GerritsenBeach.net

So we all should know by now that the Marine Park’s Field house is going to be reconstructed.

The new Marine Park Community Center will be the Parks Department’s first state-of-the-art Green Building. With solar panels, a geo-thermal heating and cooling system, and a planted roof, this building is an example of the City’s commitment to an environmentally-friendly 21 st century.

The seniors that talked to me said it took a few hours to knock down and that they were worried about asbestos floating around. Most of them said they used to remove asbestos for a living and that they saw no precautions in demolishing the building.

Obviously, if there was asbestos its to late now but its something mumbling around the bocce ball crowd.

Model Airplane Club and Dirt Bikers Contend for Use of Brooklyn Runway - NY Times

Looks like the NY Times picked up on whats going on back weeds between the RCSMP and the dirt bikes. Its an interesting read, but its nothing that I didn’t say before when I broke the story.

In response there was a stepped up effort to catch quads this past weekend back weeds but…

Lets just say this, all of the “locals” walked away, then within minutes got their quads at another location only to return to taunt the park rangers by playing chicken and buzzing them on their quads. While a family of non local people all got summonsed at the point for their quads. To the taunters: doing what you did will only bring more enforcement down here and more than likely someone will end up hurt.

Now I know of the parks department reads this site and I will say that understand that after the NY Times article that there had to be some sort of stepped up enforcement or something to show on paper that you gave out a summons, but do you/they have to are stupid about how you/they go about it?

Just a couple of things I noticed this last weekend with the enforcement.

The park rangers drive recklessly on the avenue & back weeds in their jeeps on the trails. Next time I post video of the stunts. They were also warning people about vehicles on the field while driving on the field.

They blocked the exit at Seba Avenue Park to block escape of whomever but they were ONLY blocking family’s with carriages and small kids. They wouldn’t move for anyone, 4 families had to lift every kid they had with carriages. I guess because there was a camera pointed at them they decided to help the last family lift a carriage over the rail. It would of been easier to move the idling jeep.

Every single one of them is on a mini power trip. Does anyone remember “Excuse Me You Can’t Take Pictures of Officers Doing Their Jobs“?

Oh, nice hiding spot. You do know that everyone has a cell phone and they knew where you were?

Flood Watch - Be Prepared

UPDATED 4:10 p.m. Friday: Rain from the outer fringes of Tropical Storm Hana is expected to hit Brooklyn, NY tonight. It will continue to be rainy and windy (15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph) during the day Saturday, with highs in the upper 70s.

The wind will get stronger in the afternoon and into the evening — 25 - 35 mph with gusts up to 45 (remove small items from balconies). According to Weather Underground, very heavy rainfall is likely and may result in flooding. The rain should stop by noon Sunday

== ORIGINAL POST==

DEP is anticipating that tomorrows storm will overflow and cause flooding in the Sheepshead Bay and in the Gerritsen Beach Area.

DEP is clearing catch basins in preparation for the storm water but they are asking for your help to sweep the areas around the catch basins and sewers, making sure they are clear.

Catch basins are the drains at the end of the dead ends.

Also a few other tips:
Keep driveways clear, If you have a pump make sure its working, do not use a washing machine or dish washer, secure items in yards.

Also watch out for the high tides:

Saturday

High 12:45 AM - 4.1ft
Low 6:15 AM - 1.1 ft
High 1:11 PM - 4.8 ft
Low 7:18 PM - 1.3 ft

Sunday

High 1:35 AM - 3.9 ft
Low 7:05 AM - 1.4
High 1:59 PM - 4.6 ft
Low 8:24 PM - 1.4

HEAVY RAIN ASSOCIATED WITH THIS TROPICAL STORM WILL SPREAD WELL
AHEAD OF THE MAIN LOW LATE TONIGHT INTO SATURDAY NIGHT… WITH
THE HEAVIEST RAIN EXPECTED SATURDAY INTO SATURDAY NIGHT.

TROPICAL STORM HANNA IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE ANYWHERE BETWEEN 3
TO 6 INCHES OF RAIN WITH SOME POSSIBLE HIGHER AMOUNTS ACROSS THE
WATCH AREA. THESE RAINFALL TOTALS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE
FLOODING ACROSS HIGHLY URBANIZED AND POOR DRAINAGE AREAS AND
CAUSE SMALL STREAMS AND CREEKS TO FLOW OUT OF THEIR BANKS.
A FLOOD WATCH MEANS THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR FLOODING BASED ON
CURRENT FORECASTS.

FLASH FLOODING OFTEN LEADS TO IMPASSABLE ROADWAYS. MOTORISTS THAT
ATTEMPT TO CROSS FLOODED ROADWAYS BUT THEIR LIVES IN DANGER AND
CAN CAUSE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS OF DAMAGE TO THEIR VEHICLES DUE TO
WATER ENTERING THE ENGINE AND VEHICLE.

YOU SHOULD MONITOR LATER FORECASTS AND BE ALERT FOR POSSIBLE
FLOOD WARNINGS. THOSE LIVING IN AREAS PRONE TO FLOODING SHOULD BE
PREPARED TO TAKE ACTION SHOULD FLOODING DEVELOP.

Check out:

• New York Weather Alerts Weather.gov
• New York City’s storm and hurricane guide
• National Weather Service - Brooklyn, NY

Here are the local meetings that are coming up. The Sheepshead Bay Plumb Beach Civic Association has invited STEPHEN JEMAL of SSJ Development to discuss his development on Knapp St. That should be an interesting meeting if he shows up. I should go and meet him.

• Sheepshead Bay Plumb Beach Civic Association, September 2 at 7:30 pm.; Baron DeKalb, Knights of Columbus, 3000 Emmons Avenue; 718-891-1937. www.sbpbcivic.org.

• Gerritsen Beach Property Owners Association, September 3 (and each fIrst Wednesday) at 7:30 pm.; St. James Lutheran Church, Gerritsen and Florence avenues; 718-648-6599.

• Manhattan Beach Neighborhood Association, September 8 at 8 p.m.; Public School 195, 131 lrwin Street; representatives from the Office of Emergency Management will talk about hurricane preparedness; 917-747-5863.

• 61st Precinct Community Council, September 10 at 7:30 pm.; Bainbridge Adult Day Health Care Center, 3093 Ocean Avenue; 718-627-6847.

• Community Board 15, September’ 23 at 7 p.m.; Zoning Meeting September 16 at 7 p.m. Kingsborough Community College, 2001 Oriental Boulevard (in the faculty dining room) ; 718-332-3008

Most of the trees in the New Section on the avenue got trimmed this morning. It looks very good.

News from SBPBCivic.org

The Brigham Street Park Project is proud to announce that Assemblyman Alan Maisel (D- Brooklyn) has generously contributed $50,000.00 in capital project funds towards building a new park at Brigham Street. This contribution is the first monetary contribution to the Project, which will be finalizing its design concept by the beginning of September.

“When this Project was looking for a direction, Assemblyman Maisel was the only elected official that publicly supported us,” said Gene Berardelli, the community coordinator of the Project. “I’m proud to be represented by him, and even prouder to see that he has stepped up to the forefront of the Project once again.”

“We are delighted to work with Assemblyman Maisel on Brigham Park and look forward to a successful project that will have a lasting impact as a waterfront amenity for residents of Sheepshead Bay and all New Yorkers.”, said Christian DiPalermo, Executive Director of New Yorkers For Parks.

The Project will use this money for the pre-construction / soft construction costs, including approximately $40,000 for design development and construction documents, and approximately $10,000 for final design development and schematic designs.

“I am very pleased to be part of this great effort to bring a badly needed park to the residents of Plumb Beach.”,, said Assemblyman Alan Maisel.

The final community meeting for the Brigham Street Park Project’s design phase will be on Wednesday, August 13th at 7:00 PM at The Golden Gate Inn where another round of designs for the Brigham Street Park will be exhibited for comment.

Jet Ski In Gerritsen Beach from Gerritsen Beach on Vimeo.

I’m not going to say I warned you, but I did. Unless you want your picture taken, people have to be careful not to speed in the the area of the creek that a speed limit a no wake zone exist. NYPD harbor is making sure to patrol our area.

Take this as your another warning, DO NOT LAUNCH JET SKIS from the point.

It appears as though this pair of jet skiers were receiving a summons for speeding.

Seba Avenue skate park has been fixed up, but for how long?

It looks as though on or around Thursday, July 24th, Seba Avenue Park was cleaned up by the Parks Department. Litter was removed and the graffiti was covered. That’s it. Thanks.

According to local skaters the park is falling apart. They absolutely hate the broken glass everywhere and usually clean it up themselves. The park has other problems, like major flooding and the “quarter bowl” (showed above) is slowly chipping away. The skaters also said they did everything they could possibly do with tricks in a month.

They also seem pretty annoyed that they only got half a skate park.

Beach Water quality raises red flags - News 12

I just found a News 12 article specifically talking about Kiddie Beach and the recent report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The only problem is that everything in the report is wrong!

First off, they didn’t even get the name of the organization that released the report correct. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released the report, they incorrectly have it as the “Natural Resource Council”. It isn’t a big deal but it’s a sign of things to come and I’m sure the NRDC wouldn’t be too happy about giving a fictitious group credit for their report.

“News” 12 goes on to say that Kiddie Beach was shut down over 40 times due to “pollution”.

Kiddie Beach was never shut down over “pollution”. In fact the Department of Health did not close ANY of the beaches due to water quality in 2007.

Why is news 12 making up facts?

The facts are that Kiddie Beach is automatically issued a preemptive wet weather advisory after a rainfall of 0.2 inch per 2 hours or 0.4 inch per 24 hours. The rainwater all over the city runs off or is dumped into area water ways by millions of gallons.

These are the only reasons a beach can be closed.

1. Confirmed samples show that bathing beach water quality exceeds the following water quality standard for marine water beaches: Enterococci geometric mean shall not exceed 35 Colony Forming Units (CFU) per 100 ml for a series of five or more samples collected during a 30-day period.
2. Epidemiological data indicates a significant incidence of related illnesses or repeated complaints/reports of illness/injury received from beach patrons.
3. Sanitary and Safety Survey/Investigation: A sanitary and safety survey or an investigation reveals the presence of potentially hazardous amounts of floatable debris, medical/infectious waste, toxic contaminants, petroleum products or other contamination on the beach, or there is evidence of sewage and wastewater discharge in sufficient quantities that will adversely affect the quality of the beach water.
4. Any other environmental factors determined to be a public health or safety hazard by the NYCDOHMH.

Maybe writing and filiming stories in their cars without any research is a problem.

The water quality at New York State’s beaches is getting worse, according to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The number of water samples taken at coastal and Great Lakes beaches that exceeded state standards for bacteria reached 11 percent in 2007, up from 9 percent in 2006. New York ranks eighth worse (out of 30 coastal states ) in terms of the percent of water samples taken at beaches that exceeded health standards. And it seems New York may have snagged the council’s prize for least forthcoming state.

On that measure, at least, the city does better by providing lots of data. And the environmental group’s report applauded the city’s monitoring of its beaches and its method of issuing advisories. But in describing the city’s pollution of its water, the report paints a sickening picture (particularly if you’ve been at the beach recently) of a witch’s brew of stormwater and sewage flowing into the sound and the ocean.

Despite that, the city’s beaches are cleaner than some of those on Long Island or along the Great Lakes.

As in previous years, the private Douglas Manor Beach was the city’s dirtiest by the report’s measure, with 20 percent of its samples exceeding standards. It was followed by Gerritsen/Kiddie where 14 percent of the sample did not meet health standards.

No city beaches ranked among New York’s worst. Fully 44 percent of the samples taken at the foulest beach — Suffolk’s County’s Tanner Park — exceeded state standards for bacteria. Next was Wright Park West in Chautauqua at 38 percent, Ontario Beach in Monroe (37 percent), Venetian Shores in Suffolk (33 percent), and Hamburg Bathing Beach and Woodlawn Beach-Woodlawn Beach State Park in Erie (both at 31 percent).

Kiddie/Gerritsen: threshold levels of 0.2 inch per 2 hours or 0.4 inch per 24 hours (advisory duration is 72 hours).