The Williamsburg Art Scene: It started as a village within the town of Bushwick, now a neighboring community. Williamsburg was industrial with a shipyard and many factories–all are now gone except for the old Domino Sugar factory. Williamsburg has been home to many ethnic enclaves including Hasidic Jews, Italians, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. Now, it’s also an influential hub for indie rock, hipster culture and fine, contemporary art. All of this is associated with its main thoroughfare, Bedford Avenue. Join Savona Bailey-McClain, curator and arts producer. Stroll through one of the hippest communities in Brooklyn. Mixed between great cafes, restaurants and shops are wonderful galleries showing forward thinking artwork.

Time: 12:00pm-2:00pm

Date: Sunday May 6, 2012

Event Route: Bedford Avenue and N. 7th Street, “L” train from Manhattan to Bedford Avenue (1st stop in Brooklyn).

Host Organization:   Savona Bailey-McClain, Executive Director of the West Harlem Art Fund, Inc. and NYC Arts! (Walking tour initiative of the West Harlem Art Fund)

Registration: No need to sign up, just show up at the posted meeting location.

Accessibility: Not Accessible – stairs, obstacles, uneven terrain, steep paths

The World’s Most Talked-About Bike Lane & The (Former) Home of the Death-o-Meter

How did an eight-foot wide strip of green paint, less than a mile long (which by most accounts transformed Brooklyn’s Prospect Park West from a three-lane, speeding-plagued arterial into a traffic-calmed neighborhood street appreciably safer for biking, walking and driving) become the front line in the global battle over bike lanes? How is Grand Army Plaza, one-time home of the Death-o-Meter and written off for decades as an inhospitable and impenetrable “traffic peril,” being transformed into Brooklyn’s pedestrian- and bike-friendly town square? Pump up your tires, strap on your helmet and join us for a family-friendly exploration of two of Brooklyn’s most startling public-space transformations.

Time: 12:00pm-1:30pm

Date: Sunday May 6, 2012

Event Start/End:  Prospect Park West & Union Street, adjacent to Prospect Park

Host Organization: Eric McClure (Park Slope Neighbors) & Doug Gordon (BrooklynSpoke)

Registration: No need to sign up, just show up at the posted meeting location.

Accessibility: Fully Accessible – This is a bike ride that will be suitable for all ages.

Get to know the friendly, historic neighborhood of Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, situated on the “Lower East Side” of Prospect Park. We’ll peruse some beautiful brownstones, intersections of interest, community art projects and great green spaces that have made little PLG a gem of a district for generations of residents and passers-by. See where a train went off the tracks in 1918, streets that are being re-imagined today and stately 19th century homes that still stand.

Every day, all over the city, Transportation Alternatives is working to revitalize New York City’s neighborhoods and restore a vibrant culture of street life. This walk features one of the many communities where T.A. advocacy brings safe and healthy streets for all.

Time: 11:00am-1:00pm

Date: Sunday May 6, 2012

Event Start: SW corner of Flatbush and Ocean avenues; under stand of metal trees

Event End: Petite Blue Roost, 43 Lincoln Road, between Flatbush and Ocean avenues

Hosts: Transportation Alternatives’ Brooklyn Volunteer Committee

Registration: RSVP at http://transalt.org/events/calendar/5852

Accessibility: Fully Accessible

Transit Walk: The Transformation of Downtown Brooklyn

Public transit has defined and transformed New York City over and over again. Delve into one rich example by taking a close look at Downtown Brooklyn through the lens of mass transit. Led by educators from the New York Transit Museum, we’ll visit Court Street, Columbus Park, the commercial center at Fulton Mall, and the Transit Museum itself. Explore, observe, and discuss the impact of transit progress on this community. The tour concludes with complimentary admission to the New York Transit Museum, light refreshments, and an informal discussion. Located in an authentic 1930s subway station, the New York Transit Museum presents hands-on exhibits that celebrate the many ways that public transportation impacts New York City and its environs.

Date: Sunday May 6, 2012

Time: 10:00am-12:00pm

Event Start: Pierrepont Playground at Columbia Heights and Pierrepont Streets (on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade)

Event End: New York Transit Museum

Host Organization: New York Transit Museum

Registration: There is a limit of 25 participants. Click here to register.

Accessibility: This event is accessible and welcoming to wheelchairs, bicycles, children, & seniors.

Join Downtown Brooklyn resident, Joe Svehlak, native Brooklynite and preservationist to walk newly designed people friendly streets and plazas in his rapidly changing neighborhood. New residential towers and hotels are springing up and adding to the skyline in and around Brooklyn’s historic civic center and the grand old department stores of the busy redesigned Fulton Street Mall. View new shops and restaurants and the DeKalb Market, a great urban space with shops, entertainment, and even an urban farm. Surprises on our walk will include historic religious edifices, storefront art instillations, and landmarked former telephone company headquarters.

Time: 10:00am-12:15pm

Date: Sunday May 6, 2012

Event Start: Brooklyn Boro Hall steps, near Court & Remsen St.

Event End: DeKalb Market, Flatbush Ave & Willoughby St.

Host: Joe Svehlak, licensed NYC tour guide

Registration: No need to sign up, just show up at the posted meeting location.

Accessibility: Partially Accessible – curbs, uneven terrain, busy sidewalks 

The beautiful and historic neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights offers excellent examples of Jane Jacobs’s principles of urban diversity in action. Beginning at the steps of Brooklyn¹s Borough Hall, we will stroll through residential and commercial streets while observing and talking about how the physical environment influences social activity and even economic and cultural development, both for good and for ill. We will be stopping at several points of interest, including the famous Promenade, and end near the #2/3 subway and a nice coffeehouse.

Please wear comfortable footwear and weather-appropriate clothing, and be sure to have lots of questions. See you there!

*This walk will be happening on both May 5th, and May 6th

Date: Saturday May 5, 2012
Time: 4:30pm-6:00pm

Date: Sunday May 6, 2012
Time: 1:00pm-2:30pm

Event Start: Meet on the footsteps of Borough Hall, Brooklyn, as seen here. It’s the second stop in Brooklyn on the 2/3 subway line or the first stop on the 4/5 line and the R line.

Event End: We will end at the Clark Street station of the 2/3 subway line.

Host Organization:   Sandy Ikeda, Associate Professor of Economics at Purchase College, SUNY, where he teaches a course called “Cities, Culture, & Economy” that is based on the work of Jane Jacobs and integrates economics, social theory, and urban design. He is a resident of Brooklyn Heights and hosted a successful Jane Jacobs Walk last year.

Registration: No need to sign up, just show up at the posted meeting location.

Accessibility: Partially Accessible – curbs, uneven terrain, busy sidewalks 

Jane’s Walkers will learn the context of Brooklyn’s most controversial development project with Norman Oder, the journalist behind the Atlantic Yards Report blog and founder of New York Like a Native tours. The walk will begin near Atlantic Terminal, in front of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, Brooklyn’s iconic tower. Walkers will then dip into the revitalized Fort Greene community before traversing the area around the Barclays Center arena and the rest of the unbuilt Atlantic Yards footprint in Prospect Heights.

Time: 2:00pm-4:00pm

Date: Saturday May 5, 2012

Event Start: The Williamsburgh Savings Bank/One Hanson Place (near the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Ave.)

Event End: Corner of Dean Street and Vanderbilt Avenue, Prospect Heights

Host Organization: Norman Oder, author, Atlantic Yards Report blog, and founder of New York Like a Native tours.

Registration: No need to sign up, just show up at the posted meeting location.

Accessibility: Fully Accessible

Williamsburg Rise will be a platform for dialogue centering on the upcoming socio-economic changes converging on the neighborhood. With the sudden descent of multi-unit housing, Williamsburg’s physical appearance is not the only characteristic that will be impacted. New residents will move in, while a few of the current residents may have to move out. Walk host Sheilla Sumayang welcomes you to her neighborhood and encourages you to meet her neighbors.

*This walk will be happening 3 times, on both May 5th, and May 6th

Date: Saturday May 5, 2012
Time: 1:00pm-2:30pm

Date: Sunday May 6, 2012
Time: 11:00am-12:30pm

Date: Sunday May 6, 2012
Time: 2:00pm-3:30pm

Event Start/End:  Wythe Hotel (NW corner of Wythe Avenue and North 11 Street)/Domino Sugar Factory (NE corner of Kent Avenue and South 2nd Street)

Host Organization:  Sheilla Sumayang. Williamsburg resident, food explorer and lover of concrete jungles.

Registration: No need to sign up, just show up at the posted meeting location.

Accessibility:  Partially Accessible – curbs, uneven terrain, busy sidewalks 

Until the 1890s, the western portion of this neighborhood was known as Fulton Landing. Then, it was primarily a manufacturing district, housing warehouses and factories that made machinery, paper boxes and Brillo soap pads. With deindustrialization, DUMBO became primarily residential, when artists and other young homesteaders seeking relatively large and inexpensive spaces moved in the 1970s. The area Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass has emerged as one of New York City’s premier arts districts, with a cluster of for-profit galleries and not-for-profit institutions. Join Savona Bailey-McClain, curator and arts producer. See how this neighborhood has transformed itself into a fascinating community with great river views, galleries and funky retail shops.  

Time: 12:00pm-2:00pm

Date: Saturday May 5, 2012

Event Route:  Start at Galapagos Art Space, 16 Main Street (near Water Street) IND ”A” train to High Street and walk down to Washington Street towards Front Street or take the “F” train to York Avenue and walk across under the bridge to Main Street. End back at Galapagos Art Space, 16 Main Street.

Host Organization:   Savona Bailey-McClain, Executive Director of the West Harlem Art Fund, Inc. and NYC Arts! (Walking tour initiative of the West Harlem Art Fund)

Registration: No need to sign up, just show up at the posted meeting location.

Accessibility: Not Accessible – stairs, obstacles, uneven terrain, steep paths 

The Wallabout neighborhood, located in northern Brooklyn near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, has a rich 380 year history. This Jane’s Walk will lead participants past neighborhood landmarks and explore how these places, and the famous residents associated with them, represent the community’s social development over the centuries. The stories will begin with the area’s first European settlers, continue through the Revolutionary War, the area’s 19th century industrialization, then its eventual economic decline, and end with stories of the area’s resurgence over the past two decades.

Time: 11:00am-1:00pm

Date: Saturday May 5, 2012

Event Start/End: The Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument, Fort Greene Park /99 Ryerson St (former home of Walt Whitman)

Host Organization: Chad Purkey, of the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnerships

Registration: No need to sign up, just show up at the posted meeting location.

Accessibility:  Partially Accessible – curbs, uneven terrain, busy sidewalks 

Once part of South Brooklyn, Red Hook now combines elements of its long history with more recent trends in neighborhood change. Industry, working class housing, and maritime activity dating from the 19th century and New Deal projects like Red Hook Houses and the Goldman pool contrast with new arrivals such as boutiques and restaurants, repurposed warehouses hosting art galleries and New York institutions like Fairway, and the big box Ikea. Development tradeoffs have brought new waterside parks while vacant plots await further development. We will end at Red Hook Park where lunch can be purchased from the Red Hook Food Vendors, Ecuadoran, Columbian, and Mexican immigrants whose success adds another chapter to Red Hook’s history.

Date: Saturday May 5, 2012

Time: 10:00am-12:30pm

Event Start: Corners of Atlantic Avenue and Court Street, on the Atlantic Ave. side of Trader Joe’s

Event End: Red Hook Park

Host: Deborah Gardner, of the Roosevelt House at Hunter College

Registration: No need to RSVP, just show up at the posted meeting location.

Accessibility: Partially Accessible – curbs, uneven terrain, busy sidewalks.

Bordering Canarsie, East Flatbush, Crown Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and East New York, Brownsville has been and remains a working class neighborhood since its founding in 1880. We will see sights such as old Loew’s Pitkin Theater on Pitkin Avenue, Brownsville’s commercial artery and the Stone Avenue Branch of the Brooklyn Public LIbrary which opened in 1914 as the Brownsville Children’s Library, the world’s first public library devoted to children.

Date: Saturday May 5, 2012

Time: 10:00am-12:00pm

Event Start/End: 3 Train Stop at Rockaway and Livonia Ave

Host: Gerald A. Thomas, Managing Director of the Brownsville Partnership

Registration: No need to RSVP, just show up at the posted meeting location.

Accessibility: Fully Accessible

Come spend the morning with Bed-Stuy community advocates, organizers and neighbors to learn more about the bountiful food and garden resources in our community! The tour will meet at St John’s Bread and Life for a snack and tour of their food pantry and then continue west to explore Bed-Stuy’s rich architectural history and active community gardens.

Date: Saturday May 5, 2012

Time: 10:00am-12:00pm

Event Start: St. John’s Bread and Life – 795 Lexington Avenue, Brooklyn, NY

Event End: Hattie Carthan Community Garden – Marcy Avenue between Lafayette Avenue and Clifton Place

Host: Patricia Magnuson, of the North East Brooklyn Housing Development Corp and sponsored by the Coalition for the Improvement of Bedford-Stuyvesant (CIBS) & the Bed-Stuy Food & Family Day Committee

Registration: No need to RSVP, just show up at the posted meeting location.

Accessibility: Fully Accessible 

Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza is the heart of the borough. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux as the gateway to Prospect Park, and home to civic institutions, monuments and grand residences, it is also the nexus of six major roadways. Join Rob Witherwax of the Grand Army Plaza Coalition (GAPCo) for a tour of its history, focusing on recent, current, and future projects which enhance its public spaces, improve traffic management and create a safer, better Plaza.

Every day, all over the city, Transportation Alternatives is working to revitalize New York City’s neighborhoods and restore a vibrant culture of street life. This walk features one of the many communities where T.A. advocacy brings safe and healthy streets for all.

Time: 10:00am-11:30am

Date: Saturday May 5, 2012

Event Start: Soldiers and Sailors Arch at Grand Army Plaza

Event End: Plaza Street and Vanderbilt Avenue; Near Grand Army Plaza 2/3 subway station

Hosts: Transportation Alternatives, Grand Army Plaza Coalition (GAPCo)

Registration: RSVP at http://transalt.org/events/calendar/5847

Accessibility:  Fully Accessible

Charlie Niessner will lead Jane’s Walkers through Brooklyn Heights, or “Historical Brownstone Brooklyn”, which became the first NYC landmark district in 1965. Predating Greenwich Village as a landmarked district, the “Heights” was considered the first American suburb when Robert Fulton launched his Ferry service to/from Manhattan in 1814, and now has over 600 antebellum homes and more than a dozen churches, in addition to beautiful views of Manhattan from the Brooklyn Promenade. This Walk will start and end at Borough Hall, where on Saturdays, walkers can enjoy a wonderful Greenmarket.

Time: 9:30am-11:00am

Date: Saturday May 5, 2012

Event Start/End:  Brooklyn Borough Hall

Host Organization: Charlie Niessner, seasoned Big Apple Greeter

Registration: No need to sign up, just show up at the posted meeting location.

Accessibility:  Partially Accessible – curbs, uneven terrain, busy sidewalks

Completed May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge is one of our great New York and American monuments – a cultural icon that has inspired Jane’s Walk host, Gary Zarr, since he was a boy growing up in Brooklyn. Staring from the Manhattan side of the bridge and crossing the river to Brooklyn, this walk will be a fun, memorable, and wonderful way to celebrate the Brooklyn Bridge, one of the many things that make us proud to be New Yorkers.  

Time: 9:00am-11:00am

Date: Saturday May 5, 2012

Event Start: Outside Brooklyn Bridge Subway Station on Centre St.

Event End: Brooklyn Side of Bridge

Host Organization:  The Municipal Art Society of New York, Hosted by MAS Board Member Gary Zarr

Registration: No need to sign up, just show up at the posted meeting location.

Accessibility:  Not Accessible – stairs, obstacles, uneven terrain, steep paths