Why It's Time to Shop Bed-Stuy

Shopping is more than an act of spending money on goods and services.  It’s an intimate event that informs how we use what we’ve earned to describe our identities, satisfy our needs and nurture our families. 

Despite the personal nature of shopping, our decisions about the products we buy and where we buy them are motivated by many factors, one of the strongest being perception. 

All of the assets necessary for great commerce exist in Bedford-Stuyvesant: Excellent transit options, high residential density, high discretionary income and dynamic commercial activity, just to name a few. 

Despite this, local residents end up spending hundreds of millions of dollars in other communities, while outside residents, by and large, do not yet consider Bedford -Stuyvesant a commercial destination. 

Additionally, much of the community’s demands for goods and services are not being supplied by the existing retail composition. This is due, in part, to the antiquated perception that Bedford-Stuyvesant is unsafe.

Perceptions aside, Let us focuse on facts: Crime in Bedford Stuyvesant is steadily decreasing. The 79th precinct has seen a 20 percent reduction in crime complaints in the past two years, a 40 percent reduction since 2001, and a drop of nearly 80 percent since 1993. 

In fact, of the more than 75 New York City’s precincts, the 79th currently boasts the 6th highest in crime reduction.

However, because safety -- especially the perception of safety -- is so important to commerce, the Bed Stuy Gateway Business Improvement District (BID) has established a Public Safety and Environmental Control Program which serves nearly 400 merchants and their shoppers.

In 2009, the BID established the program as one of four aimed at improving conditions for commerce throughout the 1.5 mile commercial district. 

This program takes preemptive and strategic action toward safety by identifying hotspots of criminal activity, facilitating improvements to environmental conditions that can foster criminal activity, assisting law enforcement in developing strategic intervention, and educating the public on best practices.

The BID has developed a system, called BIDStat, modeled after the NYPD’s CompStat that tracks all crime complaints by type and location within the District. This system, is combined with daily surveys on the state of the District to identify relationships between recent criminal activity and issues such as vacancy, commercial use, and infrastructural inadequacies.

The BID then works with the City, property owners, and community stakeholders on strategic intervention.  As a result of these efforts, the BID has resolved more than 200 safety issues ranging from broken street lights to a nearby house of prostitution and drug sales which, through their work, was closed more than a year ago. 

To keep abreast of changes and trends in the community, the BID also holds a Town Hall forum each month for businesses and shoppers. 

At a recent Town Hall meeting, the issue of an increase in the circulation of counterfeit money was addressed. The BID invited the United States Secret Service, local law enforcement, and Carver Bank’s Fulton Branch Manager to February’s Town Hall to discuss best practices in identifying fake money and what steps victims should take. 

The Bed Stuy Gateway is the city’s youngest Business Improvement District and brings a new perspective to the world of economic development in Bed Stuy. Despite its recent arrival, it has achieved a high level of success in developing functional programs.

The strong relationships it has forged with law enforcement, city agencies and community groups have played a role in reducing crime in the 79th Precinct's Southern Impact Zone by 13.5 percent, from the year before the BID began. 

With active and successful programming, and by forging strong relationships with local law enforcement, city agencies and community groups, the BID has helped create an atmosphere of open-dialogue, responsiveness and security in Bed Stuy.