Hey land stewards in district 34!

Your council member, Antonio Reynoso, will be saying nice things about your spaces at our event on Thursday evening. Please let me know if you'd like me to add you or other members of your group to the guest list. It would be great to see lots of your faces in the room. Here's what Antonio has agreed to speak about:

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We'd love to have him attend and would really love to have him talk about the reclamations in his district: Grand Street Community Garden, Keap Fourth Community Garden, Evergreen Lots, and the brand-new 1278 Myrtle Community Garden. Three of these four former vacant lots are in the process of or have already been transferred to the Parks Department as permanently protected open space.

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If you send me photos, we'll project those too!

Event info is here: http://596acres.org/en/donate/gala/

We got this great letter from the organizers of the space at 1278 Myrtle Ave. at the corner of Central Ave. in Bushwick. It's been a long journey already and now they are ready to truly begin: 

It was a wonderful first turn out last Saturday at 1278 Myrtle in Bushwick. All eleven people who showed up were really committed to fulfilling what is possible there and expressed diverse knowledge, creativity and connection to the Community Compost Site & Wildlife Garden BK ROT proposed with Sure We Can, our partners in composting.

Everyone was full of openness and possibility and ready to move forward so much so that we moved from our seated meeting to walking the land, observing what is already present there- volunteering future actions, gathering resources, planning meetings for envisioning. It seems we are all moving at the same speed- wanting to make this happen but aware of the time it takes to cultivate the land and a place in community. 

Renée // Sandy 

BKROT 

Hey all,

We got the space and now we need to organize! Come to a first meeting Saturday August 16th at 3pm! Email sandranurse@riseup.net for more informaiton

And, also, I'd like to be included as a volunteer, if possible, for the clean up, etc. : )

This is so wonderful! Congratulations to all especially to those who handled all the business! I am ready to help as needed. Please, keep me updated. : ) Yay!

Nancy Kohn at GreenThumb confirmed: this site was transferred into the jurisdiction of the Parks Department this morning for use as a GreenThumb garden by the organizers who submitted a proposal back in December. HURRAY!

The organizers will be signing an agreement and submitting a list of volunteers before the end of the week to get official access to this string of neglected city-owned properties.

SInce the land was transferred even before the agreement was signed, neighbors and organizers can comfortably plan for a garden that has a very very long life.

Congratulations, Bushwick!

Hello everyone! We're holding a general meeting in Bed-Stuy tomorrow night! Hear from other groups who are just starting the process as well as those that have been successful.

Tomorrow - Thursday, April 10th
6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
At the garden of Eagle Academy, Mott Hall, Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger, & Brooklyn Food Coalition at
Saratoga & Fulton, Brooklyn
(Take the C train to Ralph Ave or Rockaway Ave Stations)

You can contact me at 718-316-6092 ex 3 or mary@596acres.org

This is great news! I live on the block and I'm willing to help if/when I can.

Yesterday Paula and I had a meeting with GreenThumb's new director Nancy Kohn and an Outreach Coordinator, Rasheed Hislop. Nancy is still speaking with Parks about the transfer of this site! Fingers crossed!!

Happy New Year! Have y'all heard back from Green Thumb?

This group has submitted an application to Green Thumb!!!

Got a letter of support from Brooklyn Community Board 4!

According to Department of Citywide Administrative Services, this site is "Potentially Suitable" for urban agriculture.

This statement is contained in this data table: https://data.cityofnewyork.us/City-Government/City-owned-and-Leased-Property/4e2n-s75z

Which is referred to here: http://www.greenthumbnyc.org/start_a_garden.html (THIS IS GREENTHUMB'S NEWLY ESTABLISHED PROCESS).

I spoke with DCAS and GreenThumb both today.

GreenThumb seems to be not licensing new sites directly right now. BUT GreenThumb is absolutely capable of registering this garden once a land use agreement is in place.

DCAS is willing to create a land use agreement -- in the form of a lease -- for a garden group that is a non-profit organization for a reduced cost where the group is committed to community and beautification.

Debbie at DCAS suggested that we write her an email that she can forward to her boss for review describing the community's intentions and asking for a reduced cost non-profit lease.

Do any of you lovely organizers and watchers have a connection to a non-profit organization that would be psyched to sign an agreement for this space so that it can get going? Debbie suggested that a lease could be signed very quickly.

Just spoke with Roland (miracle!). He told me there will be a new process for starting a community garden and that all previous proposals for space are now null and void. He said a new process will be announced sometime in the future and everyone will have to re-apply. Does anyone know anything about this?

Will call over today/Monday and see what the status is. I've left a number of messages with no returns..... #waitinggame.

Will let you know and post something up here too.

S

Are there any updates from Parks?

Hey all! We cleaned up the lot at 1278 Myrtle as part of an outreach day. Put up a small banner that has resulted in lots of phone calls. We're hoping to get more letters of support this week. Feel free to join in the effort!

Contact me at sandra.marie.nurse@gmail.com

Hey all,

We are meeting Sunday at 11am at the space to figure out next steps for moving forward.

Feel free to give a call to get up to speed before hand or to just chat: 917-678-5395

DCAS has offered to turn these three lots over to Parks for management by the GreenThumb program. That's a great offer -- now we just need Parks to say "yes."

We've submitted our proposal for review to Green Thumb. They are confirming with DCAS the availability of the space - although we've done that several times now. We continue to canvass nearby institutions and businesses. Most recently the Dekalb Library, Bushwick Head Start and a number of other places have signed their support.

Hi there!

I'd love to chat with you. We're organizing the lot connected to this. You can reach me at: 917-678-5395

Great meeting on Saturday. We're moving forward with getting signatures of support in the area. We'll do a day of canvassing sometime this week.

Additionally, our very close friends from Bushwick City Farms came to the meeting and our friend Spike made a preliminary cute mock-up of the space.

We continue to invite those watching the lot or the surrounding lots to join us! 917-678-5395.

Reminder: Tomorrow, Saturday February 16th, 11am - come to 1278 Myrtle Avenue (Central Ave M Stop) to help develop a trash-filled vacant lot into a beautiful community garden. We've already got lots of signatures from folks and businesses in the neighborhood!!

liberatespace

We would like to hold the first open meeting for organizing around this lot. In particular, we'd love to have people organizing around lots on that block.

We'll meet at the space on Saturday February 16th at 11am. We'd like to do it earlier, but with the snow storm, it doesn't seem possible.

If you have any thoughts, please call me at 917-678-5395.

Cheers,

S

Nice work. Be sure to mention that you are a community-based organization (non-profit) and that you hope to be able to license the space through GreenThumb.

Contacted the owner. They are sending a lease application. So I will read that over and relay any information about the process they use.

This lot is connected with another one: http://596acres.org/en/lot/3032320040/

You guys should connect!