Park Slope — one of the city’s earliest historic districts and the site of the first and largest battle of the American Revolutionary War — has come a long way from being a former playground for dopers and derelicts. It is top-ranked for its architectural and historical splendors, and its quality of life attracts intellectuals, actors, and stroller moms, who shop at the local food co-op, sip coffee at sidewalk cafes, and attend yoga class with their neighbors.
Brownstone Brooklyn’s about-face is partly due to early visionaries such as retired restaurateur Irene LoRe, a founding member of the former Fifth Avenue Merchants Association and its off-shoot, the Park Slope Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District.
LoRe moved to Park Slope in the late 1980s and opened the now-defunct Aunt Suzie’s on Fifth Avenue between Garfield Place and Carroll Street, making it a hub of comfort food and family get-togethers on a filthy, dangerous street so malignant with crime that merchants chained their outdoor furniture to the wall.
She soon made chopped liver of the thriving local drug trade being conducted from the pay phone at the end of her block.
“I bought a wire cutter and sent the busboy to cut off the receiver,” says LoRe, who formed the merchants association with a handful of other small business owners to boost the neighborhood.
They draped holiday lights along dank corridors, inspirited the community with the Fabulous Fifth Avenue Fair — still going strong after 20 years — pressured authorities to clamp down on crime and inspired merchants to launch new businesses.
“We pioneered the neighborhood and tried to make a more positive avenue,” says LoRe, 72, a past chairwoman of Community Board 6.
Today Park Slope is a foodie capital, with more than 120 bars and restaurants on the 30-blocks from 18th to Dean streets supervised by the business improvement district that provides supplemental sanitation, public safety, and visitor services, plus marketing and promotional programs, capital improvements, and beautifications in the area.
LoRe was a major player in Park Slope’s revival, claims the group’s current executive director.
“As a long time business owner and community advocate Irene helped shape the engaged, vibrant community that Park Slope has become,” says Mark Caserta. “Her vision for the business improvement district was instrumental in creating a more stable environment for both landlords and retailers.”
LoRe closed Aunt Suzie’s in 2012, leaving her block better than she found it, but her faithful diners heartbroken.
“It’s a sad day,” mourned a web commentator. “My partner and I celebrated our 10th and then our 20th anniversary there.”
The Woman of Distinction has reinvented herself in her retirement, volunteering as a cooking teacher for at-risk teens at the Red Hook Initiative and starting a restaurant consulting firm to help entrepreneurs who contact her from around the country looking for advice from an expert who shows no signs of abandoning her civic ventures.
“Living my life is also about being part of creating a better community,” says LoRe.
OCCUPATION: Consultant.
COMPANY: The LoRe Group.
CLAIM TO FAME: I help to make my community better.
FAVORITE PLACE: Prospect Park.
WOMAN I ADMIRE: My late friend and civil rights attorney, Judith Vladeck, who worked tirelessly for what she believed in.
MOTTO: It’s not what you say, but what you do that matters in life.
