If you're one of the 16 or so New Yorkers sticking around for the holiday weekend, here's a neat activity that your beach-going friends will be forced to miss: The first Urban Ecology Tour of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Eat your heart out, Hamptons.
Part leisurely bike ride, part educational eco-tour, visitors will pedal around the Navy Yard on bikes—their own, or rented nearby—for two hours on Sunday, learning about the park's various environmentally-friendly features. The tour will start out with a visit to the LEED platinum-ranked BLDG 92, in which guests will be treated to a tour of the cavernous space and the indigenous plants that reside there.
The party will continue at the 65,000-square-foot Brooklyn Grange, a rooftop farm that produces 20,000 pounds of vegetables annually, in addition to honey and eggs, and then on to the East River to check out the oyster bed, with a discussion of detoxifying the city's notoriously polluted waterways. The tour will conclude at the long-defunct Naval Hospital, which, in addition to serving as the home to several varieties of plants, birds and insects, is said to be pretty creepy.
Daniella Romano, the vice president of BLDG 92's exhibits and programs, said the bike portion of the tour will be under a mile, making it an ideal experience for families or anyone looking to claim that they spent the weekend "exercising." In addition to serving as a hands-on, tactile experience, Romano said the tour is suited for anyone looking to explore plant life without having to board Metro North. "It's a good way to connect people to their environment in the city," she said.
The Urban Ecology Tour will take place on Sunday, Sept. 1 from 3 to 5 p.m. Participants must supply their own bicycles and helmet. Tickets are $29 per person. Click here for more information.
