New Interim Greenway on Flushing Avenue

New York City’s Department of Transportation (DOT) has taken another interim step in the process to establish a Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway — a 14-mile, multi-use, off-road path spanning from Greenpoint all the way down to Sunset Park.

DOT has completed a new 2-way bike lane on Flushing Avenue from Williamsburg Street to Navy Street along the length of the Brooklyn Navy Yard — featuring a physically protected lane from Williamsburg Street West to Washington Avenue and a Class 2 (buffered) lane for the balance of the stretch.

Combined with previously created interim segments on Kent Avenue, Williamsburg Street West and Columbia Street, the groundwork has been laid for nearly 4 miles of the Greenway.

The final designed version of the Greenway will be between 20 and 30 feet wide in total, encompassing a 4- to 8-foot landscaped buffer between it and the street, a 10- to 12-foot bike bath, and a 6- to 10-foot pedestrian path.

The bike and pedestrian path recently opened at Brooklyn Bridge Park will also link to the Greenway route.

The Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway was envisioned by Brian McCormick, Milton Puryear and Meg Fellerath, who incorporated as the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI) in 2004. They have been working with the DOT on the master plan for the entire Greenway route.

Earlier this year, DOT hosted a series of four community workshops in areas that will be affected by the Greenway — Downtown Brooklyn, Sunset Park, Red Hook and Greenpoint/Williamsburg — to hash out the details of the planned route.

For more information about the Greenway, visit www.brooklyngreenway.org.

And check this out if you haven't already: when I was looking up details about bike paths, I came across this handy little online guide by Transportation Alternatives called "Bike Lanes and Paths: A Primer." Also, a quick trip around the Biking Rules web site might give you some useful info.

Green Truck Convoy Rolls Through South Brooklyn

The Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation (SBIDC) launched the first ever "Green Truck Convoy" Tuesday. The convoy traveled through streets of South Brooklyn — starting at the SBIDC’s Red Hook office at 402 Van Brunt St. and ending at Sahadi Fine Foods at 43rd and First Avenue in Sunset Park — and included trucks from several Brooklyn businesses that use sustainable technologies and practices, including Quadrozzi Concrete, Greg’s Express, Metro Fuel and Movers Not Shakers.

Photo by Carlos Menchaca

Traveling Environmental Museum To Visit Brooklyn

The EnviroMedia Mobile, an urban nature maritime museum on wheels, will visit IKEA/Erie Basin Park on Sunday, August 15, to continue its Summer Earth Fest 2010, a series of environmental awareness, culture and maritime cultural enrichment events.

An 11-year project of the Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy under the direction of Ludger Balan, the museum is a way for New Yorkers to “think of our urban environment as a habitat,” Balan said.

The event on August 15, which runs from 1 to 5 p.m., will include live music, public tours of the mobile museum, refreshments and aquatic recreation activities. Attendees will have the opportunity to play in a raffle and to win an IKEA prize at each event.

On Saturday, Aug 28 the EnviroMedia Mobile will visit Canarsie Piers, Gateway National Park, where the Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy, in collaboration with the National Park Service, will host the last of its annual Get On The Water NYC — Urban Rivers Tour Series, with a guided eco-cruise of the Jamaica Bay.

The eco-cruise will be held aboard a unique, giant 32- foot Indian shipping canoe that will accommodate 21 paddlers at a time. Those aboard the canoe will explore and discover the living nature and scenic vista of one of the city’s most significant, yet challenged ecosystems.

On Sunday, August 29, the EnviroMedia Mobile will then travel to Bensonhurst Park, and on Sunday September 12 it will return to IKEA/Erie Basin Park for an end of season bash and back to school celebration, featuring a special urban wildlife appreciation and education program and the popular Live! Beneath the Estuary underwater video observation station.

The museum was designed to help educate students about species native to New York’s waterways and how climate change will impact them. “The success of our environment begins with young people,” Balan said. “If they are not connecting, the stewardship will not be there.”

For more information and to register for any of the events, visit http://enviromediamobile.blogspot.com or call (347) 224-5828. 

Photo courtesy of the Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy

Rooftop Garden at Sixpoint Craft Ales in Red Hook

If you take a tour of Sixpoint Craft Ales in Red Hook, you can expect to see the inner workings of how beer is made, and you’ll be able to sample some of that beer. You’ll also be able to see the chickens that reside in a pen on the roof of the brewery.

Yup, Sixpoint keeps chickens. They cluck happily amidst a rooftop garden full of lettuce greens, kale, zucchini, corn, radishes, cauliflower, peppers, string beans, chamomile and of course, hop vines.

The garden is a project of brewery president Shane C. Welch, who founded Sixpoint in 2004 and has been gardening since childhood. “My parents used to grow vegetables when I was a kid, and I used to grow when I was in high school and college,” he said. “I used to love to grow corn, watermelons, pumpkins, and radishes. I kept the tradition alive at [my parents’] home well after they stopped vegetable gardening themselves.”

Welch started the garden at the brewery so he could repurpose old materials. “We had all of these used, broken kegs laying around, and then we thought to ourselves — ‘Whoa, couldn’t we just cut the tops off these things and turn them into planters? That would be sweet! Fresh food for the brewery, and lots of beauty as well.’”

Welch and his staff of four brewers, two salesmen and an engineer visit the garden at lunchtime for sustenance. Right now, “you’d find just what you’d get at a farmers market,” says brewer Dan Suarez: fresh greens and eggs from the four hens.

The keg planters are topped with coffee beans hulls from Stumptown café in Manhattan, Suarez explained, which help the plants grow. Other features of the garden include a rain collection system made of old kalamata olive barrels and a composting system.

In the future, produce gleaned from the garden won’t just be for lunch. “I hope to make a botanical beer,” said Suarez, picking some chamomile and smelling it. “I definitely want to brew at least a couple of beers with the stuff we have here.” But the hop vines won’t be too useful just yet. “They won’t produce many cones the first year,” he says.

Sixpoint — which takes its name from a six-pointed star, a hexagram, symbolizing the six elements of the brewing process: water, grain, malt, hops, yeast and the brewer — doesn’t bottle its beer, instead kegs it and distributes it to bars and restaurants.

“We’re brewing all day, every day,” said brew house manager Craig Frymark. One of the brewery’s most popular libations is its Sweet Action, an American Blonde Ale. “We want to make sure that everyone in the five boroughs should be able to get our beer at any time.”

Rooftop gardening isn’t the only way Sixpoint displays its eco-consciousness. “On days we brew, a chicken and cattle farm comes to pick up our spent grain for feed,” said Suarez. And of course they recycle.

“My commitment to sustainability comes from my upbringing, my values, and my feelings for the future,” said Welch. “I lived in a cooperative living environment when I was in college, where we pooled our resources and shared our food and housing like a commune. It was then that I realized the power of creating a less consumptive, more cooperative-based living structure. In other words, a different perspective on lifestyle.

“I think the way the world is headed, and the lifestyle that most western civilizations think they’re entitled to is simply not sustainable,” he continued. “Therefore, we need to break the mold by proposing a new way of looking at things — enjoying the simpler things in life and minimizing the footprint we leave behind. The less resources we use, combined with less waste we generate, is a long-term perspective that real forward-thinking people think about and consider. We try to be that way if we can.”

Tour de Brooklyn 2010

The Tour de Brooklyn is back for its sixth year and it’s bigger than ever. The 18-mile family-friendly bike tour, which takes a different route through the borough every year, is held by biking advocacy group Transportation Alternatives (TA). TA Spokesperson Wiley Norvell said they expect around 2,500 riders this time around, 500 more than last year.

The ride will take place this Sunday, June 6, and will start at 9:30 a.m. sharp. Online registration has already filled up, but “there will be several hundred spots available on the day of [the ride],” Norvell said. Prospective riders are suggested to get there at 8 a.m., but not before. Check-in is at McCarren Park, and concludes at 9 a.m.

While last year’s ride took bicyclists through southern Brooklyn and Coney Island, this year’s will start and end in Williamsburg, touring Greenpoint, East Williamsburg, Bed-Stuy and Prospect Heights along the way, with a brief respite in Red Hook Park.

Since riders of all ages participate, this ride is not a race, instead it is treated as a rolling parade, about five to 10 minutes from front to back. “It’s a slow, leisurely pace,” said Norvell. The group is escorted by the NYPD.

This particular route was designed with sustainability in mind, he noted, with riders going from Newtown Creek to the Gowanus Canal. “We’re highlighting different pieces of the [Brooklyn] Waterfront Greenway,” Norvell explained. “Bringing New Yorkers closer to their waterfronts.”

If you missed online registration, there are plenty of places to watch the ride. Norvell said the ride will be going down McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint in the morning. A good vantage point would be at Nassau Avenue and McGuinness, which he called “a very dramatic place to watch the ride pass.”

Other optimal views will be in East River State Park, at Kent Avenue and N 8th Street. The ride will also travel on Fourth Avenue for about 20 blocks, Norvell noted, between Bergen and Ninth. Or you can watch the ride on Van Brunt in Red Hook in the afternoon.

“It will be lovely to watch the ride come down Bergen Street in Prospect Heights, or Carlton Avenue [in Fort Greene]. You can hang out and have brunch or go to Fort Greene Park afterwards,” Norvell said. “But the best vantage point is as a rider.” 

Photo by Emmanuel Fuentebella

Take the Cyclone Lounger for a Spin on Coney Island

The Coney Island History Project will host an open house this Saturday, May 22 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for Brooklyn Half Marathon participants and their family and friends. All are invited to view historic artifacts, photographs, maps, ephemera and films of Coney Island’s colorful past.

Try out the “Cyclone Lounger,” designed by Red Hook’s Uhuru Design, made from ipe wood reclaimed from the Coney Boardwalk and inspired by the Cyclone Roller Coaster. The chaise lounge — which was debuted at BKLYN DESIGNS and was awarded “Best In Show” by sustainable design blog inhabitat.com — will be on display in the exhibition center under the Cyclone.

Uhuru designers Jason Horvath and Bill Hilgendorf will be there to talk about their “Coney Island Line” of furniture, sustainability and local craftsmanship.

Photo courtesy of Uhuru 

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Sustainable Designs at BKLYN DESIGNS in DUMBO this Weekend

This weekend, BKLYN DESIGNS will return to DUMBO for its eighth year. If it's anything like last year, many exhibitors will feature sustainable designs. A lot of buzz has been generated surrounding Red Hook-based Uhuru Design’s new Coney Island Line, created from wood reclaimed from the demolished Coney boardwalk.

Pieces in the line include the Cyclone Lounger (above), made to mimic the structure of the iconic ride; the Wonder Coffee Table, which also mimics the ride it’s named after; the Drop End Table (right), influenced by the Parachute Jump; and the Drum Lamp, which is inspired by concrete-filled oil cans around the Coney landscape.

Sustainable design blog Inhabitat.com will award the best green designs at the show with its second annual Editor’s Choice Awards. Will Uhuru get recognition for its innovative ways of saving pieces of Brooklyn’s history? (Last year, “Best in Show” went to Fort Greene-based designers Ecosystems, for the BADA table/chair.)

Photos courtesy of Uhuru Design

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EARTH DAY 2010

Every year since 1970, thanks to an idea by then-Sen. Gaylord Nelson, we’ve celebrated Earth Day on April 22. As eco-consciousness spreads, Earth Day has expanded into Earth Week, and even Earth Month. Below is a sampling of Earth events coming up throughout the borough:

Thursday, April 22 (Earth Day)

Green in BKLYN, 432 Myrtle Ave, from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.: Green in BKLYN’s B-Earth Day Celebration. Not only is it Earth Day, but it’s the first anniversary of Green in BKLYN, a green home goods store in Clinton Hill. Visit the shop for the day-long party, which will feature a book signing by Brooklyn author Leda Meredith, Clinton Hill-based Vandra Thorborn answering questions about composting, Brooklyn artist Claudia Pearson signing her children’s book, and an organic wine reception. Visit greeninbklyn.com for all the details.

OutPost Lounge, 1014 Fulton St. from 4 to 10 p.m.: GREEN BKSTYLE. The April Brooklyn Fashion Week designers move toward more sustainable marketing and production. Visit OutPost Lounge to shop and see the green fashions featured. RSVP required. Visit www.brooklynfasionweek.com for more details.

Word Bookstore, 126 Franklin St. from 7:30 to 9 p.m.: Author Emily Elizabeth Anderson will discuss ideas from her new book, Eco-Chic Home: Rethink, Reuse and Remake Your Way to Sustainable Syle. She will talk about projects that make the home stylish and eco-conscious at the same time, demonstrating a paper crane chandelier, a CD case light and plastic bag flowers. Free, RSVP encouraged but not required. Visit www.wordbrooklyn.com for more information.

East River Bar, 97 South Sixth St., 8 p.m.: Earth Day is Every Day After-Party. Time’s Up, NYC’s Direct Action Environmental Organization, will be holding a bike ride for Earth Day, starting at Union Square Park South and ending in a barbeque at East River Bar in Williamsburg. Wear green for the ride and after-party, which will feature a DJ, dancing and eco art show of ecological and environmental prints by JustSeeds Cooperative.

Saturday, April 24

Flatbush Food Co-op, 1415 Cortelyou Road from 9 a.m. to noon.: Plant swap co-sponsored by Flatbush Food Co-op and Sustainable Flatbush. Trade perennials and other plants, swap gardening tips and get started with a garden. You don’t have to bring something to take something. Rain or Shine. Visit sustainableflatbush.org.

Fifth Avenue Family Festival, Fourth Street at Fifth Avenue, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Puppetry Arts and the Park Slope Fifth Avenue BID team up to bring a family event to the neighborhood filled with crafts, games and giveaways. The event also has activities in celebration with Earth Day. Children can make puppets out of recyclable materials found in restaurants and stores located along Fifth Avenue, such as “pizza puppets” made out of pizza boxes from 7-Eleven. Free.

Audubon Center at Prospect Park, from 1 to 4:30 p.m.: Earth Day 40th Anniversary Celebration. Find out how Earth Day began and learn about how you can help nurture and preserve our planet. Calculature your carbon fooprint, bring old tee-shirts or sweaters to make a one-of-a-kind tote bag with Bags for the People, turn cereal boxes into wallets with Replayground, and Bash the Trash will be building recycled instruments and performing live. Free. Visit www.prospectpark.org for more information.

Brooklyn Flea, 176 Lafayette Ave (Saturday, April 24), and 1 Hanson Place (Sunday, April 25): Greenmarket’s Annual Flower Sales. Choose from hundreds of local, seasonal plants and flowers: annuals, assorted pots, bulbs, herbs, perennials, cut flowers, vegetable plants and more.

Sunday, April 25

McCarren Park, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.: The 3rd annual Go Green! Greenpoint! Earth Day Celebration. Event will feature vendors selling earth-friendly merchandise, organizations promoting earth awareness, school and community group participation, music, a health and wellness demonstration area, a recycling station and healthy food. Free. 

IKEA/Erie Basin Waterfront Park, One Beard St., from 1 to 5 p.m.: The Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy Enviromedia Mobile Earth Day Celebrations 2010. Activities include: catch and release fishing, live underwater video exploration, electronics and sneaker recycling, kite flight, tours of the mobile museum, refreshments and live music. Event will also feature a ceremonial launch of a giant floating “earth ball” to 100 feet, signifying the 100 percent commitment to mitigation of impacts on climate change and ocean acidification. Free, for more information call (347) 224-5828.

Ongoing

The Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge, 290 Conover St. at Pier 44: "A Thousand Thousand Slimy Things." April 23 to May 9, Friday to Sunday at 7 p.m. A “floating fantasia” of a show performed on a docked barge in Red Hook about a man floating on a shrinking iceberg, a smuggling sea captain delivering messages in bottles, and a marooned sea creature. They will all collide in a mythical place called Florida. All tickets $18 through SmartTix. Visit www.polybeandseats.org/slimy.html for more details.

Kingsborough Community College, 2001 Oriental Boulevard: 5th Annual Eco-Festival, April 27 to 30. Theme for this year is “Sustainable NYC.” Various speakers, film screenings, environmental books on display, an afternoon of poetry, music and fashion, a green trade fair and more. Free and open to the public. For more information visit www.kingsborough.edu/eco-festival.                                  

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DOT Announces Workshops For Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway

The New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) announced it will host a series of community workshops on the future of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway — a planned 14-mile bicycle and pedestrian path stretching from Sunset Park to Greenpoint. When finished, it will connect many existing parks and public open spaces along the waterfront.

With funding from Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez, the Greenway will enhance waterfront access, improve pedestrian and bicycle safety and increase recreational opportunities in these areas, many of which are along underused and difficult-to-access corridors. While portions of the plan have been implemented in sections — including along Columbia Street in Red Hook — DOT is currently conducting a master planning process to refine the project elements and to target gaps in the network. Feedback from the workshops will help the city identify goals for the DOT to work on with other agencies as it develops a long-term vision to implement in the coming years.

The series of four workshops includes one in each of the four waterfront community districts spanned by the Greenway. They will be held in collaboration with the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI) and the Regional Planning Association and are scheduled from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at these locations:

Downtown Brooklyn
Thursday, March 25
Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon St.

Sunset Park
Thursday, April 8
St. Michael R.C. Church, Fourth Avenue and 42nd Street

Red Hook
Tuesday, April 13
Red Hook Recreation Center, 155 Bay St.

Greenpoint/Williamsburg
Thursday, April 22
Brooklyn Brewery, 79 North 11th St.

RSVP to brooklynwaterfrontgreenway@dot.nyc.gov.

This announcement comes in conjunction with BGI’s sixth anniversary. Milton Puryear, Brian McCormick and Meg Fellerath incorporated as the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative in 2004. They envisioned the 14-mile off-road path spanning from Greenpoint all the way down to Bay Ridge to be multi-use and have different components.

According to BGI’s plan, the path will be between 20 and 30 feet wide in total, encompassing a 4- to 8-foot landscaped buffer between it and the street, a 10- to 12-foot bike bath, and a 6- to 10-foot pedestrian path.

BGI hosts monthly cleanups along the Columbia Street section of the Greenway. The next one will be on Saturday, April 22.

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Clearwater Lecture Tonight

Tonight at 7 p.m. at the Waterfront Museum in Red Hook (290 Conover St.), Captain Samantha Heyman and Captain/Shipwright Nicholas Rogers of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater will present "Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Launching and Restoration of the historic Hudson Sloop Clearwater."

Launched in 1969 after years of fundraising by singer Pete Seeger, the Clearwater sails the Hudson river, hosting public tours and school groups. The historic vessel's purpose is to educate about New York's waterways and the environment.

Next week, from July 30 to August 2, the Clearwater will be docking in Red Hook. For more information about the lecture or the ship, visit www.waterfrontmuseum.org or www.clearwater.org.

Photo courtesy of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater.

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Enviromedia Mobile Tours Brooklyn

This summer the Enviromedia Mobile, the "traveling nature and maritime museum on wheels," has been touring Brooklyn. On Saturday it visited Governors Island, and on Sunday it visited IKEA/Erie Basin Park. This photo was taken at Erie Basin Park, and shows Urban Divers members preparing a tipi for the day’s "Urban Trekker Tour 2009." The festival featured a variety of environmentally oriented activities, including an eco-cruise, birds of prey demonstration, catch-and-release fishing, live underwater video exploration and eco activities under the tipi.

Upcoming festival dates are: August 30 and September 27 at Governors Island, August 16 at Valentino Park, August 15 and September 13 at IKEA/Erie Basin Park, and July 26 at Bensonhurst Park. For more information about each day, visit www.urbandivers.org.

Photo by Mary Frost

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'New Views' Greenway Party a Success Despite Weather

Just got this from my friends over at the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI):

Over 200 supporters of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway came together on June 18th at IKEA’s Erie Basin Park in Red Hook to celebrate the Greenway’s progress and to recognize three honorees, all of whom have been instrumental in moving the greenway forward this year.

New Views 2009, the annual benefit hosted by Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI), was saved from the weather by quick action from the IKEA staff and BGI volunteers, who moved the entire event under the garage next to the new Greenway segment at Erie Basin Park. Rain and wind had ripped two tents and left standing water at the original event site two hours before it started.

Despite the weather, the evening was characterized by good humor. Jon Orcutt, Senior Policy Advisor to NYC DOT Commissioner Jeanette Sadik-Khan, introduced Christopher O. Ward, Executive Director of the Port Authority by saying, “I bet this is the first time Chris Ward was honored in a parking garage.” Mr. Ward, who during a prior tenure at the Port Authority was instrumental in helping the Greenway said, “I was involved in this project 15 years ago. I had no idea then that it would become as big as it has.” Mr. Ward and the Port Authority were recognized for making additional space available for the Greenway along Degraw and Van Brunt Streets.

Jeannette Nigro, Vice President for Economic Development of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce recognized IKEA Brooklyn and Mike Baker, Store Manager, on behalf of Carl Hum, the Chamber’s president. Ms. Nigro said, “We commend IKEA, Mike Baker, their entire team, the community residents who make up the IKEA staff, and Brooklyn Greenway Initiative for their investment in the Brooklyn waterfront, making it one of the most progressive green neighborhoods for residents and businesses in Brooklyn.” IKEA’s 6-acre Erie Basin Park, designed by landscape architect Lee Weintraub, includes a section of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway.

Teresa Toro, Transportation Committee Chair of Community Board 1 and one of last year’s honorees, introduced Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives (TA). She said, “TA Brooklyn Committee members play a major role in the efforts to improve the Pulaski Bridge, to implement the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists, to promote best practices for sharing the streets to all users and to minimize cuts in transit services for communities with limited transit options.” Mr. White acknowledged BGI by saying, “If all of our community partners were like Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, we’d have it all done by now.”

New Views 2009 honorees received an autographed copy of Walking Brooklyn by Adrienne Onofri, as well as a complete kit for repairing bicycle flat tires donated by R&A Cycles. Recycle-a-Bicycle also donated a BMX bike that was raffled off at the end of the evening.

The Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway is now a NYC DOT project. Preliminary design and engineering is expected to begin this year using federal funding secured by Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez. When complete, the greenway will be a 14-mile continuous landscaped route with separate paths for pedestrians and cyclists. Funding for planning the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway is provided by the New York Department of State Division of Coastal Resources with funds provided under Title 11 of the Environmental Protection Fund. The NYS funding is sponsored by the Office of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

BGI also announced the release of the second edition of A User’s Guide to the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway. Major funding for the greenway guide was provided by the J. M. Kaplan Fund, Independence Community Foundation, and Brownstoner. The guide is free and it can be requested by going to BGI’s website: www.brooklyngreenway.org.

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New Views Greenway Party Tonight

Despite the rain, New Views 2009, a benefit for the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, hosted by the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, will take place as scheduled tonight starting at 6 p.m. It will be at IKEA Brooklyn's Erie Basin Park (under a tent).

Online ticket sales have closed, but if you still want to go, $60 tickets can be purchased with cash or check at the door.

Manhattan-dwellers interested in going need not worry about getting home: a NY Water Taxi shuttle will depart from IKEA at 8:15 p.m. to take guests back to Pier 11 in Manhattan.

Recycle-a-Bicycle has donated a mint BMX bike for a special raffle, and the Transportation Alternatives Brooklyn Committee will be providing valet bike parking.

Should be a great night!

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Red Hook Renewable Energy Developer Gets First 100% Electric MINI E in New York

Renewable energy developer Beautiful Earth Group, based on Brooklyn’s Columbia Waterfront, has received New York’s first MINI E — MINI Cooper’s fully electric zero emissions vehicle — as part of a year-long field study of the new plug-in car (left). Eagle writer Caitlin McNamara reports here.

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New Views Greenway Party on June 18

My friends over at the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI) sent me the following press release about their upcoming Greenway benefit:

BGI will hold New Views 2009, its fourth annual benefit for the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, on Thursday, June 18, from 6-9 p.m., at IKEA Brooklyn’s Erie Basin Park (above). Join BGI’s Board, Host Committee and Greenway supporters for a Swedish smorgasbord, drinks and music along the first privately funded and maintained section of the planned 14-mile Greenway.

IKEA Brooklyn store manager Mike Baker will be honored as BGI’s Corporate Partner of the Year and Christopher O. Ward, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, will be honored as BGI’s Government Partner of the Year. Biking advocacy group Transportation Alternatives will receive BGI’s Community Partner of the Year award.

BGI, along with its partners and supporters, have had a great deal to celebrate this year, most importantly the commitment by the New York City Department of Transportation to develop a master plan for the full 14-mile Greenway route, which will then qualify it as a city capital project. Both the Erie Basin Park segment and the Columbia Street segments of the Greenway opened within the past year, and in April of this year, BGI announced an additional $2.5 million in federal funding secured for capital construction.

Tickets start at $60 and are available at www.brooklyngreenway.org. For questions, contact Brian McCormick at bmccormick@brooklyngreenway.org or (718) 522-0193.

Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative

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Hundreds of Trees To Be Planted In Red Hook This Weekend

At this point, there’s a lot of talk about what everyone should be cutting back on or eliminating from their lives to reduce their impact on the environment. But there’s at least one thing we always need more of: trees.

It’s estimated that one mature tree can absorb carbon dioxide at a rate of 48 pounds per year and release enough oxygen back into the atmosphere to support two human beings (coloradotrees.org).

Trees are not only good for reducing carbon emissions, they also provide shade to buildings. This reduces the need for air conditioning in the summer, curbing energy consumption.

Sounds good, right? But how do you plant trees if you don’t have a yard? Or, if you have a yard, where should you go to get trees? MillionTreesNYC has the answers for you.

An initiative started by Mayor Bloomberg as part of his PlaNYC program, with the New York Parks Department and the New York Restoration Project, MillionTreesNYC has an ambitious (if not obvious) goal: to plant one million trees in New York City in the next decade.

Drew Becher, executive director of the New York Restoration Project — which was founded in 1995 by Bette Midler — said that Midler proposed the MillionTrees idea to Mayor Bloomberg in the fall of 2006 to increase the tree canopy of the city.

So far, more than 200,000 trees have been planted in the city since MillionTrees was first implemented. And this weekend, Brooklynites have an opportunity to participate in a public tree planting — American Express “Make a Difference” Community Volunteer Day — at Red Hook Houses, a New York City Housing Authority development.

From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., community members who have signed up as individuals or in groups will work toward planting the 300 trees procured from tree farms within a 180-mile radius of the city, said Becher. “Anyone can do it, it’s open to the public,” he noted, saying that many volunteers bring their children to help out.

Working in groups of three to five, volunteers first dig holes for the trees. “You can dig up a lot of interesting stuff,” Becher said. They plant and water the trees, then clean up the trash in the surrounding area. “At the end, the space looks really nice.

“It’s a great community thing,” Becher continued, noting that volunteers who don’t know each other often work together to plant the same tree.

“All of our public tree plantings have been incredible,” Becher said. “It’s a great day, doing something great for the environment.”

To get involved in this Saturday’s tree planting — or any other upcoming plantings, Becher said there will be about 10 this spring — visit www.milliontreesnyc.org.

Plant Your Own

Can’t make it to a public tree planting? MillionTrees has another option for you. Its Tree Coupon Program was launched in April and continues through spring planting season.

Anyone interested can log on to the MillionTrees web site and download a coupon (or just click here) for 20 dollars off the purchase of a tree — a one-inch caliper or larger — at participating nurseries throughout the city.

The five participating nurseries in Brooklyn are the Chelsea Garden Center, Red Hook at 444 Van Brunt St.; Dragonetti Brothers at 1875 Ralph Ave.; the Gowanus Nursery at 45 Summit St.; Kings County Nurseries at 625 New York Ave. and Liberty Sunset Garden at 204-207 Dyke St.

“If you’re going to plant a tree anyway, why not get 20 bucks off?” asked Becher, who said that everyone who does plant a tree should visit the MillionTrees web site to register it and count it in the city’s goal of one million trees.

“If you plant a tree and then go see it 10 years later, it’s humbling,” Becher said. “Especially in these times, giving back to your community is a good thing.”

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Greenway Bike Tour This Weekend

This Saturday, May 2, the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI) will hold its seventh annual Greenway Bike Tour. It will be a 10-mile ride at a family pace, starting in Greenpoint and ending at Red Hook's waterfront.

Tour will include a restroom/water stop at Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, a loop through the Brooklyn Navy Yard and updates about the Greenway. Participants should bring a helmet, water, spare tube, sunscreen and a camera!

The meeting point will be at the northern end of Manhattan Ave. in Greenpoint.

Registration is required, but the tour is free. Send full name and contact info to ride2009@brooklyngreenway.org to register.

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Brooklyn Compost Project Is Finalist in 'Green Heroes' Contest

Out of submissions sent in from across the country, a small Brooklyn program based out of P.S. 146 — The Brooklyn New School — is one of ten finalists in the “Green Heroes” grant program given by the Clorox Company.

Clorox, which makes a line of natural cleaners called Green Works, has offered a $10,000 grant to the five winners of the competition, to be determined by online voting at greenworkscleaners.com/greenhero. Anyone can vote on the web site, as many times as they want.

The Brooklyn program, “Feed a Worm, Not a Landfill” was conceived by Matthew Sheehan, a former fourth-grade teacher at The Brooklyn New School and a Master Composter, certified by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Sheehan said that currently there are 15 worm composting bins throughout the school maintained by several teachers. However, this only allows the school to compost between 40 and 50 percent of its food waste. Sheehan’s goal is to compost 100 percent of the waste.

His vision for this large-scale composting is a series of Vermiculture Compost Systems (VCS), which will hold 80 pounds of worms. “The worms can eat about half their weight in one day,” he said. The school’s food waste will be put in a different bin for every day of the week, allowing it time to start composting before more food waste is added.

Compost generated from these bins will serve two purposes: it will be added to the school’s garden, and it will be bagged and sold to raise money for the school, said Sheehan.

Also included in the project proposal is a plan for a “shredder house” said Sheehan. Schools in general produce a lot of paper, and all the paper from P.S. 146 will be shredded and added to the worm bins as the carbon component, aiding in composting.

Sheehan, while dedicated to the school as a former teacher and the parent of a kindergartner, was hopeful that “Feed a Worm, Not a Landfill” will help the surrounding communities and be an example for other schools.

“We want to bring it to the wider community,” he said, explaining that, having volunteered at Added Value in Red hook, he hopes to partner with them during the project as well.

“This is something that could really benefit the city, no doubt,” Sheehan said of his program, especially in light of recent cuts of composting programs citywide. “If the city can’t do it we can do it ourselves.”

And with the right tools, anyone can do it, he says — “[my son] has his own worm bin at home.”

Photo courtesy of Green Works

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Greenway Pedals Forward

Almost 100 people packed into Speak Low Cocktail Lounge here on Monday night to acknowledge the tireless efforts of the three founders of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI) and those who have supported them for the past five years.

It’s BGI’s five-year anniversary, but its founders, Meg Fellerath, Brian McCormick and Milton Puryear (pictured above with Independence Community Foundation (ICF) Executive Director Marilyn Gelber), have been advocating for the Greenway for much longer.

“Myself and Milton have been working on the Greenway since 1998,” McCormick told the Eagle in December. “We were the chair and co-chair of an organization called the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway Task Force. Meg joined us about a couple of years later.”

The three of them incorporated as the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative in 2004. They envisioned the 14-mile off-road path, spanning from Greenpoint all the way down to Bay Ridge, to be multi-use and have different components. According to BGI’s plan, the path will be between 20 and 30 feet wide in total, encompassing a 4- to 8-foot landscaped buffer between it and the street, a 10- to 12-foot bike bath, and a 6- to 10-foot pedestrian path.

Because the route travels through many different neighborhoods and community boards, the first step was to enlist the support of these community boards and their officials.

The magnitude of the project required that it be split into pieces. The first piece was “the middle section, Community Boards 2 and 6 — the Brooklyn Navy Yard through Red Hook,” as Puryear described it. Next, they tackled the area in Community Board 1, Greenpoint and Williamsburg, and started setting up design guidelines.

“One of the purposes of the design guidelines was to try to come up with a scheme that would let you know that you were on the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway no matter where you were on it,” he continued. “But that also allowed each neighborhood to have a different feel in design quality. Unlike Hudson River Park, which is fairly uniform in terms of the Greenway design, we envisioned the Brooklyn Waterfront to really look good and feel different in different neighborhoods.”

Puryear told the Eagle that the next step for BGI would be to work with the city to develop what he called a “master plan for the whole 14 miles of the Greenway.” And now, this step is slowly approaching a reality.

BGI announced at the party that “the NYC Department of Transportation has committed to a producing a master plan for the entire 14-mile Greenway route — a major project milestone,” said McCormick. “This work will begin later this year.”

Also announced on Monday night were two more partnerships: one with the Horticultural Society of New York to launch a green-collar mentoring program along the Greenway route, and another with the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation to offer historic bicycle tours of the Brooklyn Navy Yard in the fall.

Upcoming events include the seventh annual Greenway Bike Tour, on May 2, and as usual, BGI will continue its monthly Greenway cleanups, which take place on a stretch of Columbia Street along the waterfront that was paved last summer. McCormick has called it the “non-designed interim Greenway,” and BGI has assumed responsibility for its upkeep.

“If people are going to use it and think it’s the Greenway, we need to do our part,” Fellerath said. The monthly cleanups along the street generate interest, build the community and “establish our presence on the Greenway.”

The next cleanup will be this Saturday, April 4. For more information or to RSVP, e-mail bmccormick@brooklyngreenway.org. To register for the 10-mile Greenway Bike Tour, send full name and contact information to ride2009@brooklyngreenway.org.

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Sloop Clearwater Coming To Dock in Red Hook

For eight years, Capt. Samantha Heyman (below) of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater (right) has wanted to bring her ship to Brooklyn. This summer, she will get her wish.

From July 30 to Aug. 2, the Clearwater (a 108-foot wooden replica of an 18th- and 19th-century traditional cargo vessel) will be docked near the Fairway Cafe in Red Hook, said Captain Heyman. Normally, the ship’s stay at any given dock would be two to five days, but in this case, “there is the possibility that it could be extended,” she said.

This particular dock is owned by Tom Fox, the president of New York Water Taxi. Heyman is grateful to him, as well as property owner Greg O’Connell, for their generous support.

She explained that the Brooklyn location for the Clearwater is ideal for many reasons. It has “the best fishing in the Hudson River estuary,” and is wide open enough for the wake from other boats “not to get too vicious.” When sailing in the East River, the ride can “become uncomfortable,” Heyman added, saying that sometimes the ship can even slam into its dock.

Heyman also wanted to dock the Clearwater in Brooklyn because “it’s a great community. We have a pretty loyal group of members in Brooklyn.” She said these members are so loyal they will take the subway for more than an hour to make it to docks in uptown Manhattan for a 9 a.m. departure.

The Clearwater is a “member-supported organization” and it needs this enthusiasm and loyalty. Which is why it held a benefit at the Brooklyn Brewery last week.

Heyman explained that she wants to raise money through “an initiative of small grassroots events,” like the one at the Brewery. For $20, people who went to the benefit heard several local bands, drank Brooklyn Brewery beer and ate food from a local deli.

“I want to do it again, we had such a good time,” Heyman said.

This kind of grassroots approach was “how Pete [Seeger] raised the money to build the boat in the first place,” said Heyman, referring to the singer’s mission in 1966 to get the public to care about threatened waterways by caring for one boat. The Clearwater was launched in 1969.

Today, children can take school field trips on the ship, which last three hours. The programs the Clearwater holds vary depending on the group, because students from fourth grade through college can sail.

The group of students usually ranges from 40 to 45, and when they get on the boat they help throw out a fishing net. They put the fish they catch into aquariums on the boat to study and learn about them. The Clearwater has a catch-and-release license, explained Heyman, who has caught starfish and even two sea horses in New York Harbor.

During the sail, students take turns steering the ship, they help raise the sail, and are divided into groups that visit stations around the vessel. They can learn the chemistry of the water, get close up to the fish they caught and see what it’s like to live on a boat.

Heyman explained that an overall lesson the students learn is how to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.

“When we turn the engine off and are only on the sails, we relate it to riding a bike instead of driving a car,” she explained. Seeing what life is like for the 17 crew members living on the Clearwater teaches students about conservation and living with less.

“Seventeen people can live in a situation with limited resources,” Heyman said. There are no napkins, paper plates or plastic water bottles. She wants students to see that “it is possible to live well without so much stuff.”

But you don’t have to be a student to board the Clearwater. Public sails are offered, where you can sign up with a group or come to just “relax and enjoy yourself” on the boat, she said.

And during every sail, Captain Heyman says that there is always a moment of complete quiet, where the group on the boat can sail in silence. This is to show students that their trip on the Clearwater isn’t just about learning, it’s about enjoying it too.

Photos courtesy of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater.

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