Williamsburg has long ago hit the “tipping point.” If and when the Broadway musical based on the ‘Burg comes out, rather than a dramatic ending, in tragedy and death, like Rent, the ‘Burg will, more likely, fade and crumble without a whimper, burdened under its own ennui and the pressures of the real estate boom.

To read the full article in the Brooklyn Rail go here.

During Rudy Giuliani’s mayoralty in the 1990s, garden closures were at their highest rates, culminating in 1998 when the Giuliani administration tried to auction off all of the community gardens on city-owned property.

But a judge stopped Giuliani’s plan from moving forward. In 2002, a compromise was reached between the attorney general’s office and the city that handed jurisdiction over many gardens to the parks department, protecting them from development. Many others have been bought by private organizations like the Trust for Public Land, but a few dozen or so remain under the control of HPD.

Read the full article here.

Find the surfside garden on Google Maps

The problem is this: 30 million or so bottles end up in landfills every day, environmental experts say. The vast majority of the bottles are made from petroleum — roughly 1.5 million barrels of oil a year, enough to fuel 100,000 cars, according to the Earth Policy Institute.

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Find the Park Slope Food Coop on Google Maps.

The Gardening Committee has already begun planning for a whole weekend of activities on Arbor Day Weekend (April 25-27); yes, it’s about trees, but trees and neighborhood “greening” are also Livable Streets issues, they affect energy use, are proven to be good for business, and are healthy for children and other living things.

It’s easier building green in the Netherlands, first, because it is a national consensus and people are aware of the long term maintenance effects when building a building which lasts for at least 50 years. Second, building standards and codes are kept up-to-date to the current (energy) developments. The minimum energy efficiency requirements are set to a relative high level in relation to the regularly available building technology and is updated every few years or so. In the US the minimum energy standards are relatively low and building a better performing building is basically voluntary. The gap between the minimum requirements and the regularly available building technology is large.

For the full article go here.
See where the LEED building is on Google Maps.