Though the city says the bike path is complete, bikers now ride on the Belt Parkway because the path is unusable.
In addition to the statements Congressman Anthony Weiner gave, there were two things worth noting on Plumb Beach yesterday, both of which indicate the city is ignoring problems in the area and creating a dangerous situation.
First is that the Parks Department has declared reconstruction work on the Plumb Beach bike path complete. However, any visitor would agree that it’s hardly the case.
Kathy Flynn, SBPB Civic President, with Rep. Anthony Weiner
The ocean is more than just a neighbor to residents of waterfront Brooklyn and Queens, it’s a threat. And one that needs to be taken seriously.
Congressman Anthony Weiner gathered local leaders and the press on what remains of the sands along the Belt Parkway this afternoon to deliver that message to city and state authorities, and urge preparedness in the face of Hurricane Earl. Currently a category 4 storm, Earl is positioned to sweep across the Eastern coast this week.
She’s no traitor, and her only aim is to serve the community.
That was the message Community Board 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo gave in a heated statement to the Manhattan Beach Community Group at the civic’s meeting on Wednesday night.
“I represent the community,” Scavo said in an interview the next day. “I don’t represent the Manhattan Beach Neighborhood Association or the Manhattan Beach Community Group. Just Manhattan Beach, not either group.”
Scavo said she was responding to insinuations within the community that she was playing politics with the neighborhood’s fractious civic associations, which have been feuding for nearly three years.
The Manhattan Beach Neighborhood Association revealed a laundry list of traffic safety proposals at their meeting last night, and lambasted their rival community group’s efforts for “patting themselves on the back.”
Executive members of MBNA and Community Board 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo met with representatives of Public Advocate Bill de Blasio’s office on Thursday, July 29, to present their ideas. According to the group, the advocate’s office gave a warm reception to the suggestion and is now issuing letters to relevant agencies to spur action.
“I’ve got to say the Public Advocate’s representatives were extremely attentive,” said Scavo. “They questioned why DOT, why Parks, why [there hasn't been] reception from these various agencies.”
MBNA President Alan Ditchek is optimistic about the plan.
“[These are] very good ideas and certainly will go a long way to rectifying the situation in Manhattan Beach that’s happened here over the last few years,” said Ditchek. “I think we’ve got a very good list compiled and if we implement just some of these things we will certainly see safer streets.”
Now that the Sanitation Department has admitted they don’t care about our streets, we need to begin considering creative solutions to the ever-worsening garbage issue in Sheepshead Bay. Last week, I wrote to Community Board 15 Chair Theresa Scavo:
What would it take to get rid of the public trash cans in the neighborhood, as they’re trying to do elsewhere? Is there a way we can do a trial period (so we can get the cans back if we want them)?
My thinking was that we could try the tactic being used in Community Board 11, which covers Bath Beach, Gravesend and Bensonhurst. In those neighborhoods, the Board asked the city to remove all the cans, and they say the garbage was gone after a few weeks. I’ve asked before if this is a smart idea, since we have some unique issues regarding illegal dumping and commuters. But still, something needs to be done, and, well, there is a logic to the idea that if you don’t have trash cans, they can’t overflow (and residents can’t put their home garbage there).
In a historic operation lasting more than five hours, three New York City agencies coordinated to remove a sunken boat from frigid Sheepshead Bay waters.
Department of Sanitation’s Derelict Vehicles Operations Unit, NYPD’s Harbor Unit and Scuba Team, and the Parks Department converged near the Ocean Avenue footbridge at 8 a.m. today, marking the first time any of these city agencies were involved in the removal of a submerged boat.
The 30-foot sailboat had sat in Sheepshead Bay’s waters for two months, since the March 13 storm that ripped nearly a dozen vessels from their moorings. All but three of the other boats have been removed by private towing companies. The Sanitation Department and NYPD units will return to remove the other two boats, which are near the Holocaust Memorial Park.
That's pretty. (Photo courtesy of Atomische • Tom Giebel via Flickr)
It’s no secret that parking is a huge problem along Kings Highway, but adding bicycle stations around the avenue is a wasteful solution, according to Community Board 15 Chair Theresa Scavo.
The Department of Transportation is proposing 122 new bike racks in the Kings Highway area, an addition that Scavo calls “excessive” and probably ineffective in alleviating traffic and parking problems along the bustling corridor.
“I believe the bike racks we have are not being utilized other than a few at the train stations,” said Scavo. She added that racks on the street and around Kingsborough Community College are everywhere and go unused. ”Yet there are no spots for cars at all,” she said.
The rack locations vary from Kings Highway and East 9th Street/East 10th Street, all the way down Kings Highway to Ocean Avenue. Department of Transportation is also planting dozens of bike lockups on Ocean Parkway and Coney Island Avenue from Avenue P to Avenue R. The racks themselves will not be the enclosed type preferred by commuters who cycle to subway stations. They will be traditional U-shaped racks.
Scavo requested the DOT reconsider the proposal, and officials from the agency promised another look before any installations.
Courier-Life, publisher of Bay News, has finally picked up on a story that Sheepshead Bites and residents have been harping about since our foundation: garbage.
In this week’s cover story, reporter Stephen Witt wrote that – lo and behold – Sheepshead Bay’s commercial strips are overflowing with litter. We’re surprised it took them this long to catch on, especially since the sidewalk in front of their old Sheepshead Bay Road headquarters has become a pretty severe hot spot for piled up litter.
Courier-Life confirms what we’ve already observed – daily pickups along Sheepshead Bay Road, Avenue U, Kings Highway, and Emmons Avenue has been slashed by the Department of Sanitation.
Community Board 15 Chair Theresa Scavo said she learned the pickups stopped on a visit to the local sanitation garage on Knapp Street.
“I was on Avenue U last Saturday and you couldn’t get an empty coffee container in the garbage basket. It was overflowing,” said Scavo. “We haven’t had a basket truck in two months. They [Sanitation] only do pickups when a regular truck passes for household trash twice or three times a week.”
During last Wednesday’s Manhattan Beach Community Group meeting, Community Board 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo urged residents to attend the March 3 hearing on MTA service cuts. The all-important hearing is being used by MTA commissioners to judge opposition to their plans, so a light showing from certain neighborhoods could be interpreted as a sign of community approval.
Don’t let that happen! Attend the hearing even if you don’t plan to speak. Let them know that striking out the B4 service along Emmons Avenue will suffocate businesses and leave Plumb Beach residents and several senior homes without service. And let them know, too, that you believe these plans are ill-conceived and rely on faulty data.
To give a little more oomph, you’ll see in the video above that Scavo believes eliminating the student metrocard will lead to increased crime rates. She says struggling students are “going to be stealing the money to get to where they are going, or they’re going to be jumping the turnstiles. They are not going to put their hand in their pocket rather than going and buying sneakers or their cell phone to pay to get on a train or a bus.”
I’m not sure if I totally buy the increased crime argument, but asking families to pay nearly $100 a month for their kids to get to school for their supposedly free education is ludicrous. It will certainly lead to increased drop-out rates and further hurt New York City’s education standings.
It’s stealing opportunity from an entire generation of low-income students and their families.
Hate crime victim Michael Sandy (courtesy of Michael Sandy Foundation)
More than three years after the fatal beating of a gay man at Plumb Beach, the victim’s family members, friends, and advocates are one-step closer to securing a memorial in his honor.
Community Board 15 voted unanimously Tuesday night to allow the erection of a memorial stone for Michael Sandy near the Plumb Beach parking lot.
Sandy was killed after a botched robbery-turned-hate crime in October 2006. His murder led friends of Sandy to form the Michael Sandy Foundation, which along with the his parents began seeking a tribute to victims of hate crimes everywhere.
“I would like to thank everyone involved who has had the opportunity to say ‘yes’ to putting this memorial up,” said Tony Bruce, the executive director of the Michael Sandy Foundation, during an interview with Sheepshead Bites. “In some part, by saying ‘yes’ to this they’ll be doing something small that may change someone’s mind about hate violence.”
