Greening the Ridge is today! Head on down to 69th Street Veterans Memorial Pier!

From our friends at the SRWA:

GREENING THE RIDGE 2009!
SUNDAY, JUNE 14th, 2009 at Veteran’s Memorial Pier at 69th Street in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
10am- 6pm

Festival Schedule:
9am-10am: Exhibitor setup
10am: Festival Opening Ceremony
10am-Noon: Xavier High School Jazz Band “Bailout”
11am, 1pm, and 3pm: Dance Performance Installation, “What We Can See From Here,” by Cassie Mey and Jesse Phillips-Fein
Noon: Dance Performance Installation- Kids Workshop!

2:00pm: OLPH Twirlers!
2:30pm: SRWA Green Youth Award Ceremony
Noon to 6pm: Pill Hill Radio and Musical Guests
6pm: Festival end

The Sunset-Ridge Waterfront Alliance is pleased to announce our Second Annual Greening the Ridge Festival in 2009! This annual summer festival will bring vendors, agencies, programs, and individuals to the pier for an educational festival on how to green our community.

Building upon the success of our First Annual GTR Festival in 2008, this year’s event will bring even more people, and more inter-active booths to the Veteran’s Memorial Pier at 69th Street in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. In addition, we are unveiling our Green Youth Award Program at this year’s festival, click here for more information!

Special music entertainment provided by: Xavier High School Jazz Band, and Pill Hill Radio with Musical Guests!

Special dance performance:
What We Can See From Here
Performance Installation by Cassie Mey & Jesse Phillips-Fein

Meet our current sponsors & exhibitors:

Petri Plumbing
Kettle Black
Alley Cat Exterminating
Green Spa
Ben Bay Realty Co.
Ben Bay Realty Co. of Bay Ridge

Smart Car Manhattan

Gallery 364
Bay Ridge CSA
Bay Ridge Food Co-op
Greenmarket
Center for Urban Greenscaping (CuGreen)
EPA
Narrows Botanical Gardens
Ella Vickers Recycled Sailcloth Collection
Petit Oven

Circles International Natural Foods
Bettencourt Green Building Supplies
WowGreen
Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance
Farm Sanctuary
Natural Resources Defense Council
FDNY Smoke House
GreenBrooklyn
CleanAir NY

Garden Direct
Xaverian High School Environmental Club
Scandinavian East Coast Museum
Transportation Alternatives
Life Scout Troop 20, Edward Maddalena
Bay Ridge Historical Society

Plus many more to be added!

This all-day festival is FREE to the public.

More info at SRWAlliance.org.

If you are interested in obtaining more information, please contact Heather McCown: heather@srwalliance.org / (917) 971-0007.

The Sunset-Ridge Waterfront Alliance gratefully acknowledges support from Councilman Vincent Gentile, Assemblywoman Janele Hyer-Spencer, Congressman Michael McMahon, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, and State Senator Marty Golden.

Van Ness Avenue BRT Plan / San Francisco

Bus Rapid Transit. Citywide Network. Powerful stuff in the mass transit world. The DOT asks the people of NYC about BRT, the Pratt Center delivers:

This week, the New York City Department of Transportation and MTA begin a series of community workshops to obtain public input on plans for bus rapid transit in New York City. The Pratt Center and COMMUTE, a coalition working for transportation equity, have released a proposal for a citywide BRT network designed to maximize service to New Yorkers who need it most.

Download the Pratt Center Issue Brief “Bus Rapid Transit: A Transit Revolution at a Bargain Price” (pdf)

We encourage you and your neighbors, colleagues, and constituents to attend the community workshops and speak up for bus rapid transit in New York City - visit http://www.nyc.gov/brt for details.

To develop the proposed route network, the Pratt Center analyzed commuting patterns, the location of large employment centers, and existing bus routes, as well as concentrations of commuters with rides of more than one hour each way who make less than $35,000 a year. The Pratt Center’s research and analysis already informed the DOT and MTA’s current plans for rolling out bus rapid transit.

More route proposals at the Pratt Center Bus Rapid Transit page.

Bus Rapid Transit Facts (pdf).

If there was ever a time for New Yorkers to act, it’s NOW. On Wednesday, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) approved its “Doomsday Budget”, a measure that would impose disastrous fare hikes and service cuts to the more than 1.5 million New Yorkers who use public transportation on a daily basis. If the changes are implemented, prices will jump to $2.50 a ride and $103 a month, and two subway routes and 33 bus lines would be cut. We can still convince our elected officials to turn this thing around, but time is running out fast.

Currently there’s a plan (introduced by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver) that would provide the MTA with the necessary funds to continue operating WITHOUT cutting subway or bus service, while keeping transportation fares low. This plan would also require public audits of the MTA’s accounting records, so that we’re not caught off-guard by another 1.258 billion MTA budget deficit.

We’re not going to sit back and watch while it becomes unaffordable for the average New Yorker to live and work in our city. Please join us! Sign this letter to our state legislators, check out our video on www.99problems.org, spread the word, and watch for more updates on what you can do to help!

This may be Gotham, but not everyone can afford a Batmobile. And New Yorkers don’t put up with no *(&$%.

Love,
Rachel, Steve, Sean, and all of the pissed off Brooklyn League of Young Voters Education Fund

Heather McCown, the founder of the recent movement to restore ferry service to Bay Ridge and the founder and executive director of the Sunset-Ridge Waterfront Alliance, has now taken steps to prove the community’s support for a restoration of reliable ferry service to South Brooklyn.

The SRWA has launched an online survey to collect data that will calculate demand for ferry service at the Veteran’s Memorial Pier at 69th Street in Bay Ridge.

Please support this initiative and take about 10 minutes to complete the survey!

In 2006, a petition of over 2,000 signatures was delivered to Mayor Michael Bloomberg in support of reinstatement of the ferry service. Since this time, there has been an increase in local interest in reinstating service, but there is currently no data to examine the needs of the community.

Ms. McCown in a SRWA press release:

“Data is more powerful than just signatures. Our hope is that this survey will quantify the need for ferry service, and allow the voices of our community to be heard.” This ferry survey will also look at the need for the proper landing equipment at the pier for other water-borne activities besides ferry service, such as; kayaking, canoeing, and the need for an emergency landing as stated by the New York City Office of Emergency Management mandates.

A statement from Councilman Vincent Gentile:

“Last fall, a major non-profit regional planning organization highlighted high-speed ferry service in Bay Ridge as one of the best ways to make up for our neighborhood’s poor transit options,” Councilman Gentile said. [...] “Hopefully the results of this survey will give the city the push it needs to get this project started.”

Help the SRWA, take 10 minutes to fill out this important survey!

Ahead on the schedule for SRWA:

• VIP Night (drinks and hors d’oeurves followed by a screening of City of Water), on March 31st
• the second annual Greening The Ridge Sunday, June 14th
• the SRWA Green Youth Award, a contest for youth-run green projects to be awarded at Greening the Ridge 2009.

You are welcome to participate in all of these upcoming events. For more information, go to srwalliance.org.

Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009
6pm - 8pm
Center for the Urban Environment
168 7^th Street, Brooklyn

(No sitter? No problem! Bring your little ones along for a screening of Wall-E, the 2008 animated hit where a robot inadvertently stumbles upon the key to the planet’s future.)

$10 suggested for members and friends. Free popcorn!

POST-SCREENING DISCUSSION with Brent Baker, CEO of Tri State Biodiesel.

ABOUT THE FILM: FUEL is an insightful portrait of America’s addiction to oil and an uplifting testament to the immediacy of new energy solutions. Director, Josh Tickell, a young activist, shuttles us on a whirlwind journey to track the rising domination of the petrochemical industry—from Rockefeller’s strategy to halt Ford’s first ethanol cars to Vice President Cheney’s petrochemical company sponsored energy legislation — and reveals a gamut of available solutions to “repower America” —from vertical farms that occupy skyscrapers to algae facilities that turn wastewater into fuel. Tickell and a surprising array of environmentalists, policy makers, and entertainment notables take us through America’s complicated, often ignominious energy past and illuminate a hopeful, achievable future, where decentralized, sustainable living is not only possible, it’s imperative. thefuelfilm.com

To RSVP email rwelch[at]bcue[dot]org by Wednesday, February 18th