143 Baxter Street

February 21 2020

6:30

Thanks to the working people of the NYC Parks Department for a great response to the protecting this 4-decade old unique Sara Roosevelt Park institution.

A model of a win/win for shared Park use.

Thank you to Tommy Chen for your dedication to that project.

Thank you for all the thoughtful follow-up by Long-Range Policy and Planning Chief Sarah Neilson.

photo Lee Elson

We must reject any misguided policy of removing the public’s and neighborhood’s home-grown efforts that make our NYC Parks unique, vibrant, and respond to the specific issues of their communities. The ethos of our Community Gardens and Park advocacy on the Lower East Side and other low-income communities has been built on the concept of environmental justice.

Especially when our Parks and communities have been on the front lines pushing back against “Climate Change” before it had a name.

From NYC Parks Wildlife Unit:

Hi Everyone,

Sunny and I would like to officially welcome all of you to the 2020 season of raptor nest monitoring! 

To the new citizen science scouts and monitors, we will be holding a webinar training on Thursday, February 13th at 5:30 pm. We will provide the link to you very soon. During the live stream you will have the ability to ask questions, but do not worry if you cannot make it at 5:30pm. It will be recorded and you can access it later just by going back to the link.  

To the returning scouts and monitors, it is optional if you want to participate in the webinar training again. Please feel free to access it if you need a refresher. If you have not done so yet, please check on the nests that you monitored last year for any breeding raptor activity.  

If you still need to send us your waiver, please download the attached file and either email it back or mail it my address below soon.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions. We look forward to working with you all and thank you again for joining us!

Cheers,

Katie

Katie Leung Associate Wildlife Biologist® , Field Technician, Wildlife Unit  E Katie.Leung@parks.nyc.gov

NYC Parks Wildlife Unit, 1234 Fifth Avenue, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10029, nyc.gov/parks

Forgotten NY Sara Roosevelt Park

By SERGEY KADINSKY
Forgotten NY correspondent

“In the crowded Lower East Side of Manhattan there is a linear park covering seven blocks between Houston and Canal Streets. It is the product of Depression-period slum clearance that provided much-needed public green space for the poor, tired, huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

A fascinating ‘walk through’ Sara Roosevelt Park with links to in depth histories.

“How to solve climate change and make life more awesome”

Ezra Klein podcast: You can listen to this conversation — and others — by subscribing to The Ezra Klein Show

This conversation is about a vision of decarbonization that is genuinely awesome, and how we can actually get there.

Ezra Klein

“Can you paint a picture of what it could be like to live in a decarbonized world? Is there a vision of a decarbonized future that could actually be awesome — that people will want to buy into?”

Saul Griffith

“I think this is a great question. All of the politicians are pitching their climate plans from some top-down economic view, saying things like, “We’ll decarbonize this industry by this date.” It all sounds very abstract. No one has presented the Green New Deal from the kitchen table out: What will it look like in my home?

Instead of burning natural gas to make your coffee in the morning, you’ll have an induction range, which [can] be programmed to cook your coffee for you in a way that’s much easier. You’ll have better air quality, which will help cure things like allergies and severe asthma. You won’t have to worry about carbon monoxide anymore. You’ll be warmed by your radiant floor heating, which won’t give you that dry mouth in the middle of the night. The car will be charged overnight by renewables like wind. The rest of your house will be powered by the solar on your roof that day.

Also, your total energy costs will go way down. We ran the numbers grossly for Australia, and if you did that package of electric vehicles, heat pumps, and rooftop solar, you would save the average Australian family about $1,000 to $2,000 a year. So there’s more money in your pocket to enjoy the rest of your life.

I think our failure on fixing climate change is just a rhetorical failure of imagination. We haven’t been able to convince ourselves that it’s going to be great. It’s going to be great.”

“The largest material flows globally are

#1 Dirt: humans move gigatons and gigatons of dirt every year–agriculture

2^nd largest material flow we move is CO2

3^rd trees, paper, pulp

4^th cement, and concrete ½ to 1 ton of cement for every person on the planet every year.

We currently put 50 gigatons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year.

Realistic estimates, are we could draw down on at least 3 to as many as 5 gigatons of CO2 a year just by changing the way we make concrete and cement and by managing forestry better.

Those technologies where we are trapping CO2 in physical, solid material that have a long resonance time in our economies is totally sensible. And at the rate of 3 to 5 gigatons a year if we do the other project to decarbonize  in a decade or two as we could, over those two decades if we’re also deploying that carbon sequestration in our material economy you can take out enough to get us close to the 1.5 degrees.”

– Saul Griffith is an inventor, a MacArthur genius fellow, and the founder and CEO of Otherlab, a high-tech research and development company on the frontlines of trying to imagine our clean energy future.

Local “Beat Cops” Police Officers Bozzo and Officer Urena Meeting to Hear from Community

Safety concerns, suggestions of how to help, good news, etc.

Build awareness with your neighbors.

Cascade High School, 198 Forsyth (at Stanton)

Thursday February 27th, 2020

6pm doors open

6:30pm Meeting Starts

Appreciations to the women and men of our local precinct.

• Park Manager, New York City Department of Parks Tompkins Square Park Supervisor
• Caroline Bragdon, Director of Neighborhood Interventions, Bureau of Veterinary and Pest Control Services New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
• Pamela Ito, Director of Education, The Horticultural Society of New York

Thanks to The Hort’s Pam Ito for organizing this important event. And to Exxex Market for space. This program was made possible in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development in partnership with New York City Council Member Margaret Chin.

Awaiting word of a ribbon cutting ceremony.

For an update of the progress and history of the quest to return the Stanton Parkhouse to the community as promised for decades…see Wendy Brawer of Green Map’s ‘deck’ here.

(With thanks to the Pratt Center for Community Development and Keenah Suh)

Would also like the bathrooms open 24/7 with those same hours of security positions keeping an eye on everything to assist those who are homeless or just out because NYC “never sleeps”?

photos Keena Suh

A few photos from yesterday’s Audubon Outreach Meeting. And a visit from a concerned Park denizen.

Thank you to Audubon NY Richard Santagelo, Amy Simmons, and Emily Tyrer for volunteering her time to educate us all. And for bringing us information to take with us. Thank you to Kim Fong of the BRC for welcoming this resource.

Very appreciative of Parks workers, local birders, Seniors at the BRC, interns, Bob Humber and all our volunteer park caregivers for their input.

and Ceci Cela Patisserie coffee and treats!!

We’ll hold another meeting for those who couldn’t make this one. Stay tuned.

And pre-visit from Tenement Museum and New Forsyth Conservancy Gardener Jason:

Emily’s beautiful survey displays (English version will be available for comment at the BRC – see Bob Humber). Others in Chinese are on their way:

And last… a visit from a Sharp-Shinned Hawk hunting…in M’Finda Garden (photo courtesy Daniel Tainow)