BBC Broadcast Live From Brook Park

Honored to host BBC Live from Brook Park with their great team.  They came to learn more and speak with members of our community about the many polluting industries that impact our air, the proposal to subsidize diesel trucks and Fresh Direct and the potential wonders of our waterfront.bbcinpark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As they put it” We’re live in New York City this week ahead of the UN debate on global development. Today, stories of poverty and deprivation from the South Bronx, within sight of Manhattan.”   Link to podcast here.

Photo album of their tour and visit of our waterfront and community.

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Brook Park Fall Tree Giveaway online registration now open!

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Fall Tree Giveaway! 

 

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When: Sunday, October 3rd, PM 12:00-2:00 PM

Location: Brook Park, East 141st Street and Brook Avenue. Bronx, 10454 (Map)
Plus earlier on the same day there will be a FREE tree pruning and care tutorial. Free Pruning Workshop is happening earlier at 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM. Have fun learning the basics of tree care and pruning to help ensure your tree stays healthy for many years to come. Free hand pruners will be handed out to the first 25 participants too!

free-october-clip-art-425677To pick up your free tree, you must agree to:

  • plant in one of the five boroughs. Our NYC neighborhoods need these trees in the ground.
  • keep trees properly watered and maintained.
  • plant your tree in the ground of your yard and NOT along streets, in city parks, in containers, terraces, balconies or on roofs.

 

click to register online and reserve your free tree!

Registration allows you to reserve one tree per address. If registration is closed, a limited quantity of trees will be available on a first come, first served basis. This event is made possible by the NYRP – New York Restoration Project.

Online registration allows to you reserve a tree ahead of time. You must pick up your tree within the first hour of the giveaway event. Click here for more details. 

Saturday, October 3rd

Plus a Free Pruning Workshop is happening earlier at 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM

Free Tree Giveaway: 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

There’s still time to reserve a tree to pick up at 12:00 PM. Just register to make sure you’ll get a tree and we’ll hold it for you to pick up at 12:00 PM.

If you miss online registration, you have a chance to pick up a free tree in person at 1:00 PM

Don’t miss the tree care Workshop earlier at 10:00 AM too. It’s going to be a lot of fun! See you there!

 

 

 

Children’s Fair and Volunteer Day

Children’s Fair

Saturday

11-12:30 PM

Bring your children for a fun time of face painting, planting, making

paper flowers, butterflies and coloring!

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AND Autumn Volunteer Day

Saturday September 26

9am to 1pm

Join us to harvest, pull weeds, plant in the hoophouse spread compost

and arrange for the new season, snacks, water, gloves and you can

pick vegetables.

Come for an hour or more. With our friends from buildOn.

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Teacher Orientation. No Child Left Inside.

Teachers & Parents

Orientation!

Get your students OUTDOORS

Free Environmental Education Opportunities

ALL GRADE LEVELS Pre-k to College

No Student Left Inside

 

 

 

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Autumn Orientation:   Wednesday:

September 23, 2015     3-5:30PM anytime

Where: East 140th and 141st Street and Brook Avenue

Don’t wait!    Teachers can get a key, and a bunch of free kaleJ.

Use the garden for ANY SUBJECT!!

 

Or contact us for a group tour or orientation anytime.

 

See our website for more: www.friendsofbrookpark.org

 

CONTACT: information@friendsofbrookpark.org 646.648.4362

A Victory! State Extends Comment period for Re-Permitting 2 Polluting Power Plants

City Council Leadership Calls into Question Air Pollution Permit of New York Power Authority Facility in South Bronx Asthma Alley

More than 200 Residents and Environmental Leaders Call for Closure of the Two Turbine Facility

New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Councilmember Maria del Carmen Arroyo, Chair of the Community Development Committee, penned a joint letter to the State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) last Friday in regard to the application of New York Power Authority (NYPA) for the Title V re-permitting of its Harlem River Yards (HRY) fossil fuel power generation facility comprising two turbines, located at 688 East 132nd Street in the South Bronx.

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As representatives of the environmentally overburdened community, where the deadly outbreak of Legionnaires was recently linked to the community’s chronic respiratory and other illnesses, the councilwomen asked for an extension to the public comment period and a public hearing on the re-permitting.

“…no evidence has been presented to our offices that the closure of this plant would have any impact on the price or availability of electricity in the City or have any other impact other than the elimination of a source of air pollution from a severely overburdened neighborhood,” the letter stated.

Located on State land privately leased by then Governor Mario Cuomo, the NYPA facility was pushed through as a temporary facility 15 years ago and bypassed environmental review at the time on the basis that it generated 79.9 MW, 0.1 MW shy of the trigger for a comprehensive impact analysis. The power plant sits within an approximate half mile of five other facilities also requiring air pollution permits and in close proximity to traffic-heavy highways and NYCHA and other residential buildings.

“This is the cycle in environmental justice communities of color,” said Mychal Johnson, co-founder of South Bronx Unite, a local environmental and economic justice organization, and board member of the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality. “How can we keep allowing projects to be sited and permitted without evaluating the harm? If we have a health crisis in the South Bronx because of such projects, why isn’t there a higher level of scrutiny?”

More than 200 residents and other environmental leaders wrote letters to DEC urging rejection of the permit.  

Concerns and questions raised include the necessity of the facility, the adequacy of the siting process, the lack of pre-construction environmental review and the risk of exceeding permitted emission limits, including during start up and shut down. Organizations have also asked to review compliance reports, mitigation plans and PM 2.5 measurements, among other requests.

“DEC has a policy mandating enhanced public participation in environmental justice communities,” said Harry Bubbins, Director of Friends of Brook Park. “We hope they will not close the door to engagement before giving us the information to formulate meaningful questions.”

While DEC originally closed the public comment period last Friday, September 4, they have now extended it to September 18.  South Bronx Unite is encouraging people to continue contacting DEC in regard to this matter.

Article from 2001 on this issue by John Tartelton.

Another Tree Giveaway in Fall for Bronx residents!

The Bronx needs trees! Do you have land in the Bronx or know someone who does? Another Tree Giveaway is happening at Brook Park this Fall. You can adopt a tree for free, plant it, water it and watch it grow through the years.

Maybe it’s that patch of land near your bus stop. Maybe it’s a little square of ground near your church. Spread the word. If you don’t have land, ask your landlord if you can plant a tree on the property. They must be in the ground. Help make the Bronx a healthier place to live, work, and play by finding places to plant trees in our Bronx ground.

 

Friends of Brook Park

TREE GIVEAWAY

When: Sunday, October 3rd, PM 12:00-2:00 PM
Location: East 141st St. & Brook Ave., Mott Haven, Bronx
Host: Friends of Brook Park
Pick up your free tree! In partnership with local community organizations, NYRP is giving away trees throughout NYC this spring.

To pick up your free tree, you must agree to:

plant in one of the five boroughs.
keep trees properly watered and maintained.
plant your tree in the ground of your yard and NOT along streets, in city parks, in containers, terraces, balconies or on roofs.

Registration will be posted no earlier than three weeks before a giveaway date. If registration is closed, a limited quantity of trees will be available on a first come, first served basis.

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