This is LUNGS 6th Spring Awakening. It is a neighborhood celebration of the season and the opening of the community gardens. It is all FREE. There will music, a greening theme, kids’ activities, art as well as community-based programs and environmental and educational workshops. Please come and enjoy!
On Wednesday, January 23 the City Council chambers were overwhelmed with LES people who turned out to oppose the City’s plans for East River Park.
Originally the joint hearing by the Parks Committee and the Environmental Committee had been scheduled in a small hearing room off City Council chambers but the over-flow crowd forced a change in rooms.
The City’s presentation and the questions by Council member revealed a plan not fully funded or fully developed. The Gothamist coverage is worth a READ.
A joint hearing on East River Park is being held by the City Council on Wednesday, January 23, at 1pm at City Hall. A Press Conference is being held at Noon on the Steps of City Hall on the East River Park Plan. We need gardeners to turn out in garden colors, with signs and numbers to show our strength and unity of our community.
We are in the middle of a struggle to preserve East River Park. We are fighting the proposed plan and its implementation. The City intends to close the entire park for at least 3 1/2 years beginning next Spring.
LUNGs has been actively involved with a new community group, The East
River Alliance, to resist this new plan. Our major concern is lack of
community input, the environmental impact, concerns not addressed in the
proposed plan and closing the entire Park for such an extended period
of time.
The East River Alliance and LUNGS are preparing testimony
for the hearing. Other groups are welcome to testify and anyone who
wishes to is encouraged to a prepare personal testimony. You don’t need
to testify but you need to be there, please save the time and the date,
be at City Hall at 11:30 am on Wednesday, Jan 32 for the Press
Conference.
The community is getting its first chance to speak out publicly: to officially raise hell about their concerns with the new plan. The City Council hearing on the East Side Coastal Resiliency(ESCR) project will be Wednesday, January 23rd at 1:00 PM at City Hall. Press Conference at NOON. Councilwoman Carlina Rivera will be there advocating on our behalf, and she has asked us to rally as many folks as possible to attend. We are asking each garden to send at least two gardeners to this hearing, we need your support; this is going to effect all of us.
LUNGS is hosting a sign, banner , costume making party, Tuesday evening Jan 22, 6-9pm at 428 E.10th St. We have supplies, please come by and let’s have some fun!
The planned destruction of East River Park is going to have a direct impact on our gardens. LUNGS is holding a public meeting tomorrow, Thursday, January 17, at 7pm at 428 E10th St.(C&D) to discuss the situation. Please send a garden rep to be part of the discussion.
We are in the middle of a struggle to preserve East River Park. We are fighting the proposed plan and its implementation. The City intends to close the entire park for at least 3 1/2 years beginning next Spring.
Whatever is going to happen, the gardens need to be prepared. We will be called on to open our garden gates and welcome a community more needy than ever before. Our green spaces will take on an even important role for the neighborhood then today. We need to understand this and plan accordingly.
We also must plan for the joint hearing on East River Park at the City Council’s on Wednesday, January 23, at 1pm at City Hall. We must turn out in garden colors, with signs and numbers to show our strength and unity of our community.
The next East Side Coastal Recovery community stakeholder meeting on Wednesday, January 9th at 6:30 PM at the Boys and Girls Republic (888 E 6th Street, between Ave D and the FDR).
East River Park INFO is HERE
We are having our LUNGS HOLIDAY PARTY—this Friday. I hope you and yours can make it
SAVE THE DATE –Friday, December 14, 7 to 11pm , 428 E.10th St between Aves C & D. Please come, all invited, food, drink, music, cheers and mistletoe me .
Recently a survey was sent out by GreenThumb asking Community Gardens questions ahead of receiving new licenses. We thought it would be informative to hear from you in another series of questions. As gardeners you have a unique perspective on the rewards and problems in maintaining public green space in the City. In December the City will be issuing new 4-year licenses for our gardens. We believe these agreements should have input from the gardeners. We are all volunteers working for free as stewards of city property. As such we deserve to be part of the discussion in any agreement we are being asked to sign. PLEASE fill out this SURVEY
