Brooklyn Entrepreneurs Share Values and Space In ‘Co-working’ Building

From the outside, 33 Flatbush Ave. doesn’t look like much. Someone passing on the sidewalk might not even notice it. But on the inside, the building is anything but ordinary.

Al Attara acquired the building around 30 years ago and began filling it with salvaged materials. Now he’s adding start-up businesses.

Three floors of the structure are managed by different companies: Ecosystems, Green Spaces and Interboro. Each of these companies leases space out on the floors to start-up businesses, creating a co-working environment. Ecosystems and Interboro created separate entities — Treehouse (above) and MEx, respectively — under which they rent space.

“Treehouse is a co-working initiative,” said Ecosystems co-founder Andrew Personette. “This is a place where people can come and work together and share resources. We offer the cheapest possible way to have an office outside of your home with all the resources you need.”

For approximately $250 a month, an entrepreneur can bring in their laptop and work, taking their things with them at the end of the day. For around $400, that entrepreneur can have a permanent desk space. “If you have more than one person in your company, it’s slightly discounted for each additional person,” Personette explained.

Which floor a business is assigned to depends on what kind of business it is. Ecosystems, being a sustainable design firm, hosts businesses through Treehouse that are geared toward design: graphic design, furniture design or web design, for example. Green Spaces hosts green entrepreneurs and MEx hosts architecture and urban planning businesses.

Personette said that as of now, there are at least 50 start-ups working out of the building, maybe more. There is a media company called Good News Broadcast, which only reports on good news, a fair trade coffee bean importer and a company that does carbon trading, among many others.

Because there are so many different businesses of different natures, the benefit of working in this space isn’t the price, it’s the shared experiences. “You just hear how so many different people handle their start-ups,” Personette said. “It’s really the right place to be if you’re a start-up because everyone here has the same energy, the same questions.”

All the furnishings are provided by Attara, who has a seemingly endless supply of found objects, ranging from an antique wheelchair, a metal donkey from a game on Coney Island, a spotlight from an old theater in Brooklyn, and several cast iron bathtubs.

There’s so much Attara has collected over the years that the second floor and the basement of the building are completely filled. He built a working kitchen on the fifth floor that is shared by all the tenants, and has everything he would need to build a restaurant if he wanted.

“You could call him a junk collector, but man, he’s got really good taste,” Personette noted. “The whole building is about reclaiming, recycling and creative re-use.” In fact, one of Treehouse’s tables is a granite slab.

Everything in the building is shared among its tenants: space, the kitchen, internet, printers and a wood shop on the second floor.

The wood shop is mainly for small-scale production. “We do everything it takes to get to the point of manufacturing. So, designing, prototyping, all the evolutions of thought processes to get to the product, but then we don’t do large production runs here in this building,” Personette said.

While this co-working community has done so much in such a short time (only a few years), there still is a long way to go. One goal for the future is to create an entity to encompass the building. And also to make sure all the floors have proper heating.

Personette said there will be rooftop farming in the near future. “We already have somebody signed up to raise bees on the roof and gather their honey. We’re planing to make this a really productive space,” he said.

And even farther in the future, “Al would like to share ownership with the inhabitants of the building,” Personette said.

“What’s going on in the building is amazing. As a whole this is totally rare, I don’t know of any other places where there’s a building owner saying ‘Let’s make this amazing.’"

Click for information about Treehouse, Green Spaces and MEx.

Photo courtesy of Treehouse

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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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Make Brooklyn Bloom This Weekend

Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) presents Making Brooklyn Bloom, the Garden’s annual community horticulture event and spring gardening kick-off day on Saturday, March 7.

For 28 years, BBG has produced Making Brooklyn Bloom — an event that has grown more popular as it has become increasingly resonant with the borough’s citizens. This year’s theme is “Growing Up Green: Guiding Youth From Gardening to Green-Collar Jobs.”

Making Brooklyn Bloom ’09 is devoted to engaging youth in gardening as a way to mobilize the “greening” of urban communities and pave the way to “green-collar” careers, especially through growing fresh food. The free event offers ... read more.

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Recycle Old Clothes

According to the Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC), 5.7% of NYC's residential waste is textiles, even though they are recyclable. So instead of throwing old clothes away, you can drop them off at a CENYC textile collection. There are collections at the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket (at the north west entrance to Prospect Park) on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information on what you can recycle and locations in Manhattan, click here.

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A Lifelong Lover of Nature, Park Slope Resident Challenges Herself to Eat Locally

Leda Meredith is a culinary adventurer. From foraging for greens as a child; to cooking meals with a kitchen made only of a heating coil, a cutting board, a pot and a mug; to spending a year eating only food produced within a 250-mile radius of her Park Slope home, it seems as though she’s done it all.

Her memoir, Botany, Ballet and Dinner from Scratch, was published late last year and chronicles her career as a dancer and her passion for nature. It is an inspiring story, peppered with recipes from her life. If you don’t already belong to a CSA and eat as locally as possible, you’ll want to after reading her book.

“I wanted to share the connection that food has always given me with community and nature, and hopefully to inspire people to find their own similar connections,” she said.

Meredith begins her narrative with fond memories from her childhood, spending time with her great-grandmother and her grandmother, whom she lived with in San Francisco. Every spring, the three would gather wild greens from the park across the street from their home. “We stuffed our plastic shopping bags with dandelion greens, wild mustard and Claytonia,” Meredith wrote.

Her Greek grandmothers would prepare the fresh greens with garlic and olive oil and feast on them together. These experiences every spring were a basis for the passion Meredith has as an adult, to eat locally.

“When I began to get involved in the local food movement, I realized that I already knew what it meant to eat locally and seasonally because in many ways that was what I had done with my grandmother and great-grandmother as a child,” she said.

This tradition with her grandmothers also inspired Meredith to try and do the same, with a childhood friend. The two girls collected dandelion buds, which didn’t amount to much because they were out of season, then sautéed them in butter and had them with Meredith’s parents. She also fondly recalled an overgrown garden she used to spend time in which she called “Blackberry Hill.”

At 16, Meredith moved from California to New York, on a full scholarship to American Ballet Theater’s school, and began her career as a dancer. She traveled the world and became very resourceful when cooking meals on tour.

During five weeks spent in Paris, Meredith had a hotel room to herself. “I bought a heating coil, a plastic cutting board, a small aluminum pot and a mug,” she wrote about the experience. “With my Swiss army knife, plus a fork and a spoon pilfered from the hotel restaurant, I had a kitchen.”

She even cooked a Thanksgiving meal for herself and some friends in Switzerland. Because ingredients traditional to this meal cannot be easily found in Switzerland (things like a turkey to feed 12, cranberries and pumpkin), Meredith had to work hard to track them down, eventually ordering a turkey from Zurich.

“Some of my best memories are of those kitchens on the road,” she wrote.

Over the years Meredith has taken food-related ventures others wouldn’t even dream of. She drank mint tea — steaming water and mint leaves — in Slovenia and gathered cronewort plants to make wreathes that are said to protect the homes they are hung in.

‘The 250’

In late summer 2007, Meredith began a mission to eat food from only a 250-mile radius of her Park Slope home. She called it “The 250” and started a blog to chronicle her experience. She canned and jarred food, made sauerkraut, tracked down dry beans and flour produced in New York, and even harvested a wild mushroom from the ground on Long Island.

Today, even though her year of eating locally is over, Meredith continues the challenge. “My diet is still mostly local, but not as exclusively as during The 250,” she said. “What I discovered during The 250 was that not only is eating local better for the environment and small local farms, it is also fabulous food. By definition the ingredients are fresher and perfectly in season. Why would I want to eat any other way?”

And hasn’t only impacted the way she eats. The 250 has permeated other aspects of Meredith’s life. “It has made me much more aware of how my daily choices impact the world around me, not just food but things like whether or not to buy new things,” she explained.

Meredith’s own personal quest has also led others to eat locally. “My dad has started going to his local farmers’ market, and several friends have joined CSAs and say I inspired them to do so,” she noted. “I’ve gotten wonderful responses from readers who were inspired by the book, including some who’d never cooked before but went ahead and made some of the recipes in the book.”

For any readers who want to start their own local eating diet, Meredith has the following advice: “Go to the Greenmarkets, join a CSA — you can find one near you by going to justfood.org — if you can, grow some food in a garden or even on a window sill. Visit localfork.com and check out the Locavore's Guide to New York City.”

As she wrote in her final chapter, “I wanted to find out what this region tasted like. I didn’t count on falling in love with it.” You might just fall in love with it too.

Botany, Ballet and Dinner from Scratch was published by Heliotrope Books. Meredith’s second book, What Here Tastes Like, will be available later this year.

Photos courtesy of Leda Meredith

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Giving New Life to Old Clothes

Do you have a sweater sitting in the back of your closet that you can’t bear to get rid of, but it’s out of style or doesn't fit? Kat O’Sullivan has a solution for you: cut it up and make a new sweater.

She visits thrift stores — she has a route of about eight, all on Long Island — and buys old sweaters. After washing them, O’Sullivan sews pieces from several recycled sweaters together to make new clothes. She crafts patchwork sweaters, sweater dresses and hand warmers.

O’Sullivan said she likes to experiment with her sweaters,, and calls them “easy, fun and pleasing.” Her designs are bright, colorful, whimsical and one-of-a-kind. Most of the sweaters have hoods and some have zippers. “They have so much more character because you get pieces that have stories ... it’s like saving orphan clothes.”

It’s also “environmentally friendly to re-use clothes,” she said. “It’s a nice little way to recycle.”

In her own life as well, O’Sullivan is conscious of the environment. “I try to consume a lot less, and bring bags to the grocery store,” she said. “I don’t buy anything new — furniture or clothes.”

She also hitchhikes when she travels, which she does frequently. O’Sullivan has been to Ireland, Ecuador, India, the Philippines and many other places. She toured with the Grateful Dead, accompanying them on 200 shows. In a couple of weeks she will go to Mongolia, where she will hitchhike around the country.

“I kind of throw myself in and let the waves tumble me,” she says of her travels.

But it was touring with the Dead where O’Sullivan started selling her clothes, making patchwork dresses. Over the years since then she has continued sewing clothes but started making her patchwork sweaters only three years ago.

She calls her line of recycled sweaters “upcycled” clothes, which is a term for the process of taking waste items and turning them into items of greater value.

These days, when she’s not traveling, O’Sullivan sews out of her Greenpoint home. She has lived in many places before — even in her school bus, which is completely furnished — but will now be in Brooklyn for the long haul. “I was living in Manhattan,” she said. “Coming to Brooklyn was such an exhale.”

She sells her sweaters exclusively online now; on handmade online marketplace Etsy and through her own web site, www.katwise.com. But O’Sullivan used to sell her sweaters out of “a crazy school bus” on a street in Manhattan’s East Village, which calls “awesome,” until the police shut her down.

“It’s really fun to bring things back to life and then send them out to the world,” she said. “I’m triumphant that I’ve given something new life.”

Photos courtesy of Kat O’Sullivan

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Solar Event at Southpaw

This coming Tuesady, February 24 from 7:30 – 11 p.m., Solar One will host “I Heart PV: Party for a Solar Powered New York” at Southpaw in Park Slope. This is a new monthly event where New Yorkers can come to have all their solar power questions answered and get involved in local solar activism.

There will be opportunities to ask local solar installers questions one-on-one about purchasing, installing and owning a solar system in New York, and a solar powered toy car building contest.

For more info, go to solar1.org.

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