Bedford-Stuyvesant ( /ˈstaɪvəsənt/; also shortly as Bed-Stuy) is a neighborhood in the central portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Formed in 1930, the neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 3, Brooklyn Community Board 8 and Brooklyn Community Board 16.[1] The neighborhood is patrolled by the NYPD's 79th[2] and 81st[3] precincts. In the City Council the district is represented by Albert Vann, of the 36th Council District.
Bedford-Stuyvesant is bordered by Flushing Avenue to the north (bordering Williamsburg); Classon Avenue to the west (bordering Clinton Hill); Broadway and Van Sinderen Avenue to the east (bordering Bushwick and East New York); and Atlantic Avenue to the south (bordering Crown Heights).[4] It is served by Postal Service zip codes 11205, 11206, 11216, 11221, 11233 and 11238.
For decades, it has been a cultural center for Brooklyn's black population. Following the construction of the subway line between Harlem and Bedford[5] in 1936, African Americans left an overcrowded Harlem for more housing availability in Bedford-Stuyvesant. From Bedford-Stuyvesant, African Americans have since moved into the surrounding areas of Brooklyn, such as East New York, Crown Heights, Brownsville and Fort Greene.
The main north-south thoroughfare is Nostrand Avenue, but the main shopping street is Fulton Street, which lies above the main subway line for the area (A C trains). Fulton Street runs east-west the length of the neighborhood and intersects high-traffic streets including Bedford Avenue, Nostrand Avenue and Stuyvesant Avenue. Bedford-Stuyvesant is actually made up of four neighborhoods: Bedford, Stuyvesant Heights, Ocean Hill and Weeksville.
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The neighborhood name is an extension of the name of the Village of Bedford, expanded to include the area of Stuyvesant Heights. The name Stuyvesant comes from Peter Stuyvesant, the last governor of the colony of New Netherland.
In pre-revolutionary Kings County, Bedford, which now forms the heart of the community, was the first major settlement east of the then Village of Brooklyn on the ferry road to the neighborhood of Jamaica and eastern Long Island.
With the building of the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad in 1833, along Atlantic Avenue, Bedford was established as a railroad station near the intersection of current Atlantic Avenue and Franklin Avenues. In 1836, the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad was taken over by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). Built in 1863, the Capitoline Grounds were the home of the Brooklyn Atlantics baseball team. The Grounds were bordered by Nostrand Ave., Halsey St., Marcy Ave., and Putnam Ave. During the winters, the operators would flood the area and open a ice-skating arena. The Grounds were demolished in 1880. In 1878, the Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railway established its northern terminal with a connection to the LIRR at the same location.
The community of Bedford contained one of the oldest free black communities in the U.S., Weeksville, much of which is still extant and preserved as a historical site. Ocean Hill, a subsection founded in 1890 is primarily a residential area.
In the last decades of the 19th century, with the advent of electric trolleys and the Fulton Street Elevated, Bedford Stuyvesant became a working class and middle class bedroom community for those working in downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan in New York City. At that time, most of the pre-existing wooden homes were destroyed and replaced with brownstone rowhouses.
African Americans migrated from the Southern United States in the early-to-mid 20th century, pursuing what they perceived as the racial equality and freedoms of the north. Many African-Americans moved North in search of new industry. The Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood became a popular landing ground for African-Americans. To this day, it is widely known as the black cultural mecca of Brooklyn, similar to what Harlem is to Manhattan.
Some of the new residents who had been rural workers had difficulty finding reasonably paid work in the urban New York economy. The city itself was in a period of steady decline, exacerbated by abandonment of parts of the transportation network, disappearance of industrial jobs, decline of public facilities and services, inability to deal with increasing crime, and difficulties in municipal government. The movement of significant parts of its population to suburban areas ghettoized a racially diverse neighborhood.
Gang wars erupted in 1961 in Bedford-Stuyvesant. During the same year, Alfred E. Clark of The New York Times referred to it as "Brooklyn's Little Harlem."[6] One of the first urban riots of the era took place there. Social and racial divisions in the city contributed to the tensions, which climaxed when attempts at community control in the nearby Ocean Hill-Brownsville school district pitted some black community residents and activists (from both inside and outside the area) against teachers, the majority of whom were white, many of them Jewish. Charges of racism were a common part of social tensions at the time.
In 1964, race riots broke out in the Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem after an Irish American NYPD lieutenant, Thomas Gilligan, shot and killed an African American teenager, James Powell, 15.[7] The riot spread to Bedford-Stuyvesant and resulted in the destruction and looting of many neighborhood businesses, many of which were Jewish-owned. Race relations between the NYPD and the city's Black Community were (are) strained as police were (are) seen as an instrument of oppression and racially biased law enforcement; Further, at that time, few Black policemen were present on the force.[8] In predominantly Black New York neighborhoods, arrests and prosecutions for drug related crimes were higher than anywhere else in the city despite evidence that illegal drugs were used at at least the same rate in the White community, further contributing to the problems between the white dominated police force and black community. Coincidentally enough, the 1964 riot took place across the NYPD's 28th and 32nd precinct located in Harlem, and the 79th precinct located in Bedford-Stuyvesant which at one time were the only three police precincts in the NYPD that black police officers were allowed to patrol in.[9] Race riots followed in 1967 and 1968, as part of the political and racial tensions in the United States of the era, aggravated by continued high unemployment among blacks, continued de facto segregation in housing, the failure to enforce civil rights laws.
Following the 1964 election, Robert F. Kennedy was elected as the U.S. Senator for the State of New York. One of Kennedy's biggest tasks as Senator was combating the war on poverty as racial rioting broke out across the urban north while the issues of the civil rights movement in southern states were still more of a priority for African American rights' activists. Rather than focus on problems facing African Americans outside of New York, Kennedy devoted a study of problems facing the urban poor in Bedford Stuyvesant as it received almost no federal aid and was the city's largest non-white community.[10] With the help of local activists and politicians such as Civil Court Judge Thomas Jones, grassroots organizations of community members and businesses willing to aid were formed and began the rebuilding of Bedford Stuyvesant. Kennedy's program was soon used as a nationwide model that began in Bedford Stuyvesant and would be used in other large urban areas to fight the War on Poverty.
In 1965, Andrew W. Cooper, a journalist from Bedford-Stuyvesant, brought suit under the Voting Rights Act against racial gerrymandering.[11] The lawsuit claimed that Bedford-Stuyvesant was divided among five congressional districts, each represented by a white Congress member.[12] It resulted in the creation of New York's 12th Congressional District and the election in 1968 of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman and West Indian American ever elected to the U.S. Congress.[13] In early 1975, when Seatrain Shipbuilding Corp. inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard experienced a massive layoff of its shipbuilders, 80% of those affected living in and around Bedford-Stuyvesant, it was Congresswoman Chisholm who came to their rescue. Chisholm convinced the government to restructure existing loans and guarantee new loans backed by the VLCC's Stuyvesant and Bay Ridge so the shipbuilders of Seatrain Shipbuilding could resume building the Stuyvesant and Bay Ridge. A case study of Seatrain Shipbuilding & the Brooklyn Navy Yard From 1968-1979 Seatrain Shipbuilding was the largest employer inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Seatrain Shipbuilding provided an est $750,000,000 in economic stimulus to the City of New York by way of their shipbuilding activities from 1968-1979 inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
In 1977, a power outage occurred throughout all of New York City due to a power failure at the Con Edison Plant. Bedford-Stuyvesant and neighboring Bushwick were two of the worst hit areas. Thirty-five blocks of Broadway, the street dividing the two communities, were affected, with 134 stores looted, 45 of which were set ablaze.
Beginning in the 2000s, the neighborhood began to experience gentrification.[5] The two significant reasons for this were the affordable housing stock consisting of brownstone rowhouses located on quiet tree-lined streets and the marked decrease of crime in the neighborhood. The latter is at least partly attributable to the decline of the national crack epidemic as well as heightened policing.
In July 2005, the New York City Police Department designated the Fulton Street-Nostrand Avenue business district in Bedford-Stuyvesant as an "Impact Zone". The Police Department has also ranked Bedford-Stuyvesant as one of the neighborhoods that has experienced a steady decline in crime and has had improved safety The designation directed significantly increased levels of police protection and resources to the area centered on the intersection of Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue for a period of six months. It was renewed for another six-month period in December 2005. Since the designation of the Impact Zone in Bedford-Stuyvesant, crime within the district decreased 15% from the previous year.
Despite the improvements and increasing stability of the community, Bedford-Stuyvesant has continued to be stigmatized in some circles, for example Tony Notaro. by a lingering public perception left from the rough times of the late 20th Century as well as from people current residents. In March 2005 a campaign was launched to supplant the "Bed-Stuy, Do-or-Die" slogan with "Bed-Stuy, and Proud of It".
Through a series of "wallscapes" (large outdoor murals), the campaign hoped to honor famous community members, including community activist and poet June Jordan, activist Hattie Carthan, rapper The Notorious B.I.G., rapper Lil Kim, rapper and actor Mos Def, and actor and comedian Chris Rock.[14] Additionally various artistic and cultural neighborhood events and celebrations such as the neighborhood's annual Universal Hip Hop Parade[15] sought to show off the area's positive accomplishments.
As a result, Bedford-Stuyvesant became increasingly racially, economically and ethnically diverse, with an increase of foreign-born Afro-Caribbean and African residents as well as other assorted ethnic backgrounds. As is expected with gentrification, the influx of new residents has sometimes contributed to the displacement of poorer residents. In many other cases, newcomers have simply rehabilitated and occupied formerly vacant and abandoned properties.
Many long-time residents and business owners expressed the concern that they would be priced out by newcomers whom they disparagingly characterize as "yuppies and buppies (black urban professionals)". They feared that the neighborhood's ethnic character will be lost. However, Bedford-Stuyvesant's population has experienced much less displacement of the black population, including those who are economically disadvantaged, than other areas of Brooklyn, such as Williamsburg and Cobble Hill.[16] Many of the new residents are upwardly mobile middle income African-American families, as well as immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean. Neighborhoods surrounding Bedford-Stuyvesant in Northern and Eastern Brooklyn are also majority black such as Brownsville, Canarsie, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, East New York, and Fort Greene. Together these neighborhoods have a population of about 940,000 and are roughly 82% black making it the largest black neighborhood in the United States. [17]
Some people believed positive neighborhood changes would benefit all residents of the area, bringing with it improved neighborhood safety and creating a demand for improved retail services along the major commercial strips, such as Fulton Street (recently co-named Harriet Tubman Avenue),[18] Nostrand Avenue, Tompkins Avenue, Greene Avenue, Lewis Avenue, Flushing Avenue, Park Avenue, Myrtle Avenue, Dekalb Avenue, Putnam Avenue, Bedford Avenue, Marcy Avenue, Malcolm X Boulevard, Gates Avenue, Madison Street and Jefferson Avenue. Such changes could have brought an increase in local jobs and other economic activity. To that effect, both the Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue commercial corridors become part of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Business Improvement District, bringing along with it a beautification project that provides various pedestrian and landscape improvements.[19]
Many properties were renovated after the turn of the century, and crime declined. New clothing stores, mid-century collector furniture stores, florists, bakeries, cafes and restaurants opened and Fresh Direct began delivering to the area. Despite the recent changes, violent crime still remains a problem in the area. The two precincts that cover Bedford-Stuyvesant reported a combined 37 murders last year in 2010.[20][21] The 81st precinct was also accused in 2010 of not reporting crimes and recording felonies as misdemeanors to make the crime rate seem lower.[22]
Despite the largest recession to hit the United States in the last 70 years, gentrification continues steadily throughout the neighborhood, if not accelerated by the affordable prices of living in Bedford Stuyvesant. The strong community and abundant beautiful brownstone townhouses in the neighborhood contribute to its growth and charm. Since 2008 a score of new cafes, restaurants, bakeries, boutiques, galleries and wine bars have sprung up in the areas with a concentrated growth found along the western and southern parts of the neighborhood. These areas include blocks north of the Nostrand Avenue and Fulton Street intersection and West of Fulton Street and Stuyvesant Avenues. These areas are serviced well by the express A train subway stops at Nostrand Avenue and Utica Avenue, with commute times 15 minutes to Lower Manhattan and 30 minutes to Midtown Manhattan. In 2011, Bedford Stuyvesant listed three Zagat rated restaurants for the first time.
A diverse mix of students, 'hipsters', artists, creative professionals, architects and attorneys of all races continue to move to the neighborhood. They are concentrated mainly in the Stuyvesant Heights and Bedford Corners areas in the South and Western parts of the neighborhood. In addition, a major business improvement district has been under way along the Fulton and Nostrand Corridor with redesigned streetscape to include: new street trees, street furniture, pavers, signage and improved cleanliness in an effort to attract more business investment. The average real estate price has more than doubled in this neighborhood since 2000, when the average home price was around $124,000. Townhome prices in more affluent parts of Bedford Stuyvesant, such as Stuyvesant Heights or Bedford Corners can be seen listed from $600,000 - $900,000 in 2011.
The zone high school for the neighborhood is Boys and Girls High School on Fulton Street. At the eastern edge of the neighborhood is Paul Robeson High School for Business and Technology.
Bedford-Stuyvesant is served by several New York City Transit bus routes. It is served by the IND Fulton Street Line (A C trains), which opened in 1936. This underground line replaced the earlier, elevated BMT Fulton Street Line on May 31, 1940. The IND Crosstown Line (G train) running underneath Lafayette Avenue and Marcy Avenue, opened for service in 1937. The elevated BMT Jamaica Line (J M Z trains) also serves the neighborhood, running alongside its northern boundaries at Broadway. Bedford-Stuyvesant is also served by the Nostrand Avenue and East New York stations of the Long Island Railroad.
Until 1950, the BMT Lexington Avenue Line served Lexington Avenue in the neighborhood. Likewise, the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line served Myrtle Avenue in the north until 1969.
Bedford-Stuyvesant's neighborhood identity is due in part to its representation in a variety of popular media. Director Spike Lee has prominently featured the streets and brownstone blocks of Bedford-Stuyvesant in his films, including Do the Right Thing (1989), Crooklyn (1994), Clockers (1995), and Summer of Sam (1999). Chris Rock's UPN (later CW) television sitcom, Everybody Hates Chris, portrays Rock's life growing up as a teenager in Bedford-Stuyvesant in 1982–1987.
Bedford-Stuyvesant is featured in the 1971 film The French Connection, in which NYPD narcotics detective Popeye Doyle is assigned to a Brooklyn police station that appears to be located in Bedford-Stuyvesant as mentioned by his supervisor Walt Simonson. On a 1997 episode of NYPD Blue, "Taillight's last Gleaming", NYPD Lieutenant Arthur Fancy requests that an officer who pulled over him and his wife in a racially motivated manner be transferred to a Bedford-Stuyvesant precinct as punishment to learn how to better interact with various black citizens. Bedford-Stuyvesant is featured in the 2002 film RFK where following the Watts Riot in Los Angeles, New York United States Senator Robert Francis Kennedy tours the neighborhood as a means of figuring out how to confront the war on poverty.
Billy Joel's 1980 single, "You May Be Right" mentions the neighborhood with the lyrics "I was stranded in the Combat Zone / I walked through Bedford-Stuy alone / even rode my motorcycle in the rain" when discussing crazy things the singer had done in his life.
The neighborhood was also the setting for portions of Dave Chappelle's 2004 documentary Block Party. Chappelle and many prominent rap and soul artists performed an impromptu concert at the Broken Angel House in Clinton Hill, which is a neighborhood that borders Bedford-Stuyvesant.
A large number of well-known hip hop artists have come out of Bedford-Stuyvesant, including such notables as Jay-Z, Memphis Bleek, Aaliyah, The Notorious B.I.G., Lil Kim, Big Daddy Kane, Mos Def, Fabolous, Maino, Ol' Dirty Bastard, GZA, Papoose, and Masta Ace.
In 2003 on the Kanye West produced track titled "Came Back For You", which is featured on the critically acclaimed platinum selling album La Bella Mafia; pure bred brooklynite Lil Kim raps, "...this Bed-Stuy Fly-girl came back for Brooklyn!"
In "Scan," an episode of the television show Prison Break, fugitive Fernando Sucre flees to Bedford-Stuyvesant to meet his friend, only to find out that his sweetheart will be getting married in Las Vegas.
The Notorious B.I.G. song "Unbelievable" starts with the line referring to himself as "Live from Bedford-Stuyvesant, the livest one." Also his song "Machine Gun Funk" contains the lyric: "Bed-Stuy, the place where my head rest" referring to Biggie's roots in the neighborhood. Also, on his song, "The What" feat. Method Man, the line "Bedford-Stuyvesant, the livest one, my borough is thorough." All songs referenced are on B.I.G.s debut album, Ready to Die.
In 1996, you can hear background vocals of The Notorious B.I.G on the debut solo single of his protégée's multi-platnium album Hard Core (Lil' Kim album). On this classic hip hop track titled "No Time" the legendary MC chants, "I rely on Bed-stuy to shut it down if I die."
In the film Notorious, The Notorious B.I.G., played by Jamal Woolard, states that he was growing up in: "Do or Die Bedstuy".
Mos Def raps "Blacker than the nighttime sky of Bed-Stuy in July" in the Black Star song "Astronomy (8th Light)" from their album Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star. Mos Def also describes his life in Bedford-Stuyvesant in the song "Life in Marvelous Times," which appeared on his 2009 album The Ecstatic.
The neighborhood (and instructions for its pronunciation) are featured in The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe.
In the series finale of Third Watch the character of Maurice "Bosco" Boscorelli is transferred to Bedford-Stuyvesant after an explosion and fire force the closing of the fictional "Camelot" precinct.
The music video for M.I.A.'s song "Paper Planes" was filmed in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
In Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind", he raps "Me, I'm out that Bed-Stuy, home of that boy Biggie".
In Big Sean's remake of Gucci Mane's Lemonade, he says "D-town, West side yeah I said it, West side, But they yellin' B.I.G. So much that you would thought its Bed-Stuy".
In 1995, GZA mentions Bedford-Stuyvesant in the song "Duel of the Iron Mic" citing "...I ain't particular, I bang like vehicular homicides on July 4 in Bed-Stuy".
In 2005, Young Jeezy mentions Bedford-Stuyvesant in the song "Last of the Dying Breed"... "Im from even where the dead die, but try and do it big like the kid from Bed-Stuy."
In the Notorious B.I.G. song "1970 Somethin'", The Game raps about Bedford-Stuyvesant in his verse of the song.
In a 2010 freestyle by Papoose over Lloyd Banks' "Beamer, Benz or Bentley", Papoose mentions Bedford-Stuyvesant... "I rep NY, I'm so Bed-Stuy".
At the start of the 1994 Ice Cube track "Wicked", a news extract mentions Bedford-Stuyvesant before the song itself starts.
2010's The Stoop by Little Jackie features the line "Sittin' on the stoop in Bed-Stuy" throughout the song.
In 2011, Kanye West raps "Made a left on Nostrand Ave., we in Bed-Stuy" in his and Jay-Z's song "Gotta Have It" from the album Watch the Throne
On June 21, 1990, during his first trip to New York, freedom fighter and anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela visited Bed Stuy several months after serving 27 years in a South African prison on Robben Island.
In the 2000 film Shaft, the character Rasaan, portrayed by Busta Rhymes, calls out "Bed Stuy" on camera when TV news reporters film him after he helped capture the film's villain (who is portrayed by Christian Bale).
Concord Baptist Church
Aka home of Chris rock