What's on Tap for Cortelyou Road?
Cortelyou Road’s shopping scene may soon get a lot more hopping. Sander Hicks, the man behind neighborhood anchor/coffee shop Vox Pop and Cortelyou’s unofficial mayor, is trying to lure a microbrewery to the spot that housed the recently shuttered Cornerstone bar. Sander reports that a couple breweries are nibbling at the prospect. Vox Pop itself…
Cortelyou Road’s shopping scene may soon get a lot more hopping. Sander Hicks, the man behind neighborhood anchor/coffee shop Vox Pop and Cortelyou’s unofficial mayor, is trying to lure a microbrewery to the spot that housed the recently shuttered Cornerstone bar. Sander reports that a couple breweries are nibbling at the prospect. Vox Pop itself is about to expand with a new media services center in the empty storefront around the corner from the coffee shop; in keeping with the spirit of Cortelyou’s homegrown ethos, the store is conducting an online survey so residents can weigh in about what services they’d like to see the center offer. In non-Vox Pop-related happenings, the long-in-the-works Connecticut Muffin is set to open soon in the storefront next to the Farm on Adderley. And all this is in addition to the Flatbush Food Co-op’s pending jump across the street, to the old Associated space. Anything we missed? Anything the strip particularly needs?
Survey [Vox Pop]
CT Muffin Opening in Ditmas Park [Forum]
Streetlevel: Organic Boom on Cortelyou [Brownstoner]
There is an incredible amount of egotisical smugness in a person or persons who moves into an area off the beaten path and then complains that the amenities aren’t good enough. Were you brain dead when you decided to move in to the area? Did you not look around to see what the amenities were at the present time? Or did you think you were speculating and the gentrification just isn’t moving in fast enough for you now that you have spend your money?
If you move in somewhere, enjoy what’s there for what it is, and you shouldn’t be surprised at what’s not there after you’ve made the decision to move there. Stop complaining and trying to change things to make it like the neighborhood you were just priced out of and kicked out of, or soon you will be priced out of this one too.
“… I’d say the most diverse ZIP code in the country isn’t in any proximate danger of homogenizing from a few new shops opening up….”
I dunno about that. Look what has happened to our City as a whole. The most diverse City in the country has seemed to turn into a homogenized catbon copy of suburbia. And it’s only getting worse.
Once again, as proven in neighborhood after neighborhood in this rapidly gentrifying City… Once the natives are pushed out economically and the newcommers take over, you end up with a bland cookie cutter boring, safe, snobby and ultimately uninteresting area.
Instead of saying “Stand clear of the closing doors” to an ill-tempered native, I’d prefer to say “the door is closed” to yet another stupid, priviliged, boring, entitled, yuppie/hipster/idiot waltzing on in and looking to change things for his own comfort level.
Possibly, the reason some natives are ill-tempered and drop the F-bomb is because they can’t stand know it all newcomers who have to show up like they own the place.
“Unless you’re a direct desendent of Alvord, Pounds or Ackerson, you don’t have any more claim to this neighborhood or how it evolves than anyone else who lives here.”
well. then unless you are a direct desendant of an American Indian you should have no more claim to ANY neighborhood in New York City or how it evolves than anyone else who lives here.
10:21, unless you are suggesting there are ethnic nomads residing in retail storefronts, I’d say the most diverse ZIP code in the country isn’t in any proximate danger of homogenizing from a few new shops opening up.
If, on the the other hand, the modest improvements on Cortelyou Road prompt a few ill-tempered, F-bomb dropping “natives” to decamp, all I can say is “stand clear of the closing doors,” lest they hit you on your way out.
to 10:21. That is exactly what we plan to do. You can have Ditmas Park for the natives only, depressing place that it is. For the same money there are much better areas to live with a much less hostile population. Who needs it? Yechhh.
as a ditmas park native, want to know what cortelyou road really needs? for all of you recent arrivers/gentrifiers – who like to pretend that these new upscale shops are going to do anything but displace poor people who make the neighborhood wonderfully diverse – to shut the fuck up and get out.
Well, I’ve lived in Prospect Park South for nearly 10 years, and my main complaint these days (of course I have dozens of minor ones too) is with the really nasty clerks at the library on Cortelyou. They are just mean to everyone, especially people who don’t speak English well. I actually once heard them tell a man that he needed a birth certificate or passport to get a library card. (Needless to say, it was an immigrant-type person who probably had neither.) When someone don’t understand them, they just yell louder. Also, they let gigantic lines form for checkouts and returns, and there is no book drop. (Not even a slot in the checkout desk.) If you don’t want to stand in line for 10 minutes to return your books they glare at you and tell you they’re not responsible if they don’t get checked in. It’s just nutty. I saw them tell this to a woman who had a screaming baby with her–the baby couldn’t have been more than 3 or 4 weeks old. They sent her to the end of the line–just to return a book. (A sane patron let her cut to the front of the line, but really.) I guess they just hate their jobs.
On a more positive note–I do like that the library had decent hours and that you can reserve books. Maybe the horrific clerks will change; I just read an article in the Daily News about the new head of the Brooklyn Public Library, and that she banning shusshing systemwide….
As a 10 resident of the area, I do say that the place is improving. Yea, it’s nothing like Park Slope pkripper, but’s it better than most areas. And last time I checked, which was about an hour ago, it’s not as bad as you say it is. The library is noisey, yes, but only from 3 – 6 because of students gathering. Also, you can’t say from “Authority” that the streets need everything because you’ve lived here 3 months.I mean really? You barley even know the name of a waiter or waitress anywhere in the area so shut up. God! Do you have a pole up your ass? If you seem to hate the area that much, then why did you move here? We don’t need people like you who are dicks and need everything perfect. If you really feel that way GET OUT! And btw, Vox Pop is a place for people to hang out a chill. And also if you knew the area, you would have know that people don’t go to Vox Pop for muffins dipshit. That’s what John’s bakery is for. So stop judging the area when you’ve just moved in and lay off.
Hi All,
I grew up in the Cortleyou Road and Argyle area My parents moved there in 1979 and haven’t left. I left to go to grad school and will be returning in May. I can say with all certainty my childhood in the neighborhood was idyllic. I knew all of my neighbors by name and they watched over me as I was growing up as a child. I played on Argyle and waved at the firefighters when they drove by. I always felt safe even as I grew into my teens coming home late from a night in the city. I loved the warm feeling that was different from manhattan and the rest of city. While I am happy there are new establishments and enjoy their presence when I am home, I wouldn’t give up George (hardware store) John and his son (bakery), the first place I had pizza, the librarians, and rest of the old Cortelyou guard. If you add the yoga, the starbucks, and the rest it wouldn’t be the place I grew up merely a place that is the carbon copy of every other up and coming neighborhood in the way of genetrification.
As a part of a community it is up to the community to not only nuture new business relationships and spur growth but to take stock of existing assets and attributes of your community. Once that is done a fully partcipatory planning and strategy process can place. Only when the best plan is in place that fulfills the community’s current and future needs should implementation happen. Development should not be “they have it and I want to do it too” it is the best comprehensive plan specific to the target community. Which might include a Starbucks and yoga studio or not.