Tag: parks

North Brooklynites Demand Promised Parks

The Where’s Our Park coalition held a rally this past weekend to protest the lack of progress on the City’s promise to to bring more parks to the neighborhood.

‘Every community deserves access to open space — and North Brooklyn is no exception,’ said state Sen. Daniel Squadron. ‘It’s time for the city to fulfill its promise and make Bushwick Inlet Park a reality.’

Where’s Our Park?

The “Where’s Our Park?” protest event, organized by a handful of North Brooklyn community groups, was timed to coincide with the city-sponsored “It’s My Park Day” on Saturday, where more than 5,000 volunteers engaged in parks improvement projects citywide.

Instead, parks advocates marched from the N. Ninth Street soccer fields — the first and only working recreational field at Bushwick Inlet — up Kent Avenue to Quay Street, the site of a long-delayed museum.

Good quotes, too.

East River State Park Lights

People who live next to East River State Park aren’t happy about the solar lighting system installed by the State.

I don’t particularly like the poles either (it seems there are way more than are necessary, and they do seem a little bit randomly placed), but they are there so that everyone can use the park after dark.

(Actually, it seems that complainers aren’t happy about those lights or the soccer field lights at Bushwick Inlet Park, but the letter is a bit muddled on this.)

Ignoring the Waterfront That We Have

Tom Stoelker in The Architects Newspaper:

Now that Michael Marrella, who guided the massive waterfront plan, Vision 2020, into being last spring, has been bumped up to Director of Waterfront and Open Space Planning Division, he has miles and miles of shoreline to divvy up between two very different users—the public and industry. Charged with both implementing public access to the water for quality of life uses while also supporting a working waterfront, Marella made his position clear: “We’re not looking to relocate or displace industrial uses.”

The article notes that Con Ed is close to a deal with Brooklyn Bridge Park that will allow the Park to acquire a 5-acre site adjacent to the Con Ed plant in Dumbo. No mention is made of the two Con Ed-owned locations in Williamsburg – the transformer station to the south of 184 Kent and the former BRT power plan site just south of Division. Also not mentioned is why the City doesn’t development the parkland it has already created at Bushwick Inlet and along the Greenpoint waterfront, or why they City doesn’t develop land it already owns (and does not use for industrial purposes) like that at “Williamsburg Bridge Park”.

Drug Orgies on the Northside

09/21/2011 | 1 Comment

It would be hard to do, but in case you missed it, a resident of North 7th Street has posted videos of people huffing nitrous on North 7th Street after last Saturday’s Widespread Panic concert. I’d heard about these videos last night, but hadn’t seen them until just now. While I wouldn’t call this a drug orgy or any of the other hyperbole being thrown around, it is an inexcusable mess.

So – a few thoughts on this:

One, it sucks that this happened. Sucks for the resident(s), sucks for OSA, sucks for the NYPD and sucks for the concerts.

Two, this was exactly the opposite of my experience only one block to the north. I was at the concert that night – the first time I’d been to an OSA waterfront concert – and was generally impressed by the efficiency and professionalism of the security inside, the number of cops outside and the comportment of the crowd. I happened to leave via North 8th Street, where it was relatively quiet and there was a large police presence. The crowd was orderly and by no means out of hand (I left about half an hour after the show, so the throngs had moved on by that point), and the cops kept people moving out of the area. There were a lot of concertgoers in the bar I went to after, and all were well behaved. More or less more or less, the crowd behavior that evening was what I would expect from a post-Dead, post-hippie jam band’s followers (of which I am not one).

Three, I remember this coming up earlier in the year – residents complaining about people selling hits of nitrous out of the trunk of their cars after last year’s concerts – and thinking “Who the hell does that?”. Unfortunately, now I know.

And in case you did miss it, there is a lot more on this at various sites already (with plenty of comments):

From The New York Shitty Inbox: Saturday Night [NYShitty was there first]
These Widespread Panic Fans Aren’t Sucking On Balloons Because They’re Feeling Festive [Voice]
Video: People Casually Doing Nitrous On the Street in Williamsburg After Jam Band Show [Voice]
Video: Nitrous Oxide-Fueled Fans Terrorize Williamsburg Locals [Gothamist]
“POST-CONCERT DRUG ORGY MOB NIGHTMARE” AT WILLIAMSBURG WATERFRONT [Free Williamsburg]
Jam Band Show Turned Williamsburg Into Druggy Whippet Wonderland [NY Mag]
Post-concert open-air drug market in Williamsburg! [Brooklyn Paper]
Widespread Panic Concert Causes ‘Mayhem’ In Williamsburg (VIDEO) [yes, even HuffPo has reaggregated it]