On the evening of Thursday, December 13th over 100 businesses from 7th Avenue to 5th to Vanderbilt will stay open until 10 p.m. and offer special discounts, promotions, and in-store refreshments to local shoppers.
And tht’s not all.
According to organizers, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music will perform concerts in front of their building on 7th Avenue, carolers will wander the streets, and a handful of snow machines promise to dust the sidewalks with a wintry mix. Here’s the latest press release from the Buy in Brooklyn team.
“The Chamber of Commerce is proud to be able to organize an event that supports small businesses while fostering a sense of community,” said John Tarzian co-organizer and owner of Tarzian Hardware. Signs of that community feeling are everywhere. Many restaurants and bars, for instance, (already open late) have agreed to do special complementary cocktails or food ONLY if clients show a receipt from a fellow local merchant.
“People are really getting into the spirit,” said co-organizer Catherine Bohne and owner of the Community Bookstore—whose earlier recycling umbrella idea has taken a new and festive twist in this phase of the “Buy in Bklyn” campaign— “we’re hoping this becomes a very special evening.”
Conceived by a group of community leaders who wanted to translate the widespread concern over growing displacement of local businesses into action, the aim of the Buy in Brooklyn initiative remains high. Whether reintroducing Park Slopers to the quality services and products available just around the corner or—more ambitiously—raising awareness about the important role small businesses play in the local economy, organizers hope to build critical connections between merchants, non-profits and the communities they serve. “The Park Slope Civic Council’s joining with the Park Slope Chamber of Commerce demonstrates how easy it is for residential and business neighbors to work together,” argued Allen Brafman, owner of Little Things Toy Store. Buy in Brooklyn is inclusive by definition, forging new ties between North and South Slope and businesses along 4, 5th and 7th Avenues. Now all organizers need is for the community to come out and show their support.
“As I see it, in a few years the Snowflake Celebration will grow into a neighborhood institution in the same way that the Halloween Parade has developed,” said Brafman, “I am proud to say that Little Things Toy Store together with Tarzian Hardware were among the first retail sponsors of that parade. And again, today, I am proud that we are among the first to be involved in Park Slope’s next neighborhood tradition.”
“Pundits may have predicted that New York City will be steeped in chain stores by the year 2030,” explained co-organizer Rebeccah Welch, “but I think Park Slope can show the rest of the city another more inclusive and diverse vision of our future local economy.”
I came into Buy in Brooklyn after Catherine and Ken invented it. It is now becoming for me an all consuming idea, essentially a quality of life issue. The possibility of reinventing the old-style neighborhood, where the community is effectively self sustaining, thrills me beyond words. I only recently learned about Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn and think it is an extraordinary vehicle. I am delighted that so powerful a force is clearly entirely supportive of the Buy in Brooklyn campaign. Although I don’t know where Buy in Brooklyn will go, I can feel in my bones that it is a concept that may very well continue to evolve organically into a revolutionary social expression of family and community. Thank you Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn.
Allen Brafman