Art Talk & Reception for Lincoln Road Serape THIS WEDNESDAY, 11/9

Despite being delayed by a freak October snowstorm, Lincoln Road Serape is now complete!

This Wednesday is your chance to meet artist Katie Daniels, hear her reflections on the piece and share your reactions.

We’ll begin on the Lincoln Road Bridge at 6 PM and wrap up in the pop-up gallery, around the corner at 552 Flatbush Avenue, with refreshments.

Hope to see you there!

Change on Lincoln Road

So much has changed on our little block since our last post in May. K-Dog has sadly closed its doors. Blue Roost is moving in. And now a new public art installation is coming to the Lincoln Road Bridge.

This Saturday & Sunday, Katherine Daniels will be installing a woven sculpture inspired by Navajo blanket designs onto the fence. You can read about Katie and see some of her work here: http://www.katherinedaniels.com/. Please stop by over the weekend to welcome Katie to the block and witness the installation process. And stay tuned for an announcement of an opening reception to celebrate the new piece!

Clean-Up Round Up

The bridge was home base and Bob Thomason was the first volunteer to arrive.

Saturday’s block clean up was so much fun.

Large contingents from 40 & 50 Lincoln Road and the Maple Street School pitched in as did neighbors from around the community, all fueled by delicious bagels, coffee & tea donated by K-Dog.

Volunteers aged 2 through 83 worked hard, breaking up compacted soil, uprooting dandelions, removing litter, all to beautify the block we all share.

Dandelion destroying super heroine!

Tree pits and the planters in front of K-Dog, Lincoln Park Tavern and 40 Lincoln Road are now full of flowers, plants and soil generously donated by the Home Depot on Hamilton Avenue.

Thanks Hamilton Avenue Home Depot! The flowers, plants and soil look great.

This adorable family worked hard on the flower bed and planters. And the littlest member admired every worm she came across.

Most impressively, the truckload of wood chips donated by Brooklyn Forestry was impressively demolished by a handful of guys and gals equipped with Ikea bags and a few makeshift carts. Our custom tree pit guards are still under construction and eagerly anticipated as we work to maintain the progress we’ve made. Thanks and congratulations to everyone who gave their time and energy to this project. We did it!

Painting over graffiti is So much more fun than sleeping in.

Block Clean Up Tomorrow, 9 AM – 1 PM

Tomorrow’s weather is expected to be beautiful. Celebrate spring by spending a morning beautifying our block. We’ll be painting, sweeping, composting, mulching and planting from 9 AM to 1 PM. Our work will be fueled by bagels, cream cheese and caffeine from K-Dog & delicious lunch sandwiches from Mama Louisa. Lincoln Road b/w Flatbush & Ocean Aves in Brooklyn, NY & all are welcome!

This event is part of a larger day of neighborhood beautification. See recent post on our neighborhood listserve here for more details: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Lefferts/.

Spring Cleaning

Happy Spring Neighbors! After the long winter, a block is looking a bit worse for the wear. Yesterday, DOT removed the latest tag from our little bridge (thanks bridge crew!). Let’s join the effort and spruce up our block a bit.

WHAT: Clean & Green Lincoln Road

WHEN: Saturday, April 30, 9 AM – 1 PM

WHAT: Clean & mulch tree pit beds, install tree pit guards, plant planters, paint over graffiti, remove litter.

WHO: All of us! & whoever else wants to join in. All volunteers are welcome.

HOW: With the support of the Citizen’s Committee for NYC, Build It Green NYC, Park Tower Associates & K-Dog & Dunebuggy

Please sign up at K-Dog, respond to this post or write linroforma@gmail.com so that we can have an idea of how many volunteers to expect.  Group leaders are especially needed so please consider taking a leadership role!

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Our block clean-up is part of a neighborhood wide effort to Put Litter & Garbage in its place. For more information on this initiative or to join the conversation, check out this neighborhood list-serve.

Breaking News! — Lincoln Road Bridge Being CLEARED OF SNOW! as Actual Subway Trains Pass Below

A neighbor applauds the crew.

Thumbs Up Gline Striker & Crew!

After a year of 311 calls, letter writing and appeals to local politicians, we’re experiencing a real success this morning. A (Supervisor Gline Straker’s) Queens-based DOT crew has arrived with shovels and blowers to clear the snow from Lincoln Road bridge. One supervisor told LinRoFORMA that he believes the bridge is being added to the list of regular sites to be cleaned in our borough. We hope this is the case. As we’ve told DOT, this is the last through street for eight blocks and a critical pedestrian corridor for the neighborhood.

Apparently the crew was directed to clear both the south side of the bridge, outside the train station and the north side but believes the MTA should be responsible for clearing the sidewalk outside their station. It’s unfortunate, but agencies pointing the finger at one another is a major cause of inefficiency in the city. Nevertheless, we should celebrate the meaningful progress made. Thanks DOT crew!

As if this wasn’t exciting enough, the MTA began running trains on the north and south bound Q & B tracks at the same time. So far, the trains have been out of service but it gives hope that this side of the neighborhood will be reconnected to the city by rail later today.

Big Brooklyn Snow, 2010

The storm that began on December 26th dumped almost twice as much snow on our borough as on Manhattan. Nevertheless, Lincoln Road is quietly bustling. Businesses are open and people and dogs are tramping to Prospect Park. Here are a few shots of our block dealing with the big post-Christmas snow:

Yesterday morning, drifting snow buried cars on the north side of the block.

Today, most cars have been excavated. Check out the strategic angle parking.

This snow plow was a welcome sight. Now cars and buses should be able to easily make it up the modest hill in the middle of the block.

Yesterday this bus was stuck in the intersection of Lincoln and Flatbush for hours.

Today it's just this car. Can we call this progress?

The employees at Thriftway and 40 & 50 Lincoln Road have done a great job of clearing the sidewalk.

DOT hasn't done as well. Actually, they haven't done anything. Except for what the wind has swept away, the sidewalk on the bridge is a treacherous mess.

The sidewalk adjacent to the vacant lot is also an issue. Pedestrians praying for buses and trains have tramped a path but it's slick and people are falling.

As of this morning, sanitation hadn't picked up any trash.

 

But delivery trucks are going about their business.

Happily, Crystal's crochet looks beautiful in the monochromatic landscape.

Tagging the Block

Recently, fliers appeared on our block concerning the death of a young man who was shot and killed. I’m told that his funeral was well attended.

Soon after the services, new graffiti began appearing:

The first photo shows tags outside 40 Lincoln Road. The second shows tags on the mural wall beside the laundromat.

It just can’t be that these tags — a few RIPs mixed in with other nonsense — are an appropriate tribute for the loss of a human life. If anything, it’s a demonstration of how life can be wasted and short.

The tags at 40 Lincoln are already gone. The ones on the mural won’t last long. Perhaps a more fitting tribute would be for the young man’s friends to spend a day per month with the mother or grandmother of the young man who was killed, showing through their actions that he was valued and will be remembered.

 

MTA continues to act like a bad neighbor

MTA’s buses continue to idle over the 1-minute limit set in the school zone on Lincoln Road. Despite our post and the ongoing attention this page is getting (eight months later, it continues to be one of the most visited pages on this blog), MTA buses are back at it in full force. Our video, taken by camera phone at 6:50 AM the morning after Thanksgiving, demonstrates the kind of congestion and pollution that occurs on a daily basis, regardless of the warm weather, supposed holiday schedule, supervisor presence, or posted “NO IDLING” Department of Transportation sign (with accompanied threat of $2,000 fine).

We had a brief respite over the summer when it seemed as though our complaints were heard. Now, we are very disappointed that MTA continues to act like an irresponsible neighbor. The link between air pollution and respiratory diseases, cancer and decreased IQ levels has been established in numerous studies–as has the fact that young children are particularly susceptible. And yet, MTA buses continue to idle all day, every day, for sometimes up to 15 minutes at a time.

It is the rare exception that we see an MTA bus arrive, park, and have its engine shut off. We continue to see buses idling, doors wide open, with the bus driver out on the street smoking a cigarette or chatting with the scheduling supervisor. All seem oblivious to the ongoing noise, air and dust pollution their buses bring to our neighborhood every day. In one particularly egregious case, we saw a bus driver, after idling her particularly loud bus for over 5 minutes, open her driver’s window to drop a plastic wrapper on the street. Meanwhile, trash cans are available right outside, up and down Lincoln Road.

Idling buses, besides being linked to serious illnesses and environmental pollution, waste money. Earlier this year, the MTA announced that it was in such dire financial straits that it considered cutting its subsidy of student cards. It has since slashed bus routes, subway lines and prepared to lay off workers. And yet, every day, in front of our neighborhood preschool, buses waste fuel and money.

We are sending a letter to the MTA to encourage it to follow these practical recommendations:

• Respect the law and obey the 1-minute idling limit in this school zone;
• Install kill switches in their buses to ensure that buses cannot idle when parked;
• Reduce neighborhood noise pollution by scheduling quieter hybrid buses for late night/early morning runs; and
• Reduce traffic congestion by having buses run on large, high traffic streets, instead of narrow, high-density residential ones.

By following these straightforward, manageable recommendations, the MTA can be a better neighbor not just to our block, but to the environment in general.

Below is a snapshot of recent bus idle times, one noisy November day. We casually counted 12 buses idling throughout the day. At one point, 3 buses were idling simultaneously, creating an incredibly loud living environment, and adding significantly to traffic congestion.

For November 3, 2010

Bus no.	Route	Time in	Time out	Elapsed
836	B16	12:26 PM	12:32 PM	6 MINS
908	B16	1:10 PM	1:15 PM	5 MINS
4555	B43	4:42 PM	4:50 PM	8 MINS
4516	B43	4:45 PM	4:50 PM	5 MINS
928	B16	5:05 PM	5:13 PM	8 MINS
9509	B43	5:13 PM	5:17 PM	4 MINS
4523	B43	5:37 PM	5:45 PM	8 MINS
4531	B43	5:54 PM	6:01 PM	7 MINS
932	B16	5:54 PM	6:00 PM	6 MINS
4568	B43	5:54 PM	6:00 PM	6 MINS
9486	B43	6:35 PM	6:39 PM	4 MINS
950	B43	8:04 PM	8:10 PM	6 MINS

Let’s Meet & Talk Money

LinRoFORMA has had a successful fundraising  year. But there are still  priorities we haven’t managed to fund, like iron guards for the tree pits on the block.

Let’s meet on Tuesday evening and talk money. Meet your neighbors and receive an update on the grants we’ve applied for and received thus far. We’ll also discuss and vote on a fun holiday fundraising opportunity.

WHEN: Tues., 11/23, 7 PM

WHERE: 40 Lincoln Rd., Apt. 6M

Interested in participating in the bock association but can’t make this meeting? E-mail linroforma@gmail.com and be added to the mailing list.

LinRoFORMA is your block association if you:

– live on Lincoln Rd. b/w Flatbush & Ocean Avenues

– work or own a business on Lincoln Rd. b/w Flatbush & Ocean Avenues

– live in 99 or 115 Ocean Aves.

Hope to see you Tuesday!