Completed streetscape project sweetens Flatbush Junction

It was a long time coming, but the recently completed Junction streetscape project was warmly welcomed by local businesspeople, officials and residents at a ribbon-cutting on December 12 presided over by the Flatbush Nostrand Junction Business Improvement District.

The ribbon was cut symbolically at a newly created traffic island at Flatbush Avenue and Avenue H, across the street from the Triangle Junction mall and the entrance to the mall’s anchor store, Target, as the BID Chair Kevin Johnson, and its Executive Director Michelle McClymont watched, accompanied by merchants, and representatives of Community Board 14 and elected officials.

The island is just one aspect of the long-awaited plan, that was funded in 2011 and completed in October, 2013, but which was in the works in one form or another for more than a decade prior.

Also included in the $4.5 million project are newly reconstructed sidewalks that are more accessible and safer; the addition of trees, benches and new trash cans; new lighting; and graffiti removal across the BID area which runs on Flatbush Avenue  from  just north of Farragut Road to the Long Island Railroad cut, and from the cut to just north of Glenwood Road on Nostrand Avenue, and also includes Brooklyn College, as well as businesses on Glenwood Road, Campus Road, Hillel Place and Avenue H.

The origins of the project – which was overseen by the city’s Economic Development Corporation — date back to the late 1990s, when a revamp of the Junction was promoted by then-Councilmember Lloyd Henry. However, it was put on the back burner at the time because there was no organization that could maintain the improvements. The creation of the BID in 2006 satisfied that issue, enabling the project to move forward.

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