From the Lo-Down

“Roni-Sue’s Chocolates was one of the first businesses to take a chance on the Essex Street Market when it was on the upswing a decade ago. She started the candy store from scratch in 2007, making chocolate from a tiny stall in the back of the market. Owner Rhonda Kave had opened a larger shop and production facility on Forsyth Street in 2013….Kave is returning to her roots, while keeping the main shop at 148 Forsyth open.”

Today from Parks Department:

“Good News: Starting Thursday, Parks staff will be replacing the synthetic turf field in Sara D. Roosevelt Park between Hester and Canal Streets.  This project is being paid for with Parks’ existing resources.  We expect to complete this work by the end of the month, when we should be able to open a brand new field to the community.”

We thank Commissioner Castro and his Manhattan team for returning the Oval at Hester/Canal field back to use for the nearby schools and for the public.

Park’s workers fixed the field on Grand/Broome in record time with less cost! .

Chickens:

Flowers:

From the NY Times:

“Three greenhouses are responsible for the infinite colorful blooms in parks across the city: Greenbelt Native Plant Center on Staten Island, Forest Park Greenhouse in Queens and Citywide Nursery in the Bronx, which we explored on a recent rainy morning….”

“…The Queens greenhouse, he added, specializes in tropical plants..

…Bronx site…a tree nursery…The Bronx nursery grows some 200,000 plants each year to be distributed to public parks citywide…”

Our gardens lean towards the indigenous plantings from the Greenbelt Native Plant Center in Staten Island.

Visited the New Forsyth Conservancy Plots, wood – chipped tree pits throughout the north end of the park, wood chipped pathways in MKGarden, bought stones for pathways, took out garbage, cleaned the chicken coop, fed and watered the chickens, swept the children’s playground, weeded in the children’s playground, and helped plant flowers.

Thank you for today to Nicole, Billy, Victoria, Shaiann, Lulama, Britney, Rong, Tristian and Raphael. They put together a presentation of their work this Saturday.

And thank you to the entire group for all the efforts you made here. All of the above and Fahad, Leah Nicole, Ethan.

Pace High School Advisory!

From the Lo-Down “Coming up on Sunday, May 27, the Loisaida Festival returns to Avenue C for its 31st year”

Parade! Performances, Presentations, Shows! Kid Friendly activities!

Learn more here!

2018 Loisaida Festival Poster

By: Gustavo Castrodad

Thanks to the diligent work of Justen Ladda, the Allen Street Mall (in the section he stewards) continues to flourish with astonishing, simple beauty.

Help needed:

• The bench seating is once again falling apart. Despite Parks having just replaced the broken slats it appears the design itself creates a never-ending cycle of breakage. The way they are milled is just not workable for actual sitting.

Can we bring back those beautiful, well designed World’s Fair Benches that were taken out?

• The sand on the mall needs to be taken out and replaced by topsoil. Not sure whether this is a Parks, Sanitation or DOT issue, but assuming someone could sort it?