i think the parks hours have something to do with the history of it. I've been told this by long time residents of the block. before the school was built there was a park there. In order to get the community to sign off on the park becoming a school yard the school promised to leave it open outside of school hours so the community wouldn't lose its public space. This was probably a sensible solution at the time but in recent years it has been seriously abused by certain people in the neighborhood. All it needs is a little TLC and supervision. Perhaps just some cameras would do the trick.

Posted by: DowningStreet at June 1, 2009 12:51 PM in response to Teen-on-Teen Shooting on Downing Street

I am going to write these people and I hope everyone else does as well. I have talked to a number of neighbors who are also going to write some letters. If enough of us write and make noise about this something is bound to happen. there's no excuse.

Letitia James - City Council Rep
District Office Address
67 Hanson Place
Ground Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11217
District Office Phone: 718-260-9191
Email: ljames@council.nyc.gov
link: http://council.nyc.gov/d35/html/members/home.shtml

Velmanette Montgomery - state senator
District Office
30 Third Avenue, Room 1100, 11th Fl.
Brooklyn, NY 11217
Tel: (718) 643-6140
Fax: (718) 237-4137
email: http://velmanettemontgomery.net/contactus.aspx
link: http://velmanettemontgomery.net/default.aspx

I'm also going to call the school principal who theoretically is in charge of the school yard.

P.S. 56 Lewis H Latimer School
PHONE: (718) 857-3149

Posted by: DowningStreet at June 1, 2009 12:13 PM in response to Teen-on-Teen Shooting on Downing Street

as a neighbor of this school yard I often wonder who is in control of things there. It seems to be the only school yard I know of that is never locked and never seems to have any supervision at all. Other playgrounds and school yards around the city have posted hours, locked gates, the ones run by the parks department often have personnel on site. This school yard is a constant source of problems on the block. It is wonderful to have a place that people can go and play basketball, ride a bike or play hopscotch 24 hours a day. Don't get me wrong, I love that it exists for real recreational activities. However, it is also a location which draws large rowdy crowds at all hours of the night, drinking on the street, blaring music from cars and using it more as an outside living room than a park or playground. What would it take to get some real supervision over there?

the gather in Saturday was HUGE and very loud. They had no permits, there was no one supervising anything.

I am going to start writing letters to our elected officials to try to get something done. I hope others will join me.

Posted by: DowningStreet at June 1, 2009 11:17 AM in response to Teen-on-Teen Shooting on Downing Street

as a neighbor of this school yard I often wonder who is in control of things there. It seems to be the only school yard I know of that is never locked and never seems to have any supervision at all. Other playgrounds and school yards around the city have posted hours, locked gates, the ones run by the parks department often have personnel on site. This school yard is a constant source of problems on the block. It is wonderful to have a place that people can go and play basketball, ride a bike or play hopscotch 24 hours a day. Don't get me wrong, I love that it exists for real recreational activities. However, it is also a location which draws large rowdy crowds at all hours of the night, drinking on the street, blaring music from cars and using it more as an outside living room than a park or playground. What would it take to get some real supervision over there?

the gather in Saturday was HUGE and very loud. They had no permits, there was no one supervising anything.

I am going to start writing letters to our elected officials to try to get something done. I hope others will join me.

Posted by: DowningStreet at June 1, 2009 10:55 AM in response to Teen-on-Teen Shooting on Downing Street

hey wasder. i'd love to get involved in said association as well. have lived on Downing since 2002. you can contact me at downingstreet@mailinator.com.

Posted by: DowningStreet at February 23, 2009 4:53 PM in response to The Co-Op School Finds a Home in Clinton Hill

Wasder, I believe that those lots you speak of were just sold at auction. At least, that's what I read on this blog sometime last week. If I'm wrong I'd love to see a community garden go in there and teach my kids how to plant and weed and eat their food they grew themselves.

Posted by: DowningStreet at February 23, 2009 2:27 PM in response to The Co-Op School Finds a Home in Clinton Hill

this is very sad. I love this restaurant. the owners are amazing people and definitely did not deserve this. (not that anyone would.) Why can't the local precinct clean up this corner. it has been terrible for years. small children caught in crossfire, drive bys, beatings. when will it finally cross the line to a point that they take notice and deal with it once and for all?

Posted by: DowningStreet at December 29, 2008 10:03 AM in response to Break-In at Kush

they could start with some trees. i was hoping that was part of the plan as they had all the sidewalks ripped up. what better opportunity. what a let-down. same cruddy bare pavement streets.

As for a BID I wish someone would talk about the plusses and minusses. why would anyone be opposed? would this mean forcing out old businesses? or just incenting new ones to open in the many empty storefronts?

Posted by: DowningStreet at December 8, 2008 3:43 PM in response to Fulton BID Gaining Momentum

I am very happy to see this has opened. as a long-time resident of the neighborhood I've been wondering why nothing of this sort has opened on Fulton St. before. A friend of mine thought it might have to do with the number of churches on Fulton and the difficulty of getting a liquor license nearby houses of worship. that makes sense to me. what doesn't make sense is why this stretch of Fulton St. (Classon to Clinton) doesn't have a more varied business base.

I like eating Island food, shopping at bodegas, fast-food chinese as much as anyone else but why aren't there more options? If someone wanted to open a few more nice sit-down restaurants and nice neighborhoody bars I'm sure they would make a killing.

Posted by: DowningStreet at June 18, 2008 3:04 PM in response to Streetlevel: Bar Olivino Opens