"Sure, there are hipsters, but it's not Williamsburg," Baldaro said. "And too many strollers but it's not Park Slope, either."What do they mean one of?
But everyone can agree that Cobble Hill is one of Brooklyn’s most beautiful neighborhoods.
I know I got to share the numbers at last week's CHA meeting, but thought you may want to add them to the blog as well. In the one-day span we had 192 people come and drop off electronics of all sorts, collectively weighing 9,054 pounds. That's all potentially hazardous material we thankfully diverted from landfills and properly disposed of. Compared to past events, my contacts at the Lower East Side Ecology Center said those were truly great results for a one-day event and if P.S. 29 is game again, perhaps we can do another drive in the spring.
Girl Guides USA announces its inaugural Brooklyn Company! Come be a part of a unique Girl Guiding program, launched in Brooklyn.
Girl Guides USA is an exciting new Scouting organization for girls in grades 4 through 10, emphasizing youth empowerment, teamwork, and environmentalism. Girl Guides provides girls with an enlightening and empowering social education based on the principles of Scouting and Guiding. Girl Guides is a year-round program, with meetings during the school year that prepare Guides for a two-week camp in the summer. Girl Guides meet twice a month on weekends for afternoons, day trips and overnights. As long as the weather permits, meetings involve outdoor activities including games, hikes, canoeing, and more. The grand finale of the year is camp, where Girl Guides spend two weeks each summer living in nature together and having tons of fun. Girl Guides programs provide hands-on practice in using teamwork, cooperation, creativity and ingenuity to solve problems and achieve goals together.
Girl Guides USA is launching its first American program this December in Brooklyn. Come learn more about how to get your child (or yourself!) involved in the inaugural Company. Girls of all backgrounds are welcome and encouraged to attend.
Information Session:
Tuesday, November 25
6:30 p.m.
Park Slope Library
431 6th Avenue at 9th Street
For more information on Girl Guides USA, please go to www.girlguidesusa.org.
Reducing Truck Traffic, One Map at a Time
Cobble Hill is a residential neighborhood whose adjacency to the congested Brooklyn Queens Expressway often brings about non-local truck traffic, in particular along Henry Street. Some truck drivers intentionally cut through Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens to avoid highway traffic, while others are simply lost, misdirected, and relying on a poorly designed map. Recognizing the latter as a danger to Henry Street's bike route, as well as a burden on neighborhood air quality, the Cobble Hill Green Committee aimed to cut the error off at its source.
Committee member Laura Herzenhorn, herself often behind an oversize vehicle for the American Museum of Natural History, pointed out that many truck drivers rely on the well-known Hagstrom Map books which identify Henry Street with a solid yellow line, properly indicating it as a through-street for regularly sized vehicles. While the Hagstrom Map does not condone trucks using car through-streets, it does falsely assume Henry Street's width. Unlike the Carroll Gardens segment of Henry Street, the Cobble Hill corridor has an extremely narrow width, which poses an extreme danger for trucks assuming they can pass safely. Committee chairperson Dave 'Paco' Abraham spoke with Hagstrom's research department and they have agreed to remove the yellow fill on Henry Street during the next map printing, expected in March of 2009.
Additionally, Hagstrom Maps is now working to publish a NYC map specifically for truck drivers to reduce the frequency of non-local traffic falsely assuming the roads highlighted yellow are wide enough for their oversize loads. A stronger police watch of traffic laws is the only surefire way to curb illegal truck driving, but fixing the Hagstrom Map error is at least one small interim step until major enforcement policy is overhauled.
Governor David A. Paterson
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224
Dear Governor Paterson,
We are pleased that the NYS Department of Health has denied permission to Long Island College Hospital to close its obstetrics, neonatal, pediatrics, and school-based services. With threats of bankruptcy and fears of closure in the air, we need you and your administration to stand ready to cut through bureaucratic obstacles and distractions and to provide the appropriate permissions if or when a viable plan for LICH's future is presented. If such a plan is not immediately forthcoming, we call on you to make available to LICH additional interest-free restructuring grants in the short term for as long as they prove necessary. We recognize that the state faces hard times economically, but, Governor, hospital closures are forever. The health of our communities depends on access to medical services. As the Department of Health's November 17, 2008 letter to LICH makes clear:
"Currently there is insufficient capacity in the hospitals immediately around LICH and in much of Brooklyn to clearly demonstrate that women will have appropriate access to obstetrical and maternity care if LICH closes these services. Until there is greater clarity on this issue the Department believes it is in the best interest of public health that obstetrical and neonatal services be retained at LICH."
Knowing the precarious state of medical services in Brooklyn obliges us all to commit our most focussed attention to solving the current crisis and putting LICH on a firm footing that insures its long-term success as a fully functioning hospital. We hope that you will stand with us to do whatever it takes to keep LICH open and fully functioning.
Harold J. Dickey
Project Manager, Division of Environmental Permits
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
One Hunters Point Plaza, 47-40 21st Street
Long Island City, NY 11101-5407
Re: Brooklyn Bridge Park, Natural and Marine Resources Permit 2-6101-01208/00001
Dear Mr. Dickey,
I live in Brooklyn, close to the planned development along the waterfront referred to as the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Project. I share the concerns outlined by the Cobble Hill Association regarding the wetlands permits for the park, as follows:
The wetlands application and permit do not reflect the true nature of the 30-foot berm and its impact on the park. The extreme sharp grade of the earth berm, which runs the length of Furman Street from Pier 1 to Joralemon Street, wastes precious flat parkland that is far more suitable for the recreational uses that have been eliminated: ball fields, a pool, a skating rink, and indoor recreational center. The community needs recreational facilities, not a 30-foot wall that blocks entrance to the park. Additionally, the berm will be very expensive to build given the 24/7 exposure to heavy BQE traffic, its steep slope, and the fact that one side will be in shadow during most daylight hours. The high cost to maintain any greenery on the berm belies good environmental practices, particularly when better, less expensive, and more desired uses for the land are available.
Neither the floating walkways nor the wave attenuators are integral to the enjoyment of the water for boaters, according to boater-club testimony given during the original 2005 Environmental Review process, and continually reaffirmed by boaters since then. These wave attenuators also significantly increase the cost to build and maintain the park. Because key recreational features of the park are now on permanent hold, given insufficient funds to build the park, we strongly recommend that the DEC deny the use of expensive wave attenuators in favor of the low-environmental impact and low-cost ball courts on Pier 2 (that are now unfunded).
We believe that the DEC would be better informed if there were a true Community Advisory Council to offer review and advice regarding the park plan. Because such a Council no longer exists, we respectfully request a Level 1 DEC public hearing so that the DEC can be better informed by those most interested in achieving a real park. Our community has waited more than two decades for this park, and we care passionately about its utility for all residents. Brooklyn Bridge Park is one of the most important civic endeavors affecting Brooklyn, and we believe it is critical that you hear from those who have worked so hard, for so long, to achieve it.
'Currently there is insufficient capacity in the hospitals immediately around LICH and in much of Brooklyn to clearly demonstrate that women will have appropriate access to obstetrical and maternity care if LICH closes these services. Until there is greater clarity on this issue the Department believes it is in the best interest of public health that obstetrical and neonatal services be retained at LICH.'This is a victory, but the community is not in the clear yet, not by a longshot. Stanley Brezenoff of Continuum has reportedly said that, if the state refused these closures, LICH would go into bankruptcy by year's end. Perhaps heading Continuum off at the pass, DOH has also approved LICH's request for 'a $3 million loan from the health care restructuring pool'. (Those of you at last week's CHA general meeting may recall my question to LICH CEO Dominick Stanzione about restructuring grants. This is what I was asking about.)
As you can see, the marketing material clearly says 'PENTHOUSE'. And yes, the very same structure was called 'STAIR BULKEAD' on the plans. That means that Two Trees flat-out lied to the city by submitting a set of dummy official plans. Naturally, we sent the document to DOB.
I am pleased to report that on November 10, 2008 DOB sent Two Trees a notice of intent to revoke their permit for the building. Two Trees has ten days to reply. The letter from DOB says:
'Pursuant to AC 28-104.2.10, the Department may revoke the approval of construction documents for failure to comply with the provisions of the AC [Administrative Code], other applicable laws or rules, or a false statement or misrepresentation of material fact in the submittal documents upon the basis of which the permit was issued, or whenever any approval has been issued in error.In layman's terms, Two Trees has been caught red-handed, the penthouses will probably have to be demolished, the Cobble Hill Historic District has been preserved against a major attempt to undermine it, and the rule of law has been reaffirmed.
(Emphasis added in bold.)
TESTIMONY OF C. MURRAY ADAMS, ON BEHALF OF
THE COBBLE HILL ASSOCIATION
November 10, 2008
My name is Murray Adams, and I speak on behalf of the Cobble Hill Association, a civic association which represents the interests of the residents of Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, where The Long Island College Hospital has been providing medical care for 150 years. The people of our community believe that the real reason behind Continuum Health Partners’ announced plans to close LICH’s Obstetrics and in-patient Pediatrics services, its Dentistry program and its school based clinics program is to close LICH entirely so they can sell off LICH’s valuable real estate to benefit Continuum’s Manhattan hospitals. This must not be allowed to happen!
Late in August, 2008, the Medical Staff of LICH filed a plan with the New York State Department of Health to revitalize LICH without closing any of these services and by returning LICH’s management to an independent group of Brooklyn-based trustees. That plan is a good plan, but it must be supplemented because it does not provide working capital which LICH must have in order to finance the transition and the rebuilding of the Hospital. Although the Medical Staff leadership has retained an investment banking firm to help obtain financing, given the present collapse of the credit markets, we do not think it likely that they will obtain loans for the necessary working capital in the very short time remaining to save LICH. To make the Medical Staff plan feasible, in our opinion, it needs to be supplemented in three respects:
First, the Medical School at SUNY Downstate and the Department of Health must agree that the management of LICH must be moved to Downstate and LICH’s Obstetric beds must be moved under Downstate’s operating certificate. This would mean New York State would bear the losses and the malpractice premiums which now burden LICH. Continuum wants to close Obstetrics, because, according to Continuum’s figures, this would save LICH more than $13 million per year. It would cost the State about half that much because the State does not have to pay malpractice premiums. Obviously, if Downstate continues to operate the Obstetrics beds at LICH where they are, there will be no need to close inpatient Pediatrics or the school based clinics program or the Dentistry program.
Second, the Medical School at Downstate and the Department of Health must agree to Downstate’s entering into leases of several LICH buildings so that Downstate can move much of its medical school as well as its clinical practices over to LICH. These buildings are LICH’s Polhemus building, where until 1953 Downstate had its medical school; LICH’s Clinic Building; and much of LICH’s 97 Amity Street building. This would answer Downstate’s need to expand its medical school facilities. An annual lease rental of $15 million will offset $15 million of LICH’s annual debt service, and so take care of the second part of what Continuum’s “plan” says needs to be done to put LICH on a stable financial basis.
Third, we need our elected officials’ help in getting the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to defer for a reasonable period LICH’s debt service payments of about $2.5 million per month in order to provide LICH with working capital essential to LICH’s effort to restore itself. Also, LICH needs time to reconstitute and expand its primary care clinics, as the Medical Staff plan contemplates, and thereby rebuild LICH’s volume and its cash flow, which will probably take up to two years.
For the better health of all Brooklyn residents, Long Island College Hospital must be saved and restored as a premier Brooklyn health care institution. Brooklyn’s public health care standing is below New York City standards in almost every category, such as infant mortality per 1000 births, prevalence of asthma in children, incidence of heart disease, strokes, etc. The State would save money by setting up a Borough wide system of primary care clinics which would treat asthma, high blood pressure, breast cancer, high cholesterol conditions, nutrition problems, substance abuse and other common medical conditions that early intervention can treat much less expensively than if the patient arrives months or years later in a hospital emergency room and requires inpatient treatment because the untreated condition has become a major threat. We believe that what Brooklyn needs, as the Medical Staff Plan contemplates, is the establishment of a chain of Primary Care Clinics in the medically underserved areas of Brooklyn, such as Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Mill Basin and East New York, and the linking up of existing clinics in those and other underserved areas, such as the BHS Clinic in East New York and the Red Hook Health Center in Red Hook, with the combined tertiary care capabilities of Downstate/University Hospital and LICH. We believe federal funds can be obtained to help establish this network of clinics.
We understand that Continuum and Downstate are in negotiations which we hope will result in LICH’s management being returned to Brooklyn under Downstate’s management and supervised by a new Brooklyn-based Board of Regents. We urge the Borough President and all our local elected officials to take every step in their power to make this come about and save our hospital for the entire Brooklyn community.
Thank you.
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and Special Assistant to the Borough President Yvonne Graham
invite you to a PUBLIC HEARING on Long Island College Hospital and the Ongoing Health-Care Crisis in Brooklyn.
Monday, November 10, 2008
6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Brooklyn Borough Hall
Courtroom
209 Joralemon Street
RSVP: 718-802-4032 or iguerrero@brooklynbp.nyc.gov
Please limit testimony to 3 minutes.
Please bring 10 copies of your testimony.