Hawthorne Block Association Meeting This Thursday, 7 pm,

The Hawthorne Street Block Association for Flatbush/Bedford is meeting this Thursday, May 13, at the Church of the Evangel, at 7 pm. Come on down!

New Block Association for Clarkson Avenue

Tim Thomas and Parker Lutz have announced the launch of Clarkson Flatbed, a new block association for Clarkson between Flatbush and Bedford. They're kicking things off on Saturday, with a block-wide beautification day. Anyone and everyone on the block is invited to come to an inaugural meeting this Saturday, May 15, at 4 pm. Items for the agenda include planting flowers in tree pits, organizing a block party, cleaning sidewalks, and setting up a Neighborhood Watch program.

Block associations are a great way of meeting people and building better neighborhoods, so get to it, people!

Hawthorne Street "Clean & Green" Day This Saturday, April 24

The Hawthorne Street Block Association, of Flatbush, is holding its first ever "Clean and Green" day this Saturday, at 10 am. If you live on the block, please join us and help beautify the block. We'll be preparing preparing street planters, mulching green spaces, and picking up litter. Our very own President Lisa Cummings will be making muffins for everyone who helps out. Meet in front of 45 Hawthorne.

Thanks to Kings County Nurseries for a generous discount on wood planters.

It's That Time of Year: Time To Spay the Feral Cats

You know those feral cats you see running around the streets? Now is the time of year that they start having babies. Two cats beget six cats who beget twelve, and pretty soon that bag of cat food you're using to feed them leaves a mess of cats hungry.

While I can understand wanting to feed feral cats, doing so without getting the cats spayed and neutered ultimately only leads to even more cats being hungry and miserable.

Fortunately, those who genuinely want to help the feral cat populations have an option: The NYC Feral Cat Initiative offers free Feral Cat Colony workshops. Once you take the class, you become a certified Trap & Neuter Release Caretaker and can borrow traps from the ASPCA.

The next class is this Saturday, March 20, from 9:30 am to 1 pm, at Queens Library. (Info here.) I took the class a couple of years ago -- it's painless and well worth doing, whether you love cats or just want to stop them from crapping in your planters.

This would be a great project for a block association to tackle. It doesn't cost much (the rate for spaying and shots ends up around $7 per cat) and responsibilities are easily divided.

Block Association Meetings This Week

There are two block association meetings this Thursday, March 11, one for Lincoln between Ocean and Flatbush, the other for Hawthorne Street between Flatbush and Bedford.

LinRoFORMA (Lincoln Road b/w Flatbush & Ocean Residents & Merchants Association) is meeting at 7 pm at K-Dog. The new group will be choosing leaders and upcoming projects. For more info, contact linroforma (at) gmail.com.

The Hawthorne Street Block Association is meeting at 7 pm at Church of the Evangel. At least 60% of residents are needed to sign a petition for the annual block party, so bodies are need to come by and sign. The block party will be September 11 this year. We'll also be discussing our first spring planting projects.

Got a block association meeting coming up? Let us know and we'll post about it here!

Lincoln Road Residents and Merchants Forming New Block Association

Here's some good news to start of the week: residents and merchants along the commercial strip of Lincoln between Flatbush and Ocean are organizing a block association. The new group, which is calling itself Lincoln Road Between Flatbush & Ocean Residents and Merchants Association (LinRoFORMA), will hold its first meeting this Thursday, February 18, at K-Dog, at 7 pm. Organizer Dynishal Gross tells me, "Anyone who lives or operates a business on this block, plus residents of 99 & 115 Ocean Avenue are welcome to attend and to join. Questions and comments should be directed to linroforma@gmail.com."

Here's hoping the group really takes off. As home of the Prospect Park subway station, the entrance to Prospect Park, the Maple Street School, and several bus lines, this block is not only important for the residents and business owners along it but to everyone in the neighborhood.