EPA updates on Gowanus Canal feasibility Study

Iconic Image from local artist Tonky. www.tonkydesigns.com/index.html

While PS58's auditorium is already hosting tonight's meeting regarding the Public Place remediation along the Gowanus, it now seems the local elementary school will be host to another important meeting on Tuesday night @ 7pm. 

With a massive cleanup long overdue, the Environmental Protection Agency thankfully released its Feasibility Study (FS) for the Gowanus Canal at the end of 2011. It intends to "develop and evaluate remedial alternatives for Gowanus Canal sediments that will reduce or eliminate unacceptable risks to human health and the environment from exposure to contaminated sediment and surface water in the canal."

Local blog Pardon Me for Asking has been covering all the details thoroughly, with links to the full 550 page document here. For anyone interested in learning more about the clean up, please attend the EPA's public information meeting on the FS on Tuesday, January 24th at 7 PM in the auditorium of Public School 58, 330 Smith Street.

Public Place meeting, 1/23 @ 6:30p

This Monday, January 23rd, will be an important meeting for Cobble Hill residents and all neighborhoods within earshot of the Gowanus Canal as the clean up of the toxic 'Public Place' gets underway. Please see details below and follow the link to a fully detailed report.

The Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation is hosting a public information meeting to alert area residents of the impending health risks once National Grid begins clean up of the Public Place site (due to commence in February). And employing inadequate monitoring of potentially harmful vapors when coal tar is exposed to the atmosphere. A detailed report is available at this link http://bit.ly/AE33xJ

Day/Time: Monday, January 23, 2012 @ 6:30 P.M.
Location: The Carroll School, P.S. 58 - 330 Smith Street (entrance on Carroll St)

If you have any questions, call Bill Appel 718.858.0557 or e-mail to bill@gowanus.org

Israeli FIlm Festival in Cobble Hill

Brooklyn's Israeli Film Festival is coming back to Cobble Hill at the end of the month, with three days of screenings at the Kane Street Synagogue. The series will showcase three films (The Debt, Restoration, and Dolphin Boy) and we encourage everyone to pay a visit to this gem in our neighborhood.

The Israel Film Festival at the Kane Street Synagogue [236 Kane St. between Clinton and Court streets in Cobble Hill, (718) 875-1550]. Jan. 26; Jan. 28-29, 8 pm. Tickets, $12 per film, $30 for three.

More info on each film is available at the links below.
http://kanestreet.org/iff/
http://www.brooklyndaily.com/stories/2012/3/24_israelfilmfest_2012_01_20_bk.html

Presentation on New Strong Place Developments

We previously noted the new developments slated for 2-4 Strong Place, on the corner of Kane Street. This week, the architect and developer of those three new row houses have graciously and generously offered to present the proposed plans to neighbors and interested community members. If you are interested in seeing the plans for these new buildings, you are cordially invited to attend a meeting this coming Tuesday evening.

Tuesday, January 17th
7:00 PM
at the Cobble Hill Community Meeting Room
250 Baltic Street

(enter though black door at street level closest to Clinton)

All are welcome to attend this community meeting. Please feel free to share this invitation with any interested friends and neighbors.

Columbia Waterfront Park Meeting 1/18

While Cobble Hill's borders technically end at Hicks street, Columbia Street is just one block farther and very much a big part of what makes the neighborhood so great. So, please join our friends from the

Brooklyn Greenway Initiative and Regional Plan Association, for a meeting on January 18th to make Columbia Street even greater with the planning for Columbia Waterfront Park -- a new public open space on Columbia Street between Kane and Degraw Streets.

From the BGI press release... 

When the Van Brunt Street reconstruction and the Gowanus Flushing Tunnel construction are complete, the 80-ft deep area on the west side of Columbia Street is planned to become an open space element of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway. At last year's visioning meeting, ideas were collected from the Columbia Waterfront residents and businesses about what sort of improvements and facilities would be most beneficial to the community.

At the report-back meeting on January 18th, we will share preliminary renderings for the park design and gather community feedback.

What:  Columbia Waterfront Park Report-Back Meeting
When:  Wednesday, January 18th, 2012, 6:30-8:30 PM
Where:  The Union Street Star Theater, 101 Union Street

RSVP to info@brooklyngreenway.org with Columbia Waterfront Park in the subject line.

Mulchfest: Update

This weekend saw another successful Mulchfest in our neighborhood.  Over 500 Christmas trees were collected and chipped in Cobble Hill Park with the help of the Cobble Hill Tree Fund and NYC Department of Parks & Recreation.

While trees are an important part of holiday decorations, please remember to always dispose of them properly. NYC Sanitation will collect trees left on the sidewalk with regular trash collection, but bringing them to mulchfest sites allows them to be made into wood chips that nourish trees and plants on streets and gardens citywide.

Diane Ravitch, Noted Education Historian, to Speak at P.S. 29

Our local elementary school, P.S.29, will begin a speaker series on education... kicking off tomorrow with noted historian Diane Ravitch, author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education and many other books and articles and Research Professor of Education at New York University. Admission is free, and all are welcome; childcare will be provided for P.S. 29 parents.

Diane Ravitch: Tuesday, January 10, 6:30 p.m.- 8. p.m.

The education series continues in the year with the following speakers.
    Peg Tyre: March 7 (author of The Good School: How Smart Parents Get Their Kids the Education They Deserve)
    Paul Tough: September 2012 (author of Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America)

For more info contact Lesley Alderman (Lesley61@gmail.com) or Rebecca Johnson (Beckersny@yahoo.com).

Our BQE, eternally in need of repair

This morning the NY Times published a great article detailing our area's widespread disgust with the eternally wretched conditions of our nearby highway, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Those in Cobble Hill vicinity may already know that the NY State Department of Transportation recently nixed key studies it had begin on the roadway's condition, despite years of community involvement and the blatantly obvious need for countless repairs.

CHA President Roy Sloane previously offered these words to in response.

We were told by the state that the BQE was in danger of collapsing in the 80s... It’s also pathetic that they put all these years and effort in, spent money on all sorts of designs and are now dropping it.

Check out the full article at this link below. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/nyregion/on-the-bqe-road-work-ahead-forever.html

Reminder: Tree Chipping this Weekend

Trees are already piling up at the entrance to Cobble Hill Park, but remember... the Tree Chipping/Mulchfest is not until this weekend!

DATE: Saturday, January 7 and Sunday, January 8, 2012 
LOCATION: Cobble Hill Park: Clinton and Verandah Place
TIME: 9:30 am – 1:30 pm

For full details, check out this link....
http://cobblehillassociation.blogspot.com/2011/12/cobble-hill-mulchfest-2012.html

New Year's Music @ Christ Church

Thanks to Father Ron Lau for this tip about a great event at Christ Church.

The Cobble Hill Consort, made-up of the Christ Church Choir and the Canoni Chorale, both under the direction of Donald Barnum, will sing Evensong at Christ Church, Cobble Hill at 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon on New Year’s Day, Sunday,  1st  January 2012.  Unlike recent evensongs, which highlighted  polyphonic settings of the canticles and anthems, this service will feature simple plainsong settings.

Following Evensong, all are invited to the Christ Church Rectory for the Rector’s Annual New Year’s Day Open House and New Year’s Masque!

What is a masque???  The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe.  A masque involved music and dancing, singing and acting. Professional actors and musicians were hired for the speaking and singing parts. Of all the arts of the Renaissance, the masque is the artistic form most alien to audiences today. The most outstanding humanists, poets and artists of the day, in the full intensity of their creative powers, devoted themselves to producing masques; and until the Puritans closed the English theatres in 1642, the masque was the highest artform in England. But because of its ephemeral nature, not a lot of documentation related to masques remains, and much of what is said about the production and enjoyment of masques is still part speculation.

While we cannot promise dancing, we will have music and singing, and some acting to accompany a fully-laden holiday board  -- an evening of music, merriment, and mummery -- and food and drink!

For more information, please call 718 875 3144.

Cobble Hill Mulchfest 2012

This just in from our friends at the Cobble Hill Tree Fund...

DATE: Saturday, January 7 and Sunday, January 8, 2012 
LOCATION: Cobble Hill Park: Clinton and Verandah Place
TIME: 9:30 am – 1:30 pm

Bring your holiday tree to Cobble Hill Park, at Clinton Street and Verandah Place, and other locations city-wide, to be recycled into mulch that will nourish plantings across the city!

Join us and New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, the New York City Department of Sanitation, and GreenNYC to recycle your Christmas trees into wood chips.
These wood chips are used to nourish trees and plants on streets and gardens citywide. Or, take home your very own bag of mulch to use in your backyard or to make a winter bed for a street tree.

Last year, close to 17,000 Christmas trees citywide were recycled. Please help us top this number! This year, MulchFest will take place on January 7 and 8, 2012. Parks will host over 35 chipping sites and 35 additional drop-off locations: over 70 sites in all! And this year, you can bring your tree to a drop-off site from January 2 through January 8. It’s easier than ever to chip in!

Please remember to remove all lights and ornaments before bringing the tree to a MulchFest site. Biodegradable bags will be provided if you wish to take some free mulch home.

Wreaths, garlands, and artificial trees cannot be accepted and remember that tress will NOT be accepted after the scheduled times.

Sponsored by:
Cobble Hill Tree Fund,  Cobble Hill Association,  Friends of Cobble Hill Park, and  Boy Scout Troops 213 & 815

Cobble Hill Additions

Although nearly every lot in Cobble Hill is developed, the neighborhood does have a few empty spaces. However, new plans have arisen to potentially fill in a corner parking lot at Strong Place and Kane Street with appropriately scaled and historically contextual residential development.

Such a project in the Cobble Hill Historic Distrioct must first get approval by the Community Board, Landmarks Preservation Committee, and the Department of Buildings, but in this preliminary stage both Curbed and Brownstoner have entries about the potential construction, including renderings and floor plans.

Below is a street view of what it will be replacing.

NOTE: This entry was updated to point out no approvals by the CB, LPC, or DOB have yet been given.