Monthly Archives: September 2017

SDR Park Volunteer Days Fall 2017

If you’d like to volunteer please contact the person listed for the site listed under

“Stewarded Gardens” below)

October 11^th (Wednesday) 2017

Volunteer Group: Citizen’s for NYC & company

Contact: K or Bob

Location: Stanton Street Area/BRC Front

October 21 (Saturday) 2017 10am-2pm

Volunteer Group: It’s My Park Day:

Contact: K

Location: Stanton Street Area

October 21 (Saturday) 2017

Volunteer Group: It’s My Park Day: The Hort/Emma Lazarus

Contact: Pam Ito

Location: Hester Street Area

October 21 (Saturday), 2017 12pm- 4pm

Volunteer Group: It’s My Park Day, M’Finda Gardeners:

Contact: Jane

Location: M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden

October 21 (Saturday), 2017 12pm – 4pm

Volunteer Group: New Forsyth Conservancy Gardners:

Contact: Jason

Location: New Forsyth Conservancy (on Delancey Street – south)

November 11, 2017

Volunteer Group: New Yorkers for Parks

Contact: K

Location: TBA

IMPORTANT: From Sara D Roosevelt Park Manager:

– Please check for poison ivy

– Please check for used needles. Do not remove them yourself (we are working with local providers on this issue)

Stewarded Gardens in Sara Roosevelt Park

To work in these gardens you need to reach out to the Contact Person listed. Please be patient – these are volunteers and will respond as soon as they can.

New Forsyth Conservancy 

Contact: Jason Eisner

Contact information SDR Website: https://sdrpc.mkgarden.org/contact/

M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden 

Contact: Jane Barrer or Debra Jeffreys-Glass

Contact Information MKGarden Website: http://www.mkgarden.org/

Elizabeth (‘Betty’) Hubbard Garden

Contact: Rob Watson

Contact Information SDR Website: : https://sdrpc.mkgarden.org/contact/

The Hort/Emma Lazarus details for Fall activities and dates TBA

Contact: Pam Ito, Director of Education The Horticultural Society

Contact Information:

pam@thehort.org or SDR Website: https://sdrpc.mkgarden.org/contact/

Hua Mei Bird Sanctuary

Contact: Tommy Chan

Contact Info: SDR website: https://sdrpc.mkgarden.org/contact/

Stanton Area:

Contact: Terese or K

Contact Info: SDR website: https://sdrpc.mkgarden.org/contact/

To volunteer anywhere else in SDR Park:

Juan Torres: Park Supervisor

Contact: Juan Torres

Contact info: Juan.Torres@parks.nyc.gov

Mayor de Blasio was interviewed by Errol Louis on NY1.com visited the High- Line, apparently it’s a big deal that he hasn’t visited there before.

When asked why:

Mayor de Blasio: “…my focus has been on the many many parks that haven’t had investment”.

Kind of have to agree. Not to mention the privatization of parks and how it can drive park policy and hyper-gentrification.

Perhaps it’s time for a visit to Sara Roosevelt Park?

Interesting interview.

We (volunteers, park gardeners, Bird Sanctuary guardians, park users, Parks Department, Goddard Homeless Outreach, Police, PEP officers, City and State electeds (who have given funding and offered more funding) are all working hard but our park remains a struggling strip of land…poverty, lack of resources, and heavy use by a community where this is the only “vacation” spot or air conditioning or get-away green space and, increasingly, home and daytime living room.

We get good help from Parks on helping us maintain the publicly stewarded spaces. But we need infrastructure help that requires the park’s department to make decisions and allocate resources or at least permission.

The Oval Track and Soccer Field at Canal/Hester Streetway: dangerous and almost unusable

We’ve offered ideas (labor and fundraising) on how to shift things: return Stanton Building to Neighborhood Use, Remove the Cargo container alongside it, Repair the Oval for 3 schools and community after-school soccer teams, Open Broome Street Bathrooms, Install Bike Racks for public’s bikes, Big Bellies (and pick-ups of trash within them), more frequent cleaning, Remove cars and trucks parking in this narrow park (incentivize parks staff with Metrocards?) etc.

We are not interested in endless blame, we are interested in solutions and moving forward. Awaiting Parks.

Manhattan Borough President Brewer, Council Member Rosie Mendez and Mayor de Blasio

Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver announced in Sauer Park the final list of Community Parks Initiative (CPI) parks. CPI was launched in 2014 in response to Senator Daniel Squadron‘s efforts to bring Park Equity to NYC.

“Every child deserves bright, green space right in their neighborhood…I commend Senator Squadron for putting forward a proposal that sparked a critical conversation around how to improve smaller parks in less wealthy neighborhoods and engage the city’s park conservancies in that effort,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Photos of the park pre-renovation:

CPI Projects:

Bronx: Prospect Playground and Mapes Ballfield

Brooklyn: Bartlett and Lewis Playgrounds, Penn Triangle

Manhattan: Bill Bojangles and Harlem Lane Playgrounds, Joseph C. Sauer Park, Playground One

Queens: Chappetto Square

Staten Island: Mariners Harbor Playground

Council Member Mark Levine Chair of the City Council Parks Committee: “We want every park in NYC to be as great as those parks that are fortunate enough to have well-funded conservancies. The City Council has also moved to close the Parks equity gap this fiscal year, by allocating funds through the Parks Equity Initiative to parks stewardship groups that don’t receive significant private money. I’m thrilled by the partnerships we are announcing today….”

History:

As debates happened on park funding important questions on the issue of the privatization of parks emerged in a fuller light:

NYTimes Michael Powell weighed in: “Reducing Some Parks to the Status of Beggars”

We see a resurgence of that debate in the demise of “Diller’s Island”. From “Inside Philanthropy“”…the fundamental failing of what became known as Diller Island was that, as a plan for a public space, it was just far too reliant on and driven by one man’s vision and wealth.”

“The Community Parks Initiative, launched by Mayor de Blasio, is NYC Parks’ first major equity initiative and part of OneNYC, the Mayor’s plan for a strong and just New York City. CPI is a multi-faceted investment in the smaller public parks that are located in New York City’s most densely populated and growing neighborhoods where there are higher-than-average concentrations of poverty.”

The Mayor also addressed the current crisis in Puerto Rico and the City plan to send assistance.

He urged NYers to donate specific items (nothing else!!) to these Fire Department locations Manhattan  Locally:

Engine 28/ Ladder 11: 222 E. 2nd Street, New York, NY 10009 (Lower East Side)

• Diapers
• Baby food
• Batteries
• First Aid Supplies
• Feminine Hygiene Products

Evening to benefit the continuing efforts of Dixon Place: “…we were driven by curiosity, imagination and our desire to figure it out”…Ellie Covan 

“Since 1986 Dixon Place has been dedicated to fostering the NYC arts comunity by developing and presenting original new work in every stage of development in every artistic genre. From its roots in a tiny East Village storefront….” (yes I remember!)…

Evening performances by Brinda Guha & Arielle Rosales, Chesney Snow, R. Sikoryak & Nancy Giles and Ellie Covan.

Joy Tomchin (Ex. Producer of Academy Award Nominated “How to Survive a Plague”), Mark Russell  (Former Ex. Artistic Director of the East Village Performance Space -PS 122) and Lisa Kron ( Tony Award winning “Fun Home”) were honored.

October 11^th (Wednesday) 2017

Volunteer Group: Citizen’s for NYC & company

Contact: K or Bob

Location: Stanton Street Area or BRC Front

October 21 (Saturday) 2017 10am-2pm

Volunteer Group: It’s My Park Day:

Contact: K

Location: Stanton Street Area

October 21, 2017 12pm- 4pm

Volunteer Group: It’s My Park Day, M’Finda Gardeners:

Contact: Jane

Location: M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden

TBA 2017

Volunteer Group: New Forsyth Conservancy Gardners:

Contact: Jason

Location: New Forsyth Conservancy (on Delancey Street – south)

November 11, 2017

Volunteer Group: New Yorkers for Parks

Contact: K

Location: TBA

IMPORTANT: From Sara D Roosevelt Park Manager:

– Please check for poison ivy

– Please check for used needles. Do not remove them yourself (we are working with local providers on this issue)

Stewarded Gardens in Sara Roosevelt Park

To work in these gardens you must to reach out to the Contact Person listed. Please be patient – we’re all volunteers and will respond as soon as we can!

New Forsyth Conservancy 

Contact: Jason Eisner

Contact information SDR Website: https://sdrpc.mkgarden.org/contact/

M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden 

Contact: Jane Barrer or Debra Jeffreys-Glass

Contact Information MKGarden Website:  info@mkgarden.org 

Elizabeth (‘Betty’) Hubbard Garden

Contact: Rob Watson

Contact Information SDR Website: : https://sdrpc.mkgarden.org/contact/

The Hort/Emma Lazarus details for Fall activities and dates TBA

Contact: Pam Ito, Director of Education The Horticultural Society

Contact Information:

pam@thehort.org or SDR Website: https://sdrpc.mkgarden.org/contact/

Hua Mei Bird Sanctuary

Contact: Tommy Chan (no volunteers needed – but donations accepted for upkeep)

Contact Info: SDR website: https://sdrpc.mkgarden.org/contact/

Stanton Area:

Contact: Terese or K

Contact Info: SDR website: https://sdrpc.mkgarden.org/contact/

To volunteer anywhere else in SDR Park:

Juan Torres: Park Supervisor

Contact: Juan Torres

Contact info: Juan.Torres@parks.nyc.gov

From the NYTimes:

“….bats are … essential to ecosystems. As pollinators and agricultural pest-eaters, they’re valued at $3 billion a year for U.S. farmers. In New York City, where nine species of bats are known to migrate during the summer, a single little brown bat is capable of devouring up to 100 percent of its body weight in insects, a diet that includes mosquitoes…

Cropped -CreditMichelle V. Agins/The New York Times

….an abundance of Eastern red, big brown and silver-haired bats ….

Bat research is beginning to mobilize beyond Staten Island. At New York City Audubon, the ecologist Kaitlyn Parkins uses full-spectrum acoustic recorders to survey bat activity on green roofs across the city, including the one at Manhattan’s Javits Center, one of the largest green roofs in the country. “We definitely find more bat foraging activity on these roofs versus traditional ones,” she says. “The plants seem to provide habitat for the right kind of arthropods.”

….a small but important addition to a body of bat knowledge that is growing only now, as the fatal white nose syndrome threatens bat populations across North America. With nearly seven million bats dead since the disease emerged from a cave in upstate New York 2005, the scale of mortality is unprecedented among wildlife disease outbreaks, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service….Little brown bats have been particularly devastated. Once one of the most common bat species in the U.S., they have virtually vanished from New York and other eastern states.

Wondered why we seem to be adding to the number of Parks Department cars ‘alienating’ parkland in Sara Roosevelt Park! – our second most frequent complaint.

We love your team but the rest of us use public transportation – all hours of the day or night!

Broome

From the NYTimes:

New York City’s sprawling municipal work force is driving more than it used to, city statistics reveal   …25% more miles than in 2014…

Hester

There was an uptick in accidents involving city-owned cars driven by City workers “and Parks Department fared no better”.

Hester

on the bright side:

…de Blasio has…unveiled new electric vehicle charging stations that will eventually arrive in each of the five boroughs to encourage New Yorkers to buy zero-emission vehicles.

….the city has doubled the number of electric vehicles in its fleet to 1,500, and nearly 1 in 5 of city vehicles are hybrids, according to statistics provided by City Hall.

Broome

But…

Paul Steely White – executive director of Transportation Alternatives and an ally of Mr. de Blasio:

“Very clearly the more cars and trucks we have on our streets, the worse he’s going to do on achieving those goals,” said o …. “The mayor’s blind spot for the myriad externalities of unchecked driving threatens to undo his good work.”…

Hester

Even so, city vehicles consumed 29.6 million gallons of gasoline in the last fiscal year…”

Charles Komanoff – energy-policy analyst and environmental activist: “There are 3 paths for reducing crashes: design safer streets, stop/prevent dangerous driving and reduce the number of vehicles…the mayor has made improvements on the first, done little on the second and “is stuck in reverse on No. 3″.

Stanton

From Brooklyn Paper: “Protecting the Fort: Landmarks commission says Ft. Greene Park plans alter creator’s vision..”

The Department of Parks and Recreations’s plans to makeover an entrance to Fort Greene Park do not reflect the vision of the green space’s creators and honchos must go back to the drawing board, the Landmarks Preservation Commission ruled at a Thursday hearing.

“It seems to be sort of against every one of the historic moments in the design of the park,” said commissioner Adi Shamir-Baron.…

…history buffs contended that planner Frederick Law Olmsted would prefer the grassy knolls over a paved walkway because park-goers can hang out on them.”

Our own Chinatown/LES advocate and now Commissioner on Landmarks Preservation Commission – Wellington Chen weighed in:

“[The hills] seem to be a very large gathering place, versus more of a passageway,” said commissioner Wellington Chen. “If you’re saying I can perform many programs on a passageway, that’s true. However, that’s not what Olmsted intended, which is a public gathering place.”

and this…

“We’ve seen many examples of critical and beautiful historic parks where the entrance is not the apex of a parallelogram and they’ve worked successful­y,” said commissioner Meenaksh Srinivasan.

To be continued…