Here’s an interesting quote from a recent story in the Times:
Lagging during the boom, Bedford-Stuyvesant is moving ahead during the recession – NYTimes.com
Mitchell L. Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University, points out that because Bedford-Stuyvesant’s residents are generally not dependant on Wall Street salaries and bonuses, they have not had to readjust their spending habits as much as residents of the Upper East Side or Brooklyn Heights. The fact that many residents work in “health care, education and other government-related sectors,†he said, “creates stability.â€
Residents also have been starving for new businesses. Michael Amirkhanian, a broker with Massey-Knakal Realty Services, cites a 2008 study by the market research firm LISC MetroEdge showing that Bedford-Stuyvesant residents have been spending more than $30 million in bars and restaurants elsewhere.
“You have real consumer buying power,†he said, adding that these dollars “are going to Downtown Brooklyn and the city.â€
I’ve been saying since I moved here that there needs to be a campaign to get people out of the habit of driving out to LI or taking the bus downtown and shop locally instead.
What specific items do you find you need to go out of the neighborhood to buy? What do you wish you could buy on your block or within walking distance?
Does the fact that Bed-Stuy residents are not as dependent on Wall Street salaries and bonuses also mean that they are not spawns of Satan?
Amen…and Amen!!!
Since I grew up there, habit was that you took the nearest bust to Downtown Brooklyn…only to get priced gouged.
Uhmmm.. Hello.. We have initiatives in place BED STUY ALIVE!, The Brownstoners, NOLA Merchant Association; Tompkins Avenue Merchants Association, and others civic, community and business organizations that are quite successful in getting the “natives” to shop and buy Bed Stuy… Which the majority of us do… These articles seem to overlook that Bed Stuy has a historical, cultural past chockfull of artisans, poets, scholars and great men and women of culture and allude to our existence circa 2000… This neighborhood has been a striving community long before those that have been priced out of Manhattan and Park Slopes arrived and will continue to be a place to call home for many prominent African American some 3 to 4 generations deep for years to come… Its time others acknowledge these facts
Yeah, I try to avoid shopping downtown because it costs more … but that’s also where it’s MUCH easier to shop because of the higher retail concentration!
I usually find myself going outside of the neighborhood to buy gifts and electronics. Since I buy (what I consider to be) a lot of both, that’s money leaving the ‘hood.
Keith, I know many, many people who grew up in this neighborhood and ALL of them have cars (several families have two or three) and ALL of them go outside the neighborhood (many to malls in Long Island or the BJs and other stores in Starrett City) to do the majority of their food and dry goods shopping, in addition to dry-cleaning, pharmacy purchases, gift-shopping, clothes-shopping, and many other purchases. So don’t try to pin this exclusively on the newcomers.
Let’s not forget that there’s a BID that’s supposed to make Fulton St. a more attractive place to shop. It was approved by City Council, signed by the mayor, ad I think it even got a piece of the stimulus pie. Speaking of which, does anyone have an update on the BID? The website (http://www.bedstuygateway.com/) hasn’t been updated since March. Not a very encouraging sign.
Growing up in Bed-Stuy, we went outside of the neighborhood for just about EVERYTHING, because we had a car. Pathmark and C-Town were for minor things we may have forgotten on larger runs to the 24-hr Pathmark in Red Hook, the Key Food on 5th Avenue, or BJs in NJ (long before Big Box stores came to Brooklyn).
I remember having a conversation with a healthcare practitioner whose practice was in Carroll Gardens. When she noticed that the majority of her clients coming from Bed-Stuy and the vicinity, she decided to move her office to the neighborhood.
And then she began losing clients.
What happened?
Clients expressed the disdain of having to deal with Fulton St: the noise, the trash, the tacky storefronts and residents…
And I remembered that I always tried to avoid certain parts of Fulton Street for those same reasons.
But Bed-Stuy has always been a bedroom community. Blame it on the riots and subsequent commercial white flight or the fact that many of the longtime residents perceive the new developments as not targeted to them, but the newcomers.
Either way, I support a more comprenhensive Shop Bed-Stuy campaign, one that encourages biz owners to engage their customers more, improve their storefront aesthetics, and create incentives to stay in the neighborhood.