Sustainable Flatbush

City Room reports that yesterday’s public hearing on congestion pricing at Hunter College placed two more groups on the supporting side: the Transit Workers’ Union, and a coalition called Communities United for Transportation Equity (aka CommUTe). Representatives of the latter group presented strong arguments for charging private motor vehicles to enter Manhattan’s Central Business District [...]

For the transportation geeks among us (yes, I’m one!), this should be a very interesting panel discussion coming up on January 28th. I am familiar with the work of Aaron, Christine and Elizabeth, and those three alone are worth the “price” of admission. Moderated by Aaron Naparstek of Streetsblog, this panel discussion featuring New York [...]

I just read about this on a blog called Community Based Planning, where the question is posed: “Could Formula Retail Zoning be in NYC’s Future?” A group called the East Village Community Coalition is spearheading an effort to protect their neighborhood from further takeover by Starbuck’s et al. Since commercial uses in NYC are already [...]

2007 was the first fully operation year for Sustainable Flatbush, and I must say we accomplished a lot. Starting with our Kickoff Meeting on March 16th at Vox Pop Cafe/Bookstore, the goal was to find people in the neighborhood who wanted to work on sustainability issues locally. To my amazement, 25 people braved a blizzard [...]

Tonight is the second of four community visioning meetings for Imagine Flatbush 2030, to be held at Brooklyn College’s new Conference Center. Everyone is invited. Local blog Brooklyn Junction provides the perfect summary of why this process is so important: Come out to the meeting tonight and I think you’ll see why I, and a [...]

The next monthly meeting will be Monday December 3rd. WHAT: Sustainable Flatbush Monthly Meeting WHEN: Monday, December 3rd at 7pm WHERE: 462 Marlborough Road (between Ditmas and Dorchester) WHY: • Hear report and future plans from Gardening Committee Kickoff Meeting • Plan for December 8th holiday event at Newkirk Plaza and Post-Holiday Electronics Recycling • [...]

(Imagine Flatbush logo by Imani Aegedoy) Last night was the first meeting of Imagine Flatbush 2030, a “community visioning project” sponsored by the Municipal Arts Society and Flatbush Development Corporation. The project’s purpose is to engage neighborhood stakeholders (to my delight, I was asked to be on the Advisory Committee… guess that makes me a [...]

I am disappointed to read that some of our Brooklyn elected officials are still claiming congestion pricing would place an “unfair burden on the poor” — Assemblyman Nick Perry (D–East Flatbush) calls congestion pricing “a wanton exploitation of tax-paying New York City drivers” and Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D–Fort Greene) claims “It’s unfair and unjust that [...]

Local environmental blogger Ethan Oringel of Green Brooklyn was interviewed in yesterday’s Metro New York for an article called “Blogarithms: Going green, not just by recycling”. My favorite quote: If everybody used the term landfill instead of garbage, they would think twice before throwing things away.

YES, that would be the very same Jan Gehl mentioned in a post last week! At this lecture he will propose an inspiring vision for New York City’s future, based on his 30-year international career “making neighborhoods lively, diverse and safe”. He also has a great sense of humor! For starters, Gehl posits that “Half [...]