Public art just got another boost this last weekend thanks to the efforts of Bruce Grieg and Kady Perry, and the Endicott Boys/Girls Club. Grieg is a recognized muralist from New Zealand who lives in Binghamton part-time; he works with an air brush and captures remarkable emotion in his subjects. Perry has done a number of mural in the Triple Cities area, including on the flood wall honoring flood recovery with a “helping hands” theme.
We just wrapped up our Summer Youth Employment Program and have plans to hire a youth assistant during the Fall and Spring. We have begun to erect a smaller hoophouse for storing our transplants and the larger greenhouse will be converted into a more intensive,extended season growing space.
Varick, the portion of land behind Tudor St that we lease from the City of Binghamton, has begun development. Our 2012 summer youth crew built sheet mulched beds and bio-intensive beds that will provide more growing space in the spring.
Our farm stand is growing as well! Every Wednesday from 4-6pm we sell freshly harvested vegetables and get to meet more and more of our neighbors. Some of the produce
A date has been set for a discussion of the book Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity–A Community Resilience Guide by Michael Shuman. Peg Johnston put out a call for people to read this book “because the missing piece for development of Binghamton is often the lack of capital–there has to be ways for ordinary people to invest locally.”
This will be the kickoff for a new community gathering, the Binghamton Cabaret, styled after the Science Cabaret. Topics relating to Binghamton development will be offered for open discussion, regularly on the Third Tuesday of the month (with changes for holidays) at the Lost Dog Cafe Violet Room. David Sloan Wilson of the Binghamton Neighborhood Project and David Currie of BRSC invite the public to the Binghamton Cabaret.
Participants may have dinner at the Lost Dog ahead of the meeting or just attend the meeting at 7:30pm
You can give input to the signage designs for the Rail Trails:
BMTS is in need of your input and opinion in the development of the Greenway Sign Plan and Design Guide. For project details, see “About the Greenway Sign Plan & Design Guide” at the bottom of this email.
We request that you go to the website at https://sites.google.com/site/bmtsgreenway/, click inside the photo above “Design Decisions”, and take just a few minutes to fill out the survey regarding the regional greenway system (RAIL TRAIL) name, sign design, and logo design.
Please complete the survey by Monday, July 16th. That will allow our consultants to provide another draft of logos for comment in advance of our working meeting with them, tentatively scheduled for July 26th.
About the Greenway Sign Plan & Design Guide
BMTS is contracting for professional services to create a Sign Plan and Design Guide for the Greater Binghamton Greenway (GBG) regional walking and biking trail system located within the Binghamton Urban Area. This task is included in the 2012-2013 BMTS Unified Planning Work Program, and will be funded by Federal Highway Administration Metropolitan Planning Program funds.
The overall objective of the project is to have this trail system recognized as a regional, contiguous system, as well as facilitate user access to and circulation throughout the GBG, by creating a uniform design & plan for wayfinding, regulatory, warning, and interpretive signing. The geographic region of the study will include the Binghamton Metropolitan Transportation Study (BMTS) Urban Area Boundary.
Hey folks! The Many Hands Food Co-op (MHFC) is looking for volunteers to help canvas in Binghamton this upcoming weekend, Friday April 13th and Saturday April 14th! MHFC is a start-up project, meaning that the Binghamton community is currently looking to run a coop soon in downtown Binghamton!
To register please click below- it takes less than 2 minutes:
https://docs.google.com/a/binghamton.edu/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey…
Gateway to Binghamton:
Mayor Ryan and Partners Break Ground on Court Street Gateway Project
Improvements include the street’s first repaving in 25 years, multi-faceted streetscaping, reverse angle parking, traffic calming devices, water main valve replacements and a modern roundabout at the Court/Chenango Street intersection
$2.7 million Phase I investment funded 95% by federal and state funds and will support 23 local jobs; roundabout feature will improve traffic flow, accounts for just $37,500 in City funds and will save more than $260,000 over 20 years
Project one of many City has undertaken in recent years with federal and state funds; despite strong advocacy by Congressman Hinchey, Senator Gillibrand and others, such projects have slowed in last two years due to budget cuts in Washington and Albany
The magazine Dwell is sponsoring a contest to save historic buildings and the Inebriate Asylum or Castle on the Hill has been nominated by PAST. Please, Please, Please, vote for this project!
at this link: http://new.dwell.com/contests/rethinking-preservation/submissions/new-york-state-inebriate-asylum
New York State Inebriate Asylum
The New York State Inebriate Asylum, built in 1858, was the very first facility in this country for the medical treatment of alcoholism. It was founded by J. Edward Turner and designed in the Castellated Gothic style by architect Isaac Gale Perry, who would go on to become one of New York State’s leading architects. Fifteen years after admitting its first patients, the Inebriate Asylum closed and the facility was converted into an “Asylum for the Chronic Insane.” As a mental institution it continued as the central building of an expanding, self-sufficient mental health campus that at its peak housed 4,000 patients. In 1993 part of the façade collapsed, the building was evacuated and it has remained vacant ever since. In 2008 its 150th anniversary was celebrated. This building should be preserved because of its historical pioneering significance in the treatment of alcoholism, its strikingly unique style of architecture, and its service as a mental health institution for well over a century. Known locally as the “Castle on the Hill,” the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is a National Historic Landmark, it is abandoned and deteriorating.
by Dave Duncan
previously printed in the Bridge newspaper, but still timely
For many years the municipalities of Broome County and the County itself have been suffering from a drastic income shortfall. Reasons include the decline in population related to the manufacturing plants that have relocated elsewhere, the declining real incomes of the remaining workers, an increase in lower paying services jobs, the aging of the population and the necessity of maintaining the crumbling infrastructure. The problem cannot solely be attributed solely to current or past elected officials.
We are now in a position where our representatives and the Chamber of Commerce tell us, that we, the average residents must pay more taxes, while at the same time having our basic services cut. Each new budding politician campaigns on the platform of correcting the mismanagement of prior office holders but when it comes to protecting the interests of the financial and corporate elites, nothing changes. Yet there is another, unexplored, part of the equation.
Binghamton City Council discusses Fracking Ban Ordinance and takes a vote– 12-21-11– Councilman Sean Massey speaks and Councilwoman Terri Rennia speaks.