"Love your Library Day" on the Horizon

We're still more than two month away from 2012 "Love Your Library Day" but preparations for it are already on the horizon. Word from Linda Blyer with the Friends of Carroll Gardens Library is that it will be both feature both a book sale and community celebration with thousands of titles at low prices, as well as music, readings, arts activies and more.  To help you can donate books and volunteer to sort and organize the sale.

They're accepting...
New or used books - CDs, DVDs and records - Children's books, CDs, DVD - Journals - Current textbooks

Not accepting...
Damaged books without covers - tape cassettes or VHS videos - coloring books or activity books - magazines - outdated textbooks and computer manuals.

Donations will be accepted starting April 6 through May 9. Within those dates please ONLY bring your donations at the following times: Saturdays 10:30 to 12 noon /Wednesdays 6 to 8 p.m. /Fridays 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Enter through the main doors on Clinton Street and bring your donations go downstairs through the auditorium OR take the elevator on the Union Street side to the basement.

If you have further questions, send them over to friendscglibrary@gmail.com

Blood Drive, March 8th 12:30-6:30p

Someone in this country needs a life-saving blood transfusion every 3 seconds.  If you are healthy and able, please do your part to make sure no one has to wait for that help.

This Thursday, March 8, 2012, between 12:30 PM and 6:30 PM, the New York Blood Center will have a "Bloodmobile" parked in front of Cobble Hill's 76th Precinct Station House, located at 191 Union Street, between Henry Street and Hicks Street, to accept blood donations.  

As a regular donor of both blood and platelets, I can assure you NY Blood Center staff is always safe, thorough, and very appreciative of your donation. 

CB6 Bike Share Meeting

Later this year, NYC will be added to a long list of cities worldwide that have chosen to add a low cost, additional transit option for residents: bike-share. A private company, Alta, is footing the bill while the city and its inhabitants will reap the benefits. The bike-share stations will be abundant and our our Cobble Hill is fortunately one of the neighborhoods to be included in the initial launch. However, where in the area are the smartest locations to place a station? Court Street? Cobble Hill Park? You Decide!

Brooklyn Community Board 6 Planning Workshop

Thursday March 15th, 2012, 6:30 PM–8:30 PM

 

Join Brooklyn’s Community Board 6 and local residents and business owners at a roundtable planning workshop to help decide how bike share should work and where stations should go in Cobble Hill and Park Slope.  In partnership with Community Board 6, NYC Council Members Brad Lander and Stephen Levin, and NYS Senator Velmanette Montgomery. The Workshop will be held at Old First Reformed Church, 729 Carroll Street, (at 7th Avenue) Brooklyn, NY 11215. The entrance to the workshop will be on Carroll Street.

Sessions will begin at 6:30 pm and 7:30 pm.
Timeline | New York City Bike Share

Street Study seeks Parents & Kids

Transportation Alternatives is NYC's leading advocacy group for pedestrians, cyclists, and mass transit users and they are now beginning a street study comparing Brooklyn neighborhoods... one of which will be in our own area. To gather detailed information on how we use our streets, T.A. is seeking parents for a 15-25 minute survey about themselves, their physical activity, and their neighborhood. Participating families will receive a small gift in appreciation of their time and input. Full details are available by clicking on the  adjacent flyer or contacting Stephanie Kneeshaw-Price, stephanie@transalt.org.

PS 29 Rennovations

The New York City School Construction Authority (SCA) gave notice that a construction project is slated for PS 29 at 425 Henry Street (between Baltic/Kane Streets). The work will begin shortly and include exterior masonry, roof replacement, parapet replacement and flood elimination.  The expected completion date is August, 2013. 

A full copy of the SCA announcement is posted on our website and is available by clicking here, or at the following link:
http://www.brooklyncb6.org/_attachments/2012-02-10%20SCA%20PS29.pdf

Hearing on Home Improvement Contractors

Much of our neighborhood's buildings are in great shape, but its not uncommon to see Cobble Hill brownstones undergoing extension construction. The past decade has seen an unprecedented rise in the number of renovations; however, not all contractors work out well or follow proper protocol. In fact, the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs received the greatest number of complaints against home improvement contractors based in Brooklyn.

With that in mind, Council Member Dan Garodnick (Manhattan) is exploring ways to protect consumers from home improvement contractor scams with a hearing this Wednesday, February 15 at 1:00pm at Brooklyn Borough Hall (209 Joralemon Street). The meeting is open to the public, but if you have questions contact Consumer Affairs Committee Chair Council Member Garodnick's office at 212-788-7393.
For the full press release, follow this link.
Press release on HIC scams hearing

100 Story House

Rendering of 100 Story House" (copyright Leon Reid IV)

L magazine recently featured an interesting story set in our own Cobble Hill Park. It features a literary/sculptural idea by Brooklyn-based artist Leon Reid IV who has

teamed up with Brooklyn-based documentary producer Julia Marchesi (The City Dark) to create the "100 Story House," a five-and-a-half feet tall miniature brownstone that they plan to build, install in Cobble Hill Park and fill with books to be borrowed and exchanged by anyone and everyone.

Check out this link for the full article.

Tuesday Night Trainings

Our local hospital is not just a place to get when you're ill, but also a place to ensure you stay healthy. With that in mind, come join SUNY Downstate's Long Island College Hospital for a "dynamite workout" at their new Tuesday Night Training (TNT) series. 

This new workout series begins tomorrow and continues every Tuesday through March 13th. All fitness levels are welcome for a workout that will combine cardio moves with body weight strengthening exercises to blast fat and tone muscles.

TNT will be taught by Tiffany Dallenbach, ACSM, a certified Balanced Body pilates instructor and trained yoga instructor.

TIME: 5:30 - 6:30 pm
PLACE: Avram Conference Center
COST: $10/class or $45 for entire 6 week program. 

For more info, please contact Joy Lindquist at joy.lindquist@downstate.edu or (718) 780-1481.

Ongoing Eletronics Recycling

The Cobble Hill Association has had multiple successes with its electronics recycling events held at P.S. 29 because of the collaboration with an amazing group, The Lower East Side Ecology Center. We are proud to report that they've just opened a permanent drop off location here in Brooklyn!

Their warehouse sits at 469 President St (at Nevins) in the Gowanus area and will be open to the public on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, 10am-5pm; on Wednesdays, noon-7pm; as well as Saturdays, 10am-4pm.

The LESEC warehouse will accept household e-waste such as computers, monitors, printers, scanners, TVs, VCR's, DVD players, phones, audio/visual equipment, video games, cell phones and PDAs. All collected materials will be responsibly recycled or reused, so please do your part in helping keep electronics out of our landfills.

To celebrate the opening, there will be a community reception with light refreshments this coming Saturday, February 4th, noon-4pm offering a chance not only to drop off e-waste but also tour the space and learn more about recycling and the LESEC.

Go to Jail this weekend!

Although the Brooklyn House of Detention has sat empty and dormant for several years now, the monolith at Smith Street and Atlantic avenue, is set to re-open with inmates at the end of the month. Though it's just outside of Cobble Hill proper, new activity at the jail house is sure to have an effect on our neighborhood. In preparation for the re-opening, the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) is inviting the community to attend an open house next Saturday, February 4, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m to meet Warden Walter Nin, ask questions and tour the facility.

To take advantage of please RSVP to Delilah Ortega in the DOC Department of Public Information at Delilah.Ortega@doc.nyc.gov or (718) 546-0631.

For more details on the House of Detention, check out coverage from Cobble Hill Blog, Curbed, and Gothamist.

Welcome Improvements to Atlantic Avenue

Last week, the Department of Transportation unveiled plans for improvements to Atlantic Avenue's intersection with the BQE entrance ramp adjacent to Palmetto Playground. For years, residents and civic leaders have been asking for changes to the intersection, even before sections of Brooklyn Bridge Park were built. Now that parts of the park have opened and draw visitors to Pier 6 everyday, these improvements cannot be installed soon enough.

The dangerous right turn on red will be eliminated, and new pedestrian refuge islands will be poured to shorten crosswalk distances. Additionally, the geometry for vehicles turning left onto the BQE ramp will be better delineated with a new concrete median preventing cars from turning to wide, or two at a time on the expressway.

Combined with the redesign at Columbia and Atlantic unveiled over the summer, we're glad to see safety enhancements made a priority for our community.

For more details on the plans, check out coverage at Streetsblog, the BK paper, and the Daily News.

Columbia Waterfont Park - Update

Last week, The Regional Planning Association along with The Brooklyn Greenway Initiative unveiled new renderings for a planned Columbia Waterfront Park. It could easily link to the existing protected bike path along Columbia Street while also offering unique views of the borough's industrial waterfront with an impressive Manhattan skyline as a backdrop.
Rich Calder's report in the NY Post offers full details on the potential 2 acre park, which would be a great step forward that ensures avoiding the Bloomberg administration's previous plan to revive the area with out of scale luxury condos and conference centers.

For the full report, see the following link.http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/craning_for_view_in_klyn_YBDrOUE3KxFT8FZbytnPiM#ixzz1kGSEckcr