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CNG Boro Politics

Is the fix in for Flatbush?

By Evan Gardner
for The Brooklyn Paper
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Could Flatbush Avenue ever be nice? The North Flatbush BID wants to fix the gritty street by improving areas like this plaza at the intersection of Eighth Avenue and St. Johns Place.

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Someone wants to fix Flatbush Avenue? Good luck with that.

Put aside the knee-jerk cynicism because the North Flatbush Business Improvement District has hired a Manhattan landscape-architecture firm to give a facelift to the shabby strip between Grand Army Plaza and Atlantic Avenue.

“We want to make [Flatbush Avenue] look more ‘small-town main street,’” said Sharon Davidson, the vice president of the BID, which hired W Architecture and Landscape Architecture on March 9 with a $25,000 grant from the city.

“We want to put in more seating areas, green spaces, trees and plazas.”

The problems with Flatbush Avenue are legion: not only is it the borough’s main roadway to Manhattan, but its narrow sidewalks, gritty stores, subway vents and awkward, angled intersections have foiled urban planners for decades.

Barbara Wilks, the firm’s head architect, said it’s too early to know what the fix will be, but the firm will submit its proposals later this year.

In the meantime, business owners are cautiously optimistic.

“It can’t hurt,” said Martin Gobbee, who is the manager at Franny’s, a pizzeria between St. Marks and Prospect places. “It’s sad to see all the storefronts shuttered up, and I think something like this would definitely help.”

©2009 The Brooklyn Paper

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