For 15 years, Flower Bed-Stuy has equipped locals and community groups with the supplies they need to bring the neighborhood to life — literally.
On May 3, neighbors gathered once again to celebrate the event’s 15th anniversary and pick up their flowers and other supplies for another year of neighborhood beautification. Dozens of block, tenant, and merchant’s groups signed up to take part, according to the Bridge Street Development Corporation and the Bed-Stuy Works Alliance, along with community gardens and senior residences.
“I can recall the first Flower Bed-Stuy I ever attended, and I remember being so impressed by how well organized the event was and the fact that I could take home free flowers, that was the icing on the cake,” said Nicole Greaves, a community engagement specialist at Bridge Street.
She planted those flowers in the tree bed in front of her apartment building, she said, and the simple act brought back old memories.
“It reawakened something in me I had loved doing as a child with my grandfather, gardening, nurturing, and growing,” she said. “That’s the spirit of the day, that’s the spirit of Flower Bed-Stuy.”
The program is about more than flowers, too — participants are encouraged to carry out local sidewalk clean-ups and work with their neighbors to plant, decorate, and reimagine their shared spaces. The city’s Department of Sanitation helps out, too, lending out tools for block associations hosting clean-ups.
Assembly Member Stefani Zinerman said she attended her first Flower Bed-Stuy in 2012, and has watched the program continue — and grow — through three different Bridge Street CEOs and other staff changes.
“We know that in this time, most things don’t last more than 140 characters or maybe even five minutes, but the fact that this organization has with community, has lasted for 15 years with the same intention of beautifying our community, unifying our neighbors and coming together to do something for the greater good is something to be celebrated,” she said.
The spirit of community and togetherness “is the thing that really draws people to this community,” Zinerman added. “They want to join the ecosystem that is Bed-Stuy and that is because of the smiling neighbors, those beautiful flowers, and the warm spirit of this community. “
Three years ago, the program bloomed in Crown Heights, too, and both Flower Bed-Stuy and Flower Crown Heights have continued to attract new participants and youth volunteers. This year, BSDC and the Bed-Stuy Works Alliance recognized the block associations that have been taking part in the program for more than a decade, lauding the work they’ve done to beautify and greenify their blocks for the benefit of local residents and city wildlife.
“Block associations in my opinion are an untapped power and possibility in our neighborhoods,” Greaves said. “They are where community lives, bringing together neighbors across race, religion, background, experience, to care for the shared spaces we call home.”
Council Member Chi Ossé, whose office helps to support the project, said initiatives like Flower Bed-Stuy help outsiders see the truth about the area.
“When we show that we take care of our own neighborhoods, we show other people who come here, first timers, people who are visiting, we see those troops of tourists walking and taking pictures of graffiti, that we take care of our communities, that we invest in our communities, we show the world that this is a beautiful neighborhood to live in,” he said.
