Greenpoint’s Getting Greener with GCEF

Written by in Education and Activism, Family Fun

This piece is adapted from an article originally published in the Greenpoint Community Environmental Fund’s fall newsletter! If you enjoy reading stories and finding out about events on Go Green Brooklyn’s website and social media, you have GCEF to thank. Go Green Brooklyn was started with a small GCEF grant in 2016 to create an online hub to promote local green programs and inspire community engagement in environmental activities. After the completion of the initial GCEF grant in January 2017, Go Green Brooklyn continued to expand our content, capabilities and role as the go-to-online environmental resource for Greenpoint.  When GCEF reopened its doors for one final round in June 2018, Go Green BK received another small grant to continue this work.

GCEF BY THE NUMBERS

  • $19.5 Million – GCEF is a $19.5 million community grant program created by the NYS Office of the Attorney General and Department of Environmental Conservation from funding obtained by the State in a settlement with ExxonMobil over its massive Greenpoint oil spill. 
  • $67 Million – Combined with matching grants and contributions, this represents GCEF’s total investment in Greenpoint environmental projects.
  • 61  – the number of GCEF-funded projects encompassing area parks, education, community spaces, infrastructure, stewardship, and the waterfront in Greenpoint.

It’s been another very productive year for the Greenpoint Community Environmental Fund (GCEF).  Since Fall 2017, 6 more projects successfully wrapped up their work, 9 more are still going strong, and an additional 16 projects received new funding in June. This article provides a roundup of GCEF’s activities over the past year, an overview of GCEF programs and many accomplishments, and a pictorial update of GCEF-funded projects. For the latest news, visit www.GCEFund.org and stop by the open house on Saturday, October 13th in McGolrick Park.

OPEN HOUSE GCEF: INVOLVING THE COMMUNITY

GCEF followed its extremely popular first community open house in 2016 with its second on October 14, 2017. The Open House showcased 15 GCEF-funded projects, with representatives there to meet with Greenpoint residents and demonstrate how their projects are enhancing the community’s environment. Live jazz music kept everyone’s feet tapping, while they enjoyed activities such as daffodil planting, a native-plants tea making station, a guided nature walk, and a “Dogs of McGolrick Park” contest at the park’s dog run—newly renovated with GCEF funding. This year’s next open house on Saturday, October 13th in McGolrick Park will be even more fun!

OPEN HOUSE GCEF 2018: ALL DAY ACTIVITIES

  • Enjoy live music
  • Plant daffodil bulbs
  • Make crafts such as a wildflower seed bombs
  • Touch some Newtown Creek creatures
  • Dissect an owl pellet
  • Make applesauce by peddling a bike
  • Learn how to do home garden soil testing… and much more!

OPEN HOUSE GCEF 2018: SCHEDULED ACTIVITIES

  • 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM:  Tour the new PS 110 Garden. Tours begin every 15 minutes.
  • 12 Noon & 2:00 PM:  Join a Bird and Tree Identification Walk with For the Birds and Greening Greenpoint.
  • 12:30 PM & 2:00 PM:  Listen to a story-time of popular green children’s books with the Greenpoint Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.
  • 12:30 PM & 1:30 PM:  Visit the squash patch with the Horticultural Society of NY and take a squash home along with a yummy recipe.
  • 1:00 PM:  Learn about the McGolrick Park Meadow with Ziemia in a one-hour family-friendly workshop.
Photo Credit: Greenpointers, GCEF Open House 2016

NEW 2018 GRANTS: GCEF’S CONTINUING INVESTMENTS IN GREENPOINT

In January, GCEF solicited project proposals for a new round of funding. GCEF received 26 proposals in response. In June, GCEF chose to fund 15 proposals that best addressed the environmental improvement priorities of Greenpoint residents. The total $940,812 in project funding, combined with $472,024 in matching funds provided by grantees, brought GCEF’s 2018 investment to over $1.4 million. This now brings the GCEF program’s overall investment in Greenpoint to $67 million!

THE 2018 GRANTS INCLUDED FUNDING FOR 10 PREVIOUSLY COMPLETED PROJECTS:

Audubon New York’s For the Birds! Environmental Education Program
GCEF Grant: $100,000
Matching Contribution: $35,474
Goal: To deliver environmental education programs and workshops and hands-on stewardship activities for children, adults and families about local wildlife and ecosystems in Greenpoint.

Newtown Creek Wildflower Roof
GCEF Grant: $99,557
Matching Contribution: $74,650
Goal: To extend horticultural maintenance of the green roof and continue further programming, including the annual fall festival, lectures and presentations in the community space, school and camp visits to the roof, Newtown Creek canoe/kayak and public tours, a spring conference, and printed interpretive materials to complement this programming. Additionally, the project website and social media platforms will be enhanced and a strategic plan for the project’s continuation beyond the grant period will be developed.

Environmental Education Shed (ED SHED)
GCEF Grant: $88,784
Matching Contribution: $24,827
Goal: For equipment, personnel and materials, including multiuser canoes, to allow the Education Shed aka “Ed Shed” a local educational hub to expand its community-based and on-the-water “Floating Classroom” environmental programming and improve its environmental footprint along Newtown Creek.

McGolrick Park’s Environmental Education Stewardship Project.
GCEF Grant: $75,000
Matching Contribution: $0
Goal: To continue to provide active maintenance of environmentally sensitive areas restored under prior GCEF grants; and provide environmental education to students and community members.

Greening the Industrial Shoreline of Newtown Creek
GCEF Grant: $53,826
Matching Contribution: $18,530
Goal: To  map, conduct education about, and plant Newtown Creek shorelines and nearby areas with native plants, trees and shrubs.

Go Green! Brooklyn Digital Hub
GCEF Grant: $50,000
Matching Contribution: $90,250
Goal: To sustain and go Green BK Hub a comprehensive online electronic center that organizes, centralizes and presents information about local environmental issues, events and opportunities for the Greenpoint community.

Strengthening Our Common Ground: Lead in Soils in Greenpoint
GCEF Grant: $50,000
Matching Contribution: $0
Goal: To educate Greenpoint residents about the potential for lead in local soils, lead toxicity and risks, and to promote best practices to minimize risk associated with potential lead exposure.

Newtown Creek SAMPLES: Studying Water Quality for Public Learning and Ecological Services
GCEF Grant: $27,962
Matching Contribution: $52,000
Goal: To conduct one season of water quality monitoring of the surface waters in Newtown Creek and conduct public education about that monitoring and how Greenpoint residents can help improve water quality in the Creek.

Greenpoint Citizens Club at 61 Franklin St. Community Garden & Greennpoint Reformed Church
GCEF Grant: $27,000
Matching Contribution: $11,600
Goal: To  engage elementary students aged five to nine years old in environmental classes, events and field trips; and adults in educational workshops, a speaker and film series and community service days.

Greenpoint Public Library
GCEF Grant: $25,286
Matching Contribution: $20,496
Goal: To enhance programs and services including to increase the availability of digital remediation reports, and creating environmental lesson plans and toolkits for students to be offered at the new library – the grand reopening in late 2018 – all aimed at deepening community understanding of the Greenpoint environment.

Go Green BK Hub, ED Shed, McGolrick Park (left to right)

FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED TO 5 BRAND NEW PROJECTS:

The Kosciuszko Bridge Design
GCEF Grant: $100,000
Matching Contribution: $26,250
Goal: To develop Phase 2 of a four-phase project to eventually convert 4-acres of formerly industrial area into a multiple use public parkland and new green space beneath the Kosciuszko Bridge along Cherry Street, between Scott and Steward Avenues.

Lentol Garden Renovation
GCEF Grant: $99,241
Matching Contribution: $62,696
Goal: To renovate and upgrade the 35,000 sq. ft. Lentol Garden

PS 110 Garden Renovation
GCEF Grant: $83,724
Matching Contribution: $55,000
Goal: To renovate a 6,000 sq. ft. playground next to Public School 110, The Monitor School

Gateway to Greenpoint
GCEF Grant: $30,428
Matching Contribution: $1,250
Goal: To generate a community-driven conceptual site plan for the potential future development of a 13,000 sq. ft. city-owned parcel as public green space at Greenpoint Avenue and Kingsland Avenue.

Ziemia
GCEF Grant: $30,000
Matching Contribution: $0
Goal: To restore 1,500 sq. ft. garden/meadow, create a public sculpture, and conduct community outreach about Greenpoint’s ecological past and present in McGolrick Park

Kosciuszko Bridge, Ziemia Project

GCEF PROJECT UPDATES: SMALL PROJECTS

Among GCEF’s original 33 small projects, 2 more came to a close over the past year. One of the graduates, Greenpoint Business Environmental Stewardship Project, wrapped at the end of August, after assisting three Greenpoint companies to identify and implement environmental improvements including the development of a sustainable supplier program, a decrease in energy usage and a reduction of waste production. Creating Green Buffers in the Greenpoint Industrial Area finished its work in May, after developing and presenting a greening plan for the industrial area of Greenpoint to the community in March. 

Two GCEF small projects remain active: Greenpoint Parks Community Stewardship Program has been supporting Friends of Parks groups in McGolrick and Transmitter Parks, and American and Greenpoint Playgrounds. Over the spring and summer season, the program hosted 12 events reaching over 1,000 members of the community. Java St. Community Garden replaced their raised beds with cedar wood, completed an addition to their solar energy system (to power the garden thru winter), and are developing a garden website.

GCEF ORIGINAL PROJECT UPDATES: LARGE AND LEGACY PROJECTS

Over the past year, 4 of GCEF’s Large and Legacy projects came to an end, while 7 projects are still going strong: 

  • McCarren Park Urban Farms and Green Infrastructure Corridor (right) installed green roofs at the site which can manage 27,500 gallons of rainfall annually. The project also installed a 200-gallon rainwater harvesting system at MS 126.  
  • A groundbreaking for the new Greenpoint Public Library was held last October. While the project encountered construction delays due to unexpectedly finding asbestos during excavation, work on the new library resumed this summer. The Greenpoint Public Library received additional funds from GCEF in 2018 to conduct a community oral history and a historical document archiving project.
The Greenpoint Library and Environmental Education Center held a groundbreaking ceremony last fall that was celebrated by students of P.S. 34, community members, and local elected officials.
  • The Intertidal Wetlands Project continued to establish wetland habitats at three locations along the No Name Inlet, while student interns developed a demonstration salt marsh.
Photos: Newtown Creek Alliance.
  • To date, Greening Greenpoint has planted 530 trees, installed 600 tree guards, and stewarded 1,700 trees. The project’s Tree Work Request Form (which the community can use to request trees and tree guards) was reopened in early June and will remain open until December 2018. Find it online at www.GreeningGreenpoint.org.
  • The Monitor Museum held a community information session on their ecological shoreline restoration and stabilization project in June. Museum representative also held two open houses at the site, and have collaborated with Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park and the Billion Oyster Project to provide access to Bushwick Inlet for an oyster monitoring project.
  • Additional GCEF funding in 2018 will keep the Greenpoint Eco-Schools Program in Greenpoint schools for a 4th year. One new feature will be a partnership with Newtown Creek Alliance to develop a Creek-specific curriculum for participating schools.
Greenpoint Eco-Schools students enjoyed birding at Kingsland Wildflowers Rooftop (right) and a family fun-day canoeing on Newtown Creek. Students also showed off chic recycled designs at the Eco-Schools Fashion Show (left). Photos: Terri Brennan (R). Erik Fuller (L).
  • Newtown Creek Wildflower Roof project, extended for another year with additional 2018 GCEF funding, has begun work on a Pre-K thru 5 curriculum guide for visits to the roof, with an expansion of the roof area and the addition of a “green wall” still to come.
Newtown Creek Wildflower Roof & Community Space held its 3rd annual Kingsland Wildflowers Festival on September 22nd, 2018 to showcase local environmental initiatives, allowing the community to explore the green roof and its native plants and birds.
  • The original Monsignor McGolrick Park Restoration came to a close in August, but additional funding from GCEF in 2018 will allow the project to complete restoration of the full Urban Oasis Garden, and will fund another year of maintenance for areas previously restored under the original grant.
Curb Your Litter: Greenpoint placed 50 new trash cans on priority intersections throughout Greenpoint. Before concluding its project in May 2018, Curb Your Litter held 12 neighborhood Clean Up Days covering 599 blocks, engaging 945 volunteers to remove 8,711 lbs. of trash from Greenpoint streets.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR GCEF?

GCEF will hold its 3rd Open House at McGolrick Park on Oct. 13, 2018. The event, jointly hosted by the McGolrick Park Neighborhood Association, celebrates the park while showcasing GCEF funded projects.  In 2019, the program will enter its final year.  This Open House looks forward to celebrate all the GCEF programs that have transformed Greenpoint over the past several years.

Go Green Brooklyn is grateful to GCEF for their investment in and love for our Brooklyn world! GCEF’s funding has made it possible for us to continue our work at Go Green, and we look forward to seeing the continued fruition of all these neighborhood environmental endeavors.

Find more photos & updates online at www.GCEFund.org.

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Past Go Green BK Articles on GCEF