Plumb Beach is named as it is because of the beach plumbs that grow there, ripening in August. But we’re wondering if it should be named after another kind of vegetation growing wild there. Just check out the photo (one of several), taken by a reader walking along the paths:
Last year, reader complaints hit such a fever pitch that we wrote a feature on city programs to remove poison ivy. Well, it’s that time of year again, and we’re hoping to head off problems as the three-leafed menace starts taking root in public places.
So remember: if you see three-leafed vines growing in public parks, on school property, on trees along the sidewalk – call 311 and inform your city councilman. Poison ivy is more than a nuisance, it can cause serious injury and potentially death.
These two make me feel like I’m thinking, even though I’m not. Believe me, I’m definitely not thinking.
Snapped by freelance photographer Darius Vick, and he has a couple more Plumb Beach photos here. You can find out more about him and his work by visiting his website.
A former NYPD detective is battling charges that he publicly fondled himself on Plumb Beach last August, saying there was no way the arresting officer could have seen him since bushes were in the way, and – hey – he was peeing anyway.
Retired Detective Joseph Tesoriere was arrested after he allegedly requested an undercover Parks Service cop join him in the bushes where he fondled himself.
But during trial, his lawyer argues it wasn’t lewdness because – like Adam in the Garden of Eden – the bushes blocked the public from viewing his junk.
According to the NY Post, his lawyer, Robert Feldman, argued in court papers, “It is impossible to perform a visible lewd act when the lower body is obscured by August vegetation.”
The lawyer also said the cop couldn’t identify the wang in a lineup if he had tried, and had lied during testimony.
“The officer perjured himself,” Feldman said. “He couldn’t testify how long it was. He couldn’t testify how big his penis is.”
Of course, Tesoriere was only peeing, according to his lawyer.
Humor aside, if a judge and jury actually buy this nonsense, it’ll clear the way for scores of people to hump in the Plumb Beach bushes – so long as their shielded from the public’s view by some shrubs.
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.”
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 »
On Saturday, October 24, the NYC Audubon Butterfly and Bird Walk at Plumb Beach is kicking off at the Plumb Beach Round House off the Belt Parkway. Show up at 9:30 a.m. to see some of the birds and bugs in Jamaica Bay, one of New York City’s only federally protected nature reserves. The walk is free and ends at 1:00 p.m. Call NYC Audubon to reserve at (212) 691-7483.
(Photo courtesy of Tom Turner via Flickr)
Nearly a year after initial designs were unveiled for the Brigham Street Park and news of the project teetered off, the little park we’re all hoping for is back. Councilman Lew Fidler has given it new life with an injection of $400,000 of capital funds, and Borough President Marty Markowitz is kicking in an additional $100,000.
The funds will be used by the Parks Department to conduct soil testing and begin reworking the designs. “This money will begin to get us answers to turn a concept into a reality,” Fidler told Sheepshead Bites.
But the money is also creating a bit of the political surreal and stirring up serious questions about the park’s future. You see, the park initiative is spearheaded by Fidler’s electoral challenger, Gene Berardelli of the Sheepshead Bay/Plumb Beach Civic Association. And as the money funnels in they’re both using the park to pump up their campaigns, leaving us wondering what really will happen to the park after the election. Continue Reading »
Beachcombers who like to take an evening sandy stroll are invited to look for Horseshoe crabs spawning on our shores.
You can volunteer as little as two hours of your time, starting May 22 (that’s this Friday!) and your research will help our environment. You can go to the movies and see them play-mating on the silver screen or you head out to the beach and watch some real live action in the name of science. Except in this case, you will have to record your observations on a form.
The Sheepshead Bay/Plumb Beach Civic Association informed us about this program. Here is information from the NYC Audubon – IWASH site about organizations credited for the program’s development:
IWASH, which stands for Improving Wetland Accessibility for Shorebirds and Horseshoe crabs. IWASH is a large project involving multiple partners (including the American Littoral Society, Jamaica Bay EcoWatchers, NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, NYC Department of Environmental Protection, NY State Department of Environmental Conservation and the National Park Service) that is funded by a Together Green Innovation Grant from National Audubon and Toyota.
Who to contact:
Use the “Contact Us” page on the SB/PBCA website
or
send e-mail to John Rowden at NYC Audubon.
New researchers, just getting their feet wet, might find useful information about Horseshoe Crabs at the following:
Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce
The Ecological Research & Development Group (ERDG)
(Photo courtesy of ERDG website and Frans Lanting)
