There’s a lot of other wildlife living at the reservoir including many warblers, wrens, woodcocks, waterfowl, and other birds. We haven’t had anybody who really knows plants do an inventory yet, though we have identified at least one New York State threatened plant species there; and we’ve been inventorying for less than a year so we only have two seasons worth of data. We don’t really know what species may be overwintering there yet. It would be a shame to lose this before we even know what we have.

The claims made back in the summer that no decisions had been made were lies. We’ve uncovered evidence that the Parks Dept. had decided at least as far back as May and probably earlier exactly what they wanted to do. I guess they were hoping the public comments would rubber stamp their decision. However, when locals expressed their strong preference for passive, low-impact uses like jogging, walking, bicycling, and nature; and their active distaste for any more soccer and baseball, the Parks Dept. ignored them.

Ridgewood Reservoir has benefited from 40 years of neglect. Precisely because the Parks Dept. couldn’t go in and spend millions of dollars destroying nature like they did in Central Park, Prospect Park, and other city parks, it’s actually in pretty good shape today. Obviously the Parks Dept. thinks this must be fixed. Why have virgin forest when you can turn it into a graffiti-ridden cricket pitch or trampled down astroturf?

It’s obvious that the Parks Dept. doesn’t really care what the public thinks about the future of this unique site, and trying to convince them is pointless. Listening to them is of limited use since they’ve proven you can’t trust them. I suspect the next step will be to work with the local council members, state senators, and assembly int he affected areas to put pressure on parks from above and see where that gets us. At least some of them have been listening to their constituents and gone on record as opposing the plan. Time is pressing though.

Surveyors have been out at the site making plans for tearing down the berm in basin 3 and knocking down the trees to make way for the ballfields. I suspect the Parks Dept. wants to present this as a fait accompli before any more politicians or lawyers can get involved.

If you’re interested, you can find out a lot more at Save Ridgewood Reservoir. Drop me an e-mail if you’d like to work on preserving this unique area. I’ll let you know when the next meeting is.

There’s wireless access, but it’s got some sort of annoying filter proxy installed that limits Google to safe searches and blocks access to dangerous sites like Transmission.

They’re about two hundred of us in a large room at 320 Jay Street. They’re showing us an Ed Bradley video about Judge Roy Bean, of all folks (a Confederate and Justice of the Peace with 3 months of formal education). He selected his jurors from his saloon and fined them if they didn’t vote the way he wanted them too. There’s a brief history of juries and grand juries. What they omit (the early history of American grand juries and private prosecutions) is more interesting than what they include.

Now Ed Bradley’s been replaced by Sam Waterston (i.e. Hang ‘em High Mccoy from Law and Order). Sam tells us we may get any crime: murder, drugs, rape, sodomy. (Well there’s at least one that’s a quick No vote. Is sodomy even still a crime in New York?)

The foreperson is chosen by the court. We can ask questions of the prosecutors and we can ask to speak to a judge. It’s not clear if we can ask questions of witnesses directly, or call our own witnesses. We are forbidden to seek or receive legal advice from any other source. (No googling for case law I guess.) The accused may appear if they wish to, and they may ask us to hear other witnesses. The accused may have an attorney present for advice, but the attorney may not participate. The proceedings are confidential. (Damn. No live blogging about the case. ) We deliberate alone. 12/23 is required to indict, and 16 are required for a quorum. We can redirect some cases to family court or lower court, but the prosecutor has to tell us when we can do this.

You can get out of this if you:

• Served on a jury less than four years ago
• Don’t work fulltime and have childcare issues
• Have a felony conviction
• Are not a U.S. citizen.

Documented illnesses may also get you out. If you can’t communicate in English, you can also get out. At least a dozen people stood up for this one. Of course, the announcement was made in English, so one does wonder how they understood it.

They’re picking three 10-day juries. Good. No chance I’ll get stuck with a three-week, four-week, or six-month term.

They need about 80 jurors. They won’t take everyone today (Yay, may get out of this yet) but if we don’t get selected today we have to come back in 2-6 months anyway (Damn!) Still January would work better for me than now. It’s possible we won’t have to work all day, all ten (or eleven) days. That would be very helpful. I really need to put in at least half a day at work today or early next week. Then again we may be here till 6:00 or 6:30 or even 8:00 P.M. some days. That could be a problem on Thursday.

Now they’re calling names. The court officer does a surprisingly good job of handling the cacophony of Brooklyn names, much better than I do. I missed Jury E. OK. I’m on Jury J. The warden says they’ll make sure I get out on time to teach on Thursday as usual.

They let the people who weren’t selected go. We’re sworn in. Judge Allen Maris tells us the rules and duties. We’re allowed to examine any misconduct that may have occurred in public office, criminal or otherwise. Apparently in New York immunity of grand jury witnesses is automatic. It does not require a special deal. However the prosecutor may require a witness to waive immunity. (What happens to the 5th amendment then?) The grand jury does not have to listen to the witnesses called by the person being charged.

We’re not expected to know anything about the law.

We can ask the prosecutor to pose questions of the witness, but he/she doesn’t have to ask them. We cannot quiz the witness directly. Apparently we cannot call our own witnesses. I guess that keeps us from “running away” too far. (Grand juries aren’t what they used to be, at least in New York. :-( )

Prosecutors may not talk to us outside the grand jury room. If we recognize any witness from outside the court, we have to tell the D.A.

Charges against 13-15 year olds can be referred to family court instead of indicting.

Note taking is not encouraged but not prohibited. A stenographer will be present. Notes may not be taken home. They give us a notebook to use for notes.

Lunch is from 1:00 P.M. until 2:00 P.M.

I may get out this afternoon yet. We have to report back Monday at 9:45 A.M. in Room 2 on the 16th floor. We are expected to hear 20-40 cases over the two weeks. Call 347-296-1863 if I’m out sick any given day. There are alternates. There are sign-in and sign-out sheets. (Apparently jurors sometimes “forget” to come back from lunch.)

This is the first time they’ve ever picked a jury on Friday. That means we’re stuck with an extra day.

Breaks at 11:30 and 3:30 for fifteen minutes each time. Sounds like there may be a lot of waiting for witnesses, attorneys, and defendants. Have to remember to bring a book.

2:30 P.M. and I’m out here.

I only hope I don’t get stuck on a drugs grand jury. According to one prosecutor:

In Kings County, about 40% of grand jury presentations are what are referred to as “buy and bust” operations (B&B). These involve the sale of a relatively small amount of heroin, cocaine or crack cocaine to an undercover police officer. The testimony is substantially the same in all such cases, and the charge is exactly the same. The presentation goes along the lines of:

“My name is undercover officer badge number 1243. On this date and time I approached an individual who I referred to as �JD Red Cap� [since at the time of the transaction the officer does not usually know the name of the defendant, the officer refers to that person as JD, for John Doe, and then some descriptive term]. I had a drug related conversation with him. He showed me some tin foil packets of what I believed to be cocaine. I exchanged a certain amount of United States Currency for the tin foils. I later saw JD Red Cap in the precinct under arrest and I learned his name to be….. I sent the tin foil packets to the lab.”

Following this riveting testimony is the testimony of the arresting officer who says:

“I placed someone under arrest identified to me by UC Officer 1243 as JD Red Cap. Upon arresting him I learned his name to be ….. I found an additional 12 tin foil packets of cocaine on his person. I sent the tin foil packets to the lab”.

Then we introduce the lab report into evidence [Under NY law there is a hearsay exception in the grand jury]. The grand jury is then charged on the law regarding a B felony sale, possession with intent to sell and simple possession.

The next case sounds, looks and smells just like the case before except the name of the defendant is different (JD Blue Shirt). Sometimes, it is even the same undercover officer who is testifying since the officer often makes two, three, or even four buys during a single tour of duty.

Since all these cases involve undercover officers, security concerns mandate that they be presented to one of two juries impaneled for this purpose. This means that two grand juries per term hear almost exclusively buy and bust cases. In 1998 we filed 7,446 felony indictments. Of those, 2,957 (39.7%) were narcotic cases, almost all of which were B&Bs. That means that these two grand juries hear about 114 B&B cases per term, or about 6 a day. They may hear other police-witness-only cases as well, such as guns (567), Driving While Intoxicated (108), and other vehicle and traffic law felonies (162) [an average of about 7 cases per day], but their primary diet consists of B&B cases.

It is hard to imagine anything more routine and repetitious than to be on a narcotics grand jury for twenty consecutive days.

Worst of all, the proceedings are confidential and there’s no wireless in the courthouse so I can’t even write about them. What fun is that? (Update: there is wireless in the courthouse. I’m using it to post this update. I don’t know if that’s because I’m in a different courthouse than last time or if they all have that now.)

I will bring my laptop though. If there’s any down time, I can work on my course notes for CS 9053 next week (I’m adding a class on generics and the Collections API) and work on my keynote address for XML 2007.

I’m not sure why, but you don’t see so many pictures of the downtown Manhattan skyline taken from New Jersey. For some reason all the movies like to shoot from Brooklyn or the South instead.

This is hardly an isolated incident either. The local cheap sushi house also recently installed TVs and now I can’t enjoy a peaceful lunch there either. I’d understand if there were a big game on, but does anyone really want to keep up with the exploits of Will Aston, Rose Ortiz, and Dax Lo over their seafood salad?

I used to have a TV B-Gone, which sadly died. I need to replace it. I bought a Ninja Remote from Think Geek instead, but it’s a dud. It’s never been able to turn off any TV, including my own. I think it’s time to invest in a new TV B-Gone instead.

Seven other areas are up for the same treatment including the beach at Far Rockaway, Dreier-Offerman Park in Brooklyn, Ocean Breeze in Staten Island, Fort Washington Park and the Highline in Manhattan. Mark K. Morrison has already been selected as design consultant. A preliminary plan should be available in a few months. They hope to start construction in Fiscal Year 2009. It’s not clear how far advanced the city’s plans are, or in fact what they are. Other than the statement in the plan that they want to “set aside two of three basins as a nature preserve and new active recreation center” they really haven’t said very much. I hope they haven’t made up their minds yet.

The stated goal of the session was to listen to what local residents want to be done to the park. Roughly 25 people attended, split about half and half between nature enthusiasts like Peter and myself and folks from the immediate neighborhood. (The Parks Dept. employees kept calling the nature folks “birdwatchers”, but the group that was there was quite a bit more diverse than that.) There were also about a dozen Parks Dept. officials. Also in the audience was state assemblyman Daryl Towns.

They split us up into five different, color coded tables. Peter and I were on the green team, apparently by accident since we’d registered separately. The other member of our team was John C. Muir from the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment. After listening to a brief initial presentation, we got maps and aerial photos of the site. We also got little cardboard cutouts of soccer fields, baseball fields, skate parks, cricket pitches, and parking lots to place at the points on the map where we might like these things. We were also encouraged to draw on the maps. After 45 minutes or so of discussion, every team gave a brief presentation on their thoughts.

What emerged from this was that nobody, nature folks or locals, wanted “active” recreation at the site. Not a single baseball field or cricket pitch showed up in the presentations. One group put in a small skate park on the very edge of the site since local kids had been asking for it (though I don’t think anyone under the age of 30 came to the meeting). Otherwise, though, the general feeling was that there were sufficient baseball fields and basketball fields already in the neighborhood.

Improving the trails around the reservoir was universally desired for walking, jogging, and bicycling; and everyone wanted the street lights fixed. Interestingly, John C. Muir told us that when the reservoir first opened to serve the city of Brooklyn, it was explicitly designed as a “promenade” and walking was encouraged. Several teams suggested improved public transit, probably to be accomplished by adding a bus route or rerouting existing ones. (Right now, it’s a bit of a hike from the nearest bus and subway stops.) The groups were split on whether more parking was needed, and if so how much. Most of the time, the current lot is empty; but it can get crowded in the middle of a sunny day on the weekend.

Everyone assumed the lake in basin 2 should stay. Some folks wanted it improved for fishing or canoing and rowing or both. One interesting question was where the water that fills that basin actually comes from. Nobody was quite sure. It’s been drained at least once in recent memory, and it has refilled itself. Is it rainwater, a leaky pipe, or something else? And just how good is that water? We’ll have to figure that out.

Nobody asked for any of the three basins to be filled, although the Parks Dept. had explicitly stated that they could afford to fill one of them. However, there’s really no reason at all to fill the basin unless you’re going to put in ball fields. Furthermore the expense of bringing in enough soil to fill 10-20 acres 20 feet deep (not to mention the trouble of moving that many trucks through a residential neighborhood for months) seemed a total waste of resources.

Basin 1, which is in the process of turning into a bog, should probably be protected. How much access should be provided is an open question, but no one wanted to put much of anything there at all. Basin 3, the largest, should also be limited to passive use. There were various suggestions for nature trails, botanical gardens, arboretums, nature centers, and so forth. Various people suggested a serious effort to remove invasive species like Phragmites and Asian Bittersweet.

Rob Jett wrote about the first of these meetings, which apparently came to similar results. We’ll find out in a few months how much the Parks Dept. actually valued these sessions. If the initial plans show nature trails and no ball fields, we’ll know they were listening. If the plan starts by filling Basin 1 and covering it with astroturf and concrete, then we’ll know these sessions weren’t taken seriously. I hope they were listening, though. Ridgewood Reservoir is a very unusual and hidden gem in the heart of the city, almost a relic of another time, and it would be a shame to lose it now.

Al Ott identified this as an Italian Ruin Lizard, a.k.a. Italian Wall Lizard, Podarcis sicula. Rob Jett also recognized it from a trip to Rome. They’re an invasive species that has been settling small colonies on Long Island for the last three decades or so, and they’re expanding. So far all we have is this one specimen, but I suspect we’ll see more as the summer progresses.

How they make it through a New York winter I have no idea; but apparently they can do that, something few native American lizards can do.

Besides the lizard and various plants and insects, we tallied over 30 species this morning:

• Great Blue Heron
• American Woodcock
• Rock Pigeon
• Mourning Dove
• Chimney Swift
• Downy Woodpecker
• Northern Flicker
• Eastern Wood-Pewee
• Willow Flycatcher
• Great Crested Flycatcher
• White-eyed Vireo
• Warbling Vireo
• Red-eyed Vireo
• Black-capped Chickadee
• House Wren
• American Robin
• Gray Catbird
• European Starling
• Cedar Waxwing
• Yellow Warbler
• American Redstart
• Common Yellowthroat
• Eastern Towhee
• Song Sparrow
• Northern Cardinal
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Common Grackle
• Brown-headed Cowbird
• Baltimore Oriole
• House Finch
• American Goldfinch
• House Sparrow

The highlights for me were the White-eyed Vireo and the American Woodcock, both possible nesters at the site. We confirmed Downy Woodpecker and Northern Flicker as definite breeders here. We elevated several other species from possible to probable status. (The more often you see them in the same spot, and the longer they stick around, the more likely it is they’re breeding.)

We’ll visit a couple of times more before the breeding season is over to try to confirm a few more. American Redstart is tantalizing. There were quite a few around the site, and this is quite late for them, but they’re late breeders. If they’re still around in July–I’ve never seen them that late in the city–they’re almost certainly breeding.

The city has finally noticed the site, which is not a good thing. When the parks department gets a little money, they like to erect buildings, install pavement, lay out a few ballfields with artificial turf, let the dogs run everywhere, and generally eliminate anything that a breeding bird might want. They’re a couple of meetings later this month on the 19th and 30th (don’t know where yet) at which the Parks Dept. should reveal their plans for the site. They’re a little peeved that word of the meetings is getting out. They’re required by law to open these meetings to the public, but they try to keep them as quiet as possible to make sure no one notices anything they’re up to until the bulldozers arrive. Drop me a line if you’re interested in attending, and I’ll let you know what’s up as soon as I have more details.