Protecting and improving the community for the people who live and work here

Play Fair for Parks Rally at City Hall: Lynn Kelly’s New Yorkers for Parks. Remarks From The Executive Director of NYC Audubon Society Kathryn Heintz, BirdLink, and Photos from the Rally.

Play Fair for Parks

organized by New Yorkers for Parks

Audubon‘s ED Heintz:

BirdLink coming to Sara Roosevelt Park sponsored by NYC Audubon:

Lynn Kelly NYers4Parks firing up the crowd, Astoria Park Alliance, East River Park Alliance, Lower East Side Ecology Center, Sara Roosevelt Park and other Park organizations. Costa Constantinides NYC Council Chair of Committee on Environmental Protection, K Webster from Sara Roosevelt Park and Martha Lopez-Gilpin from Astoria Park, Sara Roosevelt Park’s Bob Humber and our former beloved gardener Sarah Aronson! DC 37 and more….

The Play Fair Coalition is asking for the following additions to the FY20 City budget:

Investing in Park Staffing and Maintenance Infrastructure:

  • $10M means that once and for all, 100 City Park Workers and 50 Gardeners will have secure, stable green jobs.
  • $4M provides an investment in natural forest care to help protect NYC from climate change.
  • $65M would provide funding for more parks of all sizes to have full-time, dedicated staff to help keep things clean and green.
  • About $8M would fund improvements for every GreenThumb community garden in the City.

Investments in Programming:

  • $4M would fund more seasonal after-school programs and other programming for children and families.
  • $9M means that natural areas and parks are better preserved, protected, and made safer.

More info here.

Read MorePlay Fair for Parks Rally at City Hall: Lynn Kelly’s New Yorkers for Parks. Remarks From The Executive Director of NYC Audubon Society Kathryn Heintz, BirdLink, and Photos from the Rally.
  • Post category:News

From CM Carlina Rivera on the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project Events:

“Join Our Community to Learn More About The East Side Coastal
Resiliency Project With the city moving ahead in the process to
establish coastal protections for East Side communities under threat from climate change, Carlina is working with fellow Council Members Keith
Powers and Margaret Chin, as well as city agencies, and local
stakeholders to ensure that a number of community needs are addressed. The East Side Coastal Resiliency Project (ESCR) is the first major storm
resiliency project in Manhattan since Hurricane Sandy – perhaps the
largest of its kind ever in New York City.

It will include the construction of a raised East River Park and additional barriers that would act to defend against storm surge and prevent Sandy-like devastation to public and private housing and small businesses along Manhattan’s East Side. ESCR spans three Council Districts and two
Community Boards as it runs from Montgomery Street to East 25th Street.

While the City planned to close all of East River Park for the project, 
Carlina is urging agencies to consider a phased-construction plan. She is also calling on the City to make significant investments in alternative
open spaces in District 2 and provide for a bikeway detour during
construction. To ensure the long-term environmental health of District 2, Carlina has requested that the City initiate a long-term study to 
re-envision FDR Drive, as well as initiate installation of new bioswales
and the planting of 1000 new trees in the community.

As conversations among our office, agencies, and stakeholders continue during the city’s public land use review process, otherwise known as 
ULURP, Carlina is encouraging all members of the public to stop by the
two open houses on May 14 and 15 hosted at the Lower East Side Girls
Club and the public hearings that Community Board 3 and 6 are hosting
in the coming weeks. Check below to find more information about these
events. 
***************
ESCR Open Houses May 14, 4 PM-8 PM and May 15, 2 PM-8 PM  Lower
East Side Girls Club, 402 E. 8th St. (at Avenue D)
***************
The Department of Design and Construction (DDC) is hosting open
houses this week for the ESCR Project. City agencies and members of the design team will be available to talk to visitors one on one. They’ll 
explain design elements and answer questions about the Uniform Land
Use Review Procedure (ULURP) application and the project’s Draft
Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). 
Translation in Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Fujianese will be
available. 
****************
Community Board 3 Meetings on ESCR Parks Committee Meeting:
May 16, 6:30 PM BRC Senior Center, 30 Delancey St. (at Chrystie St.)
This is a regularly-scheduled Parks Committee hearing where project updates will be provided by DDC. The public comment portion of this
meeting will be limited due to other agenda items. Additional comment
periods will be available at subsequent meetings.

Public Hearing: June 11 Location: TBD
Our office is working with Community Board 3 on an extra meeting date on June 11 to allow for greater public comment during the ESCR ULURP. This June 11 public hearing is being scheduled in addition to Community Board 3’s regular June Parks Committee and Full Board meetings later
that month.
Check CB3 Calendar of Events Here.

Community Board 6 Meeting on ESCR Land Use and Waterfront
Committee Committee: May 28, 6:30 PM NYU Dentistry, 433 First Ave
(at E. 26th St.)
The CB6 Land Use and Waterfront Committee will be holding its Public
Hearing on land acquisitions and zoning changes pertaining to ESCR, 
immediately following regular committee business.

For further reading: NYC Environmental Review

Read MoreFrom CM Carlina Rivera on the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project Events:
  • Post category:News

Monsanto and Round-Up


Monsanto. Yesterday, a jury ordered the company to pay more than $2 billion to a couple in California who claim their cancer was caused by the company’s popular weed killer Roundup. The couple used it on their property for decades, and eventually were both diagnosed with the same type of cancer. They’re both now in remission but testified about the lasting damage caused. Now, a jury is awarding them $1 billion each in punitive damages, plus another $55 million in compensatory damages. Monsanto’s parent company plans to appeal the verdict.

  • Not even close to over: This is the third lawsuit related to Roundup that Monsanto has lost in California and the largest payout so far. There are thousands of similar cases that are pending at the federal or state level.
Read MoreMonsanto and Round-Up
  • Post category:News

From NYers For Parks Tomorrow at 12 Noon!

While the City Council has listened to our call for increased park funding, the Mayor hasn’t included any of our asks in his budget! We must keep up the pressure. We need you to join us tomorrow, May 14 at noon on the steps of City Hall. Because none of the Play Fair Coalition’s asks were included in the Mayor’s most recent draft of the budget, we are holding a rally to show loud and clear that we aren’t backing down and that it’s time to Play Fair for parks!
It is more critical than ever for us to show the City that it must step up and increase the budget for Parks. We need you to join us at City Hall Tomorrow at noon.
What:
Play Fair Rally
When:
Tuesday, May 14, 12pm
Where:
The steps of City Hall
Join us tomorrow make sure the City Council and Mayor know that it’s time to Play Fair our parks and green spaces!”
Read MoreFrom NYers For Parks Tomorrow at 12 Noon!
  • Post category:News

New York Marble Cemetery

Via Michele Campo via New York Marble Cemetery :

“In between Bowery Street and Second Ave lies a patch of green dubbed, “A Little Garden in the Big City”, and indeed that is what lies at the end of a small alleyway off of Second Ave and East 2nd Street. Incorporated as a cemetery in 1831, the New York Marble Cemetery (not to be confused with the New York City Marble Cemetery nearby) is the oldest public non-sectarian burial ground in New York City. Although there are no formal headstones, the cemetery houses marble vaults underground built originally due to the outlawing of earth graves over fear of yellow fever outbreaks.”

Visiting schedule: here

“…It is a New York City landmark and a place of tranquility and historical significance.”

Read MoreNew York Marble Cemetery
  • Post category:News