Monthly Archives: June 2014

Ed Glass and K Webster were the guides as the Tenement Museum Tour Educators paid a visit to hear more specifics about the Sara Roosevelt Community Coalition and the M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden. The Tenement Museum is a vast storehouse of our local history and the guardians of an important past. They keep the legacy of those who built these neighborhoods alive for all to remember. Adam Steinberg has been the liaison to the Coalition and the Garden and it is always wonderful to hear his cheerful, commanding voice!

Yes the Paparazzi are at it again. This time with the Chickens as the focus!

The young women captured some gorgeous footage of our birds! We will check back in to get a link to those images.

There is an opening tonight of artwork by Lisa Revson a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Girls Club. The title? Fowl Play –  for more info follow the link!

The Lo-Down reported:

Youth artists from School for Global Leaders 378M made artwork in the park on bullying.

News to us (thanks Lo-Down!), but good news to see this section of the Park in use by the local community!

The following are posts from New Yorkers for Parks on Parks budget information:

Help Secure a Better Parks Budget

TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW!

·    Call City Hall and your local Council Member and talk to their office about how important a role your local park plays in community, and what a difference more full-time workers would make.

·    Make it clear that the $27 million shouldn’t just be added to the budget on a one-time basis; it should be baselined – that is, made a permanent fixture in the annual budget – so that the new workers and PEP officers truly are full-time, long-term staff additions.

The mayor and council have talked about the importance of community building and of lifting neighborhoods across the city – now’s the time to tell them that adding more funding for parks would do just that.

Commissioner Silver Makes First Council Appearance

“Parks equity is important to Mayor de Blasio, and it is important to me,” he said. “We will work to address these concerns, ensuring that there is equitable distribution of resources throughout our park system.”

“We don’t know the how at this point,” he added after the hearing when asked by reporters about addressing equity issues. “Park equity is the goal, and there are many ways to go in that direction.”

The Parks Department, he said, is undertaking a comprehensive assessment of its capital construction process, which Silver said “currently takes too long.”

Addressing Equity Issues Through a Better Capital Process

1 -“the Parks Department should have a well-funded, flexible capital budget that it can use to prioritize parks and neighborhoods with the greatest needs. … – the system simply isn’t designed to reach the areas that need the most help.

2-Second, there are several internal steps Parks can take to make the capital process better. A few examples …: a faster and more clearly defined design process; a better system for selecting and working with vendors; more collaboration with other City agencies; and through all these changes, ways of fostering a greater sense of accountability within the capital division at Parks.

New Yorkers for Parks City Council Testimony:

New York City Council Committees on Finance
Hearing on the FY15 Final Budget
June 6, 2014
Submitted testimony of New Yorkers for Parks

The ‘unveiling’ of an anti-bullying mural will be held tomorrow Saturday June 7th at the Marte Valle High School  (Rivington and Suffolk).

Chico will represent the creative responses of the winning contestants from the after-school programs of Henry Street Settlement, University Settlement and Grand Street Settlement.

The work was sponsored by the Association of Latino Business Owners and Residents (ALBOR), Healthfirst, and NY Arts Cypher.

Speaking of Marte Valle….Here are the 2005 Mosaic sculptures in the M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden created by students from Marte Valle High School!

Google volunteers as part of Citizen for NYC’s ongoing volunteer project came this Wednesday and transformed the M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden and helped out in the Elizabeth Hubbard Memorial Garden.

Thanks to all the volunteers. We didn’t get everyone’s name but I’d like to thank Julie, Ezra and Elizabeth (and her stalwart Compost team!) from Google for their tireless work. Thanks also to Lori and Kate from Citizen’s.

Here are a few  photos of their efforts!

From our friends at LUNGS:

Lungsters,

There are certain days when everything comes together. These are the days that define us; days that we will look back on as a turning point. This coming Tuesday, June 10th is such a day for the community garden movement in New York City.

In the morning at 9:30 the Brooklyn Supreme Court will hear arguments about the future of the Coney Island Boardwalk Garden which is being destroyed to make way for a music venue.

The project is dubious, it is being built with city funds on sand, literally, it’s in a flood plain. Sandy dumped two feet of sand on this 18 year-old garden. The gardeners  dug out and replanted after the storm only to see their work bulldozed this past Christmas week by the developers. 

The New York City Garden Coalition used their scant resources to file a law suit to fight the project. The briefs will be heard on Tuesday. It is imperative that a huge number of gardeners show up in court to show the judge there is real support behind the lawsuit. We need to have as many bodies there as possible –size matters here!
 
PACK THE COURT! Join Boardwalk Community Garden in their fight to regain their community space on Tuesday, June 10, 9:30 AM at the Brooklyn State Supreme Court (360 Adams Street, Courtroom 441). it’s in downtown Brooklyn! 

For more information on this case, see http://nyccgc.org/2014/04/update-on-boardwalk-garden-court-case/?and
http://nyccgc.org/2014/01/ode-to-boardwalk-community-garden-from-karen-washington/

On Tuesday evening the NYC Community Garden Coalition(NYCCGC) – is holding their first fundraiser in many years at historic Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South

6:30PM-9:00PM

Sad news that Plantworks on East 4th Street is closing. Many a plant bought over the  years have wound up in the M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden!

The reason for the closing? The rent has been more than doubled.

We keep losing our unique community stores and small businesses – the backbone of any neighborhood. A third gym for the area is rumored to be in the works to replace it. Sigh.

Granddaughter Dara (of the family owned business Neil and Verna Mendeloff)  hopes he can stay in the neighborhood continuing to offer us products and services we use.

Below Chris (left ) store manager and local resident activist Michele (right).