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Crown Heights Community Organization, Inc. works to improve the community and neighborhood.
First, it is part of several entities that directly do the work of supporting and improving the area. Second it allies with other groups to support their work.
It is the sponsor of Crown Heights Community News, which is a magazine that comes out roughly once a month to report on events in the community. One of the tasks of the News is to follow the works of other organizations in the community. There are regular reports on such groups as Community Board 8, Crown Heights North Association, Brooklyn Children's Museum, Local Development Corporation of Crown Heights, Brower Park Library, the Friends of Brower Park, Harvest Home, the 77th Precinct Council, the Crown Heights Tenants Union and others. We also follow what our local politicians are doing, particularly Council members Crystal Hudson and Chi Ossé, Assemblyman Brian Cunningham, and Senator Zellnor Myrie.
In addition, we pay attention to what is going on culturally.
We particularly have taken note of what Five Myles Gallery exhibits as well as My Gallery NYC, and we have looked beyond Crown Heights to follow the art scene. We have done articles about shows at Established Gallery and Fou Gallery, the first in Prospect Heights and the latter in Bedford Stuyvesant. We also follow music. We have sent reporters to many of the jazz performances at SoulBK and we have covered events at Crown Hill. Also we have written about books, particularly books for children. We have followed the work of Justine Louis, Ruth Fleury and Amir Diop. We also take an interest in political issues that have implications beyond Crown Heights but also affect Crown Heights. We covered the fight to keep the University Hospital at Downstate open, and we covered the fight over Mayor Adam's effort to slash the budget, particularly with reference to libraries.
We also consider various city departments that affect our community.
We focus on Sanitation, Police, Department of Transportation, and the Department of Environmental Protection with specific reference to rain gardens. The News takes subscriptions at $50/year. Send a check with an address to The News, 251 Brooklyn Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11213. Also the News takes advertising. Call 302- 860-7286 for Jenn Peck for rates and to find out how to create an ad.
Another entity the CHCO is involved in creating is Restaurant Row on Nostrand Avenue.
This is a group of twelve restaurants on Nostrand between Prospect Place and Dean Street. The idea is to create an area that is known as a place to go to try out all kinds of food. The restaurants that are included in this development project are Japanese, Colombian, Nigerian, Caribbean, Mexican, Chinese, Jamaican, and American Soul Food. The promotion of this area includes art and music. Three canvases, part of a single mural were painted; they were first shown at My Gallery on Franklin Avenue and now each one has been placed in one of the places that make up Restaurant Row. One can see them at SoulBK, Rosalia, and Nostrand Avenue Pub. This website will also support this effort as will a pamphlet to be handed out in the area. In addition we are supporting a clean up crew to keep the area as clean and litter free as possible. We would like Restaurant Row to gain a local reputation, then a New York reputation and then one that goes far beyond to the rest of the United States and the whole world. The quality is there for that; that quality needs to become more widely known.
Yet another organization we are a part of is the Brooklyn Avenue Block Association, known as BABA Brooklyn.
This organization does many things: it has a Little Library, it has entered the Greenest Block in Brooklyn Contest, it has adopted two garbage cans to assist the Sanitation Department, it collects compost, it manages rain gardens, it has a litter pickup program that clean up three times a week on three blocks that are included. It is planning its first Block Party for this September. Also it works with other block associations – Preserving Lincoln's Abundant Natural Treasures on the neighboring block of Lincoln Place, it does cleaning with the Hampton Place Block Association and the St. Marks Independent Block Association, and it is open to cooperating with others.
"Women's Studies"
- by Elisa Buitron recently shown at My Gallery NYC
Thank you for your support of Crown Heights Community Organization.
John DeWind, President
Tim Nugent, Treasurer
Louise Kurshan, Secretary
Under the various tabs that follow, one can find out more about our activities:
Contact
To contact Crown Heights Community Organization
Write: 251 Brooklyn Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11213
Email:: nisalojo@mindspring.com
Call: 917-797-1010