Next Thursday, November 8th, NYC Council Member Stephen Levin will hold a community meeting at the Dupont Senior Center (80 Dupont St.) for concerned parents to discuss the proposed site for Greenpoint’s newest K-8 school.
Levin stipulates that this meeting will not focus on the Superfund site so much as on the school itself. He said in a Facebook post: “We would like to meet with Greenpoint parents to discuss the school that will be getting built in the area. We have had several meetings about the Nuhart site but would like to concentrate the school and what people need to know and have questions about regarding the school itself.”
Despite opposition from community groups including North Brooklyn Neighbors (formerly NAG), the proposed location for the school, to be built by developers at Greenpoint Landing, is at the corner of Dupont and Franklin Streets, across from the Nuhart Plastics site, a designated state Superfund.
At the meeting, you can weigh in on issues surrounding the school, and voice your opinion about where it should be built.
New York City Council Member Stephen Levin is hosting a North Greenpoint Development meeting at the Polish Slavic Center (176 Java Street) on Wednesday, 11/8 at 6:30, where community members can engage with local developers around how new construction in the neighborhood will impact Greenpoint.
The 94th Precinct will hold a community meeting tomorrow (10/4) at St. John’s Lutheran Church (155 Milton Street) at 7pm. The meeting is a monthly opportunity for community members to connect with local officers and express area concerns. This is a community-wide meeting, covering all NCO sectors, and all are welcome.
Mark your calendars, Greenpointers. The next Newton Creek Community Advisory Group (CAG) meeting is coming up soon on Thursday 2/6 at the McCarren Play Center (776 Lorimer, right near the pool) at 6:30pm.
The meeting with feature presentations from the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the lovely folks who are in charge of our own little Superfund site. They’ll discuss the city’s role in the Superfund process, upcoming plans for Newtown Creek drainage (mmm!), and all the other fun-filled aspects of environmental restoration along the creek.
So if talking about toxicity and soil remediation really gets you going, save the date. We’ll be right there with you.
The meeting at the Warsaw was well organized and very informative. There was a vibrant and packed house of community members and organizers who were eager to learn how to apply for funding. ExxonMobil was not present and it was mentioned that they were asked not to attend the meeting as they don’t have a say in how the funds will be used.
Highlights were at the end of the meeting, during the Q & A – obviously. One young woman stood up and spoke about her non-profit that aims to create a spiritual synergy with the environment, which got a priceless eyeroll from a woman in a Jets Jersey. More importantly questions were asked in regards to bio-remediation projects and Stephen Levin mentioned the importance of funding for public health surveys. The meeting broke up when an elderly man stood up and ranted about the waterfront towers, asking if they are for the rich and whether normal people will get screwed. Gotta love it!
Interested in how you can help make Greenpoint more, well…green? Join the community on 9/25 to get involved in the Greenpoint Community Environmental Fund, a $19.5 million dollar grant program that will be accepting proposals to improve the Greenpoint environment this Fall.
The $19,500,000 was obtained by the State of New York in a settlement with ExxonMobil in 2011, which required the company to clean up the oil and related environmental contamination that it caused during the Greenpoint Oil Spill. It is the largest single payment of its kind in New York history.
In the late 1970s, oil spills from ExxonMobil’s Greenpoint refinery and storage facility were discovered seeping into Newtown Creek, creating a plume of oil on the water’s surface. Some of this oil dissolved in the groundwater and contaminated surrounding soil. It is estimated that at least 17 million gallons of oil were released underneath Greenpoint, leaving at least 55 acres contaminated.
Improvements will be geared towards local environmental issues such as water quality, groundwater, open space, reduction of toxic pollution, and air quality. The settlement only covers land clean up, since the creek itself is a Superfund site and is therefore being handled by the Federal government.
More info is available from the Office of the Attorney General.
The meeting will take place at Warsaw (261 Driggs Ave) at 6:30pm.
Save Greenpoint, a local activist group made up of Greenpoint residents, who according to their website “expect the revitalization of our waterfront to be responsibly site-specific in scale and scope,” are hosting a Rally for Greenpoint tonight, September 4, 2013 from 6-7pm at Barge Park Playground (Commercial St & Dupont St) in order to “FIGHT THE TOWERS!”
According to their Facebook invitation, “40 story towers threaten the future of Greenpoint. The community has been shut out of the process. This is your chance to be heard.”
Don’t forget to join GWAPP & NAG for a Special Community Workshop on the Greenpoint Landing & 77 Commercial Street Developments on Thursday June 27th, 2013 at 6:30-8pm at the Newtown Creek Visitor Center (329 Greenpoint Ave). This event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. RSVP
Many readers have been very concerned about the proposed Greenpoint Landing development on the waterfront. But you can’t just worry about it now – then complain about it later. As Greenpointers, this is our neighborhood and we have to take responsibility for the vision and future plan of what Greenpoint can and will become.
Get active!
Join GWAPP & NAG for a Special Community Workshop on the Greenpoint Landing & 77 Commercial Street Developments on Thursday June 27th, 2013 at 6:30-8pm at the Newtown Creek Visitor Center (329 Greenpoint Ave). This event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. RSVP
Are you like a lot of people wondering what ULURP means? It stands for Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, which is a standardized procedure whereby applications affecting the land use of the city would be publicly reviewed. In a nutshell, if you’re building something in the city, it needs to go through ULURP for public review and approval.
As a community, we will discuss what is “as-of-right” (per the 2005 Waterfront Rezoning) and what is still negotiable as these two developments approach certification and “ULURP” approval.
This is an opportunity to share ideas about what’s at stake, what we might gain in the ULURP process and how to prioritize our negotiating position.
Representatives from Greenpoint Landing will be making a brief presentation to familiarize everyone with the aspects of the project coming up for ULURP approval. The Center for Urban Pedagogy will be leading a workshop on how the ULURP process works.
Take advantage of this chance to get expert insight into the civic mechanism that is, typically, the last opportunity for the community to have input on impending development.
Don’t forget to join 
