Green Brooklyn....Green City event - 9/24/09

The Council on the Environment of NYC is pleased to announce the 5th Annual Green Brooklyn...Green City Fair and Symposium taking place on Thursday, September 24, 2009 at Brooklyn Borough Hall and Columbus Park.

Green Brooklyn...Green City is an interactive event where attendees can learn first-hand from local experts about the many ways New York City is creating a more sustainable future.

Alongside a Greenmarket farmers' market, attendees can visit exhibitors, make art from recycled products, and more. The event is the largest of its kind in Brooklyn and CENYC invites you to come learn the simple, small steps you can take to help keep New York City a healthy place to live.

This event is free and open to the public. The event runs from 12pm-6pm, with opening remarks at 11:30am.

Local Call to Service

Before you head to the Coffee Den (or wherever else you may be going) on Tuesday for inauguration, think about answering Obama's National Call to Service locally on Monday, in honor of MLK day. Below are some of the places close by on the Obama site's list. If anyone knows of any other volunteer opportunities in the area, please let us know and we will post them up. You can also select from options throughout other areas of Brooklyn and NYC by going to this link. You can sign up to host an event there as well.

Non-perishable food drive and distribution (Day of Service - January 19)

Tuesday, January 20 at 12:00 PM

Arab-American Family Support Center (Brooklyn, NY)

The Arab-American Family Support Center located @ 150 Court Street, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn, New York 11201, plans on collecting non-perishable food items throughout the month...

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Brooklyn Food Drive at Trader Joe's (Day of Service - January 19)

Monday, January 19 at 10:00 AM

Trader Joe's Brooklyn (Brooklyn, NY)

Join local volunteers and meet new friends during this fun Day of Service activity. In your RSVP, please write your email and/or phone number and indicate...

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Donate Clothes to Housing Works (Weekend Events - January 17 or 18)

Saturday, January 17 at 11:00 AM
Sunday, January 18 at 12:00 PM

122 Montague St.

Housing Works: Brooklyn Thrift Shop (Brooklyn, NY)

Housing Works provides homeless and low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS and their families with housing, meals, medical care, drug treatment, social support, employment opportunities...

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Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 1 was a hit!

The NYPost reported today that the temporary run of Pier 1 at the future site of Brooklyn Bridge Park was a real success. I have to say that I went there once this summer and loved it. If the rest of the park will of similar quality, Broolynites will be in for a real treat. I can't wait!

From the article:

A small temporary park that offered a preview of one of the state's most highly contested projects – the Brooklyn Bridge Park -- was a surprise summer hit with 192,675 people visiting from around the world.

The 26,000-square-foot park at Pier 1 in Brooklyn Heights saw visitors from 440 different ZIP codes during a 13-week run that ended Sunday to make way for construction of the larger, 85-acre park project, according to data released yesterday.

The temporary park was a major draw for out-of-towners with 79 percent coming from outside the immediate area of Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and DUMBO.

In fact, 25 percent of all visitors came from 52 different countries, and another 17 percent came from outside New York City.

"I think this will put an end to debate that Brooklyn Bridge Park is nothing but a fancy back yard for the rich," said Mariana Koval, president of the waterfront park's conservancy.

Koval was referring to criticism of a feature of the park plan - luxury high-rise condos to be built in the park to offset maintenance costs.

The temporary park featured a massive sandbox, sprinklers and games for children, wine and beer, food and spectacular New York Harbor views -- including the temporary waterfalls display.

Entire article here.

Photo above from Brooklynbridge.org.

Running Behind Schedule......

With new busy fall schedules and photo outings where camera batteries ended up being dead, we're running a little behind schedule lately. Luckily, the internet keeps moving. Here are some articles and blog postings about things that we meant to cover (oops!):

House of Pizza is Back!
The house of pizza on Union St. is back and looking better than ever after a couple weeks of renovation. Lost City (who seems to live in the neighborhood....) captured some pictures and observations. I'm sure the pizza is still as tasty as ever!

Trader Joes is open!
A few years back, so many Brooklyn neighborhoods suffered from a lack of grocery stores. Now grocery options just keep on coming. Luckily for us, Trader Joes offers something slightly different than other local favorites like Fairway and the Met. Unfortunately that means possibly making 3 grocery runs to get everything you want. Brooklyn Paper covers the opening here.

Not Just BJs, but a whole mall?
I was a little sad when I initially heard about plans for a BJs to open up in Red Hook. I was even sadder when I heard that it would be part of an entire mall. Brownstoner reports here and Brooklyn paper reports here.

Additional Waterfront District Festival coverage
While we did cover this particular item a while back, I did happen to run across someone else's take here.

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More to come later....................................