Photo Wednesday 112713 : New Prospect & Produce on Bedford Av Edition

(Above produce and cheese(!) among other rarified items)

There's a new market selling what seems to be the same type of upscale and higher quality produce and goods gentrifying neighborhoods have come to expect. It opened yesterday but as I was passing Monday night, peering through the mint condition glass windows, the manager invited me in for a chat and look around. More on that later. First, a little from Spike Lee.

Among people I know, one of many famous lines we are prone to recite form the 1991 Malcolm X film is, "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock, landed, on us!" The line a turning point in the character Malcolm X's orator ability to speak to the disenfranchised African-Americans of that moment, spoken by Denzel Washington with his characteristic and halting fire delivery.

The initiation of development in neighborhoods like Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant, usually by developers and land owners who'd ignored the neighborhood or provided minimal service obviously brought in folks and trends, which we all messily blanket with the title gentrification. So much of that gentrification being so culturally, economically and visibly different from what had been in those and other areas of New York City, I personally think of that movie line often.

Sometimes gentrification's not so bad. Having something seem to come from out of the blue, and land, or pop up, in your neighborhood space, something the neighborhood was lacking, for example commercial variety, lifestyle options and the neighborhood self-sufficiency it had, can be the upside. Like everything there's trade offs, but despite the fact that we (myself loudly at times complain about it's ills) gentrification can often give as much as it takes. That's a vague paragraph (and I left it grey in my first draft) but I'll add this distinction. Who gentrification gives to is often where the problems spike.

As I've mentioned all over this blog, I was born in Crown Heights, (until I was born in Prospect Heights, which many seem to only recently realize is in fact still Crown Heights) except that real estate dictates, as well as two decades and landmark preservation have more sharply defined what Prospect Heights is. Anyway, I've seen a lot. For example, my father learned in business school the value of reading the New York Times each Sunday. He was the only person in the family who did this. My Grandfather to name one, was more than happy with the New York Post, but hey, he voted Republican. My dad on the other hand was one of the few, if not only people on Prospect Place between Vanderbilt and Underhill to read the Times at all. This was partially because of how hard it was to get the Times. No one sold it anywhere east of Flatbush Avenue, okay maybe a rare few bodegas had less than ten copies but it was never consistent which ones had it. My father would take me out on Sunday to walk over to Park Slope's cornered edge, Grand Army Plaza and Flatbush Av where the newsstand had nearly a bunker made of stacked New York Times bundles. I've lived the same story of walking a distance sometimes long, sometimes shorter, for reliable meats, produce, cheese, and hardware supplies (despite Mayday being very well stocked) to name a few needs and no it doesnt make my life instantly better to have fresher hamburger, munster, fine grit sandpaper and the sunday classifies, but it helps.

I have a label for posts called, "Gentrification I Can Believe In" for that reason.

There are certain basic things that neighborhoods have, that Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant had which were lost, in some cases, referring specific to shopping needs, replaced for a generation with owner apathy and bare shelves.

I always wanted my neighborhood to come back. I was too young to know about how great Brooklyn was in the 40's & 50's, how much neighborhoods then were solvent and self-sufficient, but the little good I had know from my elementary school days, that little bit that had dried up and flaked off by the cracked out late 80's and early 90's, I wanted at least that much back.

I always knew it could come back, and little things like the rebuilt park on Prospect and Underhill, or the rebuilt Franklin Shuttle and it's stations, or the rebuilt Brooklyn Museum facade, always seemed to suggest a rebirth was moments away. After all, there's a thousand reasons why Crown Heights, and frankly all longstanding neighborhoods in Brooklyn should be thriving. Central of those reasons in my mind is the fact that the basic infrastructure for those neighborhoods, water, power, transportation, roads are here and have been, though they may require extreme upkeep in some situations. Frequently the other key elements; schools, decent residences, (structurally at least) are existing too. So I always knew a thriving Brooklyn could and I believed would come back. What I an afro-caribbean-latino Crown Heights born Brooklynite never expected is that "we", the people in my life, on my block, in my family wouldn't be the stars of the spectacular comeback I knew was coming. Today, frequently, to look at bars, town halls, l'artisanal food markets and (Ha!) New York Times articles about the neighborhood, we're not.

But we all still need provisions.


On the corner of Prospect Place and Bedford avenue there was an auto supply shop, from what I recall it was the kind of place you'd find cans of motor oil, heavy plastic formed jugs of anti-freeze and racks of fan belts plus more. My guess is the store was a hold over from the day when Bedford Ave was all about cars, their showrooms and that industry. After moving back to Crown Heights from Clinton Hill I noticed this retail spot was a bodega in the classically depressing urban sense of the word. Wide isles, bare shelves and low nutritional values seemed to be their stock and trade. Along with loosies and what else I could only speculate. 

My long frequent walks pass this store headed for greener produce inspired me to write a long post about it, other retail spaces on Bedford and Franklin that I felt could use some of that damn gentrifying. But you know, the good ones. Life and the fact that nothing offers less return on my investment than this blog kept that long series of "Gentrification I Can Believe In" posts from being written, and then Franklin, frankly, exploded with gentry. Okay it hasn't gotten pass Prospect place going north and something that I think is unseen and goes beyond simple explanation is keeping gentrification's appetites for rare cheese from flowing south on Franklin from Eastern Parkway. However on a certain highly publicized stretch of Franklin Avenue, there is more pomp and cheese then anyone could have guessed at and there's more on the way.

Meanwhile Bedford one block away, hadn't seen much commercial development until early last year when a bodega on Sterling started getting a make over. Till now the biggest thing to happen on Bedford commercially was the opening of Catfish, between Park Place and Prospect Place, the Creole themed bar and restaurant which full disclosure I am a huge fan of. Yes, there is Brooklyn Exposure a lovingly inviting spot that seems to have the market cornered on every form of respectable nightlife from dinning to comedy shows to full on musical performances. Brooklyn Exposure seems to be powered by love as much as anything, I've been once and the people so great I imagined them to all be family. But Catfish is still the biggest point of interest from Atlantic to Empire Blvd.

The issue for Bedford is partially it's a very wide two-way street. I have a theory that you need a higher density of thriving businesses for streets larger than one lane one-ways. Which in my mind is part of why Williamsburg's end of Bedford Av flourished so easily. Brooklyn Exposure is just a block away from Catfish but it feels like a trek at night. Catfish's great food and drinking selections plus a warm wide inviting space have kept it humming with people since last year, but their red neon sign might as well say "City Limits" for it's solitary standing on Bedford Av. I'll grant Cafe Rux Dix opened on the corner of Park Place this year, a fine french inspired cafe, but it's subdued lighting and vibe don't light up the corner it's on, probably by design. Beyond these three outposts, there are also many condos and recently built or rebuilt apartments on Bedford, two at the intersection of Bedford and Prospect, one more up the block on the lots that had been home to a community garden that was found to be unofficial but dense with trees. Despite that there still hasn't been much else in the way of commercial action on Bedford. Until yesterday.

I was almost face to glass, trying to make out the brands on the densly packed market shelves when the manager came toward me. I admit I wasn't in the mood to be waved off, they'd been constructing whatever this business was, I thought, "...for months and I'm sure they're not finished". I made it a few feet from the entrance when the same manger came out and invited me back in. 

The new market on Bedford and Prospect place is not large enough to be a supermarket, but it is in-line scale-wise with "Bob & Betty's" that well lit, well stocked, often organic market on Franklin and Lincoln. The manager of this new market on Bedford and Prospect, Reuben, told me the building owner (who somehow got all of their tenants out and remodeled the corner apartment building above, with raised rents and all new occupants less than a year ago) contacted him because he manages another market in Williamsburg where the building owner lives. Reuben looks and sounds like a Brooklynite to me and he claimed he was.

The easiest way to describe the zeal with which he should me around the market, would be proud father. The market is open but still being stocked he boasted through an excited smile that never left his face. "We're getting all local produce in this section, most of our produce will be locally sourced" Reuben exclaimed through un-checked excitement.

Reuben told me he'd submitted a business plan for the space, and couldn't understand what the previous store manager did in the previous desperate space. Now the shelves are lined with a variety of items you'd find easily in Park Slope or Fairway. Fine crackers and cheesy selections (which I do enjoy by the way, love them crackers and the cheese that goes with) along with virgin olive oils, imported pastas, hummus, sarabeth jams and… you get the idea.

There will be custom coffee selections and fine meats in the weeks to come, between all Reuben described, what I'd seen of the new layout, new floors, fixures and food, I think this space is going to light up a lot more of the neighborhood.

 
The new well stocked food market on 1426 Bedford Av at the corner of Prospect Pl. is called "Brooklyn Born Mini Market". It was written on a flyer Reuben handed to me as I was leaving. I had nothing to do with it. But I like it and it seems about time.

I'll check in on the market, reporting what I see on this blog, because I'm curious and well I'm tired of having to walk away from my neighborhood.

UPDATE:
As of Dec 15th the store seems much more stocked than on day one, however the juice bar and coffee isn't set up yet. This hasn't stopped me from shopping there three times, and giving back minutes and miles for not having to walk to franklin for basic provisions. 

UPDATE 2:
I continue shopping happily at Brooklyn Born Mini-Market into 2014 and I've noticed more and more people each time, though not yet any crowds. I still think it's all great except I wish the lights weren't such cold fluorescents but hey it was dark and suspect for year on Bedford so little steps. One other thing I've noticed since the market opened is voiced displeasure from people I presume to be new-comers to the neighborhood. In one case a couple discussed as they walked pass and I was exiting. I heard the male say,"what do you mean bougie?" His female friend replied with a sneering exhalation of  what I guess was disgust. "It's, It's not REAL" she said, as I watched them walk away.

45 Trees Shredded and a Battle on Bedford Av Begun

In June I awoke to the sound of machinery as opposed to the singing birds that normally roused me from slumber.  I assumed it was street repair work. Except that there was a persistent buzzing. Eventually I saw a wood-chipper machine grinding tree limbs fed from an undistinguished man and taken from an enclosed park space on Bedford Avenue. 

The park space is the width of two four story apartment buildings and is in fact two lots that residents have a claim to. They explain that the lots were granted as park space by the BEC (Brooklyn Ecumenical Corporation) and given to the Bedford Park Residents Association. They say they have not only had the space granted as a park for residents (the usage was granted to them after the buildings on the lots had been torn down and to prevent the space from falling into disuse) but they've also paid for maintenance of the space for over 18 years.

This is what the park has looked like for much of the last two decades:

I've posted more pictures (from Google Maps)  http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_fuetur/7554451180/in/photo stream

I assumed the men tossing tree limbs into shreds were cleaning up fallen branches.

It turns out a developer who according to residents has yet to provide any proof ownership of the park space, has made a claim to the lots on which the park stands and had sent the men to chop down over 40 trees which included Maples and fruit-baring boysenberry so the land can be developed and a condo built.

When I passed Bedford avenue between Park and Prospect places this is what the park looked like:

In the span of about 3 hours over 40 trees were cut down and shredded. This shot by a resident shows the destruction and the felling of the trees:

You can see before views of the area for yourself on googlemaps: https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=1442+bedford+avenue,+new+york,+ny&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x89c25b9e7baed427:0x1677f5ec760ed64b,1442+Bedford+Ave,+Brooklyn,+NY+11216&gl=us&ei=1GD-T9nYEaWn6wGn0LngBg&sqi=2&ved=0CAUQ8gEwAA

At a community meeting held next door members of the board expressed their frustrations. Their belief is the developers have an expectation that residents wouldn't defend this space and that local officials will either defend their claim of ownership or simply not speak up.

One resident told me NY1 had recorded statements from residents for a segment on the issue but no segment was aired.

This story has been reported in the Brooklyn Paper as well as the I love Franklin Ave blog.

The Franklin Ave Blog sums it up like this:

Basically, back in 1994, the Brooklyn Ecumenical Council (BEC) dedicated a pair of lots on Bedford as a community garden and park, to be jointly used and paid for by residents and owners of the surrounding buildings. Fast forward 18 years, and a developer who's acquired some adjacent land believes he has rights to the space, and has already shredded the trees, shrubs, and bushes that had adorned the lot for the past two decades. Needless to say, the residents are fighting back, and they're hoping to mount a legal and political challenge to this land grab

In the weeks since that early June morning when most residents had gone to work while workmen whittled the park into a barren set of lots, the Bedford Park Residents Association has gotten active. They've called the police several times to prevent unnamed men from going in to the space without permission and the residents report having a Police Detective assigned to the task of verifying the ownership claims.

Speculation abounds as to what claim the developers have to the land and how they'll verify it since each time the police have been called the workmen in the park have had no documentation proving a right to be on the property or permits for the destruction.

The burden of proof swings both ways as the tenants association is working to retrieve documents they say will demonstrate the developers claim to the land is unjust.

To that end they've put a call out to any who may have documents and or photographic relating to the park and its community history.

According to Mr. Francis one of the Bedford Park Residents Association, today (Thursday 7/12) workmen are scheduled to come to do core samples of the land for use in the developers plane build condos on the space. For that reason they are asking for other residents to come out and stand up  for the space and they've put out a call to anyone with photos or documents demonstrating the tenants history of usage and claim to the park.

A new Star on Bedford : Photo Wednesday

A new Star on Bedford is born.

Happy New Year! After a much needed vacation, I'm back on blog.

Since moving back to Crown Heights a few years ago I've made an attempt to check out as many local food spots as possible with the intention of adding a little light and awareness to these generally small business that are a vital element of thriving communities.

Even with the accumulation of local blogs and the New York Times' discovery this past decade of Brooklyn there are still places under-seen who make more than a little hash.

I spotted a corner restaurant on Bedford and Park Place about a year ago and was immediately intrigued because of it's signs advertising African Cuisine and the fact that I could never tell if they were open or not. The entrance right on the corner and it being one of only two restaurants on that stretch of Bedford from Atlantic to Eastern Parkway I went in and I'm still not sure what I found. The place was less than stocked with cooked or other food, the person behind the counter a nice enough woman seemed more caretaker than proprietor. I took a menu and left. Never to return.

So imagine my surprise last week, when I noticed activity and then a new awning and signage. Now advertising BURGERS in large capital letters. Other signs intrigued. Halal offerings seemed to paper the entrance as well as effusive "YES, WE'RE OPEN" signs. It seemed they were trying to reach out.

Upon entering a number of apparent changes. While still a simple food shop, the interior was brighter and seem more spacious. New menus, a working fridge half stocked with beverages, a large tv merrily blaring sports and more importantly people, cooking, food.

"Alpha Star Burger" is the name of the place and they are under new management.

I met Smokey mid 30ish guy appropriately dressed in a fry cook's hat, apron and easy smile.

He explained they've been open only since the beginning of this year. When asked why the name he reminded me that the previous name had been "Alpha Star". I don't know smokey's background but with all the Halal references and his complexion I assumed a broad swath from the Middle East to Southern Asia. Smokey corrected me, he's from Fresno.

I mentioned my experience with the previous place and Smokey expressed some surprise at how key things were left undone, there are exterior lights which worked but the blown bulbs had not been replaced) and he felt there was a good potential between the location and the food they offer.

Finally I asked the money question, "why burgers?" "We've made burgers for 15 years... were good at them." he spoke in all confidence.

How could I not try one.

The double cheeseburger was my choice, chased with a Coke, in a glass bottle.

Alpha Star Burger was winning me and the meat wasn't even off the grill. Pictures tell the story of the burger best from here:


I was so busy eating I almost forgot to take a pict with the Coke bottle involved. Not Kosher, Halal and very good!



Afterward, I wanted to order a second, even though my stomach was bursting with joy and burger all a sudden.

While I was there, during my 15 or so minutes at least 5 customers came in off the street, seemingly for the first time (no banter between them and Smokey who seemed up for it) there were also a couple cops who just seemed to be around for a moment.

The meat was tender juicy, the burger held together only deliciously coming apart as I chewed it and the cheese I liked though I'm not sure what you all might feel about it, it tasted similar to the cheese in baked macaroni I've gotten from Halal shops all over Brooklyn, which I love.

My take away, it's bright, looked clean, the burger was delicious and now all of a sudden I have to put in work to not go in a buy one daily.

*Alpha Star Burger is located on the corner of Bedford Avenue and Park Place in Crown Heights Brooklyn. Two blocks from the Franklin Shuttle (Park Place Station). Besides burgers they have a menu of diner and Halal fare, and I was told they're working on getting cappuccino. The phone # is on the awning above, give them a call and see if they deliver for you.

A Running Affair (a true NYC Marathon Love Story)

Last year as I wandered along the NYC Marathon route I met an amazing bunch of people and one story, demonstrating the positive potential of random New York City encounters particular stood out. Here's that story in video and written form. Hope you have a good view of the Marathon.



Music:"Reach Out I'll Be There" by The Four Tops


Today's running of the New York City marathon will offer many intense and passive means of bystander participation. Some ways are almost as involved as running the race itself. But you don't have to be one of the hundreds of water bearing volunteers passing out hundreds of ounces of H2O to the masses. You don't have to play an instrument as is done at various points along the route, although it can greatly enhances the mood if you're belting out great sounds adding to the runner's sonic cacophony. You don't even need to bring a flag, although it's cool when people put on a giddy display of national backing.

However if you want low cost high impact results, I'd say pound for pound clasping hands (or giving five as we'd call it in the old neighborhood) with a marathon runner is one of the most fulfilling actions of the entire passive marathon watching experience. You, leaving your hand out to be slapped by a marathon runner you may never even see is the best is the greatest interaction for the generally uninitiated because it requires so little of the bystander. You only need extend your arm, hand and palm open, fingers spread like a wide welcoming smile. the runner stretches their hand out and in that brief contact you're able to offer good luck, hope, praise and allegiance to dozens maybe even hundreds. Which of course stimulates you as well, to embellish if nothing else. After all if you give "five" to a deflating runner who surges on after and wins, how can you not claim having had a hand in the victory?

But it's gotta be more empowering for the runner. Perhaps after six or nine or fifteen, certainly after twenty or so miles the mind must begin to peer dimly through a tunnel vision that can enhance focus but is just as able to become so transfixing as to block awareness and motivation. I imagine the runner in those fixated stretches, then a hand reaching out before them inviting, waiting passively. Then crack! It happens.

I've never run the marathon so I can't know from the runner's perspective, but it's gotta be more empowering for the runner. I've seen something happen when runner and bystander make that manual contact. Yours and their hands crash like human cymbals. A sudden jolt of focus, an explosion of unexpected encouragement. You become a pacemaker encouraging their required rhythm. And then it's over but the runner is sharper, more aware, redirected.

Amazing that it happens at all given the physics of the event. Marathon runners travel at an average of twelve miles per hour. If a moving car hit a parked car at that speed expensive damage would result. Despite the meaty mitt encircling much of our palm, it seems likely to think having somebody run their hand into yours at twelve miles an hour is gonna sting at least. So overcoming risk aversion is the first hurtle. Then there's the issue of aim. Again think twelve miles an hour. And consider it's not the comparably smooth ride of a car but the up and down, back and forth, bumpity jumpity of running. You'd be a head bobbing in a sea of bobble heads. Packed as well, so add to that a visibility limited to the back of the person a few inches in front of you. Objects are flashing into view, then gone. Salmon have an easier time locating things.

From my observations, of the hand-shake/clasps,pounds,fives I saw it was fifty-fifty between last minute sudden clasps and runners deliberate honing in on the supportive hand like a targeted missile.

During last year's marathon I was in Brooklyn, where Fort Greene tumbles down into Clinton Hill which promptly runs into Bedford-Stuyvesant. I took note of the many people giving that supportive hand to the runners. Eventually I reached the corner of Bedford and Lafayette avenues, across from KFC in what is usually accepted to still be Bed-Stuy. I noticed a spectator whose entire method of handshake, hand clasp, high five giving, separated him from the rest and that was Danny. Clearly he chose his spot, that corner where literally and sometimes figuratively the race turns. His hand remained aloft, just enough into the race as to matter, all the time I was there and I imagined long before and after. He was the Grizzly of the stream for that corner, except that instead of destroying hope with a swat he seemed to pound life and good will back into the runners he caught.

I was curious and spoke with Danny he explained that he held his hand out as a half target half energy boosting social connector because he made the runner's happy and that at the very least it made him happy. Then Shereen, the lovely woman standing beside Danny added it was also a showing of support. Shereen would know, thirteen years ago she and Danny met on that very corner.

On that day years ago Danny and Shereen exchanged numbers, courted, eventually married and have returned to that same spot every year since to continue their marathon watching tradition and share the love.

After meeting them I began to see, probably for the first time in 30 years of viewership how the New York City marathon strengthens and demonstrates that very New York City phenomon of possible, sudden, sometimes emotional bonds being created instantly between the diverse millions of New York's passing strangers. Often with lasting effect. While at the same time for those more deeply invested in New York City day in and day out, the marathon offers a warm touchstone for relationships that run and never lag.

Fall Foliage Fotos Series #10

From Bedford Avenue in Flatbush as opposed to Williamsburg, Marine Park, Bedford-Stuyvesant, etc...

Did you know that Bedford Avenue is the longest avenue in Brooklyn?