Sunset BID celebrates 20 years

Celebrating two successful decades in Sunset!

On Thursday, June 25 at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the Sunset Park Business Improvement District (BID) celebrated its 20^th year in existence and all the BID has accomplished.

At the organization’s annual meeting, BID members past and present were joined by friends, elected officials, guest speakers and members of the 72^nd Precinct. Attendees enjoyed food, giveaways, live music and an award ceremony for BID members, local businesses and difference-makers within the community.

“It’s incredible to believe that it’s been 20 years since this has been started. The BID has been around longer than half of my life,” said the 10^th BID President Llamil Núñez. “It’s incredible how quickly the time passes. When you compare how the avenue was before the BID started and how things are now with all the events that we do, the things that we participate with in on the avenue, every little bit helps.”

Throughout the night, the BID celebrated many of the contributions it’s made over the last 20 years, such as limiting the neighborhood’s graffiti, providing free wi-fi and hosting many events during holiday seasons.

“Whether it’s cleaning the garbage cans in the corner or getting graffiti off the walls, we are doing anything that we can do as the BID to improve the avenue and business, as well as working with the police to bring down crime that’s happening on the avenue to make sure it’s more secure than ever,” Núñez continued. “We have businesses opening at all points and parts of the avenue and very few closings.”

Executive Director Renee Giordano, who has been with the BID for 17 years, also discussed how far it has come. “When the BID started, I used to say anything that didn’t move had graffiti. Even trucks had graffiti,” she said. “Thanks to the BID, if we’ve done nothing else, we’ve kept all of the graffiti pretty much off the buildings.”

Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson was the night’s guest speaker and discussed his new immigrant fraud unit.

The keynote speaker of the evening was Captain of the 72^nd Precinct Tommy Ng, who discussed his personal struggles and triumphs and compared them to those of many Sunset residents.

“Without determination and commitment, this would have never happened,” he said. “I think my story sounds very familiar to residents of Sunset Park. It’s a community filled with hopes and dreams. This is a community where different ethnicities live in the same city block with the same goal, the goal to provide better opportunities for our kids and the next generation to come to this part of Brooklyn.”

Another unique moment was when BID members opened up a time capsule that featured art and letters from students from Sunset schools written back in 2000 to see if their predictions for the future had come true.

Awards were also handed out to past BID presidents and current members, as well as to Ashley Giron, an 18-year-old who performed CPR on a two-year-old girl who had fallen from a third floor window last month. Due to Giron’s action, the baby survived.