Landlord didn't sufficiently restore playground

#23390

* Hollis Court Gardens: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket Nos. YG110024O, YG110026RO-YG110030RO (4/8/11) [4-pg. doc.]

* Hollis Court Gardens: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket Nos. YG110024O, YG110026RO-YG110030RO (4/8/11) [4-pg. doc.]

Go on a picnic

Parks have long been the setting of family gatherings and afternoons spent basking in the sun. But for wheelchair users, navigating and enjoying these areas can be challenging. A new product could make their lives easier.

Available models include the Commons, Deluxe Handicap Picnic, Open Hexagon Handicap, Plaza Handicap, Standard Double Handicap, and Standard Handicap tables. Each is comprised of all recycled plastic components and is constructed with stainless-steel fasteners. Prices start at $696.Contact: 877-609-2243 / www.pollyproducts.com.

Contact: 877-609-2243 / www.pollyproducts.com.

Abolitionist Sisters

Sarah and Angelina Grimke were born into good fortune. Their father, John Grimk�, had been a lieutenant colonel in the Revolutionary War and speaker in the South Carolina House of Representatives before becoming a plantation owner and judge on the state Supreme Court. The girls could look forward to a life of ease. In front of them lay a future of balls, concerts, picnics, rides, dinners, parties, and entertainments. They would spend their days in spacious rooms with high ceilings in beautifully decorated homes and stroll in wellmanicured gardens. Their wardrobes would be of the finest kind, full of the latest fashions, and their tables would be laden with both local and imported food and wine. What's more, they'd hardly need to lift a finger, thanks to the house slaves on hand 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to attend to their every whim. Outside, field slaves would work just as hard if not harder on the plantations that made all this possible.

Sarah Moore Grimk� was born in 1792 and grew up in a magnificent house in the center of Charleston and on the family plantation inland at Beaufort. She had three elder brothers and one elder sister, and three younger brothers and two younger sisters. Her education was to consist of reading, writing, and enough mathematics to run a household. Needlework, art, music, and a little French were featured on the curriculum, but the most important subject was the learning of manners. She craved more from her education, however, and started to learn secretly from her brother Thomas, six years her senior, studying his books at night. She delved into history, geography, science, Greek, and advanced mathematics. She was allowed to participate in the semiformal debates her father arranged for his sons as law school preparation. Judge Grirnke reportedly commented that if Sarah had been a boy she would have been America's greatest jurist. But while Thomas went to Yale, Sarah was kept at home.It was not only the impact of slavery on the slaves that troubled Angelina but also its effect on their owners. Having everything done for you by house slaves and living off the work of field slaves, she observed, was deeply amoral and undermined families. She wondered what hope there was for affection to arise from familial duty if you could not even move a chair for your mother or open a window so she that she might enjoy the air.Angelina, meanwhile, was on her own spiritual and intellectual journey from the Episcopal Church, with its emphasis on the rule of the clergy, to the more democratic Presbyterian Church, and from a merely argumentative to a highly opinionated anti-slavery activist. But she could not abide the idea of Christians owning other Christians, and she too became attracted to the Quaker religion and its dedication to peace and equality.In November 1829 Angelina stopped her onewoman crusade in Charleston and headed north to be with Sarah in Philadelphia. Soon she too had joined the Quakers.Back home, she threw herself into discovering all she could about the Quaker movement, also known as the Religious Society of Friends, and its outright opposition to slavery. She also took to wearing the plain habit of Quaker women, and in 1821 she relocated to Philadelphia to live alternately with Israel's family in the country and his sister Catherine Morris in the city, supported by the interest on her inheritance. In May 1823 Sarah Grimk� became a full member of the Friends.From an early age Sarah became aware of the unjust treatment meted out to slaves. When at the age of five she saw a slave being beaten, she tried to run away from home to a place where there was no slavery. Later, in her speeches, she recalled the many harrowing experiences of slavery she had witnessed, ranging from whippings to torture at the local workhouse where slaves were sent to be disciplined. She even witnessed the gruesome spectacle of the severed head of an escaped slave on a pole by a country roadside, placed there as a warning to other would-be runaways. What she saw was to turn her into a rebel.Angelina became the focus of Sarah's existence and by the time the former started to talk she addressed her elder sister as "mother."In the mid-1830s there was an explosion of anti-slavery societies in the North, as well as female versions of such groups in which women were able to play a leadership role previously denied them. Both sisters began to engage more and more in the antislavery movement, Sarah through reading and study, and Angelina by attendance at meetings of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society.The era also saw a great deal of violence directed at such activities, even in the North, where slavery for many people was little more than an abstract idea. Most had never witnessed it personally.Looking after her dying father all alone and staying with Quakers in Philadelphia for months on either side of his death seem to have hardened and focused her, resolving many issues. On the ship back to Charleston she was befriended by a prosperous Quaker family called Morris, who gave her books and tracts. She started a correspondence with Israel Morris, the head of the family.But Sarah and Angelina were to reject the highly privileged existence spread out before them by the simple accidents of their births. Instead they both moved north, embraced principle, and devoted their lives to campaigning for the abolition of slavery and for women's rights.In February 1805 Mary Grimke produced her 14th and last child, Angelina Emily. Sarah begged her parents to make her the new child's godmother and to give her a major central role in raising the girl; they assented in part to relieve some of the child-rearing burden from Mary and in part to cheer up the morose Sarah.In 1818 Judge Grimk� fell seriously ill, and in the spring of 1819 his Charleston doctor referred him to a Philadelphia specialist. Sarah accompanied her father on the sea journey. After two months the doctor could do no more than recommend the sea air and the bathing at Long Branch, New Jersey. Father and daughter traveled there, but to no avail. Judge Grimk� died with Sarah as his sole mourner.Both sisters still struggled to find their niche. Initially their mission to abolish slavery had little real direction, partly because the Quakers considered their views too radical. While Quakers might be against slavery, their social activism was unlikely to extend beyond praying for a solution. Angelina yearned for an activist role, while her elder sister was more cautious.Sarah's family was devoutly Episcopalian, and she taught Sunday school to younger slave children. When she asked why she couldn't teach them to read so they could discover the Bible for themselves, her father replied that the 1740 Better Ordering and Governing of Negroes and Slaves Act levied a fine of �100 (about $10,000 today) for educating such people or employing slaves with these skills. Sarah's reaction was to teach her young black maid, Hetty, to read secretly at night until her mother discovered them; Sarah was severely admonished by her father, and Hetty was very lucky to escape a severe whipping. Sarah later wrote:"! took an almost malicious satisfaction in teaching my little waiting-maid at night, when she was supposed to be occupied in combing and brushing my locks. The light was put out, the key hole screened, and flat on our stomachs before the fire, with the spelling-book under our eyes, we defied the law of South Carolina."Time Among the QuakersSeeking a Niche

The era also saw a great deal of violence directed at such activities, even in the North, where slavery for many people was little more than an abstract idea. Most had never witnessed it personally.

Picnickers hampered by the car

PICNIC-lovers are missing out on beauty spots because they refuse to venture far from their cars.

Only one in five walk more than a quarter of a mile from where they park to eat, a survey found.One reason for picknickers' lack of adventure is the amount of kit they bring, such as cool boxes, portable fridges, tables and chairs.A third walked only a few yards before opening the hamper and 10 per cent even ate inside their cars.A spokesman said: "We know from the demand for outdoor equipment how much they are part of summer life."

A spokesman said: "We know from the demand for outdoor equipment how much they are part of summer life."

Downtown group hopes Acacia Park facelift will cut crime, vagrancy

As downtown parks go, Colorado Springs' Acacia Park has always been somewhat spare.

Andrea Barker, with HB&A, called it a "playful exercise," with no specific plan to bring forward to the city yet.The Downtown Partnership and architectural firm HB&A hope to bring more people to the park, and curtail the "negative activities" of vagrancy, aggressive panhandling, drug sales and use, with a "revitalization" of Acacia Park. Though in its early stages, proposals range from improved lighting to turning the old police station into a cafe to pie-in-the-sky dreams of underground parking and a raised walkway over Nevada Avenue to the YMCA.Officers hope to form a cadre of volunteers to patrol the park and report crimes, along with increased use by the public."It historically has had issues. It's the center of town," he said. He said emergency officials responded to 58 calls to the park in the last 30 days. Memorial Park, 53 times the size, had 32 calls in the same period.The Downtown Partnership hopes bringing more "positive users" into the park would cut down on problems and help a downtown suffering from a growing number of empty storefronts. A concert series at the band shell was launched last weekend to help do that.The city's first park, it was donated by founder William Jackson Palmer when he laid out Colorado Springs in 1871. Though records are sketchy, it may have attracted miscreants for just as long.Colorado Springs police officer Sid Santos, the area's crime prevention officer, said when he was trained for community policing in 2001, he was warned that Acacia Park attracts an unseemly element. And the trainer had been warned many years before, when he was a rookie, of the same thing by his trainer. And so on, going back at least 50 years, he said."It's kind of asking the question: What is Acacia Park? Is it a park? Is it a square? Is it a plaza?" she said."I think they need to revitalize it, definitely," said Susan Godec, owner of The Phancy Pheasant across from the park. "I'd like to see the park patrolled by a policeman."The Uncle Wilber fountain is popular in the summer, and you sometimes see kids instead of cigarette-smoking teens on the playground, but consider the other amenities: a band shell with no seats, a few picnic tables, a shuttered police substation and a shuffleboard court hardly anybody uses."It seems to be a homing ground for a lot of homeless people. If you make the park attractive enough for more people to come, those people should move out to other areas," said Terry Henderson, owner of the Boulder Street Gallery (which is actually on Tejon Street.)HB&A will make a first presentation to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Thursday on the various proposals. The meeting is open to the public.Click here to see the various proposals.While Santos, the crime prevention officer, said officers and the department's Homeless Outreach Team patrol the area, a constant police presence is impossible.He sees the location, close to services for the homeless, as well as the interstate, as the main reason. Police stopped staffing the substation about five years ago due to budget cuts.Said Santos, "There needs to be a mix of things. Some of it is trying to bring in the positive users, trying to bring in people who are observers, who can report crimes.""The more positive activity you can have in the park, the more those kinds of behaviors can go somewhere else," Butlin said.He talked with HB&A, and, working for free, its architects began drafting proposals. They brought in student leaders from Palmer High School, across the street from the park, to come up with ideas.The Colorado Springs Parks and Recreation Advisory Board will hear a presentation on the Acacia Park proposals, still in their early stages, at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, at 1401 Recreation Way. The meeting is open to the public.How much it would cost, and how the cash-strapped city would pay for it, have not yet been discussed.There are eight different designs. All involve more lighting and seating, some tree removal, a privately-run cafe with outdoor seating at the police station and removal of the shuffleboard courts. Some involve bicycle rentals, secure bicycle parking, seats for the band shell and moving the Palmer statue from the nearby intersection into the park.Acacia Park proposal"When I look at downtowns around the country, many downtowns have the equivalent of central parks and a lot of places to do things with their park," said Ron Butlin, executive director of The Downtown Partnership. "When I go by our park, it doesn't seem to be very well-utilized by the citizens. It's a beautiful asset and it's not very well-utilized."Neighboring business owners seem to support the overall concept.

The Colorado Springs Parks and Recreation Advisory Board will hear a presentation on the Acacia Park proposals, still in their early stages, at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, at 1401 Recreation Way. The meeting is open to the public.

UPDATE: Parks board enthusiastic about Acacia Park rehab

As downtown parks go, Colorado Springs' Acacia Park has always been somewhat spare.

Neighboring business owners seem to support the overall concept.Said Santos, "There needs to be a mix of things. Some of it is trying to bring in the positive users, trying to bring in people who are observers, who can report crimes."Colorado Springs police officer Sid Santos, the area's crime prevention officer, said when he was trained for community policing in 2001, he was warned that Acacia Park attracts an unseemly element. And the trainer had been warned many years before, when he was a rookie, of the same thing by his trainer. And so on, going back at least 50 years, he said.He sees the location, close to services for the homeless, as well as the interstate, as the main reason. Police stopped staffing the substation about five years ago due to budget cuts.The Downtown Partnership hopes bringing more "positive users" into the park would cut down on problems and help a downtown suffering from a growing number of empty storefronts. A concert series at the band shell was launched last weekend to help do that."It historically has had issues. It's the center of town," he said. He said emergency officials responded to 58 calls to the park in the last 30 days. Memorial Park, 53 times the size, had 32 calls in the same period.The more extreme designs, including removing Uncle Wilber, adding underground parking and a raised platform over Nevada Avenue, are not considered realistic, she said.The city's first park, Acacia was donated by founder William Jackson Palmer when he laid out Colorado Springs in 1871. Though records are sketchy, it may have attracted miscreants for just as long.No timetable has been set for the public meetings.Click here to see the various proposals.How much it would cost, and how the cash-strapped city would pay for it, have not yet been discussed, and did not come up at this morning's meeting.He talked with HB&A, and, working for free, its architects began drafting proposals. They brought in student leaders from Palmer High School, across the street from the park, to come up with ideas."When I look at downtowns around the country, many downtowns have the equivalent of central parks and a lot of places to do things with their park," said Ron Butlin, executive director of The Downtown Partnership. "When I go by our park, it doesn't seem to be very well-utilized by the citizens. It's a beautiful asset and it's not very well-utilized.""The more positive activity you can have in the park, the more those kinds of behaviors can go somewhere else," Butlin said.The Downtown Partnership and architectural firm HB&A hope to bring more people to the park, and curtail the "negative activities" of vagrancy, aggressive panhandling, drug sales and use, with a "revitalization" of Acacia Park. Though in its early stages, proposals range from improved lighting to turning the old police station into a cafe to pie-in-the-sky dreams of underground parking and a raised walkway over Nevada Avenue to the YMCA.The Uncle Wilber fountain is popular in the summer, and you sometimes see kids instead of cigarette-smoking teens on the playground, but consider the other amenities: a band shell with no seats, a few picnic tables, a shuttered police substation and a shuffleboard court hardly anybody uses.While Santos, the crime prevention officer, said officers and the department's Homeless Outreach Team patrol the area, a constant police presence is impossible.Andrea Barker, with HB&A, called it a "playful exercise," with no specific plan to bring forward to the city yet.There are eight different designs. All involve more lighting and seating, some tree removal, a privately-run cafe with outdoor seating at the police station and removal of the shuffleboard courts. Some involve an ice-skating rink, bicycle rentals, secure bicycle parking, seats for the band shell and moving the Palmer statue from the nearby intersection into the park.Officers hope to form a cadre of volunteers to patrol the park and report crimes, along with increased use by the public.HB&A made a presentation to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board on Thursday morning. While no vote was taken, members seemed to support the idea."It seems to be a homing ground for a lot of homeless people. If you make the park attractive enough for more people to come, those people should move out to other areas," said Terry Henderson, owner of the Boulder Street Gallery (which is actually on Tejon Street.)"Obviously it would be subject to a public master plan process. Lots of people would get involved," board member Kent Obee said. "But I like your ideas. Keep working and at an appropriate time we do need to have a broader public discussion of what happens in Acacia Park.""It's kind of asking the question: What is Acacia Park? Is it a park? Is it a square? Is it a plaza?" she said.

Said Santos, "There needs to be a mix of things. Some of it is trying to bring in the positive users, trying to bring in people who are observers, who can report crimes."

Safeway to Set Guinness World Records Title for World's Longest Picnic Table on National Picnic Day

Celebrity Chef Tyler Florence Cooks up Great Recipes using Safeway's Exclusive Open Nature(TM) 100 Percent Natural Foods

"Food has always been important in my life and I think it is really important that people know where their food comes from," said Tyler Florence, Food Network Chef and successful restaurateur. "I really appreciate that Safeway's Open Nature is 100 percent natural with no gimmicks, so people can feel good about what they buy and what they cook."About Safeway www.Safeway.comPLEASANTON, Calif., June 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- You may need a megaphone to get someone to pass a napkin at what's likely to be the world's longest picnic table. Safeway Inc. (NYSE: SWY) today celebrates National Picnic Day featuring Open Nature(TM), a delicious, 100 percent natural line of high-quality foods. The company hopes to break the Guinness World Record for the Longest Picnic Table by building a table exceeding 305 feet, which is longer than a football field. A Guinness World Records Official will be present to measure and verify the attempt. Food Network Chef Tyler Florence is preparing the Open Nature foods for this record-setting picnic at the Marina Green in San Francisco.(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110618/SF22351-c)Safeway Inc. is a Fortune 100 company and one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America, based on sales. The company operates 1,694 stores in the United States and western Canada and had annual sales of $41.1 billion in 2010. The company's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SWY. The Open Nature line is an addition to Safeway's portfolio of health and wellness brands, joining O Organics(TM) and Eating Right.-Federal regulations prohibit the use of hormones in raising pork and poultry."Natural" You Can 100 Percent Trust"Now consumers don't need to make trips to multiple stores to get the natural food choices they want. Safeway's Open Nature provides a range of natural foods across multiple categories - everything from fresh chicken, yogurt and ice cream to salad dressings, peanut butter, dinner sausages, hot dogs and pastas," said Minasi. Coming soon will be cereals and granolas, juices and more. "It's now easier than ever to include natural foods in every meal because Open Nature is priced lower than the national brands, when not on sale, as a part of our great everyday low prices throughout the store."(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110618/SF22351-d)Follow Safeway Open Nature on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Safeway and connect with Safeway Open Nature on Facebook on http://www.facebook.com/SafewayIn keeping with Open Nature's all-natural ingredients approach, the record-setting table will be built with only Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified Douglas fir that is sustainable, and for every FSC Certified tree that is used, 10 more will be planted. Other environmentally conscious elements that will be incorporated into the picnic include environmentally friendly paper products, composting and on-site recycling.(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110618/SF22351LOGO-a)(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110618/SF22351LOGO-b)Open Nature products are affordable, because Safeway believes everyone should have access to 100 percent natural foods that won't break a shopper's budget. Open Nature features an expansive line of products spanning multiple categories, making it easy for consumers to add natural foods to everyday life.About Tyler FlorenceSOURCE Safeway Inc."As a leader in the retail food industry, Safeway has set a very high standard when it comes to defining natural - ingredients from natural sources with nothing artificial," said Mike Minasi, President of Marketing for Safeway. "Having lunch at the World's Longest Picnic Table on National Picnic Day is the perfect vehicle for celebrating our Open Nature promise that ingredients should come from nature and food should have as little processing as possible. Open Nature is a natural product line that consumers can have total confidence in because the ingredients are easy to understand and listed on the front of each package. We believe that nature has nothing to hide, and neither should your food."Tyler Florence is a local chef who has hosted and appeared on many national shows, including Tyler's Ultimate which currently airs on The Food Network. His shared passion with Safeway for quality food made him the ideal chef to prepare the offerings at the National Picnic Day event.Given that the word 'natural' is not regulated by the FDA, the term's inclusion on food packaging has left consumers skeptical of the claim. Safeway heard that their shoppers wanted great-tasting products developed as close to their natural state as possible, and as a result developed Open Nature: 100 percent natural, 100 percent real. In doing so, Safeway is leading the charge in creating natural foods that meet shopper's needs. Unlike other products that claim to be natural, Open Nature products do not contain enriched flour, synthetic vitamin fortifications, alkalized cocoa, or hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, among others.Consumers can now find a wide variety of Open Nature items exclusively at Safeway stores, and additional Open Nature products will be launched throughout 2011.

SOURCE Safeway Inc.