They got down to bid-ness.
Sunset Park’s Business Improvement District took a break from boosting area merchants to celebrate its own accomplishments by handing out some awards and opening a pair of 15-year-old time capsules during a 20th anniversary celebration on June 25. The group, which focuses on Fifth Avenue, has made serious inroads in the last two decades, its director said.
“The last 20 years have been really incredible — to see the difference from when we first started,” said longtime Business Improvement District director Renee Giordano. “When the BID started, we made a list of the types of stores on the avenue, and the top category on the list was ‘vacant.’ Now we have almost no vacancies.”
The group, which collects a fee from landlords that it uses to spruce up the avenue and entice potential shoppers, runs a anti-graffiti program, decorates the avenue on holidays, and is in the process of rolling out a free wifi program along the thoroughfare, she said.
Capt. Tommy Ng, who heads the 72nd Precinct, gave the keynote speech, and District Attorney Ken Thompson dropped by for the first time since his election, Giordano said.
The Business Improvement District also honored Ashley Giron, a Sunset Parker who saved the life of a 2-year-old who fell from a window on 44th Street last month, Giordano said.
“She really is like a role model to not just children but adults that you don’t walk past somebody that needs your help,” she said.
The organization unsealed two time capsules it interred 15 years ago — one held business cards from local businesses of the day, and another contained Sunset Park students’ ideas about how the neighborhood might look in 2015. Giordano had her own idea of how the ’hood would look in 15 years when she sealed the capsules in the year 2000, but some of the kids were even more ambitious.
“One student was hoping there would be flying cars,” Giordano said.
