The Belgian-Block caper is part of my shtick, and I’m happy to share it with you. Cobblestones are rounded boulders that occur natuturally as a result of erosive weatthering; they are found in rivers and streams and on beaches where water action smoothes them over time. They are often used as paving stones, but they are very hard to walk on and are tough on wheeled vehicles as well, as anyone who has driven a light car along Main Street in Nantucket can tell you. They are found in Old-Timey historeic districts in towns like Nantucket, Salem, Newburyport, Savannah, and Charleston.

Belgian block–so called because originally quarried in the Low Countries–are squared-off granite blocks tailored to fit between the frames–often miscalled ribs–of sailing vessels, where they serva as ballast, lowering a ship’s center of gravity and making it stiffer–more resistant to heeling with the force of the wind on its sails and rigging.

When vessels were loaded with heavy cargoes that required the removal of ballast, or when a vessel was no longer seaworthy, blocks piled up along the foreshore.

One day some genius saw this stuff and thought, “Jeez! This stuff would be a lot easier to walk and drive on than those dumb cobblestones!” and so we got belgian-block streets.

A sidebar: When NYC’s original belgian-block streets were laid, you couldn’t fit a knife-blade between the blocks, so tightly were they spaced. Nowadays, with a dwindling supply of old genuine block, each time a street has to be opened up to permit work, some of the block finds its way to the ‘burbs to become patios and bbqs. When what’s left goes back down, it’s grouted with mortar and gets more and more widely separated one from another. Over the last twenty years, the width of the grouting has begun to approach the width of the blocks. When my grandkids’ grandkids visit South Street in 2105, they’ll find one block at the edge of Water Street and
another at South Street, surrounded by an ocean of concrete.

Some interesting tidbits from the meeting for your reading pleasure:

- A coalition including “Project for Public Spaces” and “Transportation Alternatives” are conducting a workshop on July 19 to look into the possibility of making Gansevoort plaza car-free (oh what a dream to no longer live the car-horn life). Bring your ideas on traffic and pedestrian uses of the Gansevoort Market to Housing Works (320 West 13th, 4th Floor) at 6.30pm on July 19.

- Cobblestones are sacrosanct. Council Members Alan Gerson and Christine Quinn have introduced legislation to help ensure that cobblestone streets are preserved, and to provide appropriate penalties to discourage their destruction. (click here to write letters to support this FANTASTIC legislation)

- Did you know that Nightlife generates 9 billion buckaroos and Movie/Film only 5 billion? So an attendee said…

- According to the police “Thursday is the new Wednesday” and that is why Civil Village now includes Thursday nights in its operations to crack-down on quality-of-life crime by using radar traps, sound traps, drunken-driving checkpoints, stolen-vehicle checkpoints, motorcycle checkpoints and license, registration and insurance-card checkpoints.

- Councilmember Alan Gerson is working on a NOISE CODE revision – legislation will move forward this fall and will change the rules from being based on a decibel level to an audible level. I think this means that the noise of peeps hanging out on the street and smoking and chatting in front of a bar can be measured and considered problematic as well as traditional noise, like music. Cool.

- The Hotel Gansevoort may have finally solved their noise problem. And (drumroll, please), they’ve joined the Nightlife Association which bodes well for their relationship with the community – we almost never are given reason to complain about their member establishments.

So many important items were discussed that I’m writing two other, entirely separate posts to comprehensively cover important topics discussed:

- Tips for Presenting the Community Point of View at a 500 Ft. Meeting (Click to read more)

- MOP – How the Method of Operation can help community boards lay good cohabitation ground-rules for incoming bars and restaurants (click to read more).

However, I decided not to thoroughly cover some of the other issues that came up at the meeting like the rumor of a Serbian drug-ring operator who owns a bar on 42nd street (dude, can’t we get Interpol in on that?…

Now, don’t you wish you had been there, too? Comments, complaints, witty responses?

Mon.,6/6 @ 6:30 PM, WATERFRONT
AIA, 536 LaGuardia Pl. bet. W. 13th & Bleecker Sts. Lecture Hall, Lower Level
Gansevoort – Recycling facility
For more, check out the very impressive and informative Federation To Protect the Greenwich Village Waterfront and Port:
(an excerpt from their newsletter, Our Rivers, Our Streets):

What’s that Smell? The Future of the Gansevoort Peninsula
by Carol Feinman

Now you see it, maybe later you won’t: The Department of Sanitation has yet to depart from from the Gansevoort Peninsula. Will it only happen if we allow the city to put a municipal transfer station on the pier?
What do you think when you hear the words “park on the waterfront” – lawns, ball fields, river breezes, playgrounds, garbage dump. Say what? A garbage dump? That doesn’t sound like it belongs in a park. In fact, weren’t we promised back in 1998, when the Hudson River Park Act was passed, that the Sanitation Department would get off the waterfront and leave us with a beautiful pristine park? Well, that seems to have the same effect as “the check is in the mail.” …

Mon., 6/6 @ 6:30 PM LANDMARKS & PUBLIC AESTHETICS 1st MEETING
NYU Silver Building, 32 Waverly Pl. Room 714
Consult for more info: WWW.NYC.GOV\LANDMARKS

Mon., 6/6 @ 1:00 PM TRAFFIC&TRANSPORTATION/14TH STREET COMMITTEE TASK FORCE
CB#2-Man. Board Office Conference Room, 3 Washington Sq. Village, ground Floor
3rd City Water Tunnel Construction on Gansevoort Street/Seravalli Playrgound

Ah, the great dig. What can I say? Do I need say anything? This is the depressing reality.

Tues., 6/7 @ 6:30 PM 14TH STREET COMMITTEE GANSEVOORT MARKET AREA
Housing Works, 320 W. 13th Street, 4th Floor Dining Room
Issues to include Water Tunnel Task Force, Taxi Stands in Gansevoort Market, potential street closing to the Market from 9pm-2am on Thurs, Fri and Sat nights, posting officers in the market, PROPOSAL TO PAINT CROSSWALKS ON COBBLESTONES

(Can you guess which issue got me? Let me give you a hint – all caps and bold and italic are mine. Now you see it? I just hate it when cobblestones are marred – they are sooooo pretty).

Thurs., 6/9 @ 6:30 PM, ZONING & HOUSING Hon. David Reck, Chair (Identification required)
NYU Silver Building, 32 Waverly Pl. Room 703
Public Informational Presentation: Review of the proposed West Village Zoning by the DEPARTMENT OF CITY PLANNING
posted on DCP’s web site: http://www.nyc.gov

Tues., 6/14 @ 6:30 PM – TRAFFIC & TRANSPORTATION (Identification required)
NYU Silver Building, 32 Waverly Pl. Room 714
More on traffic, noise and signage issues in Gansevoort Plaza (developed out of Sen. Duane’s 2/3 Town Hall Meeting on Bars and Nightlife)

Mon., 6/20 @ 6:30 PM LANDMARKS & PUBLIC AESTHETICS 2ND MEETING (Identification required)
NYU Silver Building, 32 Waverly Pl. Room 714
Consult for more info: WWW.NYC.GOV\LANDMARKS

Mon., 6/20 @ 6:30 PM ENVIRONMENT
CB#2-Man. Board Office Conference Room, 3 Washington Sq. Village, ground floor
Gansevoort Peninsula and the Water Tunnel

Thurs., 6/23 @ 6:30 PM, FULL BOARD
NYU Silver Building, 32 Waverly Pl. Room 703-(Identification required)
Election of officers for the ensuing term & General Speaking
THE PUBLIC SESSION BEGINS AT 6:30 PM. SPEAKERS’ CARDS WILL BE ACCEPTED FROM 6:00 TO 7:00 PM.

Got something to say? Everyone (and I mean everybody) gets their moment to air the thoughts at the monthly full board meeting. Spill your vitriol, praise your reps, scream of abuse, whatever you want!

To see the full calendar (this is just a selection, I know, I know) check out the CB2 website.

“I have forwarded your e-mail to our Chief of 3rd Water Tunnel Construction requesting him to supply you with an outline of upcoming construction activities. I wish to assure you that the members of CB 2 have worked very hard to express and protect the interests of the community.

As background info, the this site was chosen after an exhaustive search and analysis of alternative sites. This siting took place over a period of about three years. The present site was chosen with participation and approval of Community Board 2. Since the site was chosen we have had many meetings with the Transportation and Parks committees of the Board as well as with the nearby residents as determined by the committees. As you may know the DEP has committed $2 million towards the rehab and enhancement of the park. Additionally, the DEP has committed to the restoration of the Belgian block street surface not only where we will disturb it but along the entire block of Ganesvoort St. Lastly the DEP with the Department of Cultural affairs has included the site area in the City’s Percent for Art program. The Board is working to developing a suitable project under this program.”

Click on comments at the bottom of this link to read my original email.

What can we do? I’m glad you asked. Let’s pester DEP to take their responsibility seriously and come to community meetings and follow-through on their promise to get a newsletter out to the community with information on the project!!! Email John Leon Forte at the DEP Ask him to adopt the Community Board 2 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

PS – but there is good news: we’ve been promised that landmark-approved Belgian pavers(cobblestones, glorious cobblestones) will be replaced when it’s over. Hopefully that’s one promise the DEP will keep.

The water tunnel project? You mean the quickly multiplying holes in Gansevoort and the loss of all those cobblestones? Well, I’ll be there, and I’m going to find out what everyone is dying to know: Will the cobblestones be lovingly replaced and why are they lying UNGUARDED on the street?

BTW: She is very groovy to get back to me so quickly. (Actually, one of her associates, Gregory Brender, the Community Liaison wrote back, but still, that’s hip. I’m impressed. They can call me for a plug come re-elections.)

How many of us were caught by surprise when they brought in the cranes, dug up our neighborhood park and threw our precious cobblestones hither and yon? (Ok, Gansevoort street residents, I’m invoking the royal we as it is actually your street in question.) Were there signs? Was the neighborhood warned and prepared and I just wasn’t paying attention? I just with there had been (will be – I can continue to hope) a neighborhood meeting to explain what is going on and how we can expect to be affected. And, really, if someone in the know could re-assure me that the cobblestones will eventually be lovingly replaced, that would be a huge load off my mind.