Filling the ranks of loving volunteers were local neighbors and NAGsters, friends from other boroughs, the Americorps & Stoked teams, Assemblyman Joe Lentol, District Leader Lincoln Restler, and Andrew Bogardt and the rest of the East River State Park staff. Special thanks to William Ho & Olivia Georgia, Town Square, OSA, NAG, People’s Firehouse for giving support. Sweet thanks to sponsor Dunkin Donuts in Greenpoint and to  Apple Visual Graphics in LIC for the new flag.

Marty Markowitz and GZA announce the 2012 Northside Festival.

At I.S. 318 Eugenio Maria de Hostos, the cool kids are national chess champions – the first middle school to ever win the United States Chess Federation’s high school championship. [NYT]

WAGPOPS – Williamsburg and Greenpoint Parents for Our Public Schools – is stepping up their fight against charter schools co-locating in North Brooklyn. [Greenpoint News]

Whole Foods on the Northside will soon be joined by more retail and a boutique hotel. [Brownstoner]

Police are looking for three men who posed as construction workers to rob an elderly man in [Greenpoint] earlier this month. [NY1]

The Community Board’s Public Safety Committee is worried about early-hours Sunday brunch. [Brooklyn Paper]

And for your weekend to-do list:

NY State Senator Dan Squadron is holding his fourth annual 25th Senate District Community Convention this Sunday. [Sen. Squadron]

The Greenpoint Business Alliance is organizing volunteers to help clean up the Newtown Creek Nature on Earth Day (this Sunday) [Greenpoint News]

Bag-o-Veggie by the Southside CSA

It is that time of year again. Spring is busting out with a little warmth, blossoms are blooming, and pretty soon it will be Summer again…

Yeah Summer — that time when our local farmer’s markets are bursting with produce and we no longer have to buy stuff shipped from Florida, California, or beyond…

In a neighborhood plagued with high asthma rates and serious truck traffic, NAG loves the idea of reducing carbon footprints, reducing the amount of truck traffic in our food supply, and getting our environmental justice juices flowing…

A farm share is such a great way to do all those things! If you love vegetables (or even just want to), joining a neighborhood CSA is a great way to participate in the local sustainability movement and get the freshest food possible. Each CSA is its own special thing, partnering with different farms that grow different types of produce, and have varying degrees of volunteer requirements.  March & April is the time to sign up for this Summer’s farm share; Most CSAs sell out in April so it is important to check them out now…

The Southside CSA has a great list of all the North Brooklyn CSAs. Check it out — North Brooklyn CSA’s

Amazing Berry Share from Southside CSA

]]> http://www.nag-brooklyn.org/2012/04/get-in-on-a-north-brooklyn-farm-share-2/feed/ 0 http://www.nag-brooklyn.org/2012/04/state-of-the-loft-law-panel-discussion-2/ http://www.nag-brooklyn.org/2012/04/state-of-the-loft-law-panel-discussion-2/#comments Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:23:42 +0000 ryan la chica http://www.nag-brooklyn.org/?p=2605  

Please join Assemblyman Vito Lopez & CM Stephen Levin in a panel discussion with NYC DOB, NYC Loft Board, & CM Erik Dilan about the current state of the Loft Law

Tues April 24th. 7pm

Our Lady of Pompeii Community Room

225 Seigel St.

Bushwick, Brooklyn

CALLING ALL NYC LOFT TENANTS!  (and the people who love them…)

If you care about your home, your friend’s home, your community, your community spaces, your neighbors, and your neighborhood, PLEASE COME OUT for this important panel discussion about the current state of the LOFT LAW.

IN JUNE 2010 THE LOFT LAW EXTENSION WAS PASSED…

NOW THAT IT’S 2012, DO YOU KNOW IF YOU ARE PROTECTED???

Are you facing eviction?  Worry about losing your live/work space?  Afraid that your community is loosing all of its cultural spaces?  Tired of arbitrary rent hikes?  Sick of dealing with landlord harassment and having no tenant rights?

 Attend this event to learn about your rights and show support of the loft law

Here’s why it matters that you come out:

In June of 2010 the Expanded Loft Law passed. The law is not perfect. A number of its statutes are bad for tenants. The process by which the new law is implemented is not perfect. Promulgation has been slow and severely lacking any real knowledgeable input from tenants or community advocates.

New Yorkers have the potential to improve & amend the law by getting a loft law clean up bill passed in Albany. But hundreds of us need to show up to this meeting to prove that we have the political will to do it!

On a City level, we need to stand together and demand an open and transparent Loft Board. We need a promulgation process with real public participation and a true ability to fix bad rules that don’t apply correctly to the 21st century world of Brooklyn loftspaces. Tenants need to have the ability to have real discussions with the Loft Board & DOB about code compliance. In addition, we need rules that reflect the economic climate of NYC of today. The rules should not be a bureaucratic barrier to legalization…

Stand up and help protect the community at large. Let our politicians, the Mayor, and the Loft Board know we will not be displaced and we have the political will to get this done.

GET EVERYONE IN YOUR BUILDING TO TURN OUT!

BRING YOUR KIDS, YOUR PARENTS, YOUR NEIGHBORS, YOUR LOCAL BUSINESS OWNERS –

COME OUT AND SUPPORT LOFT TENANTS!

 Co-Sponsors:

Brooklyn Arts Council

DUMBO Neighborhood Alliance

East Williamsburg/Bushwick Loft Tenants Association

NAG [Neighbors Allied for Good Growth]

New York City Loft Tenants

New York Live-Work Coalition

 Forward widely and invite everyone!!

The McGuinness Boulevard Working Group released a study yesterday showing that two-thirds of drivers on Greenpoint’s little highway are speeding – many excessively so. Between 2005 and 2009, there were 57 crashes involving pedestrians along McGuinness Boulevard, almost 10% of which were fatal.

NAG – together with Transportation Alternatives, CB1 and local residents – is part of the Working Group. We have been documenting the dangerous conditions along McGuinness for a number of years now, but the threat continues pretty much unabated.

“Speeding along McGuinness Boulevard has been a problem for as long as I can remember and it’s getting worse,” said City Council Member Steve Levin. “We have to get speeding under control for the safety of bicyclists, pedestrians and other drivers.”

Please join Council Member Stephen Levin for a panel discussion on the role of the Arts in Economic Development

Wed March 28 2012 @ STREB (51 N1st St)

5:30pm- Light refreshments followed by a Panel discussion at 6:00pm featuring Seth Pinsky (President of the NYC Economic Development Corporation), Kate Levin (Commissioner, Department of Cultural Affairs), Elizabeth Streb (Founder, STREB SLAM, MacArthur Foundation Award Winner), Will Maitland Weiss (Executive Director, Arts & Business Council of NY), & Ella Weiss (President, Brooklyn Arts Council)

Neighbors Allied for Good Growth (formerly Neighbors Against Garbage) developed out of our neighborhood’s desire to recapture its waterfront, reduce local environmental hazards, and advocate for public policies promoting healthy mixed-use communities. We advocate with and for the people who live and work in the North Brooklyn neighborhoods of Greenpoint and Williamsburg.

When NAG was founded, North Brooklyn’s waterfront was literally a garbage dump. We organized in 1995 to fight against waste transfer stations on the East River and to fight for public access to the waterfront. 17 years later, Williamsburg and Greenpoint have transformed, and today they are vibrant places where the people of New York City can enjoy open space, access to the water and a healthier life.

We are proud of what we have accomplished, but there is so much more to do.

North Brooklyn’s existing public parks are in desperate need of more funds for maintenance and capital improvements. The population of our community is exploding, and we are now a destination for New Yorkers and out of town tourists, all of which puts more stress on our existing parks.

North Brooklyn is also desperately awaiting the new parks and open space that was promised by the Bloomberg administration during the 2005 rezoning. Development has been quick to come to North Brooklyn, but the administration has been slow to pursue the acquisition of parkland at places such as Bushwick Inlet Park, Barge Park and Commercial Street. Promises were made to all the residents of our growing community, and they should be kept.

And finally, we should look to new opportunities to create new parks. In particular, NAG is advocating for the city to convert the city-owned parcel of land at Kent Avenue and South 6th Street to a public park. A park here would provide much-needed access to the waterfront for residents of the Southside and all of North Brooklyn, and someday connect the proposed Domino and south Williamsburg waterfront esplanades. The city’s Vision 2020 Waterfront Plan recognizes that this property should be accessible to the public – let’s make it so.

Thank you for your support of parks and open space in North Brooklyn.

NAG has been following up on these (and many other!) rezoning commitments for years, and recently we joined with a number of other community groups and open space advocates to form the Where’s Our Park? Coalition. The following is the information on the hearing from Where’s Our Park?, and why it matters to our community. If this issue matters to you, please consider attending the hearing, or sign Where’s Our Park’s? petition.

Thanks!

From Where’s Our Park?:

Our promised parkland on the North Brooklyn waterfront has never been in more danger. In January, the mayor unveiled his budget plan for coming fiscal year. Unlike last year – when deep cuts were administered across the board – this year’s budget was remarkably robust. In fact, Mayor Bloomberg proposed $700 million in new capital spending over the next five years—a huge increase.

Certainly, those of us who have waited patiently for long-promised funding from the mayor would be first in line and finally receive our vital open space…right? Wrong. Not only did the mayor choose brand new pet projects and other parks funding over our neighborhoods, but his administration is still insisting there isn’t enough money to go around.

We know better. And we’re not going to let them get away with it.

This Thursday, March 22nd at noon, is your chance to let the mayor know how you feel about how he has mistreated and ignored our community. The City Council will hold its once-yearly budget oversight hearing at which the Bloomberg Administration will have to answer questions publicly about their now seven-year-old broken promises.

Your presence will show the administration how serious we are about getting our parks. You can also participate in the hearing itself by joining your neighbors, testifying to the Council and arguing our case. The Council ultimately makes our budget, and so it’s important they understand the injustice happening on our waterfront.

Info for attending the hearing is at the bottom of this e-mail. We’ll continue to update you as our campaign to reclaim our waterfront progresses, and we have other ways for you to get involved as we fight for our parks throughout this year’s budget process, ending in June.

As always, you can help us organize and educate the community by also doing three easy things:

• If you haven’t already, spread the word about Where’s Our Park to your networks through Twitter, Facebook, email and any listservs or news groups you’re a part of. It’s easy to do through our Web site by starting here.
• Sign the petition for our parks here.
• Volunteer by responding to this email or sending a note to info@wheresourpark.org.

Please get involved however you can, and join us at the Council hearing on Thursday. This is a critical time for our parks. Together, we can get the open space our community so desperately needs.

Sincerely,
Where’s Our Park

Info for March 22nd City Council Hearing*

Hearing title: Mayor’s FY’12 Preliminary Management Report and Agency Oversight, Department of Parks & Recreation

Time: Thursday, March 22nd at noon (FYI – you can get there as early as 10 AM and as late as 2 PM; the hearing has an earlier portion on expense spending, and a later portion on capital, starting at noon—the earlier you get there, the more likely you’ll be able to get in to the hearing right away.)

Place: New York City Council offices, 250 Broadway in Manhattan – 14th Floor hearing room (To enter: tell the Sargent at Arms at the front desk which hearing you are going to, and they will give you a pass and send you through security.)

*If you plan to testify, please let us know at info@wheresourpark.org, and we can make sure you’re on the list.

Aside from the increased density and impact on per capita open space, one of NAG’s biggest concerns about this project was the lack of guarantees. The development will happen one day – with this developer or another – but whether it includes 30%, 20% or 0% affordable remains to be seen. And whether it includes all, some or none of the promised open space and waterfront also remains to be seen.

The Center for Urban Research has some great maps that let you compare the various congressional redistricting proposals, as well as the proposed new boundaries for State senate and assembly districts.