M A D I S O N 3
The Official Newsletter of the Madison Street 3 Block Association January 2008
A Year of Accomplishments
Madison Street #3—that’s the official name of our block between Bedford and Nostrand—begins the year 2008 by looking back at a 2007 filled with accomplishments that we can all be proud of. Here are some of the highlights.
Monthly Block Association Meetings
The Madison Street #3 Block Association met monthly at the Bedford Stuyvesant YMCA. Meetings were generally well attended and enthusiastic discussion took place on a wide range of issues of importance to our community. Officers were elected, bylaws were adopted, and members contributed dues in impressive numbers.
Sizzling Hot Block Party
Neighbors turned out in force on July 14, 2007 for the Madison Street #3 Block Party. Family, friends, food, and games were the hallmarks of this highly successful event—along with music, music, music as we moved to the beat of 3-count-‘em-3 DJs up and down the block! Many thanks to Keisha and Ms. Gloria for making it happen.
Community Garden Party
The grill was sizzling on August 5th in the Stars of Hope Community Garden at 213 Madison Street. Block association member Jason Schneiderman flipped the burgers and turned the hot dogs as friends and family flocked to the garden for good food, lively conversation, and live jazz in the beautiful peace and tranquility of the garden.
Halloween Party & Candy Give Away
The ghouls, ghosts, and goblins haunted the Stars of Hope Community Garden on Wednesday October 31, 2007 where block association volunteers gave out candy donated by block association members.
How Does Our Garden Grow?
A Little Background on the Stars of Hope Community Garden
You probably know there is a community garden at 213 Madison Street, on the north side of the block near the corner of Nostrand Avenue. But you may not know how it got there, who makes it grown, or how you can get involved. Want to learn more about the garden? Read on!
How Did the Garden Get There?
The official name of the garden is the Stars of Hope Community Garden. Stars of Hope is a GreenThumb garden. That means the city owns the lot, and a Parks Department program called GreenThumb issues us a license to operate a garden there. Some long-term residents of the block may remember a time when the garden occupied three lots—211, 213, and 215 Madison Street. But it turned out that the lots at 211 and 215 were not protected by the law that keeps the developers away, so those lots have now been developed and the garden occupies the precious little sliver of our block at 213 Madison Street.
Who Makes It Grow?
The garden is tended by a group of gardeners who together make up the Stars of Hope Community Garden Group. There are about 6-10 active gardeners in the group, most of whom live on our block but some of whom live nearby. The garden is a community resource and anybody can join, regardless of where they live. The garden group is loosely organized, but we’d like to tighten our organization over the coming year.
How Can You Get Involved?
Anybody can get involved with the garden. The contact person for the garden is Michael Broder. If you want to get involved, you can call Michael at (718) 622-4080 or by email at mbroder@mbroder.com.
What Can I Do in the Garden?
As spring approaches, the garden group will be holding meetings to plan our activities for the coming year. We need to build more vegetable beds and flower beds, do more landscaping in the ornamental parts of the garden, erect a new fence, get some patio furniture in there to make the garden an inviting place for gardeners and visitors alike, and keep the garden open to the public for 10 hours a week, as GreenThumb requires. We also want to organize more community activities in the garden, like the barbecue and the Halloween candy giveaway we held in 2007. And of course, we need to do what we do best—grow beautiful flowers and delicious, nutritious fruits and vegetables. As a member of the garden, you can do any of these things—and more. So get involved today!
Madison Street #3 Block Association
Toya Williford, President
Maliza Joseph-Gabriel, Vice President
Andrew Robinson, Treasurer
Fran Krause, Secretary
Michael Broder, Assistant Secretary
Jason Schneiderman, Assistant Secretary
Block Association meetings take place on the first Saturday of every month at 6:00 PM at the YMCA on the corner of Monroe Street and Bedford Avenue.
Do you have news for the newsletter? Contact Michael Broder at 718-622-4080
Visit our blog at http://madisonblock.blogspot.com
Friday, January 04, 2008
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Decemer Minutes
The December meeting started out with updates from our committees.
The Garden Committee is thinking about what kind of project can benefit from it's recent $500 grant. The Garden Committee will need to figure out a bank account, possibly a joint account with the Block Association. The Target-sponsored garden on Bedford was also discussed.
The Public Safety Committee was next. We started a list of derelict homes on the block. 186 has been recently cleaned out, Toya had called HPD (Housing Preservation & Development) about the building. Contractors have been seen going into it, so it might be getting fixed. 148, the vacant lot, was recently cleaned and had a rat abatement. 175 has been sealed by HPD & NYPD. The status of 169 Madison is unknown for now. The house near the North-East corner of the block, the one with the new tan vinyl siding, is being restored by The Bridge Street Development Corporation.
Over the past month, the records of the Block Association have undergone their regular audit. This audit is scheduled by our by-laws, once a year, to make sure everything is in order. This year, the audit was carried out by Rebbecca Broughton and Rachel Hernandez. It was determined that everything was in order. We have 1110.88 in the bank, 1158.88 including cash on hand. Not bad for starting the year with $0!
We will need to spend some of that money by March to stay on schedule with our grant. As part of that plan, we will be installing some beautification projects such as flower boxes.
There was no Old Business to cover.
The nomination and election of officers followed.
Toya Williford was elected unanimously as President.
Maliza Joseph-Gabriel was elected unanimously as Vice-President
Fran Krause was elected unanimously as Secretary
Andrew Robinson was elected unanimously as Treasurer
Jason Schneiderman & Michael Broder will serve as assistant secretaries through their continued work on the newsletter.
We'd also like to thank Kisha Sigler for all the work she's done over the past year as Vice President. She did a huge amount of work on the block party and fund raising. Kisha won't have time to be Vice President this year, but will still be participating in the Block Association. Thanks, Kisha!
Speaking of the Block Party, we're going to need to start planning that in January to have all the paperwork in on time.
For New Business, we'd like to organize a painting activity with the children of the block. There was some discussion about painting the light poles, but the utility companies probably wouldn't allow it. There was also talk about getting florescent lights for the block, perhaps in bulk. Gil Mason says that the reason the city garbage can was removed from the corner of Madison and Nostrand was that it was being filled with residential trash.
For general announcements, Madison Block #2 has a bunch of plant bulbs that they might give us for our garden. Also, we're going to need to re-apply for our Citizen's Grant this year. As part of the new grant, we'll need to raise matching funds.
The Garden Committee is thinking about what kind of project can benefit from it's recent $500 grant. The Garden Committee will need to figure out a bank account, possibly a joint account with the Block Association. The Target-sponsored garden on Bedford was also discussed.
The Public Safety Committee was next. We started a list of derelict homes on the block. 186 has been recently cleaned out, Toya had called HPD (Housing Preservation & Development) about the building. Contractors have been seen going into it, so it might be getting fixed. 148, the vacant lot, was recently cleaned and had a rat abatement. 175 has been sealed by HPD & NYPD. The status of 169 Madison is unknown for now. The house near the North-East corner of the block, the one with the new tan vinyl siding, is being restored by The Bridge Street Development Corporation.
Over the past month, the records of the Block Association have undergone their regular audit. This audit is scheduled by our by-laws, once a year, to make sure everything is in order. This year, the audit was carried out by Rebbecca Broughton and Rachel Hernandez. It was determined that everything was in order. We have 1110.88 in the bank, 1158.88 including cash on hand. Not bad for starting the year with $0!
We will need to spend some of that money by March to stay on schedule with our grant. As part of that plan, we will be installing some beautification projects such as flower boxes.
There was no Old Business to cover.
The nomination and election of officers followed.
Toya Williford was elected unanimously as President.
Maliza Joseph-Gabriel was elected unanimously as Vice-President
Fran Krause was elected unanimously as Secretary
Andrew Robinson was elected unanimously as Treasurer
Jason Schneiderman & Michael Broder will serve as assistant secretaries through their continued work on the newsletter.
We'd also like to thank Kisha Sigler for all the work she's done over the past year as Vice President. She did a huge amount of work on the block party and fund raising. Kisha won't have time to be Vice President this year, but will still be participating in the Block Association. Thanks, Kisha!
Speaking of the Block Party, we're going to need to start planning that in January to have all the paperwork in on time.
For New Business, we'd like to organize a painting activity with the children of the block. There was some discussion about painting the light poles, but the utility companies probably wouldn't allow it. There was also talk about getting florescent lights for the block, perhaps in bulk. Gil Mason says that the reason the city garbage can was removed from the corner of Madison and Nostrand was that it was being filled with residential trash.
For general announcements, Madison Block #2 has a bunch of plant bulbs that they might give us for our garden. Also, we're going to need to re-apply for our Citizen's Grant this year. As part of the new grant, we'll need to raise matching funds.
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