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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

(Fort Greene/Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, November 10, 2005) - The Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership will host a community planning forum titled “ Visioning Myrtle Avenue” from 10 a.m. until Noon on Saturday, November 19 th at Benjamin Banneker Academy located at 77 Clinton Avenue between Myrtle and Park Avenues. The session is free and open to the public and a light breakfast will be served.

The purpose of the session is to gather ideas from local residents, workers, students, and business owners to help guide physical, aesthetic, and retail improvements along Myrtle Avenue. It will be led by Pratt Institute School of Architecture faculty members, Eva Hanhardt and Ayse Yonder, in conjunction with their graduate students from an introductory urban planning class, who will record the ideas and use them as the basis for planning recommendations that can serve as a template for future projects that affect Myrtle Avenue and the surrounding community.

“We are very fortunate to have the local talent of Pratt Institute faculty and students involved in improving Myrtle Avenue,” noted Michael Blaise Backer, executive director of the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership, an entity made up of the six-year-old MARP Local Development Corporation and the new Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Business Improvement District. “Pratt Institute President Thomas Schutte has volunteered countless hours to improving the area as the board chair of both non-profit entities working on Myrtle Avenue. It’s great to continue to have the Pratt community involved in our efforts.”

The November 19 visioning session has been promoted extensively to all local stakeholders. “We really hope people of all ages, backgrounds, and incomes will attend, as differing points of view are essential to getting a complete picture of opportunities and problem areas on the avenue, and to find out what type of improvements people would like to see,” explained Hanhardt, who is a member of Pratt’s faculty. “In fact, some of the best and most eye-opening observations come from children, so we’ve actively marketed the planning charette to parents and their kids.”

The focus of the session will be the section of Myrtle Avenue passing through the Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Wallabout neighborhoods, stretching from Flatbush Avenue Extension to Classon Avenue. Myrtle has seen a significant renaissance over the last five years with the active recruitment of new retailers and restaurants and the restorations of many historic buildings. Yet with the physical condition of infrastructure and public space having been ignored for many years, the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership is charting a path for gathering community input, developing plans, and raising funds to implement some much-needed enhancements.

A light breakfast will be provided at the session and an RSVP is requested to Mr. Vaidila Kungys at 718-230-1689. Further information is available at www.myrtleavenue.org.

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Contact:
Michael Blaise Backer, Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership, 718.230.1689, info@myrtleavenue.org
Mara McGinnis, Pratt Institute, 718.636.3473, mara.mcginnis@pratt.edu

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