New York – The stretch of Northern Boulevard near 36th Street in Long Island City, Queens, is about as far from bucolic as it gets: Old industrial buildings loom, traffic whizzes by, car dealerships line the street. Off in the distance, Manhattanâs skyscrapers glitter, the trains rumble, and the closest thing to a meadow is a small patch of plants the Parks Department has named Triangle 37.
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Soil was hoisted on Thursday to a 40,000-square-foot roof where tomatoes, peppers and greens will soon be growing in Long Island City, Queens.
But six stories up, on the roof of one of those old buildings, an ambitious farm began to take shape on Thursday. Called Brooklyn Grange â the group behind it settled on the name before they settled on their borough â it will grow tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and leafy greens amid the air-conditioning units and water tower perched on the 40,000-square foot-roof.
Rooftop farms have been appearing recently across New York and the nation, but few have the scope of Brooklyn Grange, a for-profit venture started by Ben Flanner, a transplanted Wisconsinite, and the operators of Robertaâs, a popular restaurant that has become something of a farm-to-table clubhouse in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
I would love to see this trend spread… There is another benefit to this endeavor. The building will be even more insulated meaning that units will see a decrease in their heating and air conditioning bills…
nobody comments on this 1, but here lies our future!
yes wake up buddys, we need our old time greenery and vegetation, but let’s not worry, our landlords will again become rich from this, but at least 4 a good thing
This is probably a combined ploy of the “Environmentalist” movement which we all know that they are up to no good and New York City, pretty soon your property taxes will go up because your property will have a nigher value because you “can” use your roof top as a farm.
i expect some roofs to collapse after heavy rains. we shall see.
We could start by making the roofs of all our shuls and beis medrashim in BP and willy into “mini farms”; it would be a wonderful opportunity to teach our yinglach that fruits and vegetables don’t grow at Friedman’s or Kosher mart and whatever produce that grew could be used to feed the hungary. We might train our bochurim and girls in farming techniques as a parnassah.
we can’t. It’s a gezeirah against planting marijuana.
I bet Al Gore will take credit for this
Now just add cows!!! đ
“Rooftop in Queens to Be a Farm “
Might as well turn Queens into a farm. Most of Brooklyn is already a chazer shtal.
chickens too?
some sheep and goats, cows and horses and it will be just like upstate farms
we could have fresh milk and eggs