NYC Council Member Mark S. Weprin Meets Students and Easter Bunny at APEC

Council Member Mark S. Weprin and young nature enthusiasts with an Easter bunny

Council Member Mark S. Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens) visited the Alley Pond Environmental Center (APEC), a non-profit organization dedicated to establishing understanding of the environment, located at 228-06 Northern Boulevard in Douglaston. There he joined a group of children who were participating in one of APEC’s many classes, workshops, and educational programs.

Mr. Weprin, a longtime friend and supporter of APEC, praised the organization for the wide range of educational programs it provides to the community. “APEC offers an incredible array of classes, workshops, and events for children and families,” said Council Member Weprin. “We are fortunate to have such a vibrant institution in our community.”

Ridgewood Reservoir Due for Makeover Joe Anuta - YourNabe.com

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One of many holes in the dilapidated chain link fence that surrounds Ridgewood Reservoir allows access to the patch of wilderness. Photo by Joe Anuta

Construction could begin soon on new fencing surrounding the Ridgewood Reservoir despite objections from members of the community and borough lawmakers.

The contract has been awarded to a Maspeth construction company for $6.4 million, according to the city comptroller’s database, and the work is set to be complete by the end of the year.

But several members of Community Board 5 criticized the city’s plan for the renovation, citing unnecessary spending and inadequate protection of wildlife.

“I’m trying to fight them, but the contract is already awarded and registered in the comptroller’s office,” said Steve Fiedler, chairman of CB 5’s Parks Committee. “Nobody wants to listen.”

One of Fiedler’s objections shared by the rest of the board is that the proposed fence, at 4 feet tall, is too short and would invite trespassers into the natural enclave.

“Right now there is an 8-foot fence and they can’t keep [people] out of there,” Fiedler said.

There are innumerable holes cut into the current chain link fence that surrounds the three basins of the reservoirs. Some have been patched, but many still allow unencumbered access to the basins.

Fiedler said people also dump garbage and have been known to play paint ball in the wooded areas of the reservoir.

A representative from the city Parks Department said the new fencing will allow visitors to see the basins.

“New steel bar fencing around the perimeter and fencing of historical reference near seating areas between basins will allow visitors visual access to the natural environments in the basins,” said the representative, who asked not to be identified.


Currently, the 8-foot tall fence allows park-goers to see the park only through the wires and is overgrown with vines in many places.

The city will also combat invasive species like phragmites, a reed that takes over in watery soil, which have plagued the park over the years.

Fiedler and the board also took issue with the type of fencing.

The park currently has more than 4,000 feet of historic, wrought-iron fencing in and around the basins, Fiedler said. In fact, the fencing was so elaborately crafted that the city made a model of it to use in Central Park in Manhattan.

“You cannot get fencing like that anymore,” Fiedler said, lamenting the fact that the vintage metal will likely be thrown away or melted down.
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State Sen. Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach) also had objections to the department’s plan to install new lighting.

The city plans on installing lights along the path at 15-foot intervals. There are currently dilapidated lampposts located on the outside of the path, but the city’s plan would move them to the inside and install a shade that would shield the animal and plant life from the lights at night.

“We could save money by building on the existing side,” Addabbo said. “I’m not an engineer, but ... I’d like to respectively disagree with the Parks Department.”

The contract is currently under review by city Comptroller John Liu.

In 2008, former city Comptroller William Thompson rejected a plan to turn the reservoir into sports fields.

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott Pulled Over by Cops, Now Cops Under Investigation By Yoav Gonen and Chuck Bennett - NYPOST.com

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It's not surprising to me that Walcott didn't hear the turn signal, he never heard NYC public school parents when they complained about Joel Klein and the NYC Public School system when he was Deputy Mayor...

Two cops assigned to an elite Queens anti-crime unit are facing an Internal Affairs probe for allegedly not properly identifying themselves after pulling over Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott in his city-issued vehicle, officials said yesterday.

Walcott, who is credited with creating the NYPD's "Courtesy, Professionalism, Respect" slogan in the early '90s, complained directly to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, sparking the investigation, officials said.

Shortly before midnight Thursday, the two cops, a police officer and a sergeant, pulled over Walcott, who was not driving, a few blocks from his Cambria Heights home, for what sources described as having tinted windows and making a left turn without signaling.

"When Chancellor Walcott asked the officers to please tell him why they had been pulled over, the officer responded that they had failed to use a turn signal. Chancellor Walcott told the officers that this was incorrect as he heard the turn signal," confirmed his spokeswoman, Natalie Ravitz.

He also identified himself as the schools chancellor and former deputy mayor, Ravitz said.

"After the officer ran the license and plates, the officer returned the driver's license and said they were free to go. At this time Chancellor Walcott asked the officer for her badge number," Ravitz added. "The officers were in plainclothes and did not identify themselves."

Neither Walcott nor his driver was ticketed.

The two officers told Internal Affairs last night they did provide their shield numbers and accused Walcott of being difficult.

" 'You have no right to pull us over,' " Walcott allegedly barked according to the officer, sources said.

Longtime Community Board 12 Head Adjoa Gzifa Gets the Boot by Clare Trapasso - NY Daily News

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The controversial head of a southeast Queens community board has been tossed from her post by a local councilman.

Adjoa Gzifa, 64, of Jamaica, speculated that City Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) decided to end her 16-year run on Community Board 12 due to disagreements on various board issues.

Comrie declined to comment on why she was booted. "I'm not airing that in the paper," he said.

Gzifa, who served as the chairwoman of the board for three years, made headlines when she refused to support renaming a Jamaica street after slain police officer John Scarangella. The board shot down the renaming, which the Council then overrode.

She was also one of only two board members who voted against renaming a swath of Liverpool St. after Sean Bell, a bridegroom killed in a hail of police bullets.

"It stinks," Gzifa said of not being reappointed to the board. "I believe I served my community well. The fact that [Comrie and I] can't agree to disagree is disturbing to me."

Gzifa was quick to point out that she was reelected as chairwoman by her peers in December.

She found out about Comrie's decision on April 8, she said, a day after Community Board 12 District Manager Yvonne Reddick was involved in a car accident. Reddick is recuperating from non-life threatening injuries at Jamaica Hospital.

Jacqueline Boyce, the interim chair, said Gzifa will be missed.

"I'm saddened by the fact that she was not reassigned to the community board," Boyce said. "She proved to be a good leader and a good organizer."

But Gzifa had her detractors.

Valerie Bell, 55, the mother of Sean Bell, said the board could benefit from more sympathetic leadership.

"I know you can't name a street after everyone who's done something in the community," she said. "But it's time to have a heart for these things."

Board members are volunteers who can influence local projects and city budgets. Half of the Queens members are appointed by Council members, while the others are picked by the Borough President.

Gzifa, who is the director of the Workforce Education Center at LaGuardia Community College, said she doesn't plan to fight Comrie's decision.

"Just because I'm not on the board doesn't mean I'm going to shut up," she said. "I'm going to continue to speak out against everything that's ill in our community."

NYC DEP Punked by the Yes Men by Lissa Harris - Watershed Post

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No, the sticker above -- which, according to the Wall Street Journal, has been spotted near public faucets around New York City lately -- isn't the work of the NYC Department of Environmental Protection. It's part of a pretty slick anti-fracking campaign, complete with a website (www.nyc-dep.org) dressed up to look almost exactly like the DEP's actual site. There's also a fake "DEP" video, with instructions on how to tell if your water is safe. (Hint: Try to set it on fire.)

The stickers, and the official-looking fake website that goes along with them, appear to be the work of the Yes Men, a group of activist merry pranksters that specialize in the art of the well-played anti-corporate hoax. Just last month, they gulled the Associated Press into running a story declaring that General Electric would be returning its $3.2 billion tax refund to the U.S. government. And back in 2000, they famously impersonated the World Trade Organization via a fake website (www.gatt.org) that earned them an invitation to speak at a seminar on international trade in Austria. (A rather extraordinary drama then unfolded, in which the Yes Men's "WTO representative" spoke at the seminar, was hit in the face with a pie, and subsequently "died.")

Regular Watershed Post readers might recognize the name: The Yes Men were canonized just a couple of weeks ago, along with local anti-fracking activist and radio personality Sabrina Artel, in a ceremony conducted by the Rev. Billy Talen (himself a fellow anti-corporate prankster who performs exorcisms on cash registers, backed up by a gospel choir in full regalia).

Though DEP officials were quick to disavow the stickers, the anti-fracking sentiment behind the stunt isn't too far from their real views on the subject. Department officials aren't big fans of the idea of doing horizontal drilling for natural gas within spitting distance of the city's watershed. From a statement on the DEP's actual website:

While DEP is mindful of the potential economic opportunity that this represents for the State, hydraulic fracturing poses an unacceptable threat to the unfiltered water supply of nine million New Yorkers and cannot safely be permitted with the New York City watershed.

Photo by Flickr user prizepony. Published under Creative Commons license.

Hearing on the Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) Program - News from Melissa Mark-Viverito

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TALE OF TWO CITIES: Geoffrey Croft, president of New York City Park Advocates, called the distribution of Park Enforcement Patrol officers a "tale of two cities," as he went through different parks on the map and illustrated a disparate allotment of officers to each at a City Council hearing on Wednesday. (Tara MacIsaac)

Melissa chaired a hearing on the City Council’s Parks & Recreation Committee on Wednesday regarding the Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) program.  The hearing focused on the disparities in the allocation of PEP officers among different parks and communities as well as workplace issues faced by the officers.

PEP officers are unarmed peace officers, who enforce the rules of our parks and are empowered to issue summonses for quality of life offenses, as well as disorderly conduct and unlawful possession of weapons. They also review park facilities for health and safety issues. There are currently 92 PEP officers to cover over 28,000 acres of parkland, with an additional 83 officers that are contracted by conservancies and other private entities to work in specific parks. There are often just a few at-large officers on duty at any given time for the entire borough of the Bronx, whereas in a single park in communities of greater means, there might be a dozen.

Melissa and other members of the committee stressed the need for more resources for the PEP program so that these officers can cover more parks, particularly at a time when the City is seeing an increase in crimes committed on parkland. Melissa also highlighted that the practice of contracting with private entities that are able to purchase increased security from the department while the majority of other parks go unsupervised sets up a two-tiered system in our public parks.

The hearing also focused on the issues that PEP officers face as a workforce. Several officers came to testify about the difficult and dangerous jobs they do, including doing car stops and removing homeless individuals from parks, without the help of the NYPD or the Department of Homeless Services. They asked for greater numbers of PEP officers and more support to help make our parks safer.

In the coming months, the Committee plans to hold another hearing jointly with the Public Safety Committee on crime in parks, which will continue to examine these issues.

Coverage of Wednesday’s hearing:

• NY1: Parks Enforcement Force Stretched Too Thin, Some Say
• NY1 Noticias: Pocos uniformados patrullan vecindarios pobres de la ciudad, según informe
• New York Times: City Council Questions Distribution of Park Officers
• WNYC: Parks’ Safety Resources Aren’t Distributed Equally, Council Members Say
• DNA Info: Uptown Parks Short on Security Officers, Advocates Say
• Epoch Times: NYC Council Hearing Reveals Park Patrol Disparity
• Metro: Crime: Hidden dangers lurk in New York’s parks
• Daily News: City Council to address usage of Parks Department officers

Rep. Edolphus 'Ed' Towns’ Statement on the Death of Hope Reichbach

“I am deeply saddened by the tragic news of the death of Hope Reichbach. She certainly was a rising political star with so much talent and a genuine concern for the community she passionately served. More importantly a life with so much promise has been cut short at such a young age. Brooklyn has indeed lost a tremendous gift. My prayers go out to Judge Gustin Reichbach and his family, as well as to the staff of Councilman Steve Levin”.