

Best Regards,

Anne Pope

Founder/Executive Director

Sustainable Flatbush is proud to announce a partnership with Con Edison to build the SunBike, a mobile solar electric system that gets around in a retrofitted cargo bike.  The SunBike will be able to provide enough energy to power a small sound system and lighting for up to two hours without access to sunlight, and do so much more.

Making Clean Energy A Reality

A rendering of the Sustainable Flatbush SunBike

A Vital Learning Tool

SF Intern Mark Miretsky and Energy Solutions Project Manager Jocelyn Cohen with our 10-watt charger at Park(ing) Day 2009

The SunBike and You

The SunBike will be a visible presence on the streets of Flatbush starting next summer, at schools, street fairs, on sidewalks at “charging events” under the sponsorship of local businesses, and beyond.  So if you’re walking down the street and you hear a little jingle, it just might be the SunBike coming your way, offering you clean and free power to fuel your day, and showing the way to our clean energy future.

Thanks to ConEd for their generous support of this project!

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

Playdate Puppets at Park(ing) Day 2010

On Friday, September 17th, Sustainable Flatbush will once again create Cortelyou Road Park, a temporary green space for all to enjoy. This will be our fourth year participating in Park(ing) Day, an international event designed to inspire dialogue about public space and how we choose to use it.

Our park(ing) spot is located in front of the Cortelyou branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. This library has a barren, underutilized plaza entrance, which we believe could potentially be a lively and popular public space. On Park(ing) Day we will gather impressions from passersby on how they’d like to see this public space used.

In addition to Cortelyou Road Park’s usual people-friendly features (real grass, plants, seating, games, art supplies, and free snacks courtesy of Flatbush Food Coop) this year we have a great lineup of activities and performances!

The day begins with Ronny Wasserstrom of Playdate Puppets, who was a BIG hit last year with his Juggling Egg and ScareKid marionettes. Stephanie Huffaker from Garbage of Eden Design will also join us again, with her fantastic jewelry made from recycled plastic bags. She’ll teach a workshop at 3:30 pm on How to Make an Eco Super Hero costume from recycled newspaper! To finish the day right Richie Barshay and Friends will treat us to live music, as a preview to the upcoming music series, Ditmas Acoustic @ The Sanctuary.

9am until 3pm
Playdate Puppets
Fast, Easy, and Fun! Puppets on the Run!

3:30pm
Make Your Own Eco Super Hero Outfit Workshop
You too can be an Eco Super Hero!

4pm – 6pm
Live Music with Richie Barshay and Friends

All Day
off-grid solar energy demonstrations
impromptu art activities
bicycle decorating
mingling with neighbors

Come hang out at Cortelyou Road Park with us!

Check out our photos from previous Park(ing) Days on Flickr!

photo by Keka

What: Street Tree Walking Tour

Where: Begins and ends at Sacred Vibes Apothecary (376 Argyle Road, btwn Cortelyou & Dorchester Roads)

When: Sunday, May 2 — two tours are scheduled: one at 11 a.m., one at noon

Suggested donation $5

Plant Swap! (photo by Keka Marzagão)

Get ready to do some sweet swappin’! On Saturday, April 24, Sustainable Flatbush and Flatbush Food Co-op will be hosting a free plant swap!

From noon to 3 p.m., no matter the weather, we’ll all swap together in front of Flatbush Food Co-op. Bring your plants and your favorite gardening tips, and get ready to do some sharing!

You don’t need to be a gardener to join the fun! If you don’t have any plants to swap, come and pick up some new plants — free! Never planted a garden before? Learn how to get started on one! Fear your green thumb is underdeveloped? Talk to gardeners and learn the art of planting!

Children and adults alike are welcome! So don’t forget — be there!

What: Free plant swap

When: Saturday, April 24, 12-3 p.m., rain or shine

Where: Flatbush Food Co-op @ 1415 Cortelyou Road (between Marlborough & Rugby Roads)