Livable Neighborhoods

Keeping our neighborhoods and communities safe, clean and engaged takes participation from all of us. Working together with area schools, local police precincts, civic and neighborhood groups, and local merchants and businesses we can ensure that all the neighborhoods of the 39th district remain friendly, safe and great places to live.

Prospect Park West to Be Co-Named for a Fallen Soldier

Park Slope Patch

06/01/2011

Later this year, one block of Prospect Park West may be getting a new name.

A City Council proposal aims to co-name a block of Prospect Park West between 14th Street and Bartel-Pritchard Square "LCpl. Julian T. Brennan, USMC Way," after Julian Brennan, a Marine and Park Slope resident who perished in 2009 while fighting in Afghanistan.

“He loved his country and expressed a deep empathy for the Afghan people. He grew up in South Park Slope and was an avid cyclist, and we wish to preserve the memory of this exemplary New Yorker for future generations by naming a beautiful South Park Slope block with a bike lane on it after him,” said Councilmember Brad Lander of Julian. Read more »

Video: Elected Lawmakers Aim To Evenly Distribute Unwanted City Facilities

NY1

05/24/2011

Back in the 1980s, the city made an effort to regulate "Not In My Backyard" battles by setting up a system to spread unwanted facilities like homeless shelters and wanted facilities like libraries evenly throughout the five boroughs. However, elected leaders now say that effort did not go far enough. NY1's Michael Herzenberg filed the following report.

Between the trash, the stench, the trucks and the smog, no one wants a waste transfer station in the neighborhood. Read more »

Watch the video.

Statement from Councilmember Brad Lander on Mayor Bloomberg's Proposed Closing of E220 Fire Company at 530 11th Street

Posted on May 18, 2011

"I was angry to learn this afternoon of the proposed closing of the FDNY Engine 220 fire company at 530 11th street in Park Slope -- one of 20 fire companies that Mayor Bloomberg is proposing to close as part of this year’s budget. Read more »

Honoring History and Breaking Ground

Councilmember Lander at JJ Byrne Park Groundbreaking

Park Slope Patch

05/10/2011

“This, as you know, is hallowed ground, an historic site,” Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said Tuesday while standing in front of the Old Stone House in Washington Park. He was there to host a ground-breaking ceremony for the reconstruction of J.J. Byrne Playground, along with City Councilmembers Brad Lander and Stephen Levin, Borough Commissioner Kevin E. Jeffrey, Old Stone House Executive Director Kim Maier, and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. Read more »

New bill seeks parking permits to help moving day

New York Post

05/10/2011

A city Councilman’s memories of a hot, sweaty and miserable day spent hauling furniture is driving a change in city policy that could transform moving days into a less painful rite of passage.

Councilman Brad Lander (D–Park Slope) introduced legislation last week that would require the city to create temporary moving-day parking permits, allowing people to reserve spots close to the residences they are leaving and the ones they’ll soon call home.

Lander envisions something similar to the way that the city issues street fair permits. Would-be movers would likely apply online and provide evidence that they’re actually changing address. The Police Department would issue the appropriate signage, Lander said. Read more »

Moving Forward on Fourth

AOL Patch

05/05/2011

There is no denying that Fourth Avenue is perhaps not the prettiest of South Brooklyn's boulevards.

But a group of local residents and politicians are hoping that changing the avenue’s commerce situation just might change the avenue for the better.

Thanks to Councilmember Brad Lander, the Department of City Planning is now considering changing the avenue’s zoning in a way that would encourage more commercial activity – and with it, make the avenue more pedestrian-friendly to accommodate the avenue as an ever-growing residential district. Read more »

Video: Proposed Bill Could Reserve Parking For Moving New Yorkers

New York 1

04/27/2011

Brooklyn Councilman Brad Lander is introducing a bill that would allow people to apply to reserve parking spots on moving day.

People who are moving would be able to reserve two spots -- one in front of the old address and another in front of the new address.

"If the city would make it possible to reserve the spots right in front of your building just for that one day that you're moving, you could park your moving van or your moving truck there," said Lander. "Your moving company could easily move in or out, do it at the other end, doesn't inconvenience anyone. Read more »

Watch the video.

Livable Neighborhoods

Council Moving to Ease Parking

The Wall Street Journal

04/28/2011

The New York City Council plans Thursday to pass legislation that could significantly alter the landscape of parking in New York City, reducing the number of days that motorists must deal with alternate-side-of-the-street parking regulations.

"So many people have experienced the challenge of just spending way too much time trolling around looking for parking, and clogging up the streets of the neighborhood and organizing their whole lives around getting a spot the night before," Mr. Lander, the bill's lead sponsor, said. "And on plenty of blocks the streets are clean and can be kept clean with one-day-per-week-per-side alternate-side cleaning."

With this legislation, at least 20 community districts would qualify to be reduced to one-day a week per side street cleaning, Mr. Lander's office said. Read more »

Livable Neighborhoods

Local Developer Invests in Urban Meadow Community Garden

Carroll Gardens Patch

04/22/2011

Down in the Columbia Street Waterfront District, a housing developer has donated $20,000 to the Urban Meadow community garden.

At the urging of Councilmember Brad Lander, Alex Barrett, who is developing apartments at 25 Carroll St., decided to give something back to the community.

Needless to say, the coordinators of the meadow were shocked and pleased with the donation.

"We sell muffins and t-shirts and $20,000 comes along? What?!" said Tamar Smith, a coordinator of the meadow, excitedly. Read more »

City Needs to Step Up Foreclosure Programs

Gotham Gazette

04/11/2011

Everywhere we turn, there is evidence of how Wall Street and financial institutions have failed to step up and take responsibility for the foreclosure crisis they caused.

A few weeks ago, Charles Ferguson’s Inside Job won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Film, exposing how the explosion of predatory lending, combined with all the wrong incentives in the financial sector, stripped countless families of their life savings and cost millions of jobs around the world. Read more »

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