About This Site

Welcome to the "I Love Kingston Ave" blog.

This site is run by a group of neighbors in the north central Crown Heights neighborhood around north Kingston Avenue. A few of us write most of the posts, but we are borne of a loose community action group of a couple dozen local residents of all stripes, black, white, young, old, the whole multi-culti rainbow of 21st Century Brooklyn.

We want to advocate for this neighborhood as a great place to live. We also want to encourage new retailers to take advantage of an excellent opportunity of unmet demand for some new quality local businesses.

Crown Heights in north-central Brooklyn, and Kingston Ave cuts the whole length north-south of Crown Heights, about halfway east-west. It's got two subway stops on the north and south sides, the C train at Fulton and the 3 train at Eastern Parkway, roughly halfway between the Nostrand and Utica express stops for the A/C and 2/3/4 lines.

Kingston continues south of Eastern Parkway, past Empire. That southern half of the avenue, south of Eastern Parkway, is predominantly conservative/orthodox Jewish, while north of Eastern Parkway is more diverse, traditionally predominantly Caribbean- and African-American, along with some Hispanics, Middle Easterners, and a more recently whites and others types of new residents.

Our hope for future of Kingston Ave is something very different than the scenester explosion at nearby Franklin Avenue's. Unlike Franklin or closer-by Nostrand, Kingston is not uninterrupted retail the length of the avenue. It is a mix of shops, a couple of schools, a few churches, beautiful Brower Park, a retirement home and other uses. It has a human pace to it. It has both a bustle and an easiness to its pace. It's a beautiful blend of cultures, and preserving and amplifying what's good in that is our hope for its future development.

At the same time, there are a lot of retail outlets on the street, particularly in two sections: north of Brower Park to Atlantic Avenue, and south of Brower Park to Eastern Parkway. The residents behind this blog and retail development initiative live primarily around the section of Kingston north of Brower Park, but we are all eager for positive community development throughout the entire neighborhood area.

This blog was established in 2016. Rick Bruner is its editor.