 When I moved to PLG, the site at 27 Lincoln Road was a crumbling building - one I charmingly referred to as a "festering rathole" - hidden behind construction fencing as the Lincoln Road overpass was being refurbished. The building was purchased by Henry Herbst who, amid considerable controversy, planned to turn it into a gleaming 23-story glass tower. The building was demolished and then the economy exploded. To nobody's surprise, the building hasn't progressed since the demolition. The only apparent work to date has been the PLGArts Wall Mural project.
 There was a break in the wall a few weeks ago, though, and I was able to reach my phone in and snap a picture of the inside of the site. There is always something a little beautiful about the way nature reclaims spaces after people abandon them (like, for example, the pre-renovation High Line).
I have since noticed that there is a glass window cut into the fence on the side of the lot facing Flatbush Avenue, so if you are interested in taking a closer look you are free to do so.
MillionTreesNYC is doing several tree giveaways this spring, including two in Brooklyn, the first of which is this weekend: Green Fort Green and Clinton Hill & FAB Alliance Giveaway (Brooklyn)
Saturday April 17th and Sunday April 18th 10 am – 3 pm
Putnam Triangle (Putnam Avenue & Fulton Street)
More details here.
 This Thursday, LinRoFORMA (the block association for Lincoln between Flatbush and Ocean), is holding a free workshop on street tree care, at 6 pm:
Carla Osorio of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden's Greenbridge program will teach us how to support the healthy development of our street trees and how to beautify tree pits without harming the trees. All participants will receive a set of hand gardening tools!
We'll meet in the lobby of 40 Lincoln Road at 6:30 PM and use all the
daylight we have.
Keep in mind that there street trees throughout PLG in need of caretakers. The newly planted trees on Parkside near Flatbush could seriously use some mulch and watering this year; if anyone reading this lives in the apartment building on the corner, perhaps you could bug your super about it (or take matters into your own hands).
RELATED:
Why are so many trees on Lincoln dying?
Help the city put more trees in PLG
 Every year around this time, someone posts a question on the Lefferts list about where to buy plants and garden items. So this year we are proactively recommending our local garden shop, Kings County Nursery, on New York Avenue between Fenimore and Rutland. They carry pretty much anything you want, their prices are reasonable, and you don't have to get in a car to shop there. (I bring a large grocery cart for heavy items and that usually does the trick.)
Kings is giving the Hawthorne Street Block Association a discount on street planters, and would most likely be willing to work with other block associations on their street plantings. So call 'em up and ask: 718-493-2363.
 As much as I love Prospect Park, I am sure there is a lot going on there that I don't want to know about. Currently at the top of the list is the mysterious pile of entrails recently found at the lake. According to the Brooklyn Paper, people have found bloody and eviscerated chicken carcasses not once, but twice.
I suspect the entrails are part of a Santeria-like ceremony but I don't know enough about Santeria to be sure and I sure as hell don't want anyone bringing that hoodoo down on me.
Want to unload your Christmas tree in an environmentally friendly fashion? You've got two options. The easiest is to just leave it on the curb from January 5 to 15th. The Dept. of Sanitation will come pick it up at some point, though exactly when we can't say. Your other option is to take it to the Parks Department annual Mulchfest, which will be on Saturday, January 9, and Sunday, January 10, from 10 am to 2 pm. Drop off points are at the 3rd Street entrance off of Prospect Park West and at Park Circle (Parkside Avenue and Prospect Park Southwest). You can pick up free mulch there, even if you don't bring an Xmas tree. Be sure to bring your own bags, though. Volunteers are needed to help with Mulchfest. You can sign up for that here. 
 A proposed amendment to zoning rules would make it harder for property owners to turn their stoops and front yards into parking spaces. You need to look no farther than Parkside Avenue to see how curb cuts can make a nice block ugly: many front gardens there have been paved over to serve as driveways. The owners paint the curb in front yellow, removing space available for public parking -- sometimes legally, sometimes not. Flatbush Life has more about the proposed changes here. At the next Community Board 9 meeting, reps from the Department of City Planning will be discussing the zoning changes and answering questions about them. Come on down! Tuesday, December 22
7 pm
Middle School 61 Auditorium
400 Empire Boulevard
Brooklyn NY 11225
Remember how the City used to collect leaves in the fall for its Compost Giveback program? Well, that program has been killed (or at least, temporarily disabled). The PLG Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) blog reports on a new campaign to encourage City Council reps to resume the compost program. Our rep, Mathieu Eugene, sits on the Council Environmental Committee, so there's going to be a “Compost to Council Shout-Out” to urge Eugene to help bring back the program. Up until 2008, the NYC Compost Project included the collection of our city’s fall leaves–roughly 20,000 tons per year–which will increase up to three times with the Million Trees Initiative, for the production of
municipal compost. This compost was given back to NYC residents and the Parks Department to revitalize our gardens and open spaces. However, the NYC Compost Project faced a lack of financial and political support for the Fall Leaf Collection and Giveback Days, and they have been cancelled entirely "until further notice."
It costs the city nearly $100 per ton–close to $2 million per year–to dump the leaves in out-of-state landfills. This is a costly burial for a local resource, and a primary human cause of methane–a
destructive greenhouse gas–in the atmosphere. As an efficient, cost-effective (as we already have fully operational municipal composting facilities), and sustainable alternative, composting fall leaves should be the clear choice for our city.
Want to lend your voice to the effort? You can sign the petition organized by East New York Farms right here.
 Last year we wrote about how the green triangle at the intersection of Lincoln, Flatbush, and Washington had been sadly neglected. At the time, I wondered out loud who was responsible for maintaining the space. (The plot is part of the City's Greenstreets program; and such spaces are maintained by local community groups or other residents.) The Lefferts Manor Association? A block association? We never found an answer, but the triangle was brought back to life shortly thereafter. Sadly, the plot is once again looking pretty grim. The plants are still alive, thanks to all the rain we've been having, but weeds have taken over. So we'll ask again: does anyone know who's in charge of this plot? Perhaps if they're unable to maintain it, someone else would be willing to volunteer. After all, it's prime real estate!
A sampling: Lincoln Road between Bedford and Rogers Aves. in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens took home the title for the first time - after 10 years of trying. "This block has been really developing its green thumb for the past two decades," said block association President Tolonda Tolbert. "We finally pulled down the big one."
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