SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Oh, you’ve never heard of Dead Horse Bay? The old mill area, turned manufacturing zone (of fertilizer, created from dead animals), turned landfill, turned nature preserve – sits alongside Floyd Bennett Field by the entrance to Gerritsen Inlet. It’s rich with history, and perhaps richer with filth and pollution.

It’s the former that drew musician and photographer “chvad” to tour the area, but it’s the latter that most impressed him. He wrote, “This place and the surrounding areas don’t seem anything at all like Brooklyn. Not a lot of people and lot of vegetation. Also, an enormous amount of pollution on the shores. Some parts of the beach seemed to primarily be made of glass. If those aren’t reason enough to be careful, the beach also had it’s share of needles washed ashore.”

His slideshow, above, captures a lot of that grit and filth, yet in a hauntingly beautiful way. Check out his site to find more photos and learn about his music.

Secretary of Interior Kenneth Salazar called Jamaica Bay “one of the great urban parks of America,” but asked caretakers to think creatively about the parkland’s future.

Salazar made the statements during a July 26 harbor summit, hosted by National Parks Service and the Harbor Conservancy. Regional leaders gathered to discuss how government, nonprofit and industry can work together to achieve the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Hudson-Raritan Estuary Comprehensive Restoration Plan, which includes Jamaica Bay.

“I believe that America is at a time when we can embark and embrace a new agenda for conservation for America,” Salazar told the audince. “And I think that here in New York and New York Harbor we can move forward and create what will be a star relative to the great urban parks of America in the 21st century. I think the assets are here, I think the vision is here I think the New York Harbor Conservancy has done a lot to move us all forward.”

Keep reading about Salazar’s statements.

From TimesNewsweekly.com:

An agreement to improve the overall water quality and mitigate marshland loss in Jamaica Bay through a total of $115 million in new investments was announced last Thursday, Feb. 25 by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis, Deputy Mayor for Operations Edward Skyler, Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Cas Holloway and Natural Resources Defense Council Executive Director Peter Lehner.

The city will dedicate $100 million to installing new nitrogen control technologies at wastewater treatment plants located on Jamaica Bay. These investments, made in concert with $95 million the city already has committed for nitrogen control upgrades, aim to reduce the nitrogen loads discharged into Jamaica Bay by nearly 50 percent over the next ten years.

The city also will invest $15 milstruction lion [sic] for marshland restoration projects around the bay. As part of the agreement, the DEC will exempt the city from $45 million in potential penalties for construction delays in nitrogen upgrades at other wastewater treatment plants and those dollars will be invested in future clean water projects.

“Jamaica Bay is without question one of the most bountiful wildlife habitats in the entire Northeast,” said Bloomberg. “It is important to the people who live in the area for its rich biodiversity, the recreation it offers, and the protection the marshlands provide from flooding. This agreement is an outstanding example of government and citizens’ groups working together to meet a major goal of our sweeping PlaNYC agenda: improving the quality of waterways around the city.”

Read the full article.

In comments to Courier-Life reporters, a spokesperson for Gateway National Park said that the United Stated Park Police did not arrest anywhere near the number alleged by a law student working on the case. According to the student’s allegations, 76 arrests were made on Plumb Beach in August 2009 as part of sting operations to net perpetrators of supposed illicit sexual behavior. But reports in GerritsenBeach.net and from Gene Berardelli during a Sheepshead Bay/Plumb Beach Civic Association meeting suggested that the stings became increasingly messy with fishermen and others being swept up. According to a Courier-Life report, only around 17 arrests were made by the Park Police during August in plainclothes operations. “They (USPP) do standard undercover operations, but there was no massive stings or anything like that,” Gateway National Park spokesperson Jane Ahern told Courier-Life. “We do close the rest area at 10 p.m. and open at 6 a.m., and everybody after those hours would be loitering, but there was no sting operation.”

GerritsenBeach.net is reporting that there were approximately 80 arrests in August 2009 at Plumb Beach as part of an undercover sting operation. Agents of the National Parks Service charged suspects with sex-related crimes, including propositioning or “in the act.” The number of arrests is higher than any whole year in the National Parks’ history at Plumb Beach

We’re told by sources that the arrests were made as part of an operation spearheaded by a new unit commander who sought to halt anonymous homosexual meetups at Plumb Beach. We’re told that the operation “got sloppy,” and fishermen and other innocent visitors to the beach were snared in broad roundups by the National Parks patrols.

GerritsenBeach.net writes, “The arrests may have something to do with the threat that the National Parks Service would lose its funding in our area. So to justify their existence they arrested more people in on month than they did all of the previous year.”

Many of those captured paid fines and/or accepted deals, while others are currently defending themselves in court.

Gene Berardelli told us the topic will be discussed at tonight’s Sheepshead Bay/Plumb Beach Civic Assocation meeting. We’ll inform your as more information becomes available.

The proposed overhaul of Paerdegat Basin Bridge includes building two new structures
and demolishing the existing bridge

At 10:00 p.m. tonight, Department of Transportation workers will shut down lanes in both directions of the Belt Parkway, moving forward with a seven-year renovation plan of the highway’s bridges and overpasses.

The first lane closures will occur between the Fresh Creek and the Paerdegat Bridges. The closures – which occur during nights, weekends, and non-rush hour afternoons – are required for the installation of temporary concrete barriers, lighting, and paving and the removal of existing lighting systems and median guiderail. The expected duration of this phase of work is 6 to 8 weeks.

Continue reading to see the schedule of lane closures and find out more about DOT’s plans.

The silver lining in the recent devastation of Plumb Beach is that community leaders, and city, state, and federal agencies are finally considering long term solutions to erosion issues at Plumb Beach.

Congressman Anthony Weiner once again brought together officials from Department of Transportation, Parks Department, National Parks Service, Community Board 15, and Sheepshead Bay/Plumb Beach Civic on Tuesday, December 1, to survey erosion’s threat to the important ecological zone and the Belt Parkway.

After surveying the damage, all came to a consensus: more needs to be done to protect the beach and highway. Continue Reading »

The devastation caused to Plumb Beach this weekend by the remnants of Hurricane Ida was “No surprise,” according to members of Sheepshead Bay/Plumb Beach Civic Association and experts. As recently as January, officials from the community, city, state, and federal agencies convened at the Plumb Beach bathhouse to discuss protection of the increasingly dangerous bike path and the threatened Belt Parkway. The problem is greater, though, affecting the ecology and wildlife of the entire area.

The meeting, called by Congressman Anthony Weiner to survey nature’s threat, ended with calls for solutions. At the time, the surging waters appeared to be passing underneath the bike path. Water soaked the grass adjacent to the highway, suggesting that erosion was occurring beneath the Belt Parkway as well, undermining its stability. While SBPB Civic proposed a plan to shore up the coast and add more sand and rocks underneath the bike path to strengthen it, nothing has happened. Continue Reading »

This weekend’s storms sparked by Hurricane Ida battered the Plumb Beach coastline, leaving a trail of destruction and providing fuel for a new wave of jurisdictional battles between NYC Parks Department and the U.S. National Parks Service.

The tale of devastation was drawn in the sand, as rubble from the bike path dotted the shore, carving lines to the water. Trees lay like fallen solders, their sides partially submerged and their roots reaching into the air. The water clawed sand out from under roots and rock, leaving everything without ground to stand on. In all, as the hurricane swept up the northeastern coast, it pushed back Plumb Beach’s protective break-line several feet, felling dozens of trees, and crumbling about 100 yards of the bike path. Continue Reading »

It was ten years ago that scientists began to take note of Jamaica Bay’s rapidly deteriorating marshes, and earlier this year that Congressman Anthony Weiner proclaimed a four point plan to target the culprit: nitrogen. While small projects have come and gone to shore up the city’s most important ecological treasure, which includes Plumb Beach and Gateway National Park, they proved to be akin to putting a band-aid on a late stage Ebola victim. Well, Ebola-infected Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, get ready for your cast!

The United States Army Corps of Engineers announced last week that it will partner with several agencies to help restore the dying salt marshes. The marshes starting shrinking by more than 44 acres a year, according to a study done in 2001. At the time, scientists predicted it would be gone in 20 years, and with it the fish, shellfish, birds, and plants that make the most unique and important ecosystem in the northeastern coastline. The marshes help improve water quality by removing nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphates. That is, unless it overdoses on those ingredients

And it has. More than 250 million gallons of “treated” shit, piss, and children’s dead goldfish pour into Jamaica Bay each day from four wastewater treatment facilities. The nitrogen buildup proved to be too much for the marshes, and like a heroin addict with too much smack, they’re withering away.

That’s why in November the Corps of Engineers (Earth), Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Fire), the U.S. National Park Service (Wind), the State of New York Department of Environmental Conservation (Water), and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (Heart) have combined their powers to dump 200,000 cubic yards of clean sand (Captain Planet) into our Bay. The project aims to restore about 35 acres of low and high marsh habitat in Jamaica Bay, at a cost of $11.5 million.

This is a good thing, right? We think so, but we still can’t shake the idea that this is just a larger, more expensive band-aid on that heroin-addicted Ebola victim. Afterall, if the marshes are declining by 44 acres each year, how the hell will 35 acres and $11.5 million change the situation?