Open Space Alliance Community Committee Meeting Nov 3

For those of you that are more locally-inclined than nationally and will be twiddling your thumbs on election eve, the much-anticipated "community committee" meeting of the Open Space Alliance will be held this coming Monday, Nov 3rd at 6:30pm at the Brooklyn Brewery (North 11th and Wythe Ave).

OSA is improving our existing parks and helping to develop new parks in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. We accomplish this by raising funds, linking community volunteers, and working in partnership with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.

We are very excited to announce this meeting to form the Community Committee for the Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn! The purpose of this meeting is to formally introduce OSA to all interested community organizations and residents, and to hear your feedback about how to improve our parks through our partnership with the NYC Parks Department.

The meeting will be hosted by representatives from the GWAPP and NAG Boards. Tupper Thomas from the Prospect Park Alliance will provide insight from the 25 years of their Community Committee's operation. Steve Hindy will answer questions on behalf of the OSA Board. A beer reception will follow for the community to meet the rest of the Board Members of OSA.

More information is available at OSA's website.

Community Party at the Pool Tuesday Aug 26th

In case you miss the last Pool Party at McCarren Pool tomorrow (or even if you make it there), there is a chance for one more pool event Tuesday that promises to be even more hyper-local. From our good friends at the Open Space Alliance:

Please join us at McCarren Pool on Tuesday, August 26th for a free community Bloc Party hosted by the L Magazine, for the benefit of OSA.

Doors open at 5:30pm with a Taste of Williamsburg, where neighborhood restaurants sell snacks, with all proceeds going to improve our parks through OSA. Participating restaurants include Lodge, Urban Rustic, Lokal, Le Barricou, Fanny's, Brooklyn Label, Taco Chulo, Roebling Tea Room, Marlow & Sons and many more. Our friends from Greenpoint Wines will also be pouring.

At 6pm, free performances by Trashed on Fiction and The King Left.

And at dusk, a free screening of the film RUSHMORE, Wes Anderson's acclaimed dramedy about a young man with an extended extra-curricular resumé.

McCarren Park Pool Events Need a Home in 2009

Free Williamsburg notes that the Pool Party at McCarren Pool this past Sunday was one of the most popular and crowded yet. Now in their fourth year, performances at the pool are operated under the non-profit umbrella of the Open Space Alliance.

As a welcome development, the Parks Dept. will begin construction a restored, functional pool in 2009. But while the pool is under construction for several years (and depending on Parks Dept. policies once it's finished), the free events that have thrived there will need a new home. One site under consideration is 50 Kent Ave, a former sanitation facility, but there may be environmental issues with the site preventing its use in 2009, and the site lacks the inspirational setting of the pool.

Photo by Agaton Strom

Noted: There will be a benefit concert for the Open Space Alliance on August 13 featuring Wilco (fun fact: band member Pat Sansone was a Greenpoint resident for a few years).

And, while we're talking about the pool, we can't resist a link to PoolAid's classic "We Are The Pool" video, which was produced by NAG board member Mikki Halpin and featured this poster in the role of a lifetime as PoolAid Man.