Promoting sustainable living in our Brooklyn neighborhood and beyond.
Here’s some great news for fans of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and fresh locally produced food in general: Amantai Farm CSA is coming to Flatbush! Shayna Lewis, last year’s market manager at the Cortelyou Rd. farmers’ market, is working with one of the farmers from […]
The Sustainable Flatbush Gardening Commitee is spearheading this great free community event: On Sunday, February 24, residents and other members of the greater Flatbush community can learn what they can do to beautify and improve the environment of their neighborhood. “Greening Flatbush: Garden Where You […]
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 and allocating the revenue toward public transit improvements:
“The mass-transit system is failing those of us who need it the most, while truck and car-related infrastructure running through our neighborhoods wreaks havoc on our health. Having a long commute takes away time from families and communities, and poor transit access means poor job access because you can’t take a job that you can’t get to,” said Silvett Garcia, an official at Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, a nonprofit group in the Soundview section of the Bronx.
The group called not only for congestion pricing as a way to finance mass transit and reduce traffic, but also for the city to hasten its plans to start a bus rapid transit program. Bus rapid transit, or B.R.T., is a catch-all term for innovations like bus designated lanes, special traffic signals that are programmed to prioritize buses, and bus stops that are few in number and spread out across high-volume stations where passengers pay their fares before getting on board.
“A congestion pricing plan increases investment while reducing pollution, and B.R.T. is the fair, fast and necessary way to reach the transit dependent – those who live or work in the gaps of the subway system and who cannot afford a car, cab or premium commuting fare, the elderly, and the handicapped,” said Cynthia Doty, organizer for the West Harlem/Morningside Heights Sanitation Coalition, another community organization. “As the congestion pricing debate moves from the commission to the city and state legislatures, we should focus on the half million working-class New Yorkers with treacherous commutes.”
It’s been said here before: 97.3% of Brooklyn’s workers (those who do not commute alone to the Central Business District in Manhattan by private car) would be positively affected by the transit improvements that revenue from congestion pricing is targeted to fund; and B.R.T. is a quickly-implementable transit innovation — already hugely successful in Curitiba (Brazil), Singapore, and Bogota, amongst other cities — that would be life-altering for many New Yorkers. Hopefully this re-framing of the debate will reveal politicians’ disingenuous “pro-working class” rhetoric for the smokescreen that it is, and shed some light on the reality of who stands to benefit most from congestion pricing.
Last weekend was a big one for Reuse and Recycling here in Brooklyn! 2008’s first Saturday Greenmarket in Grand Army Plaza began a series of textile recycling events called “Second Chance Saturdays” (acceptable donations include used clothing, shoes, boots, hats, jackets, towels, bedding, and linens). […]
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 […]
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 to attend this event, and we had a great discussion where some common interests and goals were defined. (Full disclosure: to boost attendance I scheduled this event one week after my birthday and combined it with a party… but at least half the people there were new faces to me!)
Park(ing) Day on Cortelyou Road (story below!). Photo by Keka
For our second event we celebrated Bike Month with a program of Streetfilms (curated by yours truly) and a guest appearance by their creator Clarence Eckerson. In keeping with our theme of overcoming weather challenges, Clarence’s flight from the West Coast was delayed by severe rains and while waiting for him we conducted a discussion on Congestion Pricing with Livable Streets luminaries Paul Steely White of Transportation Alternatives and Aaron Naparstek of Streetsblog. Clarence’s honorarium was a vegan cupcake.
Event #3, an Urban Permaculture Lecture with former Flatbush residents Wilton Duckworth and Joan Ewing of Green Phoenix, packed Vox Pop with permaculture enthusiasts who exchanged ideas on how to apply this sustainable design practice to city living.
Then we worked with Lower East Side Ecology Center to create the first e-waste recycling event south of Prospect Park: Cortelyou Road Electronics Recycling diverted a truck full of discarded technology (and its accompanying toxins) from the landfill. Many thanks to Christina Datz-Romero for her pioneering work to make New York City more sustainable through LESEC’s recycling and composting programs, and for helping me stake out the perfect spot to park the big red dumpster.
In July we teamed up with the Green Edge Collective for Event #4, Eating Sustainably: a meetup and discussion on Sustainable Food. The Green Edge ladies, known for their Eco-Eatery tours and Supper Club community potlucks, kept the discussion lively as topics ranged from healthy food shopping to plastic bags to the environmental implications of consumption. Lots of food for thought (ouch).
I spent most of August on the West Coast, playing music, visiting family, and touring Oregon’s Willamette Valley by bicycle with a group of sustainability-minded vegans. Who knew quinoa was such a useful grain?
We started Autumn off right by participating in the neighborhood’s biggest street festival, the Flatbush Frolic, with a table full of materials promoting recycling. Eve Martinez from the Department of Sanitation’s NYC WasteLess program brought her full compliment of recycling stickers, brochures, posters, and fridge magnets. (What’s a street fair without fridge magnets?) We got to know our neighbors and I scored my new favorite T-shirt.
On September 21st Park(ing) Day was celebrated all over New York City, the U.S., and Planet Earth… including right here in Flatbush. We occupied a parking space and created a park for the day, complete with real grass, trees, a bench, art supplies, live music… and lots of people, especially kids! (See photo above.) Naturally Streetfilms covered this event, and Cortelyou Road Park is featured in their piece… check it out! This event’s special thanks go to Lindsey Lusher of Transportation Alternatives, who coordinated resources and information for almost two dozen sites all over NYC, and especially to Keka Marzagão, without whom Cortelyou Road Park simply would not have been possible! In addition to providing every possible form of support (moral, creative, physical), Keka insisted that we have real grass, which provided endless wonderment and joy to everyone who visited our park.
Okay, so in October we recuperated. By November we were ready to kick off a whole new level of activities with our Town Hall Meeting. 25 people attended (our magic number, perhaps!), and six committees were established, each with specific goals and projects. We are now holding monthly meetings where newcomers can get involved and committees report on their plans. 2008 already looks exciting, with the R3 Committee’s Post-Holiday Electronics Recycling Event coming up this weekend, the Gardening Committee planning a Spring event in conjunction with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Livable Streets Committee working on a Transportation Conference with Center for the Study of Brooklyn and Transportation Alternatives.
That’s the news for 2007. Much much more to come…
Special Thanks (in order of appearance):
Keka Marzagão (website/logo design, photos, VJ, chief co-instigator)
Jeff Duneman (DJ Drummerman, groove provider for Events #1-3)
Sander Hicks and the staff of Vox Pop
Cacao Arcoverde and Ileana Santamaria (musical magic for Event #3)
Susan Siegel and everyone at Flatbush Development Corporation
Clarence Eckerson and all at Streetfilms
Christina Datz-Romero (Lower East Side Ecology Center)
Carolyn Gilles and the Green Edge Collaborative
Lindsey Lusher (Transportation Alternatives)
Eve Martinez (NYC Department of Sanitation)
Mark Levy (host of Sustainable Flatbush Mothership)
Chris Kreussling (Flatbush Gardener)
Eli Kramer (Brooklyn Junction blog)
Gretchen Maneval (Center for the Study of Brooklyn)
Cycleliciousness blog (inspiration for a bike-friendly NYC)
The Flatbush community for supporting our green future
Brooklyn bloggers for setting high standards of journalism, neighborhood pride, and humor
YOU… for reading
Next Sustainable Flatbush monthly meeting: Monday January 7th, 7pm 462 Marlborough Road (between Ditmas and Dorchester) Our regular meetings on the first Monday of every month are for newcomers and committee members alike. We will report on projects in progress and plan for future activities. […]
NYC Rooftop Sustainable Flatbush was officially launched in 2007, and it was a very productive year (recap coming soon)… plans for 2008 are quickly taking shape!
Are you expecting a new iPod or DVD player or computer from Santa? Don’t throw the old one in the garbage — save it for Sustainable Flatbush’s Post-Holiday E-Waste Recycling event! If the stars align correctly, we will make some local pickups with a cargo bike!
Sustainable Flatbush Cortelyou Road E-Waste Recycling Event, Summer 2007
WHEN:
Saturday January 5th and Sunday January 6th, from 1 until 5pm
WHY:
Discarded computers and electronics are toxic hazardous waste! Keep your unwanted electronics out of the landfill by bringing them to this neighborhood e-waste recycling event.
WHERE:
462 Marlborough Road, Flatbush, Brooklyn (map here)
WHAT:
We will accept working and non-working:
• Computers (laptop & desktop) and Monitors
• Servers, mainframes
• Printers, scanners, fax-machines, copiers
• Network devices (routers, hubs, modems, etc.)
• Peripherals (keyboards, mice, cables, etc.)
• Components (hard drives, CD Roms, circuit boards, power supplies, etc,)
• TVs,VCR & DVD Players
• Audio visual devices
• Radios/Stereos
• Cell Phones, pagers
• PDAs,Telecommunication (phones, answering machines, etc.)
• Media (floppies, cd’s, zips, VHS tapes)**
• please note: we cannot accept small household appliances
such as microwaves and toasters
**Gets sent to www.greendisk.com – if you have a lot of media please go to the website, pay a small fee, download an address label and send it directly to them.
All materials collected will be recycled via Lower East Side Ecology Center‘s partnership with BuildItGreen. Additional information about e-waste recycling is available here.
This event is co-sponsored by Lower East Side Ecology Center and Flatbush Development Corporation.
Marlborough and Newkirk, artist’s storefront Okay, you know you’re a Bad Blogger when other blogs write about your projects before YOU do. A few weeks ago I set up an online group called Flatbush Arts, and promptly notified a few local blogs. Brooklyn Junction jumped […]
