WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES NOVEMBER 1, 2018 3
Ridgewood youth study vacant storefronts in BID
Photo: Elyaqim Mosheh Adam/Flickr
“We really only have a 4 or 5 percent
vacancy rate on Myrtle Avenue
which is not very high, but some of the
vacancies have been around for four,
fi ve, six years,” Renz said. “The event
can open up a discussion on more than
just vacancies – what kind of stores do
people want to see, we were hoping to
engage a lot of diff erent stakeholders
... Anything we can learn, it pays to
listen.”
Properties are oft en not big enough
for merchants or not in the right part
of the commercial district, according
to Renz, and traditionally the north
side of Myrtle between Onderdonk
and Seneca Avenues are in the highest
demand.
But while Goodman hopes to tap the
commercial success of Ridgewood’s
neighbor, Bushwick, she hopes to avoid
coaxing gentrifi cation along with it
and believes that the notion of artists
driving the issue is a misconception.
This will require tapping into the
existing residents through outreach
on the streets as well as through social
media channels and seeking the feedback
of the BID and Community Board
5, Goodman said.
The GRYC’s initiative to activate
empty storefronts is backed by a grant
from the nonprofi t Enterprise Community
Partners (ECP) and engaged
high schoolers in the neighborhood to
get involved with tracking vacancies.
“We believe the eff ort is good for
the community and we want to be as
supportive as we can,” Bob Monahan,
the president of the GRYC, said.
With the $5,000 awarded from
ECP, Goodman has been able to keep
accurate numbers on vacancies in
Ridgewood, though it is a constantly
changing landscape where business
come and go with high regularity.
The Nov. 7 dinner event, by RSVP
only will take place at Ridgewood
Savings Bank at 71-02 Forest Ave. and
will begin at 6 p.m.
YOU GOTTA SEE IT
TO BELIEVE IT!
BY MARK HALLUM
MHALLUM@CNGLOCAL.COM
An urban planning consultant is
working to reinvigorate commerce
within the Myrtle Avenue
Business Improvement District in
Ridgewood by highlighting the aff ordability
of the neighborhood and seeking
guidance from the community as how
vacant storefronts can be activated.
Wylie Goodman, who is working as a
consultant for the Greater Ridgewood
Youth Council (GRYC), will hold a Nov. 7
event that will explore how to connect
local artists and entrepreneurs with
properties that will keep business
fl ourishing in southwestern Queens.
“My hope for the project was to at
least start a dialogue about empty storefronts,”
Goodman said, explaining how
she surveyed storefronts throughout
the BID with students and found that
while some of the vacancies do not tend
to last long, the number of empty spaces
remain that way for a long period of time.
According to Goodman, one real
estate broker located near Fresh Pond
Road and Woodbine Street told her
that she has never seen the number of
vacancies in the area so bad, with the
average number of storefronts for rent
fl uctuating on average between 30 to
40 at a time.
Ridgewood already has a strong
artist population who find the
neighborhood easy on their budget,
but often commute to businesses
they own or work with in Bushwick,
Goodman said.
The idea, according to Goodman, is
to draw the artists of Ridgewood back
to Queens and to fi ll the empty spaces
of their own community.
Ted Renz, the executive director of
Myrtle Avenue BID, however, said the
district does not have an exceedingly
high number of vacancies but the ones
that are there do not seem to be getting
rented out.
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