NEWS FROM THE ORGANIZING ACRES
Melrose, Bronx – On Sunday, June 5 at 10:30 am, future Hill Street Gardeners will be meeting in the Community Room at 820 St. Ann’s Ave, right next to the hill, to see plans produced by 596 Acres’ pro bono design team based on the visioning session we hosted last month. Join them! Contact Victor (maldonvic@aol.com, 718-665-4281) to get involved or connect with neighbors here: http://livinglotsnyc.org/lot/6000020001/
Bedstuy, Brooklyn – Join neighbors (pictured above) organizing to transform the vacant lot at Malcolm X and Chauncey Street on Monday, June 6 at 7pm at Brooklyn Community Board 3’s general meeting at Restoration Plaza, 1360 Fulton Street. Contact Shadel at hrshreyalitee@streetpoetsnyc.com and sign up to become an organizer here:http://livinglotsnyc.org/lot/3016860048/
Bedstuy, Brooklyn – In 1968, the City planned the vacant lots that reach from Rochester Avenue to Suydam Place between Herkimer Street and Atlantic Avenue as a future Park & Playground in the Central Brooklyn Urban Renewal Plan, but neighbors are still waiting. Let’s make it real! One said to us last week, “I believe that they would make a spectacular Park for the entire block and community to enjoy.” Let’s make it so! Contact Chopp (chopp.stewart@thefutureproject.org, 904-405-6291), Denise (hamblin.inc@gmail.com, 917-601-4877) or one of the other organizers who shared their contact information on the lot’s page – http://livinglotsnyc.org/lot/58273/ – you too can sign up to organize!
Staten Island – On Saturday, June 18 at 9am, Harry and fellow gardeners are meeting NYC Park’s Department’s GreenThumb staff in front of a vacant lot on Sand Land near Humbert Street to finalize plans for the garden here. The Community Board is in support and neighbors have been waiting patiently since 2014 to make their garden dreams come true; this is the final step before Parks accepts jurisdiction! Come meet your neighbors and join them in making their plan for a garden here real. Sign up as an organizer here: http://livinglotsnyc.org/lot/58252/
NYCommons, STATEN ISLAND EDITION
Join 596 Acres, the Urban Justice Center Community Development Project, Common Cause/NY and the Let’s Rebuild Cromwell Community Coalition on Wednesday, June 8 from 7pm to 9pmat Brighton Heights Reformed Church, 320 St. Marks Place.
We are hosting this workshop to educate neighbors about the pending Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP) application by the Department of City Planning to approve the disposition of public health center on Stuyvesant Place, this parking lot on Central Avenue, and the Jersey Street Garage, all currently public real estate assets, to private developers; also in DCP’s application is the Bay St Corridor Rezoning, which includes the potential transfer a stretch of City-owned water front, a potential park on Front Street, to a developer for building housing towers. Find out more information and sign up as an Organizer on any of the pages linked above or connect with Let’s Rebuild Cromwell Community Coalition on facebook or by emailingletsrebuildcromwell@gmail.com.
The City’s Scoping Hearing, at which key decisions about these proposed actions will be made, will be on Wednesday, June 15 at 6pm at 309 Saint Pauls Ave., Staten Island. Save the date to come out and be heard by the City officials who work for us!
LOTS WITH ACCESS
Bedstuy, Brooklyn – This Saturday, June 4 at 11am, help Myrtle Village Green gardeners build tables, turn compost, move dirt and plant flowers! The garden is located on Myrtle between Franklin and Kent. Stay connected on the MVG facebook, here.
Brownsville, Brooklyn – Also Saturday, June 4 from 1pm to 4pm, high school youth from the Nature Conservancy and East New York Farms! internship programs will be having a community work day to reactivate the newly revived Warwick Greenery Glow Garden, on Warwick Street between Blake and Dumont. They would love and welcome local residents from the neighborhood and Warwick Street to help and get plugged into the long-term stewardship of the space! Come by on Saturday at 1pm if you’re interested! Contact Milton (718-564-3013) or Miguel (347-500-9945).
Bedstuy, Brooklyn – The Fresh Food Box returns to 462 Halsey Community Garden on Saturday, June 4 where you can get a $12 deal for an assortment of fruits and vegetables each week. Fresh Food Box is an initiative offering weekly bags of locally-grown fruits and vegetables in collaboration with GrowNYC. More information here.
Bedstuy, Brooklyn – Also starting this Saturday, June 4 at 10am, Patchen Community Square, on the corner of Patchen and Putnam, is starting a Fitness and Gardening Workout class every other Saturday. Join them! More information here.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn – Java Street Garden‘s annual Spring into Summer party is next Saturday, June 11! Stop by Java Street between Franklin and West for a bite, to take a chance on a raffle prize or to listen to some music. The garden is looking lovelier each day, we hope to see you out there! More information here.
COLLABORATORS
Jamaica, Queens – Join the Rochdale Village Library Learning Garden Project to help plan a new mini-botanical garden on the library grounds and learn about garden design! They will meet on Saturday, June 11, 1-2:30pm, 169-09 137th Avenue, Jamaica, Queens.
GREEN FOR YOUR GREEN
Check out our list of micro grants and resources that can help you make your project a reality AFTER you have access to your lot.
On May 23, Merrick Marsden Community Garden in Jamaica, Queens finally reopened as protected open space! It has been serving the community since 1967, but was recently threatened with extinction by the Tax Lien Sale – though tax debt should have never been owed on this not-for-profit owned property in the first place. The property was saved by a local fundraising frenzy and because of 596 Acres, which referred the local organization to Mohen & Segal LLP to defend a foreclosure action brought by the Tax Lien Trust, and then in a transfer of the property to the Brooklyn Queens Land Trust in January 2014.
596 Acres’ Paula Segal explains in a CityLimits editorial how the lien sale puts community land at risk. Sign the petition asking the Mayor to keep community property and vacant land out of the tax lien sale here.
It’s working!
596 Acres
