Racoon in Brook Park

Not all were captured.

Survey for The Harlem River Task Force*

Yes bikes yes on-water access yes kayaks and canoes...

Survey for The Harlem River Task Force*

The Harlem River Park Task Force is a coalition comprised of local,
citywide, and regional organizations working together with elected officials
to improve the quality of life in the Harlem & East Harlem communities. As
part of this mission, the task force is conducting a survey to better
understand the barriers to access of Harlem River Park for Harlem
residents. Five minutes of your time to fill out this survey will help the
task force in its efforts to provide better access to and encourage usage of
this waterfront park.

Click below to take the survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=aMf6ttbwI8PABr8m87xdjw_3d_3d

Liberty and Ellis Islands: Public Comment

Dear Friends,

As many of you know, the USCG, National Parks Department and Homeland
Security are planning to expand the security zone around Liberty and Ellis
Islands. Among other things, the new zone will eliminate crossing between
the islands, push boaters closer to the channel, into rougher water
and higher density motor vehicle traffic.

About 6 weeks ago a number of paddlers had the opportunity to express their
concerns face to face with LCDR Mike McBrady, who heads up the Waterway
Management Division of USCG Sector New York. He followed up the exchange
with an email which stated that if the human powered community proposed a "
'kayaker corridor' between/behind the islands [to] improve safety while not
being detrimental to security (i.e. kayaks are small and slow and not the
vector of choice for terrorists trying to injure land based tourists or sink
vessels) that would definitely be considered as an option by the USCG and
USPS."

Many members of our community have already written letters and filed them
with Homeland Security, including Rob Buchanan for Village Community
Boathouse, Tim Gamble for Red Hook Boaters, Ilene Levenson for the Sebago
Canoe Club. There may be many more -- those are just the ones I am aware
of.

The Guild has also written a letter, and working with Rob & Tim, we have
drafted 3 proposals for the consideration of the USCG and National Parks.
(We submitted three because the Coast Guard encouraged us to submit more
than one proposed solution to the concerns we've raised). Please go to our
website to read the letter and review the proposed solutions to the problems
the new zone would cause.

http://www.hrpg.net/liberty-and-ellis-island-secur/

If you support maintaining a human powered boat corridor around and between
Liberty and Ellis Islands, please register, via the form provide, and we
will add your name, or organization, to the list of "signatories" to our
letter. This link will take you directly to the registration page.

http://www.hrpg.net/sol-supporters/

The public comment period for this proposed expansion ends July 7th, but due
to the holiday, we will be filing the final letter & charts with Homeland
Security on Wednesday, July 3rd, this week.

Many Thanks,
Bill Bergeron
President
HRPG

Friends of Brook Park film on YOU TUBE

Hi Friends,

The Friends of Brook Park film produced in collaboration with the NYU students of Professor Mark Read is now posted on YouTube!!!

Check it out at

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OlZDwl9Sy1M

Make comments, send to friends, write checks.

Please share and distribute it, as it is our intention to use this as a vehicle for education, AND fundraising!

Online giving at:

http://friendsofbrookpark.org/donations

Thanks for all you do!

Hydrology Study Prepared for Underground Brook!

We are making progress, thanks to you.

With the leadership and dedication of Aaron Petersohn, B.Arch. of Ira N. Pierce, P.E.,P.C.
Engineers+Architects+Planners+Environmental Scientists
we now have the estimate for the hydrology study at Brook Park.
which will help us identify the location and flow of the underground brook.

The Capital Project we are working on with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation will feature the "daylighting" of this natural water feature, with enhancements from the recovered water from adjacent roofs.

Please contact:
Council Member Melissa Mark Viverito
105 E. 116th Street
New York, NY 10029
Phone
212-828-9800

Send a postcard or letter with thanks for her support and encouraging her efforts to have the Parks Department fund the hydrology study prepared by our environmental engineering consultants in a speedy manner. The Parks Department has already funded a previous soil study, but the outlined work plan we have prepared is what is needed to move this initiative forward.

Thanks!

Volunteer Thanks!

Today is a special thanks day!


For our biannual It's Your Park Day, we want to thank the following people for dedicating their time and energy:

Frances, Ed, Rebecca, Elizabeth, Carlos, Jazmin, Danny, Dawn, Beno, Jude, Joel, John, Angel, Chawa, Salvador, Jon, Rafael, Jen, Tommy, Shaquelle, Juan, Terrence, Destiny, Cynthia, Marcus, Carla, Amber, Tomas and more!

And we are grateful for our interns
Emily Sandusky from The New School who has been working on our compost bins and sharing time with our weekly Green Team teen mentoring program with the Community School for Social Justice.

And
Tatiana Piletich from the Hunter College School for Social Work for conducting outreach in the local schools to promote our environmental education programming and increasing the participation of local youth in our efforts.

And finally, the Video Activism class of Professor Mark Read,
Chelsea, Megan, Shaina, Andy, and Christine for their efforts to create a short promotional video of our efforts to share in the community and for fundraising efforts.

And thank YOU for all you do.

FoBP Joins Efforts to Ensure Safe Environmental Testing

Dear Friends,

Attached is a letter sent to Council President Christine Quinn signed by over 62 organizations opposing Int. 650-A.

Members of the coalition continue to believe that that despite the large number of drafts that the bill has had to go through to remove blatantly obvious flaws and objectionable provisions, the proposed bill continues to demonstrate the administration's failure to produce a carefully crafted bill which narrowly achieves its legislative intent.
Despite the changes made by the New York Police Department (NYPD), the proposed legislation is still fundamentally flawed. In our estimation, despite NYPD's stated intention, the bill would leave the city less safe, not more.

The most recent revision proposed seems intended to resolve the objection that the bill grants undue authority to seize detectors. It does not. While we have proposed language amending the proposed legislation which would improve the bill on this issue, we emphasize that it would not eliminate opposition to the intrusion and control over environmental monitoring and the negative public health implications.

Calls are needed now to members of the CityCouncil to urge that Int. 650-A be defeated. Please call your City Council representative and urge Int 650 be defeated.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

125 Cedar Street Residents * 9/11 Environmental Action * Actor’s Equity Assn * Asian American Legal Defense Fund * American Littoral Society, NE Chapter * American Lung Assn of the City of NY * Asthma Free School Zones (Real World Foundation) * Battery Park City Community Emergency Response Team * CHEJ * Chinese Progressive Association * CEC * CWA, District 1 & Local 1180 * Concerned Stuyvesant Community * DC 37, AFSCME * EDF * Environmental Toxicology Laboratory * Friends of Brook Park * Healthy Schools Network * IATSE, Local 1 * Institute for Health and the Environment, University at Albany * League of Conservation Voters * Long Island Soundkeeper * Lower East Side Ecology Center * Manhattan Community Board #1, 3M, 6 * Maui Peace Action * NRDC * Natural Resources Protective Assn. * National Lawyers Guild, Environmental Justice Committee * NYC Group of the Sierra Club * NYC Central Labor Council * NYCLU * NYCOSH * NY Environmental Law & Justice Project * NY Lawyers for the Public Interest * NY/NJ Baykeeper, Inc. * NYPIRG * NY Soil and Water Conservation District * NY State Laborers International Union * NY State Public Employees Federation * Organization of Staff Analysts * PSC of CUNY, NYSUT, AFT * PHANYC * Riverkeeper, Inc. * RWDSU/UFCW * South Bridge Parents and Youth Assn. * Staten Island Taxpayers Assn., Inc. * StuyHealth * Sustainable South Bronx * The Environmental Health Clinic * The Gaia Institute * TWU, Local 100 * Tribeca Community Emergency Response Team * United Auto Workers, Region 9A * United Church of Christ * United Support & Memorial for Workplace Fatalities * Wellness in Schools * WEACT * Working Families Party * World Trade Center Community Labor Coalition * World Trade Center Environmental Organization * World Trade Center Residents Coalition