vintage mural ads & other signage by Frank H. Jump & friends
© Frank H. Jump
Andy Zuckerman has managed Flatbush Junction’s Lords Bakery for 30 years since he graduated from Brooklyn College. Andy has seen many customers coming into the bakery this week with Target bags. Zuckerman, when asked if the “mom and pop” local businesses might suffer from the opening of the new Target, said he thought perhaps the retail clothing stores would feel the pinch, but as far as baked goods, they can’t beat Lords’ Red Velvet Cake.
© Frank H. Jump
I drove past the corner of Flatbush and Avenue H on my way to perhaps the worst run Post Office in Brooklyn on Nostrand Avenue b/w Aves I & J and already the scene was chaotic. Double parked cars picking up frantic shoppers with bags and boxes up to their eyes on the “pre-opening” of Targé Flatbush. Already the landscape of this corner has been drastically altered. On local Targets that have missed the mark, the Spring Creek Target never impressed me besides being horribly staffed with unmotivated and mediocre salespeople. Let’s just hope practice makes perfect and Targé Flatbush hits a bullseye.
© Frank H. Jump
I remember walking across the Municipal Parking Lot at the Flatbush Junction on Avenue H on hot summer nights to buy some produce at the green grocers on Nostrand Avenue. Past the lot, there was the perimeter fence of the railroad that connects the Brooklyn Waterfront to the Canarsie Market, which I never got to see rumble past. I always thought it would make a great commuter railway to connect disparate areas of Brooklyn for once. Occasionally a vagrant would climb up the slope from the tracks and wander out of a hole in the fence to resume collecting cans or rearranging their possessions in a shopping cart.
When Canal Jeans came to Flatbush, I was astounded. They were pioneers way before the first Flatbush Starbucks replaced the only decent diner on Hillel Place. Then the banks came. We already had banks, and fast food chains, and now places to buy cell phones. To replace the municipal lot where commuters would park to take the train into “the city” to work is a Target Superstore. Now with the Congestion Pricing plans underway, where are commuters going to park? In my driveway.
Office of Emergency Management (OEM)
Global Disaster Interactive Map
Heritage at Risk – Beta
Environmental disasters, tourism, and political turmoil threaten the integrity of our global heritage. Shown below are the potentially devastating effects of seismic activity and climate change on our unique landscapes and legacies. For more information about this experimental new application, please see the our blog
This summer, with all of the Hurricane Hype, our insurance company of over twenty years (Liberty Mutual) dropped us because of the risk of flood damage and since we have a wood-framed home. This was a week before a re-finance from an adjustable mortgage. Convenient! A buddy sent me a flood map and there is a finger of flood water that runs from Paerdegat Basin in Canarsie down Farragut past our block and over Nostrand Avenue in the event of a major hurricane (or Nor’Easter). The OEM site allows you to enter your address to find your flood zone. It’s amazing how a few numbers makes such a difference. Location Location Location! PS: Liberty Mutual recently sent us a letter asking us back as customers- at a higher premium of course!
Updated link to Gowanus Lounge’s 4/07 posting. 1/4/08
New York Avenue & Glenwood Road
New York Avenue & Avenue H
Avenue H & East 32nd Street
Avenue H & East 32nd Street looking toward the Junction.
The Junction © Frank H. Jump
When Vincenzo and I moved into the Flatbush Junction, I noticed the College Glen signs around the neighborhood but did not see the civilian patrol. I’ve done some Internet searches but not until recently have I found anything. Fortunately the New York Times has been diligently archiving their entire history of articles on the web. Here is a snippet that mentions this sliver of Flatbush.
PERSPECTIVES: New Condos in Flatbush; Tapping the Market in Central Brooklyn
MEANWHILE, the single- and two-family home market has also picked up, aided in part by the home-loan program run by Neighborhood Housing Services. The East Flatbush office has provided below-market loans for 89 home renovations, mainly in an area east of Brooklyn College called College Glen.
”It’s very clear that in this part of the area the strategy has worked,” said Philip Gallagher, chairman of Neighborhood Housing Services of East Flatbush. ”Now there is an enormous amount of new private investment that has nothing to do with us.”
Neighborhood Housing Services is planning to seek community-development block-grant funds to expand its service area to a needier northwestern area of the district that it has named Clarendon Meadows. This is an area bounded by Clarkson Avenue on the north, Cortelyou Avenue on the south, and Brooklyn Avenue and Bedford Avenue on the east and west.
Contest: What are the boundaries of College Glen?
PS: No hairsplitting!
Eli (Brooklyn Junction) & Me
… & Greater Flatbush, education, the ramifications of gentrification, childbirth, collaborations, passions, music and other obsessions.
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