News from the Acres: On Our Way!

NEWS FROM THE ORGANIZING ACRES
On March 8, South Bronx residents, SoBRO staff, and 596 Acres’ Paula Z. Segal met with Department of Transportation Bronx Commissioner Constance Moran to agree to work together towards turning a huge abandoned roadbed in Melrose into Hill Street Community Garden! Are you a neighbor who wants to get involved? Join us as an Organizer: http://livinglotsnyc.org/lot/6000020001 or email Victor at maldonvic@aol.com to get involved!

Prospect Lefferts, Brooklyn – Neighbors are urging NYC Parks to acquire the Maple Street Community Garden, a crucial community space, for permanent preservation. Now is the time to let City Council Member Mathieu Eugene know this is important to you: sign this letter, then connect with the organizers: http://livinglotsnyc.org/lot/3050300072/ or email maple3garden@gmail.com to plug in.

Flushing, Queens – Several neighbors are organizing to transform a city-owned vacant lot right to the east of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park! Are you a neighbor who wants to be involved in this campaign? Become an organizer here: http://livinglotsnyc.org/lot/4063910024/ or contact Alishia at alishia0220@yahoo.com or 718600121 to get involved. She will be making a presentation about the potential of a garden here to Queens Community Board 7 on Monday, April 11 at 7pm. The meeting will be at the Union Plaza Care Center located at 33-23 Union Street, Flushing, NY 11354. Mark your calendar and come support!

Bushwick/Bed Stuy, Brooklyn – Daniel is looking for other neighbors who want to turn a space on Willoughby Avenue and Stuyvesant Avenue into a garden. Want to join? Become an organizer here: http://livinglotsnyc.org/lot/3015890058 or email Daniel at daniedrankwalter@gmail.com.

Rockaway, Queens – A Rockaway-based doctor, Nancy, is gathering support for the creation of the Rockaway Labyrinth Project, a public meditation space on NYC Parks property at Beach 78th Street, between Shore Front Parkway and the Boardwalk! She wants to hear from folks who want to help make this meditation labyrinth real. Become an organizer here: http://livinglotsnyc.org/lot/6000040006/ or email nancygahles@gmail.com.

JOIN US!
Trenton, NJ – This Friday, March 18, 2016, 2-3:15pm, Paula Z. Segal will be part of a conversation on opportunities for urban land conservation at the 2016 Land Preservation Rally in Trenton, New Jersey, facilitated by Isles, with Olin Studios (Philadelphia) and the Greater Newark Conservancy. The Greater Newark Conservancy facilitates community gardens on vacant public land. Last year, when the City of Newark held a Valentine’s Day land sale, several active garden sites were sold to private individuals without the knowledge of the Conservancy or the gardeners. The sites were sadly lost, highlighting how tools that connect municipal plans with land stewards remain acutely necessary

Bronx – 596 Acres will lead workshops on “Organizing ourselves: the basics of working in groups” at this year’s GreenThumb’s GrowTogether gathering, 11:30 am to 12:45 pm and 2:15 pm to 3:30 pm this Saturday March 19, 2016, at Hostos Community College, 450 Grand Concourse, Bronx, New York 10451.

Manhattan and Brooklyn – On Saturday, April 9 at 1pm at Elizabeth Street Garden in Little Italy (entrance on Elizabeth Street between Prince and Spring), join 596 Acres and Public Space Party for Gardens are Community, Community Spaces in Jeopardy Ride. We will start in Little Italy and head through the Lower East Side into Brooklyn to visit gardens in danger of disappearing. Event details here.

LOTS WITH ACCESS: GETTING READY FOR SPRING!
Greenpoint, Brooklyn – Java Street Community Garden garden workday is on Saturday, March 19. Join them on Java between Franklin and West to get the garden ready for spring!

Greenpoint, Brooklyn – 61 Franklin Street Community Garden is having an open enrollment and member meeting on Wednesday, April 6 at 7pm at the garden. Stay in the loop here!

Flatbush, Brooklyn – Q Gardens is getting ready for spring! Are you a neighbor? Email qgardensinfo@gmail.com to get involved.

Harlem, Manhattan – Membership for the 2016 season is open at Saint Nicholas Miracle Garden! Enjoy communal and individual plots, composting, garden event space, and community. Join or renew your membership here. The Garden is also preparing for its concert series, which will resume in April or May. If you are interested in playing in one of these family-friendly shows contact the gardeners here or email stnickgarden@gmail.com.

COLLABORATORS
The Hell’s Kitchen Farm Project, an urban rooftop farm in Hell’s Kitchen, is looking to contract an Urban Agriculture Specialist for the 2016 season to consult with us on growing techniques and related expertise for this spring. Proposals are due by March 25. For more information or to submit a proposal, email Tiffany and Joe at info@hellskitchenfarmproject.org or call (212) 594-4464.

Urban geographer Jack Eichenbaum is leading two upcoming walks: On Sunday, April 10, the New World of the Number 7 Train walk will explore what the 7 train has done to and for surrounding neighborhoods since it began service in 1914. On Sunday, April 30, the Right-of-Way of the Flushing Central Rail Road walk will go through parkland and pleasant residential neighborhoods from Central Flushing to Fresh Meadows on the phantom rails of the railroad that ran from Flushing to Hempstead for only a few years in the 1870s. Walk details are here.

Want to see where all the 1000+ lots New York City has been warehousing as “urban renewal” are? Comptroller Scott M. Stringer describes the situation really well here. 596 Acres mapped it for you last year here: http://www.urbanreviewer.org/

ON THE ROAD, AN EVENT RECAP
São Paulo, Brazil: 596 Acres’ Paula Z. Segal was an invited expert for a weeklong workshop with municipal employees, academics and activists in São Paulo last month: Public Policies for Transitional Spaces. What an amazing honor and what incredible company from around the world! The event coincided with the launch of Lanchonete.org‘s print publication Grow Your Own Food: a guide to urban faming for urban occupations of Latin America at the Centro Cultural da Ocupação São João. That guide was inspired by 596 Acres’ own New York City Advocate’s Guide to Community Land Access from our print archive. You can see the full PDF here (you’ll see us in the credits if you look really, really closely).

Just Food Conference, NYC: 596 Acres and the NYC Community Garden Coalition (NYCCGC) facilitated a Campaign Action Session: “Communities Protecting Growing Spaces in NYC” last Sunday. Gardeners who are currently facing the potential loss of their spaces told their stories including folks from East Harlem’s Friendly Garden and Pleasant Village Community Garden, Little Italy’s Elizabeth Street Garden, Bushwick’s Eldert Street Garden, and Prospect-Lefferts’ Maple Street Garden. Gardeners and the Brooklyn Queens Land Trust (BQLT) told their stories of success in preserving their green spaces in their neighborhoods including members of Brownsville’s Ten Neighbors Garden, Crown Heights’ 1100 Bergen Street Garden, Bed Stuy’s 462 Halsey, Lower East Side’s Siempre Verde, and Jamaica’s Merrick Marsden Neighborhood Association Garden. Photos here. Sign the petition to save Maple Street Garden HERE!

Next System, NYC: Last weekend, 596 Acres also co-sponsored the Next System Project’s 2016 Conference where Paula Z. Segal facilitated a session, From Open Data to Collective Action: Living Lots! and lots of collaborators also presented (including the NYC Real Estate Investment Cooperative!).

Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Making Brooklyn Bloom: On Saturday, 596 Acres, the NYCCGC and Farming Concrete taught participants strategies for conveying the importance of their gardens in a workshop: “What’s So Great About Your Garden?” (photo).

Nanjing, China: Right now, 596 Acres’ signs and posters are included in Silk Road International, an exhibition by the Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts (AMNUA) from March 4 to 31. The exhibit explores contemporary art practices from around the world that engage in political economy practices with both operation systems and ideologies. Event details are here.

GREEN FOR YOUR GREEN: DEADLINE COMING UP QUICK!
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.

Community organizations in Harlem, Canarsie and Brownsville have been invited to partner in starting new farms on NYCHA campuses! Organizations will get paid up to $50,000 per year for supporting the development of these new projects. Partners are NYCHA, Green City Force and the Fund for Public Health in NY. Applications due March 25, 2016.