Archive for reference

These pages are provided as an archive of the NAG blog on a previous system. Commenting is no longer available.

Newtown Public Comment Guide

If you missed the meeting today, here's a guide Ryan put together to help you form your public comment.

Don't forget, public comments are due on December 23rd! This wednesday.

Prepare Your Public Comment! Newtown Creek (snowy) Winter Bike Tour Tomorrow

UPDATE: Looking out the window I am realizing a bike tour is a bit ridiculous. So when we meet at the office tomorrow we will decide whether we want to ride or walk to the sites, or we may even just have Ryan lead an history talk in the office and stay warm. :-)

Hey all, tomorrow (Sunday, Dec 20) we will be doing a reprise of our Newtown Creek history bike tour in order to give you a crash education on our neighborhood's most notorious toxic site. Led by Ryan Kuonen, this tour will give you some context for the current controversy surrounding the Creek's potential federal Superfund status. We're meeting at 10 am at the NAG office, 110 Kent Street right next to East River Park (N.8 St) This is written as a bike tour, so please take good precautions! Wear warm clothes and a helmet since it will be snowy and possibly slippery.


Article about the recent community board 1 meeting with the EPA
WNYC piece on Newtown Creek

Check out the work of our friends over at Newtown Creek Alliance who have some great links regarding the Creek.

The gov. is accepting public comments regarding the Superfund status up until Dec 23rd-- that's soon! So hopefully we'll see you tomorrow, full of warm coffee and ready to learn! Then afterwards you can head indoors to your computers and share your thoughts re: Superfund status.

By Email or Phone

Contact the EPA's New York State Docket Coordinator Dennis Munhall at munhall.dennis@epa.gov or (212) 637-4343 and identify your comment by docket number: "EPA-HQ-SFUND-2009-0588-0005"

By Visiting the Web

Visit www.regulations.gov, use document number "EPA-HQ-SFUND-2009-0588-0005" as a keyword search, and once at the document, click on the "Send a Comment" speech bubble.

By Mail

comment to the following address:
Docket Coordinator, Headquarters
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
CERCLA Docket Office (Mail Code 5305T)
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20460

NAG and TA Call for Safety Improvements in Response to Cyclist's Death

In response to the death of 33 year-old Greenpoint cyclist Solange Raulston in a crash this weekend, Transportation Alternatives and NAG are calling for long-overdue safety improvements to the intersection of Nassau Avenue and McGuiness Boulevard. Raulston, a Greenpoint resident and well known DJ, was struck by a truck while cycling westbound on Nassau Avenue last Saturday.

Between 1995 and 2005, there were 34 crashes involving bicyclists or pedestrians at this intersection, and two fatalities, making it the most dangerous intersection in North Brooklyn. The Department of Design and Construction is using federal stimulus funds to reconstruct Nassau Avenue along most of its length by 2012, but safety improvements to the intersection with McGuiness Boulevard are not a significant feature of the plan.

T.A. and NAG are calling for additional traffic calming measures that take into account the high number of pedestrians, cyclists and trucks that traverse the intersection, including:

• Extend the curbs into the street on all corners to slow turning vehicles and shorten crossings for pedestrians
• Install wider refuge medians on McGuiness Boulevard
• Open sight lines at all corners by removing one parking spot on each corner of McGuiness Boulevard
• Give more walk time to pedestrians crossing McGuiness Boulevard

"Seldom does a week pass without flowers being laid in someone's memory at this dangerous crossing," says Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives. "No one should underrate the necessity of making the most dangerous intersection in North Brooklyn safer. Now is the time for the City to act."

"The North Brooklyn community has long been asking the City to make safety improvements at this hazardous intersection," said Lacey Tauber, Chair of NAG's Transportation Working Group. "This tragic incident is a grim reminder that the City needs to rethink its street designs to give priority to the most vulnerable users. We ask the City to address the community's concerns as quickly as possible, before another tragedy occurs here."

Image via Gothamist via Google Maps.

Reminder: NAG Holiday Party Tomorrow (Thursday Dec 10)

Join North Brooklyn advocacy organization Neighbors Allied for Good Growth (NAG) for a holiday party and Fundraiser on Thursday, December 10 from 7-10pm at The Woods.

No cover (but we'll be happy take your donations!)

Come meet your neighbors, listen to some music, drink some cheap drinks, and bid on a silent auction, featuring great stuff from neighborhood spots, including:
-Word Bookstore
-The Brooklyn Kitchen/The Meat Hook
-Alter Clothing
-Southside CSA
-Third Ward
-Mast Brothers Chocolate
-Cynthia's Creations
-Treehouse Brooklyn
-Teddy's Bar & Grill
-The Lecture Series/Book Thug Nation
-Sodafine
-The North BK Compost Project
-Eyebeam Atelier
-Three Kings Tattoo Parlor
-Franny & Rooey
-Cafe Grumpy
-Enid's
-The City Reliquary
-The Gym Park
-Miranda Restaurant
-Charm School Design
-Transient Pictures
-Kingsland Printing
and even some Polish and ESL lessons! Awesome!

If you cannot make the party, consider making a donation to support our work

You can make a donation online or send a check!

NAG is a volunteer-based community planning and environmental justice organization that has been performing grassroots organizing, advocacy and outreach/education to the North Brooklyn waterfront community of Williamsburg/Greenpoint since 1994.

This past year, NAG guerrilla gardened, fought for the creation of new waterfront park space, lobbied for more bike racks in the neighborhood and safer and better transportation options, improved street tree maintenance, sponsored Williamsburg Walks, recorded oral histories from the neighborhood's longtime residents, held an educational forum on housing rights for tenants, counseled tenants one-on-one in landlord disputes, and began plans to turn the former Engine 212 building into the Northside Town Hall. Whew!

Next year we have even more exciting plans in store, but we can't do it without YOU!