WGPA

Mark your calendar - on 24 March the Landmarks Preservation Commission will hold a public hearing on the proposed designation of the Fillmore Place Historic District. We will post the exact time when it is available - stay tuned.

NAG (Neighbors Allied for Good Growth) has been doing a series of town hall meetings over the past few months, trying to get people engaged on different aspect of life and activism in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. One of the projects to come out this is the North Brooklyn Story Project, which seeks to compile an oral history of the neighborhood and its denizens. They're having a meeting for volunteers this week (Wednesday the 11th), in anticipation of a training session at Brooklyn Historical Society later this month.

What: North Brooklyn Story Project Introductory Meeting
When: Wednesday, March 11th, 7 p.m.
Where: Neighbors Allied for Good Growth headquarters: 101 Kent Avenue at 9th Street

The North Brooklyn Story Project is looking for people with stories to share about our community, and people who can listen to and record these stories.

Do you have a story to tell about life in Williamsburg or Greenpoint? A memory, a snapshot of life here today, an interesting interaction with community members? Do you know a neighbor or shopkeeper or friend with a story to tell? If so, you're invited to become part of the North Brooklyn Story Project.

The first step? To find people interested in telling their stories and people interested in interviewing them. Together, interviewers and storytellers will create an archive of North Brooklyn stories that all of us can use to feel connected to our diverse neighbors and neighborhoods – past, present, and future.

No special skills or equipment required – just ears and a voice. If you're interested, please come to the North Brooklyn Story Project Introductory Meeting, on Wednesday, March 11th, at 7 p.m. The meeting will take place at NAG headquarters (101 Kent Avenue at North 9th Street). At the meeting, we’ll discuss an upcoming training to be offered to our group by the Brooklyn Historical Society, as well as your ideas for making the project a success.

For more information, please contact Gregor (g [dot] nemitzziadie [at] gmail [dot] com) or Rachel (rachtree [at] gmail [dot] com).

What: Decorative Cast-Iron Work: History and Preservation
When: Wednesday · March 18 · 6:30 PM
Where: Museum of the City of New York (5th Avenue at 104th Street)

Join the artist, Andrew Berrien Jones, in a discussion of the stylistic history of cast-iron architectural decorations and the preservation issues they present, with Richard Pieper, Director of Preservation, Jan Hird Pokorny Associates, Inc.; Diana Waite, expert on the ornamental ironwork of Albany and Troy and Trustee of the Preservation League; and moderator Alex Herrera, Director, New York Landmarks Conservancy. Co-sponsored by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation; The Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America; and the New York Landmarks Conservancy. Light reception to follow.

Reservations are required. Tickets are $5 for Museum members, Preservation League members, seniors, and students, $9 general admission. Order tickets online at www.mcny.org or call 212.534.1672, ext. 3395. The Museum of the City of New York is located at 1220 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street.

In an effort to beautify the growing developer blight in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, NAG's Open Space working group is starting a Guerilla Gardening campaign. On Saturday the Open Space working group will hold a workshop to create seed balls, a land reclamation strategy for derelict, neglected and abandoned land. Volunteers are invited to help the group construct the seed balls on Saturday, March 21st. The following Saturday, March 28th, the seed balls will be distributed and cast into abandoned lots and neglected patches of land all over North Brooklyn at the participants discretion.

Date: Saturday, March 21, 2009
Time: 3:00pm - 6:00pm
Location: NAG Office
Street: 101 Kent Street at North 8th
Contact: openspace [at] nag-brooklyn.org

The North Brooklyn Story Project is a project of NAG's Community Character working group. This group is putting together an oral history project, and will be offering a free training session for volunteers this Saturday morning at the Brooklyn Historical Society. If you are interested in being an interviewer for this project and would like in Saturday's training session, contact Grégor at g.nemitzziadie [at] gmail [dot] com.

Tuesday March 24 is a big day for the Eastern District at the Landmarks Commission. That afternoon, the Commission will be holding a public hearing on the designation of the Fillmore Place Historic District (pictured) in Williamsburg and on the designation of the Ulmer Brewery as an individual landmark. A related bonus hearing will be held on the Ridgewood Theater (sections of Ridgewood were historically part of the Town of Bushwick, so we'll lay a tenuous claim to the theater as part of the Eastern District).

The scheduled hearing times are as follows:

Ridgewood Theatre - 11:25
Ulmer Brewery - 1:30
Fillmore Place - 1:45

NAG is holding a town hall meeting tomorrow night (26 March) to give an update on its 2009 organizing agenda. In addition to the North Brooklyn Story Project, NAG is organizing around affordable housing, transportation and improving open space and access to the waterfront (check out their seedballs project - a bit of guerilla gardening for the neighborhood).

Each group will be giving an update on their work to date, and hopefully bringing on even more volunteers. Expect to hear a lot more about these issues and projects in the coming month or two.

On Saturday, historian John Dereszewski will be leading tour of Bushwick Avenue from Graham to Flushing. This is the part of Bushwick Avenue that was the center of the original Bushwick settlement, but which later became part of the City of Williamsburg.

Via Bushwick BK, which has all the details.