Brooklyn

More public space for Grand Army Plaza: DOT says that it would give the street space highlighted in green to the Parks Department for use during public events and car-free hours in Prospect Park.

The Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association is holding a rally tomorrow in response to two horrific car killings in Boerum Hill in recent weeks. AABA has been fighting for years for more neighborhood-friendly traffic policies along the Avenue. Here are the details:

One of the more troublesome aspects of Forest City Enterprise's "Atlantic Yards" proposal is the developer's plan to create two rather huge, suburban mall-style surface parking lots on the eastern side of the project footprint. If all goes as planned there will 3,600 new parking spaces will be in place by 2012.

The Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway Inititiave is one of the most inspiring and visionary development projects going in New York City right now. The project is very grassroots. Over ten years ago, three Brooklyn residents, Brian McCormick, Milton Puryear and Meg Fellerath got it in their heads that Brooklyn's waterfront should have a bike path and linear park just as good as the popular Hudson River Greenway in Manhattan (see the rendering of Columbia Street at right).

A Streetsblog tipster notices that Prospect Park motorists seem to be unindoctrinated in the ways of the Litterbug:

On Sunday October 1st, Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project will host the 1st Annual Liz Padilla Memorial 5k, in honor of Liz Padilla who was tragically killed when a truck driver opened his door into the path of her bicycle last June in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Brooklyn

For most New Yorkers the official end of summer is Labor Day which, this year, fell on Monday, September 4, 2006. For astronomers, pagans and Daniel Libeskind's "Wedge of Light," the end of summer is the Autumnal Equinox, the moment when the sun crosses the celestial equator from north to south. By that measure, Fall begins on Saturday, September 23 at 12:03 am this year. But for those who commute by bike along the northern end of Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, the end of summer will be the day that New York City's Department of Transportation creates bike safety improvements along this stretch of avenue recently identified as one of the city's top three bicyclist fatality areas. At the moment, there is no end in sight.