Grants for Neighborhood Parks Groups: Upcoming Capacity Fund Deadline

Applications for Partnerships for Parks’ Capacity Fund grant program, are due on June 2nd, 2008. Applications must be received (not postmarked) by 6 p.m. on June 2nd.

Partnerships for Parks' Capacity Fund provides grants to groups working in parks across the five boroughs of New York City. The Capacity Fund supports projects that help build a community group's capacity to care for their local park. Grants range from $250 to $5,000. Strong applications will improve a group's ability to care for their park, put on programs and events, or expand collaborations with other neighborhood groups. We fund new groups seeking funds for startup costs (setting up a mailbox or voicemail, paying postage for a mailing, etc.), as well as established organizations taking on new projects (bulletin boards, outreach events or activities, fundraisers, mailings, or brochures).

Examples of potential projects include, but are not limited to:
Website, newsletter, letterhead, or other outreach efforts;
Special events or programs, if the group can show how this support would be a sustainable investment in their stewardship efforts; or
An outreach publication produced by Partnerships for Parks.

Please visit www.partnershipsforparks.org to find an application form and guidelines. For more information, call Kate Louis at (212) 227-3626 or email kate.louis@parks.nyc.gov.

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New to fundraising? Attend a Capacity Fund Consultation!

49 Chambers Street, Room 1027, Manhattan, 10007

Wednesday, April 30th from 3-5 p.m.
or
Tuesday, May 6th from 6-8 p.m.
or
Thursday, May 8th from 10 a.m.-12 p.m.

In lieu of our usual Capacity Fund Information Session, we will be offering Capacity Fund Consultations for potential grant applicants. Consultations with fewer attendees allow for more interaction and discussion amongst applicants, so come prepared to network and share your ideas! Sign up for a consultation to learn about what kinds of projects qualify for Capacity Fund grants. We will discuss Capacity Fund guidelines and review case studies of projects that have successfully secured funding in the past. Groups will receive tips about how to prepare a strong proposal and feedback about their project ideas.

Registration is required. To register for a consultation, please call Kate Louis at (212) 227-3626 or email kate.louis@parks.nyc.gov.

Fort Totten Plans Proceed

Fort Totten development marches on
BY DONALD BERTRAND
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, January 15th 2008, 4:00 AM

Fort Totten Park, a 50-acre site transformed from a former Army base will continue to be developed as both a historic site and as a shorefront green space, officials said last week.

The Queens Borough Board received an update on the plans for the borough's newest park from landscape architect Nancy Owens at its monthly meeting on Jan. 7.

The board, chaired by the borough president, includes the Queens City Council delegation and community board chairpersons.

An $850,000 renovation of a historic ordnance building into a museum and visitors' center is complete and the center is receiving exhibits.

"The Urban Park Rangers are creating historical and environmental exhibits for the building and we will be scheduling an opening soon," said Parks Department spokeswoman Abby Lootens.

"Some of the things available at the visitors' center will include hands-on exhibits for children and Civil War replica uniforms, as well as artillery, maps, pictures and other historical information," Lootens said.

Also on the to-do list is a tram that will be powered by an alternative fuel and is scheduled to be in operation by the summer.

"The tram will make the property more accessible to all park users, including those in wheelchairs," Lootens said.

Also scheduled is the demolition of 19 buildings and the construction of a passive recreation area in the northern portion of the park.

It will be outfitted with new lawns, paths, benches, a drinking fountain, new lighting, new native trees and a bioswale, which filters contaminants from storm water.

Next on the priority list will be a study of the sea wall. Also under study is the possible installation of a comfort station, veterans' garden and a performance area.

Design improvements to the chapel and the addition to the offices of the Bayside Historical Society of an elevator for the disabled are underway, Lootens said.

The historic battery has been renovated and was opened to the public in June 2005. The Fort Totten pool, formerly operated by the YMCA, opened to the public last summer.

In December a new fire marshal base opened.

The new base is in a three-story, 12,000-square-foot building with interview rooms, a holding cell, a kitchen, a conference room and office space. A fire marshal office at Fort Totten was closed in 2003 amid citywide budget cuts. The fort is also home to the 77th Regional Readiness Command of the U.S. Army Reserves.

dbertrand@nydailynews.com
© Copyright 2007 NYDailyNews.com.
All rights reserved.

Andrew H. Green Memorial Event

The Manhattan Borough Historian's Office Cordially Invites You to

THE FIFTH ANNUAL
TRIBUTE TO ANDREW H. GREEN, NYC'S FORGOTTEN CIVIC GIANT

Borough President Scott M. Stringer & Historian Kenneth T. Jackson are Among Those Scheduled to Speak.


Join us in Central Park on Sunday, November 18th as we raise a toast to Andrew H. Green, the unsung 19th century master planner, reformer and preservationist whose influence was so far-reaching that some historians describe him - in a good way - as "the Robert Moses of the 19th Century."

Scheduled speakers include Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer; Prof. Kenneth T. Jackson, editor of the Encyclopedia of New York City; Bill Pearson, a Green family member; and Michael Miscione, the Manhattan Borough Historian. (Other speakers to be announced.)

This is a milestone year for Mr. Green's legacy. 150 years ago, the state legislature created the Board of Commissioners of the Central Park. Under Mr. Green's leadership, the commission became New York City's first comprehensive planning body and the tool with which Mr. Green transformed New York. Central Park, Riverside Park, the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the street grid and improvements north of 155th Street, and - most importantly - the scheme for consolidating the five boroughs owe their existence directly to the visionary planning that Mr. Green pioneered through the commission.

Light refreshments will be served.


WHEN:

Sunday, November 18, 2007 at 12:00n.

(If inclement weather threatens, check www.andrewhgreen.net that morning at 9:00a for event status.)

WHERE:

The Andrew H. Green Memorial Bench, inside Central Park at about 105th Street.

Note: The bench is extremely difficult to find and is not marked on most park maps. Follow the directions below or consult the map at www.andrewhgreen.net .

COST:

Free and open to all. No reservations required.

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE EVENT:

Contact the Manhattan Borough Historian's Office at (212) 669-8089 or boroughhistorian@manhattanbp.org .

LEARN MORE ABOUT MR. GREEN:

Visit www.andrewhgreen.net .

DIRECTIONS TO THE ANDREW H. GREEN MEMORIAL BENCH:

From the East Side: At Fifth Avenue and E. 102 Street, enter the park via the automobile entrance road. Bear right, merging on to the main drive. Continue walking north on the drive for about two blocks. When you come to the standing three-sided map on your left, turn left on to the wide, well-paved crossover road that heads to the West Side. Take an immediate right on to the blacktop footpath that heads uphill. Bear right as you walk along the footpath. The bench is at the top of the hill.

From the West Side: At Central Park West and W. 100 Street, enter the park via the automobile entrance road. Bear left, merging on to the main drive. Continue walking north on the drive for about two blocks. Before the drive crosses a stone bridge, turn right on to the wide, well-paved crossover road that heads to the East Side. This road will be marked with an "Authorized Vehicles Only" sign. Continue down this road, passing a little police kiosk on your right. Just before the road intersects with the main east drive, turn left on to the blacktop footpath that heads uphill. Bear right as you walk along the footpath. The bench is at the top of the hill.

See the Ridgewood Reservior in its current state - and help save its future

The Newtown Historical Society (NHS) will be leading a walk at the Ridgewood Reservoir on the Brooklyn-Queens border this Sunday, October 28th at 1pm.

Here is a short video on the history of the reservoir, it's current state, and what we hope it will become in the near future: http://ridgewoodreservoir.blogspot.com/2007/10/ridgewood-reservoir-video.html

The Ridgewood Reservoir Education and Preservation Project, a committee of the NHS, is dedicated to educating the public about this little-known spot and convincing the Parks Department, who owns the site, to keep it in as natural a state as possible while restoring some of the historic features of the reservoir, such as its 2 pump houses and the cast iron fences that line surround each basin and date to the Victorian era. The Parks Department is considering clearcutting 22 acres of forest in basin #3 of the reservoir in order to "improve" it with asphalt and artificial turf ballfields for active recreation. This despite the fact that the rest of the park has these amenities which have not been maintained over the years by Parks, and in conflict with its million trees initiative.

All those interested are welcome to attend. Council Members Avella and Addabbo are expected to join us. To get to the parking lot, take the Jackie Robinson Parkway from either direction to Exit 2, Vermont Place, and follow signs to Highland Park. The lot will be on your right side. Refreshments will be provided.

What Does PlaNYC mean for Parks?

From Partnerships for Parks, www.partnershipsforparks.org

Please join us at a special event at the Arsenal Gallery in Central Park.

On Monday, October 15 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., join Adrian Benepe, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, as he answers the question: What does PlaNYC mean for parks?

Commissioner Benepe will discuss the $1.2 billion allocated to Parks & Recreation through PlaNYC, a sweeping roadmap to the sustainable growth of New York City, and how these projects will affect park volunteers like you.

Parks improvements will include planting one million trees, greening 800 traffic triangles, opening playgrounds and ballfields around the City, and designing and constructing eight underdeveloped regional parks: Soundview Park in the Bronx; Calvert Vaux (formerly Dreier-Offerman) and McCarren Parks in Brooklyn; Fort Washington and Highbridge Parks in Manhattan; Highland and Rockaway Beach Parks in Queens; and Ocean Breeze Park in Staten Island.

Please RSVP to Clare.Donegan@parks.nyc.gov or (212) 360-1357 with your name, telephone number, and event date.

We hope that you will join us on October 15. Thank you for your continued efforts on behalf of New York City parks!

The Arsenal Gallery is located at 64th Street and Fifth Avenue, on the 3rd Floor of the Arsenal Building in Central Park (N/R/W trains to Fifth Avenue or 4/5/6 trains to 59th Street).

Capacity Grants for Parks Groups

Capacity Fund Grant Proposals
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deadline: October 1, 2007
Partnerships for Parks's Capacity Fund provides grants to groups working in parks across the five boroughs of New York City. The Capacity Fund supports projects that help build a community group's capacity to care for their local park. Grants range from $250 to $5,000.

Strong applications will improve a group's ability to care for its park, put on programs and events, or expand collaborations with other neighborhood groups. We fund new groups seeking funds for startup costs (setting up a mailbox or voicemail, paying postage for a mailing, etc.), as well as established organizations taking on new projects (bulletin boards, outreach events or activities, fundraisers, mailings, or brochures). Guidelines and application available at http://www.partnershipsforparks.org/ .
For more information, contact Kate Louis at kate.louis@parks.nyc.gov or (212) 227-3626.

Park Views = High Prices

It's always been the case that proximity to parks is desireable for a multitude ot reasons. But this article draws some lines which are uncomfortable to say the least - how far is it from "located by Central Park" to "exclusive access to Central Park"?

From the New York Sun

City's Parks Attract Exciting Residential Development
BY MICHAEL STOLER
August 30, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/61584

While some of the new residential development around New York City is likely to suffer from a drop in demand due to the credit crunch and Wall Street jitters, one bulletproof corner of the market is apartments in close proximity to New York City parks, which are selling at record prices. Apartments adjacent to parks in Manhattan, which include Central Park, Madison Square Park, Gramercy Park, and Carl Schurz Park, and in Brooklyn near Prospect and Brooklyn Bridge parks, are selling at premiums of at least 25%.

Last month, Mayor Bloomberg launched the first phase of the Schoolyards to Playgrounds Initiative, an $111 million investment toward the improvement of schoolyards, which will significantly advance his PlaNYC goal of having every New Yorker live within a 10-minute walk of a park or a playground. The PlaNYC initiative includes a $1.2 billion investment in the city's parks and open spaces that would create new parks and recreational facilities and rehabilitate many existing park facilities.

Many of the 44 million visitors who travel to New York City this year will visit Central Park, a famed National Historic Landmark that is the most visited park in America. Residents of New York City and visitors who have a desire to own residences near Central Park are willing to pay record prices, in certain instances in excess of $3,000 a square foot.

A number of new condominium developments are in various stages of development all around Central Park.

A History of McCarren Pool preservation efforts

From the New York Press

As McCarren Park Pool becomes a hipster playground, it prepares for a new beginning
By Brian J. Carreira

You can hear the bass from the subway station eight blocks away. Wander down Lorimer Street under the BQE, and the sound grows more distinct until it dominates the air. You fall in line with the hipsters in big sunglasses and tight jeans, ambling as if on a pilgrimage toward the noise. The slim and stylish thread around the block is waiting for drink wristbands being distributed under the great red brick arch of McCarren Pool in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Likely unbeknownst to many in attendance that day, the long closed pool has been the center of bitter neighborhood battles for well over 20 years.

Last year, Jelly NYC, an events promotion company, began throwing free concerts at the long-shuttered space, and it continues to attract a few thousand bored and beautiful to the big empty hole in the ground each weekend with indie bands, dodgeball and slip ’n’ slide in the sun. It’s incredible to see the basin of “master builder” Robert Moses’ former jewel filled with a throng of affluent folk swaying to a rock beat. But big changes are afoot for the pool. Last week the Landmark Preservation Committee unanimously designated it a landmark, and Mayor Bloomberg pledged $50 million to transform this pool into a year-round multi-use structure as part of PlaNYC 2030. This will perhaps finally bring an end to a storied fight over the pool’s future that has raged in the neighborhood since it closed in 1984 amidst concerns by many locals over crime and unhealthy conditions.

The city closed down all 10 of the big pools in 1984 to perform major renovations in anticipation of their 50th anniversary, but Greenpoint residents had other ideas for McCarren. Some in the then predominantly Polish and Italian neighborhood blamed the pool’s problems on the newer, often black and Latino people coming to use it. Crying, “outsiders out,” locals demanded that McCarren Pool remain closed, and it was even slated for demolition in 1988. The pool became a convenient vent of resistance in the community to new Latin American immigrants and the first stirrings of gentrification that were fueling discontent in insular North Brooklyn.

Phyllis Yampolsky was working with the Parks Department at the time and was given the task of getting the structure taken down. As a resident of the neighborhood, she decided to see the pool for herself and was awed and inspired by the prominent edifice anchoring the east side of McCarren Park. She wondered if its demise could be reconsidered. The Community Board, the Parks Department, and the local City Councilman’s office were all “lined up” against re-opening the space and wanted to take it down. She recalled that her wave-making made her an “enemy of the people” in the eyes of some neighborhood leaders.

Yampolsky and other advocates found allies in the art and architecture community who noted that McCarren Pool is one of the finest examples of quality and aesthetics of the WPA period. The architect I.D. Weston saw the similarity in design that the pool and its bathhouses bore to the Roman baths of Caracalla in Italy. It was the New York City Arts Commission that provided the basis for the first victory for pool advocates, noting that those in favor of removing the pool needed a specific plan as to what would replace it. It is illegal to demolish a public building otherwise.

Removing the specter of demolition did save the pool, but it also fed fuel to the animosity between opponents and advocates, leaving the structure to rot for years as groups battled over its future at Community Board and Parks Department meetings. Fights ensued over repairing parts of the roof and other issues, but there was still no agreement on what to do with the space. In 1994, Yampolsky and others formed the McCarren Park Conservancy. They began considering a renovation that involved a smaller pool and other structures, including a bandshell to make the facility income-producing.

Finally, seven years later, in April 2001, the Community Board unanimously approved a compromise plan with a multi-use facility that was to begin construction the following year. But the World Trade Center attacks and the subsequent shift in priorities to the city budget meant there were no funds for the proposal and the pool sat unused behind a padlocked fence for four more years.

In October 2005, the dance production company SENS opened the pool for a site-specific performance called Agora. Modest renovations were done to make the space safe for the dancers and spectators, but the fundraising efforts of Agora opened the door to Clear Channel Communications’ concert production company and the next controversial, if interim chapter in McCarren’s history. Beginning the following summer, the pool opened for free summer concerts as well as some pricey big-name concerts put on by Clear Channel spin-off, Live Nation.

The mayor’s money has pool advocates confident that these large, loud concerts will soon be a thing of the past. “It’s not going to be the concert venue that it is now,” notes Joseph Vance of the Open Space Alliance, an organization expected to partner with the Parks Department for the renovation and subsequent administration of McCarren Pool. “There will be a pool with water in it,” he adds.

The Parks Department has indicated their commitment to this as well. “We always had concerts as an interim activity until we could reconstruct the pool,” said Parks spokesman Philip Abramson. The Parks Department also declined Clear Channel’s interest in a multi-year lease at McCarren. At the moment, both the Clear Channel and Jelly NYC contracts are only through this summer.

In June, residents of Greenpoint and Williamsburg gathered at a forum to solicit community input that Parks and Recreation has pledged will be included in their plan for the renovated facility. Suggestions ranged from creating a sandy beach to heating the pool in winter using geothermal energy to a space for urban kayaking. Ideas more likely to be seen in a final design include an amphitheater for movies and concerts, an ice-skating rink, indoor event spaces and a skate park.

The meeting, which comes months before preliminary drawings will be released to the public this December, is the city’s attempt to curb the epic in fighting that has plagued progress with neighbors on the issue in the past. “We’re trying to build consensus,” claimed Brooklyn Commissioner Spiegel. Given past financial setbacks, they also want to move quickly on the promised funds, hoping to begin construction in Spring 2009.

Attendees at the forum seemed pleased with it and excited about the future. “I’ve lived here all my life,” said Community Board Chairman Vincent Abate. “It’s a dream come true.”

“I think it was truly a historic milestone event in the community,” agreed Vance.

At the end of July, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the pool as a historic landmark. The Parks Department supported this status, and it is in keeping with their stated purpose to create a new facility that elicits the pool’s old grandeur. Nonetheless, it puts another reviewing body between McCarren and its future.

Walking by the pool on a weekday, you get a better sense of what was lost by 20 years of prejudice and grudge matches. A rusting fence guards the crumbling building as weeds snake up the brick walls and shoot between cracks in concrete steps. The pool should be more than an occasional space for the amusement of hipsters. The city’s plan to redeem the old space as a true community facility is laudable and long overdue.

Online Resources about Dutch Houses of Brooklyn

People who have been keeping track of this sort of things know that there are approximately 14 Dutch (or English-Dutch) farmhouses still existing in Brooklyn (depending on how you count), and not all of them landmarked.

John Antonides talks about his experience in restoring one of them (the Hubbard House in Gravesend) at http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/community/blogosphere/bloggers/2007/07/18/this-old-house/

There's also a convenient map of the remaining houses and some links (including one to the text of Maud Ester Dillard's seminal 1945 work, "Old Dutch Houses of Brooklyn"

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/community/blogosphere/bloggers/2007/07/19/dutch-houses-in-brooklyn/

And of course there's my personal favoritye, the Wyckoff Bennett Homestead which, at long last, is in the process of being acquired by the City as a park.

Report from Saint Savior's - complete with confronting tree-killers and heart-rending pictures of a denuded landscape

Over 40 people showed up to an emergency press conference held at Saint Saviour's Church in Maspeth to protest the destruction of dozens of mature and stately trees. Queens Crap has it all in living color - http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2007/07/residents-protest-rape-of-st-saviours.html, including a video of one of the tree-killers being confronted by protestors, followed by the police coming to issue a citiation. Two HDC Advisers were present and the follwoing statement was read on our behalf:

July 13th, 2007

The ongoing destruction of the old growth forest at the former Saint Saviour's Episcopal Church in Maspeth, Queens demonstrates the continuing lack of concern by certain elected officials in New York City over the importance of this historic site and complex.

Designed by Richard Upjohn and constructed in 1847, Saint Saviour's served in a religious capacity until 2005, when it was sold to a development group (Maspeth Development, LLC). The desecration of this site, including the purposeful neglect and damage done to the Parish House last winter as well as the current clear-cutting of the site this week, is an example of the undercutting of New York City's historic neighborhoods and sites by its own elected government.

By refusing to landmark the church and site, citing that the building had been damaged in a fire in the 1970s and was recently reclad in vinyl siding, the Landmarks Preservation Commission under Mayor Bloomberg has endangered one of the most important complexes of religious builidings in New York City. Jablonsky Berkowitz, a firm which specializes in assessing historic buildings concluded that most of its historic fabric, including decorative wood shingles and other Gothic Revival details, was intact underneath the vinyl siding, easily removed in a day or two. Any Upjohn building within the boundaries of New York City should have been given the utmost consideration by the LPC, which it clearly was not.

By refusing to purchase the church and site for a park and community center, Mayor Bloomberg has denied this community, which is one of the least served by public parkland in New York City, a chance to both preserve its heritage and adaptively re-use a sacred site. Here is a natural place for a park, in a part of New York City that is woefully underserved. It is a two-acre, naturally occurring park. The administration has sat on its hands and done nothing as this special place is being destroyed, despite massive community protests. Additionally, there has been absolutely no public process to determine the future of this special place.

By working solely with the owner/developer - and not with the surrounding community - Councilman Dennis Gallagher has shown that he has been deaf to the cries of the community and the people of Maspeth. Were it to be executed, the "compromise" that has been brokered with the owner/developer will destroy the integrity of the site and profoundly negatively impact the environment of Maspeth. And, his approval, tacit or not, of the destruction of these old-growth trees is abominable.

This is not good government, and it is not good for New York City.

Very Truly Yours,

Paul Graziano
President,
Historic Districts Council

Arborcide at St. Saviour's

Large, mature trees more than a hundred years old are being cut down at Saint Saviour's.
See http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2007/07/parkside-pinky-urge-violation-of.html for horrifying photos of this massacre.
The whole situation has gone over-the-top. The local Council member, Dennis Gallagher, who is currently being investigated by the police on charges of sexual assault, allegedly gave the developer permission to cut down the trees. It is known that CM Gallagher has been negotiating with the new owner to develop residential housing on the site while the community has actively requesting the site to become a park - a prospect that is put in jeopardy by this tree slaughter.

Walking Tour of a Vanished Village

Please join LANDMARK WEST! and friends for

Reconstructing Seneca Village: "Manhattan’s First Significant African American Community"
A Walking Tour with Cynthia Copeland, Nan Rothschild and Diana Wall
Wednesday, July 25, 2007 (rain or shine)
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Meet at 6pm sharp at the Mariner's Gate, southside of 85th Street and Central Park West. There will be a reception following the tour hosted by Halstead Properties, 408 Columbus Avenue, corner of 79th Street.

To make sure we start on time, tickets must be purchased in advance. Please send a check
for $25 to LANDMARK WEST!, 45 West 67th Street, New York, NY 10023 no later than Friday,
July 20. For information, you may also email us at landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org. Space is
limited.

Unbeknownst to many who frequent Central Park, an African American community called
Seneca Village once existed in the Park between 82nd and 89th streets. The fascinating story of how African Americans came to acquire property in the area as early as 1825 will be told by accomplished urban archaeologists. Our guides will take us back in time to help us imagine how Seneca Village functioned, how it looked and how it evolved from undeveloped property to a vital multi-ethnic community of 264 people by 1855. We will be able to picture, in our minds’ eye, the homes, churches, cemeteries and the school that served the community before the Village was razed in 1856 to make way for the construction of Central Park.

Cynthia Copeland, curator at the New York Historical Society, Nan Rothschild, Director of Museum Studies at Columbia and Diana Wall, Professor of Anthropology at City College, have worked together to determine the feasibility of conducting an archaeological dig of an area in Central Park that was once Seneca Village.

The 2007 Naumburg Orchestral Series Begins on Tuesday

Join the first Naumburg Orchestral free outdoor concert in Central Park with Chen Tao's Melody of Dragon, presenting traditional Chinese music and a work by celebrated composer Tan Dun.
The New York Times called Chen Tao a "poet in music" and his playing "a miracle of the oriental flute".
Hosted by WQXR's Jeff Spurgeon, the concert will be held next Tuesday, June 26 at 7:30pm at the Naumburg Bandshell on the Concert Ground in Central Park located south of the 72nd Street cross-drive. Admission is free. No rain dates.
For information log on to www.naumburgconcerts.org.
See you at the Bandshell.

Speak out about the High Bridge

The City of New York/Parks & Recreation (aka the Parks Department) Needs to Hear from You!

Come Talk About Your Vision for the High Bridge

Wednesday, June 20, 2007
6:30 p.m.
Highbridge Recreation Center
Amsterdam Avenue & 173rd Street
Manhattan

Reopening the High Bridge to connect the Bronx and Manhattan is one of Mayor Bloomberg's goals to improve the livability and economic vitality of New York City over the next 25 years.
Parks & Recreation will begin design of the restoration of the bridge in Fall 2007. Come meet and discuss your priorities for the bridge. No RSVP needed.

For more information, contact Joseph Sanchez,
High Bridge Catalyst Coordinator, Partnerships for Parks, (212) 927-5864.

Eulogy for the Purchase Building

From the New York Times

May 20, 2007
Streetscapes Old Fulton Street, Brooklyn
From Ghost Town to Park Gateway
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY

At the foot of the street, a boisterously ornate ferry terminal went up in 1865, but the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 drew away much of the traffic. Merchants gradually left, and in 1891 the bank building closed. By 1898, No. 11 Old Fulton Street was a lodging house.

The ferry ran until 1924, and its majestic gingerbread terminal burned the next year. Little else of architectural interest happened until 1937, when the Works Progress Administration built a low art moderne warehouse for the New York City Department of Purchase, directly under the Brooklyn Bridge and opposite Pete’s Downtown. Approved by the New York City Art Commission, it was designed by Michael J. Mongiello as a long, sleek piece of streamlining with strip windows and orange brick. The roof was specially designed to resist damage from debris falling from the bridge.

The 1939 W.P.A. Guide to New York City said that although the area had once been a “charming hamlet,” it had become “a sort of Brooklyn Bowery, with flophouses, small shops, rancid restaurants, haunted by vagabonds and derelicts.”

In 1977 the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the five-block Fulton Ferry Historic District, including both sides of Old Fulton Street. The designation report compared the Purchase warehouse with the great Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea.

In 1993, the city had Medhat Salam, an architect, supervise a $1 million renovation of the Purchase building, which included repairing roof damage caused by falling hubcaps and other debris. In recent years, the building had been used by the city’s Office of Emergency Management and currently by the chief medical examiner.

Over the last five years Dumbo has become as expensive as Brooklyn Heights. But right next door, Old Fulton Street is still just that — old.

Most of the storefronts are empty, although pizza lovers sometimes stack up outside Grimaldi’s (formerly Patsy’s) at No. 19. The ferry dock can be crowded when New York Waterways starts ferry service — this year, that happened in late April — but generally the brick row has an old-time, melancholy air.

The proposed Brooklyn Bridge Park is a joint city-state project, and the city’s parks commissioner, Adrian Benepe, says the old Purchase building blocks the view from the foot of Old Fulton to the vista upriver. So, in 2001 the planners proposed the demolition of the building to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and it approved the proposal last year.

The Historic Districts Council and other preservation organizations went up in arms at the idea that a protected landmark was to be demolished for the stated reason of improving the view, but to no avail.

Mr. Benepe said the demolition of the Purchase building would begin in the fall.

Warner Johnston, a spokesman for the Parks Department, said that the site would become open parkland and that the department does not believe objects falling from the bridge pose a hazard.

The building is now nearly invisible, surrounded by a chain-link fence threaded with metal slats. So the curious will have to peer through them to appreciate the “before” before it becomes an “after.”

E-mail: streetscapes@nytimes.com

Happenings in Clinton Hill

Society for Clinton Hill May General Meeting
Wednesday, May 16, 2007, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m., (refreshments at 7:00, meeting 7:30)
St. Luke's Church, Parish House, Washington Ave. (DeKalb/Willoughby)

AGENDA
7:30 House Tour Report – Jim Barnes & Linda Scher. (A great success that broke all previous records!)
7:35 Clinton Irving Jones: Brooklyn in 1900, by David Sokosh, Photographer

Jones was a photographer who lived on Steuben Street, in Clinton Hill, early in the 20th century. Working with the City History Club of New York, Jones documented a Brooklyn of Dutch farmhouses, barns and mills which was fast disappearing in 1900 and is all but non-existent today. In 2006, Jones' work was the subject of two New York Times articles and two exhibitions at Sokosh's Underbridge Pictures Gallery in DUMBO, Brooklyn. This presentation is made possible in part by a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council.

8:15 Zoning and Historic District Update

8:30 ANNOUNCEMENTS:

SUPPORT the DDDB Legal Fund which is now working to protect our brownstone neighborhoods through the courts. There are critical cases on the abusive use of eminent domain to take private homes for the benefit of a billionaire developer, and the severely inadequate Environmental Impact Study done by Ratner consultants for the proposed Atlantic Yards project. These lawsuits are the only thing standing between our neighborhoods and massive over development with the degrading environmental impacts. Visit DDDB online at www.dddb.net or mail your contribution to DDDB Legal Fund, 121 5th Ave., PO box 150, Brooklyn, NY 11217.

IT'S MY PARK DAY, Sat., May 19, 10 AM to 1 PM. A wonderful way to spend a few hours, do some good for our historic, once beautiful and now over-used park, meet some really nice people, and put your hands in the soil to plant flowers, or on the paintbrush to decorate trash cans. Sponsored by Fort Greene Park Conservancy, PUPS, and Citizens for NYC. Meet at the Visitor Center at the top of the park.

SOUTH OF THE NAVY YARD ARTIST'S STROLL, Sat./Sun., May 19 & 20. noon to 6 pm both days. Visit the studios of artists from Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, Wallabout and Bedford Stuyvesant. For more information contact www.sonyaonline.org or call 718-857-5696.

GARDEN TOUR, Sunday, June 3, 2007, 11 AM to 5 PM

The self-guided walking tour includes gardens in Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Prospect Heights. Tickets: $15 advance; $20 day of tour. Tickets at Tillie's. Info:718-707-1277

BROOKLYN CONTEMPORARY CHORUS, Sunday, June 4, 2007, 4 PM

Spring Concert: Purcell, Bach, Mozart, Bobrowitz & Porter. Adults $15/Children $7.50. Lafayette Presbyterian Church. For information: www.brooklyncontemporarychorus.org

This is our last general meeting until September! Consider joining a committee or nominating yourself or someone else to the board now. We need your participation. Contact us through the website www.societyforclintonhill.org

South of the navy yard artists studio stroll 2007
Ft Greene, Clinton Hill, Wallabout, Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
Saturday, May 19 & Sunday, May 20
Noon to 6:00 pm
both days, rain or shine

PRELUDE EXHIBITION
SONYA's ElevenTen Gallery
1110 Fulton St., bet. Classon Ave. & Franklin Ave.

April 26 – May 28
View a sampling of works by artists on the Studio Stroll.
Open Wed. – Fri. 6:30 – 9pm, and weekends by appointment.
Open Stroll Weekend, Sat & Sun, noon to 6pm.
Free and open to the public. Over 100 artists exhibiting work at 31
locations. With over 1000 great works of art at affordable prices, you can easily
start or add to your own art collection.
Preview the artwork at http://www.sonyaonline.org .
Start any place you'd like and plan your own tour! Look for the yellow banners and posters bearing the SONYA logo.

Bon Appetit! Stop in at any one of the restaurants in our neighborhood, known
for incredible culinary variety and excellence.
Information 718-857-5696
subway stops
G train: Fulton St., Clinton Washington, or Classon Ave.
C train (local): Lafayette Ave, Clinton/Washington, or Franklin Ave.,
M, N, Q, R train: DeKalb Ave or Atlantic Ave.
M, N, Q, R, W, 2, 3, 4, 5, Atlantic Ave./Pacific St.
2,3,4 trains: Atlantic Ave.
buses
B25, B26, B38, B45, B48, B52, B54 & B69

Help Fort Greene Beautify its Park on It's My Park! Day
Saturday, May 19th,10am – 1pm

Meet at the Visitor Center.

Help plant flowers in the entrance gardens and paint trashcans with images of the park.

Call 718-722-3218 for more information.

Hosted by the Fort Greene Community Group of Park Slope Presbyterian Church, PUPS, and the Fort Greene Park Conservancy.

St. Saviour's of the Future? What the Site Could Be...

From the Juniper Park Civic Association

St. Saviour's plans unveiled

by Christina Wilkinson

The St. Saviour's Parsonage is an architectural gem all its own. The JPCA has unveiled an architectural rendering of what the St. Saviour’s Church and Parsonage will look like after both they and the historic grounds upon which they sit are saved and fully restored. The rendering, by Marcelo Orihuela of Todocad, is based on the original design of the church. It is the only known representation of the buildings that shows them in their previous state and in full color.

St. Saviour’s was covered in gray asphalt sheeting from the 1950s through the mid-1990s. In 1997, layers of white aluminum siding were added.Last year, when the demolition of the church commenced, removal of these layers revealed that most of the original board-and-batten structure designed in 1847 by Richard Upjohn was still intact underneath. Luckily, JPCA was able to have the site shut down before further damage was done. There currently are portions of the original church structure that are exposed.

This underlying structure was referred to in decades-old newspaper accounts as being made of "redwood," and the wood revealed does have a reddish hue. Therefore, this is the color upon which the rendering was based.The landscape is that of a rolling hill containing 185 trees (yes, we counted each one individually).

Click here for hi-res copy: St. Saviour's architectural rendering

As the city moves toward implementing Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to have a park within 10 minutes walking distance of every city resident, the Juniper Park Civic Association urges them to consider that this area was left out. A good way for the mayor and city council to spend some of this year’s $4.4 billion budget surplus would be to purchase this much needed green space for the people who live and work here.

High Bridge to be Re-Opened

From Joseph Sanchez & Ellen Macnow, Co-Chairs (Ellen.Macnow@parks.nyc.gov )
High Bridge Coalition Steering Committee

On Earth Day, April 22, 2007, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the High Bridge will be restored and reopened. Congratulations and thank you to all High Bridge Coalition members and friends!

Below is a portion of the text from the Mayor’s speech.

We also have to allow New Yorkers more opportunities to play the sports they love and enjoy the exercise that is essential to a healthy lifestyle. How do we do it? We will create new recreational facilities across every borough, for soccer, baseball, cricket, and more. We will open 290 schoolyards as local playgrounds. We will increase the hours of use at 39 fields by installing lights. We will cover 25 asphalt fields with artificial turf that will allow for greater use. We will reclaim eight large sites that were designated as parks decades ago but never completed. And we will also begin the most ambitious "street-greening" initiative in New York’s long history. The first installment in what will become a $250 million investment in nearly a quarter-million new trees on New York City streets – as well as a new public plaza in every community.

Taken together, all these initiatives will give New Yorkers the new open space and the outstanding recreational opportunities we will need for decades to come. They will ensure that, by 2030, virtually all New Yorkers live just a short walk away from a park.

One of the eight large parks we will be upgrading merits special attention, and I want to mention it today: Highbridge Park in Washington Heights. The park is named for the High Bridge, which was completed in 1848 to carry water from the Croton Reservoir across the Bronx and into Manhattan. It is one of our City’s oldest bridges – but it has been closed to pedestrians for decades, a glaring symbol of a time when New York failed to preserve its historical treasures. It’s time to fix that.

And that’s why we are committing to re-open the bridge, benefiting communities on both sides of the Harlem River. The High Bridge aqueduct was part of a water supply system that remains an engineering masterpiece – now delivering over a billion gallons of water, pure water, every day, to more than nine million people.

The High Bridge Coalition looks forward to continuing to work with the Department of Parks & Recreation to restore the bridge using historic preservation principles, to make it fully accessible for wheelchair users, and to connect it to New York City’s Greenway System. Please join us as these plans are prepared and the restoration begins to get off the ground!

Read the Mayor's complete speech or watch the video at www.nyc.gov : http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2007a%2Fpr120-07.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1

Peck Slip Redo Coming to Consensus

From the Downtown Express

City stops to plant flowers in Peck Slip plan

By Skye H. McFarlane

Though two big regulatory hurdles still lie ahead, park advocates and preservationists appear to have reached an agreement on the redesign of Peck Slip.

“We’re very restricted on this site, but…I think we’ve reached a good compromise,” said John Fratta, chairperson of Community Board 1’s Seaport Committee, last Thursday.

The former boat slip in the northern reaches of the South Street Seaport, which currently serves as a de-facto parking lot, is slated for conversion into a public park. However, the granite cobblestone-paved slip lies within both city and national historic districts, meaning that the design for the space must be approved by both the city Landmarks Preservation Commission and the State Historical Preservation Office (which reports to the national register).

Because preservationists have said that putting trees, grass or other plantings in the slip could degrade its historical, industrial character, the Parks Department’s original design contained little greenery. The architects opted instead for a sunken granite plaza, designed to look like the remnants of a lost ship.

The plan was soundly rejected by the Seaport Committee in March. Neighborhood residents said the design was cold and unwelcoming, that it would become a haven for skateboarders and street fairs, and that it did not meet the needs of a growing, park-starved residential population.

Though the board’s resolutions carry only advisory weight, the Parks Department voluntarily agreed to postpone its hearing with the L.P.C. At meetings arranged by former C.B. 1 district manager Paul Goldstein and his current boss, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, the Parks Department hammered out a new design with a group of C.B. 1 members.

The new design includes two new planting beds with bushes and some flowers on the western end of the triangular park. Benches and rib-shaped traffic bollards that had been made of granite and steel, respectively, were changed to wood to make them look “warmer.” More trees were added to the southern side of the park and the small fountain at the center of the plaza was made more prominent.

Though some park proponents are still calling for a grass lawn on the site and some preservationists would still prefer a treeless, European-style piazza, all but seven members of C.B. 1 signed on to the compromise plan at Tuesday’s full board meeting. In addition to approving the revamped design, the board’s resolution called on the city to restrict events and street fairs within the future plaza.

The new design will go before city Landmarks on April 24. If the necessary approvals come through, the Parks Department expects to complete the new Peck Slip plaza sometime in mid-2009.

“We’ve taken two viewpoints that we really diametrically opposed and we’ve managed to bring them together,” said Roger Byrom, who heads the community board’s committee on landmarks. “This really reflects the desire of the Parks Department to hear what we want.”

Skye@DowntownExpress.com

Morningside Park A Scenic Landmark?

From amNewYork

Community seeks bump in status for Morningside Park
By Vera Haller
amNewYork Editor

April 9, 2007
Rugged in both topography and reputation, Morningside Park in upper Manhattan is poised to get the respect its supporters say it has long deserved.

Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission will hold a hearing on the city Parks Department's request to give landmark status to the narrow park built on a rocky bluff of Morningside Heights.

Perhaps not known to many New Yorkers, Morningside Park was designed by the 19th-century landscape architectural team of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, whose better-known creations included Central Park and Brooklyn's Prospect Park.

Its location on a cliff overlooking Harlem is dramatic -- as are the jutting rock formations, the steep staircases and the views from the upper promenade. The park has a waterfall, several statues (including a whimsical "Bear and Faun" fountain), ball fields, basketball courts and a dog run.

It was the subject of intense controversy in 1968 when plans by Columbia University to build a gymnasium in the park sparked violent student protests that ultimately led to construction being halted.

If granted landmark status, any changes to the park would have to be reviewed and approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The park was long plagued by drug activity and a reputation for being unsafe, but residents say they have noticed improvements in recent years. "The park is a reflection of the area changing," said Aloma Moore, 65, who noted the new housing and buildings under renovation around the park's perimeter.

Commuters now cut through the park to get to the subway stop at Cathedral Parkway and Central Park West, something they did not do in years past, said Brad Taylor, president of Friends of Morningside Park, a community group that funds and carries out improvements to the park.

Taylor said the neighborhood, including Community Board 9, has embraced the city's request for landmark status. "Everyone just realizes this is long overdue," he said.

After Tuesday's hearing, the commission will vote on the landmark request on a date not yet set.
It has been nearly a quarter of a century since a city park was granted landmark status -- Fort Tryon Park in 1983. Other creations by Olmsted and Vaux have held landmark protection for even longer. Central Park was granted it in 1974; Prospect Park a year later.

Assemblyman Dan O'Donnell, D-Manhattan, whose district includes Morningside Park, was not reading too much into the timing of the landmark initiative.

About a year ago, O'Donnell said he approached the city Parks Department about it and the administration got behind the idea and "did the right thing" by proposing landmark status.

He acknowledged that increased interest in the neighborhood's real estate market might have moved the matter along. "Harlem is hot," O'Donnell said. "As more people want to live uptown, these architectural gems are beginning to get the attention they deserve."

(with Kate Pastor)

Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.