GBCares in cooperation with local mural artist Joe Indart have created an artful message to help curb litter, ATV’s and dogs!
Joe Indart is no stranger to Gerritsen Beach he has also painted the mural at marine pharmacy, the PS 277 wall, the Larry Veilng scoreboard, a sign for Ice Cream U Scream, worked for the Tamaqua, as well as a ton of other murals for firehouses and other neighborhoods.
We have reached many goals thanks to the support of our members, volunteer residents, business Owners, local organizations, elected officials and governmental agencies. Working together as a team has proven to be quite productive for the improvement of our community; it will continue to
get better with your support.
Thanks to the members we were able to support and organize community activities over the last membership year. Such activities as: GB Games a “Fun Raiser” featuring the Classic Car show, Halloween Festival, Installation and Display of US Flags and Holiday Lights on Gerritsen Avenue, Monthly Children Volunteerism Promotion reward gift card program with PS 277, Resurrection and St. James sponsored by Astoria Federal Savings, international Coastal Cleanup with the American Littoral Society, Community Essay Contest at PS 277 sponsored by Astoria Federal Savings, Dan’s 5K Fun Run/Walk, weekly community service program with the Kings County District
Attorney Charles Hynes, Free graffiti removal for Gerritsen Avenue, GB Marching Band, Clean Up and plantings on Knapp Street and Allen Avenue and in the tree pits along Gerritsen Avenue, and the revitalization of Seba Avenue Park.
We are proud to assist and support the following organizations and events in our community. The annual VFW Post 107 Memorial Day parade and Veteran’s Day Ceremony, GBPOA Kiddie Beach parade and assisted with beach cleanup’s, GB Little League field improvements and maintenance, GB Property Owner’s Association maintenance of the community gardens next to the library, Resurrection sports with donations for equipment and volunteer promotion gift card program All American Soccer with maintenance of the fields, and the Knights of Columbus Council #5989 with annual 9-11 ceremony.
These are only some of the activities your support as a member helped make happen in 2009. We are working closely with all the organizations in our community to make positive improvements. We have also assisted dozens of residents with problems with governmental agencies. Your continued support is important to GB Cares and the community.
Shortly after the illegal dumping story GerritsenBeach.net posed the question of the security of the gates. After all it was most likely how someone would be able to drive a vehicle with a dumpster back there. We were able to find out that the locks have not been changed for a good number of years and that there was no documentation of who had the keys at any given time.
GBCares changed the locks and then gave Parks the copies. Don’t worry this isn’t one of those story that knocks an organization. Parks is completely fine with this.
At the recent GBPOA meeting George Broadhead, president of the GBPOA, brought up that certain people object to cameramen being present at the meeting. He described about what their board feels would be a good solution to address this concern: Splitting their meeting into a public session, where elected officials and the public can speak and the press may be present, then, after a brief intermission, a members-only meeting where a camera may not be present, and only members may speak.
This is where things got fun. John Walsh, a board member of the GBPOA, who successfully led the charge to allow 18-year olds to be voting members of the GBPOA, is apparently leading the charge specifically against GerritsenBeach.net. At first, he takes issue with the anonymous comments that the site allows stating “If you don’t have the balls to put your name to something, what do you got? You got nothing.” He goes on to to say that it is effecting the community by hurting GBCares, because “the camera’s presence” it is making people think twice about speaking openly at the meeting. He went on to explain that he and he and other members of the board will resign if something isn’t “resolved”.
“In my opinion it comes down to the right to freedom of the press, and your right as a commenter to comment without fear of retaliation. I have heard numerous times, from different people, some are heads of local organizations, that would love to know who some of you are so they can beat the hell out of you. Which is why I allow anonymous comments.”
He used my quote to suggest that there needs to be some anonymity at the GBPOA public meetings.
He went on to describe that he has hired a lawyer and a private detective, all pro-bono, to find a legal means “to shut down his camera and to shut it down for good!” He went on to say “I love the work you do, there is a lot of good stuff you do.” “There is going to be things I disagree with and that’s alright – my concern is for whats going on here.”
George Broadhead, who to his credit has stuck up for freedom of the press many times, stated – in an apparent tit-for-tat, countering Mr. Walsh’s point that people are not attending the meeting because of GB.net’s presence “It does not look like people are not coming to the meetings”, referring to the size of the crowd. Broadhead said he is also against the “Anonymous people”, but “the website has the sames rights as a newspaper and also the same rights as anyone in a public meeting.”
George then knocked Walsh’s statement of hiring a private detective “doesn’t that sound like an invasion of privacy? That’s doing the same thing as knocking the 1st amendment right.”
Jane Dewitt, who is a board member of both GBCares and the GBPOA, stated that her, her husband, GBCares, and many people have been “knocked on (GB.net)”. “It’s all negative”. “I don’t read rags…to me that’s a rag, I get calls. My last call was that GBCares dumped roof shingles back weeds”
Michael Taylor, Chairman of GBCares Board, chimed in: “Yes he said it’s our fault”
The pile on continued when Mr. Taylor, Chairman of GBCares Board, asked “Does (GB.net) have press credentials, is he press? or is he just some crazy stalker that’s putting out video clips to embarrass the community.”
For the record, according to the NYPD,:
“Working Press Cards are for those individuals who are full-time, news staff employees, whose routine duties require them to cross police and fire lines and are regularly involved in spot emergency news coverage, i.e.; shootings, fires, homicides, etc.
“Press Identification Cards are issued to full-time members of the press who do not hold the Working Press Cards but do have a need for an official Police Department identification card in order to fulfill their various assignments of crossing police lines at the scene of a “non-emergency” news event such as a parade, theatre premiere, etc.
Since no Gerritsen Beach meeting falls into any of this, you don’t need a credential to attend and report.)
Let’s cut through the crap – this is an outright attack on the 1st Amendment, on GerritsenBeach.net personally and an attack on Gerritsen Beach itself as a community. There are people in this community who want to be “community leaders” and do whatever the hell they want to do, and not be accountable to the community. They want to have their cake and eat it too, and without you knowing. Before blogging and citizen journalism, that was the norm. No more. You deserve to know what is happening in your community – the good and the bad – and you deserve leaders who understand what it means to truly lead. Leaders like George Broadhead, who deal openly and honestly, and don’t care who is in the room when he opens his mouth.
GBCares is giving away trees in conjunction with the MillionTreesNYC program.
Although GBCares did not respond in time for this story to go to press. According to the MillionTreeNYC Program the Trees can be planted on private properties such as front and backyards, commercial properties, community gardens and faith-based centers.
If you want to pick one up through GBCares your going to have to hurry. Send an email to Dave Stevens at: itsdave@optonline.net
There is a Gerritsen Beach Cares meeting Monday April 5th 7:00pm in the St. James basement.
Hello,
Your invited to the Annual GBC Membership meeting on April 5th (7:00 p.m.) in the basement of St. James Church.
We are asking for a leader or representative from all the organizations, sports groups or programs, schools, event organizers, scouts to attend and request any donations or support you will need in 2010.
This will be a great opportunity for our members to better understand the great programs and activities you organize and we help support. I know most of us are not thinking about the donation you will ask for months from now. But, GBC needs to make sure we have the requests in our minutes and approved by a quorum at our meeting.
If you have any questions or need additional information please call me at 646-220-8215
Thanks,
Michael Taylor
Chairman of the Board
PS. Please forward this to any leaders, volunteers, others that may be interested.
After speaking with Mr. Lawrence Majors our “newish” Parks Manager, he is new to our park but came from Sheepshead/Brighton/Coney Parks area. He stated that GerritsenBeach.net’s pictures and coverage made them aware of the situation and they plan to remove the debris.
Although as of this time, they have not physically gone back-weeds to look, they are aware of what and how much debris is back there from the pictures. They are planning to “investigate” and remove the debris after the area drys out. They will go back there with a few front end loaders and containers to remove the debris.
The investigation goes like this: When they get back there, if they can find a consistent address in the debris, they may be able to issue a summons. However, if they investigate and the person moved they are out of luck. In terms of finding these disgusting people I think our chances are low.
As for the keys…There are approximately 5 Gates that lead back weeds(not including Burnett): Channel, Soccer Field, Gotham, Cryus, Seba. Park’s Manager Lawrence Major’s plans on changing the locks and keys ASAP and to change them every so often, they have not been changed in approximately 5 years. When asked about who is in possession of the keys, so this wont happen again, only the FDNY and Park he said are in possession. It must be noted that the Vollies and the members of the GBCares board also have keys to open these gates and they should be included when the locks/keys are changed out.
As soon as the Parks Press office returns our phone calls we will be putting up more information.
Here is a letter they sent out last year which asking for donations to help them. Donations are always appreciated.
We hope that this letter finds you in good health and great spirits during if this holiday season. The holiday decorations along Gerritsen Avenue mean something different to each resident. For some. they are a great reminder that YOU are finally home at the end of a hard days work. To others. they are a reminder of the short days and long nights during this time of year and make us wish for summer. In any case. we hope that they put a smile on your face by giving you a bit of holiday cheer.
Thanks to donations from residents. local businesses. organizations and elected officials. we have decorations to install each Year. We want to give a,special thanks to everyone that helped fix and install the decorations on Gerritsen Avenue. If not for these volunteers the cost for decorating, Gerritsen Avenue would be about $10,000 a year.
The cost this year for the new decorations and other supplies will be about $2.800. We hope that YOU may consider making a donation to help cover this cost and to support the positive improvements that GB Cares continues to make for our neighborhood. Please support our community any way that you can
On Wednesday October 7th (and every first wednesday) the property owners held their meeting in the St. James basement.
It was a normal meeting nothing out of the ordinary. Except here are some things to note.
The Bantry Bar is now a cause for major concern within the community especially with the 61st who have recently visited and witnessed what the neighborhood has been telling them.
Lew Fidler is seeking community input regarding the “water park” at Seba Avenue Park (Above)
John Douglas, President of GBCares, stated that although GBcares received a letter outlining GBcares role in the community it was not signed by the parks commissioner. The GBcares board had voted that “it is not a vaild letter”. Even after the letter is signed they will be severerly limited with some of their larger projects they had planned. GBCares has been continuing with their Saturday program cleaning the avenue.
Alan Maisel spoke for some time about multiple projects…more to come on those later.
GBCares, the organization within the beach responsible for promoting and maintaining a clean environment within Gerritsen Beach, is almost back to 100%. GBCares ran into some trouble back in April when Parks ceased their operations due to a large area of woodchips.
It was not necessarily a good summer for GBCares, The entire summer went by with their alternate sentencing (Community Service) program suspended because of that the avenue in places was overgrown with weeds and to top it off their container was completely burglarized.
To make matters even worse, when our local elected officials Lew Fidler and Alan Maisel were expediting GBCares program revival, the parks manager involved in the talks was in a serious car accident halting progress for months. GBCares wanted (rightly so) everything in writing from parks outlining what they are allowed to do. They did receive a letter but it wasn’t on letter head, then another one was sent but it wasn’t signed.
As of today, GBCares has an agreement from the parks department outlining their program except for the use of heavy machinery and gas operate tools. John Douglas, President of GBCares is working on getting the use of gas powered tools back.
It also turns out that in an amazing turn of luck, an anonymous call was placed to GBCares and they were able to recover almost everything that was stolen from one of their containers.
John Douglas, President of GBCares, convinced Parks, by calling our park manager requesting them to come down and clean the avenue for the GBCares games.
Parks subsequently sent down maintenance crews for the next two days after Johns call to trim the avenue.
GBCares usually maintains Gerritsen Avenue, when parks ceased their operations a few months ago. John made the right call.
Alan Maisels office in conjunction with GBCares is holding a meeting (which anyone can attend) this Thursday 7pm at the Cort Club to discuss White Island.
They will be discussing the results of a NYC Parks report analyzing the pollution that is seeping from the original seal of white island.
Residents are concerned about the new project specifically the new recapping the island that will add additional pressure to the waste.
The Village Voice names GerritsenBeach.net as one of Gotham's best!
Brooklyn Paper names GerritsenBeach.net as one of the 11 to watch in Southern Brooklyn.
NYTimes covers GerritsenBeach.net "Raking Muck and Reaping Wrath"
Freedom of Speech Dies in Gerritsen Beach – Community Group Takes Steps to Block Out “Cameras” and “Press”
[The Whole Video]
At the recent GBPOA meeting George Broadhead, president of the GBPOA, brought up that certain people object to cameramen being present at the meeting. He described about what their board feels would be a good solution to address this concern: Splitting their meeting into a public session, where elected officials and the public can speak and the press may be present, then, after a brief intermission, a members-only meeting where a camera may not be present, and only members may speak.
This is where things got fun. John Walsh, a board member of the GBPOA, who successfully led the charge to allow 18-year olds to be voting members of the GBPOA, is apparently leading the charge specifically against GerritsenBeach.net. At first, he takes issue with the anonymous comments that the site allows stating “If you don’t have the balls to put your name to something, what do you got? You got nothing.” He goes on to to say that it is effecting the community by hurting GBCares, because “the camera’s presence” it is making people think twice about speaking openly at the meeting. He went on to explain that he and he and other members of the board will resign if something isn’t “resolved”.
He went on to quote GerritsenBeach.net
He used my quote to suggest that there needs to be some anonymity at the GBPOA public meetings.
He went on to describe that he has hired a lawyer and a private detective, all pro-bono, to find a legal means “to shut down his camera and to shut it down for good!” He went on to say “I love the work you do, there is a lot of good stuff you do.” “There is going to be things I disagree with and that’s alright – my concern is for whats going on here.”
George Broadhead, who to his credit has stuck up for freedom of the press many times, stated – in an apparent tit-for-tat, countering Mr. Walsh’s point that people are not attending the meeting because of GB.net’s presence “It does not look like people are not coming to the meetings”, referring to the size of the crowd. Broadhead said he is also against the “Anonymous people”, but “the website has the sames rights as a newspaper and also the same rights as anyone in a public meeting.”
George then knocked Walsh’s statement of hiring a private detective “doesn’t that sound like an invasion of privacy? That’s doing the same thing as knocking the 1st amendment right.”
Jane Dewitt, who is a board member of both GBCares and the GBPOA, stated that her, her husband, GBCares, and many people have been “knocked on (GB.net)”. “It’s all negative”. “I don’t read rags…to me that’s a rag, I get calls. My last call was that GBCares dumped roof shingles back weeds”
Michael Taylor, Chairman of GBCares Board, chimed in: “Yes he said it’s our fault”
The pile on continued when Mr. Taylor, Chairman of GBCares Board, asked “Does (GB.net) have press credentials, is he press? or is he just some crazy stalker that’s putting out video clips to embarrass the community.”
For the record, according to the NYPD,:
Since no Gerritsen Beach meeting falls into any of this, you don’t need a credential to attend and report.)
Let’s cut through the crap – this is an outright attack on the 1st Amendment, on GerritsenBeach.net personally and an attack on Gerritsen Beach itself as a community. There are people in this community who want to be “community leaders” and do whatever the hell they want to do, and not be accountable to the community. They want to have their cake and eat it too, and without you knowing. Before blogging and citizen journalism, that was the norm. No more. You deserve to know what is happening in your community – the good and the bad – and you deserve leaders who understand what it means to truly lead. Leaders like George Broadhead, who deal openly and honestly, and don’t care who is in the room when he opens his mouth.
These fascist attacks must not be tolerated. Let’s see what lawyers I can contact pro-bono.