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M yrtle Avenue Bands Together To Stem Crim e and Beautify StretchBY TAMAR BIHARI AND JEAN STERNLIGHTTo merchants on Myrtle Avenue, or for that matter to any merchant in the city, crime is foremost on their mind. But merchants, residents and neighborhood institutions in Fort Greene are banding together not only to scare away criminals but also to bring in more merchants to set up shop and to make the avenue more attractive.Success in such a venture depends on money and an effective organization and the first of those two ingredients has come in the form of a $5,000 grant from the Citizens Committee for the City of New York and a matching grant from the Citibank for installation of a %u201cbuddy buzzer system%u201d . The $10,000 will be used to sign up merchants to have buzzers installed in their shop that can be silently activated in the case of an emergency or a hold-up, but which will sound in their %u201c buddy%u201d neighborhood store. The buddy merchant will then alert the police.The organization behind this effort was the Myrtle Avenue Redevelopment Coalition formed earlier this year by Steve Kagan, provost of Pratt Institute; Howard Weiss, chairman of the Pratt Area Community Council; Roy Vanasco, president of the Myrtle Avenue Merchants Association; and the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. Together they are working to make the Avenue a %u201cviable commercial strip,%u201d says Kagan, the informal leader of the coalition.The Coalition has expanded to include the Society for Clinton Hill, the Willoughby Walk Co-op, Emigrant Savings Bank, and Citybank, (which have branches on the Avenue), and the local A&P grocery store. According to Citibank manager John Murray, it was his Urban Affairs Department, organized %u201c to work with neighborhood groups%u201d , which came up with the idea for a buddy buzzer system.The Coalition is working on quite a few more ambitious plans as well. For starters, it is applying for federal Community Development funds to rehabilitate houses and to plant trees. The Coalition would also like to fence in vacant lots, sec easier access to loans and mortgates for small businessmen on the Avenue, obtain improved lighting for extended shopping hours, get garbage baskets that can be chained to trees, hire people to clean the streets, and of course is also working to attract at least 20 new merchants.%u201c A lot of people have to go elsewhere to do their shopping%u201d says Kagan, and the Coalition wants to reverse that trend by attracting new merchants. Anyone walking down the Avenue can see quite a few closed storefronts they could move into. The closed stores though are clumped together so that on some blocks all storefronts are open and people busy shopping, as on the stretch between Washington and Ryerson, while other blocks appear run down with a few men leaning against a building the only signs of life, such as between Franklin Avenue and Taffe Street.Frank Rasafi, owner of the Cumberland Street Drug Store on the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Adelphi Street, says that Myrtle Avenue has %u201cgotten better in the last few years%u201d as a result of %u201cyoung professionals coming in and buying brownstoncs.%u201d There has indeed been a big influx of new homeowners on the south side of Myrtle Avenue in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill and on the north side of Myrtle Avenue in Navy Hill. With that came the openings of a new bunch of shops on Myrtle as well as on DcKalb Avenue running parallel a few blocks to the south.As renovators moved in theneighboring areas the city completed major improvements on Myrtle Avenue about eight years ago, and that should have started the street%u2019s revival sooner. Merchant Association President Vanasco remembers how the city contractors tore down the elevated train tracks, %u201c widened the avenue\the sewage system and the street lights%u201d , and %u201c planted trees.%u201d In fad one of the clothing store owners. Harry Warno changed the name of his store to \Tree%u201d , but Warno says, %u201c people were so used to dumping on the %u2018el%u2019 poles, they dumped on the trees instead,%u201d and %u201c if it weren%u2019t for the businessmen around, those trees would have died.%u201d But Vanasco noted that %u201c with the help of the merchants%u201d , not one tree died due to vandalism.%u201dA SOLID COREThere is a solid core of merchants who have been there 15, 20 or 30 years and who have stuck it out through the bad limes. These include Rasafi of the Cumberland Drug Store and Sandy Stevens of Philip%u2019s Liquor who says that his business has been there %u201c since prohibition ended%u201d . Vanasco walking down Myrtle Avenue points out %u201cTony (he tailor, he%u2019s been here his whole life too%u201d . Warno, who %u201c came here only temporarily%u201d and was going to %u201c leave in a year\had his shop for 30 years. %u201c I%u2019ve been here so long, I%u2019ve gotten to know people%u2019s whole families%u2014the people I first knew, their children, and their children,%u201d he says, %u201cand I%u2019ll miss the place if 1 leave.%u201dThe only merchants that don't stay for more than a year, according to Vanasco, arc the small Spanish grocery stores, they generally stay for a while, make their money and leave for home.Although new businesses arc opening, merchants still complain of problems with crimes and holdups. %u201c Wc must%u2019ve lost about 10 pharmacies from holdups%u201d Warno says, looking around at the empty back shelves built to hold stock. %u201cThe merchants can't buy stock, because they%u2019ll just get ripped off,%u201d he explains. Sargent Weadock of the 88th Precinct covering Myrtle Avenue, says, however, it is %u201c no worse than anvThe Myrtle Avenue Redevelopment Coalition would like to see more viable blocks like the one pictured above at Vanderbilt Avenue and expand the solid core of merchants on the stretch like Cumberland Pharmacy, owned by Frank Rasafi (belw). which has been in Fort Greene for decades. (Cuiccio Photos)Roy Vanasco. president of the Myrtle Avenue Merchants Association tours the Avenue with Howard Weiss, chairman of the Pratt Area Community Council.Myrtle Avenue a %u201c viable area%u201d , and says the Precinct gives it%u201c special attention%u201d because it is a shopping street.AFRAID TO KEEP STOCKAnother reason why merchants are afraid to keep stock around says Vanasco, is because of difficulties in getting insurance. Warno thinks %u201c it is the biggest problem on Myrtle Avenue\panies, he says, refuse to give shopkeepers any kind of theft, fire or accident insurance. Vanasco says that if the insurance companies arc concerned that \bomb or burn down their buildings to collect the insurance,%u201d he %u201chasn%u2019t heard of one case yet.%u201d Vanasco says the Coalition will be pressuring companies and politicians to get the necessary coverage.Merchants also complain that they have trouble getting loans and mortgages. I he Coalition is looking for help to its two local banks. Citibank implemented its Stretch Mortgage program last month, explains manager John Murray,and people have already shown %u2014 . tv,%u201e, :J................. *%u25a0> inan is customary, and paymentcan be %u201c stretched%u201d up to 30 years.Emigrant bank manager Effraim Baez is also optimistic. Prudential recently merged with Emigrant and he feels that \to working with its community.\BIG PLANSFinally, the Coalition is now working on a Community development application. It has formed a committee with Kagan at its head to figure out how much money it will request and how the money will be used. The committee plans to rehabilitate Myrtle Avenuebuildings. but is also considering rehabilitating some along the side streets adjoining the Avenue, as well as asking for money for staffing a Coalition office, making surveys, planting trees and shrubs, repaving the street, fixing sidewalks, and lending to businessmen to redo their storefronts. Howard Weiss says the money requested could be %u201c in the millions%u201d , and Vanasco says %u201c we%u2019re going to make a full 180 degree turn on Myrtle.%u201d It looks as it the Coalition is well onJ | %u00ab; W ily 2 n d %u00ab>**t lr%u00bb A o n n i m i cseeing the beginnings of a resurgence.July 26. 1979, The PHOENIX. Page 5