As we’ve reported before, the service road on Hall Street near Bergen Bagel has been selected by the NYC Department of Transportation as a public plaza site.  While the city gears up to build out a permanent plaza, Myrtle Ave Brooklyn Partnership will host a pop-up workshop displaying the ideas submitted for the project so far.  There will be an opening reception on Friday night from 5-8, and gallery hours this weekend.

It’s a really cool way to get involved in an urban planning project that will actually come to life right here in our neighborhood.

Here’s more info:

You are invited to view and comment on submissions received through our open call for ideas, along with best practices collected by our staff, at the upcoming “Designing the Myrtle Pedestrian Plaza – Pop Up Exhibition and Workshop” from February 5^th – 13th.  Please come by to view and comment on the submissions, and contribute your own ideas on sustainable design elements, amenities (seating, public art, etc.), and programming for the Pedestrian Plaza that will be built on the Myrtle Avenue service road between Emerson and Grand.     Feel free to forward our invite (below) to your own email lists, friends, neighbors, etc.

In honor of MARP’s 10th Anniversary, CHB spoke with their director – M. Blaise Backer – about the organization’s history, his job and how we can get involved as neighbors.

1. You’re celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project. How was the organization started?  Could you also explain the difference between MARP and the BID?
MARP, our non-profit local development corporation, was actually born out of an economic development committee at Fort Greene SNAP, another local non-profit located on Myrtle Avenue. It was decided back in the last 1990’s that the committee should spin off into its own organization given the critical need to focus on Myrtle Avenue’s economic development. A number of key local stakeholders, including representatives from Fort Greene SNAP, JPMorgan Chase, Pratt, St. Joseph’s, LIU, and local merchants, residents, and funders came together to found the organization, form the initial board of directors, and incorporate in 1999. They hired MARP’s first executive director, Jennifer Gerend, shortly thereafter. In 2002, MARP sponsored the formation of the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Business Improvement District, in cooperation with a steering committee made up of Myrtle merchants and property owners, and it began operations in April of 2005. Together MARP and the BID use the umbrella name Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership to represent many of the initiatives, campaigns, and events that are a product of both organizations’ operating budgets and boards.

2. What’s your professional background? How long have you been heading MARP?
I have a graduate degree in Urban Planning from NYU Wagner, and an undergraduate degree in Business from the University of Virginia. I’ve been at MARP since the fall of 2002, and became its executive director in June of 2004.

3. Do you live in the neighborhood?   If yes, is it great to spend all of your time in the area, or do you miss commuting to a different neighborhood?
Yes, I’ve lived in Fort Greene for 8 years, and walk to work every morning. It’s great to have such an easy commute, as I’m not much of a morning person, but I definitely do less leisure reading without a subway commute. It’s helpful to be able to walk most of Myrtle Avenue every morning and evening as part of my commute in order to monitor the physical condition of the streetscape and to have casual interactions with the avenue’s small business owners.

4. What is a typical day like on the job?
This is a truly difficult question to answer, and I’m rarely able to capture the essence of a typical workday. My job entails everything from managing the organization’s finances and contracts, writing grants and fundraising, collaborating on the day-to-day aspects of various organization programs with my colleagues, corresponding with MARP’s board and with city agencies and elected officials, and responding to calls and emails from various local constituents. I have days where I’m outside using my hands by helping the Ingersoll residents to build planting beds for the community garden, other days where I’m helping to negotiate a lease between a new merchant and a property owner, and others where I barely leave my desk as I deal with some of the administrative requirements of running a small non-profit.

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Artists are beginning to paint their windows on Myrtle Ave storefronts.  Local artist and friend of CHB Ellie Balk will be painting on Sunday and invited readers to stop by:

“HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS”

Please join me at Karen’s Body Beautiful (MYRTLE-BTWN WAVERLY/CLINTON) this SATURDAY/SUNDAY as I create a “Stained Glass” Map on the front window for the MARP Myrtle Ave. Windows Project.

• Holiday windows will be on display through the end of December and all visitors and shoppers will be able to vote via text message for their favorite storefront design from Monday, November 23rd until Sunday, December 13th (winners will be announced shortly afterward).

The Project from Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project (MARP):  “We hope that this unique program will help to drive visitors to the avenue to view your works, and to support our merchants (the majority of whom are local, independent, small business owners) during this holiday season by shopping locally.”

Ellie painted the beautiful mural on the side of Tillie’s!

The Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project will be celebrating its 10th Anniversary on December 2 with food tastings, wine and live music.  The party is open to the community (tickets are required and can be purchased here).

So much of Myrtle Avenue’s transformation is due to the amazing team at MARP.  I for one am grateful to have so many independent (and locally owned) businesses nearby.

Next week, CHB will chat with M. Blaise Backer, Executive Director of MARP, about his job, the organization and how to get more involved.

The deadline for the Myrtle Avenue Pedestrian Plaza Call for Ideas is TOMORROW.  (The service road near Bergen Bagel was chosen this past spring as a NYC DOT Public Plaza Project site.)

For more info on how to submit, check out the post on Myrtle Minutes.

MARP has also set up a Facebook group to follow the progress and to allow people to submit ideas, news and feedback.

As evidenced by the packed tables outside of Bergen Bagel during Move About Myrtle, this plaza will be well-used.

The Myrtle Windows Gallery – displays of art in local businesses’ windows – celebrates its first anniversary this weekend.  They’d like to hear from local residents about what worked and what didn’t, and how to improve the program.  Here’s some info from Myrtle Minutes:

If you haven’t had a chance to check out the fourth exhibition in the Myrtle Windows Gallery, make sure you do so this weekend! We’ll be saying goodbye to this show, curated by Kennis Baptiste of The Rising Arts Gallery, next week. Come out to Tamboril (between Steuben and Grand) on Sunday from 4pm-9pm to celebrate this fantastic show that featured the works of ten Brooklyn artists in our MWG storefronts, as well as inside Pillow Cafe and Tamboril.

So, what did you think of MWG’s first year? How did art in storefront windows impact your experience walking down Myrtle? We want to hear from you, so please send us your feedback! You can post comments here, or send them to meredith@myrtleavenue.org. Oh, and while you’re touring this exhibition, remember to thank your Myrtle merchants who have generously donated their storefronts for the cause of promoting public art!
I’m not sure if the holiday window painting was part of this program, but it was one of my favorite Myrtle Ave art projects!

Congrats to the Myrtle Avenue Partnership on their recognition of the “Home Grown and Locally Owned” campaign.  We look forward to checking out the vendors highlighted in the upcoming Fall 2009 campaign!  (Also looking forward to the loyalty program- read below!)

FORT GREENE and CLINTON HILL, BROOKLYN, July 23, 2009—The Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership (the Partnership) received the ‘Placemaking Award’ honor during the NYC Department of Small Business Services’ annual Neighborhood Achievement Awards ceremony at Gracie Mansion last week.  The Partnership was chosen from over 100 city-wide nominations for this honor, which recognized its Home Grown & Locally Owned campaign for the Myrtle Avenue retail corridor in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. According to the city’s criteria for ‘Placemaking’, the award “honors a completed project by an individual or organization which increases the visibility, stature and overall identity of a neighborhood, resulting in greater visitation and economic activity.”

Initially launched in January 2007, the Home Grown & Locally Owned branding campaign was created by the Partnership to showcase the Myrtle Avenue merchants in postcards, print and electronic advertising, and streetlight banners, in an effort to promote the neighborhood commercial strip and encourage nearby residents to support the local economy.  The campaign leverages the historic “Mom and Pop” character of Myrtle Avenue and strives to distinguish its mix of over 150 individual retailers by featuring the personal stories of entrepreneurs who have invested their time, energy and money in building their small business, and therefore the neighborhood, reminding shoppers of the familiar face and the personalized service they experience at a locally-owned business.  The campaign also serves as a call to local shoppers to invest in urban neighborhoods, helping to prevent the displacement of locally-owned businesses while ensuring continued opportunities for first-time entrepreneurs.

“The Home Grown & Locally Owned campaign reinforces the reality that the success of our small businesses and the vitality of our neighborhoods are closely intertwined,” commented Michael Blaise Backer, Executive Director of the Myrtle Avenue Partnership, who accepted the award at Gracie Mansion on Monday.  The campaign has increased local awareness of new business openings on Myrtle Avenue, broadened residents’ familiarity with local business owners, and increased daytime and evening foot traffic on the Avenue. A new phase of the Home Grown & Locally Owned campaign will be rolled out in September 2009, during a month-long celebration of the Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project’s 10th anniversary.  In tandem, the Partnership plans to launch Myrtle Miles, an Avenue-wide loyalty card program, where shoppers will receive points and bonuses for their local Myrtle purchases.

A few years ago, MARP partnered with Project for Public Spaces to analyze a few places along the avenue in need of community feedback.  Community members were invited to participate and work together on potential solutions.  One of these spaces — the service road on Myrtle Ave between Grand and Emerson — was recently selected as a NYC Plaza Program site.  The program, run by the NYC DOT, aims to assure that every New Yorker is within a 10-minute walk of quality open space.  The DOT funds planning and construction of chosen sites.

Congrats to them, and I look forward to seeing what’s in store!

My coworker and neighbor, Aurash, attended last weekend’s SpaceBuster event under the BQE.  Below, he reports on the event.

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We tend to forget, but the space under the BQE is ours. It’s one of the largest tracts of public space in our neighborhood, and it’s an eyesore.

On Saturday afternoon, the Space Buster landed in Clinton Hill to change that outlook. The Space buster is described on the Storefront for Art and Architecture’s website as “an inflatable bubble-like dome that… expands and organically adjusts to its surroundings.”

The Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership (MARP) and the Storefront brought the Space Buster, designed by Raumlabor Berlin, to CH to house a workshop on the future of the space. When the workshop began, we quickly discovered that the din of automobiles will preclude any activity requiring intimate conversation from occupying the space, but we weren’t deterred, and a lively debate on other possible uses ensued. The facilitators from PRATT coaxed ideas out of us, including, but not limited to:
•    Community Garden
•    Skate Park
•    Light Garden
•    Swimming Pool
•    Farmers/Flea Market
•    Bike Lanes
•    Movie Screening Space
•    Art Space

A community garden seemed to be the use of choice, which I think is an ingenious idea. A community garden would help us meet our goals of becoming more sustainable by improving our local food supply, and sequestering CO2 and other emissions. A garden would also increase economic development, beautification, and create a destination out of the space under the BQE, which would unite both sides of Park Avenue, not divide them.
The debate we had during the workshop was thoughtful, respectful, and visionary, what else would you expect from CH residents. But I challenge the community to think bigger than the ideas we came up with. Let’s try and transform the entire length of Park Avenue into a vibrant corridor, with the public space under the BQE as the river of activity that gives life to the now desolate avenue.

MARP has taken the lead, but the community can start actually transforming the space when the construction equipment is cleared out. Perhaps we can begin by initiating a clean up or guerilla gardening effort. Then we can begin programming the space. We can organize a skateboard contest or a film screening, for example. Those events may help us overcome the first large obstacle, which is envisioning a quality space along Park Avenue.

MARP plans on compiling all the data gathered at the workshop and submitting it to the NYCDOT. But we can’t wait for them to pick up the ball. Let’s start thinking about how to improve the space, and by doing so we will be ready to play a constructive role when the local government is ready to partner with us.

For more pictures about the Space Buster event, visit the MARP website.

I am very disappointed to say that I will be in California for a work event this weekend, and won’t be able to attend this awesomely creative community workshop!  Please report back if you attend, and help reinvent the wasteland that is the space under the BQE!

CLINTON HILL, BROOKLYN, April 20, 2009—The Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership and Storefront for Art and Architecture will host a community workshop in the space under the BQE on Park Avenue at Washington Avenue on Saturday, April 25^th from 3-4:30pm inside SpaceBuster, a temporary public art installation created by German architecture firm raumlaborBerlin. The Partnership invites residents and other stakeholders to participate by brainstorming creative permanent and temporary uses and physical improvements with the help of volunteer facilitators from Pratt Institute’s Planning program.  The event is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are required, as space is limited.

The Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership and Storefront for Art and Architecture bring Spacebuster, a mobile inflatable art installation, to the Wallabout area of Clinton Hill on Saturday, April 25th, to help kick off a community planning process for the future of the area under the BQE. Spacebuster, created by the Berlin-based architecture collective raumlaborberlin, is designed to temporarily occupy open urban spaces such as squares, parking lots, and green spaces with a primary function to serve as a location for community events. Join the Partnership under the BQE, to submit your ideas for short- and long-term physical improvements, temporary or permanent programming ideas, or anything that will enhance the space, which has long been regarded as an eyesore in the community. The event is free but space is limited, so RSVPs are requested at www.myrtleavenue.org if you plan to attend.

“SpaceBuster provides the perfect setting for this workshop, allowing us to bring people together in the underutilized space at the center of this discussion,” explains Meredith Phillips Almeida, the Partnership’s Director of Community Development. The pavilion itself is comprised of an inflatable bubble-like dome that emerges from its self-contained compressor housing, and expands and organically adjusts to its surroundings, like a highway overpass. The material is a sturdy, specially-designed translucent plastic, allowing the varying events taking place inside of the shelter to be entirely visible from the outside and likewise the exterior environments become the events’ backdrops. This is the most recent project under the Partnership’s Arts & Enterprise Initiative, a multi-faceted program to establish the avenue as an access point to cultural activities for community members of diverse socio-economic backgrounds. Through efforts to bring public sculpture, art installations, studio art, and creative street furniture elements to the public spaces and sidewalks of the district, the Initiative aims to increase access to art for the entire community, and to support small business by driving foot traffic to the commercial corridor.

Sponsored by Storefront for Art and Architecture, the SpaceBuster will travel throughout New York City hosting various community events from April 17th to the April 26^th.  Founded in 1982, Storefront for Art and Architecture is a nonprofit organization committed to the advancement of innovative positions in architecture, art and design. As a public forum for emerging voices, Storefront explores vital issues in art and architecture with the intent of increasing awareness of and interest in contemporary design. For the complete SpaceBuster schedule visit www.storefrontnews.org.

Contact:

Meredith Phillips Almeida, Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership, (718) 230-1689 or meredith@myrtleavenue.org

Joseph Grima, Storefront for Art & Architecture, 212.431.5755 or jg@storefrontnews.org