Posted by Sharon Davidson on 01/25/2009 under Doing Business | 
How to Get to the North Flatbush Avenue area:
By Train:
to Grand Army Plaza
to 7th Avenue
By Bus:
to Flatbush Avenue and 7th ave
Looking for something different to do or want to go shopping? North Flatbush Avenue has:
- Some of the most beautiful old architecture in Brooklyn
- Many unusual shops and eateries to choose from
- It is a quick trip on the 2/3 or Q trains from Manhattan
- Plenty of parking including 2 parking garages a few short blocks away
- A mix of new retail stores and vintage boutiques, organic and health food stores, wines and liquors, hardware and house-wares, stationary, pet groomers,hair, nail and spa salons, carribean food, Pizzerias, and pharmacies.
- So many ethnic restaurants to choose from plus our famous Burrito Bar and Kitchen on the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Prospect Place.
- And of course there is Prospect Park, The Brooklyn Museum, The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Brooklyn Flea, the Green Market, Grand Army Plaza, BAM and so much more.
Transportation by subway: Take the 2/3 train to the Bergen Street stop or take the Q train to the Seventh Avenue stop. They both stop in the heart of the North Flatbush Avenue District.
Tranportation by Car: Take the Brooklyn or Manhattan Bridges to Flatbush Avenue and drive straight up Flatbush Avenue. Our district starts at Atlantic Avenue through Plaza Street and Grand Army Plaza.
The NYC Transit Authority has subway and bus maps available on-line. http://www.mta.info/nyct/maps/submap.htm
For more New York City sites to visit in and around our Borough, visit New York City and Company - New York City’s official tourism site. www.nycvisit.com
The MTA has complete Metro-North schedule and fare information information posted on its site. www.mta.com
The Long Island RailRoad information is available from the MTA on the web. www.mta.com
Dont forget to pick up one of the BID’s brand new Shopping and Services Guide - you can find one in any one of our stores along the avenue or call our office and we will be happy to give you one. They are FREE, give one to your friend.
map of the district.
Posted by Sharon Davidson on 01/24/2009 under Doing Business |
Grand Army Plaza
GRAND ARMY PLAZA
Grand Army Plaza, the oval at the main entrance of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, was meant to provide a wide and picturesque approach to the park, which park designer Calvert Vaux considered a vital design element. The Plaza was one of the first features of Prospect Park to be built and marks the beginning of the Eastern Parkway (1866), the world’s first parkway also designed by Vaux and his partner Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903). The parkway’s intended purpose was to connect the City’s parks with ornamental roads free of commercial traffic.
From 1915 to approximately 1920, the Plaza was cut open to make room for the BMT and IRT subway lines. The underground tracks necessitated the removal of the electric fountain, which gave way to a grass oval. Construction on the current Baily Fountain began in 1928 and was completed in 1932. With the advent of the automobile, the busy junction of streets around the Plaza became increasingly dangerous and a “Death-O-Meter” was installed at the Plaza in 1927 that kept track of Brooklyn automobile fatalities. By the 1950’s, the Plaza was dominated by traffic, over 40 traffic signals were added in 1955, and the roadway was entirely repaved in 1958.
The bust of John F. Kennedy was added in 1965. In 1973 the Arch was designated an official City landmark, and in 1975 the entire Grand Army Plaza was designated such as well. In 1976 the victory figure on the quadrille on top of the Arch fell out of its chariot. The Arch was restored in 1980 and again in 2000.
Brooklyn Acedamy of Music
BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is America’s oldest continuously operating performing arts center, founded 1861, just a short distance from our district. BAM is a major performing arts venue known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance.
The first BAM facility at 176-194 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights was conceived as the home of the Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn. It housed a large theater seating 2,200, a smaller concert hall, dressing and chorus rooms, and a vast “baronial” kitchen. After the building burned to the ground on November 30, 1903, plans were made to relocate to a new facility in the then fashionable neighborhood of Fort Greene. The cornerstone was laid at 30 Lafayette Avenue in 1906 and a series of opening events were held in the fall of 1908 culminating with a grand gala evening featuring Geraldine Farrar and Enrico Caruso in a Metropolitan Opera production of Charles Gounods Faust. The Met would continue to present seasons in Broolyn through 1921.
BAM now consists of the Howard Gilman Opera House which olds 2,109 seats. The Harvey Lichtenstein Theater, with 974 seats, formerly know n as Majestic Theater, named in Lichtenstein’s honor in 1999. BAM Rose Cinemas opened in 1997 allowing Brooklynites the chance to see more art films without having to go to Manhattan and the Hillman Attic Studio, a flexible rehearsal/performing space.
The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower
WILLIAMSBURGH SAVINGS BANK TOWER
The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower, or One Hanson Place, is the tallest building in the borough of Brooklyn and one of our districts familiar landmark.
At 34 stories and 512 feet tall, it is also the second tallest building on Long Island, and is among the tallest four-sided clock towers int he world. Built in 1927 by the architectural firm Halsey, McCormick and Helmer, it is lcoated at 1 Hanson Place at the corner of Ashland Place, near the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues. Despite the name it stands in the Fort Greene section rather than where the bank’s original headquarters building still stands.
Originally the building was owned by the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, then later its parent, Republic National Bank, then via a merger, HSBC. For years the building contained offices, notably dentists offices: the New York Daily news once call it “The Mecca of Dentistry”. As of early 2006, Magic Johnson started to convert the building into luxury condominiums. The building is sometimes called “Willie” or “The Willie”, short for its bank namesake. As a 1920’s skyscraper comparable to those in Manhattan, but standing alone, it has been the subject of speculation and urban legends. It features a gilded copper dome, a public observation deck (now closed to the public), carved lions, turtles and birds on the exterior and a marble hall on the ground floor with 63 foot vaulted ceiling, 40 foot windows and elaborate mosaics.
PROSPECT PARK
Prospet Park meadow
Prospect Park is a 585 acre public park bounded by Park Slope, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Kensington, Windsor Terrace and Flatbush Avenue, Grand Army Plaza and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It is run and operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and is part of the Brooklyn-Queens Greenway.
The park was designs by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux after they completed Manhattan’s Central Park. Attractions include the Long Meadow, a 90 acre meadow thought to be the largest meadow in any U.S park, the Picnic House, which houses offices and a hall that can accommodate parties with up to 175 guests, Litchfield Villa, the home of Edwin Clark Litchfield, an early developer of the neighborhood and a former owner of a southern section of the Park, Prospect Park Zoo, a large nature conservancy managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Boathouse, housing a visitors center and the first urban Audubon Center, Brooklyn’s only lake, covering 60 acres, the Prospect Park Bandshell that hosts free outdoor concerts in the summertime, and various sports and fitness activities including seven baseball fields. There is also a private Society of Friends cemetery on Quaker Hill near the ball fields, where actor Montgomery Clift is interred.
GREEN MARKET at GRAND ARMY PLAZA
The Green Market sells fresh herbs, plants and seeds
The Green Markets at Grand Army Plaza brings the best and freshest in upstate produce and fish from Mattituck, Long Island and meat from the heart of Brooklyn. All food is grown and produced by regional farmers specializing in organic, unprocessed and free-range produce. You will find everything from blueberry wine to goat cheese to one hundred varieties of apples and fresh-picked flowers, plants and seeds. You can also find fresh baked cakes, pies and bread. The Green Market is open Every Saturday, from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m.. The Grand Army Plaza green market is the second largest open air green market in New York City. It is located at the traffic circle near the Grand Army Plaza arch at the entrance to Prospect Park .Over half the farmers at the Grand Army Plaza GreenMarket are able to accept credit cards and EBT/food stamps.
The GreenMarket is a program of the Council on the Environment of NYC (CENYC) and was developed to support local farmers while offering over 600 varieties of delicious farm-grown products to City residents.
Posted by Sharon Davidson on 01/23/2009 under What's New |
First, just a little bit of info about the Pacific Street Bears Community Garden -
a great addition to our BID…………
The Brooklyn Bears Community Garden on Flatbush Avenue and Pacific Street
Founded in 1983, The Pacific Street Brooklyn Bear’s Community Garden was named after a teddy bear gardeners found in the weeds at an early workday. At a time when the City had all but abandoned this corner of Brooklyn, neighbors took matters into their own hands with a beautification project that has endured for over 25 years.
By 1988, recognizing the possibility of a development project on the site, the Bears began organizing to make the garden a permanent part of Flatbush Avenue. By 1990, an agreement was in place to include the garden in any planned development. In order that the group not disband during construction, the City offered a property on Carlton Avenue between Gates and Greene. A recession ended that original development plan, but the group continued working at the new Carlton Avenue Brooklyn Bear’s Community Garden!
When another group gardening on Flatbush and Lafayette since 1980 moved away, the City contacted the Bears to see if they’d care for that site too. Not wanting to see a green space go to waste, the group agreed and in 1991, the Rockwell Place Brooklyn Bear’s Community Garden was (re)born. That made them the Three Bear’s Gardens!
In 1997 a new development project began, and the original garden was plowed to make way for the Mall buildings . After incredible community support, the Bear’s fought back and recreated the garden on a portion of the original site.
With strong support from the community, the Borough President’s office, and City and State officials, all three Bear’s Gardens are now a permanent part of their communities — Carlton and Rockwell under the NYC Parks Department and Pacific Street as part of the Brooklyn Queens Land Trust, the largest urban land trust in the nation.
It was in 2007 that the North Flatbush Bears Community Garden got together and started planning children’s programming for the community. Just down the street from the BID’s office with all its beautiful splendor, the Garden provided a bit of respite for the community and all those who walked by. It was a perfect way for the BID to provide children’s programming in an area that is both beautiful to look at and big enough to hold a crowd of children. It was in August of 2007 that we held our very first Children’s Activity Day. And each year, the BID holds 3 children’s events at the garden.
Getting the marigolds ready for planting
In April of 2008 BID held its very first Earth Day Event. Over 75 children attended and they all participated in seedling planting,of Marigold flats into a composted ready planter. The children also got a lesson on composting by garden landscaper, Jon Crow as well as a demonstration on how to organize their recyclables, talks on environmental awareness and lots of information on recycling and reusing. The children had a good time decorating their very own “green” tote bags in which to carry home all their goodies. There were also volunteers on board to paint the children’s faces. The Department of Waste Management donated several Environmental Awareness coloring books. We expect to hold our next Earth Day Event on Sunday, April 26, 2009. Keep visiting our website for more details about this event.
During the summer months when neighborhood children need a break from the heat, The North Flatbush Avenue BID hosted a great Children Day in the Garden Event on August 10, 2008. The children were provided with hours of fun with storytelling, face painting, arts and crafts and gardening. There were homemade snacks and cookies provided by volunteer members of the garden.
When the Park Slope and Prospect heights neighborhood is in merriment with so many neighboring Halloween events, the BID takes great pride in hosting its very own Annual Halloween Spooktacular. That is when the garden turns into a spooky graveyard with bones, scary music, fog and coffins along with spiderwebs and bats and ghosts hanging from the trees. Volunteers from the community garden provide the children with their very own version of a favorite treat “Grilled Hallo’ween-ies”. Delicious hot dogs are set on a bun with deep red “bloody” ketchup.
The children didnt seem to mind waiting in a long line to get their faces painted like a lion, a pumpkin or a ghost by Brooklyn’s famous children’s facepainter, Bert Pinnock. Bert has become a welcome addition to our events. There were so many pumpkins to give out to each family as the children enjoyed decorating each pumpkin in their own unique way. The pumpkins were generously donated by one of our BID’s local merchant, Joe Butrico from All-Star Locksmith. Children had the opportunity to have a free photo session as they peered into a Cinderella banner for the girls and the boys had a great time pretending they were a Pirate. For some extra fun, sweet treats were provided by volunteers of the garden and it was fun watching the children bite into “ghost” cookies and “spiderweb” cupcakes. And what would Halloween be without a basin filled with water and apples for that old time Bobbing for Apples game.
Many children were able to pick up “Trick-or-Treat for Unicef” orange boxes on their way into the event so that they can bring these along with them when they go door to door on Halloween . They also had the opportunity to learn how they can make “Halloween count for kids.”
We have more events coming up in 2009 for Park Slope and Prospect Heights children and families. If you are interested in being a part of these events, want to get onto our mailing list or would like more information about volunteering, please keep watching our website for more details.
Posted by Sharon Davidson on 01/19/2009 under What's New |
On Christmas Day 2005, a car crashed into our old fashioned Victorian street clock on the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Sterling Place.
Flatbush Avenue and Sterling Place Victorian Replica Clock
Within a few weeks, the Victorian style timepiece and its cast-iron pole had been removed, arousing the concern of some of the neighborhood residents.
One resident, Mr. Mark Rykoff, who fittingly enough, edits photographs for Time magazine, said that his earliest memory of New York happens to involve a street clock, the elegant 1927 timepiece outside the Sherry-Netherland Hotel on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, where he stayed as a child in 1973.
After he moved to Sterling Place in 2002, Mr. Rykoff said, the Sterling Place clock on his corner with its Roman numerals and decorative scroll work trim, became equally important to him. “It added an exclamation point to his neighborhoods feeling of historicity”. As long as the clock’s wires continued to poke out of the sidewalk, residents held out hope for its return. But for a long time, when the hole was cemented over, some have feared that the clock was going to be gone for good.
Maybe not, Regina Cahill, President of the North Flatbush Avenue District Management Association, said that her group, which oversees the local business improvement district, had removed the clock for safekeeping and was storing it on property belonging to the Pintchik hardware store on Bergen Street.
“Right now we are trying to see where we can get funding to put it back”, said Regina.”we are a little in limbo”.
The fiberglass replica of a Victorian design was installed around 1982 along with an identical twin a few block down Flatbush Avenue near Sixth Avenue. Even before it’s accident, the Sterling Place clock had led a hard knock life. In 1989, a truck backed into the clock, snapping it in half. After being repaired, the clock ran for years without incident until its electrical line was inadvertently cut , paralyzing its hands. Just when the local effort to restore its power was nearly complete, the clock was felled again when it was suddenly run down.
The total cost to replace and install a new clock was estimated at $20,000. The North Flatbush Avenue BID received $10,000 from the driver’s insurance company, and an addtional $5,000 from the generous support of the Office of Council Member Letitia James. With generous contributions form local merchants and residents, the North Flatbush Avenue BID was able to fund the remaining balance. Three months later, the replacement clock was installed and in August 2008 power was supplied to it.
Surrounded by members of the North Flatbush Avenue Business Improvement District, local merchants and neighbors, the Victorian Clock stands tall once more.
Everyone came out to see the new repaired clock on the corner. At its inauguration, Council-Member Letitia James was awarded with a dedication plaque for her effort. Board of Directors of the North Flatbush Avenue Business Improvement District, the BID’s Executive Director and neighborhood merchants and residents came out to show support for the Victorian Clock. One local merchant, Murat Uyaroglu, owner of Prospect Perk coffee shop, was very happy. “It’s going to be a good landmark for any business”, said Uyaroglu. “If you want to know directions to my coffee shop, just look for the beatiful old Victorian Clock on the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Sterling Place”.
Posted by Sharon Davidson on 01/18/2009 under Doing Business |
Illuminated snowflake adorns Flatbush Avenue
During the month of December during a stroll up or down North Flatbush Avenue have you noticed that the avenue just got a little bit brighter? That could be because the North Flatbush Avenue BID and its Board of Directors have decided to change the look of their avenue with illuminated Snowflakes from New York Christmas Lights and Decorating Ltd. All 20 snowflakes were installed right after the Thanksgiving day holiday and will light up our avenue into the new year. The new snowflakes are just a few of the new projects that the North Flatbush Avenue BID is currently working on to beautify the district. Keep checking our website as we update you with more inniatives from the BID and some projects that you, as our neighbor , can get involved in too.
Our new snowflakes and holiday banners 2009!!
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Posted by Sharon Davidson on 01/17/2009 under Doing Business |
Santa in his elf driven Rickshaw rides up and down Flatbush Avenue
When was the was the last time you saw Santa in a Rickshaw riding up and down Flatbush Avenue?
Or, maybe…. When was your First time? It was probably on December 20, 2008 when the North Flatbush Avenue BID local merchants donated a driver, a Rickshaw and Santa Claus to ride up and down Flatbush Avenue from Plaza Street to Atlantic Avenue handing out candy canes to the children of the Park Slope/Prospect Heights area.
neighborhood children smiling with santa for their free photos
Then, like a Pied Piper, the children followed Santa along Flatbush Avenue to the warmth of the Avon Products store located at 229 Flatbush Avenue. Once inside, besides a beautifully decorated tree, the children had a chance to tell Santa what their christmas wishes were while sitting on his lap. The BID provided delicious hot chocolate and cookies for the children and their families.
Posted by Sharon Davidson on under Doing Business |
the NFBID 2008 Holiday Silent Auction held inside one of our local merchants
On December 16, 2008, on a cold and snowy evening in Brooklyn, The North Flatbush Avenue BID held its annual Holiday Silent Auction 2008 inside Harriets Alter Ego, located at 293 Flatbush Avenue. So many gift items and gift certificates donated by local merchants and even a lunch at Juniors Restaurant with Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowtiz were posted on a wall for all to bid on.
A festive holiday 
table full of warm international foods and a bar was set up with wine and champagne for all to enjoy. The evening got under way with a special appearance by Brooklyn’s own First String Quintet.
Partygoers ready to pop the bubbly
The crowd got into full swing with the sounds of Latin Jazz recording artist Jose Conde and Jimmy T on bongos. Later that evening the partygoers enjoyed the sounds of lovely Lizz Fields who sang her latest hit “Brooklyn Flowers” from her new CD release “Pleasureville”. Over 200 participants attended that evening and the BID is proud to announce that almost $3,000.00 was raised to benefit our children’s programming in the Pacific Street Bears Community Garden for 2009! Our first children’s event will be the 2009 Annual Earth Day Event on Sunday April 26, 2009. Keep watching our site for full details.
a table full of mouth watering food donated by our local merchants
The BID would like to give a big THANK YOU to all who donated gift certificates, store items, decorations, food and to all the volunteers who generously donated their time and devotion to this auction, without everyone this event would not have been a great success! The BID values everyone’s involvement in all our activities on the avenue. We appreciate everyone’s support and dedication in promoting our community along North Flatbush Avenue.
Believe it or not, we are already thinking about our next Holiday Silent Auction for 2009! If you would like to know more about how you can be a part of our event or any of our events for 2009 or wish to volunteer, please keep watching our website for further details!
map of the district.
