We’ve received this somewhat cryptic message from Notify NYC:
Notification issued on 7/19/14 at 11:18 AM. The United States Coast Guard reports that a ship in Arthur Kill [red in map] off the coast of Staten Island is offloading various fuel products. As a result, there may be an odor in Staten Island and Brooklyn. Please report natural gas emergencies to 9-1-1.
Could the “fuel products” include liquefied natural gas?
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/68792
Downtown Brooklyn will have a park to rival Manhattan’s Bryant Park and a high tech underground parking garage will help finance its construction. The New York Times reports that the city is planning to have Willoughby Square opened in 2016.
NYT: The square will span more than an acre on Willoughby Street, a half-block from the Fulton Street mall, with manicured lawns, walkways and gardens, as well as a site to commemorate the abolitionist movement. Below it, the garage will house about 700 cars at any given time, relying on a system of computers rather than garage attendants. It will be the largest automated parking facility in North America.
“This will be a marquee public space,” said Tucker Reed, the president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, a nonprofit local development corporation that will oversee the park’s maintenance. “From the waterfront to the Barclays Center is the core of the 21st century downtown, and to have a public amenity like this right in the middle ties everything together.”
The square has been in the works for nearly a decade, one piece of the 2004 rezoning of downtown Brooklyn. In that time, the city has spent about $40 million on the project for land acquisition and design work and to relocate families and businesses. But Willoughby Square faltered during the economic downturn, with funding cuts and an inability to find a developer.
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/60779
Manhattan borough president Scott M. Stringer has proposed a beachfront park with kayaking, marshlands and a pedestrian bridge—on the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge—in a plan that appears to mimic many of Brooklyn Bridge Park’s amenities.
Stringer’s East River Blueway Plan, announced Thursday in his State of the Borough speech, calls for a public beach and kayaking directly beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, creation of two boat launches at Stuyvesant Cove at the ends of 20th & 23rd Streets, and installation of marshlands & sea walls in vulnerable flood zones. He also discussed a pedestrian bridge to elevate bike and pedestrian paths over F.D.R. Drive at 14th Street.
The New York Times reports today that the plan involved public meetings with community groups and consultations with seven city and state agencies. Stringer: “We want to open the waterfront from a recreation perspective, but we also want to protect our fragile waterfront by recognizing the reality of storm surges.” Stringer has already pledged $3.5 million in capital funding toward new marshlands.
Brooklyn Bridge Park opened its Boathouse at Pier 1 for kayaking and community rowing last June. Likewise, the much-heralded pop-up pool and BBP “beach” launched last summer on the Pier 2 uplands of Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/54977
Another update on what is becoming a regular topic of interest in the neighborhood: refuse, rubish, trash! Here’s Judy Stanton from the BHA: “Our local garage superintendent informed me (Tuesday night) that he will have regular garbage trucks in the Heights Wednesday, but no recyclables whatsoever will be picked up. Even if the DSNY does not plan to issue summonses, the neighborly thing to do is keep what is not going to be picked up off the curb and preferably out of sight. Reminder: The corner baskets are for pedestrian litter only.”
Mayor Bloomberg, meanwhile, says that heavily impacted nabes from Hurricane Sandy—including Staten Island, south Queens and southern Brooklyn—will have collection & debris removal around the clock, while less impacted areas may see collections reduced. “Areas normally receiving three times a week collection may only receive two collections per week, while areas that receive two times per week collection may only receive one collection while emergency debris removal work continues.” Sanitation crews are currently working 12-hour shifts, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/51489
We’ve received word from Notify NYC that because flooding has allowed untreated wastewater to flow into local waterways, “direct contact with the Hudson River, East River, New York Harbor, Jamaica Bay and the Kill Van Kull for recreational activities such as swimming, canoeing, kayaking, windsurfing, or any other water activity that would entail possible direct contact with the water should be avoided until further notice.”
This brings to my mind the Beach Boys’ song “Don’t Go Near the Water,” performed when my old Lion’s Head drinking buddy Blondie Chaplin (left in photo above) was with the group. Video of the song after the jump.
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/50884
Brooklyn Heights Association Executive Director Judy Stanton shares with BHB: “The word from our local NYC DSNY garage superintendent is that he does not expect to be picking up garbage Monday during the day shift. The garage that services Brooklyn Heights is located in the flood evacuation zone, making collection suspensions likely until the storm subsides.”
In addition, Monday recycling is canceled, most likely all week. Please do not put it out until further notice. Stanton will share updates about garbage collection as the week progresses, adding, “Superintendents will have a difficult time planning ahead, but in the interest of keeping Brooklyn Heights clean, we ask them to hold back garbage until it is certain to be picked up.” Further, if garbage has been put to the curb, she asks to bring it behind front railings, “and do everything necessary to prevent it from becoming airborne during the worst hours of the storm.”
In addition, please keep in mind that public trashcans along streets will also not be emptied as the storm endures.
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/50091
It’s been more than two weeks since at least two public trashcans vanished from prominent locations close to Brooklyn Heights’ Promenade entrances: one at the corner of Montague Street and Montague Terrace and another at the corner of Remsen Street and Montague Terrace.
Both of these receptacles were not only consistently packed with garbage along central corridors of the neighborhood, but were convenient for pet owners to contribute doggie dumps—instead of using trashcans belonging to area buildings. So we wonder… what’s the scoop?
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/49497
The Brooklyn Heights Association alerts us to the fact that there will be no garbage pick-up tomorrow, Monday, October 8, because of the Columbus Day holiday. Garbage should be held back until late Tuesday night; it will be picked up Wednesday. Those whose recyclables are normally picked up on Monday will need to wait for the following Monday, October 15, for recyclables to be picked up.
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/48949
The Brooklyn Heights Association alerts us to the fact that there will be no garbage pick-up tomorrow, Monday, October 8, because of the Columbus Day holiday. Garbage should be held back until late Tuesday night; it will be picked up Wednesday. Those whose recyclables are normally picked up on Monday will need to wait for the following Monday, October 15, for recyclables to be picked up.
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/48949
Dr. Barry Commoner, the scientist and environmental advocate whom the New York Times calls “Planet Earth’s Lifeguard,” and a resident of Brooklyn Heights, died Sunday after a long illness. He was a Brooklyn native, a graduate of James Madison High School and Columbia University, and received his doctorate at Harvard. On the occasion of the first Earth Day, in 1970, Time magazine put his image on its cover, and he was a candidate for President on the Citizens’ Party ticket in 1980. During that campaign, the Times notes, a reporter asked him, “Are you a serious candidate or are you just running on the issues?”
According to the Times:
Dr. Commoner was a leader among a generation of scientist-activists who recognized the toxic consequences of America’s post-World War II technology boom, and one of the first to stir the national debate over the public’s right to comprehend the risks and make decisions about them.
He is survived by his wife, Lisa Feiner, two children by a previous marriage, and a grandchild.
Photo: 250.columbia.edu.
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/48732