Tuesday, November 27, 2018

#GivingTuesday to Help Protect Green Space



Giving Tuesday is a day set aside for us all to come together to support our local and national not-for-profits. While we shouldn't need a special day to support great causes, it is a great reminder that the holiday giving season is not just about shopping and gift giving - it is also about giving back. 

Giving Tuesday was created by the team at the Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact at the 92nd Street Y—a cultural center in New York City that, since 1874, has been bringing people together around the values of service and giving back—#GivingTuesday connects diverse groups of individuals, communities and organizations around the world for one common purpose: to celebrate and encourage giving. 




The Trust for Public Land



At the Trust for Public Land, we don't just save land—we save land for people to enjoy, from neighborhood parks to national parks. We depend on the ongoing support of individuals to make sure our work carries on well into the future.


Our mission is to create parks and protect land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come. Every park, playground, and public space we create is an open invitation to explore, wonder, discover, and play. We're proud to say that we've been connecting communities to the outdoors—and to each other—since 1972. Today, millions of Americans live within a 10-minute walk of a park or natural area we helped create, and countless more visit every year.


Today is Giving Tuesday, and thanks to a generous donor every dollar you give to The Trust for Public Land by midnight will be tripled to save public land.


Your support on Giving Tuesday is critical to our work to protect public lands and the millions of acres that hang in the balance. This special matching gift opportunity ends at midnight tonight, so please don’t wait to give!


Every dollar donated saves $15 worth of land.

Give today to help protect YOUR LAND here: https://www.tpl.org/donate#sm.00000myqjx7f8ve8dwl8doiv9soln



The Cultural Landscape Foundation

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides people with the ability to see, understand and value landscape architecture and its practitioners, in the way many people have learned to do with buildings and their designers.


Your gift to TCLF is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law and will ensure TCLF's programs and ongoing initiatives collectively tell the stories of our nation's rich landscape heritage.
YOUR SUPPORT WILL
  • Save important landscapes
  • Document our landscape legacy
  • Educate the public & stewards
  • Support advocacy efforts

    Help support cultural landscapes by donating here: https://donate.tclf.org/donate/



    The Garden Conservancy


    The mission of the Garden Conservancy is to save and share outstanding American gardens for the education and inspiration of the public. The Garden Conservancy helps to make private gardens public, restore, protect and preserve existing public gardens and to provide preservation assistance to help protect the future of gardens. There are many ways you can show your support for the Garden

    Conservancy in celebration of Giving Tuesday:

    Give the Gift of Gardens – a gift membership is a thoughtful way to share your love of gardens with a loved one or friend this holiday season.
    Make a Tax-Deductible Contribution to our Annual Fund – we depend on support from generous individuals like you to help fund our preservation, Open Days, and education programs.
    Become a Member/Renew Your Membership – members are at the center of all we do and stay connected to us through a wealth of benefits.
    Volunteer for Open Days – our Open Days program relies on the support of our hardworking garden hosts, regional representatives, and volunteers.
    Shop on AmazonSmile – the AmazonSmile Foundation donates 0.5% of every eligible purchase to the Garden Conservancy when you make us your charitable organization of choice.

    for more information and to make a donation go here:  https://www.gardenconservancy.org/membership/donate



    Support Locally

    Finally, it is always great to support local organizations in your own communities. One that is near and dear to me is the Elizabeth Street Garden in lower Manhattan.
    Elizabeth Street Garden - Official Website
    In the crammed neighborhoods of Little Italy & SoHo, Elizabeth Street Garden is the only public green space that provides an open, tranquil environment for locals of all ages.


    Serving as an outdoor community space since 1882, the one-acre site first hosted the Free School Society’s Public-School No.5, which provided free night classes for people of color in addition to regular schooling. The space became an important community amenity, with public education lectures being held frequently.  This garden is now a beautiful and inviting community amenity in a neighborhood that severely lacks green space and is in threat of being demolished to make way for the development of public housing (however there are other sites that are available in the neighborhood identified for this development).

    ELIZABETH STREET GARDEN'S MISSION: TO PROTECT & PRESERVE THE MAGIC OF ELIZABETH STREET GARDEN AS A PUBLIC COMMUNITY GREEN SPACE AND TO DETERMINE HOW NYC PARKS & RECREATION TOGETHER WITH THE COMMUNITY CAN PROTECT THIS SPACE FOR GENERATIONS TO ENJOY.

    Learn more about this garden and show your support either by making a donation or signing the petition to help preserve the garden here: https://www.elizabethstreetgarden.com/donate/

    New Yorkers for Parks

    New Yorkers for Parks New York City is home to many parks, big and small, loved by thousands of New Yorkers. Some attract millions from out of town, others provide respite and gathering places for local residents. Spread across all five boroughs, NYC's parks and open spaces are part of what keeps this city thriving, and New Yorkers for Parks is the only advocacy organization bringing advocates together to protect them all.
    While some New Yorkers have beautiful, easily accessible parks near their homes, this is not the case for everyone. Some New Yorkers face land use changes in their neighborhoods, others have local parks with inadequate maintenance, and some have to travel far just to reach a park at all.
    New Yorkers for Parks strives for parks equity - a belief that all New Yorkers in all neighborhoods deserve accessible, well maintained parks or open spaces in their neighborhoods. But this goal is only possible with the help of our dedicated advocates, hardworking peer organizations, and generous supporters.
    From now through Tuesday, November 27th, your online gift to NY4P will be matched. Thanks to a generous Board member, your $50 gift turns into $100 to support our city's parks and open spaces when you give online now through #GivingTuesday on November 27th.


    Donate to New Yorkers for Parks today at: https://ny4pgivingtuesday.causevox.com/


    SHARE THE LOVE - GIVE TODAY!

    Thank you and please consider making donations to your favorite local organizations this #givingtuesday


    Tuesday, April 3, 2018

    World Landscape Architecture Month


    April is World Landscape Architecture Month (WLAM), a month long celebration of landscape architecture and designed public and private spaces. Established by the American Society of Landscape Architecture, WLAM aims to demonstrate how landscape architecture affects our daily lives.

    I'll be posting some of NYC’s greatest places inspired by The Cultural Landscape Foundation's new “What’s Nearby” web mapping tool. The goal of this searchable, easy-to-navigate database is to raise public awareness of the rich diversity and inter-connectedness of our shared designed landscape heritage. Spanning over two centuries of North American landscape design, the What’s Out There® database is searchable by landscape name, locale, designer, type, and style. The ‘What’s Nearby’ feature also allows users to see the landscapes that are in close proximity to each other, regardless of the user’s location—perfect for research or for planning a day of exploring a city or region.

    Find out what landscapes are around you at https://tclf.org/landscapes-near-you

    Learn more about the great landscapes of New York City by following along this month on Twitter and Instagram. I will be sharing photos and fun facts all month long taking you on a journey of parks, gardens, greenspaces, plazas and public spaces in and around NYC.

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/jnitzky_nyc 

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jnitzky/

    Here is a taste:
    #wlam2018 Day 1: Central Park's North Woods - One of my favorite parts of #CentralPark, it is a secluded woodland with peaceful trails for wildlife viewing. The Ravine is the heart of the North Woods and traverses around and over the Loch, a winding stream that connects The Pond to the Harlem Meer and has breathtaking cascades in between.
    Landscape Architect: Frederick Law Olmsted, Calvert Vaux
    More info:

    #thisislandarch #whatsnearby #discoveryourland

    Stay Tuned for more and get out and experience the landscapes around you!

    Anxious to get your garden going this spring? Here are some great finds:
    Mr. Sprout's Organic Herb Seed Starter Kit
    The Inspired Landscape: Twenty-One Leading Landscape Architects Explore the Creative Process