Brooklyn's Greenest Block - We came in a close 2nd!

Brooklyn's Greenest Block Contest

Tied for 2nd overall

...and 2nd in Tree Beds.

A job well done to everyone who helped make it happen.

http://www.bbg.org/greenbridge/greenestblock/

Bainbridge Streetscapes Community Mural Project

(watch the video montage)

With the help of the Rae McGrath of the Brooklynite Gallery and artists from around the world, including Freddy Sam from South Africa and Zeh Palito from Brazil, not to mention all of the folks from Bainbridge Street and surrounding neighborhoods and the KIDS, this was  truly a community effort.

We thank Citizen's Committee for New York City, Home Depot and Oz Hardware for their incredible support in helping to sponsor this effort.

Bainbridge Streetscapes "Block Watch"

Thanks to Sid Parris and We Make Us Better's Titus Mitchell, who helped to install Neighborhood Watch signs, we were able to go a long way this year in making Bainbridge Street safer.


Keep your eyes open and say something, if you see something.


Brooklyn 81st Police Precinct 
(718) 574-0411

Summer Block Party 2011

The Bainbridge Street 2011 Block Party was a HIT!

Raccoons in the Hood

Via NYC.gov

What to Know About Raccoons
The common name “raccoon” comes from an Indian word that means “he scratches with his hands.” The raccoon is easily identified by its black mask and ringed tail. Typically, adult raccoons are about 2 feet long and weigh between 10 and 30 pounds. Raccoons are able to adapt to a variety of habitats, and thrive in urban areas like New York City because of abundant food availability. As a result, it is not unusual to encounter raccoons near your home.

Getting Raccoons Off Your Property
When raccoons take up residency in your home, destroy your garden, or raid your garbage, they are either searching for food or a place to live. Raccoons are not picky eaters – they will eat anything from meat to vegetables to trash. Also, they are willing to live almost anywhere. Under ordinary conditions, they usually find a den in a hollow tree, but in urban areas, raccoons can live in rock piles, fireplace chimneys, hollow walls, attics, or beneath sewer drains.

Keeping Raccoons Out of Your Home
There are several ways to prevent raccoons from being pests without exterminating them. The best strategy is to prevent access to food. Raccoons tend to feed at night. If raccoons are stealing food from your pet’s dish, try feeding your pet during the day and bringing the bowl inside before dark. (Better yet, always feed your pet inside, which helps make your home less attractive to other animals, as well.)

If raccoons are rummaging through your garbage, make it unreachable by purchasing a raccoon-proof garbage can, or by putting a weight on the lid so raccoons can’t open it. Always make sure that all your garbage is in the can and not on the ground.

If raccoons are already living in your home, there are measures you can take to get them out.

Raccoons do not like bright lights or loud noises:

• Put bright lights in your attic and if you have any kind of flashing lights, use them.
• Put a radio in the attic and tune in to a rock or talk station, with the volume set as loud as you can stand it. Leave it on all day and night to disrupt the raccoon’s sleep.

If none of these suggestions work, trapping may be the best option. Never attempt to capture a raccoon by yourself!

If you try to touch a wild raccoon, it may feel threatened and bite you. If you are bitten or scratched by a raccoon, consult a physician right away. You may need a tetanus shot or other medical treatment to control infection. You should also be evaluated for possible exposure to rabies. Biting incidents should be reported to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene at 311.

Check your local phone book or veterinarian to find a professional trapper.

NY State will provide a list of wildlife trappers:
718-482-4885 NYS DEC.

• Here's one licensed trapper for the area: Chemtech Exterminating

Maintaining a Raccoon-Proof Home
When you think the raccoons have left, sprinkle Cayenne pepper around the area they entered
through (torn screens, open chimneys, or broken windows are the most common points of entry).

Be sure to leave a light and radio on until there is absolutely no sign of activity. Finally, permanently seal all entrances. It will also help to prune back any tree branches that might have helped raccoons gain access to the roof or attic.

Remember, raccoons will come back if you let them.

Brooklyn's Greenest Blocks - BHTBA is a Winner!

One of Brooklyn's Greenest Blocks - 2010

Bed-Stuy Foot Soldiers Make Bank Shoveling Out Scores of Homes after Christmas Blizzard

Lanzilote for News

Bed-Stuy Foot Soldiers set an earnings record digging out Brooklyn brownstones after the blizzard.

BY JAKE PEARSON

A group of Bedford-Stuyvesant teens turned last week's blizzard into a cash bonanza.

The Bed-Stuy Foot Soldiers, teens who shovel, sweep and clean the neighborhood's stately brownstones, earned nearly $5,000 last week shoveling snow - a one-day record for the group.

"This was the biggest storm we've ever dealt with, the biggest and the scariest," said Foot Soldiers founder Barnabas Shakur, 30. "There were four times I thought I was going to hit a car."

The storm was a blessing for the group, part of Shakur's youth nonprofit Project Re-Generation, which operates on a shoestring budget.

"We've been having a lot of financial problems," said Shakur. "The [Foot Soldiers] are what's kept the organization alive."

Only about 20 of the Foot Soldiers' 100 members were able to brave the snow last week and travel around the neighborhood in Shakur's Ford F-150 pickup, stopping at houses and clearing the sidewalks, porches and steps.

"We'd just split up into groups of four people, and it would take us about 10 to 15 minutes to clear a house," said Terrell Ellis, 17, a junior at Abraham Lincoln High School. "We work as a team. We know what to do and how to do it."

So when signs of a storm came on Christmas Day, Shakur made sure to send out a team of volunteers to throw down anti-icing salt on the steps and sidewalks of brownstone homes.

But after the last snowflakes fell Monday, the neighborhood was so covered in snow, Shakur wasn't able to coordinate enough soldiers to travel to the 184 homes that paid an annual fee for immediate snow shoveling.

"Monday and Tuesday we were immobile, we couldn't move," said Shakur, who finally got enough workers out in the field on Wednesday and Thursday to clear as many houses as they could. "The streets weren't clear, workers couldn't get to the office, trains were down; it was crazy."

Residents who pay for the Foot Soldiers' services can buy various plans that range from a $49 one-shot-cleaning to a $865 yearly service charge.

The soldiers were able to clear almost 100 homes - and picked up 50 new clients as they worked.

"Let me say, I can empathize with the Department of Sanitation," said Shakur. "It was really hard out there: We couldn't move, our trucks got stuck ... it was horrible, but we got it done."

Foot soldier Joey Horne, 19, said he didn't mind the cold - and felt good after an elderly woman thanked him for shoveling her out of her house.

"She said, 'Thank you and keep up the good work,'" said Horne. "It was actually fun and it was great exercise."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2011/01/04/2011-01-04_bedstuy_foot_soldiers_make_bank_shoveling_out_scores_of_homes_after_christmas_bl.html#ixzz1CIjb4flE

Group of Bed-Stuy Men, "We Make Us Better" Escorts Pedestrians in Wake of Robberies

Keh/News

Members of the group We Make Us Better escort pedestrians home from the subway in the wake of robberies and reach out to young black men.

BY JAKE PEARSON

They're not part of a political club, they don't come from any one church and they've never been particularly active in the community - until now.

After a spate of recent muggings and robberies, a group of 20 Bedford-Stuyvesant men started escorting people home as they got off the train and are walking through the neighborhood reaching out to young men.

"We're not the Guardian Angels, we're not armed," said Kareem Varlack, 35, a field technician for Verizon and a founding member of the group We Make Us Better.

"We're about encouraging males to be involved, because you don't see men in their 20s, 30s and 40s involved in the community anymore, so we're trying to bridge that gap."

Once a week - on random evenings - the men walk subway riders home from the Utica Ave. train station. They also sponsored a neighborhood outreach walk earlier this month, stopping to talk to young men hanging out on the corners.

"I've been here now 15 years, and I never walk around," said co-founder Thomas Simms, 41, who works in finance.

"I've never done any kind of marching or activism. I deal with the swim team parents at the Bed-Stuy YMCA, that's as far as I go, [so] this gives me an opportunity to do something in the community."

The idea for the group came about one night a month ago when Varlack, Simms and others swapped horror stories of friends and relatives who had recently been mugged.

For Richard Beavers, 41, the idea for the group hit home after a friend of his called him in the middle of the night after being robbed - one of 300 robberies so far this year in Bed-Stuy's 81st Precinct, an almost 10% jump from 2009.

"She was on her way home, came out of the Utica Ave. A train station and made it onto her block when a group of young males approached her and robbed her," recalled Beavers, who owns the House of Art Gallery on Lewis Ave.

"I decided we can't have these people terrorizing our young women and children, and we're not speaking up and making our presence felt."

The group's organizers hope to set up a mentoring program soon, and are meeting with local community organizations so they can refer people they meet to special services.

But their main strength is a street credibility that comes with being young, successful black men, said co-founder Titus Mitchell.

"A lot of these youths don't have a positive male influence," said Mitchell, 41, director of a nonprofit.

"When I see these kids, I don't judge them, I understand who they are and what they are, and as black men, we can just talk to them on their level."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2010/11/30/2010-11-30_taking_a_stand_on_streets_20_men_in_bedstuy_escort_pedestrians_reach_out_to_yout.html#ixzz1CIhUzZnz