Meeting notes and a temporary farewell

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This month's meeting was great - we assembled at the LeBlanc residence at 304. We met new neighbors and caught up with friends.
Warm welcome to our new members - Annabelle (296), Steve (301) and Cori (304) and thanks to all current members for joining us!


Green Fort Greene and Clinton Hill

We had a guest speaker, Jed Marcus, from Green Fort Greene and Clinton
Hill. He spoke about several initiatives in the works to reduce the carbon footprint of the neighborhood:

• Distributing compact flourescent light bulbs to local businesses to sell at cost
• Bike parking
• Recycling in the local parks
  
• Tree pit expansion (please read about the tree pit survey I did on our block)
• Green business initiatives
• Ways to get involved with Green Fort Greene and Clinton Hill
  

Church on Greene Ave

We also got an update on the church on Greene Ave from Phil via email.

From Phil:

"I did speak this week with a representative of the church at 5 Greene. She was not too forthcoming, but said that they intend to start construction in October / November. Would give me no schedule on completion."

Steve volunteered to get signatures for a petition. The other day I noticed that the garbage around the front of the church lot has been cleaned up. Maybe they are making progress...if anyone knows, please share.



Atlantic Yards
We heard some news about Atlantic Yards from Sean. There is one lawsuit remaining. The situation has changed due to Mikhail Prokhorov's bid for the Nets.



Contractor recommendations
Please continue to share contractor recommendations. We can support good work and possibly get discounts for our block.


Temporary farewell

This will be my last Cumberland Block Association meeting for awhile. Steve has volunteered to maintain the blog in my absence. On a side note: if you are interested in following my stories as a Kiva Fellow in Peru and beyond, please visit http://leapwork.com or for stories by all Kiva Fellows around the world, please visit http://fellowsblog.kiva.org

See you all when I return!
Sheethal

Green FG&CH--THIS WEEKEND -- Get and give out trees +more bike racks

Dear neighbors,

Apologies for the short notice, but good opportunities beckon:

Get a tree or give out trees: As part of Myrtle Avenue's fall celebration, Move About Myrtle, Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership, MillionTreesNYC and the New York Restoration Project are offering trees for planting on private property. Sunday, September 20 11-7 between Ryerson and Grand. Also, please volunteer to help give out trees -- pick a two hour slot from 10:00 a.m. on and respond to Sarah Farwell at 718.230.1689 or sarah@myrtleavenue.org. Bring a friend, bring the kids.

Bike Racks: 72 installed so far. We have a last-minute chance to request more for installation in 2009. Please send requests by Sunday night 9/20 to gilnyc@yahoo.com. I apologize for the short notice, but opportunity just knocked. Thanks to Gil Ronen.

For racks outside of schools please get a written consent from the school's principal and send a scanned copy by Tuesday night 9/22.

For each request specify an exact street address (e.g. 709 Fulton), cross streets (e.g. between St Felix and Ashland), and if the location is in front of a business then the name of the business (e.g. in front of Crunch).

The rules: Bick racks must be

• On City-owned property, i.e., sidewalks, parks, school property, etc.;
• On wide concrete sidewalks (minimum sidewalk width 12 feet);
• Removed from the natural flow of pedestrians, usually at the curb and always away from crosswalks;
• Usually a minimum of 6 feet from other street furniture (e.g., street signs, mailboxes, benches, telephones); and
• Generally 13 feet from fire hydrants, and 15 feet from bus stop shelters and newsstands.
• CityRacks can NOT be installed on pavers, cobblestone, brick, stone/slate slabs, custom/patterned concrete or metal grating.

Together we will do great things.

Enjoy the weekend.

Jed S. Marcus
Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill
13 Greene Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11238

T: 718.643.6555
F: 718.643.9111

info@greenfgch.org

Tree Pit Survey on Cumberland Street

Through Green Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, Council Member Leticia James has given funds to expand 1,000 tree pits in our neighborhood.

The Brooklyn Forestry Division of the Parks and Recreation Department has a particular block survey form to use for this process that includes the following info:

• Address (to determine tree location)
• Tree condition
• Pit type
• Old pit measurements
• New pit measurement (generally 10' x 5')
• Pit treatment (metal guards, paving stones, raised planter, other)
  

Today I walked up and down our block and measured the tree pits. I also took notes on the condition of the tree and any hindrances to expanding the pits (such as gas and water valves, etc). I will submit the info to Green Fort Greene.


Hopefully this project will begin in the fall and will result in healthier trees for our block!


** If there is a tree pit treatment (such as a metal guard), the contractor will get the home owner's permission to expand the tree pit before starting the work. You can opt not to have your tree pit expanded. Please consider the health of your tree before opting out of the tree pit expansion project **


Note: I have put the tree guard project on hold until the tree pit expansion is done. Once the tree pits are uniform and give enough space for the trees to grow without pushing up the sidewalk, I will go back to completing the tree guard project. See info about that project here.


-Sheethal

Green Fort Greene&Clinton Hill --Good News + Meeting July 20

A not from Jed Marcus from Green Fort Greene and Clinton Hill

Dear NY’s Greenest,

It’s wonderful to go into a holiday energized by great progress and to plan what we will do next to reduce our neighborhood’s carbon footprint and our use of non-renewable resources. Please put our next meeting on your calendar: July 20, 7:00 pm, at Irondale (in the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church) 85 South Oxford Street

The Very Good News – Greener and Cleaner

*** Thanks to Council Member Tish James, the City has allocated $130,000 for “Take Back the Pavement,” our project to expand the tree pits which are choking our mature trees. At least 330 tree pits will be expanded. Vaidila Kungys organized this project. Preliminary surveys by many volunteers got the necessary information in the right hands on short notice. More below.

*** After much encouragement by Green FG&CH, the Departments of Transportation and Parks are about to build two little parks to replace the horrid plastic and striping at 7 Corners (Fulton, South Oxford, Hanson and Greene). The roadwork will be done in July and August and the planting in the fall. See the plan here.

*** The Parks and Sanitation Departments will start recycling on a pilot basis at Fort Greene Park, Cuyler Gore Park and Underwood Playground this month. Green FG&CH volunteers Demetrios Yatrakis (arranged for storage of recyclables) and Ramon Factora (signage) have made it happen.

And You

A couple of hours working on a project will make a big difference. Come to the meeting on July 20 and see how you can help. Topic A: explore maximizing the number of tree pits “Take Back the Pavement” will expand with the City’s money. Set up the surveying and data collection for the project. Go after more money.

Topic B: Green Practices for Businesses: a group of local business owners have developed a code of green practices. We now have to take it to the streets and get many businesses to sign on. We also need graphics for several aspects of the project and a data base to track who is participating and what is working. In addition to the green practises that are ready to go, research is needed to launch more, bolder ideas.

Topic C: "No Ad" sign update. What’s next?

See you on the 20^th.

Together we will do great things.

Regards,

Jed Marcus

---

Green Fort Greene and Clinton Hill is volunteer project of your neighbors working together to reduce our neighborhoods' contribution to global warming and our use of non-renewable resources.