You may have read about us here back in January. ioby.org is now live.  Visit ioby (eye-OH-be), search for environmental projects in your borough, find one that is meaningful to you, click to make a tax-deductible donation to support it or volunteer to get involved.

ioby stands for “in our backyards” and the belief that environmental knowledge, innovation, action and service begin and thrive at the local level.  On ioby.org groups with environmental projects can quickly connect to the donors and volunteers they need to make positive, environmental change for New York City neighborhoods.

Visit ioby.org or call us if you have questions 212-228-6947.  Follow us on Twitter or join us on Facebook. Read about us on the American Museum of Natural History blog or listen to us on WNYC.

Brooklyn! Fall! Brews! Bounty! Yes, its that time of year again. The Yard is once again hosting a fall-themed celebration of Gowanus proportions.

Last year was an incredible success – over 1,000 people joined us at the banks of the canal to enjoy farm fresh food, live music, local vendors, pumpkin carving contests, pony rides, delicious brews and other triumphs of sustainable urban living.

This year, proceeds from the Gowanus Harvest Festival will be donated to Just Food.

So join us and enjoy the wonders of Autumn on Brooklyn’s most …charismatic… waterfront.

Saturday, October 11th
11am-9pm

388-400 CARROLL ST, BROOKLYN NY
F/G TO CARROLL ST, N/R TO UNION ST

Advanced tickets $12
Day of Show $12
Children under 5 Free

Buy Tickets Here

Meanred Productions
The Yard

In the third post in GBK’s “City of Water” series — see the other two here and here — we find out that the NYC City Council Speaker Christine Quinn calls on the NYC government to keep up with waterfront communities and activists.

Tip o’ the hat to Bay Ridge Journal who has this to report:

As part of the “City of Water” event on Governor’s Island yesterday, Quinn praised waterfront activists for keeping the city’s waterfronts vibrant, but said that “government must keep pace.”

Quinn will introduce a bill in the council next month that would require the City Planning Department to update the city’s waterfront development plan every 10 years.

The Daily News:

The goal is to keep the city’s waterfronts brimming with activities like biking and boating as well as buzzing with commercial shipping and ferries, she said.

Pointing to the fight to reduce car congestion on city streets, she said that “waterfronts are really an untapped transportation resource.”

We hope that this means increased attention to New York-based advocacy groups such as: Sunset-Ridge Waterfront Alliance, Waterfront Alliance, S.W.I.M., Riverkeeper, Newtown Creek Alliance, Gowanus Dredgers, Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, and others who advocate for clean waterways and green waterfronts in NYC.

The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation has had enough of NYC’s lack of motivation to fix the massive problem of Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) — the antiquated storm-water system that allows raw sewage to overflow into NYC waterways.

Actually, they are not only sick and tired of the city’s delays in addressing their obligation to fix mechanical structures, foundations, substructures, pumping stations and other infrastructure-related systems; but actually, the city’s delays are a major violation of a 2005 consent order.

The result of the violations? NYC has settled with NYSDEC and has, “agreed to pay a $1 million fine and fund $4 million worth of environmental-benefit projects.” Serves the city right for neglecting this horrendous problem for our waterways.

The good news is that the fine and funding will go towards green roofs and other storm-water infrastructure developments that many — like GBK, Riverkeeper, NRDC, S.W.I.M., Newtown Creek Alliance — have been advocating for some time.

Read on for the rest of the post on this important development………

He was against it before he voted for it. Sounds awfully familiar, right? This, at least, is a flip-flop that makes some sense, unlike John Kerry’s inexplicable comments in the lead-up to the 2004 Presidential election.

City Councilman Kendall Stewart; who represents Flatbush, East Flatbush, Flatlands; opined in a Brooklyn Daily Eagle op-ed this past Tuesday — Earth Day — that based on the evidence presented him, including facts brought to his attention by the Campaign for New York’s Future, he could not and would not oppose congestion pricing.