Tenant Status

So this is the end.

I thought a few weeks ago I would be saying that about my Brooklyn stay itself, but the tides have changed and creative choices have won out over “selling out” to ‘Big Tech’ – I had no idea that there even was such a thing. What a world!

I’m excited to move forward with this blog and see what the terrible humidity of this concrete jungle will bring. I want to try to write one to two new posts each week on anecdotal topics, unless the summer is kind to me in which then I want to continue to do some research.

The Brooklyn Museum still has so many exhibits in which I have questions.

I still haven’t been to Smorgasburg and it went outdoors weeks ago! I can’t wait to have some uniquely flavored ice pops followed by Korean BBQ on a stick. Its clearly the perfect Sunday brunch.

The Brooklyn Historical Society taught me a lot about the variety of things that went on in Brooklyn from the Revolutionary War (still need to get over to Prospect Park to learn more about the Battle of Brooklyn) and Plantation Era Brooklyn to the Warehouse Era and then so much of the change of the 20th century. There is a lot of info there! Inventing Brooklyn is up and coming and I’m excited to learn and talk about it.

I don’t feel like such a yupster anymore. A year in with some dutiful research and specific practices trying to learn about this borough makes it seem like I fit in a little more.

I’ll be tweeting through @bklyntenant still, and actually already have an Instagram account for it which I will start using next weekend. Feel free to follow me – @bklyntenant to see pictures and interesting finds throughout my stay here in this borough.

This may be my permanent home. Or I may be transient. I’ll be writing about it until I call somewhere else my home. 

Which Coast is Best?

New York City has been trying to bring the tech industry to them for the last few decades. It has succeeded in gaining a Google and Facebook along with hundreds of other smaller firms, much to the delight of former mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg worked hard and fast to make NYC an appealing place for new companies, some of which he hoped would leave their valley on the other coast.

Silicon Valley has held a tight grip on tech firms and isn’t looking for them to go anywhere any time soon. The capital that these firms bring in is enormous and important to the state and region.

Tim D., a developer of a new start-up firm that created a photography application for smartphones has said, “I think its a culture [Silicon Valley] that’s proven to be resilient and adaptable to how things have changed over the last 40 years. It’s not perfect but I think it’s done a lot to shape how we as a society have gotten to where we are today.”

But New York City has been changing over the last 30 years and gentrification has taken hold in certain boroughs. Brooklyn in particular has had an industry change. During and post the World Wars Brooklyn served as an important port and industrial borough. Large factories lined the waterfront and it was mainly used to ferry various things into Manhattan.

The neighborhood of DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) started to change things around the turn of the millennium. Large real estate investors bought a bunch of property and old warehouse buildings and began to gentrify them. Jay Street in particular now serves over 30 different start-ups in converted open space warehouses. But the appeal is easily seen for creative for the small office spaces of NYC. The ability for young developers to create how they please is seemingly more appealing than joining some of the massive corporations in Palo Alto. It is a innovation atmosphere as oppose to being a cog in the machine.

“The Community for it [creative programming] in SV is way bigger, you can’t get a cup of coffee without overhearing a pitch happening or people talking shop…NY is cool because it’s a part of something much bigger, not just tech.” Jen M., a front end designer for a Brooklyn start-up.

It has yet to be determined if New York City’s push for technology firms to relocate will be entirely successful. The small firms can enclave themselves in the old warehouse but the room in which giant tech companies can spread may always give the west coast the upper hand.

 

FREE Brooklyn

icm 506 module 9 SLIDE SHOW icm 506 module 9 SLIDE SHOW

Problem Statement:

Brooklyn neighborhoods are gentrifying rapidly. Areas that use to house projects and lower income families are quickly seeing high rises, condominiums and townhouses appearing – and they see their rent and taxes growing as well. More often than not they sell their property to developers for significantly less than its actual value, and they have no idea they are being swindled out of their property.  Then they are forced to move into different areas that may have more crime and conflict then their original neighborhoods.

Idea:

We help provide free facts, resources, education and economic knowledge to the residents of Kings County, Brooklyn. We ask lawyers, real estate agents and accountantsto provide pro-bono work for our organization and help residents in gentrifying neighborhoods understand how much their property is really worth.

We are F (facts) R (resources) E (education) E (economic knowledge) Brooklyn.

Introduction:

Homelessness. Helplessness. Hardship.

Brooklyn is a borough of New York City with dozens of different neighborhoods. It has seen many different faces over the last 400 years and constantly been changing, each period has left behind its unique mark.

In the 1970s into the 1980s the borough of Manhattan was a scary place to be, filled with drugs, prostitutes and gangs causing residents to flee the city. Developers eyed this new trend and sought to capture the new markets. The old brownstones in Brooklyn, while decaying, became significantly more appealing. While Brooklyn had its own crime troubles, developers began slowly with one neighborhood at a time.

Before you knew it housing that was once cheap and easy to rent was attracting attention from the affluent Upper East and West sides and droves of people were moving down to southern New York City- just what real estate developers wanted.

But what happens to the people who were there before them? The people who didn’t make six figures a year and were happy with their local neighborhood; its mom and pop shops, local news papers and in some communities English wasn’t the first language.

The developing happened slowly, methodically and was well done by developers. Starting slowly in communities, flipping brownstones and offering in some areas the possibility of rent control on a newly renovated buildings was enough to keep residents happy.

But sometimes management gets turned over in a few years or the building becomes a co-op or “goes condo” and all of a sudden these long standing residents have no way of paying an extremely higher rent in a short amount of time.

Project Description:

 

What FREE Brooklyn wants to do is make sure that all residents of Brooklyn have access to real estate knowledge.  We want them to understand legally what is available to them, and what possible future actions could be taken against them. What their real estate rights are and what it means for the future of their family. We want to give them non-biased real estate information and help with their financial questions. And we hope to do this in whatever their first language may be.

We want the playing field to be fair. We want a FREE Brooklyn.

We want to assemble a Board of Directors from all different professions and neighborhoods from Brooklyn. They would be leaders in their respective fields and have a genuine understanding of what their community needs. They would lead the non-profit in the majority of its decision-making, and have varied opinions based on their experiences and what to move forward with next. The strength of the Board is also integral in helping find lawyers, accountants and real estate agents do pro-bono work for the initiative. We would rely on their previous involvement in their communities to form these connections. Finding a Board that we can rely on with this plan would be one of our first big hurdles.

The second biggest hurdle is funding. First there are obvious out of pocket expenses – travel time, getting the word out there, probably some various forms of printing (whether it be posters, flyers or small ads in local papers). Before you can even start with KickStarter people need to know you’re starting. This is where networking will play a huge role, our first members would start to become involved in other non-for-profits that are trying to help the people of Brooklyn:

Red Hook Initiative

Cobble Hill Tree Fund

Cobble Hill Life Care

Families First Brooklyn

Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corporation

Just to name a few. While there might be competition for resources, there is still more power in numbers. This would take some time to garner attention but necessary to gain a good reputation; then comes the KickStarter.

At this point we would have our volunteers also attending town hall and chamber of commerce meetings – trying to get to know various communities, their main merchants and their local politicians. We get to know them and they get to know us, mutual relationships begin to form and the word has the ability to spread organically. These relationships may also help us form the appropriate Board of Directors.

We also have a dynamic social media plan. We will highlight local businesses using by using hashtags and directly mentioning them in our FREEBrooklyn blog posts. We will have a presence on: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pintrest and Google+. We will shop local, eat local and be local. By joining the community will establish ourselves more firmly.

 

And if we believe in our cause, speak from the heart and move in the right direction we may have a beginning of a project that could really help the community.

To invest in us in investing in a better Brooklyn and a better way of living for residents who haven’t had the access to the resources they need. Whether they lack in education or cannot speak English every resident of Brooklyn deserves a fair place to live and we want to help them achieve that.

 

Budget:

The biggest fiscal challenges are space, office supplies and marketing. The space needs to be accessible to the people we are trying help, 3-5 office staff members and a place for our board to have meetings.

We will spend a fair amount of time figuring out what neighborhood in Brooklyn we want to have our office in; we need 1300-1600 square feet and have to allocate at least $4,000-$10,000 a month in rent.

Office supplies range from $150-1,000 depending on the month with a yearly budget of $5,000; at the end of the fiscal year this would be reviewed incase we are under/over allocating in certain supply areas. There is a separate budget for outside printing of $3,000 a year; also to be reviewed in June.  Outside printing are for flyers, posters and possible advertising opportunities.

We want to hire an Office Manager, a Development Director (preferably who would have some background experience with Marketing and Advertising) and a Social Worker. When we gain the funds add one or two more Social Workers, a Finance Manager and a Public Relations Director. The additional staff will be directed by the Board of Directors.

The payment is range based on level of experience:

Office Manager: $30,000- $37,000 a year

Development: Director $65,00 – $75,000

Social Worker:  $45,000, $55,000

About:

My name is Alicia Strain, and I’m looking to help the community members of Brooklyn. I have been working for a non-for-profit Hospital in their Marketing and Public Affairs department for the last three years, and have developed a keen understanding of the non-for-profit world. I routinely work with our Finance department and have created yearly budgets for the purposes of advertising and development in the community. I also have experienced working directly with under-privileged families by volunteering my time at the Family and Children’s Association; this organization helps families gain access to education, avoid homelessness and helps both seniors and veterans. I have also devoted time to the Women’s Fund of Long Island in their development office, this non-for-profit helps promotes and gives access to education for the underserved female community on Long Island. I have also volunteered Sara Holbrook Community Center in Burlington, Vermont during my time there. I have been in the Brooklyn community for about a year now, and can already see the need for an organization to help promote education and awareness for families. And I want to get it started today.

 

youtube doing it rightly meta

I thought it would be interesting to choose the new YouTube Advertising campaign as sort of a Meta social media campaign topic. 

I was sort of surprised that YouTube felt it had to launch any sort of campaign all together, and then used its own “over million followers” celebrities to back it.

Which is even more interesting is that one of their first half year chosen ones is also running in a Diet Dr. Pepper campaign. It’s been a good year for Michelle Phan. But women want the easy accessibility to good makeup tips without having to pay $60.00 dollars at Bloomingdales. She’s a genius.

I find this campaign interesting because it speaks down to the core of what most YouTube users want – millions of fans. Or conversely they want a real person helping them with everyday tasks, not an overpaid unauthentic writer from Betty Crocker. This time I’m channeling Rosanna Pansino.

It also allows a cute fashion blogger who doesn’t seem threatening or catty – an important element in the women’s realm. She seems down to earth, relatable and someone who could honestly be your best friend – here’s looking at you Bethany Mota.

Honesty and authenticity. Well played YouTube advertisers. It’s the base line of your brand and its what consumers are quickly eating up.

 I work in Healthcare advertising and the somewhat newest trend is finding and attracting new consumers through our most trustworthy source – happy patients.  Not actors saying they received surgery when they haven’t; but honest people who really enjoyed (to the degree you can) their stay at our Hospital. In some sense the campaign is easier than others we’ve run – the content has written itself, and we know there are no holes in it.

I struggled with whether or not I could be an authentic Brooklyn writer or if I was a transient whose voice wouldn’t – or worse shouldn’t – matter.

YouTube would be an important tool for FREE Brooklyn. It’s a free and open media channel, and it is such good friends with Google. It is a service that has been profitable for many non-for-profits and small business. It can create and grow them. Those lovely ladies are examples of that, and clearly the larger Google seems the potential of letting people know that. Who knows which personalities, business or cats they may choose to broadcast nationally in the future.

I think if we would use YouTube for FREE Brooklyn we would have to focus on the authentic content. I don’t think there would be any reason to stray from it. We would need the real, honest and heartfelt work we would do to push us forward. Investors and the community would need to see we are helping and making a change.  

People like to see other people helping people. There is no reason not to let our possible resources stay under the rug. The more people who know about FREE Brooklyn leads to more people who are willing to help. Where could you go wrong?

FREE Brooklyn commercial

FREE Brooklyn Commercial:
Run time: 1 minute

Voice over audio:

Brooklyn has over 400 years of history [2:3 seconds]
Shot of Brooklyn Bride, 1 second flash to shot of Brooklyn Museum, 1.4 second

It also has many different inhabitants [2.2 seconds]
Shot of Brighton Beach w/ Russian signage, 1 second; shot of Williamsburg 1.3 seconds

But Brooklyn is changing.  (1.8 seconds)
Shot of High-Rises being built w/obvious construction, 2 seconds

And people are on the move (1.5 seconds)
hot of Atlantic Terminal w/ people w/ luggage, 1.6 seconds

 Neighborhoods are revamping their style (2.3 seconds)
Painting over graffiti, 2.4 seconds

 Restaurants and high end clothing stores are moving in (3 seconds)
Shot of big name restaurant, 1.5 seconds; clothing store, 1.5 seconds

Real estate agencies are sprouting up all around us (2.8 seconds)
Multiple shots of real estate firms, 3 seconds

But what happens to those who can’t afford to live here anymore with all these changes? (5 seconds)
Shots of subway graffiti, 1 second; Projects, 1 second; run down buildings, 2 seconds; fences and weeds, 1 second

 

-20 second mark

 

What happens when their rent is spiked without much notice? (3 seconds)
Condo notices, 1.5 seconds; arguing with landlord, 1.2 seconds

Or they’re offered a deal they don’t really understand? (3 seconds)
People talking at a table, 3.1 seconds

And could have made a lot more money (2.2 seconds)
A person looking into a real estate window, 2.3 seconds

But good legal and real estate information is hard and expensive to find, and a daunting and time consuming task (7 seconds)
Shot of legal, 1.5; shot of real estate 1.5; shot of person looking through papers, 2 seconds; commuting shot, 2 seconds

This is where (emphasis) FREE Brooklyn comes into the picture (4 seconds)
Shots of logo on building, 2 seconds; shots of office (no one inside them), 2 seconds

 

-40 second mark

 

At FREE Brooklyn we are looking to give free legal, real estate and economic advice to those who are unsure about the changes in their neighborhoods and what it means for them. (10 seconds)
Shots of members of the staff talking to consumers, 5 seconds; shots of members of the staff (wearing FREE Brooklyn t-shirts) in a variety of neighborhoods talking to people, 5 seconds

We are looking to make sure our communities have a fair right to live and play, and not be taken advantage of (5 seconds)
Kids in a park, 2 seconds; older people playing chess in the park 2 seconds; moms pushing baby carriages, 2.3 seconds

We want the playing field to be fair. We want a FREE Brooklyn. (4 seconds)
smiling kids, 2 seconds; an older store owner outside his shop 2 seconds

Our logo – 1 second

 

For the love of man

Since I’ve been home I’ve been trying to spend some time at the Brooklyn Museum. Here is a visual when I had brief vist a few weeks ago:

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Now I visited the Brooklyn Historical Society, which introduced me to New Amsterdam Brooklyn (Breukelen), but that building itself is pretty modest. It has a few floors, one exhibit change every few seasons and actually a very cool library – but nothing compared to the NYC historical society. I had naively thought the Brooklyn Museum was going to be on the same level.

I had the opportunity to return and find out some real information recently then discovered these bad boys:

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Not only did I have a feeling that the building was a McKim, Mead and White* but it had a few Rodin** sculptures as well. Clearly I needed to find out how they got there. 

Side note: we could easily stray off into any of these topics

So B. Gerald Cantor, who was born of immigrant parents in the Bronx went on to form Cantor Fitzgerald. That may not ring too many bells but as a native New Yorker I know the name well for their lost on 9/11. They occupied some of the top floors on One World Trade. Cantor became a successful art collector and had a particular interest for Rodin sculptures, some of which had been on display in the Cantor Fitzgerald offices in 1WT.

The Cantors generously gave the museum around 58 Rodins and an endowment that created the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Gallery within the museum lobby. They also distributed their collection of over 300 to a variety of museums and universities.

I thought this was interesting because of the this museum’s location and reputation. I went in thinking I was going to wander a few rooms, pay too much money and possibly buy an overpriced coffee mug to help support; but I ended up finding a whole other world at the end of prospect park. I haven’t even fully explored the Egyptian Exhibit, which now I’ve only heard good things.

But sitting among these dudes in distress

 

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Can really get a girl thinking about how some of these collections come to be, and why and how importance is placed. More to come on how Egypt came to the Brooklyn Museum.

 

*McKim, Mead & White were a very important and prominent architectural firm around the turn of the 20th century – if you live on the East Coast you’ve probably been in one of their buildings

**Auguste Rodin was also very prominent sculptor in the turn of the 20th century; and on a personal note his work has a very special place in my heart. So this was a happy find for me.

where have you been?

So the last month has been a bit wild. With a lot of noise.

But also yesterday I smelled BBQ in this lovely cobbled neighborhood, so I know Spring is here:

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I’ve been back and forth between the East and West Coast during the month of April because of some life changing decisions. Womp Womp, nothing will be finalized for another six months – so limbo is the fun pace of life right now.

But sometimes you get these gems:

Image

 

And you realize reflection is also a pretty good tool to have. I’ll have a serial number of posts up today, and if I need sleep, tomorrow. But I’m trying to do my best and figure out what is what.

-Cobbled (for now)

What Do you have an initiative to do?

Many residents of new-eyed possible gentrifable neighborhoods have never been faced with developer dealings. They have lived their entire lives in their communities; gone to their grocers and watched their kids grow up and never thought twice about leaving or watching their neighborhood change.

In some New York City neighborhoods – the residents stepped into those streets from other countries and haven’t left; these neighborhoods represent a home away from home and their cultural identity lives on there.

In the corner of gentrification – you have tons of supporters. Those who want to invest, those who want the sense of community already ingrained and realistically those who want to make money out of the interest in a community. But how to you make sure the residents who made those neighborhoods desirable aren’t being taken advantage of?

 

You need to make sure they have a voice.

 

That’s what we do. We make sure their voice is heard.

 

The voice would need to come from the community – lawyers, real estate agents, accounts, neighborhood business owners and local dedicated residents would all need to come together to form a collaboration for a fair market. This would be a non-for-profit to make sure our neighborhoods stayed neighborhoods; and no residents who have made a life there had to leave or sell without understanding all their fiscal and legal rights.

We petition a variety of local & non-local lawyers, real estate agents and accounts to appraise housing on pro-bono basis; non-local so that we can have an accurate research and idea of the net worth.

We hold a series of fundraisers just to advertise and raise awareness and attract professionals to help our cause. We would first petition local Historical Organizations such as the Brooklyn Museum or the Brooklyn Historical Society to hold our events and then see if we could get sponsorships from new Brooklyn based companies to sponsor us.

It would probably take about two years to really get us moving. We would take to Social Media – Twitter, Facebook and Instagram; follow many of our local Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan counterparts. An easy fiscal approach.

Then is getting the first investor, we would look to patrons of other Brooklyn charities; then move on the NYC museum patrons. The first six-months would be exclusively net-working, generating attention to our cause in any way we see fit; and helping philanthropists understand the importance. Possibly asking local print shops to print and donate literature.

We would hopefully after two years generate enough of a backing to create a bank of professionals.

We want to help Brooklyn.

Pitched.
  1. Where is all the HistoryAt?

An idea for an app for all mobile platforms that lets you search for places on the National Historic Preservation list within a certain radius of where you’re standing.

Then you can refine that search down to places to eat, free things to do in the area, which are good for kids and families and the top 5 (app user rating) most interesting items about the specific location.

It also shows the easiest route to get there and if you need to use public transportation or not.

It would be a mix of HopStop, Yelp and a map application all in one.

  1. Initiative for the Well-Informed

This would be a foundation to make sure that older residents of neighborhoods that developers are looking to gentrify would have access to free legal knowledge. They would also get free unbiased appraisals on what their property is worth.

This way developers and large companies who have significantly greater legal and financial resources would not as easily take advantage of community members. If residents choose to sell their property they would know they aren’t being swindled out of thousands. (If not more)

This wouldn’t apply only to residents but store owners as well, especially ones that have been in business for generations in newly lucrative areas.

We would recruit lawyers, architects, accountants and non-area based real estate agents for pro-bono work; and would also work to recruit a series of volunteers from the neighborhood itself. Preferably ones who have lived there for over ten to twenty years.

Brownstone Garage Sale

 

I moved to Brooklyn last May and the entire month was a blur. We had a frenzy of moving, and all of the noise that comes with it. I didn’t take in my surrounds as carefully as I do now. Then all of a sudden it was 90 degrees and every chance I got I escaped the concrete jungle.

Some places don’t have steam coming up from the streets.

As the sun emerges and the temperatures are rising in the mercury I’ve started to notice a few interesting things. One of which is something that doggedly sticks in my head as the “Brownstone Garage Sale”. I use the word ‘doggedly’ because these are not sales or in garages.

I guess more appropriately they are Brownstone Stoop Giveaways – but for some reason that’s just as much fun to say.

IMG_0643 IMG_0644

I know in a lot of places the act of placing free items on your lawn is illegal and in violation of city codes. I haven’t looked too heavy into the stoop laws of Southern Brooklyn, but it seems like this is an accepted act.

I unfortunately do not have the fortune to live in a brownstone, so in this sense I feel slightly isolated from the community because there is no upcycling in my future.  But I have had the pleasure of seeing some pretty interesting things.

 

Who knows I could probably write an entire blog on stoop treasure hunting, best loot finds and most fruitful blocks.

This has been a fun find for me, and especially interesting because it’s marking the drastic turn in season here. And it’s one more little quirk I get to discover as I’m walking these streets.

The communal nature of this act is one of the hipster/yupster of the environment that I’m living in, and one that is difficult to find in an urban space. I want to find out more about it.

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The Palace Hotel poster was pretty tempting.