Urban Meadow Planning Meeting

The Urban Meadow community garden is holding its first planning and membership meeting of the year. Renew memberships or join, get information about the season, help plan events and activities.


The Urban Meadow, on the corner of President and Van Brunt, hosts lots of fun events like jazz concerts, yoga classes, and Easter egg hunts. It's the backyard you always wish you had.

Event: Planning/Membership Meeting for the Urban Meadow Community Garden
Host: Urban Meadow coordinators
Time: Sunday, March 25, 2012 4:00PM
Location: back room of the House of Pizza and Calzone, 132 Union Street.

Brooklyn Greenway Initiative Grand Opening

You are invited to Brooklyn Greenway Initiative's "grand opening" open house. Event sponsors include: Brooklyn Brewery; Waterfront Wines & Spirits; Nine Cakes and Fairway.

Event: Brooklyn Greenway Initiative Open House
Host: Brian McCormick, Meg Fellerath, Milton Puryear
Time: Thursday, March 22, 2012 05:00PM
Location: New Greenway Office
Address: 153 Columbia Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231

RSVP to Brian at bmccormick@brooklyngreenway.org. 

Screening events coming to Jalopy

ExScEX (Expanded Screening Experience) events will include the projection of a film plus a short, live music, or an activist presentation, or a panel. Each event will have a theme: activism, fashion, or music. 


Two events are coming up at our own Jalopy Theater on March 20 and April 24. The film Vodka Rocks! will have its Kickstarter Premiere at  in Brooklyn on March 20, 7:45. Free to Kickstarter donors and crew & cast,  the screening will be accompanied by a performance by G.R.A.S.S., the ska and reggae band featuring on sax Michael Blake who wrote the score for Vodka Rocks!, a vodka tasting, Twitter competition, and Q&A with director John Rubino, DP James Callanan, Music Composer Michael Blake. 


Jalopy, 315 Columbia St
Tuesday March 20 at 8pm. $10
http://www.vodka-rocks.com 
http://skuflix.com/ 


The second event's theme is "actitainment." It will look into the expansion of a movement which joins entertainment with performance: adbusters, Yes Men, Reverend Billy, etc. There will be a panel discussion, a band, and a screening. Plus Twitter competition & vodka tasting! April 24, 8pm, also at Jalopy. 


Reverend Billy is a hero of mine (neighborlujah!) so I'll be sure not to miss that one.

New Show Opening at Clayworks

News from Clayworks...

We are excited to announce the first joint exhibition of drawings and sculptures by Bonnie Levine and Naomi Hudson-Knapp on March 24th from 4-8pm. Mark your calendars and join us at Clayworks on Columbia! Preview our work by going to Naomi's blog, nhudsonknapp.blogspot.com. 

bonnie levine

naomi hudson-knapp

paper and clay

opening reception

saturday, march 24, 4-8pm

Clayworks on Columbia

195 columbia street

brooklyn, ny 11231

gallery open by appointment or during studio hours

contact bonnie or naomi at claygurl@gmail.com or nhudsonknapp@gmail.com

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Bonnie and Naomi

Parents Needed for Transportation Survey

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 the Columbia Waterfront. 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.

Meet Your Neighbors NextDoor

There is a new online group for residents of the Columbia Waterfront on NextDoor.com. Think of it as an online bulletin board and discussion for the neighborhood. Share your experiences with local businesses, hear about local events. It's also a mini-Pennysaver where we can buy and sell things without leaving the neighborhood. 


Go here to join the conversation:
https://columbiastreetwaterfrontdistrict.nextdoor.com/login/


Thanks to Meredith Johnson for getting our NextDoor group started. 

Keep the Columbia Street Post Office Open! UPDATE

An update to last week's post on the termination of our Columbia Street post office: there is now an online petition at http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/keepritasopen.

The Mary Whalen in Danger

PortSide has been holding a variety of great events and tours on their restored tanker, the Mary Whalen since 2005. They are an organization devoted to the revitalization of Red Hook and our nautical history.

But now The Mary Whalen needs a home confirmed by April 30 or PortSide will close and the ship will be scrapped.  

PortSide asks concerned community members to meet them Monday, February 27 6:30-8:30pm at Long Island College Hospital to get your endorsements, your ideas, and your help joining action committees. 

Meeting Address:

Long Island College Hospital 

339 Hicks Street, Brooklyn NY 11201
Corner of Atlantic Avenue & Hicks Street, Brooklyn
Enter from Hicks Street (some raised steps) 

If you can't make the meeting, join PortSide at salty Montero's Baracross Atlantic Avenue from LICH just south of Hicks. They will be there until 10:30pm. 

 

Keep the Columbia Street Post Office Open!

If you've visited our little Post Office on Columbia Street this week you'll know that the USPS plans to close it at the end of March. Owner Rita Farone, who has been running the contracted Post Office for 17 years, is collecting signatures on a petition which she plans to send to the American Postal Workers Union soon.

Carroll Gardens Patch reports that calls to Community Board Six prompted District Manager Craig Hammerman to send a letter to the Postmaster General, asking for the decision to be reversed. He added this advice:
"It may be worth the effort for interested parties to reach out to their federal elected officials to see if they would be willing to intervene on the neighborhood's behalf. I suppose additional letters to the Postmaster General couldn't hurt either."

Here is where to contact our Representatives and Senators to ask for their support!

Contact Congresswoman Nydia Velázques: http://velazquez.house.gov/contact/index.shtml

Contact Senator Schumer: http://schumer.senate.gov/Contact/contact_chuck.cfm

Contact Senator Gillibrand: http://www.gillibrand.senate.gov/contact/

Send a letter to the Postmaster General: 

Pat Donahoe

475 L’Enfant Plaza SW

Washington DC 20260-0010

Want to do more to help? There's some advice here for organizing the community to save a Post Office. 

Author Patrick Taylor Appearing at the Carroll Gardens Library Feb 29

 This just in from the Friends of the Carroll Gardens Library: 

February 29, Leap Day, is a rare date which occurs just once every four years. Rarer still is a Brooklyn appearance by New York Times bestselling author Patrick Taylor (the “Irish Country” series) – but that’s exactly what’s scheduled for Wednesday, February 29 at 7 p.m. when the author visits the Carroll Gardens branch of the Brooklyn Public Library for a discussion and signing of his novels. It will be the author’s exclusive New York appearance.

 “We are so excited that Patrick Taylor will be visiting not only the library, but Brooklyn for this event,” says Friends of the Carroll Gardens Library secretary and event organizer Diane Saarinen.  “We can only hope our ‘little village’ of Carroll Gardens is half as interesting as the Ballybucklebo that Taylor depicts in his colorful novels.”


Taylor , author of the bestselling An Irish Country Village, A Dublin Student Doctor and more, is also looking forward to the February 29 event: “Although I have visited New York often, I am really looking forward to my first visit to Brooklyn--even if Ebbets Field is gone and the Trolley Dodgers who hired Jackie Robinson in 1947 have long been in LA,” the author says. “And where better to go than a library in a borough that has 58 branches of its Public Library system? I hope what I have to say will be interesting and entertaining.”


Seating is limited and those who wish to attend this exciting event must register for tickets at http://patricktaylorinbrooklyn.eventbrite.com/  A donation of $10 per person at the door is suggested. Signed books will be available for purchase. 


“An Evening with Patrick Taylor” Wednesday,  February 29, 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Carroll Gardens Library, located at 396 Clinton Street, on the corner of Union Street, Brooklyn New York. Subways: F and G train to Carroll Street.


About the Friends of the Carroll Gardens Library: The Friends of the Carroll Gardens Library was chartered early in 2011 and hosts their book sale fundraiser each May, in addition to organizing dynamic programs at the library. Its goals are to support the library by helping to make the Carroll Gardens branch a hub of the community with programs for children, youth and adults all year round. Visit their website at http://friendsofcglibrary.blogspot.com, friend them on Facebook at http://facebook.com/FriendsofCarrollGardensLibrary and follow them on Twitter at http://twitter.com/FriendCGLibrary.