Target Flatbush Opens for Target Practice – Official Grand Opening on Sunday

© Frank H. Jump

I drove past the corner of Flatbush and Avenue H on my way to perhaps the worst run Post Office in Brooklyn on Nostrand Avenue b/w Aves I & J and already the scene was chaotic. Double parked cars picking up frantic shoppers with bags and boxes up to their eyes on the “pre-opening” of Targé Flatbush. Already the landscape of this corner has been drastically altered. On local Targets that have missed the mark, the Spring Creek Target never impressed me besides being horribly staffed with unmotivated and mediocre salespeople. Let’s just hope practice makes perfect and Targé Flatbush hits a bullseye.

Fading Ad Blog is Officially One Year Old!

Time flies when your fading. And blah blah blogging. Fading Ad Campaign Website just turned nine years old. The project’s inception was February 1997. Thank you for coming along for the ride and your collaborations!

What A Difference A Day Makes? And What Difference Will Targé Make?

© Frank H. Jump

Funny how things shape up in one day. Wondering what impact this megastore will have on the community and local businesses?

Target Aims to Open at the Flatbush Junction

© Frank H. Jump

I remember walking across the Municipal Parking Lot at the Flatbush Junction on Avenue H on hot summer nights to buy some produce at the green grocers on Nostrand Avenue. Past the lot, there was the perimeter fence of the railroad that connects the Brooklyn Waterfront to the Canarsie Market, which I never got to see rumble past. I always thought it would make a great commuter railway to connect disparate areas of Brooklyn for once. Occasionally a vagrant would climb up the slope from the tracks and wander out of a hole in the fence to resume collecting cans or rearranging their possessions in a shopping cart.

When Canal Jeans came to Flatbush, I was astounded. They were pioneers way before the first Flatbush Starbucks replaced the only decent diner on Hillel Place. Then the banks came. We already had banks, and fast food chains, and now places to buy cell phones. To replace the municipal lot where commuters would park to take the train into “the city” to work is a Target Superstore. Now with the Congestion Pricing plans underway, where are commuters going to park? In my driveway.

Brooklyn Junction Blog Features Old Flatbush Photos

courtesy of Richard Hirschman (who didn’t take this picture)

Thanks Eli for the Old Flatbush Photos!

Hey Flatbush Junctioners! Know Your Storm Flood Zone!

Office of Emergency Management (OEM)

Global Disaster Interactive Map @ 100 Meter Flood Stage

Heritage at Risk – Beta

Environmental disasters, tourism, and political turmoil threaten the integrity of our global heritage. Shown below are the potentially devastating effects of seismic activity and climate change on our unique landscapes and legacies. For more information about this experimental new application, please see the our blog

This summer, with all of the Hurricane Hype, our insurance company of over twenty years (Liberty Mutual) dropped us because of the risk of flood damage and since we have a wood-framed home. This was a week before a re-finance from an adjustable mortgage. Convenient! A buddy sent me a flood map and there is a finger of flood water that runs from Paerdegat Basin in Canarsie down Farragut past our block and over Nostrand Avenue in the event of a major hurricane (or Nor’Easter). The OEM site allows you to enter your address to find your flood zone. It’s amazing how a few numbers makes such a difference. Location Location Location! PS: Liberty Mutual recently sent us a letter asking us back as customers- at a higher premium of course!

Updated link to Gowanus Lounge’s  4/07 posting. 1/4/08

College Glen – A Flatbush Neighborhood East of Brooklyn College

New York Avenue & Glenwood Road

New York Avenue & Avenue H

Avenue H & East 32nd Street

Avenue H & East 32nd Street looking toward the Junction.

The Junction © Frank H. Jump

When Vincenzo and I moved into the Flatbush Junction, I noticed the College Glen signs around the neighborhood but did not see the civilian patrol. I’ve done some Internet searches but not until recently have I found anything. Fortunately the New York Times has been diligently archiving their entire history of articles on the web. Here is a snippet that mentions this sliver of Flatbush.

PERSPECTIVES: New Condos in Flatbush; Tapping the Market in Central Brooklyn

By ALAN S. OSER

Published: October 2, 1988

MEANWHILE, the single- and two-family home market has also picked up, aided in part by the home-loan program run by Neighborhood Housing Services. The East Flatbush office has provided below-market loans for 89 home renovations, mainly in an area east of Brooklyn College called College Glen.

”It’s very clear that in this part of the area the strategy has worked,” said Philip Gallagher, chairman of Neighborhood Housing Services of East Flatbush. ”Now there is an enormous amount of new private investment that has nothing to do with us.”

Neighborhood Housing Services is planning to seek community-development block-grant funds to expand its service area to a needier northwestern area of the district that it has named Clarendon Meadows. This is an area bounded by Clarkson Avenue on the north, Cortelyou Avenue on the south, and Brooklyn Avenue and Bedford Avenue on the east and west.

Contest: What are the boundaries of College Glen?

PS: No hairsplitting!

Brooklyn Junction’s Eli & Myself @ Starbucks on Hillel Place Talking About The Junction…

Eli (Brooklyn Junction) & Me

… & Greater Flatbush, education, the ramifications of gentrification, childbirth, collaborations, passions, music and other obsessions.

Hey! I Live In That Rectangle Called Flatbush! – Brooklyn Junction & Flatbush Gardener on NY Times

NY Times