On a deadline? Contact our Media Relations office information at friendsofbrookpark.org. Press Friends of Brook Park have been fortunate to receive consistent press coverage since its inception. More than anything, press has been an opportunity for the youth and adults of Friends of Brook Park to be recognized for their work on a larger scale. All opportunities for publicity are welcome. Please contact Harry J. Bubbins for more information or interviews.
by Jeni Asaba
http://www.bxtimes.com/BW_News3.htm
What's known as ³Asthma Alley² will receive some relief this spring as one local group brings back the green to the Mott Haven community.
With a tentative April starting date, Friends of Brook Park, a coalition of residents, educators and local merchants, dedicated to revitalizing and managing various Earth conscious projects in the south Bronx, will plant 60 to 70 trees along 138 th Street and adjacent roads.
The project is made possible by a $100,000 "Greening the Bronx" grant the group received from the New York State Energy Research and Development
Authority.
³This funding supports a study on the influence of shade on reducing the Heat Island Effect, FOBP advocate Carol Zakaluk said. We expect cooler streets and lower energy bills in the summer, along with the many other amenities trees bring.
Zakaluk added the program is essential to help alleviate the poor air quality hovering over one of the United State 's most asthmatic regions.
³We need these trees to help offset the pollution of passing truck traffic, she urged. But the added advantages don't stop there. Businesses near the tees will benefit from increased property values, cooler thoroughfares, and the borough will enjoy a more beautiful gateway to the Bronx , she added.
The grant is part of NYSERDA's Greening the Bronx Quick Start program, which allocated $1 million to expedite the commencement of tree planting throughout the borough.
Upon receipt of the grant, Zakaluk immediately took to the streets, contacting close to 200 local merchants for permission to plant on their property. To her surprise, the response was less than expected.
With only 15-25 percent of merchants replying to her initial offer, Zakaluk said she expects, and hopes for, a quick turn around when they see the work in progress. Once the trees start going in the ground everyone is going to come up and say they want a tree, she said.
While it may take time for adults to adjust to the neighborhood changes, local youngsters are already signing their adoption papers.
Children from the Freedom Center after school program will not only be caring for some of the trees, but teachers will also focus on studying the benefits trees bring to urban areas.
Zakaluk said she hopes others follow in the students' footsteps, and fill the need for assistance with routine tree maintenance. We definitely need to find out who in the community is willing to step up and take care of the trees, she said.
The group also encourages other educational institutions to take advantage of the project and incorporate its progressions into their curriculum.
Zakaluk said in addition to planting trees in the community, the group wants
to inspire residents to work together toward other neighborhood improvement
projects.
³It's kind of planting a seed in more ways than planting a tree, she said.
To design the tree layout, FOBP worked closely with landscape architect Charles Cross and City College of New York's professor Lee Weintraub, along with students in his Urban Design class.
FOBP is currently negotiating the project with Dimitri's Garden Center , at 2413 3 rd Avenue . As the tree project manager, Cross will work with the tree contractor to identify which of 38 possible species will be planted along the 138 th street planting zone. Zakaluk said the group hopes to begin planting this April.
Anyone interested in the Mott Haven tree project, contact Carol Zakaluk at
(718) 292-8217. To learn more about other FOBP projects, visit
friendsofbrookpark.org.
MOTT HAVEN STREETS GET GREENER
Lorna Montalvo
10/4/2007
An area of Mott Haven known as “asthma alley” will soon be benefiting from a simple yet uplifting piece of urban development.
Come spring, 70 trees will be planted at impervious sites in and around E. 138th Street, west of Lincoln and Third avenues. The project is slated for completion within two years of the initial plantings. The community group Friends of Brook Park made the plantings possible.
... Read more
Groups pushing for Harlem River renaissance
By Kathleen Miller
STAFF WRITER
May 11, 2007
A small peninsula of weedy, rail-line covered land along the Harlem River could become part of the city's waterfront renaissance if Bronx park enthusiasts have their way.
Harry Bubbins, director of the Friends of Brook Park organization, said his group wants the state Department of Transportation to transfer ownership of the property to a land trust operated by the New York Restoration Project, a group founded by Bette Midler that reclaims, restores and maintains neglected public spaces.... Read More
Advocates urge beefed-up park patrol program
By Paul Leonard
Feb. 26, 2007
As the city embarks on a $462 million capital project for new parks in the borough, calls for an increase in full-time officers to patrol a bigger park system have already begun. Parks advocates argue that increasingly popular green spaces need more Parks Enforcement Patrols (PEP) to deter crime in parks and protect resources. "Every time you build more parks, you need more officers to protect them," said Joseph Puleo, vice president of the union representing the men and women entrusted with maintaining and protecting Bronx parks....... Read more
Baum Forum Featured 2007
Schools, Food and Gardening: Cultivating a Healthy Future.. Read more
by amy zimmer / metro new york
Apr/ 11, 2006
Water park OK expected MANHATTAN — Wave pools and water slides may soon replace ball fields on the northern tip of Randalls Island, as plans for the nearly 28-acre, $168 million water park are expected to win final approval today by the city’s Franchise and Concession Review Committee.....Read more
Las mujeres del Barrio: pieza clave en el movimiento para renombrar la calle 106 ... Read more
October 5, 2006
Gov OKs 100G for river access
Grant will aid bid to create waterside park... Read more
October 12, 2006
Patrice O'Shaughnessy
Paved-over brook may rise again! Read more
Our Brook Park is mentioned in the Sunday
Real Estate Section of the
NYTIMES
by local residents and members of our Community Supported Agriculture
project as an important amenity in the community.
While gentrification is a complex issue, Friends of Brook Park is proud to
serve everyone in our South Bronx community, and welcomes involvement from
all.
(It's free to register for nytimes online)
Apr/ 11, 2006
Water park OK expected MANHATTAN — Wave pools and water slides may soon replace ball fields on the northern tip of Randalls Island, as plans for the nearly 28-acre, $168 million water park are expected to win final approval today by the city’s Franchise and Concession Review Committee.....Read more
by amy zimmer / metro new york
March 1, 2006
Activists try to drum up water park foes
East Harlem, Bronx residents would benefit with access to existing parks, they say...
Raw Food Event Article
Bronx Times, January 2006
BX. FARMYARD ORGANIC MARKET BOOSTS BOROUGH
By Jennifer Fermino
The borough celebrated the grand opening of its first organic farmers' market yesterday in Mott Haven... Read more
Living In | Mott Haven, the Bronx‘ Bonfire of the Vanities’ No Longer
By C. J. HUGHES July 23, 2006
“Going Forward Close to water on three sides, Mott Haven is almost entirely cut off from it by roads and parking lots, though local activists are working to create parks and access. The neighborhood also lacks high-end groceries, though there is a new farmer’s market at Brook Park, on East 141st Street and Brook Avenue...” Read more
The Friends of Brook Park in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx was recently awarded $100,000 to develop a waterfront park and continue their work of community gardening. The grant comes from the Environmental Protection Fund and will be administered through the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.... Read the article here (pdf file)
Randall's Island Under Threat?:
A proposed theme park would occupy 26 acres of Randall’s Island. Meanwhile, due to opposition to the plan, a March 7 hearing has been delayed. Read more...
October 2005
FRESH FOOD CHEAP - How the Bronx is eating well.
By Lisa Gross
Every Thursday afternoon, in a small community garden in the South Bronx,
long-time local residents and recently transplanted bohemian types gather
together to fill their bags with vegetables. They pack them with leeks,
French radishes, green tomatoes, acorn squash, Savoy cabbage and a bevy
of
other autumnal items, all organic and many with dirt still clinging to
their
roots and leaves... Read more
October 2, 2005
On a Weedy Patch of Shore, Visions of a Fixer-Upper Park
by MARC FERRIS
It sits at the end of Park Avenue, but there is nothing Park Avenue about the unimpressive patch of ground covered with waist-high weeds and sandwiched between a self-storage complex and a depot for moving trucks. Read more
30 June 2005
New York Sun
Finding a Way Past OGarbagia and the Bruckner to the Water
by Jeremy Smerd....
Eco-Metropolis Feature 2005
-Celebrate the too often unheralded achievements of NYC's gloriously diverse environmental and social justice communities
Presenciataina.tv
Trailer for a documentary on Native Wisdom with Native American Church Roadman Manuel Khuatlhi and the volunteers of Brook Park. View video
www.urbanplanet.org
Brook Park is situated over a section of the brook of the Brook Avenue namesake. Councilman Philip Reed has set aside $760,000 to fix up the park, including the addition of a small bridge that would span the proposed unearthed brook and lead to a labyrinthine garden. Read more
BCEQ has nominated Bronxite Harry Bubbins as the Environmentalist of the Issue, the Coordinator, Gardener and Rivers' Steward for the Friends of Brook Park... (pdf file)
August 10, 2004
by David Gonzalez
The Bronx Kill is not an event, but a place. All the same, the slender, ankle-high creek does mark a fatality: the South Bronx waterfront, which has been blocked and buried by rail yards, highways, caravans of garbage trucks and warehouses... Read more