Showing posts sorted by relevance for query protest signs. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query protest signs. Sort by date Show all posts

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Ten Year Anniversary of the "Democracy Wall" in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn


The Democracy Wall in Carroll Gardens Anniversary 2007-2017


Did you know?
It is the ten year anniversary of the "Democracy Wall" in Carroll Gardens!
What was the Democracy Wall?  It all started with one simple mural:

 This mural was put there by local artist Triada Samaras as a protest to a looming development project in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn in 2007.  Samaras and long-time Carroll Gardens residents, Rita Miller and Lucy DeCarlo simultaneously created
"CG CORD/Carroll Gardens Coalition for Respectful Development".
Thus, "CORD" and the "Democracy Wall" were  born and an enduring and inspiring piece of art activist/community activist history followed! For more on this story please see this LINK. 


 "Entry from July 08, 2016"
"Democracy Wall (Carroll Street subway station, Carroll Gardens)
China’s “Democracy Wall Movement” existed from November 1978 to December 1979, when a brick wall at Xidan Street in Beijing included posters of protest. 
Brooklyn’s “Democracy Wall” was in Carroll Gardens, by the Carroll Street subway station at 360 Smith Street. In 2007 and 2008, murals on the Democracy Wall reflected community issues, such as real estate developments. Construction covered over the wall in April 2008." 
 
Above:  CG CORD Co-Founders, Rita Miller (left) and Lucy DeCarlo (right) sit with community activist and creator/author of PMFA, Katia Kelly.

From "The Big Apple" website:
 
Entry from July 08, 2016
Democracy Wall (Carroll Street subway station, Carroll Gardens)
China’s “Democracy Wall Movement” existed from November 1978 to December 1979, when a brick wall at Xidan Street in Beijing included posters of protest. Brooklyn’s “Democracy Wall” was in Carroll Gardens, by the Carroll Street subway station at 360 Smith Street. In 2007 and 2008, murals on the Democracy Wall reflected community issues, such as real estate developments. Construction covered over the wall in April 2008.


Wikipedia: Democracy Wall
During the November 1978 to December 1979, thousands of people put up “big character poster” (Chinese: 大字報) on a long brick wall of Xidan Street, Xicheng District of Beijing, to protest about the political and social issues of China. Under acquiescence of the Chinese government, other kinds of protest activities, such as unofficial journals (Chinese: 地下刊物), petitions (Chinese: 上訪), and demonstrations, were also soon spreading out in major cities of China. This movement can be seen as the beginning of the Chinese Democracy Movement. It also known as the “Democracy Wall Movement” (Chinese: 民主牆運動). This short period of political liberation was called as “Beijing Spring” (Chinese: 北京之春).

The Gowanus Lounge
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 01, 2007
Carroll Gardens Democracy Wall Gets New Mural
We enjoy the Carroll Gardens Democracy Wall at the Carroll Street subway station. It is part of the now well-known plaza at the Second Place exit that will be closed for construction of the controversial building at 360 Smith Street, which led to both the wall and the CORD neighborhood group. Dozens of message appear on the Democracy Wall at any give time, with the large murals usually being related to whatever issue is at hand in the neighborhood.

Gowanus Lounge
Carroll Gardens Democracy Wall in Danger?
December 10th, 2007
Is the Carroll Gardens Democracy Wall where residents have been posting murals and news articles about development news in their community in danger? It could be. There’s a sense among residents that both the police and local politicians may try to put an end to what has become a community fixture over the last six months.

YouTube
Democracy Wall
cgcord
Uploaded on Dec 30, 2007
News 12 reports on the Democracy Wall at 360 Smith Street and CG Cord’s Moratorium Petition on 12/30/2007.

The Gowanus Lounge
MONDAY, APRIL 21, 2008
Carroll Gardens Democracy Wall Comes Back as Love Fence
The Carroll Gardens Democracy Wall, which had been used by residents as a kind of community bulletin board since last year, disappeared last week behind the big blue construction fence for the controversial 360 Smith development. While it’s unclear if the blue fence will end up serving the same purpose or just get plastered with advertising the way that many do, the fence has taken a turn in the direction of love, being decorated with hearts.

Curbed—New Yrok
Carroll Gardens 360 Smith, Now with Extra Love
BY ROBERT APR 21, 2008, 4:54P
The lightening rod Carroll Gardens development at 360 Smith Street has featured many things since the first Heavy Metal rendering surfaced last year. There have been protests and signs, including a “Democracy Wall” of signs protesting the development and calling for a downzoning of the neighborhood. Well, work is underway and the wall’s been covered up, but it’s now covered in hearts like a kind of Love Fence.

New York (NY) Times
Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, Real Estate Buying Guide
By MIKE POWELL
(January 30, 2010?—ed.)
(...)
Though brownstones constitute the area’s best-known housing, condo developments are evident in growing numbers. (A wall next to the Carroll Street subway stop, nicknamed “Democracy Wall” by residents, featured murals and open letters to the community. One read “Make Love Not Tall Buildings”— and was later covered up by construction.) 

LINK

See the Democracy Wall at the Actipedia Here


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Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Brad Lander and His Rezoning Scam: URGENT PUBLIC MEETING !

PLEASE SHARE THIS INFO!
JUST SAY "NO" to BRAD!  THIS IS NOT WHAT THE COMMUNITY WANTS!

(scroll down at this url: The Gowanus is Dirty!)


COMING SOON TO THE GOWANUS CANAL:
22-STORY TOWERS!
20,000 NEW NEIGHBORS!
6,500 LUXURY APTS!

Concilmember Brad Lander says:
This is what the community wants!
Well, neighbors, it has come to this. After over 3 years of so-called "community planning," Brad Lander & co. have come up with a plan for the Gowanus that is exactly like the plan we've seen everywhere else: Luxury towers, luxury towers, luxury towers. There will be a % of these units that are "affordable" -- but affordable for who?

This is going to be the biggest rezone of the De Blasio administration -- and everyone who has political ambitions (De Blasio may run for President; Brad Lander is going to run for NYC Comptroller) has his eye on it -- and not just because of the potential for political help from powerful developers. They also want to be able to say that this was a rezoning that was agreed upon by the community--but that isn't true.

PLEASE come to the "Draft Scoping Meeting" being held tomorrow so that you can make sure your concerns about this rezoning plan are being heard. This is where they are supposed to be gathering information from the community as to what sorts of impacts this development might have on the neighborhood. Do you have concerns about developing in a flood zone? On a superfund site before it has been cleaned? Concerned about schools, parking, and what sorts of stores can survive an upzoning with so many luxury units? Concerned about listening to pylons being driven into the Gowanus marshlands for the next 15 years??? Whatever it is, you should show up to this meeting and speak out.

The meeting is on:
THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019 at
MS 51 (SCHOOL),
350 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn
(just past the Old Stone House park).
The meeting starts at 4pm but will go on through the evening.

Oh, and if you're wondering why a meeting about a Gowanus rezone plan is taking place in a Park Slope school, well, it may be because they are counting on you not to come. PROVE THEM WRONG! Tell your neighbors to come, too.

See you there!

(scroll down at this url at: The Gowanus is Dirty!)
 to distribute in your neighborhood


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Sunday, April 14, 2019

Brad Lander: No the Community Does NOT want your ill-advised re-zoning plan in Gowanus/Carroll Gardens!

Dear Brad Lander,

According to you, the Gowanus Canal re-zoning was supposedly decided with "community input."  This is a sham and a lie. We do NOT want this! 
Brad Lander:  No the Community Does NOT want your ill-advised re-zoning plan in Gowanus!

1) The community does NOT want a massive re-zoning without a fully completed EPA clean-up of the toxic Gowns Canal and a plan in place to deal with all 
future CSO's of any re-zoning.
2) The community does NOT want a massive re-zoning in a Hurricane Sandy damaged flood zone, especially with NO adequate evacuation route and public health and 
safety plan.

 3) The community does NOT WANT ANY re-zoning plan which is tone deaf to the needs of current industry and current residents in this 
already existing community.

4) The community does NOT ANY re-zoning whatsoever without a REAL community discussion, not the scripted meetings you invent and 
call a "dialogue."
4) The community does NOT ANY re-zoning whatsoever that places thousands of humans near untreated CSO's without considering the health risks of this risky and cynical course of action."




(scroll down at this url at: The Gowanus is Dirty!)



Brad, please READ what the Gowanus and Carroll Gardens Community
are actually saying below:




"There are so many unresolved issues concerning the Gowanus rezoning:
-the area is a FEMA Flood zone A with mandatory evacuation.
-the actual EPA Superfund clean-up of toxic material at the bottom of the Gowanus Canal has yet to start.
-The City still has to build two EPA-mandated Combined Sewer Overflow tanks to capture raw sewage that it currently dumps into the canal.
-the infrastructure in Gowanus is currently insufficient or crumbling."

https://pardonmeforasking.blogspot.com/2019/04/gowanus-rezoning-these-are-cb6-members.html


"THEY’LL BUILD, YOU’LL PAY:  As part of the New York State’s brownfields program, developers who build apartment towers along the canal, on Bond and Nevins streets, will not only be reimbursed for the price to clean up the toxic land, but they’ll also be handed taxpayer dollars to cover at least 10% of their building costs, up to $35 million dollars each.   The developer of the luxury towers on Bond between Carroll and 1st streets has already been given over $7 million dollars of taxpayer funds. And because of NYC’s 421a, the developers themselves won’t have to pay any property tax for 10 years."

AND

20,000 NEW NEIGHBORS, 22-STORY TOWERS:  "The rezoning plan will allow for at least 10 new residential towers to be built along Bond and Nevins St., each up to 22 stories high, with four times as many expensive luxury apartments as affordable ones. These towers will likely bring at least 20,000 new residents to our neighborhood, DOUBLING the population of Gowanus, destroying the liveable neighborhood we know and love forever. "

"Most waterborne disease-causing microorganisms come from human and animal fecal waste. A small drop of fecal matter can contain millions of microorganisms of many types, some of which are disease-causing pathogens. Exposure to the microbial pathogens found in sewage can lead to short-term and chronic illnesses."
"The most common types of waterborne illnesses are short-term gastrointestinal infections that cause stomachaches and/or diarrhea. The elderly, children, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems are at greater risk of contracting chronic illnesses from sewage-contaminated water."
"A survey by the Center for Disease Control reported over 4,000 documented illnesses from recreational waters in the U.S. in 2005-2006. However this number is assumed to be low because waterborne illnesses are notoriously underreported. People often associate the most common ailments, stomach and digestive system problems, with what they ate for lunch instead of contact with water. Still, reports of illness resulting from swimming are on the rise." 

"If the city has taught it's people anything over the past few decades, it's that they doesn't care about community concerns, no matter how real, enough to change a proposed rezoning. These hearings are for the city's lawyers to collect information they need to cover their butts. Can't see any other reason they pretend to listen to the people."

"How exactly is this meeting going to be run? I have a feeling we're in for another "open house" fiasco; better plan to make our own meeting out of it!"








"I've never quite understood the rationale for this rush to send new residents to Gowanus before the canal has been cleaned. It's bad enough for the residents there, but is the idea that now that tens of thousands more people in gleaming taller buildings are coming in, NOW we can act on a superfund site, the most polluted waterway in the entire country? Really puts the NYC real estate market into perspective." LINK

"Katia said...As I mentioned in the post, some community boards have been more outspoken and wielded more power than CB6. Though many of CB6’s members are dedicated and try to learn about the issues that are put in front of them for a vote, many are chronically late to discussions or absent most of the time. We need to make sure that all members know what the rezoning would mean to Gowanus and know about the environmental challenges. If we don’t try to engage them, it is a missed opportunity." LINK



CG CORD
Carroll Gardens Coalition for Respectful Development
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Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Stroller March to Save LICH Thursday!

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Thursday, July 11, 2013

Stroller March to Save LICH - Part Trois! TONIGHT!! Thursday!!

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Thursday, August 30, 2007

Town Hall Meeting Still Resonating One Week Later!!

This appeared in today's Queens Ledger:

Dateline : Thursday, August 30, 2007
Attacking Overdevelopment on Several Fronts
By Shane Miller

Downzoning? Landmarking? Moratorium on all new construction? Yes, yes, and yes, say residents of Carroll Gardens.
Such was the general consensus at a town hall meeting hosted by Councilman Bill de Blasio, which saw upwards of 100 people pack into Scotto Funeral Home on 1st Place last Thursday evening. De Blasio told the crowd that it was the first in a series of meetings he planned to host to address concerns of overdevelopment in the neighborhood, which is sandwiched between the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the Gowanus Canal.
"We need to get tightly organized as a neighborhood," de Blasio told the crowd.
Several large development proposals have galvanized the Carroll Gardens community, a neighborhood characterized by its attached rowhouses and brownstones and distinctive front-yard gardens, which in addition to giving the neighborhood its namesake as well as qualifying for a "wide streets" classification, which allows developers greater density.
One of the most notorious development plans on the table is located at 360 Smith Street. De Blasio and local residents have organized several rallies in protest of the project, which originally called for an eight-story building on what is now essentially a parking lot near the Carroll Gardens subway stop.
According to de Blasio, developer Billy Stein intended to submit revised plans sometime this week, in part because of the intense opposition to the project.
"We are going to make it difficult for them to do something crazy," de Blasio told the crowd.
The sale of the International Longshoreman's Association building site at 340 Court Street was also a source of concern. The large lot size means that the new owners, developers The Clarett Group, could build a 21-story building as of right.
"The developer doesn't have to go to the planning board or the city," said Assemblywoman Joan Millman, who along with Congresswoman Yvette Clarke attended the town hall. "He doesn't have to go to anyone."
Millman said that she met with representatives from The Clarett Group, who told her that it was premature to be discussing plans, as an architect hasn't even been hired to design the site.
Carroll Gardens residents received a minor victory recently, as the Department of City Planning (DCP) agreed to undertake a downzoning study. De Blasio said that the rezoning area would include everything west of Hoyt Street, but later said that he misspoke and meant to say west of Bond Street. In a nutshell, the downzoning would place a 50-foot cap on new buildings.
DCP, however, has refused to publicly state a time frame for the rezoning. Even if the study were started today, it would likely take months to complete, and the ensuing Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP) and subsequent public review periods could take up to seven months to complete.
That gives developers plenty of time to get projects started, prompting many last week to call on a moratorium on all new construction in Carroll Gardens. Several members of the audience wore yellow tags and held signs that read "Moratorium Now!"
Rita Miller of Carroll Gardens Organization for Respectful Development gave the most impassioned case for a moratorium. She said the unchecked overdevelopment was not only ruining the character of the neighborhood, but taxing the infrastructure, including schools and mass transit.
"You wouldn't get a pet for your home without making certain preparations," said Miller. "We deserve the same respect as a parakeet."
Bob Furman of the Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance (4BNA) told the crowd that such a moratorium would be illegal, a position de Blasio has taken in the past. Miller, however, said she had a letter from DCP head Amanda Burden, which expressed interest and support for a moratorium
A DCP spokesperson clarified the agency's position on Monday, stating that a moratorium is untested and would likely have to go through the ULURP process as well, which could delay any rezoning.
Furman also urged residents to support expanding the areas of Carroll Gardens that are landmarked. Currently, there are about four blocks of the approximately 80 in the neighborhood that are protected. Once a district is scheduled for a hearing before the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), all development must stop, which would work much like a moratorium.
Furman said that he and three other members of 4BNA met with LPC chair Robert Tierney in July.
"He said, 'we'd love to do it, but we don't have the staff,'" recalled Furman.
Furman did say that a former employee of LPC could be hired to complete a landmarking study, the findings of which LPC would use to determine the historical significance of the district. The 4BNA has requested $40,000 from de Blasio to begin the process.
But while the city has agreed in theory to downzone much of Carroll Gardens, they have very different plans for the portion of the neighborhood along the Gowanus Canal.
On July 17, the city issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for roughly 5.8 acres of land at the intersection of 5th and Smith streets known as the Public Place site. The guidelines of the RFP called for the creation of at least 400 housing units, some of which will be set aside for senior housing.
"We need to make sure that new development is in synch with the surrounding neighborhood," said de Balsio, "but where we have the opportunity for more density, we should use that to create affordable housing. I'm going to push the spectrum."
Not every one is excited about the prospect of development along the canal, however. Marlene Donnelly of Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus (FROGG), for instance, would rather see the area along the canal restored to a natural wetland state.
Donnelly worries that more development, along with the proposed Atlantic Yards project, will only tax the canal further, and that the areas around the Gowanus Canal are being rezoned to facilitate a downzoning of the greater Carroll Gardens area.
"There are trees that could be planted that would suck up stormwater like crazy," she argues. "It is no place for housing."
Donnelly cites a study completed by the Army Corps of Engineers that recommended employing bio-remediation techniques to clean the area around the creek.
"Caps always fail," she adds. "On top of that, you are going to have 100 trucks a day hauling dirt to Pennsylvania where it can be incinerated, and then trucks hauling more dirt to back to replace it."
Donnelly agrees with de Blasio that Carroll Gardens needs to address a senior population that is being consistently displaced by rising rents, but doesn't believe that developing the area along the Gowanus Canal is the only option.
"Why are we putting them down by the water?" she asks, arguing that affordable senior housing could be negotiated with developers in other parts of Carroll Gardens. "That is what should be happening."

PHOTO CAPTION: Rita Miller of the Carroll Gardens Organization for Respectful Development urges Councilman Bill de Blasio to back a moratorium on new development in Carroll Gardens at a town hall meeting hosted by the councilman last Thursday evening. Link

Note: Please encourage your neighbors and friends to SIGN the Carroll Gardens petition if they have not done so already. Link

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CORD HISTORY:

With the "Protect Our Homes" petition, CORD was formed in May, 2007. This petition arose as an overwhelmingly negative response to the coming of the over-sized 360 Smith Street Development at the corner of Smith Street and Second Place (Aka Oliver House; aka 131 Second Place). This petition, which had well over three thousand signatures, led to a new zoning text amendment in summer of 2008.

To: Our Elected Officials, Community Leaders, The MTA:
(MAY, 2007)

We the undersigned Carroll Gardens homeowners and residents, are appalled by the "as of right" ruling which allows owners and developers to erect buildings in our neighborhood with no regard to the impact they will present to our quality of life and the value of our homes........

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?crlgrdns