Neighbors Allied for Good Growth » community garden

Grassroot Garden Project: 61 Franklin St Community Garden

ryan la chica — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:36:33 +0000

Thanks to a lot of legwork by the fab folks at 596 Acres and our hardworking CM Stephen Levin, an empty lot owned by the City could become Greenpoint’s newest green space.

Very exciting right!! Want to get involved? Of course you do. Well, mark this Saturday down in your calendar for some serious brainstorming fun.

Community Outreach Meeting

Good Yoga 2pm Sat March 2nd

Check the FB event here!!

All are welcome; green thumbs not required;)

Help make this space what the community wants it to be! Band together with the groups of community activists and dedicated citizens who are hell bent on converting the vacant lot at 61 Franklin Street into a garden for the neighborhood.

The best way to get involved is plug into the first community outreach meeting. On the agenda is discussion of community involvement and brainstorming ideas for the site. Can’t make the meeting (man — you are BUSY BEES Brooklyn!!), LIKE the FB page (linked below) and be a part of the conversation, planning, and fun…

GO GO GO 61 Franklin Street Garden!!!

Can’t wait to hear all those big ideas, great dreams, and to begin to build something together…

Beers at the Office – Cheers to Volunteering in ’13

ryan la chica — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 23:03:35 +0000

Been looking for a good way to volunteer in the neighborhood? Always wanted to understand how to address a problem in the Williamsburg & Greenpoint neighborhoods? You can learn to do both when you join NAG for our first ” Beers at the Office” in 2013. We will be gathering at –-you guessed it–- our office to talk about some of the wonderful ways to volunteer with NAG and make a difference on your street. Come learn more about what NAG does and collaborate, conspire, and commiserate with your friends and neighbors and other NAG volunteers. We have and endless list of ideas and projects. And beer.

Have you been super eager to volunteer with NAG but not quite sure how to exactly plug into a project? We are super pleased to introduce our new Volunteer Coordinator, Julia Morrow. One of our main goals for our Happy Hour will be to get to know her and hear about all her amazing plans to get you volunteers involved in all the NAG action!

Plan to drop by after work and join us for a little volunteer happy hour!

In 2013 NAG has a packed calendar of ways to engage in some civic action and make a difference on your favorite corner of the neighborhood. Be a part of the team that organizes the world’s favorite pop-up park event, Williamsburg Walks. Participate in the planning for a community- built & maintained open space, the 61 Franklin Street Garden. Educate yourself on how development works in NYC and join others in raising a collective voice to keep our local community strong.

NAG has a legacy of making change in the community, banding together to fight the problems, turning trash-heaps into neighborhood spaces, neighbors into friends, projects into a party. Join us tomorrow as we continue to plan for that neighborhood we all want…

NAG Gala. 10 Reasons to Attend…

ryan la chica — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 20:50:06 +0000

Get gussied up & celebrate neighborhood activism!

Enjoying food, fun, & friends at the 2011 Gala

#7 -You believe in building a stronger community through citizen participation. NAG devotes a lot of our resources to helping the residents of Greenpoint & Williamsburg plug into their local government and create (or call for) real change on their street…

Good times at the 2011 Gala

NAG’s Annual Neighborhood Gala & Benefit is such fun! We gather together a great bunch of neighborhood activists, advocates, and supporters in one room to celebrate NAG’s grassroot neighborhood activism. This year the Gala will take place on Saturday, November 3rd from 8 p.m. to midnight. The venue is Biba, the soon to open restaurant space located below our offices at 110 Kent Avenue (North 8th Street – looking onto the East River State Park). It is an evening of food & drink & music & dancing.

Buy a ticket today and support our brand of community organizing. NAG is a great mix of old timers and newbies who work together to improve our neighborhood on a hyper-local level. Some of this work has developed into a series of skillshares that we like to call NAG Action where our organizers help break down neighborhood issues and the byzantine practices of local government. NAG ACTION brings the issues of our Organizing Agenda–Open Space, Transportation, Affordable Housing, and Community Character–under one umbrella. The goal is to address them in a proactive way and to support the larger goals of progressive, intelligent community growth, bringing together any and all types of organizers, activists, local leaders, business owners, and residents to discuss, learn, and take action in the neighborhood.

Sharing ideas at the NAG Town Hall

The topics are determined by NAG’s (volunteer) organizers, rotating between teach-ins, skillshares, group discussions, and actions. Areas of focus center around the immediate concerns of our community as we look to local experts on each topic to help us teach and participate. The best part of NAG Action is that we welcome everyone to join us at any level of neighborhood knowledge. Whether you’ve been in the ‘hood your entire life or just arrived last week, there are things that we can all learn, share, and do together to better our community. The list of NAG Action events over the past 3 years is exhaustive. Check out the blog to see just a few. We hope to keep growing and growing that list each year to include all of the issues that affect our everyday life in North Brooklyn.

Support NAG’s continued work by coming out to celebrate another year of nagging!

We really hope that you can join us for this special night. Tickets and sponsorship opportunities are available at Brown Paper Tickets. For more information, please email us at nag.bklyn@gmail.com

Talking about waterfront open space. Jul 2012

Superfund Skillshare @ GMDC. Oct 2010

Support Guerilla Gardening on the Southside

ryan la chica — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 17:11:58 +0000

This came into the NAG inbox today and i have to admit that it inspired me to vote in an online contest (something i NEVER do). Check it out!

Friends,
I have had a garden on my South Williamsburg stoop for 24 years. My first planter boxes were old refrigerator shells. Several years ago I got the city to plant 2 Linden trees on my sidewalk through the Million Trees program. The city did a hack job and dug up enormous areas of the concrete leaving vast dirt patches. Last year I paved these areas with 581 bricks that I scavenged from an empty lot around the corner. I welded steel tree guards capable of fending off the UPS truck, which have been test proven. And last fall I planted 35 daffodil bulbs, which first sprouted this spring. I live on one of the dirtiest streets in Brooklyn. There is trash strewn everywhere and little regard for beauty or quality of life. But my little stoop is paradise. Please help me continue my efforts. Help me demonstrate to the neighborhood and my elected officials how hard I have worked to make my neighborhood nicer. Please take a moment to vote for my tree beds. After 24 hours please vote again. Please spread the word. The contest ends August 3rd.

Rob H.

So, if you want to support a neighbor doing good, vote for “Robert’s Spring Daffodils” in the My Tree NYC: Beautiful Tree Bed Contest by Million Trees NYC

How to Vote:

Follow this link to the Facebook App.

https://apps.facebook.com/offerpop/Contest.psp?c=141649&u=34877&a=254553244581393&p=79560015073&rest=0&v=View

Pretty sure you have to like Million Trees & then search for Robert’s Daffodils. Then you vote (and you will have to allow the Offerpop App to work it’s magic…) It is a relatively painless way to support all those guerilla gardeners in the neighborhood that put their time, $$, and sweat into beautifying our local streets.

What is the State of the Neighborhood?

ryan la chica — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:13:10 +0000

Town Hall Meeting

Thurs Feb 2, 2012. 7-9pm
160 N 5th — Holy Ghost Ukranian Church

Neighborhood Forum

Sat Feb 4, 2012. 12-4pm
110 Kent Ave [@N8th]
Ground floor of NAG office bldg.

If you could give the neighborhood a grade,what would it be?

Join new and long-time community members as we discuss the crucial issues in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, things like affordable housing, tenant rights, homelessness, transportation, safe streets, public schools, development and city infrastructure, open space, parks, and environmental justice.

NAG will be presenting a Community Report Card talking baout where we’re at and where we’ve been on these issues. Community members can then discuss and decide on the main issues that are the most important right now; the issues that need action to make our neighborhoods more livable.

After selecting our community’s most important issues, come out the following Saturday to the State of the Neighborhood Forum to discuss how we are going to take action and make changes in our neighborhoods!

Get involved with the Southside Community Garden

ryan la chica — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 17:56:01 +0000

We had a great NAG Action meeting last night where we talked about a lot of great projects and ways to get our green thumb on in North Brooklyn. Look for an upcoming post with all the glorious details on how to plug into all the great gardening & greening projects in Williamsburg & Greenpoint. In the meantime, mark your calendars for this Saturday…

From our friends @ Southside Community Garden: “This Saturday at 11am we are having a kickoff party to celebrate the beginning of garden season and to share how you can help create and maintain this sustainable green space in Southside Williamsburg. Bagels and mingling will begin at 11am, quickly followed by a brief informational session about the garden, featuring special guest Councilwoman Diana Reyna. Then we will all get our hands dirty with a few garden projects. If the weather permits, we will meet at the garden at S. 4th and Hewes. If it rains, we will meet across the street from the garden at 366 Hewes St.”

For more information about the garden:

April’s NAG Action: Community Gardens, Open Spaces, & Guerilla Gardening. Oh, my!

ryan la chica — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:48:54 +0000

Cucumber harvest from Soup Kitchen Community Garden. Aug 2010

Are you ready to get your hands dirty making North Brooklyn a greener place?

Join us tonight as we gather to discuss Open Space issues–everything from park space to the cleanliness of streets & sidewalks– & community gardening in No Bro.

Tues April 5th. 7-830pm

Greenpoint Reformed Church. 136 Milton St.

Between Franklin & Manhattan Ave. Near the Greenpoint G Station.

Little brick church. Shared space. Follow signs to NAG meeting…

Guerrilla Gardening. Williamsburg, Brooklyn

The agenda of tonight’s meeting is to promote current community gardening projects in Greenpoint & Williamsburg, to discuss potential avenues through guerilla gardening and neighborhood clean-ups to make our neighborhood flower, and to talk about the current status of Open Space in our community. Even before the waterfront was rezoned, our neighborhood ranked among the poorest in open space ratios, but as our neighborhood’s population has exploded the problem has only gotten worse. Promises have been made, but few have resulted in new park space. We will examine the problem and brainstorm what action we need to take this Spring to get our neighborhood the parks & open space it has been promised/deserves!

NAG Action meets on the first Tuesday of every month, gathering concerned citizens from all parts of Greenpoint & Williamsburg who are looking to learn more and do more in the neighborhood. The goal is to bring together any and all types of organizers, activists, local leaders, business owners, and residents to discuss, learn, and take action in the neighborhood. Typically the issues tackled fall under one of NAG’s main organizing areas (Open Space, Transportation, Affordable Housing & Community Character)

NAG Volunteers @ Garden Workday. March 2011

Volunteer Open House. Tues March 29. 7-9pm

ryan la chica — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:14:35 +0000

“Some people dream of worthy accomplishments while others stay awake and do them!” – Unknown

Volunteer Open House

@NAG Office. 110 Kent Ave. 2nd Floor

[little brick building surrounded by East River State Park @ N8th]

7-9pm

Drop by and learn about the many ways you can volunteer to make change in the neighborhood

Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity, but people also volunteer for their own skill development, to meet others, to make contacts for possible employment, to have fun, and a variety of other reasons that could be considered self-serving. We like to think that we cover both angles over here in NAG-land. We like to work hard to make change in the hood, and we love to have fun while doing it! In short, we have a bevy of projects and events on the calendar and lots of ideas gestating in the inbox with something for everyone and plenty of different ways for you to help out.

But yeah, we need you to help out…

If you have every wanted to get involved in the neighborhood but weren’t quite sure what to do or how to match up projects with your skill set or weekly schedule, than this is the night for you! Arts Happenings, Taste Williamsburg, Williamsburg Walks, Northside Townhall, Loft Law outreach, fundraisers & benefit concerts, public forums, community gardens, and more need real volunteer muscle to become realities…

This will be an informal open house, meet n’ greet, beers n’ the office, type shindig. There will be organizers and board members from NAG ready to plug you into something amazing!

For more specific info email ryan over at nag.bklyn@gmail.com

“I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people convinced that they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference after another.” –Ellen Goodman

Three Terrific Open Space Updates

NAG — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:31:29 +0000

1. Bushwick Inlet (or at least, what we’re allowed to claim of it thus far) got a facelift thanks to a really wonderful new program. From Friend’s of Bushwick Inlet Park‘s Laura T… “the folks from NYC Community Cleanup showed up today and collected 15 bags of garbage and leaves after cleaning up our lovely stretch of public sidewalk alongside the inlet this morning… here’s a snapshot of them in action.”
Now you can walk or run without getting papers stuck on your shoe or tripping over a bottle of pee. Thanks to NYC Community Cleanup! (And to Laura for making the call!)

2. This sunday, March 21, there will be a Beers in the Office meeting regarding Greenpoint Community Gardening. Curious? Good. Come to the meeting at the NAG Office, 110 Kent Avenue, at 7:30.

3. On April 8th, the comprehensive Waterfront Plan Update public meeting is on April 8th from 6:00-8:30 pm at Murry Bergtraum High School at 411 Pearl Street, Manhattan. This will be a great opportunity to share our opinions and ideas regarding new open spaces in North Brooklyn. We’d love to bring some impassioned parkies to speak out for Transmitter Park, Commercial Street, Bushwick Inlet and the Williamsburg Bridge DOT site. Here’s the Waterfront Plan’s official link. If you’d like to get involved in this but want some assistance or further information, let us know.

HAPPY SPRING!!!