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:

We’re blogged quite a few times about Bob & Betty’s Food Market – formerly Fisher’s Supermarket pending Grand Opening.

Well, as of this Friday, they’re finally OPEN!!!!!

What are your thoughts and comments on the renovations, food selection, prices etc.?

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.

Photo by: Abeni Garrett - All Rights Reserved - copyright 2011

Fisher’s Supermarket is a Mom & Pop type grocery store located at 805 Franklin Ave. at the corner of Lincoln Place. The supermarket has been a stable presence in this ever changing community for over 3 decades.

And their long anticipated, remodeling of the entire store, is almost finished! The owner, Tony Fisher, hopes to open his gleaming new, eco friendly doors around April 1 on a 24 hr, 7 days a week basis!

You can skip the fascinating history of the ever Changing Franklin Ave. and head straight to the portion concerning what the Revamped Fisher’s will be about.

UPDATE – Fisher’s Supermarket has been renamed Bob & Betty’s Food Market in honor of owner Tony Fisher’s parents – the original owners .  You can read our post on that here, after you finish reading about  Franklin Ave.’s fascinating history.

The Ever Changing Franklin Ave.

35 years ago, Tony Fisher’s parents relocated their store to the safer Franklin Ave. from it’s former location, on the much more dangerous and turbulent Washington Ave, a few blocks West.

When they moved to Franklin Ave. in the 70′s, the whole city was in a financial crisis and almost bankrupt. Many communities were still reeling from the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, the Civil Rights movement that had not reached fruition and the Vietnam War.

Washington Ave. was a war zone were many frustrations were vented on the few remaining business left on that Ave.

Franklin Av. and it’s immediate surrounding community – with it’s side streets of factories and warehouses – had always been a solidly blue collar type of community since the huge, old plantations of Brueklen had been sub – divided and sold as land parcels.

Here lived the working class people who either worked for or tolled away in the grand homes of their much more affluent neighbors immediately to the East of Nostrand Ave. – which was then called the St. Marks district – or West of Flatbush Ave in Park Slope.

And even though Franklin Ave.’s racial & ethnic demographic had been steadily shifting since the 1950′s from a mixed community of primarily Jewish, Irish, Italian and a small percentage of Afro-American’s – to a more exclusively Caribbean, African, Afro-American & Latino community – Franklin Ave.’s core economic demographic remained a solidly working class community.

This is the vibrant community that Fisher’s Supermarket opened its doors to in the 70′s.

As the neighborhood continued to change, and many more working class families continued to flee – as a direct result of the the neighborhood becoming a horrible casualty of the crack epidemic in the 80′s – Fisher’s Supermarket refused to move and stayed put.

Even after business after business bordered up it’s doors and closed on Franklin Ave., not to re-open for decades, Fisher’s kept serving the existing community and their diverse and changing needs. From stocking a variety of “ethnic” foods – from the Caribbean, Africa and various Latin countries – to delivering food to their elderly or immobile customers or extending credit to families they knew were in need.

The Revamped & Restocked Fisher’s Supermarket

And in a few weeks – hopefully around April 1, Tony Fisher – son of the original owner – will be finished remodeling the family store.

Fisher’s Supermarket will have a much larger Organic selection, be open 24 hours – as the communities work patterns have changed – and have a focus on fair pricing as Tony wants the revamped Fisher’s to serve the needs of the entire community.

Tony remolded the store with the idea of having a primarily “green” store that’s environmentally conscious and friendly and that has a small town feel with a solid relationship with all the members of the community.

From the produce, the way the store will be lighted and technology used to run the store – the way to refrigerators are cooled etc., will be green and eco friendly.

Fisher’s is only using local farmers from Upstate New York, no more than 50 miles away, to cut down on the supermarket’s carbon foot print.

I eagerly await the grand Opening of Fisher’s revamped and restocked Supermarket!

In the neighborhood where Jackie Robinson integrated baseball, it should be no surprise that African-American history permeates the story of this neighborhood. 

If you have ever noticed the towering, boxy building located at 77 New York Avenue known as “Stuy Park Houses”, you, like us, might have simply written it off as a big boxy apartment building.   Well according to Brownstoner blogger “Montrose Morris” the building is quite significant – though it is not so much the architecture that is signifcant, but the man behind it who is. 

Stuy Park House was constructed in 1975 as part of an urban renewal project  in what was then Bedford-Stuyvesant.  The architect behind the building was, as Montrose Morris points out,  notable black architect, John Louis Wilson Jr., “one of the first African-American architects to have a very public career here in NYC”.

While the architectural prowess of his Stuy Park House might not be regarded as spectacular, Wilson was also the brain-trust behind Boys and Girls High School is (what is still) Bedford-Stuyvesant, and certain landmarked buildings in Harlem.  The history of the man and the building is described in more detail on Brownstoner.  Check it out.

Dec. 26, 2010 – 6:40 AM –

It was the best of storms, it was the worst of storms, it was an age of bureaucratic errors and misscommunication, it was the 1st storm of the winter season for NYC. A storm that turned into despair, crippling all five boroughs and literally bringing the city to it’s knees.

Jan. 12, 2011 – 6 AM

Jan. 12, 2011 – it was the the 2nd storm for NYC and what a difference a few weeks – and a City Council Meeting to investigate what exactly went wrong with the first clean up – can make.

At 6AM this morning Nostrand Ave had already been plowed and salted! The B44 bus had a snow free route as far as my eye could see.

What a difference experience than the Dec. 26TH’s snow storm, when at 6:40 in the morning, I had to trudge through two feet of snow in the middle of un-plowed streets, passing numerous stalled B44 buses.

Do you think the city and the officials responsible for snow removal have learned from the errors they made doing the “clean up” of the first storm on Dec. 26, 2010?

Do you feel today’s snow removal is a job finally, well done?

Thumbnail Photo by: Annabelle Heckler – All Rights Reserved

This just in from the Crown Heights North Assoc. (CHNA):

CHNA, the organization responsible for the landmarking of Crown Heights North “is now in a position to further advance its mission by acquiring and restoring the Elkins House at 1375 Dean Street and transforming it into a vital community arts center.  Built circa 1855, the Charles B. & Susan Elkins House the only remaining Civil War era wooden farmhouse in Crown Heights North.

Negotiations for CHNA to acquire the property began in late August 2010 when CHNA contacted the current owner, Saxon Mortgage Services after observing the building’s decline with graffiti covering the front, open windows, and overgrown shrubbery providing cover for vandals.  Saxon is a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley, a pension fund advisor to the City. The former owner had intended to demolish the building to erect a multi-story apartment complex, but that purpose was frustrated in 2006 by the designation of the building as an individual landmark. Saxon bought the Elkins House for $80,000 without realizing it was landmarked.

Except for cosmetics, Saxon has done nothing to it, not even closing the holes in the roof to make it watertight.  Now that CHNA has brought the property to their attention, they are demanding a quick cash sale for much more than they paid for it; and will not permit CHNA the time needed to raise the necessary funds. Even though Saxon could easily donate the property to CHNA and take a tax deduction for the benefit of their shareholders.

As an arts center, the Elkins House will fill a vital need in the community for after school and weekend activities for the neighborhood children, as well as adult programs designed to inspire creativity, and impart viable job and life skills, while housing CHNA’s office and allowing CHNA a base from which it can better serve the community.

To save the Elkins House for our community, CHNA needs to raise at least $275,000 over the next 30 days. In addition to money, we also need licensed and skilled construction tradespeople, architects, handymen and community volunteers willing to work on the restoration of the Elkins House.

If you would like to make a donation, to volunteer your labor or would like more information, please contact us at elkinshouseincrownheightsnorth@gmail.com or donate through Guidestar.org and search for Crown Heights North Association.  CHNA is a IRC 501(c)(3)non-profit.  All donations will be fully tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. Visit our Web site at www.chna-inc.org for a schedule of meetings.”

Picture from Brownstoner.com

For more pictures, visit Brownstoner.com.

Credit: Michael Del Castillo/The Brooklyn Ink

This news comes by way of Brooklynian and BrooklynInk:

CUNY’s Medgar Evers College has opened a new $247 million School of Science, Health and Technology building on the former site of a sanitation garage. The building, known as Academic Building I, expands the college’s growing campus and is a milestone in Brooklyn’s transformation into a center for scientific learning and industry.

This is great news for MEC and for the neighborhood at large.

From our observations, it seems that Medgar Evers is under-appreciated for its role as an institution of higher learning in the neighborhood. There are probably a couple of reasons for that:

1. it is south of Eastern Parkway, which has significantly less commercial activity, and therefore, significantly less opportunities for the student body to interact with residents, and
2. it doesn’t seem that the college has done must to foster a broader linkage to the neighborhood. It is amazing how, even without a true campus, the institution seems insular.

Local community groups and businesses, should consider ways to get students more involved in the neighborhood. Colleges can be a helpful drivers of economic development for a neighborhood.   But not only with economic development, but with cultural development as well, MEC may be able to play a role.

Medgar Evers is an HBCU (historically black college or university – not sure if it is so officially, but de facto it is) and has a large Caribbean student body. They are well positioned to be a driver of cultural programming in the neighborhood.

So hopefully this new building will spark some change!

Great news!  One of your favorite neighborhood development organizations (ahem) has the opportunity to be awarded $5,000 towards our groundbreaking community development initiatives for Crown Heights.  That is because yours truly has been nominated for a Brooklyn DoGooder award (I am honored).

This is one of the easiest, no cost ways for you to make an impact and support local community development initiatives!

OUR IMPACT

If you love (or even just like … just li’l bit) the work that Nostrand Park has been doing for the past 2 years please vote!  Many of you have been with us since the beginning, but for those who do not know – in the past 2 years, we have been at the forefront of placemaking initiatives in Crown Heights:

• we have launched over 800 posts about neighborhood entrepreneurs, mom and pops, events, artists and community organizations
• we rallied 12 local teens to volunteer to plant flowers, pick up trash, and clean Franklin Avenue in CHCA’s clean up day
• we coordinated a day of service in the neighborhood, including a community gardening day
• we created a virtual art gallery, so that local artists have a free, public, world-wide forum to showcase their work.
• we’ve made you laugh, we’ve made you cry, we’ve made you roll your eyes.
• and of course now, the big project that we are working on is Destination Nostrand, which is all about:
  • organizing and supporting local entrepreneurs so that the quality of goods and services in the neighborhood improves
  • encouraging retail diversification in the neighborhood
  • beautifying our commercial corridors with cleaning and horticulture – we have even secured a commitment from Big Belly Solar to pilot their $3,900 solar powered compacting trash cans in Crown Heights!

TO VOTE

There have been some problems with the website, but they hopefully have been resolved.  So now, all you have to do is navigate to this webpage and click the   button to the right.  You may have to create an account or just sign in with Facebook.  You can vote up to 5 times per day (and there are some other Crown Heights folks that you may want to share your votes with) every day until October 15th.

CORNY SLOGAN

5 votes a day = $5,000 for our communi-tay.