Occupy Wall Street's 1st Brooklyn General Assembly - Franklin Ave

Occupy Wall Street – which began on Oct. 17, 2011,  is a self – pro-claimed -

“leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions”.

Agree with their stance or not, the movement has been picking up international steam, sparking similar movements across the globe.

And tonight, Oct. 20, 2011 @ 7PM @ 613 Franklin Ave., in Crown Heights, Brooklyn - OWS is having their first ever:

Occupy Brooklyn General Assembly

“Come one, come all to the next General Assembly of Occupy Brooklyn.

We would like for these meetings to be representative of the Brooklyn community at large, so we hope that people all of backgrounds living anywhere in Brooklyn will come out.

A team appointed at the first GA has identified a location and time and has offered a proposed agenda.

At the GA, all members will be able to propose further agenda items, and vote on a final agenda at the beginning of the meeting.”

Proposed Agenda:

1. -Basics of the GA, why and how this is participatory
2. -Finalize Agenda
3. -Brief Announcements and Check-ins about what work is already being done in Brooklyn
4. -Relationship to OWS
5. -Should we occupy?
6. -Possible direct actions
7. -Identify working groups
8. -Divide into working groups

Nostrand Park is seeking the assistance of a couple of talented artists, calligraphers, and/or graphic designers to volunteer their skills in helping us create vibrant window displays along Nostrand Avenue.

If you haven’t seen the media coverage, basically, on Saturday, June 25th, Nostrand Park will be launching its exciting new initiative, “Destination Nostrand” – creating a pop-up store installations in vacant storefronts along Nostrand Avenue, in Crown Heights Brooklyn.

We would like to work with a couple of artists to create a simple window decal  for each of the stores.  (Maybe something like the below, but snazzier).

If you are interested, please contact us:

Raphael Niles
Masai Marketing
Principal
www.masaimarketing.com
info@masaimarketing.com
646-552-2774

OR

Laurel Brown
Nostrand Park
Director of Community Planning
info@nostrandpark.org

We are excited to see so much love and attention being showered on Crown Heights, of late. In addition to our excited DESTINATION NOSTRAND project, we received word that the new Kingston Avenue Merchant’s Association is working to spruce up Kingston Avenue:

On Friday, June 17th 2011 and Saturday, June 18th 2011 starting at 9 am, KAMA–The Kingston Avenue Merchants Association in conjunction with Crown Heights’ Summer of Celebration, Community Board 8, the mayor’s Community Affairs Unit and other community groups are coming together to beautify Kingston Avenue, between Atlantic Avenue and Eastern Parkway.

They are seeking volunteers to come out to pitch in! They will be cleaning sidewalks and building exteriors, cleaning windows, painting and trash removal.

Please come out to lend a hand.

If you wish to be involved in this event, please contact James Ellis at 718-675-1000 x131.

Thank you!

Nostrand Park – in collaboration with VAMOS Architects, Masai Marketing, NYC Dept of Small Business Services, and desigNYC – is excited to announce the launch of its new pilot program, Destination Nostrand, intended to beautify, promote, enliven, and enhance Nostrand Avenue:

If you are interested in participating, showing off your artwork, opening up your commercial space, have a business idea that you would like to test out, or if you just want to help make sure that Nostrand looks great on the day of, just let us know: http://nostrandpark.com/destination-nostrand/

Special thank you to DANIEL GERGLEY, NICOLE MACIAS, JENNIFER MACCHIARELLI, and GroundUp Designers for their tremendous marketing and promotional assistance!

To view some of the design concepts for DN, check out our gallery below. Since the project is in its pilot phase, we will only be launching 3 of the concepts, but feel free to let us know which ones you like best:

All those with the urge to start a food business – here’s your chance!

As some of you may have read a few months ago if you are on our e-blast list, or if you follow the I Love Franklin Ave blog, NYC Economic Development Corporation is looking to have a food incubator hosted in Crown Heights.

Well, a local group called CREATE – a collaborative effort between a local Brooklyn attorney, architect, and marketing company all with ties to Prospect Heights and Crown Heights – is looking to “bring quality shared work and event space to the neighborhood. ”

They’ve sent us a short survey for folks to fill out: <a href=”http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QZ25CNT“>Click here to take survey.</a>  Pass it along if you know of anyone who might be interested.  The pictures are renderings of their vision of what the space would/could/should look like.  Nice!

On Saturday June 11th, the St. Marks Avenue Independent Block Association is hosting its 2nd Annual Summer Street Festival.  The festival will run from 10am – 3pm along St. Marks Avenue between Brooklyn & New York.  In what is quickly growing into an area tradition, The St. Marks Avenue Independent Block Association has brought together a variety of vendors and performers for this splendid showcase of local talent.  Performers include Christine Dixon’s reenactment of Harriet Tubman, and music by DJ Bryant Smith and the Gospel Ensemble.  Immdiately following the festival, at 3:30pm the bard will also make a cameo in Crown Heights as the Friends of Brower Park will premiere a 45-minute production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

This event is free and open to the public.  For more information contact Denene Williams at smiba11213 at gmail.com

We reported earlier that legendary singer – performer, Lady Miss Kier – of Deee-Lite – Grooves in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and we posted her HOT,  new DJ Video.

Now on Saturday, May 28th, the legendary singer will be a Guest Deee-Jay @ BANZAI at The Red Lotus Room – 893 Bergen St., btw Classon & Franklin Ave.,  in Crown Heights, Brooklyn!

www.ladykier.com	www.ladykier.com
Lady Miss Kier On The Wheels Of Steel!!!	Deee – Jay Lady Miss Kier!!!

Muffinhead & Eric Schmalenberger Present:

BANZAI!!!!! Art and Performance Blitz

Special Guest DJ

Lady Miss Kier

Saturday, May 28th 8PM-3AM Memorial Day Weekend

Red Lotus Room – 893 Bergen St.

(Between Classon & Franklin)

Brooklyn, NY 11238

$10 Pre-sale Tickets Available at www.muffinheadland.com

$15 at the door

DJ SCOTT EWALT

VIDEO ART PROVIDED BY -  Ashley Connor and Wonderpuss Octopus

INSTALLATION – “Cabinet of Humanstrocities” Jeff Silverman, Poison Eve, Zazoo + Satori Zhenesse Staniec Heinemann

SPECIAL APPERANCE – Fritz Donnelly and Christina Ewald of HiChristina

Performances:

1. Big Art Group – Penny Arcade, The Illuminator (AlieNation),, enSUBTITLES, Soigné Deluxe, Darlinda Just Darlinda, Celso & Father Julian of Casa De La Blanca, Jonathan Nosan.   Art: Hope Bowers
2. Ryan Brennan
3. Wren Britton
4. Worm Carnevale
5. Bianca Cassidy
6. Samson Contompasis
7. Cameron Daily
8. Soigné Deluxe
9. Mitcheal D. E. Pope
10. Josuha Dreisacker
11. Raphael Fuchs
12. Kathy Grayson
13. Scott Hug
14. Stephan Keating
15. Jeremy Kost
16. Charlie Ledbetter
17. Lindsay Lowe
18. Snow Mack
19. Kevin Mack
20. Caden Manson
21. Chason Matthams
22. Muffinhead
23. Jemma Nelson
24. Wonderpuss Octopus
25. Sean Peirce
26.Jean Marc Ruellan
27. Darrell Thorne
28. Tillett Wright
29. Gerry Visco
30. Jaimie Warren and the Whoop Dee Doo

Fisher’s Supermarket – which is scheduled to reopen this Friday – has been renamed Bob & Betty’s Food Market – in honor of owner Tony Fisher’s parents – the original owners.

The shelves are almost completely stocked with health conscious products – and except for a few minor details, the store looks as though it could open today.

Our picture below, offers a sneak peak at the almost fully stocked shelves at Bob & Betty’s Food Market.

And, if you didn’t have a chance yet, please read our recent post about the owners of Fisher’s Supermarket – now Bob & Betty’s Food Market – over 30 year history serving the ever changing community of Franklin Ave.

ILFA has a great picture of a hand written sign on Bob & Betty’s window, advising customers to follow owner Tony Fisher on twitter for more up to the minute news.

And in the same ILFA post, Nick, also makes an excellent point on “the emphasis for the great event Manuel is planning for Participatory Urbanism at LaunchPad” on  Friday, April 22nd, 6 PM – 8 PM.

Nostrand Park also blogged about the event spearheaded by local urban planner, Manuela Avila. He describes the project  as:  “I’m working on a research-design project called Participatory Urbanism in the neighborhood named “Crown Heights”.

The focus of the project is to start a discussion about public space in the community that has long been neglected and considering the possibility of opening the residual spaces adjacent to the Franklin shuttle as public spaces.”

So, as much as we  love our community being revitalized, revamped and up graded like Bob & Betty’s Food Market, Sweet Basil, Island Thyme, Chavella’s on Franklin Ave.,  Pacific Oasis Cafe, etc. – there is still a true need to join in on Manuel Avila’s discussion on Friday, April 22nd, 6 PM – 8 PM at launchpad – where he will  attempt to address the issues at the opposite end of the spectrum.

Namely the need for:  “STARTING A DISCUSSION ABOUT THE LONG NEGLECTED PUBLIC SPACES IN THE CROWN HEIGHTS COMMUNITY” that are not being revamped, revitalized and/or up graded, and what we as a community can do about it.

Crown Heights – Brownstones East Of Nostrand Ave. cica 2010 – Abeni Garrett

Curbed recently wrote an article about the Prospect Heights Condo Boom Swallowing Up Crown Heights and it’s in article renaming parts of “desirable” Crown Heights as “ProCro”.

And generally, Crown Heights was given a quite unflattering portrayal in the Curbed article. Sources in it quoted:

“creaky, rent-controlled buildings and graffiti-pocked bodegas.”
“a new neighborhood where’s there’s nothing going on.”
“Crown Heights is not as fashionable. The building stock isn’t as nice…”

Quite a few people were not happy with this over generalization of the community of Crown Heights.

Capt. Planet said (on www.brooklynian.com):

“The real deal is that the properties between Nostrand and Albany on average are far superior to those between Washington and Nostrand.

I once asked a well-known architectural historian about this seeming anomaly and was told that:

prime areas tended to separated from other prime areas by less expensive rental properties where the “support staff” for the wealthy folks lived.”

Apparently the area between Washington Ave. and Nostrand Ave. was one of those “non-prime” areas.”

That was exactly one of my main points about Franklin Ave. in the post: Fisher’s Supermarket – Revamped & Restocked – A Changing Store In An Ever Changing Community

So what are your thoughts of Realtors once again trying to rename Crown Heights or change Crown Height’s borders to make a more affluent – usually people not of color – feel safer to move into the community?

Because, times have changed and generally speaking, many of owners of the grand mansions could not afford to maintain the expensive upkeep on those enormous homes. So, usually because of years of neglect, they sadly began to deteriorate and then were auctioned off or sold and then sub-divided into apts at best or SRO’s at worst.

Immediately East Of Nostrand Ave. used to house many more grand mansions and semi-mansions, than the beautiful brownstones of today, pictured below. As many of the present day, grand brownstones – immediately East Of Nostrand Ave. – were built AFTER the original mansions of the St. Marks District and/or Bedford District – older names of Crown Heights – were torn down around 1900 – 1920′s.

Usually 2 – 3 semi-mansions, at most, were on a street and those semi-mansions depth usually stretched a city block from from St. Marks to Bergen – as one example.

Homes of that scale took a team “of help” to maintain.

The Washington Ave. to Franklin Ave. area – was – cheaper to buy the smaller properties, and as more middle-class, primarily whites, were priced out of Park Slope and moved into Prospects Heights – PH’s reputation began to become more “desirable”.

Then, Realtors tried to name any property usually up to a block at most- immediately east of Washington Ave., where Crown Heights officially begins – as Prospect Heights.

But trying to push “Prospects Heights” as far East as Franklin Ave. – and trying to command those ridiculous prices for the quickly slapped together condos – i.e 1.3 Million Dollars for a 2 bedroom – has proved much more difficult than they and the developers initially speculated.

So that’s where Pro-Cro comes into play.

It’s a matter of semantics and economics, which does unfortunately include a large elements of class and race “fears”, which many, but not all, people want to tip toe around.

Present day Crown Heights name has a “stigma” compulsively attached and associated to it, justifiably or not.

Now ProCro comes in to use when – realtors consciously use it to quickly circumvent any stigma attached to Crown Heights area – as they to try and obtain the the highest price possible for a particular property – that is actual geographically located in Crown Heights!

Imagined Conversation between Realtor and perspective client:

Pro-Cro – Client – “Sounds interesting, tell me more about this delightful up and coming sounding neighborhood.

Crown Heights – “Good God! You must be joking?! I said I wanted to live there, this is not an investment property.

(Client’s Inner Dialogue) “Is this guy crazy? Don’t they shoot white people there! How long before the neighborhood’s racial balance turns over? There’s just no way, no way, just no way I can do it, I’m not racist but.., there’s just no way. Crown Height – Good God No!

But still, given all the changes – good and/or bad – Crown Heights has gone through over the years, does ANYONE have the right to try and change the name of Crown Heights and/or it’s borders to make a more affluent – usually people not of color – feel safer to move into the community?