The BEST $2.00 DEAL IN ALL OF BROOKLYN (and zoning testimony to die for!)

A Food And Wine Tasting At Smith Street's Transit Garden

Two dollars never went this far!

Saturday. June 7th, 2008
Raindate: Sunday, June 8th

The Transit Garden, Smith St.@ 2nd Pl,11-5pm

This Yummy description is taken from the PMFA Blog:

A Food & Wine Tasting Event celebrating The Transit
Garden.

There will be an al fresco morning café au lait
"picnique" with delicious finger food breakfast
snacks from 11 AM until 1PM.

At 1PM brunch gives way to L'apres-midi
Wine/Cheese/ Amuse Your Taste Buds Tidbits Tastings
and music from local talents - recorded and live.

The whole event will feature over 15 of our
wonderful Smith & Court Street restaurants, food &
wine shops, bakeries etc. providing the foods & wines
for sampling @ only $2.00 per tasting.

Sets of coupons will be for sale at the garden gate.
$10 for 5 tastings
or the super bargain of $20 for 12 tastings,

A $2.00 tasting ticket will buy you a café au lait
or a demi-bagel at brunch, or a nice wine to taste
with a nibble of interesting cheese on a cracker .

We are Family Friendly too, there will be $2 Fruit
Drink/Donut Pop'ums or mini pizza servings for the
juniors while parents sample the gourmet fare.
this PETITE BITE OF BOCOCA will take place entirely
inside the lovely setting of The Transit Garden
(corner of Smith & 2nd Place), and will again
benefit the garden plantings & maintenance and help
the non-profit SBLDC cover garden-related insurance
costs.

Enjoy the garden, lots of benches to sit on, lots of
beauty around you, your friends and neighbors to
meet and share conversation - all for a good local
cause.
Contacts:
Bette Stoltz 718 207-9570
Rita Miller 347 661- 8819
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IN OTHER NEWS:

The New York City Planning Commission Hearing was held yesterday and a great number of neighborhood people took the day off from work to attend this important event and to show their support for the Zoning Text Amendment for Carroll Gardens. Oscar Jonas from State Senator Marty Connor's office made the comment that these people (he means we Carroll Gardens folks) will go anywhere....any time...any how.....to attend a meeting to support saving our neighborhood because we love our neighborhood that much! (Paraphrase)

And yes Oscar you are right and thank you for the compliment! We remember when Councilman Bill DeBlasio remarked one year ago, when CORD was still a little "baby", that Carroll Gardens was a particularly "passionate" place and his quote is still featured in our CORD "QUOTE" section in the side bar (r.h. side).

Today excellent coverage of the hearing yesterday abounds on the blogs and here are two of our favorites from Gowanus Lounge, and Pardon Me for Asking:

GL LINK: Carroll Gardens Narrow Streets Get Their Hearing


PMFA Link: Carroll Gardens Testifies In Front Of City Planning: "A Neighborhood Worth Fighting For"

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ZONING TEXT AMENDMENT TESTIMONY TO DIE FOR:

In following with our recently established custom, we are continuing to post your letters of support for the Zoning Text Amendment in Carroll Gardens
here on our CORD blog.

Following is some heartfelt and brilliant testimony from CG resident Jim Devor, resident on Second Place (same block as the proposed "Oliver House" development located at: 131 Second Place", a.k.a. "360 Smith Street"). Jim is also an attorney who has, together with his wife Vicki, been extremely active in the CG community for many years, serving together quietly unselfishly, and in several civic capacities, to make CG a better neighborhood for all of us to live in.

Jim read this yesterday at the City Planning Commission Hearing:

I'm a homeowner, for the past twelve years, on one of the blocks affected by the proposal. I am, however, still paying a mortgage, so by Carroll Gardens standards, I guess I'm still a newcomer.

I am here to speak in favor of the proposed Text Amendment, which basically would put the Place blocks of Carroll Gardens on an equal footing with the rest of the neighborhood. I am also here to speak in opposition to the "substitute" being offered by some of its opponents.

As the Borough President's Office has already indicated, the Text Amendment before you is a giant step in securing the unique character of a wonderful neighborhood. But I particularly want to address the urgency of passing it, as written , as quickly as possible.

Recently, I looked up a website, Zillow.com, to check on the value of my house. To my amazement, its "market value" increased by a quarter of a million dollars in the past three months! Now, given the softening of the real estate market elsewhere, this was rather startling. It then dawned on me why this had happened - a conjecture validated in a conversation I had with a local real estate developer.

Buildings on the Place blocks in my neighborhood are being marketed not based on what is there now but rather on what can currently be built out and up based on our wide street designation!

That kind of speculation and potential for massive building alterations must be restrained now! Otherwise, if this amendment is deferred, ostensibly in order to perfect a rezoning of the area, it will become an academic exercise.

Some of the opponents of the Text Amendment resolution claim to have a better alternative and many of us have no problem, in the abstract, with their suggestion. But, as a practical matter, this will delay implementation of a badly needed limitatation on inappropriate development.

Thus, I submit, that the alternative put forward by some of the opponents of the Text Amendment is nothing less than a Trojan Horse concelaing the rapacious appetites of real estate developers and brokers in opposition to the overwhelming support of the Carroll Gardens community.

Don't fall for the trick of deferring the very good (albeit interim) solution in the name of a "perfect" answer which may (or may not) ever come to fruition Pass the Text Amendment, as written, NOW!

Thank you.

Jim Devor