Twenty Feet of Heaven (4)

It has been fifteen lunar cycles since Susan and I first crossed the threshold of our Brooklyn home and became the newest members of the Cypress Hills community. How quickly the moon waxed and waned, in turn a year of seasons: the Hunters Moon brought brown oak leaves off our single tree, from the Wolf Moon came a howling wind taxing our heat pumps to the limit, the Egg Moon promised warmth but gave only rain. And here we are again at the grain moons of bounty.

Through this year we have opened our eyes to take in the textures of our neighborhood, listened to the ever-pulsing heartbeat of these streets, and studied the histories, economies and cultures of East New York. Nothing says “Brooklyn” more than the plural form of those nouns: we are nothing here but a massive bundle of writhing diversity.

Like young saplings we put out new roots into the soil of this place. We discovered Catherine and her ARTS East New York program for local children. Within the walls of that center we were transformed by black artists’ works, nurtured by jazz brunches and gained a vision of the future in the CivLabs program. We followed the stories and footsteps of Zulmilena who channels her passionate love of the architecture hidden everywhere in the Preserving East New York non-profit. Now we look up from the streetscape and see anew the handiwork of craftsmen who built this town a century ago. We were drawn to the civic engagement of Al at the Committee for Community Advancement and to the leadership of Brother Paul who tirelessly plows the fallow fields of the citizenry, planting seeds of ownership, self respect and personal responsibility. Together they make us feel that we who live here can bend the future toward a vision of vibrancy. With our collective action the lumbering beaurocracy of City Hall and Albany will not have the last word on our community. We have taken streetside cooking lessons at the Fulton farmers’ market outside the offices of the Cypress Hills Development Corporation. There Julia offers up practical aids to distressed homeowners and guides multi-organizational projects to build new community-appropriate housing. There are so many ideas taking root in East New York today.

The growing season is upon us in so many ways. A block-wide concrete foundation is curing where a new K-8 school will soon rise just a few blocks away. In the papers all the pols smile for the official groundbreaking ceremony. Giant orange construction equipment is sinking corner posts for a new apartment complex a thousand yards beyond the school. Century-old wooden water main sections are cast up on the sidewalk as new, fancy, lined cast iron pipes are laid in an ever-moving trench inching along Atlantic Avenue. Behind the wound, fresh tar and crisp new curbing lies like a fresh scar on the street. These are the first crops from the massive East New York Community Plan — otherwise known as “the rezoning”.

Meanwhile, the 20th anniversary crop is coming in at East New York Farms down at the United Community Centers. There are more community gardens in East New York than any other part of the city, and the stalls there offer chard, tomatoes, watermelon, summer squash, long beans and more. We find okra and caraili (which we are still too timid to buy). The kindly vendor says the okra needs a creole gumbo and the bitter melon will cure diabetes! The hyper-local produce is augmented by fruits and honey trucked in from upstate farms. A dj spins caribbean music, and a fresh scrubbed staff of local young folk earn $8/hr manning booths, put up the hand pained “No bikes or skate boards” sign, and keep all running smoothly. East New York is blooming.

A week ago we traveled up to Randall’s Island to get a tour of the Ciy Park’s green rooftop experimental station. Between the Hell Gate and Triborough bridges on three flat roofs Max has an experiment in progress for every conceivable way to garden on top of a building. There are hydroponic towers overflowing with greens, a grape arbor, a half-dozen bee hives, a pair of 30-gallon composters, a hanging garden wildflowers, sedum…And while it is all to make New York Parks greener and more sustainable, the team is eager to share information (as well as mulch and clean dirt) with anyone who wants it. We will be back in the spring with our wheelbarrow.
Closer to home we have been doing our own cultivation. The tweny foot by ten foot “front yard” here has responded to a soil transplant and Susan’s tireless husbandry. The centerpiece giant hyssop is alive with bumble bees as well as the occasional flutter of larger wings. And every conceivable space is filled now with a riot of leafy reds and greens. The whole melange is topped with blossoms in a purple-pink palette. Even a few edibles have managed to claim some territory: tomato plants, a pesto factory, kale, and the mojito-plant (carefully segregated in a pot).

A set of recovered tin ceiling panels are being repurposed to become giant bakyard panters. The fleur de lis motif reminds us of the City of New Orleans which yielded up a new liver for Susan just three years ago this week. Now this square of old metal will have its own rebirth as farmland. The “back forty” is actually six yards by 18 inches next to the carpark. But anticipation runs high that next year’s crop will be even more amazing. Perhaps there will be some okra.
