SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Your kids can have a little fun at the library that doesn’t involve books. This Thursday, December 17, 2009, there will be an arts and crafts session at the Homecrest branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.

Here are the details as we received them from the Media-Newswire:

Holiday Arts & Crafts for Kids
Brooklyn Public Library’s Homecrest branch, 2525 Coney Island Avenue, Brooklyn. Thursday, December 17, 4:00 PM. FREE

Call the library, which is located between Gravesend Neck Road and Avenue V, for details: (718) 382-5924

Photo courtesy of "Beauty Playin 'Eh" via Flickr

With an estimated 200,000 New Yorkers on bikes each day, the city is rapidly becoming a two-wheel mecca. The 650 miles of bike lanes in the city – which may jump to 1,800 in coming years – were recently rated by the Daily News. The paper tasked its reporters with talking to biking advocates, shop owners, and bikers around the city to spotlight the best paths around.

And it’s (semi-)official – they found that the Shore Parkway Greenway offers the best water views in the five boroughs. The seven-mile path runs along Jamaica Bay to the Verrazano Bridge. Beginning in Queens, it winds through Plumb Beach in Sheepshead Bay, offers sterling views of the city’s wildlife reserve, and goes all the way down to the most beautiful bridge in the tristate area (yeah, I said it. Too bad, Brooklyn Bridge). The honor just goes to reinforce how important it is to get the bike path at Plumb Beach restored after suffering damage from Hurricane Ida, which shut down a quarter-mile of the route.

Millenium Development has planned “Active Aging Activities” all this week in honor of International Active Aging Week 2009.

The events listed in the colorful brochure run the gamut from Yoga to Knitting — happening all day around Brooklyn and Queens in parks, community centers, and gyms. The brochure does not make it clear whether the events are free or part of an organized event for paying members. One thing is certain: if you are anywhere near Southern Brooklyn this week, you are sure to encounter some Active Adults doing something fun — whether it be playing in a WII Tournament or Dancing Under the Stars.

This event is running from Monday, September 21, 2009 to Friday, September 25, 2009 and events usually begin at 9 a.m. and continue until late afternoon or evening. There are so many events and so many venues, that you will need to check the brochure or call the organizers for more information.

Millenium Development
Active Aging Hotline (718) 444-0101 Ext. 10
E-mail: ActiveAging@mildev.org
Website with link to full brochure: www.MillDev.org

Events scheduled: Yoga; Billiards; Blood Pressure Screening; Stretch Band Exercising; Exercise in Dance; Healthy Baking; Chair Yoga; Meditation; Wii Bowling/Exercise Class; Staywell Exercise; Silver Sneakers Cardio Circuit; Bridge Tournament; Computer Instruction; Photography; Fitness Walk; Tennis; Puzzlemania; Dancing Under the Stars; Aerobics; Mah-Johng; and more.

A few weeks ago we told you about the Waterpod, a sea-based experiment in sustainable living. Back then, the Waterpod had just sailed in to Sheepshead Bay. It was new – one of its first stops – and we were wide-eyed with excitement over a cool eco-project in our bay.

Well, it turns out living the green-life aquatic is harder than the four crew members imagined.

“It’s been a lot more work than any of us have expected,” Alison Ward, one of the crew who’s been on the boat about six weeks and plans to stay at sea until October, told the Daily News. “I kind of thought we’d just be able to float around.”

According to the article, the Waterpod has been beset by heavy downpours, algae explosions, bugs and – would you believe it? – waves.

To be honest, we’re not all that surprised. Living on the water is rough. And living sustainably is rough. So who woulda thunk putting those two together would’ve been a bitch?

The Daily News says the crew’s chief objective is to get New Yorkers thinking. Well, it’s got me thinking about how, when the destructive edge of climate change sets in, or when zombies take over our inner-cities, I’m not heading to the waves – I’m heading to the hills.

Thanks, Waterpod. In case I wasn’t sure about who to follow when the world begins to fall apart, I now know, I’ll follow the soldiers and the survivalists. Not the artists.

You’d better hurry, though, because just as quickly as it sailed in, it will sail out.*

The Waterpod Project, based out of New York, is a self-sustaining floating home to four artists, a few chickens, and a large array of vegetables. The barge, made from recycled and reused materials found around New York, was built as a collaborative effort by a multinational team of very innovative people in an effort to transform the way we think about living “off the land”, so to speak.

And living “off” land is what this team of artists plans on doing when they are not visiting the shore. They have everything they need for survival on the barge: food, water, power, and waste treatment.

While the facilities are spartan, they meet the needs of the inhabitants sufficiently. When we visited them at their humble abode moored in Sheepshead Bay, they were quite content preparing a snack in the open air kitchen.

With the wide variety of fresh vegetables growing in their various tiers, as well as the eggs supplied by the chickens, the peas in the pod seem to be quite satisfied nutritionally.

They asked us for nothing other than we should let everyone know that their Waterpod will be at Pier 2 (Bedford Ave & Emmons Ave) in Sheepshead Bay until July 5, 2009. And oh, if you should have any extra eggshells that would be welcome, too. The chickens on board will thank you.

There is no admission price, but donations to support the project are welcomed. You can visit the self-sustaining home from Wednesdays to Sundays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Check the Waterpod website for full details and open hours. Get to know three ofthe residents before you enter their living room garden, Mary Mattingly, Eve Tremblay, and Mira Hunter and their artistic expressions at the website.

*Technically, the barge doesn’t have any sails and was pulled in by a tugboat from the Weeks Marine Transportation, Inc. as a donated service.

Kingsborough Community College invites everyone to Hot Summer Nights!

The Free Concerts at Kingsborough 2009 series is listed on the website as follows (with some added links):

PATRIOTIC POPS
BROOKLYN COMMUNITY WIND ENSEMBLE & CONCERT BAND
SUNDAY JULY 5 – 7:30PM

Continue Reading »

Senator Charles Schumer, a Park Slope resident, wrote an article for Huffington Post about his life-long love affair with biking through our borough.

Starting in Brighton Beach and riding north through Brooklyn, always reminds me what makes this borough so special. As I watch the neighborhood go from predominantly Russian, through a veritable rainbow of ethnicities, to Polish in Greenpoint and the northern tip of Brooklyn, I feel like I’ve been around the world.

But this journey is not one that can be undertaken in a car – you’d miss the details, the human scale, and the pace of life as you fly by. Even walking won’t do – you won’t be able to cover nearly enough ground. To really get to know New York, you’ve got to ride a bicycle.

He mentions the tasty joints where he likes to end his rides, as well as how biking gives him the opportunity to interact with his constituents and see the development – “our inner city neighborhoods come back”. We hope he takes a few rides through Sheepshead Bay and witnesses what development has done here – the good and the bad.

If you feel like reading the good senator’s musings – and perhaps reading the pages of comments ripping him a new one for biking and not working on healthcare reform – check it out here.

This comes to us from the Deep Creek Yacht Club:

The Deep Creek Yacht Club will attend the 6th annual raft-up in Dead Horse Bay in Brooklyn, NY on Saturday, June 20th and celebrate Sailstice 2009. The raft up forms at 2pm and is open to all SAIL and POWER boats. Share food and drink with your fellow boaters and “ring in” the summer solstice at the 4pm Bells & Whistles celebration. Pot Luck dinner after the celebration:

BELLS & WHISTLES CELEBRATION.

This is New York event of the international celebration of the summer sailing and boating season. By signing up at www.summersailstice.com you will be eligible for prizes ranging from West Marine gift certificates to Caribbean vacations. It’s all free and all boaters are welcome. All boats participating will receive a free memento of the day from the Deep Creek Yacht Club.

Bring friends and family for this unique way to start the summer fun.

Please see the Summer Sailstice and Deep Creek Yacht Club websites for disclaimer and VHF, MMSI, and Cell phone number.

When we stopped by last Friday evening to see how Rockin’ Ray’s H.O.N.K. program was managing, we found the mood festive.

It was pool night, so the group was not boxing and sparring. Instead, they were enjoying the time shooting some pool and having a couple of laughs.

Ray Fiore said that although his efforts to raise money to keep the program running have been highly unsuccessful, they still have a little time left in the building. That is, until the landlord goes through the usual process of clearing out the tenants.

In the meantime, Rockin’ Ray will keep smiling and hoping for the best. If you have nothing to do tonight and happen to have a couple thousand extra in your checking account, why not go shoot some pool?

(Please excuse the blurry picture, that guy’s like an Energizer Bunny…so hard to get him to stay still.)

Rockin’ Ray’s Boxing Club
2460 East 17 Street
between Avenues X & Y
Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn

Sheepshead Bay residents, we need your help! A local blog/email/thing is cobbling together a list of ways to have fun on the cheap in Brooklyn. We want to make sure Sheepshead Bay gets on that list, but tomorrow is the deadline!

BrooklynBased.net, a self-styled “bleemail” (cross between a blog and an email) about upcoming Brooklyn events, is reaching out to bloggers and community members across the borough. They’re putting together a list of fun, cheap activities in Brooklyn to help residents have an… um… enjoyable recession.

Here – they say it better:

When Park Slope writer Lisa Selin Davis asked friends to contribute to her Facebook list of fun, cheap stuff to do in NYC, it inspired a lot of Brooklyn-centric deals (like the $6.50 Tuesday and Thursday movies at Cobble Hill Cinemas and free shows at BAMcafé). So we decided to steal her idea (thanks Lisa!) and start a list just for our home turf. BB contributors and Brooklyn bloggers like FIPS and Reclaimed Home got the ball rolling. Now it’s your turn — add your ideas to the list below, and pass it on. We’re aiming for 100 cool ways to spend time (and little money) in Brooklyn by the end of the week.

When I saw this I was tempted to cobble together a few fun activities here in the Bay. Heading out on the Brooklyn VII for a day of fishing, bike riding the Plum Beach trail to the Rockaways, eating Russian street food, or getting a free sailing class at the Miramar. But before we send over our list, we want you to add your ideas in the comments section below. Then we’ll put together the whole best of list and send it over to BrooklynBased.net in the morning.

So, Sheepshead Bay, what ya’ got?