Fort Greene Association

Congratulations To The Students Of Urban Assembly Law And Justice Academy!

2008-07-01T20:59:26Z

The Fort Greene Association would like to congratulate the fine students at Fort Greene’s own Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice at 50 Navy Street, especially the seniors of 2008, for outstanding academic achievement. The tremendous efforts of these students as well as the dedication of the faculty and administration were recognized in this article in The New York Times from Monday, June 30th edition. Here is a link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/education/30school.html?pagewanted=all Thank you, we are very proud of your accomplishments. We as a community and you as an individual can play an important role in helping other young people in our neighborhood reach their academic potential. You can find out about some of the programs for mentoring students at the School for Law and Justice website: www.sljhs.org . We will be posting new opportunities for community members to get involved in the support of our students and local schools, as programs become known to us.

Wildflower Seed Give-Away, Saturday, June 21st at Fort Greene Park's Artisan Market

2008-06-13T18:25:14Z

Bees are responsible for pollinating 30% of our food crops. If they become extinct- much of the world's food supply will disappear with them. Haagen-Dazs is giving away 2,000 packets of wildflower seeds for plants favored by foraging honey bees. Fort Greene resident and beekeeper, John Howe of Brooklyn Bee Apiary, is coordinating this effort and will be on hand from 9 am to offer advice and answer any questions you may have about bees and their role as part of our ecosystem. June 21 is also "Make Music New York" Day and Downtown Brooklyn Partnership is presenting Tuliva-Donna Cumberbatch & The Magnificent Trio at noon. Artisan Market, which features only independent design and fine art, is located on the DeKalb Avenue sidewalk perimeter of Fort Greene Park starting at the intersection of Washington Park - adjacent to the GreenMarket. Artisan-Market can be reached by public transportation via: subways: #C to Lafayette, #G to Fulton, #R,B,Q to DeKalb and #2,3,4,5 to Nevins. Map and travel information is also available on both the Fort Greene Park Conservancy and Artisan-Market websites. Contact info: John Howe 718-858-6891 or jah1943@gmail.com Natasha Harsh 718-855-8175 or natashaharsh@earthlink.net. Website: http://natashaharsh.artspan.com/

Brownstone Brooklyn Garden District 11th Garden Walk, Sunday June 08th

2008-06-01T15:05:37Z

On Sunday, June 8th from 11AM - 5PM, enjoy a self-guided Garden Walk through a dozen private gardens and 9 community gardens in historic Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Prospect Heights. The Garden Walk brings attention to the singular qualities of the Garden District's private and community gardens; providing not only a special opportunity to view some unseen treasures of these three historic neighborhoods but a chance for garden walkers to get ideas, share gardening tips, even cuttings and nursery finds. Proceeds from the Tour support the annual Fall Bulb Give-Away which provides thousands of Spring flowering bulbs, free of charge, to residents of these three communities, encouraging the continued beautification of the Brownstone Brooklyn Garden District. Tickets are $20 and available in advance at: The Brooklyn Flea, Lafayette between Clermont and Vanderbilt, Sundays only, or online at BrownPaperTickets.com. Tickets may be purchased the day of the Walk at: Thirst, 187 DeKalb@Carlton in Fort Greene; The Forest Floor, 659 Vanderbilt@Park Place, Prospect Heights; or The Brooklyn Flea. Advance Ticket purchasers should stop by one of these locations to pick up the official Map/Guide on the day of the Tour. For more information call: 718-219-2137.

Wildflower Seed Give-Away, Saturday, May 31st at Fort Greene Park's Artisan Market

2008-05-23T18:09:14Z

Bees are responsible for pollinating 30% of our food crops. If they become extinct- much of the world's food supply will disappear with them. Haagen-Dazs is supplying 2,000 packets of wildflower seeds for plants favored by foraging honey bees. Fort Greene resident and beekeeper, John Howe of Brooklyn Bee Apiary,is coordinating this effort and will be on hand to offer advice and answer any questions you may have about bees and their role as part of our ecosystem. Artisan Market is located on the DeKalb Avenue sidewalk perimeter of Fort Greene Park starting at the intersection of DeKalb Avenue and Washington Park. John Howe contact info: 718-858-6891 or jah1943@gmail.com http://natashaharsh.artspan.com/

No advance PayPal House Tour tickets as of 12:01 Sunday, May 4th

2008-05-03T23:06:39Z

Please note, you will no longer be able to purchase advance tickets via PayPal for Sunday's House Tour as of 12:01 am, Sunday, May 4th. You may still purchase tickets on Sunday for the House Tour at either the BAM Garden, Lafayette at Fulton or The Brooklyn Flea, Lafayette at Clermont beginning at noon. The houses will be open from noon until 5pm. Allow about 2.5 hours to see all the homes and other points of interest on this self-guided walking tour. See you tomorrow, rain or shine and thank you for supporting the Fort Greene Association.

2008 House Tour Special Information for Advance Ticket Holders

2008-05-02T21:26:07Z

Thank you for purchasing your tickets in advance for the Fort Greene Association’s 29th House Tour. If you purchased your ticket online via PayPal, please bring your receipt on the day of the tour to either of our two starting locations, the BAM Garden at Lafayette and Fulton, or The Brooklyn Flea at Lafayette and Clermont to exchange for the House Tour Map/Brochure. This will be your official ticket on the day of the tour and lists all of the special houses and other locations open for the Tour. If you did not print out a receipt we will check your name from the list of PayPal purchasers. In either case we kindly request that you bring an ID for verification. If you purchased a Ticket in advance from a physical location, such as the Brooklyn Flea or Green Market, please bring that ticket to either of the above mentioned locations to exchange for your House Tour Map/Brochure which will serve as your official ticket the day of the Tour. Please allow at least 2 ½ hours for this self-guided walking tour if you wish to make every stop. We look forward to seeing you in beautiful Fort Greene, this Sunday, May 4th, from noon until 5pm. Rain or Shine.

THE 2008 HOUSE TOUR: Sunday May 4, Noon-5pm - Rain or Shine

2008-04-30T17:02:11Z

Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 on the day of the tour and are available at select neighborhood locations and online (via PayPal) through our house tour website, FGAhousetour.org. Enjoy an eclectic array of houses, from classic brownstones evoking Fort Greene's rich past to modern homes at the cutting edge of taste and style. In addition to Fort Greene’s houses, tour goers will also have the opportunity to explore some of our local businesses and other fascinating surprises that can be found only in Fort Greene.]]>

Advance Ticket locations in Fort Greene (cash only): BAM Box Office, 30 Lafayette Ave. Yu Interiors, 15 Greene Ave. Gnarly Vines, 350 Myrtle Ave. The Green Market, DeKalb Ave. & Washington Park (Saturdays only, starting 4/5/08) Brooklyn Flea, Lafayette Ave. at Clermont (Sundays only, starting 4/6/08) Day of Tour Ticket locations in Fort Greene (cash only): BAM Garden, Fulton St. at Lafayette Ave. Brooklyn Flea, Lafayette Ave. at Clermont Go to FGAhousetour.org to purchase your tickets online and find out more information.

Community meeting Tuesday, April 29th to discuss the Sean Bell case

2008-04-29T16:22:53Z

The Fort Greene Association is honored to co-sponsor a Town Hall Meeting to discuss the Sean Bell verdict, this evening, Tuesday, April 29th from 6:30 pm at Brown Memorial Baptist Church, 484 Washington Avenue, along with Council Member Letitia James, Kevin Powell, and April Silver, Akila Worksongs llc. We acknowledge the pain felt by many in our community and we wish to play a constructive role in the healing. The meeting will feature a panel of community members and local leaders, representing diverse perspectives in our neighborhood. The panel will respond to questions and statements from the audience. It is hoped that the dialogue that emerges will be a first step toward healing, toward strengthening our community and ultimately, moving beyond words to positive, neighborhood generated actions. Councilwoman Letitia James, The Fort Greene Association, Akila Worksongsllc and Kevin Powell present: A TIME TO HEAL AND ACT A Town Hall Meeting on the Sean Bell Verdict Tuesday, April 29, 2008, doors open 6:30pm Brown Memorial Baptist Church 484 Washington Ave. @ Gates Ave. Fort Greene/Clinton Hill, Brooklyn Subway C to Clinton-Washington Aves. All in the community are invited. We will begin a dialogue that will move beyond words to positive actions.

FGA General Meeting, Monday, April 28

2008-04-27T01:21:53Z

The next General FGA Meeting is Monday, April 28, 2008 - 7:30pm at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, 85 South Oxford, Fort Greene - Open to all At the next general meeting of the FGA, be a part of the discussion in shaping our neighborhood. Find out all about the new Community Supported Agriculture program for Fort Greene families. Get an update on the proposed Greenway which will connect the shore line of Brooklyn with a continuous bike path. Take a 3-D Tour of local gardens with a presentation by the Brownstone Brooklyn Garden District. And talk face to face with a local entrepreneur who plans to bring a Community Book Store into Fort Greene. Arrive early, refreshments served at 7pm Meet your neighbors, share ideas

April 2008 Newsletter

2008-04-21T03:19:09Z

Download the April 2008 newsletter.

Greene Grape Provisions is proud to underwrite this issue of the Fort Greene Association newsletter.

FGA Retail Survey: Bookstore, Specialty Food, Hardware, Supermarket Top Needs

2008-03-27T18:45:47Z

In an effort to give Fort Greene residents a voice in the changing retail scene in the community, the Fort Greene Association’s retail committee surveyed 380 locals about their shopping preferences. Almost 75% of respondents cited bookstores as a category in which they wanted more choices. Food stores including a bakery, a seafood store, and a natural foods store showed up as top requests in the survey. 81% of residents say they prefer independent stores to chains. ]]> fortgreeneshopping@gmail.com. For more information read the retail research press release here and the article in the Brooklyn Paper on the survey results here.

FGA NEWS: Slow Economy Likely to Stall Atlantic Yards

2008-03-22T01:39:20Z

The Fort Greene Association has been deeply involved with the course of events regarding the Atlantic Yards. In case you missed it, these are two important articles from the New York Times on March 21. Slow Economy Likely to Stall Atlantic Yards By CHARLES V. BAGLI Published: New York Times, March 21, 2008 The slowing economy, weighed down by a widening credit crisis, is likely to delay the signature office tower and three residential buildings at the heart of the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, the developer said.... Read the entire NYT article here. ]]> What Will Be Left of Gehry's Vision for Brooklyn? By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF Published: New York Times, March 21, 2008 The growing possibility that much of the multibillion-dollar Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn will be scrapped because of a lack of financing may be a bitter pill for its developer, Forest City Ratner. But it’s also a painful setback for urban planning in New York. Designed by Frank Gehry, the project was a rare instance in which the architectural talent lined up for a New York project matched the financial muscle behind it. When it was unveiled in late 2003, it seemed to signal a genuine effort to raise the quality of large-scale development in a city still stinging from the planning failures at ground zero. So if the decision to proceed with an 18,000-seat basketball arena but to defer or eliminate the four surrounding towers is defensible from a business perspective, it also feels like a betrayal of the public trust. Mr. Gehry conceived of this bold ensemble of buildings as a self-contained composition — an urban Gesamtkunstwerk — not as a collection of independent structures. Postpone the towers and expose the stadium, and it becomes a piece of urban blight — a black hole at a crucial crossroads of the city’s physical history. If this is what we’re ultimately left with, it will only confirm our darkest suspicions about the cynical calculations underlying New York real estate deals. The project that the city approved in late 2006 would have included eight million square feet of residential and commercial development on an eight-acre site extending east from Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues, one of the borough's most congested intersections. For many who opposed it early on, it was yet another instance of powerful economic interests trampling on the rights of a deeply rooted middle-class community - one that had already been reshaped by waves of transplanted Manhattanites. Mr. Gehry's involvement was simply a bit of window dressing intended to give the project an aura of enlightenment. I sympathized with these arguments to some degree. New York has had a terrible track record with large-scale planning in recent years. Look at Battery Park City. The MetroTech Center. Donald Trump's Riverside South. All are blots on the urban environment, as blandly homogenous in their own way as the Modernist superblocks they were intended to improve on. But it's important to remember that this is also the city that spawned Rockefeller Center, a 22-acre development at the core of Manhattan that became a glorious emblem of the 20th-century metropolis. For some of us Atlantic Yards presented a creative opportunity for the 21st century. If large-scale development is unavoidable, why not enlist serious talents like Mr. Gehry to come up with an alternative to the bottom-line proposals that have been the accepted norm for decades? Finally a big developer had turned to a legitimate architectural hero for help, rather than the usual corporate hacks. As it turned out, Mr. Gehry's design revealed both the promise and the limits of that collaboration. The main residential blocks to the east of the arena lacked the architect's signature ebullience. A series of mismatched towers along two sides of a central courtyard encompassing several blocks, they followed most of the usual planning rules: adhere to the street grid, pack in a good deal of retail along the street, add a dose of public space. ...Read the entire NYT article here. No development at all would be preferable to building the design that is now on the table. What's maddening is how few options opponents seem to have. Expect a full update on the status of the Atlantic Yards at our next general meeting April 28, 2008.

FGA GENERAL MEETING:Monday February 25, 2008 @ 7:30PM

2008-02-21T21:32:27Z

Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, 85 So. Oxford Street, Fort Greene Meeting starts at 7:30 P.M. Refreshments served from 7:00 P.M.
TOPICS:
MARTYRS MONUMENT CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION & ADMIRAL'S ROW
The Fort Greene Association in conjunction with the Fort Greene Park Conservancy is pleased to announce the plans for the Centennial Celebration of the Fort Greene Park Prison Ships Martyrs Monument. Also on the agenda the FGA will be showcasing alternate designs for the adaptive reuse of Admiral's Row which includes plans for new retail and community space in conjunction with the preservation of these historic structures. THE PRISON SHIP MARTYRS MONUMENT CENTENNIAL - JOIN THE REVOLUTION! The Martyrs Monument Centennial Celebration on November 14-16, 2008 in Fort Greene Park promises to be the biggest Brooklyn event of the new century!

GET A PREVIEW from the Fort Greene Park Conservancy: Overview: Ruth Goldstein, Centennial Chair What is it all about and why is it so important?
Learn: Why /what/who/when/where Hear about how a 15 year old boy prisoner changed our history.
Musical Program: Charles Jarden Conservancy-commissioned Choral Composition, Jazz recitals
Educational Programs: Fred Lasker and Dan Abetelli The seminar, the art competition and MOCADA exhibition, the essay competition, Children's graphic history (comic book)
Revolutionary War Re-enactors: Eleanor Labine
Family Roots Day: Genealogist Wilhelmena Kelly
Films, fireworks, community day, children's activities, international dignitaries, parade of flags, tall ships, marching bands, color guards, and Much, much more.
For further information on the Park Centennial please contact Ruth Goldstein at 718-596-0899 ADMIRAL'S ROW Howard Pitsch former chair of the FGA and Brent Porter of Pratt Institute reveal and discuss the alternate plans to save these historic homes and provide needed community services. FGA COMMITTEE REPORTS Hear updates on a number of projects the FGA has been working on. COMMUNITY FORUM OPEN MIC The floor is yours for two minutes. Use it to announce an upcoming event or raise an issue. Speaking slots are limited, sign up at the door. EVERYONE IS WELCOME Renters and homeowners alike are always welcome at FGA meetings. You don't have to be a member of the FGA to attend and the meetings are FREE.

February 2008 Newsletter

2008-02-21T20:19:59Z

Download the February 2008 FGA Newsletter

Aguayo & Huebener Realty is proud to underwrite this issue of the Fort Greene Association newsletter.]]>

Aguayo & Huebener Realty Call Roslyn at 718-788-8200 x11 Email her at: Roslyn@AHrlty.com Web: www.ahrlty.com

Residential Parking Forum

2008-01-29T16:29:47Z

Do you live, work or shop in Downtown Brooklyn? Would you like an opportunity to listen and share ideas on how to better manage PARKING in your neighborhood? THEN COME TO A RESIDENTIAL PARKING FORUM with NYC Department of Transportation (Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan scheduled) Monday, February 4, 2008, 7:00 PM St. Francis College Auditorium Remsen Street, Brooklyn Heights Subway: 2,3,4,5 (Borough Hall); R (Court Street) Get your friends and neighbors out. Find out the facts. Organized by: Council Members David Yassky, Letitia James, Bill DeBlasio Boerum Hill Association, Brooklyn Heights Association, Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association, Concord Village Owners Inc, Fort Greene Association, Park Slope Civic Council, Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, Society for Clinton Hill