Both the City Council’s Zoning and Franchises Subcommittee and its Land Use Committee today voted to approve the Dock Street development in DUMBO. This brings the 18-story building directly adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge closer to approval. MAS objects to the development because the proposed building’s size and proximity to the Brooklyn Bridge will obstruct public views both of the bridge from DUMBO’s streets and from the bridge of the East River, the DUMBO neighborhood, and the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges. (Read MAS’ testimony before City Council)

The full Council’s vote is scheduled to take place next Wednesday, June 10. With today’s subcommittee and committee votes, and with the reported support of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the full City Council is unfortunately also likely to ultimately approve the Dock Street development. MAS thanks Council Members Tony Avella, Eric Gioia, John Liu, and David Yassky for voting against the project today, and we encourage readers to contact Council Speaker Christine Quinn and your local City Council Member to urge them to vote “No” on the Dock Street project.

Your community board provides a range of services vital to your community’s welfare, from overseeing essential municipal services, to ensuring that you have a voice in local decision-making, to serving as a place-based provider of constituent services, but each and every one of our city’s community boards is currently facing a budget cut of $35,000.

In response to this, join all five of New York’s borough presidents, all 59 of New York’s community boards, and community advocates of all stripes next Tuesday, June 9, at 11:00 a.m., on the steps of City Hall, to call on the City Council for the restoration of community board budgets for the coming fiscal year. (This rally has been organized by the Manhattan Borough President’s Office.)

Community boards are the public’s interface with New York City’s enormous and complex government, and they are also government agencies’ conduit to the public. Meaning, for example, that when the Department of Health needs to update a community on the spread of the H1N1 virus, it asks the community board for help with outreach. Continue Reading>>

Last Wednesday, MAS hosted an all-star panel of park designers, administrators, and other experts to discuss the latest on some of New York’s most exciting park projects. The projects ranged in scale from small — the new Concrete Park Project in the South Bronx — to extremely large — Fresh Kills in Staten Island and Riverside South on the Upper West Side. The presentations and discussion focused on the challenge of developing sustainable parks on challenging sites in a time of economic uncertainty.

For those who were not able to make the event, we’ve put together a highlight of the Fresh Kills presentation - a project that, as its administrator Eloise Hirsh acknowledged, MAS was instrumental in making happen. For more information, visit www.mas.org/freshkills.

The Brooklyn Children’s Museum, a mainstay in the Crown Heights neighborhood for over 100 years, was the first museum in the United States established specifically for kids. The revolutionary museum, located at 145 Brooklyn Avenue, was nominated to the Census of Places that Matter for its long-standing commitment to promoting curiosity and exploration by creating fun-filled learning experiences for generations of young New Yorkers.

In 1899, the founders of the museum carved out a unique place for kids when they pioneered the idea that learning can be fun, and that museums don’t have to be boring. From its first days to the present, the permanent collection and exhibits have encouraged hands-on, participatory experiences with natural history specimens and cultural artifacts. In today’s museum, one especially popular exhibit, World Brooklyn, is made up of a variety of storefronts and street features that allow kids to step into the role of grocer, shopper, baker or bus driver on a Brooklyn-inspired street scaled for kids. Continue Reading>>

Julie Menin, founder and board member of Wall Street Rising, and Vin Cipolla, president of the Municipal Art Society of New York, announced today a strategic alliance to bring new planning and public programming resources to Lower Manhattan. Wall Street Rising was established immediately after the September 11, 2001 to help restore vitality to the financial district.

“With the explosive population growth that has occurred in Lower Manhattan over the past several years, the community is facing enormous infrastructure challenges,” said Ms. Menin, Chairperson of Community Board 1. “After considering several organizations, the board of Wall Street Rising was delighted to partner with MAS, the city’s premier planning and advocacy organization, as we begin to focus attention on new planning initiatives.”

The WSR-MAS alliance has been accomplished through a transfer of stewardship in which Mr. Cipolla succeeds Ms. Menin as president of Wall Street Rising. Ms. Menin remains on the board. She also serves on the MAS board. Wall Street Rising’s financial assets of approximately $1 million will be available to provide funding for joint projects, including strategic planning initiatives and public programming and walking tours that celebrate the history, development and culture of Lower Manhattan. Continue Reading>>

Join award-winning designer Tom Balsley, FASLA, and Michael Koontz, ASLA, of Thomas Balsley Associates, for a walking tour of Riverside Park South this Sunday. This park, notable for both its design and financing, celebrates the specific natural and industrial past of the site.

It is a new sort of park landscape for New York, one of tall grasses, leafy trees, abstract forms and references to the site’s past as a mammoth rail yard. All of the park’s construction and maintenance is privately funded.

Riverside Park South Walking Tour

Sunday, May 31, 11:00 a.m.
Meet at stairs at 73rd Street and Riverside Drive. Before 3:00 p.m. today (Friday 5/29/09), please purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075, or walk up on Sunday morning. $15, $10 MAS members. MAP.

Elizabeth Yeampierre (bottom row, at left) receiving the Yolanda Garcia Community Planner award in 2007.
Sideya Sherman of MAS talks with former Yolanda Garcia Community Planner (YGCP) award recipient Elizabeth Yeampierre about her organization UPROSE, how and why she became involved in community activism and environmental justice, and why global climate change is a major issue in this field.

To highlight community-based planning in New York ahead of this year’s YCGP award, this podcast is the second in a series of three interviews with previous award recipients. If you would like to nominate someone for this year’s award, visit www.mas.org/awards.

Today, the National Guard Bureau recommended that the Brooklyn Navy Yard be required to preserve two of the historic Admiral’s Row buildings if it purchases the site. Admiral’s Row is a collection of 11 19th century buildings that hold an important place in America’s naval history. MAS had proposed a compromise that would allow for the Navy Yard to develop the site with a grocery store and industrial space while retaining the historic buildings. MAS has also requested that the National Guard lower the sale price of the property to reflect the cost required to rehabilitate the buildings (law requires that the land is sold at fair market value).

“MAS developed feasible plans that show that we can have preservation and development at the Admiral’s Row site. We have hoped, and continue to hope, that more of these very significant historic buildings will be retained and incorporated into the development (see our video feature on Admiral’s Row),” said MAS director of advocacy and policy Lisa Kersavage.

“MAS appreciates the National Guard’s focus on this issue and the rigorous review it is conducting as part of the Section 106 process. We will continue to work with them to address issues that they have articulated in our effort to preserve more of the buildings. The Brooklyn Navy Yard is seeking to demolish the buildings to create a very large surface parking and we strongly believe that more of the historic buildings could be preserved by reconfiguring their plan.”

The details of the National Guard Bureau’s recommended mitigation measures include: the preservation of the Building B (the oldest and grandest house on the site, pictured) and the Timber Shed (built c. 1853 and likely the only such structure in the nation); the preservation of the historic trees along Flushing Avenue, the photographic documentation of buildings proper to demolition and archaeological work.

Join MAS President Vin Cipolla and an expert panel tonight for a fascinating discussion of the future of parks in New York City. The city’s parks system is currently undergoing an ambitious expansion that seeks to intertwine natural and designed environments, and the primary focus of this panel is a trio of exciting new parks that have been developed through a variety of innovative approaches in this regard.

Concrete Plant Park in the Bronx would never have been created without the hard work and thoughtful programming of the community; Riverside Park South offers 21st century design, telling references to the past, and private financing; and Freshkills Park, at two and a half times the size of Central Park, was a beautiful wetland that became a despised landfill, and is now being transformed into a place for play and pleasure.

Urban Parks in the Twenty-First Century: Creating a New Model

Wednesday, May 27, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m., at the Municipal Art Society MAP
Tickets are $15, $10 MAS members. Purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075.
Moderator: Vin Cipolla, president, Municipal Art Society; vice chairman, National Park Foundation. Panelists: Eloise Hirsh, administrator, Freshkills Park, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation; Thomas Balsley, FASLA, founder and principal designer, Thomas Balsley Associates; Linda Cox, executive director, Bronx River Alliance; and Peter Harnik, director, Center for City Park Excellence, Trust for Public Land.

Admiral’s Row on the edge of the Brooklyn Navy Yard is in danger of being lost. MAS will attend a meeting tomorrow at which the negotiations between the National Guard, the owner of the property, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC) will discuss the buildings’ future. The meeting is part of the federally-mandated Section 106 process that requires federal agencies to study the impact of their actions on important historic buildings.

MAS has been a part of the Section 106 process and has developed alternatives to demolishing the buildings that show it is possible to preserve them while also accommodating the Navy Yard’s program. In March, rumors surfaced that the National Guard may require the Navy Yard to retain only the Timber Shed and one of the houses on the site, which MAS believes is an inadequate solution.

This video explains these issues in more detail, including the buildings’ unique history, and why they should be saved. You can help us save Admiral’s Row. Continue Reading>>