The NYC Department of Sanitation will be conducting special collections for mulching and recycling of Christmas trees.
Collections will take place beginning on Wednesday, January 2 through Saturday, January 19, 2013.
Residents are encouraged to put out their discarded trees at curbside as early as possible during the collection period.
DSNY asks residents to remove all tree stands, tinsel, lights, and ornaments from trees before placing them out for collection. DO NOT place trees in plastic bags. Trees will be chipped into mulch that will be distributed to parks, playing fields, and community gardens throughout the city.
New Yorkers can also participate in NYC Parks & Recreation Mulchfest by bringing their holiday trees to designated sites throughout the five boroughs on Saturday or Sunday, January 12 & 13, 2013, from 10 am to 2 pm.
All of the trees will be chipped into mulch that will be used as ground cover to nourish plantings across the City. Before dropping off your tree, please remove all tree stands, tinsel, lights, and ornaments from trees.
Free mulch will be available at Mulchfest locations —bring a bag if you would like to take home some mulch.
Councilman Recchia, left, and Senator Adams, right.
Coney Island City Councilman Domenic Recchia is reportedly eyeing the Brooklyn Borough President’s office, potentially pitting Northern and Central Brooklyn versus Southern Brooklyn for the largely powerless position.
Sources told the Daily News that Recchia plans to announce his candidacy in January, confirming speculation that the term-limited pol was considering the seat after putting the kibosh on a rumored comptroller run.
Recchia has served in the City Council since 2002 and, in 2010, he became chair of the Council Finance Committee, one of the most powerful positions in the legislative body, responsible for directing taxpayer funds to nonprofits and community groups.
Recchia will be term-limited out at the end of 2013, as will the sitting beep, Marty Markowitz. Recchia was widely believed to be mulling a run for city comptroller, but squashed that rumor earlier this month when Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer announced his candidacy for the seat and obtained Recchia’s endorsement.
We’re just going to have to file this under “Stuff I’ll never get.” A line of just more than 25 people has turned up in front of Modell’s Sporting Goods (8959 Bay Parkway) in Caesar’s Bay, according to tipster Bart E. They’ve brought lawn chairs and tents and whatever else they need to get through the frigid temps for the next 24 hours or so.
The first in line arrived yesterday, around 3:00 p.m.
Why? Apparently the store will begin selling Nike Air Jordan Retro 11 sneakers tomorrow. From what I understand, they cost upwards of $300 and look like this:
Man, ain’t that nice? So cool, right?
Wait, what the heck are we talking about again? People are camping out 24 hours in advance for a generic looking glob of plastic, rubber and nylon stitched together by a one-handed Vietnamese pre-schooler?
Yup, definitely in the “Things I’ll never get” file, right behind Fabergé eggs.
Whether by car, bus or subway, getting around in New York City is about to become a little more expensive.
The MTA Board approved the agency’s 2013 budget this morning, which included a set of mass transit, bridge and toll hikes across the metropolitan region.
Tomorrow, the board of the MTA will cast their votes on raising tolls on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to a whopping $15 – and local pols are fuming.
State Senator Marty Golden, Congressman Michael Grimm and Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis issued a joint statement to the board and its chairman, Joe Lhota, urging them to kill the proposal and grant Brooklynites and Staten Islanders a measure of economic relief.
The statement follows a letter sent by the trio on December 13. In it, they wrote:
This proposal will hit the pockets of all New Yorkers who traverse the Verrazano Bridge for the purposes of work, shopping, medical care, family visits, and more. It is just unacceptable that the most expensive bridge in the world, already at $13, has the potential to become more expensive.
… In these difficult economic times, the last thing New Yorkers need is the burden of additional travel expenses. The proposal now before the MTA will further strain the budgets of millions of New York’s families and cause a loss of revenue for countless businesses. This proposal is not only misguided, it is something New Yorkers are not willing to accept.
The current proposal calls for raising the toll $2, from $13 to $15. The increase would be $1.06 for those with E-Z Pass.
As Hurricane Sandy rolls in, we’re working overtime over at our sister site, Sheepshead Bites. We’ve created a Hurricane Sandy resource page filled with up-to-the-minute bulletins, alerts and news for all of Southern Brooklyn to let you know about the latest information from city and state sources.
We’ve also got a live video feed and chat box, an interactive storm tracker, a transit tracker and continuously updated information about closures, service cancellations and more.
CompStat reports are produced by the New York Police Department on a weekly basis. We publish the week’s statistics for the 62nd Precinct reports every Friday. The 62nd Precinct is the police command responsible for Bensonhurst and Bath Beach.
Mitik, the adorable 236 pound Walrus seen in the video above, is beginning to thrive at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium in Coney Island.
According to the New York Aquarium, Mitik, or Mit as he is more affectionately known, was discovered on the coast of Alaska by fishermen, tragically orphaned. After receiving care for a variety of health problems at the Alaska SeaLife Center, Mit has seemed to bounced back, and was welcomed to his new home in Coney Island, where he receives constant care.
In a report in the New York Times, Mit’s favorite toy is a plastic bucket, he loves swimming in the large pool at the aquarium, and he has finally gotten a taste of his first solid food, surf clams.
“He’s hitting every milestone we’re hoping to see,” said Jon Forrest Dohlin, director of the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, to the Times. “He still has some issues with his bladder, but they are trending in the right direction. Behaviorally, he’s doing great and we’re feeling good about his progress.”
The Times, in recognizing Mit’s unlimited level of cuteness, had this to say about what it’s like to be around Mit,
With his curious, playful personality and expressive eyes, it is tempting, aquarium officials say, to think of Mit as a big, slippery toddler. (The giant bottle of formula does not help.) He still needs — and receives — a lot of human contact. “He likes us to be physical, grab his flippers and roll him over,” Ms. Hiatt said. “And he still really loves to snuggle in close.”
Those dying to get a peek of the snuggable baby walrus Mit will have to wait to till next spring when he joins the other walruses at the aquarium, including 17-year-old Kulu and 30-year-old Nuka.
State Senator Marty Golden and his upstart opponent, Democrat Andrew Gounardes, faced off at a debate last night hosted by the Dyker Heights Civic Association.
The 30-minute debate got heated at points, with Golden and Gounardes occasionally raising their voices and breaking with debate protocol to ask each other questions or attack one another.
Among the issues discussed were gun control, women’s rights including emergency contraceptives for rape victims and fair pay, and education.
Education is how Andrew Gounardes opened the debate, attacking the 10-year incumbent for failing to bring home the bacon for local schools. He claimed Golden has voted 99 percent of the time with the Senate Republican leadership, which he said had been neglecting New York City’s schools, siphoning off funding and ignoring issues of overcapacity in New York City. The Senator responded by calling the claims “pure fantasy” and noted that he had brought funding to local schools, including adding 4,000 seats to the district.
On a separate question about education, Golden received boos for expressing his support for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s handling of the city school system, while Gounardes said the state needed to do a better job ensuring the mayor is fulfilling his obligation to students, which, he said, appears not to be the case given college-readiness rates and school standards.
The crowd appeared to overwhelmingly support Senator Golden, many sporting Golden and GOP stickers – but Gounardes also brought a contingent of supporters who cheered him on. Both appeared to have “plants” in the crowd – or people who posed questions that exposed the weakness of their opponent.
One of those questions came from a female Gounardes supporter, who asked Golden if he supported Missouri Congressman Todd Akin’s statements that rape victims should not have access to emergency contraceptives. It seemed Golden was pretending not to hear the question, and then rephrased it as “Should [rape victims] get emergency services immediately upon rape? Yes, they should.”
Gounardes won a round of applause for immediately shooting back that Golden had voted three times against a bill that would provide contraceptives to rape victims.
The insurgent opponent also won accolades when Golden made a few verbal stumbles, such as suggesting that New Yorkers can’t afford to provide equal pay to women and that importing oil and gas from Canada qualified as energy independence.
Golden, for his part, effectively presented his opponent as rabidly anti-gun and portrayed his own record on gun safety as a more effective and moderate approach. He also scored points by aligning Gounardes’ view on renewable energy investments with that of the Obama Administration, which has recently taken flak for providing $90 billion in breaks for green energy industries with little return shown on the investment.
Watch the debate above – it will likely be the most expansive, interesting and exciting to happen this year in Southern Brooklyn.
Alert issued 9/8/12 at 10:40 AM. The National Weather Service has issued a Tornado Warning until 11 AM for Brooklyn and Queens. Immediately go indoors and/or to the lowest floor of your building for shelter. Stay away from windows.
