CLIMATE CHANGE WORKSHOPS: M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden TODAY!

Climate Change March -Workshops Here!

M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden (gate at Rivington between Chrystie and Forsyth Streets in the Sara Roosevelt Park)

Today Saturday Sept. 20

All welcome!

10:45-12:15pm People’s Movement Assemblies and the U.S. Social Forum

– Angela Vogel, Walda Katz-Fishman, Alfredo Lopez, Rob Robinson. The US Social Forum (USSF) is a movement building process. It is a space to come up with the peoples’ solutions to the ?economic and ecological crisis.

12:30-2pm    Climate Justice in the Workplace

“Balkan marching tunes, Brazilian sambas and klezmer dirges…“The Internationale,” “The Smash-a-Bank Polka,” and “Which Side Are You On?” A political project that supports groups working for social justice – such as: Make the Road by Walking and Picture the Homeless. – Mathew Plummer, 99 Pickets

4pm HUB: White Anti-Racist (Climate) Activists

Race is always used to divide social movements. A racially-segregated movement will not win. This Hub is a space for us white anti-racist activists to network, share our lessons and support one another in doing this work.

4pm HUB: Great March for Climate Action

People walking across the country, from Los Angeles to Washington D.C., to raise awareness and inspire action on the climate crisis.

Read MoreCLIMATE CHANGE WORKSHOPS: M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden TODAY!
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Update on Climate March this Sunday!

Dear PCM Partners-

We are fully in the home stretch now, but we still need your help to make Sunday as amazing an experience for everyone involved as we all know it can be. To that end, we’re writing today with two requests that we know will help make the People’s Climate March go off with as few hitches as possible.

First, we’re asking you to bring some flexibility and patience along with your smiles, enthusiasm, signs and chants on Sunday. Simple enough, right?

The good news is that we are now confident we’ll have a huge crowd at the march. It’s going to be an amazing scene full of solidarity, fellowship, activism, and determination. But with a crowd of the size we’re expecting, it may also seem a bit chaotic at times. That’s OK.

Despite all our efforts, things may change on the day of the march in ways we can’t quite predict. Your contingent may not march exactly where we thought it would, and not everyone is going to get to march with the people they thought they would. But as long as everyone is safe and marching together for climate justice, we’re confident we’ll all have a great time and make an impact.

Afterall, what’s the worst that can happen? You get to meet some new friends, march with a group you may not have otherwise gotten to know…and you still get to make history with us.

So our request of you is to be, calm, patient and flexible on Sunday. Things may go exactly as planned, or more likely they’ll change up a bit. Either way, we’ll make history together. These are good problems to have.

Second, we need more volunteers! That means you and all your friends!

Click here to sign up for a volunteer training to get plugged in.

There’s been an amazing amount of work and effort put into making this a historic event, but we won’t be able to make this work without volunteers to help it run smoothly (if slightly chaotically). If you’ve been wondering how you can help make this march a success – this is it.

You don’t have to have any experience volunteering at an event like this – we’ll give you all the information you need to make sure you’re an important part of the team on the day of the march.

To make sure you have all the information you need, we’re holding volunteer trainings Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings. You’ll hear about the plan for the day, the roles that are needed, and meet the other people volunteering to help make the People’s Climate March a success.

Click here to sign up for a training.

The trainings are:

  • Wednesday, September 17th – 6:00-8:30pm
  • Thursday, September 18th – 6:00-8:30pm
  • Friday, September 19th – 6:00-8:30pm

All trainings will be held on the 3rd Floor, room D, at TWU Local 100, 195 Montague St, Brooklyn, NY 11201

We’ll be in touch soon with more details, undoubtedly. In the meantime, thanks for your support, your energy, and your flexibility!

4 more days!

-David

PS — One more thing — TODAY is our last big online recruitment push. If you’re able to email your supporters today, it’s not too late! Here’s all the info you need to take part: http://bit.ly/pcm100hrs

Copyright © 2014 People’s Climate, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:

People’s Climate

315 Madison Ave

12th Floor

New York, NY 10017

 

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Climate Change events in the M’Finda Garden on Saturday September 20th!!!

Climate Change Workshops:

K will host LUNGS ( LES United Neighborhood Gardens) workshops on the patio on Saturday September 20 as follows:

10:45-12:15pm People’s Movement Assemblies and the U.S. Social Forum as Tools for Transformation   – Angela Vogel, Walda Katz-Fishman, Alfredo Lopez, Rob Robinson| US Social Forum

12:30-2pm Climate Justice in the Workplace – Mathew Plummer, 99 Pickets

 4pm HUBs

HUB: White Anti-Racist (Climate) Activists

The current climate movement is racially-segregated. Most large climate and environmental organizations are primarily white and get most of the funding. The environmental justice movement is primarily people of color and gets little funding. However,the effects of climate change will primarily fall on communities of color. All of this is morally unacceptable and politically ineffective. Race is always used to divide social movements. A racially-segregated movement simply will not win. Besides, the people most effected by a problem should have the largest voice in solving it. To succeed, many of us believe our movement should follow the lead of communities of color. This Hub is a space for us white anti-racist activists to network, share our lessons and support one another in doing this work. Please help us demonstrate and enlarge the community of white anti-racist activists to eliminating racism in the climate/sustainability movement.

HUB: Great March for Climate Action: a community of people walking across the country, from Los Angeles to Washington D.C., to raise awareness and inspire action on the climate crisis. As we walk across the nation we collaborate with frontline communities, activist organizations, and individuals from all walks of life to address local environmental and climate concerns. Every day on the march we learn lessons from the earth and from the people we meet, many of whom are directly impacted by climate change and have already begun implementing solutions. Our hope is to amplify their voices to evoke systematic change.

Read MoreClimate Change events in the M’Finda Garden on Saturday September 20th!!!
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People’s Climate March

Hi all,

From the M’Finda Kalunga Garden!

 

M’Finda Kalunga Garden has posted a new item, ‘People’s Climate March

Please join us for the People’s Climate March this Sunday, September 21. Gardeners and interested folks will assemble in the garden at 9:30am to have coffee and make posters. Then we’ll go as a group to the assembly point for the march.

Feel free to print flyers and posters that you can find on the website and post them in your building and and around your neighborhood.

Read MorePeople’s Climate March
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from LESReady: Citizen Preparedness Training

LESReady:

The Citizen Preparedness Training is scheduled for September 17th at 6:00 PM at PS. 15. Please distribute the information to your constituents this will be a SPANISH SPEAKING TRAINING WITH A FREE TO GO BAG at the end.

(There are only 107 registered, there is space for 300 )

LESReady:

We would love for you to join us on Monday, September 15th at 10:00 AM at Nazareth Housing located at 137 E. 2nd Street (it’s a white school building) between Avenue A and 1st. (Closer to avenue A) in the Lower Level.

Coffee & food will be provided….

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Vanishing New York: Jeremiah Moss writes about Hua Mei Birds

From Vanishing New York:

Hua Mei Bird Garden

“Recently, for the first time, I came upon the Hua Mei Bird Garden in Sara D. Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side at Chinatown’s edge. The garden has been around officially since 1995, but you’ll miss it, too, unless you’re up and walking in the early morning.”

“Stumbling upon the scene is a bit surreal. It reminds you that surprises can still happen in New York City, where so much surprise is vanishing. ”

 

photo: Lee Elson

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Senator Squadron and equity in our Park System

From Senator Daniel Squadron met with Parks groups at the BRC. Here is his follow up note (we’ve posted his City Council Testimony elsewhere on this site):

Thank you for joining our #ParksEquity forum on Wednesday evening. The conversation was substantive and important. Our shared values will continue to inform my conversations with the City to address the parks equity crisis. It was an impressive, committed, and diverse group. There were representatives from parks, large and small, in each of the five boroughs, but there were a lot of shared themes:

  • There is a need for greater consistency, and a need-based system, in allocating dollars to our parks.
  • The parks system must be unified and treated as a single network. Every park, including the largest conservancies, has an obligation to the entire system, in terms of expertise, education, and dollars.
  • The political voice of neighborhood parks, large and small, must be a more valued component in parks equity discussions, and parks issues overall.

In addition, a number of you asked that I share the values/goals that were discussed at the January meeting. At that time, a group including the largest conservancies and the citywide advocates proposed that these five items should frame any solution to the equity crisis facing our parks.

  1. All neighborhoods deserve good parks; nicer parks cannot be reserved for wealthier neighborhoods.
  2. There needs to be a stronger, more urgent push for increased funding to operate parks.
  3. Outside support should be augmented and better distributed.
  4. Community engagement strategies and best practices should be shared.
  5. The parks system, as a single unified network, should be strengthened.

I’ve also included testimony (attached) that I gave at two City Council hearings this spring.

 

We’ll be in touch soon on next steps. In the interim, please don’t hesitate to contact me with your thoughts or questions.

 

Thank you again,

Daniel

 

Daniel Squadron

NY State Senator

26th District

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Publication Launch Event: How Can I Improve My Park? This Thursday!!

How Can I Improve My Park?

Publication Launch Event: How Can I Improve My Park?

Thursday, July 24, 2014, 6:30pm-8:30pm
At The Arsenal in Central Park

Register online today because we have almost reached capacity. This event will fill up!

Attend this launch event to be among the first to receive a newly illustrated step-by-step guide to getting involved in your park.  Download the poster here.

Featured speakers:

Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, NYC Parks
Sabina Saragoussi, Director of Partnerships for Parks
Tupper Thomas, Executive Director of New Yorkers for Parks
Valeria Mogilevich, Deputy Director of The Center for Urban Pedagogy

The event features a panel discussion on the topic, “How can citizens partner with government to improve our parks?”

Moderator:

Alison Tocci, President of City Parks Foundation

Panelists:

First Deputy Commissioner Liam Kavanagh, NYC Parks
Councilmember Mark Levine, Chair of the Committee on Parks and Recreation, The New York City Council
Fay D. Hill, Volunteers for Springfield Park, Queens
Brad Taylor, Friends of Morningside Park, Manhattan

How Can I Improve My Park? is part of the Center for Urban Pedagogy’s Making Policy Public program. This publication is a collaboration of The Center for Urban Pedagogy, New Yorkers for Parks, Partnerships for Parks, designer Elana Schlenker and illustrator Leslie Wood.

Partnerships Academy is a training program of Partnerships for Parks that supports community-based park groups and individual volunteers to achieve success.  Partnerships for Parks is a joint program of NYC Parks and the City Parks Foundation that helps New Yorkers work together to make neighborhood parks thrive.

 

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Help NYC’s food businesses compost with local community sites!

Citizen’s for NYC sent out:

Allow NYC’s food businesses to give their scraps to community compost sites, that help build neighborhoods through support for locally grown food and other green projects.

Dear Friend,

Citizens Committee believes New York City Council should consider allowing local restaurants and food businesses to prove their commitment to environmental stewardship, neighborhoods and customers by allowing them to give a portion of their food scraps to community compost sites rather than have them carted away to other states that are far away from the city.

You already give your dollars to local restaurants, coffee places and other food-related businesses; now ask them to support your community!  Use your consumer power to help add local food businesses to the growing community composting movement.

Here’s how:

1. Please direct the owners of your favorite restaurants to this petition that helps NYC’s food businesses compost with local community sites!

2. Print out the FIRST page of the petition and take it with you the next time you buy coffee or food or a meal and ask the seller to go online and sign.  Follow up with an email reminder, and send emails to businesses like your coffee shop, local beer maker and chocolate maker.

Please remind your to identify the name of the business when they sign so we can give them credit.  I’m happy to report that superstar chef Mario Batali’s restaurant group got on the right side of the issue, with their name now on the petition.

Let our communities keep the benefits of organics recycling in and for the community.  Let’s not have those millions of tons of food scraps continue to be hauled out to destinations way outside city limits.

Sincerely,

Peter Kostmayer

CEO

Citizens Committee for New York City

 

Read MoreHelp NYC’s food businesses compost with local community sites!
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