Fifth Avenue BID welcomes lifelong Ridgeite as new director

There’s a new BID director on the block.

Lifelong Ridgeite Denise Fogarty is officially the new director of the Bay Ridge Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District (BID), a post she took over from Patrick Condren, the BID’s executive director since the organization’s creation in 2006.

Fogarty told this paper that she plans on moving the avenue forward in terms of changing with the times, while in the same breath keeping the tight-knit, know-your-neighbor feel of the nabe alive.

The 20 block-long BID spans Bay Ridge’s Fifth Avenue from 65^th to 85^th Streets and has been an institution in the neighborhood’s business sphere for just about a decade.

Fogarty says, for her, a familiarity with the neighborhood — along with knowing the ins and outs of government agencies and a level of comfort with the merchants in the area — is key.

“People know my long-term relationship with Bay Ridge,” said Fogarty. “I grew up in the days of the Petzinger’s and Meat Village, I knew store owners by name. My children have grown up  in this neighborhood and I want that familiarity to be as strong today as it was when I was young.  That is the Fifth Avenue I plan to continue to work towards.”

A mother of two – to son Kevin, 18 and daughter Sydney, 13 — Fogarty said she became familiar with neighborhood happenings through being active in the school community, the 68^th Precinct Youth Council and the library.

“I started with the BID almost two years ago. I stumbled upon the ad (for director) when I was looking to go back to work,” Fogarty said. “I [had] some background with city agencies and working with local government. It also helped that I had some familiarity with the avenue and some of the merchants were familiar with me and comfortable with me.”

Fogarty says, in the long term, she would like to bring more unity to the avenue as well as make things “a little more current.

“We already initiated the Taste of Fifth Avenue and I want to do more things like that,” Fogarty explained. “I’d like to do a family day or a sidewalk sale to coincide with holiday events. I’m very excited and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Fogarty has also already started a monthly newsletter and is in the process of turning the BID’s new website into a mobile app.