Atlantic Ave. BID Gaining Momentum
The Atlantic Avenue BID Steering Committee was formed back in 2008 in the hopes of organizing, improving and promoting a roughly ten-block stretch at the western end of Atlantic Avenue. After a couple of years of consensus-building, the effort has started to make some very concrete progress in the form of public support from Community…
The Atlantic Avenue BID Steering Committee was formed back in 2008 in the hopes of organizing, improving and promoting a roughly ten-block stretch at the western end of Atlantic Avenue. After a couple of years of consensus-building, the effort has started to make some very concrete progress in the form of public support from Community Boards 2 and 6 recently; in fact, subcommittees from both community boards voted unanimously in favor of the plan in the past week. Once established, the BID would cover all properties fronting Atlantic Avenue from the BQE to 4th Avenue and one block north and south on all side streets within the district. (Properties from Court Street to Smith Street on the north side are excluded—they’re in the Court-Livingston-Schermehorn BID.) With an annual budget of $240,000 the BID will tackle marketing, sanitation, streetscape, and traffic and crime advocacy. Next up is a tentative date with the City Planning Commission on December 1st, with an eye to establishing the BID by July 2011. For more info check out their website.
> BID is just a subset of institutional racism all around the world.
BHO, this is quite possibly your most idiotic utterance on this site ever. Congrats, that’s quite an achievement.
“One man in the oval office rids the country of racism?” No, of course not.
My point, which you probably chose to ignore, is (at this scale as opposed to the entire country) a black woman probably wouldn’t spend her time and energy supporting the BID if she saw things the way you purport to. Not to mention what MM just wrote, cause she just wrote it.
Of course there is more to history than architecture, BHO, and I argue about that all the time. I know racism when I see it. I don’t see it here. A business improvement district is about improving the street for everyone, and that included majorities and minorities. The changes on Atlantic Avenue are economic, not racial. The white guy with the antique store, who can’t afford the landlord’s new rents is not given a pass because he’s white. And if the new renter who can afford a raised rent happens to be black, then what?
Inherent in your argument seems to be the notion that blacks and other minorities are all too poor to step up to a higher plate, or that keeping everything on a low status quo is alright with us, as well. Neither of those is true.
The issue is coming and going like the very whites and people of color it is about, respectively, retlaw. Doesn’t negate what it is.
I already mentioned that it affects whites too, benson. What are the cross streets for those Park Slope BIDS?
One more time, g man, d-i-s-p-r-o-p-o-r-t-i-o-n. One man in the oval office rids the country of racism?
***Bid half off peak comps***
BHO, I read the CB2 report on its vote and recognized the name of the woman who presented on behalf of the BID steering committee. She (like the old joke about G-d) is black.
BHO;
-There are two BIDs in Park Slope, one for 7th Ave and one for 5th Ave. Both BIDs were formed in the past couple of years, long after gentrification took hold.
-One of the oldest BIDs in Brooklyn is the East Kings Highway BID which straddles the border of Midwood and Sheepshead Bay. This BID is at about 20 years old, and is in an area that has been, and continues to be, white.
I think the issue you are raising BHO has come and gone. People are not buying it anymore, not even the blacks that have worked really hard to hold onto what they have. I actually interact with my neighbors of all walks of life. The black owners are making out well and enjoying their retirement by selling and moving away. The ones that stay enjoy the reduction in crime and the money from wealthier people and better businesses. Once again, renters have no say in what a property owner does with his/her money. I was raised on cookies and cafe con leche. I made something of myself by leaving, working my butt off, never asking for a handout and returning when I was able to afford it. Now I am an owner and no one can dictate what I do with my home. Welfare was never an option for my family and we were five in all. You are going to have a hard time convincing me of your argument BHO, we just don’t buy it anymore.
“Are they racists, too?”
Too? Didn’t call anyone racist to begin with. Called BID racist. BID is just a subset of institutional racism all around the world. To answer your flawed question, no, people of color do not control that system and therefore cannot be racist.
“Blacks are a minority in the United States, maybe that might be the reason for the disproportionate demographics.”
Irrelevant nonsense. The disproportion I introduced was about predominantly black and latino hoods in Brooklyn where “BID” rears it’s head, not the US at large. How come no “BID” in Brooklyn Heights or Park Slope? Already “improved”.
“The color of the hand holding the money is rather irrelevent.”
Are you actually saying institutional racism no longer exists? Worse, it has no correlation with income distribution? Even in Brooklyn? There’s more to history and its relevance to the present than architecture, Montrose Morris.
***Bid half off peak comps***
Sorry, not seeing it. If you want to make it a class struggle, ie those with big bucks like Jonathan Adler, taking over from the guy who had a barely making the rent antique store, then we have a conversation. I don’t think race is a factor here, money is, and that could be an interesting discussion. The color of the hand holding the money is rather irrelevent.
When I moved to Brooklyn in the early 80’s, Atlantic Ave from between Court and 4th was 60% antique shops, with a few restaurants, other kinds of shops, bail bondsmen, doctor’s offices, the Salvation Army, etc, and the churches and mosques. Now there are only a handful of antique stores, a lot more restaurants, and a whole lot of Soho type boutiques. That did not happen because people were forced out because of race. They were forced out by rising rents, and the change in the economic demographics of the shoppers. Atlantic Ave is the new Soho. That’s economic, not racial.