My friend Paula’s been working on an awesome project – 596 Acres! She sent me a bunch of info about the project & I’ve copied it below…

Parks rule! Let’s make some more…

NOTE: There is a COMMUNITY MEETING WITH DEP OFFICIALS – Tuesday, Junes 28th – 918 Kent Avenue (Community Room/Basement) 6-8PM

596 Acres is a public education project aimed at making communities aware of the land resources around them. With the goal of a food sovereign New York City in mind, 596 Acres is helping neighbors form connections to the vacant lots in their lives — from the smallest (throwing a seed bomb – which we have at Green in BKLYN!) to the largest (hosting a public meeting with the head of a City Agency that owns a vacant lot that was promised to the community as a park (see myrtlepark.org).

Thanks to the Center for the Study of Brooklyn, we have learned that many of these lots are actually publicly owned and are developing a platform for negotiating interim and long term community uses for this warehoused public space.

596 acres is how much vacant public land existed in Brooklyn alone as of the Department of City Planning’s April 2010 data (MaPLUTO). If even a small portion of that was committed to neighborhood food production, we would have an abundance of fresh seasonal vegetables to eat! And think of all the grassy parks we could have! And composting sites! And whatever else Brooklynites and their neighbors know they need.

The group has produced a beautiful set of map-directories of this vacant public land based on the latest available City data. You can email 596acres@gmail.com for a map and directory of this land. The first set of 596 Acres posters has been distributed and the second edition is ready — 1000 posters on street-ready newsprint funded through IOBY.org. These posters and directories of vacant and warehoused public land are headed into the hands of community activists, to corner bodegas and to be affixed to the lots themselves. Join the distribution team by emailing 596acres@gmail.com.

596Acres will be available to consult with groups and individuals as they reach out to NYC government entities asking for control of space in their neighborhoods. We are working with one agency in particular now and several community arts and agriculture organizations.

New York City has a paucity of green space per person and the constant refrain is that there is not enough space here for all the awesome ideas that people have for how to “green” their neighborhoods and grow food. It turns out, the space is all around us — especially concentrated in neighborhoods that need it most. 596 Acres is working to connect communities to the information they need to gain control of their environments.

Check out a great little film that artist Douglas Paulson made with CUP last year: http://www.vimeo.com/14838218 (The Good, The Bad and the Empty) that really illustrates the effects of vacant lots on NY’s left-behind communities.

Photos posted at 596acres.org and more info at the IOBY page: https://ioby.org/project/596-acres-vacant-public-land.