First place for Crown Heights block
Lincoln Place takes home the gold in annual Greenest Block in Brooklyn contest
BY CRAIG HUBERT
A stretch of Lincoln Place between
Nostrand and New York
avenues in Crown Heights took
fi rst prize in the 25th annual
Greenest Block in Brooklyn
contest this year.
The event, hosted by the
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, is
an attempt to bring communities
together to make Brooklyn
a cleaner, greener place. It represents
“a quarter-century of
city blocks coming together,”
Botanic Garden President and
CEO Scot Medbury said at an
Aug. 8 press conference.
This year, 160 blocks entered
the competition. But Lincoln
Place, Medbury said, was
“a force to be reckoned with.”
Many of the people who
gathered — including local residents
and people from other
nominated blocks who came
out to show their support — remarked
on the variety of plants
up and down the block, including
tropical plants. Medbury
and others also commented on
the tree pit signs, which are
featured on all of the 27 trees
on the block.
COURIER L 4 IFE, AUG. 16-22, 2019
Much of the horticultural
work on the block was spearheaded
by a group of residents
called P.L.A.N.T.S, which
stands for Preserving Lincoln’s
Abundant and Natural
Treasures. Althea Joseph, one
of the group’s members, talked
about how the award meant so
much to them this year because
of the struggles they faced.
The weather, she said, was
a frenemy.
“She became an enemy
the weekend before the fi nals
when it was 100 degrees and we
were peddling water all over
the place,” Joseph said. “But
she became our friend last
night because we didn’t have
the water” due to storms that
lasted most of the day across
Brooklyn.
Perri Edwards, who said she
has lived on Lincoln Place for
more than 30 years, said this is
the greenest she has ever seen
it. Her mother used to enter the
block in the contest, she said,
so they have been aiming to
win for a long time.
“Whenever we would hear
who the winner was, we would
race to the block and walk up
and down the street, talk to
people, make new friends,” Edwards
said. “I would ask them,
‘How did you do it?’ That’s the
question I would ask. Now,
people will come to us and ask,
‘How did you do it?’”
The block was a runner-up
for the residential block award
last year, when a stretch of Lefferts
Avenue took home the
prize.
Runner-ups this year included
a tie for second place between
the 300 East 25th Street
Block Association (East 25th
Street between Clarendon Road
and Avenue D in Flatbush) and
the Stuyvesant Avenue Block
Association (Stuyvesant Avenue
between Bainbridge
and Chauncey Streets in Bed
Stuy).
The 400 Bainbridge Street
Block Association (Bainbridge
between Howard and Saratoga
Avenues in Bed Stuy) took
home third place, while the
East 26th Street Block Association
(East 26th Street between
Avenue D and Clarendon Road
in East Flatbush) took fi nished
fourth.
Montague Street BID (Montague
between Henry and
Hicks in Brooklyn Heights) received
the top prize in the Commercial
category, while Pro 1
Tire, located at 781 4th Ave. in
Sunset Park, was awarded the
Greenest Storefront.
The Nehemiah Ten Community
Garden, located on
Barbey Street between Blake
and Dumont Avenues in East
New York, won the Best Community
Garden Streetscape.
Tilder Block Association in
East Flatbush took home the
Best Street Tree Beds award,
while Hyacinth Johnson and
Hazel Carter, both residents of
East Flatbush, tied for the Best
Window Box prize.
THE GREENEST OF THEM ALL: Winners from multiple categories of the
23rd annual Greenest Block in Brooklyn contest. Photo by Susan De Vries
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