If you grow it, they will thrive
To the editor,
Living in New York City yields
many cultural benefi ts, but it is becoming
increasingly expensive to
live here, putting at risk minority
populations. In many parts of Brooklyn,
increased rates of gentrifi cation
are continuously threatening food security
and establishing food deserts,
or regions in urban areas where it
is diffi cult to obtain affordable and
quality fresh foods.
The number of food deserts has
increased as a result of gentrifi cation,
and the infl ux of expensive supermarkets
with highly priced food
has left low-income, minority populations
with unhealthy eating alternatives.
But a growing solution to the
threat of food security in low-income
urban regions is urban farming.
Over the past few years, urban farming
in the city has been key to sustaining
and providing healthy food
at low costs to populations with limited
access to it.
Oftentimes, food transportation
and distribution costs are what infl
ate prices of produce and other
products, which then become inaccessible
to low-income households.
The hyper-local production of food
on urban farms, however, yields
fresh produce at lower prices because
transportation costs are cut,
making healthy, fresh items more
affordable to people in low-income,
urban areas.
Many predominantly Latin
American and African-American
neighborhoods have witnessed a
transformation in their access to
food thanks to the practice of urban
farming. Bedford-Stuyvesant,
for instance, was once considered
a food desert with little access to
fresh produce. But it has quickly
seen a tremendous boom in the
availability of fresh foods thanks
to the efforts of neighborhood urban
farms such as Myrtle Village
Green, which utilizes a plot of land
that would otherwise have been
purchased and converted into luxury
apartments, and gives back to
the community by providing fresh
produce grown locally.
Myrtle Village Green has been
successful in fostering a community
while providing food to low-income
people of color in the greater
Bedford-Stuyvesant area. Its plot of
20,000 square feet has grown more
than 50 varieties of vegetables and
fruits, which have provided the community
with some 1.3 tons of food
per growing season. And that access
to fresh and healthy foods has mitigated
the impacts of gentrifi cation in
the community.
Urban farms like Myrtle Village
Green, along with other projects like
Grow NYC and Gotham Greens, have
been successfully providing food to
many Brooklynites, and other city
residents, at low-cost.
Increasing the number of such
operations locally will surely go a
long way toward preventing members
of low-income communities
from consuming foods detrimental
to their health, and tackling the
growing food security crisis in urban
regions. Christian Madrigal
Bedford-Stuyvesant
Prospect Park joggers can leave
their water bottles at home during
winter runs now that meadow
stewards installed several freezeresistant
drinking fountains in the
green space (“Slurps up! Frost-resistant
drinking fountains arrive
in Brooklyn’s Backyard,” by Colin
Mixson, online Nov. 27).
Workers with the Prospect Park
Alliance — which maintains the
lawn in conjunction with the city
— on Nov. 22 set up the fi rst sipping
spot outside Vanderbilt Playground
along the roughly threemile
West Drive running loop, and
installed three more frost-repelling
fountains near the park’s Garfi eld
Place entrance and Ball Fields 6
and 7 in the subsequent days.
Councilman Brad Lander
praised the debut of the all-year
water fountains, which he said
couldn’t come soon enough after
locals in his district in 2016 allocated
$175,000 to fund the sipping
spots via the pol’s participatorybudgeting
process.
The fountains’ price and necessity
drew mixed reactions from
readers:
Each of us could argue that the
organizations responsible for these
sites — schools, senior centers, and
parks — should be ensuring necessities
(and running water is a necessity
for the health of park users) are provided
COURIER L 46 IFE, DEC. 7–13, 2018 DT
for. But the lack of resources
is what participatory budgeting is
about.
Vote! And tell all your
friends! Or don’t complain later.
Janet from Park Slope
Thank you to the locals that
voted to ensure I’ll have a place
to get water as I ride through
your neighborhood. Cheers!
Bike from NYC
Four fountains at $42,750 each,
a total cost of $175,000, is an outrageous
and ridiculous expenditure for
water fountains for thirsty runners
in Prospect Park during the winter
months.
Park Slopers lived up to their
reputation and voted for this extravagant
expenditure during the
participatory process, and can’t understand
why this Carroll Gardener
would question the cost. I think I
can speak for most Carroll Gardeners
when I say, we would never vote
for a $42,750 water fountain for Carroll
Park at a budget participatory
meeting.
Yes, we have kids who play in
the park and get thirsty during the
winter months. But we have practical
common sense, as our parents
would bring bottled water.
Carol Brooks
from Carroll Gardens
There were proposals. The
community voted. The drinking
fountains won enough votes
to get part of the funding. Done.
Tyler from pps
Brooklyn Public Library leaders
are asking readers to vote on
a new name for the historic eagle
statue currently perched in the
lobby of the book lender’s Central
Branch, which once nested on the
Brooklyn Daily Eagle’s Dumbo
headquarters until the newspaper
closed in 1955 after a century
in print (“Untitled ‘Eagle’ project:
Library seeks new name for beloved
bird statue,” by Colin Mixson,
online Nov. 30).
Library bigwigs narrowed
down the possible names to fi ve
fi nalists — “Ingersoll,” “Winged
Wonder,” “Dodger,” “Harmony,”
and “Emily” — and locals can cast
a ballot for their favorite via the
reading room’s website through
Dec. 13.
Some readers applauded the
call to rechristen the ancient bird,
while others preferred to leave history
well alone:
Since the Central Branch was
originally called the “Ingersoll”
branch, what a great reminder
it would be to use this name!
Janet from Park Slope
I just voted for “Emily,” but
much prefer “Brooklyn Eagle.”
Bob Marvin
from Prospect-Lefferts Gardens
Brooklyn Eagle to Emily. Are we
endlessly stupider and proud to be?
Joel from Boerum Hill
Name it after Mayor DeBlasio,
the other Big Bird. But which
of his names would we use?
Mustfa Khant from Atlantic Ave
The owners of Brooklyn
Heights’s beloved Brooklyn Cat
Cafe are inviting locals to celebrate
the reopening of the facility
in its new Montague Street home,
after they temporarily shuttered
the rescue’s old Atlantic Avenue
space last month to relocate it
(“A new fur-ever home: Brooklyn
Cat Cafe reopening on Montague
Street,” by Julianne Cuba, online
Dec. 4).
Volunteers with the Brooklyn
Bridge Animal Welfare Coalition,
who opened the Cat Cafe back in
2016, this week put the fi nishing
touches on the new digs ahead of
the cafe’s Dec. 8 reopening inside
the former Friend of a Farmer restaurant
space between Montague
Terrace and Hicks Street, which
is a less-than-10-minute walk from
its old home.
Commenters wished the dogooders
success in their new location:
Wonderful! All the best in the world
and continued success saving lives.
Elizabeth from Prospect Heights
My fi rst home in Brooklyn was on
Pierrepont and Clinton, so it is now
about a block or so away.
I retired to Florida seven years
ago, but am returning to Cobble Hill
next year. I’ve owned a rescued cat
since 2008, and can’t wait to see the
cafe next year.
Good luck on Montague
Street. Can’t wait to return!
Lea from Cobble Hill
LET US HEAR FROM YOU
Submit letters to: Anthony Rotunno,
Edi tor, Courier Life, 1 MetroTech Center
North, Brooklyn, NY 11201, or e-mail
to editorial@cnglocal.com. Please
include your address and tele phone
number so we can con fi rm you sent
the letter. We reserve the right to edit
all correspondence, which becomes
the property of Courier Life.
SOUND OFF TO THE EDITOR
LETTERS AND COMMENTS FROM OUR READERS
link