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]
This is going to sound silly… but could someone please clue me in to the proper pronounciation of Cortelyou? I feel like a mush mouth every time I go to say it. Help me build by Brooklyn speech confidence!
go outside and sweep your own neighborhood.
paint the graffiti and do SOMETHING.
plant some flowers.
you think those who moved to Park Slope in the 60’s and 70’s WAITED for everything to come to them.
the answer is NO. they worked their asses off to make it a beautiful place.
you want to make a difference, do something besides keep track of who won how much on who wants to be a millionaire.
the entitlement is getting way out of control in this country.
New businesses opening up I think will help to clean up the random trash on the street. (Although produce more nightly garbage). With the new streetscape, larger wind resistant trashcans have been put on every corner on this stretch of Cortelyou. New stores will also help clear ice and snow.
Pretty surprised at the passive expectation to sit and wait for things to “gentrify” especially cleanliness issues.
This summer there was a volunteer day for grafitti and trash cleanup. If you think that there is a big problem, Talk to someone in Community District #14, 311, and your homeowners association – there are several in the area who welcome tenants as well. Efforts will not go unnoticed. I pick up garbage blown down my block from Cortelyou every day. I thought it was a thankless task, but this weekend a neighbor from a nearby apartment building stopped to thank me, told me that everyone in the building sees me do it and appreciates it, and then he joined in to help.
You know, for all that I see no real difference between what Sander Hick’s calls “smart growth” and what everyone else calls gentrification–I have to say that at least he has a vision and is doing something to realize it. Not like all these complainers on Brownstoner and other websites who move into a neighborhood and then just continually kvetch about how its not Park Slope or wherever. I moved into Ditmas Park ten years ago and loved it then. It has always had a sort of sesame street feel to it–loved the tot lot and the coop and the associated (r.i.p.) and cinco de mayo. I love how I could use my neighborhood as a central point to explore a lot of the other neighborhoods in Brooklyn that I never even realized existed when I lived in Brownstone Brooklyn. Changes are happening and that is fine–but a neighborhood is its people and the connections between them—not the number of yoga studios and tchotcke shops (not that there is anything wrong with those things either.) I just wish people would stop kvetching about what isn’t and enjoy what is! Okay, rant over.
Oh–and there is a good butcher on Cortelyou–on the block between 16th and 17th next to the Korean run grocery.
12:05 probably moved here because Ditmas Park is a “white hot, up-and-coming nabe” and now he or she can’t wait for it to flippin’ gentrify already. Just a guess. I actually am in the same position over in Kensington. Mostly, I want the place to clean up its act. I’m fine with waiting for business to emerge and a diverse population, hell, I think that’s great. But other parts of waiting on the gentrification are much more difficult. I thought I could cope with the litter and the tagging and the cigarette butts everywhere, but as it turns out it depresses me and makes me feel unsafe, and I hate watching my kid play in that often dirty, tagged Tot Lot, and we’ll probably be leaving when our lease ends in 2009. That’s a big part of why we rented instead of buying. We tried to walk the walk, turns out, we don’t want to. I can cop to that though.
From what I hear from the neighbors and those who have shown interest in the Cornerstone space, it probably is not the best space to choose if you want to open a business in the area. I am told the man who owns it has some serious issues and is far, far, far from the ideal landlord. I want any new business moving in to be successful and I don’t know if they would have a shot in that space with that landlord. Having said that, I think there are a few spaces available on Cortelyou and even on Church closer to Coney Island Avenue that would do well as a bar/restaurant/food store. The neighborhood could use a good microbrewery/bar and a couple of other good restaurants.
A fish store, a really good one.
A good butcher.
A nice florist.
A card store (not a foofy gift-store-with-cards).
A book store, to replace the late lamented one there.
Best of all: I would like “The Chatterbox Cafe” to relocate to Cortelyou Road from Lake Wobegon.
Brenda from Flatbush
Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese are all already available for delivery in the neighborhood, so unless one opened up that you would actually want to sit down and eat at (as opposed to take-out), then I’d rather see something we don’t have. Turkish, Italian (besides pizza), Seafood, Sushi, French Bistro, any of these would be a welcome addition in my opinion.
And if Sander Hicks actually gets a microbrewery to open up in the old Cornerstone space, I’ll eat one of those saran-wrapped pastries and drink a warm, watered down iced coffee every day in gratitude.