Nostrand Park

Happy Holidays

Dear Readers, We at Nostrand Park want to wish you and yours a happy holiday season, and a prosperous New Year. We will be on hiatus for the next week and a half, but look forward to returning to sharing more of Crown Heights with you in 2010. All the best, NP Staff,

Economic Development on Franklin & Nostrand Avenues

I was at a local community meeting a couple of weeks ago and the topic of economic development in the neighborhood came up.   I mentioned that the commercial strips, particularly Franklin and Nostrand, could be great economic dev drivers for the neighborhood.  To which someone responded that economic development on Nostrand Avenue could prove "daunting".  Hmm ... When I returned home, I had a long two hour discussion with a friend - a fellow Crown Heightser - who was more skeptical about th...

Top 5 Books of 2009

There is nothing more fun than making top five lists, a la High Fidelity’s Rob Gordon, and so I relished the opportunity to come up with my own lists for 2009.  What I discovered, upon reviewing my reading selections for the past year is that 2008 was simply a stellar year for publishing. Much of what I read this current calendar year was me playing catch-up to all of the great fiction (e.g., Louise Erdrich’s lyrical The Plague of the Doves) and nonfiction (masterful reportage like Jane Maye...

J.Period & Nneka Present: The Madness (Onye-Ala)

Imagine that you are a DJ, a mixtape DJ whose mission is to keep the over-saturated mixtape game fresh.  Now imagine that you've already created genre-elevating works with Lauryn Hill, The Roots and Mary J. Blige, just produced a critically acclaimed mixtape with Q-Tip, and followed that up with the epic Messengers series featuring the up-and-coming K'Naan reworking various works of Fela Kuti, Bob Marley and Bob Dylan. You'd be imagining that you're J.Period and you would have a problem. ...

What do you like most about Crown Heights?

Having aired out our collective dirty laundry about what folks like least about Crown Heights, we wanted to end the week on a more positive note.   And thus we reveal the responses to our survey question: "What do you like most about Crown Heights?" ... And the # 1 answer is ... ... the diversity of the neighborhood.  And it's true - from the people to the architecture to everything in between - Crown Heights boasts an ecclectic mix. In terms of how we tallied the results - as with ...

The Public Option

A few years ago while visiting some family members in Haiti, one of my aunts and I got into a discussion about public education on the island.  My aunt was surprised that my brother and I had managed to find jobs and be successful after receiving most of our training at public institutions.  This was in direct contrast to our cousins who were all attending private schools and who were all taking the next step forward rounding off their educations in college, whereas their parents stopped in high...

Idle Warship (Talib Kweli, Res & Graph Nobel) – Party Robots

Party Robots, a mixtape by the group, Idle Warship, a collaboration featuring Talib Kweli (Brooklyn), Res (Philly), and Graph Nobel (Toronto).  This blend of rock, rap, and 80's/90's synth/pop tracks, includes stand outs "Momma", "Metro", "L.A. Famous", "Bedroom Lites" and "Fyah." The group describes its origins on its Myspace page . . . "Idle Warship started as an idea to make a dance song for fun. It has since morphed into a full blown labor of love, with it's own identity. We no longe...

What do you like least about Crown Heights?

As we continue to reveal the results of our recent survey, we delve into the question "What do you like least about Crown Heights?"  Not surprisingly, almost 50 percent of the answers included something about crime, drugs or violence.  Folks are also hankering for more healthy food grocery store options, cleaner streets and more business variety along the commercial corridors. The full list is included below.  Basically, we parsed through and distilled the responses into general categories.  ...

Joey’s Gourmet Lunchboxx

Seven months after their awning went up it looks as if Joey's Gourmet Lunchboxx will soon open for business.  We spoke to one of the proprietors last week who said the shop should be open with a week or so and will serve gourmet sandwiches, salads, etc... More word to follow.

The Servants’ Quarters: A Review

Lynn Freed’s latest novel, The Servants’ Quarters, reacquainted me with some of my favorite works of English fiction. Her novel contains within its compact frame of slightly more than 200 pages a re-imagination and transformation of some of the relationships, characters, and themes from English canonical texts such as Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights,  Rebecca, and both Shakespeare’s play and Chaucer’s poem Troilus and Cressida. Part One of The Servants’ Quarters introduces us...