Nostrand Ave: Many Hair Salons, No Cafés
Back in 2007, the New York Sun ran an article with the title Retailers So Far Fail To Follow Homebuyers to North Crown Heights. From the article: While homebuyers see the area’s potential, new businesses are proving harder to attract. Along Nostrand, for example, many stores have old facades and rundown signs. Graffiti covers the…
Back in 2007, the New York Sun ran an article with the title Retailers So Far Fail To Follow Homebuyers to North Crown Heights. From the article:
While homebuyers see the area’s potential, new businesses are proving harder to attract. Along Nostrand, for example, many stores have old facades and rundown signs. Graffiti covers the security gates over the storefronts. While heavy on nail and hair salons and barbershops, the commercial strip lacks basic services such as a bank branch. “People are buying nice homes and spending good money and there are no services,” a project coordinator for the North Crown Heights Merchants Association, who is a sales agent with Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, Barbara Brown-Allen, said. “They don’t know the spending power that’s here.”
A year and a half later, the blog Nostrand Park decided to try to put some numbers to that assertion by doing a store-by-store analysis of the retail options on Nostrand Avenue between Eastern Parkway and Atlantic Avenue. The five most represented categories were Hair/Braiding Salons (13%), Variety Shops (11%), Caribbean Take-Out (10%), Bodegas/Delis (8%) and Nail Salons (5%). On the flip side, the survey found that there was not a single dine-in restaurant, café, book store or art store on the entire strip.
Nostrand Avenue North Retail Survey [Nostrand Park]
Photo by filmlynx
There’s a Banco Popular on the corner of Nostrand and EP, and a Wamu not too far away on EP and Bedford/classon
I used to live off Nostrand and could always find what I needed. There was a carribean store off St John’s that had decent produce, the bodegas were well stocked with the essentials (at a decent price) and there was a grocery store that was a few blocks up from me (i think on sterling) but had pretty crappy produce.
Now I’m not gonna lie, I enjoy a sit down dinner every once and a while (well, alot now), which was lacking from Nostrand when I first moved there. Tavern on Nostrand (president st) opened up about a year after i moved to the neighborhood, and seemed like a good addition as it seemed to always be filled with a cross section representative of the neighborhood.
To say that the strip reflects the demands of the residents is not necessarily true. Similar to Montrose’s account of the Nostrand of yore, one elderly Caribbean woman who I have spoken with on numerous occasions always recounts the hat shops and other “fine shopping” establishments that used to be on Nostrand Avenue. She laments what, to her, Nostrand Avenue has become. She’s lived in Crown Heights for well over thirty years.
There was even another article a while back on the subject which I had posted about on another board: http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/ny_local/2001/01/09/2001-01-09_turning_back_the_clock_crown.html
Also, the NP post does note the “unique stores” on Nostrand such as the flower shop and office supply store. Plus, there is an excel sheet that details the other stores types, such as the hardware stores, financial services shops, etc. The full 100% is accounted for on the sheet.
M4L- i think the major problem is actually the 3 landlords who own most of the real estate along Nostrand. 2 places opened on nostrand and are struggling- Opel, and Ife, which seems to be a club and only open from Thurday night to Sunday. Opel is trying to be a real restaurant but isn’t open enough and I’m actually not usre if it is still open at all.
Some of the best hair stylists in NYC started on Nostrand Avenue. I know people that come from Long Island and Queens to Nostrand Avenue to get their hair done. BTW, there are also two banks on Nostrand and Empire.
Montrose-I’d Like to know what that building in the picture for this story used to be…
If any one is considering to start a retail business, Crown Heights North has to be among the short list of hoods for consideration. Not talking about some high end retail, etc. Rather adding some additional variety / choices into the mix to serve the existing community. How about a decent chinese restaurant (not the generic take out operations), bakery shop with some diff goods, grocery store with different inventory, diner……
Rob, black women and their hair bring up class/race/historical discussions too complex to go into here. Women of all races, creeds and colors get their hair done, and hair salons are in every neighborhood in the city. The upscale ones may not be quite as in your face, or are more opulent, that’s all. African hair care has never been taught in mainstream cosmetology school, and black women from the Spanish and English Caribbean, to African braiders and African American girls whose mothers pressed their hair with a hot comb on the stove, have mastered the art, and have been able to make a living and put food on the table. Like any business, if a salon can’t pay the rent, they have to relocate or close. These places are then obviously filling a need in the community at large.
rob- of course as a white woman I can’t tell you much about the technical differences between white and ethnic hair but I’ve lived in Black Neighborhoods, and am close friends with enough Black women to have learned that hair care is a necessity, not a luxury. And many women are very skilled in caring for hair so not every woman goes to or needs a hair salon.There’s often someone in the family who can help.
And think about it, rob. Your grandmother- like many of her generation- was raised to take pride in their appearance, and pride in themselves. If you want to see what life is like for people who have stopped caring, look at some of the street people. Studies have shown that the mentally ill respond well when they have been taken to hairdressers, and given new clothing. It really plays into some issues of the soul, I believe. (And I can’t wait to hear the comments 🙂
But yes- food first.
” The good thing about this new gentrification is that businesses may finally take a chance on us, instead of being afraid. ”
All hope is out the window.
Nostrand Ave serves the community, PERIOD! If want the “Amenities” then move to a neighborhood that has them…
The What (Nice try Brownstoner!)
Someday this war is gonna end…