Open Space Alliance ::

Market watch: Greenpoint residents want farmers market in McGolrick Park

January, 28 2012 • BROOKLYN PAPER

By Aaron Short Veggie-loving North Brooklynites are trying to put the green in Greenpoint. Residents of the borough's so-called "garden spot" want to see a new farmers market in McGolrick Park...

Get Ready for the Opening of McCarren Park Pool: Learn to Swim for Adults, Children and Toddlers

January, 21 2012

NYC Parks is offering free swim instruction at our indoor pools this winter. Learn to Swim Saturday classes are available for toddlers (1½-5), children (6-17), and adults (18+) and weekday...

Going Green: North Brooklyn Locals, Activists Want More Open Space

January, 12 2012 • The Brooklyn Ink

By Brian Eha The bright sun was perfect for a bit of shopping. Bundled up in a coat and scarf, Heather Roslund joined the Saturday crowd that was walking the gauntlet of stalls on Union...

Lives Overlap on the Track in McCarren Park

December, 25 2011 • NY Times

By SARA BECK Aristotle believed circular motion to be a distinguishing characteristic of perfection. If you have ever seen a world-class runner cruise around a track, you may well agree that a...

City Fine Will Fund $7 Million in Green Projects Around Newtown Creek: Projects include boathouse, park and wetlands restoration

November, 8 2011 • DAILY NEWS

BY Clare Trapasso The Queens and Brooklyn communities surrounding one of the city's most contaminated waterways are about to get greener. The state recently chose which projects to fund along...

State Approves Greenpoint Boathouse

October, 27 2011 • Brooklyn Paper

By Aaron Short Greenpoint is getting its boathouse after all. State officials overruled their city counterparts this week, approving the $3-million boathouse and education center at the edge of...

Youth and Community Members Care for Fifty Local Trees

October, 13 2011 • Human Impacts Institute

Join the Human Impacts Institute’s next tree care opportunity at our FREE, open-to-the-public tree stewardship workshop on Saturday, November 5th, 2011 from 10:30am-12pm at the Greenpoint...

Williamsburg Concert 'Goers'

October, 12 2011 • NY POST

By RICH CALDER A nonprofit group that runs a popular concert series on Brooklyn's Williamsburg waterfront...

City Workers Remove Yiddish Signs, Irking Hasidics

October, 6 2011 • The Brooklyn Paper

BY Trevor Kapp and Tracy Connor City workers have removed signs warning women in a Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn to step aside for men. But the Parks Department says the teardowns in South...

Click This Story to Find Out All About McCarren Park’s New Free Wi-Fi

September, 29 2011 • Brooklyn Paper

By Natalie O’Neill Nigerian princes, get ready! The city has quietly flipped on the free wireless Internet in McCarren Park — making it the borough’s first park to score...

Cooper Park renovation moving ahead with conceptual plan

September, 9 2011 • Greenpoint Star

by Lisa A. Fraser Many Cooper Park Houses residents were thrilled to learn on Wednesday that some of their ideas to help make Cooper Park their park, could be implemented as part of the park's...

Apply Now for a Change by Us NYC Grant

August, 9 2011 • Change by Us NYC

Do you have a great idea for a project that: Encourages composting? Improves tree or park stewardship? Enhances gardening or agriculture in your community? Change by Us NYC is the City\'s new...

GreenHomeNYC is searching for ten environmentally conscious design students

August, 3 2011

GreenHomeNYC is searching for ten environmentally conscious design students to design and construct a garden lounge at this fall's The New New York event. Students will have access to a wealth...

Trees Need Water Too!

August, 2 2011 • NYC Parks

The Parks Department encourages all New Yorkers - from local business owners to building supers to homeowners to neighborhood residents - to join the bucket brigade. New Yorkers can use a bucket,...

Open Space Alliance Switches It Up with Summer Symphony

July, 13 2011 • Greenpoint Gazette

by McCarton Ackerman North Brooklynites who requested more variety from the summer concert series from Open Space Alliance (OSA) got their wish on Tuesday evening, July 12th. In a departure...

Free Wi-Fi service coming to McCarren Park!

June, 9 2011 • NY Times

NY TIMES (City Room): Wi-Fi Set to Expand to 19 More City Parks By MATT FLEGENHEIMER Free Wi-Fi service will be made available in 19 more city parks, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced on...

American Playground is Back!

May, 26 2011 • Greenpoint Gazette

May 27, 2011 by McCarton Ackerman Happy children scampered about American Playground last Friday, as one of Greenpoint’s most iconic play spots was re-opened to the public. Several local...

Councilmember Levin and OSA Re-Open Greenpoint's American Playground

May, 17 2011

On Thursday, May 19th at 9:30am, Councilmember Stephen Levin (D-Greenpoint) and the Open Space Alliance (OSA), along with Greenpoint parents, will announce that American Playground will...

Ninth Annual Parks Advocacy Day

May, 3 2011 • 10-2:00 pm

NY4P announced that the ninth annual Parks Advocacy Day will be on Wednesday, May 4 from 10:00AM-2:00PM. To complement the release of PlaNYC 2.0 on Earth Day 2011, the theme for this year's...

Coclico And OSA Partner To Help Green North Brooklyn In Honor Of Earth Day

April, 13 2011 • Fashion News

Green Day Eco-friendly footwear company Coclico and The Open Space Alliance want to make New York a little greener. On Earth Day, April 22, the brand is throwing an in-store shopping party at...

Tennis Bubble at Greenpoint's McCarren Park An ace for players or courting disaster with huge fees?

April, 12 2011 • DAILY NEWS

BY Erin Durkin There's a tennis volley of a different kind getting started at McCarren Park. The city wants to build a tennis bubble over the Greenpoint park's courts - allowing people to play...

Run Down Rodney Park to be Spruced Up Next Year

April, 8 2011 • BROOKLYN PAPER

By Aaron Short The city will overhaul Rodney Park, a decrepit Williamsburg playground next to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway near Rodney Street, giving kids a sparkling $450,000 play area. The...

Nurturing Plants And Children

April, 6 2011 • Submitted by Thomas Ching

Since June 2005, Gardener David Wysocki has been responsible for the revitalization and beautification of the 9-acre Monsignor McGolrick Park in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. During this time, he tended...

MTA Will Move its Greenpoint Bus Fleet to Make Room for Park

April, 3 2011 • BROOKLYN PAPER

By Aaron Short Park that park in Greenpoint! The MTA has finally agreed to move buses from a Commercial Street lot that locals have long desired for a waterfront park. MTA Chairman Jay Walder...

Honoring Garden Spot Gardener David Wysocki

March, 30 2011 • Greenpoint Gazette

By Jeff Mann “When I got here, I came to do a job, to make this place a little bit nicer. I had no idea that I’d fall in love with you guys; that I’d fall in love with the...

Indoor Tennis Demand Bubbles Up at McCarren

March, 16 2011 • Greenpoint Gazette

Tennis players in our neighborhood have it rough, to say the least. This year, the cost for the mandatory permit to play on public courts in New York City doubled from $100 to $200 (or from $7 to...

Border War! Queens Rejects Relocation of Greenpoint Buses to Maspeth

March, 13 2011 • The Brooklyn Paper

The city’s plan to move MTA buses from Brooklyn to Queens has ignited a border war! Greenpoint residents pushed the city to secure a deal with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to...

The Northside Town Hall Community and Cultural Center's Arts Happening Series is accepting applications. DEADLINE IS JANUARY 21st!!!

January, 12 2011

Download RFP here.

Green Dreams in Greenpoint - Locals Choose Projects to Get $7M in State Cash

January, 11 2011 • Brooklyn Paper

Greenpoint has spoken - and it wants new wetlands, more trees and a new boathouse along the Newtown Creek. The City Parks Foundation released the results of a poll conducted last month that...

NYC is considering increasing fees for tennis permits

January, 9 2011

A public hearing will be held on January 25, 2011 at Chelsea Recreation Center, 430 West 25th Street, New York, NY 10010 at 11:00 A.M. People who want to testify should notify Laura LaVelle at...

City Parks Foundation Announces Results: Newtown Creek Community Project Preferences

January, 9 2011

Please click here to download a PDF of the results. ~ A note from the City Parks Foundation Executive Director: Attached are the results from the sessions on December 1st and 2nd, when community...

Of All the Places to Kayak, Spots Reopen at Superfund Site

December, 15 2010 • NY Times

By ANDY NEWMAN Everybody in the glop! Bowing to public outcry, the city will reopen two kayak launch spots along the newly Superfund-designated Newtown Creek, Assemblyman Joseph...

Up to $5,000 for your Community Improvement Project!

December, 9 2010

The Open Space for North Brooklyn encourages EVERYONE to apply for a Citizen's Committee Grant; help make North Brooklyn better! ~ The Citizen's Committee, a non profit working within NYC for...

Want to spend $7 million on our local Parks and Waterfront Access?

November, 29 2010 • OSA

This week, you have a chance to express your preferences about which of 22 projects you would like the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to fund. Your preferences will be an...

Clare Weiss Emerging Artist Award

November, 29 2010

CLARE WEISS EMERGING ARTIST AWARD (Download PDF)2011 Application GuidelinesDEADLINE: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 (due by 5 p.m.)INSTALLATION: Thursday, May 19, 2011 (subject to change)THE AWARDClare...

Cuomo Announces Settlement With ExxonMobil to Provide for Comprehensive Cleanup of Greenpoint Oil Spill

November, 17 2010 • NYS Office of the Attorney General website (www.ag.ny.gov)

Oil giant will pay for cleanup of spill as well as related soil and environmental contamination in Brooklyn community ~ ExxonMobil will also pay $25 million for penalties, costs and restoration...

Andrew Cuomo: Cleaner, Greener NY--The New NY Agenda

November, 17 2010 • The New NY Agenda

Private-Public Park Partnerships New York State Office of Parks has the obligation to provide responsible stewardship of the resources under its jurisdiction. That is why the NY Office of...

Inside the City's McCarren Park Pool Project

November, 3 2010 • Brooklyn Paper

That pile of dirt and concrete slabs over there? That'll be a shallow platform complete with shower fountains at the front of the new McCarren Park Pool. The spare brick façade with exposed...

City has $7M to Spend on Greenpoint Waterfront

November, 2 2010 • Brooklyn Paper

The city's failure to adhere to pollution laws is about to be good news for Greenpoint. Thanks to a 2008 settlement with the state for fouling local waters during its upgrade of an area sewage...

EPA Makes Final Decision: Newtown Creek is Added to Superfund List

September, 26 2010 • EPA

Contact: John Senn, EPA, (212) 637-3667, senn.john@epa.gov (New York, N.Y. - Sept. 27, 2010) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today added Newtown Creek in New York City to its...

Can compassion be transmitted with scent?

September, 6 2010

A SMELL SO SWEET: PERFUME FOUNTAIN IN PUBLIC PARK BROOKLYN, NY - AUGUST 25, 2010 - Through November 6th, the North Brooklyn community and visitors alike will be pleasantly greeted by an...

Tennis lessons in McCarren available again!

August, 26 2010

Please go to www.BumbleBeeTennis.com for more information.

NY1: Tennis Courts Undergo Renovation At McCarren Park

August, 25 2010 • NY1

Tennis courts are getting renovated in McCarren Park in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, courtesy of the "Fresh Courts" program. The effort, sponsored by American Express and the United States Tennis...

OSA Presents the Williamsburg Waterfront's First Show, A Success!

June, 19 2010 • NY Post

Grizzly Bear play the picturesque venue at North Eighth Street and Kent Avenue again today, part of the Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn summer series, also featuring Karen Elson and Band...

Historically Speaking: Brooklyn's Retiring Parks Commissioner

May, 27 2010 • Brooklyn Eagle

Julie Spiegel, 64, or "The Mirror" as his former boss, Henry Stern, referred to him, descended from two Polish Freedom Fighters: his parents. This heritage prepared him for the complex job of...

BEST PLAYGROUND ON A HOT DAY

May, 25 2010 • NY Daily News

American Playground, Franklin St. between Milton and Noble Sts., Greenpoint. Beat the heat by hanging out in this well-shaded playground with plenty of things to do for kids of all ages. A large...

The Tennis Renovation

May, 10 2010 • brownstoner.com

A couple of weekends ago we played in the first annual Williamsburg Open in McCarren Park to raise money for the first phase of the court renovations. This past weekend, a die-hard group of...

The Mayor’s Pet Projects

May, 10 2010 • New York Observer

Mayor Bloomberg's presentation of his budget last week was not an uplifting one. Standing before a room packed full of reporters in the West Wing of City Hall, he clicked through a PowerPoint...

Faith No More

March, 9 2010 • Rolling Stone

Faith No More to play at the East River State Park, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. ~ Tickets for the Brooklyn show, which will benefit the Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn, go on sale March 19th,...

Calling All Artists and Creative Parkies

January, 31 2010

The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and the Black History Month Committee invite you submit your work for an exhibition in the Arsenal Gallery at Central Park. "HERITAGE OF...

City 'dives in' to McCarren Pool renovation

December, 7 2009 • Greenpoint Star

On Monday, Mayor Bloomberg, Assemblymember Joseph Lentol, Borough President Marty Markowitz, Councilmember David Yassky, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Julius Spiegel, OSA Executive Director...

North Brooklyn Unites for Open Space

November, 30 2009

A meeting of the Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn proved that what the neighborhood lacks in park space, it makes up for in community-minded residents who want to make the best of existing...

Williamsburg Open A Success!

October, 11 2009 • Flickr

After the completion of the First Ever Williamsburg Open, the McCarren Tennis Organization is success! See pictures here.

McCarren Tennis Rallies to Fix Courts

October, 6 2009 • The New York Post/Courier-Life

Williamsburg resident Sean Hoess has been playing tennis on McCarren Park’s popular courts for the past seven years. On a warm fall weekend, the courts could often be occupied for several...

Tennis, everyone? That’s what one Williamsburg group wants

September, 27 2009 • The Brooklyn Paper

North Brooklyn tennis players are serving up a plan that could turn McCarren Park’s crumbling courts into a racquet sports Mecca. The newly formed McCarren Tennis group is raising cash to...

July 2009-- Construction Scheduled for Bushwick Inlet Park

July, 6 2009

July 6, 2009- The City Department of Parks broke ground on the new Inlet Park. Mayor Bloomberg visited the park on Kent Avenue between North 9th and North 10th Streets in Williamsburg where...

North Brooklyn Now a Little Bit Optimistic About Promised Parks

July, 6 2009 • New York OBSERVER

By Joe PompeoWhen news of massive cuts to the Parks Department budget broke last month, the future of some open-space projects began to look bleak. One of those was Bushwick Inlet Park, a planned...

Isn't it Quidditch? Son of Parks Commish Reenacts Rolling Caper

July, 6 2009 • New York OBSERVER

By Reid Pillifant "Two ferocious teams have gathered here today, on this field, to compete in the greatest sport in history," announced Alex Benepe, son of Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, at a...

First Flea of the Season at the Market in Mc Carren

April, 30 2009 • New York Post

The first day of the Artist and Fleas Market in McCarren Park went off with a hitch, as well as the introduction of a new vendor to the park, Brooklyn Standard (also affiliated with Brooklyn Label...

A Million Trees ! MillionTreesNYC

April, 24 2009

On Friday, April 24th over 500 volunteers - including public school 5th graders, corporate volunteers and NYCHA residents competed the first Arbor Day Tree-mendous Challenge starting in North...

Artist & Fleas Coming to McCarren Park starting May 2, 2009

April, 13 2009

Market in McCarren - a weekly outdoor independent artist and designer market in Brooklyn's McCarren Park in partnership with the Open Space Alliance of North Brooklyn (OSA) beginning Saturday, May...

GreenPoint Wine Helps OSA Make a GreenPoint

April, 1 2009 • Edible Brooklyn

In April 2009's Edible Brooklyn Greenpoint Wine's James Gosper helps "shed a little local shade" in Greenpoint. See the article here.

A New Home for Outdoor Concerts in Williamsburg

March, 26 2009 • New York Times

“This (concerts at the East River State Park in Brooklyn, New York) is the continuation of McCarren Park Pool,” Ms. Thayer said. “It’s different, but it has its own...

Community Committee Holds Formation Meeting

February, 24 2009

OSA is pleased to have hosted its first Community Committee meeting on November 3, 2008. The strong turn-out of over 60 people shows the importance of parks to our...

Getting Paid to Make Art in the Park

February, 24 2009 • Bushwick BK.com

Brooklyn Councilman David Yassky and the Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn, a parks advocacy group, are partnering up with Percent for Arts, Urban Art Program and Art in the Park... read more...

OSA Manages 2008 McCarren Pool Concert Venue

October, 21 2008

McCarren Park is the largest park in North Brooklyn and serves as more than a local park for Williamsburg and Greenpoint - it is a regional park for neighboring communities. ...

OSA Co-Sponsors Sunday in the Park at Domino

October, 18 2008

On Sunday October 19th OSA along with the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative and the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance in cooperation with the developers who own the Domino site created a temporary public...

Announcing OSA's Executive Director

June, 9 2008

OSA is very pleased to announce Stephanie Thayer has been hired to be the Executive Director of the Open Space Alliance and the Director of North Brooklyn Parks with the New York City Department of...

OSA Co-Sponsors McCarren Park Pool Community Design

May, 30 2008

We at OSA could not be more thrilled at the results of our first partnership event with the Parks Department and Community Board 1. In preparing for the event everyone was excited about the pool...

OSA receives funding from Assemblyman Joe Lentol

May, 30 2008

OSA is THRILLED to announce our first funding from an elected official has come from Assemblyman Joe Lentol. Long a champion for parks and open space issues in our community- Assemblyman Lentol has...

Brooklyn Greenway Planning Charrette

May, 30 2008

OSA is pleased to have assisted our Community Committee member, the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI), in hosting a community planning workshop for three miles of bikeway that will run parallel...

McCarren Park Pool Survey

May, 30 2008

OSA is grateful for Mayor Bloomberg's $50 million allocation to fund long held community goals expressed by Community Board #1 for the renovation of the McCarren Park Pool. These goals include: -...

East River State Park Design Community Forum

May, 30 2008

On September 20th, 2007 OSA assisted our Community Committee organizations Neighbors Allied for Good Growth and Friends of BEDT Park (the State Park located on Kent Avenue between North 7th and...

Domino Sugar Factory Site Tour

May, 30 2008

On October 23, 2007, OSA provided neighborhood residents with the opportunity to tour part of the Domino Sugar Factory site, and speak with the developer, Community Preservation Corp., about their...

OSA Signs Agreement with City

May, 5 2008

On May 6th, 2008, OSA and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation signed a joint-license agreement recognizing OSA as the official parks conservancy for North Brooklyn. The...