November 10, 2019 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
Month xx–xx, 2019
LOCAL
CLASSIFIEDS
PAG E 11
Anthony George, creator of Dyker Frights, entertained children this Halloween under the disguise of Freddy Kruger. John Napoli
Lights to Frights
Halloween decorator turns Dyker into haunted amusement park
BY ELISSA ESHER
You know Dyker Heights
and Dyker Lights, but have you
heard of Dyker Frights?
Horror enthusiast and longtime
Dyker Heights resident
Anthony George is turning the
Christmas light capital of Brooklyn
into a spooky wonderland
with his annual Halloween yard
decorations. Consisting of animatronic
creatures, live actors
and a sprawling smorgasbord
of sinister ornaments spanning
three lawns, George’s so-called
“Dyker Frights” attracted an estimated
1,500 visitors from all
over the tri-state area on October
31st this year, and that number
is only growing.
“The block was packed,” said
John Napoli, a Dyker Heights resident
who was outside George’s
home on Halloween night. “People
are spreading the word so it’s
been getting more and more popular
every year.”
For the past 15 years, George
has decorated his home located
on 79th Street between 11th and
12th streets in mid-September
and left the spook-tacular scene
up until mid-November. Always
working alone, Dyker Frights
took George two full days of decorating
when he fi rst started.
Today, he said it takes him ten
hours, even though the number
of decorations has grown to the
point of fl ooding into the lawns
of two obliging neighbors.
“I have it down to a science,”
said George, who works as a
graphic designer when he isn’t
busy spooking-up the neighborhood.
“I love design, I love to be
scared and scaring other people,
and I’ve been really into Halloween
since I was a kid. It’s fun for
me.”
The preparations don’t begin
and end in September, however.
Throughout the year, George attends
antique shows, fl ee markets,
and horror conventions to
Northern
BK draws
creative
industries
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Northern Brooklyn’s hipster
enclaves are jam-packed with residents
working in so-called “creative
industries,” according to the
city’s chief bean counter.
A recent study mapping the
abodes of “creative industry”
workers from 2008 to 2017 shows
a steady trend towards zip codes
in Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant
— more than any other neighborhoods
in the city, according to
Comptroller Scott Stringer.
The “creative” sector collectively
employs over 293,000 people
citywide across a variety of disciplines
— including fi lm and television,
advertising, publishing, artists,
museums, architecture, and
fashion — and composes about one
eighth of the Big Apple’s economy,
according to the city’s top number
cruncher.
“New York City is the creative
capital of the world, and this report
shows how the sector at the
heart and soul of our city is also
a pillar of our economy,” Stringer
said in a prepared statement. “We
need to invest in strengthening
the creative economy to support
and recognize it as the engine of
opportunity that it is.”
The sector, according to
Stringer, rakes in around $30.4
billion in collective wages — contributing
some $110 billion in total
economic activity.
Because many creatives have
been priced out of numerous
neighborhoods on the distant isle
of Manhattan, the industry’s employees
have sought out lower-
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