Harlem River Foliage Paddle

Why do the tides always run at ridiculous hours of the morning? Where’s the intelligent design in that? Couldn’t G-d have created a world where tides would only run after 10:00? Such are the musings of a sleep deprived brain.
It was 4:00 am and I had to leave by 6:00 to meet some Friends of Brook Park at 7:00 for a Fall foliage paddle down (and/or up) the Harlem River.

I pulled up in front of the gate at the corner of 141 St & Brook Ave at 6:40 (sometimes the traffic goblins sleep late). 10 minutes later some fellow paddlers began to show up.

We ended up with 7 paddlers: 3 canoes; and me in my kayak. We car topped one of the canoes next to my yak and loaded the other two on carts to be walked to the launch.

One of the canoes was an old Grumman aluminum, like the ones I paddled before the last ice age when I was younger. I know these boats are indestructible but I was told that this one had actually survived being thrown off a roof before being donated. It proudly displayed its battle scars, it was kinda canoe shaped in both directions (upright and on its side).

We launched around 8:30; there was still a chill in the air but the weather was sunny despite the overcast weather predictions. Once we got on the water I forgave G-d for his mis-timed tides.

The current was moving nicely; we spotted several hawks. The bird watchers in the group probably knew what kind they were; to me they were just magnificent.

Our first stop was the Sharp Boathouse and Swindlers Cove. I’ve always enjoyed docking there but had never really explored the grounds surrounding the boathouse. We went on a tour. The gardens and landscaping are terrific.

When we got back to the boathouse to launch I decided to light up a cigar, and enjoy the sheer opulence of my surroundings while paddling. I started entering my yak as I’ve done a dozen times from the boathouse dock: The traffic demons may have slept in but the ever playful river gods hadn’t. I ended up demonstrating a wet exit without ever having fully entered my boat. I survived, with a very bruised ego. My cigar, however, was less fortunate.

I need to apologize to the rest of my group for making it so hard for them to paddle while holding their sides hysterically.

Our next stop was Inwood Park. There was just enough of a ribbon of water between the mud to allow us to tie up to the dock. 20 minutes later as the tide receded the boats were on the mud. Really not a bad thing since we had expected to remain there till the tide came back in anyway. We jumped the locked gate on the pier and proceeded to a large bark wig wam that had been erected in the park. At that point a friendly parks dept employee asked to see our launch permit. Our guide painstakingly explained to him that as the park had been built with public funds he saw no reason to have one. The friendly parks dept employee immediately saw the merit of the argument and went on his way. (Now I’ll tell you about the tooth fairy.) Anyway we promised to leave as soon as our boats had water under them.

If you have never visited Inwood Park, you owe it to yourself to go. This is not the Big Apple that you usually envision. Winding paths through the woods that go on forever. I kept having to remind myself that I was still in NYC and not the Appalachians.

The water finally came back in and much to the joy of the friendly parks dept employee we made ready to depart. I waited till I was securely IN my boat before lighting my cigar.

Next stop our friends at Urban Divers. What a terrific exhibit. I learned more about horseshoe crabs than I had ever imagined.

Did you know that 4’ sturgeons still migrate up the Hudson? They are endangered so I sure hope the life sized stuffed one that they had on display was made of plaster.

Back on the water, for an easy paddle home. Take out was around 3:00.

by Ron

Halloween With Council Member Viverito

Hundreds of local youth and adults visited our safe, natural haven of Brook Park after-school on Halloween. With pumpkins provided by the NYC Department of Parks and recreation and a DJ funded through the Office of Council Member Melissa Mark Viverito, our community had a great family celebration. With healthy fruit alternatives to sugar candy, apple bobbing and marshmallow roasting under the changing leaves, it was a holiday to remember!

Brook Park hosts Tribes of Humanity gathering

Tribes of Humanity was a phenomenal success.. We glimpsed into the potential of our unity and beauty of our extended Community.. the reality is,
It is all about you, about us, the village, the Tribe, the Collective, the People indeed we have arrived. Our voices were heard, our drums were touched, we peered into one another’s Souls, we healed, we made music, we talked and connected, we grew, we evolved. We practiced ancient traditions & Native Ways ashe ashe as our Ancestors say ashe… ashe we came together that day in a sacred yet festive way…

The drums sounded reflecting the rhythms of the Earth
The smoke signals arose
Children’s laughter
Chopped wood
The Grandfather stones
Our bundles of Prayer
A sacred haven in the South Bronx called Brook Park
We stood in council
We honored the 4 winds and our Ancestors
African Aboriginal locks and Native Indigenous feathers mingled as one
There was honor and wisdom

A bond was made, an unspoken pact was drawn within ourselves, an innerstanding of our connection as children of the Earth that we are all Brothers and Sisters, Indeed this was the beginning of something special..

That day we entered Mother Earth’s womb and were reborn we’ve arrived the birth of a Tribe
Tribe of Humanity

This is when it gets interesting, that was the beginning stay tuned

Tito Kayak paddles the South Bronx with FoBP!

Friends of Brook Park was honored to outfit and guide the world renowned
environmental activist Tito Kayak of the Vieques movement, and other
efforts, on an exclusive tour of the waterways of the South, South Bronx.
The trip went south on the Harlem River, through the Bronx Kill, and into
the East River with a shoreline tour of North Brother Island. With a 4 foot
striped bass, swans, hawks, environmental devastation of Randall's Island
and more! Strong language. And freestyle rap at the end by Tito himself!
With BronxNet Director Michael aboard.

See the con ed electric feeder lines that block the Bronx Kill and prohibit
easy navigation between the East and Harlem Rivers.

Join our efforts to free the Bronx Kill, create official water access in the
South, South Bronx and preserve Randall's Island!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVyvHr69ek4


**See Tito Kayak's escape from police via kayak after a week long vigil on a
crane to halt development of luxury hotels in Puerto Rico that would have
ended public access to paddled and surfed beaches at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzoP-cKQaCI

Artificial Turf: DANGER!

October 3, 2008

Honorable members of the City Council, Scott Stringer, Borough President of Manhattan and Board Member of Randall's
Island Sports Foundation (RISF) and Aimee Boden, the Executive Director of the RISF:

I appreciate your attendance or that of your representatives at the City Council Parks and Recreation Committee meeting on
Monday, September 22nd, 2008 entitled Oversight of the Randall's Island Sports Foundation and the NYC Parks
Department.

Dr. Crain - a psychologist, who has studied the impacts of lead ingestion by children on their development - provided
testimony that requires your immediate attention as he addressed the real dangers of exposure to lead in synthetic turf fields
in our city. It is therefore worthy of recapping to you.

In his public statements to you on the record (attached for your reference), Dr. Crain announced that the toxicity of
synthetic turf being used by both the Parks Department of Parks and Recreation and the RISF is significant having reached
dangerous levels of lead in both the polyethelene 'blades' and the pellets forming the base or cushion of the turf. A
peer-reviewed study to be published in the Journal of Exposure Science in November (also attached) provides more details
of these findings.

As Dr. Crain noted, esteemed heath scientists such as Philip J. Landrigan, Bruce Lanphear, and R.L. Canfield say there may
be no safe level of lead exposure. Even low levels can damage the child's developing nervous system. Dr. Crain called for
a moratorium on new installations until much more research has been conducted.

Public officials responsible for approving, monitoring or halting the use of synthetic turf also have the responsibility to take
actions to warn the public about this danger and should ensure at the very least that children under the age of 6 years are
kept from the fields until more is known.

Please take note that notice to you of such serious findings require immediate action for both legal and moral reasons and
that your positions as public officials do not insulate you from reckless actions you take in response to this new peer-
reviewed scientific data.

Would you please let me know what steps you are taking to inform the relevant city engineers and commissioners of this
matter and what steps they in turn are taking to remove this environmental threat to the health of those exposed to synthetic
turf?

Thank you for your good work.

Robert Jereski
Co-founder
New York Climate Action Group

On the Water with Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance

"Hey, where you going with those boats?" from the driver of a moving van and "You need water for those things," from a man standing on the corner. These are the things you here when you wheel canoes on trailers through the South Bronx. That is exactly what a few friends of Brook Park did last Friday, along with Roland Lewis and Jennifer Stark-Hernandez from the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, an organization whose mission is to make New York waterways more accessible.

Our day on the river introduced Roland and Jennifer to the challenge of accessing the waterfront from the South Bronx (navigating canoes-on-wheels through traffic!) and the reward that is a beautiful and refreshing paddle through the Harlem River, Bronx Kill and East River. The midpoint of our trip was a picnic on Randall's island with view of North and South Brother Islands as well as the old docks and piers that give a snapshot of a time when the South Bronx waterfront was accessible and active.

Wheeling our canoes back to the park after our sunny afternoon on the water, we answered those questions- "We're taking these boats to the Harlem River. We''ve got water right here."

by Emily Sandusky

FoBP in NY Times article for Randall's Island Connector

On the Water, a Tight Fit and Nervous Boaters

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/nyregion/thecity/07kaya.html?ref=thecity

Photo by: Rob Buchanan/newyorkharborbeaches.org

“It’s tricky to time it, to get under the conduits,” Rob Buchanan said of navigating the Bronx Kill.


By KATHERINE BINDLEY
Published: September 6, 2008
THERE are times when the narrow strait known as the Bronx Kill, which separates Randalls Island from the southern tip of the Bronx, looks neglected. At low tide one recent Saturday, for example, a T-shirt and a surge protector lay on the bottom, along with the remnants of a car that had turned the exact color of the rocks it had settled on.

But for canoers, kayakers and other boaters, who know to come when the tide is just right, the Bronx Kill is home to blue crabs and schools of fish, and serves as a precious passageway connecting the East and Harlem Rivers.

“It’s a natural day trip — float through, have a picnic and come back,” said Rob Buchanan, the president of the Village Community Boathouse in Manhattan.

But navigating the kill can be tricky. Directly over the water are two concrete beams, built by Con Edison in the 1960s, that contain cables that carry power to Randalls Island. Sometimes a boater has about a foot of clearance under the beams, but at other times it’s down to inches. “It’s tricky to time it, to get under the conduits,” Mr. Buchanan said.

Now, in light of significant changes planned for the area, boaters’ concerns have turned to this tight fit.

The first challenge was a plan to build a pedestrian bridge over the kill as part of the South Bronx Greenway project. When local officials and boating representatives heard the idea, they lobbied the city’s Economic Development Corporation to ensure that the bridge would be high enough for boat traffic. After seeing preliminary renderings of the bridge, the concerned parties were satisfied.

But now there is a second construction plan for the Bronx Kill. Con Edison wants to build more electrical conduits to Randalls Island to supply more power to a water treatment plant there.

The boaters say that if Con Ed proceeds with this project, it might as well raise the relatively low height of the current conduits. “If they’re going to do a big investment here, let’s do it all,” said Harry Bubbins, the director of Friends of Brook Park, a community environmental group that frequently runs boats through the kill. Noting that the undersides of the Con Ed beams show signs of decay, he added, “There’s a sense they’re just going to throw these things in.”

Chris Olert, a Con Ed spokesman, said that the utility hopes to finish the project by next summer. “We’re working with the city E.D.C., and I’m sure we and they together will address concerns,” he added. “There has to be sound engineering and the project has got to be affordable. Occasionally, people request things that just aren’t affordable for all of our customers.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Bubbins plans to continue to take people through the strait.

“We’re taking more people out to the site, introducing people to the project and raising awareness about it,” he said. “It’s very different when you’re on the water.”