Organizational Thread

[BrooklynRider]

I'd like to thank our team members. You are here because you have chosen to make a statement about who the WiredNewYork Community is and wants to be in the face of the tragic loss of one of our own, TLOZLink5 - J.B. Henman. J.B. was a prolific poster and an integral part of this community. I think Ninjahedge voiced the loss best when he said:

I hardly even knew the guy! But he is akin to the light fixture you notice more when gone and realize how integral he was to the room. There were places he lit up that few of us saw and we will be hard pressed to see them again without him.

We have chosen to transcend our existence in the virtual world make a bold, positive statement in the real world in TLOZ's name. I told someone it is like we are all on the Starship Enterprise and we going to be "beamed down" for this event (I know - the nerd humor that gets us all stereotyped - no more Star Trek references).

We are so appreciative of the support we have found both financially and in manpower hours. If you have access to this part of the forum and this strategizing and staging area, it is because you have earned it through your solid support. Please let others know what we are doing and encourage them to support the project to get the magic key to this very unexpected new corner of our world.

We appreciate the people who have engaged in the flurry of email messages and conversations that led to the creation of this spot, where we can communicate and follow the conversation moer easily. A heartfelt thank you to Edward for being with us every step of the way and for faciltating this closed space for us to plan.

Where we stand at this point
1) Jasonik has created a PDF flyer for our event that is available by Private Messaging me or emailing us at HehmanMemorialFund@hotmail.com. We would appreciate any help we can get distributing these to potential donors and supporters. Please get one and hang it in your workplace, dorm, school place of worship etc. The sentiment expressed by JB in that quote should move people to give. Great work Jasonik. Edward - anyway to make it available on the site?

2) Jasonik and Stern will comunicate and explore our options and techniques for painting a mural of the Project Banner on the corner where TLOZ lost his life. Please report back and ask this room for any help, information and logistical support you need.

2) Lofter1, Schadenfrau, Ryan and I are dropping our anonymity on Monday evening to have a pre-meeting introduction in advance of Thursday's face-to-face with NYRP's Brian Sahd and Susan Madden. We will meet Thursday with NYRP and hash out the details. Upfront, I think we have a sympathetic friend in Brian Sahd and a very "by the book" director in Susan Madden. The are both very supportive of this project, but come to the table with seemingly different styles. Brian understands our goal and passion and has fallen into the spirit of this project. Susan as head of development for NYRP, does have interests to protect and that is why we have been moved from The Family Garden to Maggie's Garden. We have greater opportunity to negotiate and expand our scope in Maggie's Garden if of fundraising surges.

3) Lofter1 has taken the helm of the plaque project. I think this is something we all feel passionately about and I think that any negotiating we do must be with the intent of winning on this front. We want a plaque - we want a meaningful plaque - we want a plaque big enough to convey our feelings and the essence of TLOZ in this forum. To that end, we have agreed that we would like to reproduce Jasonik's fine artwork and design. We have already determined that the font cannot be reporoduced, we will follow Lofter's recommendations and make decisions as a group. See post #2 above.

4) The suggestion was made, and basically agreed to unanimously, that, although Jasonik pulled a great quote that portrayed the tenderness and sincerity of TLOZ, we as the WiredNewYork community prefer to seek a quote from TLOZ related to the City or his relationship to the city in some way. To that end, we currently have MahattanKnight and Schadenfrau jumping in to the fray. ManhattanKnight will review TLOZ posts 3320 - 2800. Schednfrau will begin her reviews at post 2800 and move backwards. We need more volunteers for this task. Throw your name in if you have time and communicate with Manhattan and Schad to see where you start off point will be. It has also been requested that other forums beyond WNY be reviewed. I believe Stern and Jasonik might have info on where to find these. Please continuethe discussion in this thread.

5) Selected posts by TLOZ can be posted in this thread (?). Is that correct Edward or are we creating another thread that can have only TLOZ quotes so we may vote based on post number? Let's discuss this further in this thread. Voting and elimination procedures will be developed as we see the results of our search.

6) The NY Daily News will print an article tomorrow that will hopefully let us surge in fundraising. I have Press Release packages out to the Post and have alluded (hopefully in an artful manner) that the competition is about to scoop them. Edward and I so far are the public spokepersons for this project. It will be a policy of this project to report to me immediately any contact with the press. We have an agreement with NYRP to keep them in the loop on all press contact. However, moving unilaterally with our press releases seems to have influenced NYRP that we are serious, we have an agenda and we are collaborating with them as opposed to just following. Nuf said.

7) With regard to the criminal investigation, we have NO COMMENT. With regard to the circumstances of TLOZ's death, OUR PROJECT IS FOCUSING ON HIS LIFE AND LOVE OF NEW YORK CITY.

8) Our donors thus far have been VERY generous and that might intimidate smaller donors. Following our meeting on Thursday with NYRP, we will strategize with Edward the best way to broadcast a fundraising appeal to the fill forum membership. Contributing must be heartfelt and it must be voluntary, No strong arm tactics (so I won't be PM'ing anyone anymore suggsting that maybe they "overlooked our new TLOZ threads"). Anyway, we need to have a broadcast and then an online rally. I throwing out into the room the though that Edward reactivate signatures for the remainder of our project campaign, so that team members can create supportive tagline for our project with a link to the NYRP donation page. Let's discuss it.

9) NYU's Washington Square News has been very supportive. I am still pressing the Office of Public Affairs to let us have one broadcast opportunity on the student / faculty email system. If the JB's family learns of this project and announces public support, we will likely get the nod from NYU. It is a delicate situation.

10) At this point, it is our understanding that JB's family has requested privacy. We do not intend to intrude on that and our answer to that is: We are planning this project to celebrate our colleague and using great care to do it with dignity and respect for his family and loved ones. PERIOD.

11) Event Volunteers: The new park allows us to expand the project to up to 30 volunteers. We would appreciate a person who will scan the memorial thread for volunteers and this thread for posts from us with volunteer support transmitted via email to our hotmail account. I've said it to the papers and I'll say it here. If NYRP says 30 and we get 100, we're invitig 100. We'll respectfully only let 30 into the garden at a time, but we'll have a block party for TLOZ outside the gates. I don't know the timing of the volunteer portion, but I am thinking that a candlelight dedication might be nice. Any thoughts?

I think that's it right now. Toss you ideas out there. This thread will operate as any other in th forums. I've rambled on here, but let's try to be succinct in our posting. There is some very real work ahead of us. I don't know whatt he experience was for everyone else this afternoon, but I had an adrenaline rush and felt like we really are going to bring a great WNY memorial to the Harlem Community. I've instinctually felt this project is the right thing to do. Today made it all the more certain.

Thank you all - Thank you Edward. You're baby is growing up.

There's work to do. This forum is open for business!

[Merry]

Hello everyone.

I've only just got on the computer and read all the e-mails.

Firstly, I feel privileged to be part of this. However, I'm feeling a bit ineffective over here, so I've decided to increase my donation to compensate. Hopefully I'll be able to honour it soon when the NYRP sets up the facility to do so (I got a very friendly and helpful e-mail from them).

Secondly, I'm more than happy to help go through TLOZ's posts if someone will tell me what to do and where to start. If there's anything else you think I could do, you only have to ask.

What a fantastic job you've all done. There aren't the words to convey how I'm feeling at the moment.

[lofter1]

(Note to Ryan, Schad and Lofter - this is your express permission to kick me under the table at any meetings going forward if I get too out there).

Noted /\ I'll be wearing heavy boots to the preliminary meeting, as well.

[BrooklynRider]

Two items on the agenda I have not started on:

1) I was thinking of asking a NY Music Station to bring their van to the project on the date and broadcast from our project and report on it. Any good stations people could recommend. I stopped listening to radio when it started sucking bad.

2) I am going to press some vendors I know to create vinyl project banners for us to hang on the park fence during the project. One a remembrance of JB (Jasonik's graphic). The other one that states "A WiredNewYork Community Project.

3) The issue of anonymity remains and we do want this to be a WiredNewYork with the greatest involvement of forum members as possible. I am 100% committed to keeping this a totally anonymous event attributed simply to the WiredNewYork forum community and people committed to an act of peace, compassion, and kindness in JB's memory. To that end, I am moving forward with the plan to create celebrity name tags. We will have no one sign in for the event and if waivers must be signed - they will be administered and collected by NYRP reps - not WNY volunteers. Volunteers will be greeted at the gate and offered a wide selection of pre-printed celebrity names. I think it would also fit in entirely with JB's fun-loving side.

Any thoughts, input, sources?

[Gulcrapek]

I don't know about the WiredNewYork sign. If anything it needs to be pretty small, definitely not a "banner."

[BrooklynRider]

I thought it would identify us as a group. Nothing permanent. Who knows, maybe we do more than one project. But, I hear your comment. Let's see what others think. Nothing will be done unilaterally that represents us as a group.

BTW, I'm glad you're here. We've been missing your posts.

[lofter1]

Methinks that any banner we agree to create should also include "NYRP".

[krulltime]

I agree with Lofter1... we should include them aswell. Like maybe Wirednewyork with the collaboration of NYRP. I don't know something like that.

[Gulcrapek]

I'll be at St John the Divine today so it won't be much going to 125/Park or 149/Bway (going near there too anyway), I'll see if I can find suitable walls on the former and I guess just snap the latter.

[lofter1]

Pics of Maggie's Garden would be great -- and helpful for considering what we might want to do there for JB's Memorial.

[lofter1]

Here's some info on "Maggie's Garden" from NYRP :

President Bill Clinton and Bette Midler Dedicate Newly Restored Community Garden in Harlem

NEW YORK - For more than 30 years Harlem resident Maggie Burnett has grown tomatoes, bell peppers and squash in a 35 ft. by 100 ft. lot on West 149th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. In good times she has worked alongside neighbors; in periods like the mid-1970s she labored alone even as the block experienced two and three drug-related homicides a week.

On Friday, September 20, 2002, at 11 a.m., Ms. Burnett will be joined by honored guest President Bill Clinton and Bette Midler, founder of the not-for-profit New York Restoration Project, in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate this same garden space, now newly restored and renamed Maggie's Garden in her honor.

In 1999, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani vowed to sell more than a hundred city-owned community gardens, including 546 West 149th Street. A consortium of groups—including NYRP and Bette Midler—stepped forward to prevent this divestiture of green, open spaces in neighborhoods with precious few parks. It was at this moment that NYRP founded the New York Garden Trust as a subsidiary to hold title to and preserve 50 of these gardens. Maggie's Garden is the first of the crop to receive full capital renovation.

New pathways, planting beds, a full planting scheme and structural elements, including raised planters, which are more accessible to seniors, a new steel picket fence, an arbor, seating areas, a barbecue pit, and, perhaps most importantly, a dedicated water source-all have been provided in a private-public partnership led by The Brownstone Family Foundation, which contributed $250,000 to the Trust to endow Maggie's Garden in perpetuity. Through a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, and its Architecture, Planning & Design Program, the noted landscape designer Billie Cohen was retained to participate in a community planning program and execute a plan. A federal program, AmeriCorps, provided a crew of skilled workers to implement the plan.

"Maggie's Garden is testimony to exponential power of people working together," says Ms. Midler. "It has taken the city, state and federal government, a non-profit organization, a group of devoted New Yorkers --and, not least, one determined woman—to produce this garden."

"I am proud to see this success story emerge in a neighborhood that has played such a large role in the history and culture of our nation, a neighborhood I have come to call my own," says President Clinton. "And, of course, I am extremely gratified to learn that young adults from the AmeriCorps program have played a key role in improving this block. When I signed the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993, creating the Corporation for National Service and its program, AmeriCorps, I knew that good things would flow from this 'domestic Peace Corps.' But the range and extent of AmeriCorps contributions over time has been even greater than any of us could have imagined."

New York Garden Trust

The largest urban garden trust in the U.S., and the only one devoted to open spaces in low income and often neglected neighborhoods, the Trust is regarded as a model national program.

Says Brian Sahd, director, New York Garden Trust, "Building the infrastructure of a garden can be relatively quick work. But it can take much longer for communities to become active stakeholders in the care of their own neighborhood gardens. We at NYRP exist to provide the resources and long-term stability that may be necessary for these gardens to take root."

Maggie's Garden exemplifies the approach of New York Garden Trust, which NYRP President Joseph Pupello describes as "purchasing, restoring, endowing and maintaining gardens for sustained community use."

Says Mr. Pupello, "By the time that NYRP stepped in to help, Maggie Burnett had already provided the leadership to transform a litter-strewn vacant lot into a green garden. We at NYRP provided the resources, advice, materials, work power, and educational programs to create the garden we see today, and to ensure its long-term protection."

History of Maggie's Garden

The history of Maggie's Garden is emblematic of the more than 600 community gardens in the New York City. Located in a Harlem neighborhood known as "Sugar Hill" for the comfortable life enjoyed by its middle- and upper-middle class Black families, the lot was cleared in the mid-1970s, when the city demolished a decaying and drug-trafficked brownstone. Cleo Anniston, an elderly widow who lived on the block, was able to envision a green garden in the rubble-strewn lot left in the wake of demolition and, with her young friend Maggie Burnett, began to create it.

In the 1980s, the West 149th Street garden became a symbol of community resolve when it was adopted as a community garden, and, along with hundreds of similar spaces around the city, was designated a "Green Thumb Garden" under a city program established to provide support from community gardens located on city-owned property. The status quo persisted throughout the 1980s, as low property values and a stable housing market kept development pressure low. But in the 1990s, pressure to build or generate revenue from city-owned lots became intense.

"They say New Yorkers don't have memories, but don't tell that to Maggie Burnett," says Bette Midler. "Maggie and her neighbors remember the lives of so many fellow New Yorkers, now deceased, through the labors they donated to the West 149th Street garden. Community gardens are often places of continuity in otherwise quick-paced city lives."

New York Restoration Project

Bette Midler publicly launched the NYRP in 1995 in Fort Washington Park to carry out her dream of a cleaner, more beautiful New York. NYRP builds lasting partnerships between public and private sector organizations in order to revitalize communities, striving to protect precious public resources and identify the problems associated with their neglect.

Since 1995, aside from the work it accomplishes through the New York Garden Trust, NYRP has removed more than 75,000 tons of debris from neglected sites around the city; reclaimed 375 acres of parkland throughout the city; created Swindler Cove, a new park and floating boathouse along the Harlem River that will open next spring; served more than 1,600 students a year with environmental education programs; opened the New Leaf Cafe in Fort Tryon Park as a way to generate income for city parks through concessions; and created and implemented a new set of standards for the Adopt-A-Highway program along the Henry Hudson Parkway.

[lofter1]

Some pics of Maggie's Garden (at the right of the page) HERE

[BrooklynRider]

Thanks Lofter1. I'm still on vacation and seeing double from a rather celebratory evening last night. I'll check in again after I walk off the buzz. Great work on the info.

[lofter1]

Seems you and Fabrizio are of the same mind

[Gulcrapek]

I got pictures of this garden.... it's really pretty beautiful. But I don't know how we could put in something here without ruining the aesthetics of the place. I did find a small vacant lot between 2 brownstone-type buildings that seems to be about the size of Maggie's, maybe a little smaller. It could be on Madison Ave and 131st, I'll post the pics later.