APRIL UPDATE FROM THE PARK SLOPE FIFTH AVENUE BID #THEOTHER5TH

Hi everyone! We wanted to take a moment to update you on the continued work of the Park Slope Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District during this Coronavirus Health Crisis. We often give updates throughout the year at our board meetings, which are open to the public. Unfortunately, our April meeting, which was scheduled for April 22nd, is cancelled. In lieu of that we are posting updates on our activities and links to our recent financial documents, should you be interested. 

We hope to be able to gather together for our annual meeting on June 24th at 6:30pm at The Old Stone House. Should that meeting take place there will be food and cocktails, so put it in your calendar and we will keep you up to date!

Street Cleaning

Our 3 person cleaning crew are considered “essential workers” by the State of New York and have therefore been continuing their jobs sweeping sidewalks, bagging garbage and removing graffiti 5 days a week along the Avenue, between Dean and 18th Streets.

As of March 31st 2020, the Park Slope 5^th Ave Clean Team members are: 

Kevin Lynch, Team Leader 

Djana Hughes, Ambassador
Baba Ly, Ambassador

During the month of March total of 2,812 trash bags were used in the district, representing 98,420lbs. of trash removed. Additionally, the team cleaned 3,284 tree pits, 504 trash receptacles wiped down, 1,932 storm drains cleaned, 168 bills/stickers, 64 graffiti tags removed.

Events

A Taste of Fifth- while our annual event at the Grand Prospect Hall (originally scheduled for April 1 was cancelled, we did hold a virtual event call A Taste of Fifth Takeout. We encouraged community members to order takeout or delivery from one of their favorite local restaurants and hashtag #atasteoffifthtakeout to have a chance to win a $50 gift certificate to a local restaurant. We saw a lot of hashtags and smiling faces eating food online and awarded 5 gift certificates to 5 lucky participants. We also raised $1,000 for our local charities.

The Fabulous Fifth Avenue Fair- Our annual fair is scheduled for May 17th. To date the City of New York has not cancelled street events in May but we anticipate that it will be cancelled soon.

Brooklyn Pride- The event is scheduled for June 13th. It is unclear whether it will go forward this year. Stay tuned.

Summer Strolls- We have the permit applications in and are moving ahead as if these events will take place.

July 31^st/August 1^st Movie Night and Silent Disco Night at The Old Stone House

August 2^nd – Summer Strolls One: Family Fun Block Party on 5^th between 11^th and 13^th

August 8^th – Summer Strolls Two: Block Party with Salsa Party and Pizza Eating Contest  between Dean and St Marks

August 9^th – Summer Strolls Three: Block Party with 80s disco and exercise outdoors!

Merchant Assistance 

The bulk of our activities over the course of the past 5 weeks has been through the assistance of our 500+ merchants. The pandemic and the mandatory shutdown has had a devastating effect on our local stores, bars and restaurants. We have been working every day to assist merchants in the following ways:

• Direct assistance via phone, email and messaging.
• Hosted a Zoom meeting with an employment lawyer to help with lease and funding concerns. Nearly 90 people were in attendance online. 
• Send nightly email updates to merchants and the general public with information on financial/loan assistance, community fundraisers and more.
• Use Instagram (@theother5th) Twitter (@parkslope5thave) and Facebook (Park Slope Fifth Avenue) to help update the community on financial assistance opportunities, community events and fundraisers and open stores (and local online shopping opportunities), bars and restaurants. Although our boundaries are along 5th Avenue between Dean and 18th Streets we have expanded all merchant promotion and assistance to any and all who reach out to us. We are in this together and the Park Slope Fifth Avenue BID is here to help.
• Participating in countless webinars on legal and financial issues to help keep us up to date on the issues that affect our merchants 

Financials

The BID continues to be in a stable financial position, despite the current crisis. 

To view our most recent Profit and Loss (March 31), click below:

https://app.box.com/s/2kdkomp3mf0dad8p4227zuvl73n91b9o

To see details of the BID’s expenditures, click below:

https://app.box.com/s/iqnxuzh5bvetl808php74tlyjy3w83gz

Other Important Links:

What’s Open? 

We are keeping a running list of businesses that are open along our corridor and beyond on our website at https://parkslopefifthavenuebid.com/whats-open-on-theother5th-gowanus-and-7th-ave-and-beyond/

Merchant Assistance Page

Filled with information on city, state and federal loans and support. We also keep a list of helpful upcoming webinars and links to recorded webinars that we found helpful.

https://parkslopefifthavenuebid.com/merchant-help/