Green Projects Sprouting Around Town

The Office of Green Infrastructure has been awarding grants to private property owners who want to build green infrastructure, and a number of Brooklyn projects have gotten money. Funding is going toward building a rooftop herb garden at 61 Bergen; installing infiltration planters and porous concrete in the sidewalk along Columbia Street for the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative; installing a rooftop farm at Building Three in the Brooklyn Navy Yard; and constructing a “right-of-way bioswale” (like these) for the Carroll Street Community Garden. All the projects are currently in the design phase. There are also plans to add a green water quality program along Atlantic Avenue to address the issue of combined sewer overflow. According to the minutes of last month’s Community Board 2’s Health, Education and Social Services detailing the funding, “The point is to reduce the amount of rain water in the city’s sewer system by designing green infrastructure that can soak up rainwater and use it to feed plants…” Sounds good to us!
Left: the Columbia Street infiltration planters, Right: an example of bioswales. Both images via NYC.gov