In the last decade or so the influx of young professionals priced out of Park Slope, Ft. Greene, and other more attractive Brooklyn locales has brought many amenities to Clinton Hill, stores and services that the neighborhood has been lacking. Myrtle Avenue is now a bona fide main drag through the neighborhood; there are restaurants that are worth a trip on the dreaded G train, coffee shops, and WiFi laundromats too. One thing that the neighborhood still lacks, though, is a place to buy inexpensive, fresh produce. To be clear, there is only one supermarket that serves the neighborhood, an Associated at Myrtle Avenue and Grand St., and it’s produce selection, according to one shopper is “not great. It could be fresher and cheaper, too.”
It’s been my experience that larger supermarkets do not have a decent produce selection. What they have is expensive, unappealing, and colorless fruits and vegetables. The best produce is to be had elsewhere, at a deli or other business that specializes in fruits and vegetables. There is no such business to be found in Clinton Hill, leading to not only a dearth of delicious produce, but also compounding the wider problem of diets high in processed fats and sugars, particularly among lower income households who do not have the time to prepare nutritious, healthy meals. Produce selection alone will not ensure that people are eating healthily, but simply not having a choice virtually ensures that people will stock up on processed junk that, while being convenient, can lead to obesity, diabetes, and other health problems.
Because I’m cheap I’ll walk an extra two blocks to the laundromat further from my house if I have a lot of laundry and need to use the big washers. Fortunately this doesn’t happen often. However, on Saturday I found myself making my way, in my last pair of clean underwear, through buckets of rain, to the laundromat to do some much needed laundry. As I approached the front door I noticed a sign that read, “we have Wi-Fi.” This was somewhat surprising as nothing else about the laundromat suggests that it would have wireless internet capabilities. No new stainless steel washers and dryers. No modish sculpted plastic chairs to sit in while you wait. Nothing like that at all. Sure enough, though, the sign was telling the truth. Shirking the copies of the Carribean News next to the bench several young people, presumably Pratt students, engrossed themselves in their laptops while a red t shirt spun and flipped end over end in the dryer.
Anything you can do to differentiate yourself from the other guy with coin operated washers and dryers is probably a good thing. On the Ohio State University campus, just a few blocks from where I grew up, there is a laundromat that also has a bar and serves pizza. Which makes more sense in some ways; don’t you have enough to carry to the laundromat already? Do you really want to bring a laptop too?
While there is no denying that wired is the way of the future it is somewhat surprising that a laundromat in Clinton Hill is leading the charge. Despite the surprise and whether or not it is in my opinion a worthwhile addition to a laundromat to have Wifi it is nice to see the entrepreneurial spirit alive and well in Clinton Hill.
Benjamin Banneker Academy, one of the city’s most prestigious high schools, sits on the corner of Park Avenue and Clinton Avenue, right next to an elevated stretch of the BQE. While most highways are placed below grade or are surrounded by retaining walls to minimize the noise of traffic the BQE has no such amenities as it makes its way from downtown Brooklyn to Williamsburg. Unfortunately for those located nearby it is quite loud. There is a steady drone of engines and tires rushing over pavement. The whooshing sound of cars blowing by at sixty miles per hour punctuated by a horn or a dump truck rattling over the potholes every so often.
For students at Benjamin Banneker the noise can be a disturbance. Says one Benjamin Banneker student, “I usually don’t even hear it anymore I’m so used to it. Some times though when I’ve got to concentrate it’s too loud.” Unfortunately Benjamin Banneker is an exception in that most of the buildings near this stretch of elevated high way are warehouses, auto body shops, and self storage. While other elevated sections of highway in the city have retaining walls to keep the noise withing acceptable levels it seems unlikely that they will be coming to Brooklyn anytime soon.
These days the stretch of Myrtle Avenue from Ft. Greene Park to Classon Avenue is no stranger to development. In the last seven or eight years it has evolved into something of a main drag for Clinton Hill residents, with banks, laundromats, restaurants and bars taking root one right next to the other. With the exception of one Connecticut Muffin all of the new businesses on Myrtle Avenue have not been chains, until now.
Right in the corner of Clermont Ave. and Myrtle Ave. a new building, which will contain condominiums and street level retail space, including a Walgreens, is being erected. The fencing around the construction site bears an illustrated rendering of the finished building, complete with bustling street-scape and blue, cloudless skies. Adjoining this sign is another from Corcoran Group, proudly proclaiming the arrival of this new development in the neighborhood. Both of these signs are unique. What is more typical is fencing or plywood around a construction site with only the contractors name and the required permits affixed to it, no superfluous fanfare. Never before have I seen a sign announcing, celebrating the arrival of a new building on Myrtle Avenue.
Which brings us to Walgreens. As I mentioned, this building will have a Walgreens on the ground floor. It’s not that the neighborhood doesn’t have drug stores, it has many drug stores, at least two of them on Myrtle Ave. within walking distance from my house. What has changed is that Walgreens feels as though it can make some money in Clinton Hill where there was no money to have been made before. So is this a sign that the end is near, that property taxes are going to take a giant leap and scatter all of the long time Clinton Hill residents to points all over the map? Maybe. If it is though not everyone seems to mind. “I think it’ll be convenient. It’s big, they have a really good selection,” says Lucinda, a Clinton Hill resident. Other people were fairly ambivalent and feel as though the arrival of Walgreens and the condos is inevitable. Some even herald its arrival feeling as though it will bring in more businesses and services that Clinton Hill had been lacking.
Perhaps Walgreens is inevitable. Starbucks probably is too. The challenge then might not be how to keep certain businesses out, but how to make them work for you, for your neighborhood, your community.
walgreens
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