Walk Don't Destroy 5, Recycling & Give a Plant a New Home

Thanks to Eric McClure of Park Slope Neighbors for this rundown of what's going on this weekend.

1) Join Us Tomorrow for Walk Don't Destroy 5

This is it!  Our Park Slope Neighbors team for Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's Walk Don't Destroy 5 is just $3 short of being the walkathon's top fundraising team!  Will you help put us over the top?  Better yet, will you walk with us tomorrow as we raise funds for DDDB's legal effort against Atlantic Yards?

It's truly crunch time in the fight to stop Bruce Ratner from building a basketball arena and acres of parking lots in low-rise, brownstone Prospect Heights.  Just two days ago, the New York State Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the challenge to the project's use of eminent domain.  The previous day, four local elected officials, NYPIRG's Straphangers Campaign and DDDB filed suit against the MTA, seeking to void the sale of the Vanderbilt Yard to Forest City Ratner for a fraction of its value.

DDDB is funding 100% of these lawsuits -- but their ability to keep pressing the fight is wholly dependent on raising funds from people like us.

There's still time for you to sign up and walk with us tomorrow.  We need every walker -- and every dollar.

To join the Park Slope Neighbors team or to make a general donation in our name, please click here.

To visit the Walk Don't Destroy 5 home page, click here.

Please join us!

2) Give a Plant a New Home -- Baltic Street Community Garden Giveaway, Saturday and Sunday

We wrote in depth earlier this year about the fate of P.S. 133, which will be demolished later this year to make way for a new, larger school building.  The creation of the new school will also necessitate the relocation -- and down-sizing -- of the Baltic Street Community Garden, which has been rooted in P.S. 133's school yard since the 1970s.  The gardeners are hoping to find homes in the neighborhood for the plants that won't fit in the new plot, and they'll be giving away a host of fabulous greenery this weekend.  From the Garden's web site:

Many of our most beautiful plants came to us as gifts and cuttings from people in the neighborhood, and we hope that we can give back by distributing them throughout the area, for your tree pits, front and backyards and decks.

Pictured below are some of the plants we'd like to find homes for. We have many more, including  day lilies, echinacea, the amazing trumpet vine and wisteria vine, periwinkle, and bridal wreath. There are several trees as well. Click here for a fuller inventory.

We'd also like to share tools (rakes, shovels, trowels, a wheelbarrow) and the pavers that make up the garden's walkways.

The carefully tended soil, rich with frequent additions of compost from our own bins, can enrich many gardens, containers and tree pits.

The Baltic Street gardeners invite you to come on Saturday, Oct. 17, and Sunday, Oct. 18, from 11-5. The entrance is on Baltic Street, just east of Fourth Avenue. We have some containers, but if you can, bring your own.

3) Electronics Recycling this Saturday; Harvest Fest Sunday

Due to the likelihood of lousy weekend weather, the Park Slope Civic Council has decided to curtail the Fall Civic Sweep that it had planned for Saturday.  However, they'll still be accepting electronics for recycling at the Prospect Park YMCA, at 357 9th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

In addition, other neighborhood businesses and organizations will be collecting items for recycling on Saturday:

 
Electronics recycling by 3R Living at the Old Stone House in Washington Park
Used battery recycling at J & R Television at 108 7th Avenue

Textile recycling by Wearable Collections at the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket.

The Old Stone House will also be hosting the annual Harvest Fest on Sunday, between the hours of 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.  In the event of rain, the activities, including music, face painting, arts and crafts and Halloween costume-making, will take place inside the Old Stone House.