Brooklyn Update: Kayaking, Governors Island, Rockaways


Greetings from a still unseasonably hot NYC. We shuffled some things around with the program agenda due to the relentless heat for the past five or so days, but spirits are still high as we round the corner into our final full day of the program.

Tomorrow, we’ll have our design challenge presentations in the morning and then an afternoon free to explore before assembling for a group dinner at a local restaurant and then a night out at either a comedy show or the most classic of Broadway classics, Phantom of the Opera.

Looking back at the past week, we’ve been busy. Monday and Tuesday we’re largely about kayaking. And, yes, this does actually have quite a lot to do with our focus of inquiry on Combined Sewer Overflow and stormwater management. Fortunately, we had fine weather so water quality in the New York harbor wasn’t an issue. The heat did nearly derail some of our more ambitious plans, but we lucked out with some cloud cover on Tuesday afternoon and completed a successful trip from Brooklyn Bridge Park all the way up to North Brooklyn, with a stop at the EdShed to learn about some Newtown Creek ecology, before making the return trip back to the park.

For the Fourth, we did a brief beach cleanup at the Dubos Point Wildlife Refuge on Jamaica Bay before making a break for the breezier side of the Rockaway Peninsula for some fun in the ocean. And most of the group managed to get in a good viewing position for the East River fireworks to cap off a great holiday.

Today, we did a walking tour of Wall Street and the financial district on our way to the ferry to Governor’s Island where we contributed a bit of volunteer labor to the Billion Oyster Project. An evening guest speaker, Eve Baron, from Pratt’s Urban Planning department, then led the group in a workshop on community-led urban planning. Students are wrapping up their design projects as I write this and we’re looking forward to seeing the culmination of their efforts during tomorrow’s presentations.


One thought on “Brooklyn Update: Kayaking, Governors Island, Rockaways

  1. I’ve really appreciated following the group’s progress on your blog! Thank you for taking time and effort to make it happen.

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