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INSIDE: GET THE RIGHT RESULTS WITH OUR CLASSIFIEDS SECTION Yo u r World — Yo u r News BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260–2500 • Brooklyn, NY • ©2016 Serving Brownstone Brooklyn, Williamsburg & Greenpoint AWP/14 pages • Vol. 39, No. 40 • September 30–October 6, 2016 • FREE FENCES MAKE BAD NEIGHBORS Residents war over Cobble Hill Park enclosures By Lauren Gill Brooklyn Paper Mr. DeBlasio, tear down that fence! Wire fences in Cobble Hill Park are dividing more than just plants and park- goers’ feet — they’re driving a wedge between local volunteer gardeners who insist they’re vital for protecting baby shrubs from dog poop and people’s boots, and residents who are demand- ing the city rip out the unsightly rail- ings so they can enjoy more of the ver- dant green space. “It’s really ugly and it makes me an- gry every time I see it — it makes me feel alienated from my local park,” said Nancie Katz, who started a petition that has amassed 100 signatures demanding that the city remove the fences. “I un- derstand they want to protect certain flowered areas, but even so, are people really going to trample in there? Please, it’s Cobble Hill.” Some Cobble Hill residents want the Parks Department to tear down The Parks Department first started in- the wire fences protecting plantings in Cobble Hill Park so it’s more stalling knee- and shoulder-high fences in accessible to the public. the park at Clinton and Congress streets to protect newly-planted vegetation from feet, feces, and vandals about five years system was getting vandalized, so that But Parks Department officials are ago, when the garden was in dire need needed protection too.” ultimately the ones who decide whether of a makeover, according to the leader But now the rampant enclosure erec- to install the fences or not, the stewards of the park’s advocacy group. tions are out of control, the critics charge, say, and besides — the meadow was and are effectively blocking off most of never designed to entertain large num- “The fences are there because the Photos by Caleb Caldwell last few years we’ve been working re- the park from visitors and their dogs. bers of humans and animals, because Nancie Katz is leading the charge to nix the fences, which she thinks are ugly and unnecessary in a consid- ally hard to restore the vegetation,” said The Friends of Cobble Hill Park have the city has designated it as a “passive erate community like Cobble Hill. Barbara Krongel of Friends of Cobble gone power-mad planting and protecting sitting park.” Hill Park, a collective of local green new posies, they claim, and are using the If residents have a problem with the thumbs that has tended the small park public park as their own garden. barricades, one member said, they should “It’s easy to point fingers and say claims she spent up to 40 hours a week ally upset with these fences?” for almost 30 years. “There wasn’t much “People want to treat it as a botanic get their hands dirty and experience first- you’re doing this wrong,” said June Ne- watering plants there. “Why don’t those A Parks spokeswoman would not say grass, bushes were dead and the plant- garden — and this ain’t no botanic gar- hand just how hard it is keeping the park grycz, who ran the Friends group be- people come in and work in the dog s--- if the agency would entertain the de- ings weren’t protected. The sprinkler den,” said local Aaron Raskin. looking pretty without them. fore Krongel, during which time she and plant the plants if they’re so visu- mands to take the fences down. BKLYN SAYS NIMBY TO CITI BIKE Hook: Don’t tell us what we need By Lauren Gill The city has made an effort to Brooklyn Paper get New York City Housing Au- New Citi Bike stations outside thority residents on the bikes — the Red Hook Houses are steal- tenants only have to pay $5 per ing much-needed parking spaces month to rent them, versus $15 for from residents who rely on their other citizens. Meanwhile, Red Hook Houses cars to get to and from the transit- Photo by Jason Speakman starved nabe, claim tenant leaders residents are only renting out 47 of Boerum Hill resident Bill Harris is outraged that the city — and it’s just the latest example the 116 spaces in the complex’s pri- installed new Citi Bike racks in the nabe without telling of the city telling public-housing vate parking lot, which costs $60– locals first. residents what they need instead $75 a year, according to a New York Photos by Stefano Giovannini of listening to what they actually City Housing Authority spokes- Francine Darko scored a second-hand typewriter at the Atlantic Antic street fair on Sept. want, they say. woman. 25, which she plans to use to type up her teenage love letters. “I don’t see how the stations ben- But another tenant leader says DOT to Boerum Hill: efit people who live in public hous- there is a dearth of free parking ing,” said Frances Brown, president options for the 98 percent of res- of the Red Hook East Houses Ten- idents who she claims own cars, The Antic road show ant Association. “We’re tired of all and the few who cycle already own Sorry, but they stay these Citi Bikes and people mak- their own bikes. ing decisions for us like we’re lit- “We don’t have enough space By Lauren Gill that doesn’t exist yet.” Bargains and bingeing at Atlantic Avenue fair tle children.” to park as is,” said Red Hook West Brooklyn Paper The city quietly rolled out five The Department of Transporta- Houses Tenant Association presi- We made our bed — and now of the bike-rental berths in the By Ruth Brown tion recently installed four stations dent Lillie Marshall, who says the you have to bike in it! nabe over the past month, aug- Brooklyn Paper around the 2,891-unit public housing city didn’t even bother to engage The Department of Transpor- menting the ones it added in 2013 This street festival was just complex — at W. Ninth and Colum- her in the discussion. “People in tation messed up by not consult- to Community Board 2’s district her type! bia streets, Lorraine and Columbia the community have cars and their ing Boerum Hill residents about — which encompasses Brook- Hundreds of thousands of rev- streets, Clinton and Centre streets, children have bikes so what are we where to install new Citi Bike lyn Heights, Dumbo, Downtown, ellers mined the treasure trove of and Wolcott and Dwight streets — going to do with all these bikes? No- stations in their neighborhood, and Fort Greene — and were also food, games, and entertainment as part of a broader rollout of the body is renting these bikes, they’re officials admitted last Tuesday, met with protests . on offer at the Atlantic Antic fair blue-bike bays around Community just parked there.” but they said the agency has no The agency held public on Sunday, but one bargain hunter Board 6 over the past month. Mayor DeBlasio also singled out plans to take locals’ advice now workshops and consulted lo- really hit the jackpot when she The agency held several pub- the Red Hook Houses residents as by relocating the hated docks to cals about the locations back stumbled upon a vintage type- lic workshops during the planning the lucky recipients of a new neigh- sites they’d prefer, as it could just then, but this time around it writer at one of the strip’s famed period and met with Brown twice, borhood ferry stop and his forth- make things worse. made the unorthodox move of antique stores after weeks of scour- but she said the pow-wows seemed coming streetcar . “There is a challenge to going straight to the board’s ing the city for just such a writ- pointless and she got the impression A Department of Transporta- moving stations around,” district manager and asking ing device. transportation honchos had already tion spokeswoman refused to an- said agency spokesman John only him which sites he thought “It’s not like I go to a fair to get decided where it was placing the swer specific questions about its Frost. “The station that’s on the the community would prefer an antique, but I saw an old leather docks before they spoke to her. meetings with Red Hook Houses ground right now, people know — enraging residents who say bag and I picked it up and the type- “When they came to me and leaders, saying only that it takes what they don’t like about it, it is just typical of the way of- writer fell out,” said Francine Sweethearts Ian Leidner and Rachel Trenchard share a spoke to me they had already made community input seriously when but don’t know what they don’t ficials so often ignore the tiny See ANTIC on page 6 sandwich from Atlantic Avenue eatery French Louis. up their minds,” she said. deciding on rack locations. like about the hypothetical one See BIKES on page 3 North American End of Quarter SEPT 21 - OCT 4 Vinyl Plank Prefinished Prefinished & European Flooring Bamboo Hardwood Laminate from CLEARANCE from from from Summer is over but the DEALS are ¢ ¢ $ 29 $ 49 heating up! 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