Month: November 2010

Alternatives to Housing in Brooklyn Bridge Park – Two Public Meetings Being Held

Brooklyn Bridge Park Committee on Alternatives to Housing will be holding two meetings in the coming weeks offering an opportunity for the public to testify on “alternative sources of revenue that could finance operations of the park in lieu of revenues from the Pier 6 and John Street development sites.”

Dates & locations are:

Tuesday, November 30th 6-8 p.m.
Long Island College Hospital, 339 Hicks Street
Avram Conference Center, 1st floor

Thursday, December 9th, 6-8 p.m.
St. Francis College, 180 Remsen Street
Founders Hall Auditorium, 1st floor

Previously at WSP Blog, I wrote about this park which borders the waters on Brooklyn’s side which separate Brooklyn and Manhattan:

Recently it was announced that BBP’s completion is behind schedule at least five years. Community activists are (again) pushing for “housing-free” Park. Presently, 1400 units of “luxury housing” are in New York State’s plans for the park. The Brooklyn Paper reports: “In the decades since community activists and local officials started planning Brooklyn Bridge Park, the proposal has changed from a sprawling public greenspace that would be part of the city’s regular park system to a state-built and-operated development whose open-space component would be maintained through fees charged to residents of luxury condos within the park’s footprint.”

More of the park has been completed since that was written in 2008 and part is now open. There was a controversy earlier this year over the really bad decision by the park management to install metal domes that turned out to burn children’s hands (and whatever other part of their bodies that touched it).

A letter from the Cobble Hill Association printed at Pardon Me for Asking Blog explains the issue further, illustrating the way parks are being used by the Bloomberg Administration and NY State to increase real estate values over quality of living:

Despite what some may think, these luxury high-rise towers are not needed to fund the park’s maintenance. There are many solutions to “pay” for park maintenance. When condos came into the park all year round recreation came out. Landscaping replaced the two pools, the indoor recreation center and ice rink that the community had worked so hard for decades to get. Landscaping sells condos while baseball fields do not.

More from the letter:

The city is still planning to build 5 more luxury condo and hotel towers inside the park’s borders

Read more…

Today, Saturday, November 6th 12-5:30 p.m. – Support NYC Shelter Reform/Learn More at Washington Square Park

Updated with AC&C links!

I’ve long thought the New York City shelter system, Animal Care & Control (AC&C), wasn’t going far enough to spare animals’ lives – it’s reported that 13,000 cats and dogs were killed last year in the New York City shelter system.

13 THOUSAND KILLED.

There are only three shelters – which cover all FIVE boroughs in a city with 8 MILLION people – and all are placed in locations that are not easily accessible for most. (The Brooklyn location is in East New York.) Shouldn’t our animals be given the best chance for their lives to be saved by being easily adoptable and every chance that can be given explored ?

The “system” has always been problematic but budget cuts have made the problem more glaring. People are rallying, after too long a silence, to reform the system. A few years ago, it was stated NYC was going No-Kill. This seems further away than ever.

One of the members of Board of Directors of the AC&C is NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe.

The first gathering of a new independent coalition to reform the AC&C will be held today, Saturday, November 6th at Washington Square Park, 12 noon to 5:30 p.m. near the Holley Plaza (to west of the Fountain). Join in and find out more.

From the press release at the Vintage Cats blog:

Concerned New Yorkers are coming together on November 6th at Washington Square Park to educate the public about what is happening to the homeless pets of NYC. The goal is to force the NY ACC to reform so that the needless killings of adoptable pets can be stopped.

This year significant funding was cut from New York City’s Animal Shelter system’s (NYACC – New York Animal Care and Control) budget. Food and supplies have run out over the last few weeks. New Yorkers have been donating food and supplies to keep the cats and dogs fed. The shelters are severely under funded. In fact, there are only three shelters for all five boroughs.

On November 4th phone lines at the ACC were turned off. The public can no longer call in to inquire, or to adopt a cat and dog.

WSP Blog note: This is a particularly important piece of information:

The NY ACC is considered a private charity organization, but its board is made up of city officials. Several of them are from the Department of Health, as it is this agency that provides most of the funding for the shelters. Current board members must be replaced by caring, innovative, and experienced leaders in animal rescue, rather then civil servants with no experience in working for animal welfare and city bureaucrats.

Board members employed by the City of New York cannot challenge the Department of Health’s lack of funding. The NY ACC must start anew as a true charity organization without any ties to a city agency, except for funding.

And this is shocking and sad:

The board purposely hides the fact that the reason the animals are destroyed is because of lack of space and resources. A bulk of their funding comes from an organization called Maddie’s Fund. This organization

Read more…