Park YES! Housing NO!

For over 25 years, the Cobble Hill Association has worked to secure a park along the waterfront. We are pleased that residents are finally able to access the waterfront at Brooklyn Bridge Park, but our job as a community is not over.

The city is still planning to build 5 more luxury condo & hotel towers inside the park’s borders, with two buildings at 20 and 30 stories high planned for Pier 6 at Atlantic Avenue. And despite what some may think, these luxury high-rise towers are not needed to fund the park’s maintenance. There are many solutions to “pay” for park maintenance. When condos came into the park all year round recreation came out. Landscaping replaced the two pools, the indoor recreation center and ice rink that the community had worked so hard for decades to get. Landscaping sells condos while baseball fields do not.

We now have a unique opportunity to regain the recreational facilities our children need at the same time tell the city planners that we do not want more housing inside the park’s borders. Residents are asked to come to two public comment meetings on Tuesday, November 30th at 6 PM at Long Island College Hospital and again on Thursday, December 9th at 6 PM at St. Francis College on Montague Street.

These public meetings are critical to demonstrating yet again the importance of our parks, the real value they provide to the livability of the city, and to the actual dollars they “put back” into city coffers. The rise in DUMBO values since their part of the park opened is evidence enough of a park’s tax value. A recent proposal offered by community members – to negotiate a deal with the Jehovah Witnesses to develop their soon-to-be-abandoned buildings close to the park, for the benefit of park financing – is gaining traction. Other park funding models, including Senator Squadron’s park increment recapture proposal (named the PIRC plan) also offer relief from the draconian condos inside park borders plan.

But you need only come out and say no to housing, and yes to recreation! Please make sure that your voice is heard at the two public hearings:

Tuesday, November 30, 2010, 6pm – 8pm
Long Island College Hospital, 339 Hicks Street
Avram Conference Center, 1st floor

Thursday, December 9, 2010, 6pm – 8pm
St. Francis College*, 180 Remsen Street
Founders Hall Auditorium, 1st floor

Submit Fix the Ditch ideas by December 1st

Last week, consultants presented some great ideas in the final meeting for the 'Fix the Ditch' project to reconnect the neighborhoods divided by the BQE trench at Hicks street. The final report will be ready sometime in January, but public comments need to be submitted now. If you weren't in person for the workshop, you can still weigh in using the online survey.

Follow this link to NYCEDC's website to review the final presentation and take the opinion survey. It will only be available until December 1st, 2010.

For your reference, read the recent press covering the project's most recent ideas.

Designers Propose Changes To BQE In Brooklyn

Plans to fix "the ditch" along the Brooklyn Queens Expressway

The Brooklyn Paper: Three sum! City likes BQE fix plans, but balks at price

Have Your Say On the Future of the BQE Monday Evening « A/N Blog

Here Are Three Ways to Make the BQE Less Horrible : Fun With Urban Planning : Curbed NY

City looks to fix BQE 'ditch'

Rooftop Films go underground in Cobble Hill

Cobble Hill is rich with history and Bob Diamond regularly showcases one of the neighborhood's gems - the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel. Though his tours tell the amazing tale of its century old past and its odd rediscovery... this time the Tunnel will be home to very different scene cause NYC's beloved Rooftop Film series is going underground, using the tunnel as a venue this Demeber 11th.  More info below, excerpted from the Rooftop Films website...

• Rooftop Films is best known for showing underground films outdoors, but in December we will be taking some of those films back where they belong: UNDERGROUND, into the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel in Cobble Hill. On December 11th and 12th, Rooftop will take two programs of short films from the dark underbelly of the independent film world and screen them deep inside the oldest subway on earth.  Prior to the screenings, urban spelunker Bob Diamond will be conducting a tour of the tunnel, and his recounting of the history of this historic treasure is not to be missed. So buy your tickets now and we'll see you on the other side of the street.

And following the screening, we'll all head over to Last Exit Bar and Lounge at 136 Atlantic Avenue for complimentary drinks courtesy of Sailor Jerry.

For full line up of films, check out the original post at http://www.rooftopfilms.com/2010/schedule/70-trapped-in-the-tunnel

Community Discussion w/ State Senator Dan Squadron

State Senator Dan Squadron recently announced  a round of community discussions where any topic you'd like is on the table. Details are below for the Cobble Hill meeting next week, but start thinking now about the issues.... fighting housing in Brooklyn Bridge Park, making sure the redesign of the BQE doesn't plague our streets with traffic, and so much more!

Senator Squadron writes:
In April, more than 350 community members joined me for the Second Annual 25th Senate District Community Convention, where I received valuable input on issues as diverse as school overcrowding, nightlife concerns and pedestrian safety.  In this community discussion, I will update folks about progress we have made on topics raised at the convention, as well as take new questions and comments about issues in Albany and in the neighborhood.

Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Columbia Waterfront
Sunday, November 21st   Time: 4:00 - 6:00 PM  Location: Long Island College Hospital  Avram Conference Center, rooms F & G
339 Hicks Street (between Amity and Congress Streets)

Lennonyc: A Benefit for PS29

PS 29 is one of our neighborhood's greatest strengths, so come on out and support the school with a great event - a special screening of LENNONYC. 

The PS 29 PTA & Strong Place Cordially Invite You to LENNONYC
A Special PS 29 Benefit Evening

Tuesday November 16th @ 7 PM

A Private Preview of LENNONYC at Cobble Hill Cinemas
Featuring a Talkback with Film Director/Writer Michael Epstein
(an Academy Award-nominated PS 29 Dad)

Immediately Followed by a Reception at Strong Place
$30 ticket price includes the screening, talkback, beer or wine & hors d'oeuvres
Sponsored by Sixpoint Craft Ales
Click for tickets: TinyURL.com/29Lennon
Proceeds Benefit PS 29!

Final Meeting for BQE Enhancement project

The third & final community workshop for the BQE Enhancement project has been scheduled!

When: Monday, November 15th from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Long Island College Hospital (LICH), Conference Center, Rooms A &B, 339 Hicks Street, Brooklyn
What: The project team will present finalized alternatives and preliminary cost estimates, and discuss next steps for the project.

Please see EDC's website to view prior presentations for the project, including:
http://bit.ly/BQEEnhanceFinal

1)presentation and summary from the 5.4.10 meeting
2)presentation and summary from the 7.20.10meeting

We hope to see you on November 15th.

Cobble Hill Halloween Parade!

It's Halloween and everyone is all dressed up. Check out a few pics of this afternoon's Cobble Hill Association sponsored parade below, and see the full set on the CHA's Flickr Page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/35037635@N03/sets/72157625157943327/

Did you snap some photos too? Upload them and add them to the set by adding the tag "Cobble Hill Halloween 2010" (use the full phrase in quotations so all they all stay together) so everyone can see all the amazing costumes. Big thanks to Melissa Glass for her tireless efforts decorating the park and leading the parade with CHA President Roy Sloane. Kudos also go to our elected officials Assemblywoman Millman, State Senator Squadron, and City Councilman Lander who all came in support, as well as Jerry Armer and the 76th precinct for keeping everything safe, and the Jah Pan Steel Drum Band for keeping the beat!

Also be sure to check out some of the great photos Judi Franci took on her photostream too http://www.flickr.com/photos/9050783@N04

Ghouls, Ghosts & Goblins

The Cobble Hill Halloween Parade is this Sunday!

Time: 4:00PM
Date: Sunday, October 31st
Place: Cobble Hill Park
Music: Jah Pan Steel Drum Band

Every year this holiday children's parade grows and grows. Come join the celebration as we take over Cobble Hill Park, shut down Clinton street, and march through the neighborhood in amazing costumes. For a complete viewing of pics from last year's event, check out the CHA Flickr page.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35037635@N03/sets/72157622744191714/with/4079905860/

Special Screening - "Arranged"

Late notice, but on Tuesday, October 26th at Kane Street Synagogue, there will be a special screening of the film "Arranged" followed by audience discussion.

This film has gotten a lot of publicity because of its fascinating story of how two young women -- one Orthodox Jewish and the other Muslim -- meet and become friends, as first-year teachers at a public school in Brooklyn, and see how much they have in common.

Light dinner will be served at 6:30 with the movie beginning at 7:00 pm. There is no charge for the event.

For more information, go to http://kanestreet.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/2010_Arranged-Final1.pdf.

Kane Street Synagogue is located at 236 Kane Street, between Court and Clinton Streets.
If you plan to attend, RSVP to Barbara Gringer at bzzg[at]aol.com by Sunday, Oct. 24th

Cobble Hill Halloween Parade

photo by Franklin Stone

Noticed the Halloween Parade sign up in Cobble Hill Park? Well thanks to Trudy Whitman at the Brooklyn Eagle for beating me to the punch and already writing up the details for the Cobble Hill Association's annual Parade.   She wrote:

It’s Cobble Hill’s biggest social event of the year, and it’s right around the corner. The Cobble Hill Park Halloween Parade sponsored by the Cobble Hill Association brings out hundreds of elaborately costumed pint-sized revelers, who first gather in the park to admire each other’s getups and then march through surrounding blocks, so neighbors can admire them too. The streets are made safe — closed off to traffic — and guarded by police officers from the 76th Precinct.

The parade takes place on Sunday, October 31, beginning at 4 p.m. and will be led by the merry Jah Pan Steel Band. The event’s success always depends on the work of volunteers, who are needed at noon to decorate the park and at 9 p.m. for clean-up. To volunteer, please drop an email to cha@cobblehillassociation.org.

Cobble Hill Park - Past and Present

Friday's New York Times has great coverage of NYC's parks; not Central, or Prospect, or Battery Park.... none of those big ones, but rather all the small pocket sized parks that fill in nooks and crannies, breathe life into neighborhoods, and raise both property values and happiness. Our very own Cobble Hill Park gets a worthy mention of praise, with a tidbit of its history.

Cobble Hill Park, on Verandah Place in Brooklyn, a 0.585-acre site where a neighborhood petition drive in the 1960s defeated plans for an apartment building. Two-family town houses there have sold in recent years for $2.2 million or more.
 

For another nugget on the park, check out the David Ansel Weiss's trivia column which notes the site of Cobble Hill Park was "the site of Brooklyn’s Second Unitarian Church, often affectionately called — because of its shape — the Church of the Holy Turtle? Its first minister was Samuel Longfellow, brother of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow."

Regardless what came before, Cobble Hill Park is now beautiful and well cared for by resident Barbara Krongel and her devoted team of volunteers. Want to get your own hands dirty and keep the park pretty? Come join us every Tuesday morning at 7:45am, weather permitting. For more info email sublte116[at]gmail.com

Cobble Hill Book Swap

The Cobble Hill Association is sponsoring a free Book Swap on Saturday, October 16, 2010 at the Long Island College Hospital (LICH) Sitting Park located at Henry & Pacific Streets in Cobble Hill, from 11 AM until 3 PM.

The idea for the Book Swap is simple: bring a book & get a book. LICH staff members will also be on hand to meet the community, conduct free blood pressure screening, and offer asthma information at the park. Books will also be available for sale at $1 or less. All proceeds and remainder books will be donated to the Hospital by the Cobble Hill Association.

UPDATE: This event is now perfectly timed to also be a warm welcome to SUNY Downstate who will now acquire LICH from Continuum Health Partners. This new partnership is not just a great way fix LICH's financial troubles, it will breath new life and a new commitment to stay open and expand its programming for the Cobble Hill Community. The official announcement was made yesterday afternoon by Governor Paterson himself. More detailed info on the story can be found at the following links.
http://www.downstate.edu/news_releases/2010/news_release_full39.html
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/3456