Blidi Stemn and Zenobia Frypher in discussion. Chikaodili Okaneme/ The Brooklyn Ink

In Crown Heights’ M.S. 394, it was time for math in Jean Graham’s  5^th grade class.  On her green chalkboard, she wrote in white chalk: “Today we will continue to practice using data to plot a line graph. We will also interpret data from, and look at how, line graphs can be applied to real world situations.”

Line graphs can often seem too abstract for fifth graders to understand, or even care about.  But if the students can connect a math principle to real life, new concepts such as a line graph might be easier to learn.

Her attempt to make such connections is new, too. Rather than teaching the entire lesson herself, while the children simply watched, Graham had the students form small groups to discuss the math problem and data amongst themselves. They then presented their results to the rest of the class.

The students proved to be very resourceful. One group’s line graph even charted decreasing stock prices to illustrate a market crash. In the end, the students gave themselves a round of applause. Some cheered when the teacher said they would continue their math lesson the next day.

Math education is suffering in American schools as the country has fallen behind most other industrial countries. But this turn of fortune in its popularity, at least in M.S. 394, is the handiwork of Blidi Stemn, a passionate, soft-spoken mathematics education professor at Hofstra University.  Through New York State’s Teacher/Leader Quality Partnerships program, Stemn has been working with teachers at M.S. 394 since October to improve their math skills and teaching techniques.

“What is really good about this,” Stemn said with a Liberian accent, is that “it is [about] in-class professional development…done [regularly], not once a year [or] twice a year. Every week we come together and talk about mathematics.”

For the past six years, Stemn has been going to schools in Long Island and Brooklyn, particularly to those whose students are doing poorly in math. He assesses the teachers’ math education skills and offers them his expertise. “He’s excellent at what he does and has a very solid math mind” said Dr. Anthony Robinson, Assistant Dean and Executive Director of Hofstra’s Center for Educational Access and Success. He “brings a very unique approach to math.”

Before working at M.S. 394, Stemn worked with two Hempstead, Long Island schools for about four years. In one school, only 53% of its fourth graders were passing math at the state level. But after working with one teacher, Stemn said that by the next year 93% of that teacher’s students were passing with far higher math test scores.

“What did you do?!” Stemn remembers the school principal asking in amazement. “It was just helping [the teacher] to understand the mathematics himself,” Stemn replied, “because if you do not know the content, you can’t teach it well.”

Along with one-on-one mentoring of teachers, Stemn helped M.S. 394 create “a community” in which he had teachers join in “a culture of discussion” about how they teach.  Teachers go to each other’s classes and later provide constructive feedback on technique and performance.  Stemn also engages the teachers in group sessions to discuss the fundamentals behind the mathematics they teach.

“The conversation is ongoing about [what they] need to do,” he said. “They find it very valuable…because they haven’t had the opportunity to do that.”

Dr. Blidi Stemn, a professor at Hofstra University. Chikaodili Okaneme/ The Brooklyn Ink

Stemn’s group of ten M.S. 394 teachers is the largest that he has worked with at one school. The teachers vary in their level of teaching experience and math proficiency, but he is seeing progress even in the first few months. Students “need to touch, see, feel and make sense of mathematics” he said, “and I’m seeing that happen.”

Zenobia Frypher, who has over 20 years of teaching experience, noted that Stemn’s influence is shifting the teachers’ views on learning. “Sometimes [teachers] tend to go on and on…rather than delve into the work and have [students] solve the problems,” she said. But teachers are gradually changing their old ways to help enrich the quality of their students’ learning experiences.

“The students enjoy it, but the teachers were a bit timid at first” she said. “As teachers we tend not to like too many different people or strangers coming in the classroom…but I think now people are taking it [as] something positive.”

Stemn hopes to work with M.S. 394 for the next few years. This spring, he also plans to start preparing his research for future publication.

Read more at NYDailyNews.com.

Soccer participant going through drills. Photo courtesy of Seeds In The Middle

Violence erupts randomly on the streets of Crown Heights.  What has remained consistent is the need for children to get out and play.

The violence has been a subject of recent community board and precinct meetings.  Nancie Katz, however, seeks to remind people about the good things that also happen in the neighborhood.  One of them is the participation by local kids in her soccer program.

This fall, four afternoons a week, just past the gates of Hamilton Metz Field between Albany and Lefferts Avenue, children between the ages of 5 and 11 can be found practicing as part of Brooklyn Crown Heights Soccer Eagles. Homework is put off as the kids focus on teamwork and discipline.

Katz founded the sports program two years ago after seeing how soccer benefited her own children as they went to school in Manhattan.

“I have two daughters, and they both played soccer since they were very young,” said Katz. “It was an important part of [their] life.”

One recent afternoon at Hamilton Metz Field, the kids begin with a running exercise to get their adrenaline up under the direction of a trainer. Next, they are partnered with another kid, and begin passing the ball back and forth. Then they graduate to learning ball control as they run and kick the ball. These activities change weekly to help make the kids become better players. Practice ends each day with a scrimmage.

Katz looks on in satisfaction as she takes pictures. From being a reporter to now running a soccer program, Katz has had a long journey.

Katz worked for 11 years as an investigative reporter for the New York Daily News. It was not until Katz started covering schools in Crown Heights that she realized how different it was for children there compared to what her daughters had. There was a “devastating lack for arts and recreation” in Crown Heights, she said.

Upon leaving the Daily News in 2008, Katz formed a program called Seeds in The Middle, which its goal is to inspire social change through sustainable health in low-income areas in New York. One of the programs Katz wanted to emphasize was the soccer program because it would bring kids from around the neighborhood together. Since then, the program has been a hit, as parents from throughout the area bring their children to play soccer.

“When I found out they had this, I said I had to sign up,” said parent Nigel Shallow, 37, who was cheering for his daughter Taylor, 7, a second grader from P.S. 241 on a weekend afternoon. “It’s in the community, and it’s convenient for me. When she’s at home, she busy.  But at the same time, she needs to be outside.”

“I was so excited that they were offering soccer, because my daughter wanted to do it,” said Colleen Galy, 39, parent of Allycia Austin, 7, from P.S. 22. “She’s a fan of Dora [The Explorer], and she’s always playing soccer, so she took a liking to it. They have another program [like this], but that one is too far.”

With success has come a problem for Katz:  finding the funds to pay coaches.  She charges the children between $50 and $75 each for the season and some come for free. She must pay for coaches, uniforms, and equipment and insurance. Volunteers have stepped up to help back up the coaches, including a new lead soccer director.

Lead coach Joseph Cabral (left) instructing participants. Photo courtesy of Seeds In The Middle

“I see some great potential in them (children). They have a passion for the game and it is crucial to succeed,” said new lead coach Joseph Cabral, who has played professionally in Portugal.

Another season of soccer will begin in December, but indoors. Overall, she wants the soccer program to be fun for both parents and kids—an outlet that was not available before, she said.

“Parents want kids to be healthy,” Katz said. “There were no options for kids. I’m providing options for kids that were never there.”

***

This story was amended 12/1/2011 to correct a discrepancy concerning the hiring of coaches.

Read more stories involving Crown Heights, such as uninsured patients who endure difficulties at Interfaith Medical Center or the latest trends in the Brooklyn’s real estate market

(Photo: Chika Okaneme / The Brooklyn Ink)

The Interfaith Medical Center, a major health provider in the Crown Heights and the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods is experiencing an increase in uninsured patients using the emergency room as their main source of healthcare. Administrators at the hospital attribute the trend to the sluggish economy and say a pool of federal funds intended to pay for the uninsured is running out.

“You see it in cycles” said Diane Porter, Vice President of Interfaith’s Board of Trustees, “with whatever’s going on in the larger society and with recessions and high unemployment.”

Unemployment for Kings County, which encompasses Brooklyn, is 9.6 percent. According to the NY Department of Labor this percentage is higher than the national average of 9.1 percent, and the rate for the city as a whole, which is 8.7 percent.

Interfaith treated over 60,000 emergency room patients in 2010. A pool of money received from the federal government this year, called the charity pool, is nearly exhausted after just nine months, Porter said. By the end of December she predicts that the expenses the hospital will be forced to incur, to treat the increased numbers of uninsured, will have well exceeded the money left in the charity pool, forcing the hospital to cover the uncompensated costs. With no guarantee for more funding, Porter is concerned about the increase in the number of uninsured emergency patients they have to treat. “It’s growing and it’s not going away,” she said, “that’s the point.”

“It’s a burden” Porter said, “because we’re consuming goods, labor, equipment, [and] supplies, for which we are not going to be reimbursed.” Uninsured patients only add to the Medical Center’s negative cash flow, she said. “For every dollar we spend, we are reimbursed 45 to 50 cents,” she said, so servicing people who can pay little or nothing puts a further strain on Interfaith’s finances.

Federal law requires hospitals to treat patients who arrive seeking help, even if they are uninsured or unable to pay. “If a person presents themselves at the emergency room for care, by law you are required to treat them” Porter said.

Because they know they will receive treatment without paying, some people use the emergency room for routine medical care instead of going to a primary care physician, who are not required to treat patients who cannot pay.

Angela Roper (49) was a recent patient at Interfaith’s emergency room. She grew up in Crown Heights and now lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant. She said had been unemployed and uninsured for three and a half years, until finding a job this January.  Before she was laid off she had been working at her previous job for eighteen and a half years.

She received unemployment compensation, but did not qualify for Medicaid. “I felt vulnerable,” she said.

In June 2009, she started experiencing painful swelling in her hands. She felt that she had no choice but to go to the ER because “one option is better than no options”. Having no existing heath conditions, she went to Interfaith’s emergency room three consecutive times in one week as the pain escalated. Doctors at the ER were finally able to diagnose her condition as rheumatoid arthritis.

“Maybe once I gave them 5 or 10 dollars but after that I didn’t give them anything… I had nothing [more] to give,” she said.

She has gone to Interfaith’s emergency room several times in addition to this incident. She knew that there were clinics available to patients who were uninsured but she often felt her arthritis pain and other health worries could not wait for a doctor’s appointment.

One Sunday, she was in so much pain that she could not wait to see a Rheumatologist on Tuesday. Her arthritis flared up so badly that she could barely walk into the emergency room, she said. Just a few days later, she was finally approved for Medicaid.

New York City has a variety of other health facilities, such as clinics or community health centers, that serve people who cannot afford private insurance or are not eligible for public health insurance.

The increase in uninsured patients is a rising problem in the City. According to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 32.5 percent of Central Brooklyn residents are unemployed and uninsured, and 13 percent of the uninsured population uses the emergency room for health care.

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, which is dedicated to providing health services to people without insurance, has seen an increase in uninsured patients and a decrease in funding. Last year the corporation reported a 14 percent rise in the number of uninsured patients over the past four years at the same time the system was experiencing budget cuts.

Yitzchak Shuchat is suspected of attacking Andrew Charles, who is black, in Crown Heights. The area, which saw rioting in 1991, is known for tension between the Jewish and black community The extradition order alleges an unidentified man on a bicycle sprayed the victim with mace while Shuchat stepped out of an SUV, beat him with a wooden club and drove off.

Shuchat fled the country–first going to Canada, then to Israel in May of 2008. His charges include hate crime. Police believe the attack followed reports that black youths had been pelting rocks.

One of the vehicles in the Brooklyn Van Lines service that has gained popularity in the last year due to MTA bus cancellations. (Photo: Cristabelle Tumola / The Brooklyn Ink)

Weekday mornings Osmond Thorne takes commuters and children to school, but he is not driving a bus or subway train. He is behind the wheel of a 15-person commuter van.

The vans are a cheap and convenient way to get around Brooklyn, but they also skirt city regulations by regularly straying outside of their licensed routes to get more passengers.

A round of MTA bus cancellations last year led more passengers to depend on commuter vans such as Thorne’s Brooklyn Van Lines service. After the bus cancellations, many Brooklyn residents endured longer travel time to work and were stuck taking several subway lines to visit the Prospect Park area.

“By not having the service they are cut off not just to the rest of Brooklyn, but to the rest of the city and that’s very unfortunate,” says Jeffrey Zupan of the Regional Plan Association, an independent urban research and advocacy group for the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan region.

Whenever the MTA has to cut costs, it’s the riders who suffer the most, particularly those who lose service in areas where there are few transportation options, Zupan says.

One solution was the Group Ride Vehicle program. In September 2010 the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission gave private commuter van companies a special license to pick up passengers along five cancelled bus routes in Brooklyn and Queens. Thorne’s Brooklyn Van Lines was licensed to stop along the old B71 route, which served parts of Red Hook, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, Park Slope, Prospect Heights and Crown Heights.

The program led to an increase in people using Thorne’s vans as an alternative to public transportation.

Dave Abraham, chair of Transportation Alternatives’ Brooklyn Committee, says before the Group Van Ride program many former MTA customers may have not trusted less official-looking van services.

Sarah Collins uses Brooklyn Van Lines to take her children to and from school. Collins lives in Red Hook and has been riding with Thorne since the beginning of last school year. During the ride to school, she chats with other parents among the sounds of their noisy children. “For day to day commuting it has been perfect,” she says.

Ty Jones also uses Brooklyn Van Lines to take her child from her home in Crown Heights to her babysitter in Park Slope. From there Jones can easily hop on the subway to her job in Manhattan.

This May, however, the TLC cancelled the last remaining van line because of “sporadic service they had been providing along the B71 route,” according to TLC spokesman Allan Fromberg.

The action didn’t diminish Brooklyn Van Lines’ business, however. The company still had its standard TLC license and continued picking up passengers along that route, despite rules, that according to Fromberg of the TLC, do not permit the vans to pick up passengers in much of the area of the former B71 route.

Brooklyn Van Lines still charges the $2 pickup and drop off fee that it did with the TLC program, with passengers negotiating what to pay if they want to go outside of the old B71 route.

Jones feels lucky that she was able to find a cheap mode of transportation when the B71 line was cancelled: “Without this service I would have to pay $10 each way for a cab.”

Andrea Vaughn, who has been taking commuter vans since December, also feels fortunate for their existence. When the B71 was cancelled her commute went from 20 minutes to up to an hour. She had to take two buses to her job at the Brooklyn Public Library’s central branch. Now it takes her only 15 minutes and she also has “some good conversation” along with her commute.

Vaughn has been telling people in her area about the commuter vans on the neighborhood blog she writes for, The Word on Columbia Street. “Word of mouth has been very strong,” she says.

Another commuter van rider who is also helping spread the word is Marta Heilborn. She takes a Brooklyn Van Lines van to her job in the Grand Army Plaza area. She recalled how she recently met a woman on the street who was complaining about having to take three subway lines to work. Heilborn told her about the van service she uses.

Word of mouth has helped Brooklyn Van Lines’ business grow. Thorne attributes some of this increase to the beginning of the school year. The parents who have been using his service since the last school year have been telling others about it.

As a result, Thorne hopes to soon add more vans to serve the old B71 bus passengers. In the meantime, with the cold weather quickly approaching, he is sure that more people will call him for a ride.

More Stories on The Brooklyn Ink:

Job Hunting Hard for Long-Time Hospital Worker

Bensonhurst Native Optimistic Despite Unemployment

Meet Lance: Unemployed in Bensonhurst

Her new show, “Oprah’s Next Chapter” will air on OWN and reportedly will focus on Oprah interviewing real people, newsmakers, and celebrities outside the studio.

Brooklyn borough president, Marty Markowitz, marches with local residents in Crown Heights on October 20, 2011. Neha Banka/ The Brooklyn Ink

Residents of Crown Heights walked together on Thursday evening in a peace march to end gun violence, but also to call attention to increased safety in the neighborhood in recent years.

Approximately 70 marchers congregated on the north side of Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue at 6:00pm. With many young participants carrying posters that said “DON’T SHOOT. I want to grow up,” the march proceeded along Eastern Parkway and concluded with a ceremony in Brower Park.

According to the Crown Heights Mediation Center, which had organized the march, gun violence has been on the decline in the neighborhood in recent years. Project director Amy Ellenbogen said there have been only nine shootings so far this year in the jurisdiction of the 77^th Precinct, compared with 10 last years.  “But it is still nine too many,” she said.

“Over the past 10 years, there has been a 16.7 percent decrease of victims and a 28.6 percent decrease of shooting incidents”, Ellenbogen said. The number of fatalities due to gun violence according to Ellenbogen in the 9 incidents this year and 20 last year totaled 5.

“Gun violence has been at a historic low at the 77^th precinct this year,” said Executive Officer Myrie, a police representative at the event. “New residents coming into to community should be more aware of the situations”, explained Myrie.

Map of shootings in Crown Heights for 2011 (Rheanna Abbot / Save Our Streets)

Danny Dickson, a 41 year old resident of Crown Heights and a shooting victim who uses a wheelchair, said, “I’m trying to save our streets. Trying to talk to the young youth.”  Of his own wounding, he says, “I got shot. I’ve been in the (wheel)chair for 17 years. It didn’t kill me but made me stronger,” he said.  He said the dispute that led to the shooting began “over words”. “It didn’t have to go that far, but it did”, said Dickson.

Ryan Emanuel, a 12 year old resident, said he was in the march “for the safety of the streets and to make peace.” He said a 40 year old man who lived in his building got shot four times in the head on Christmas Eve two years ago.

Bishop Roberto Jemmot, of Nazareth Christian Fellowship, said, “We’re influencing young people in our church. We’re trying to mold their lives and teach them nonviolence, which is the principle of Christ.”

Borough President Marty Markowitz was also present at the event.  “A few anti-social deviants should not bring a lack of calm and respect to the neighborhood,” he said. “There is no question that there has been an increase in gun violence in New York City over the past year or two”, Markowitz said. “Part of it is because of the increase in unemployment rates. Part of it is easy availability of purchasing of guns. In some neighborhoods it is easier to buy guns than books in Brooklyn and New York City and that’s sad.”

Residents at the march want to see positive changes in their neighborhood and many hope that Thursday’s event will help spread the message. The purpose of the event according to the S.O.S team and representatives of the 77^th precinct was spreading awareness about reducing numbers in neighborhood shootings, as well as awareness about streets in Crown Heights becoming safer for its residents.

Other speakers at the event included City Council Member Letitia James and State Senator Eric Adams. There was a strong presence of members of the S.O.S. (Save Our Streets) Outreach Team, whose antiviolence methods focus on making personal contact with at-risk young people.

Many marchers carried S.O.S. posters and the S.O.S. volunteers also distributed plastic badges reading “I SUPPORT S.O.S.”, for participants to pin onto their clothes. One resident waved a placard he had made himself which read, “In violence we forget who we are!!”

An anti-gun violence group marched in Crown Heights Neha Banka/ The Brooklyn Ink

Residents of Crown Heights walked together on Thursday evening in a peace march to end gun violence, but also to call attention to increased safety in the neighborhood in recent years.

Approximately 70 marchers congregated on the north side of Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue at 6:00pm. With many young participants carrying posters that said “DON’T SHOOT. I want to grow up,” the march proceeded along Eastern Parkway and concluded with a ceremony in Brower Park.

According to the Crown Heights Mediation Center, which had organized the march, gun violence has been on the decline in the neighborhood in recent years. Project director Amy Ellenbogen said there have been only nine shootings so far this year in the jurisdiction of the 77th Precinct, compared with 10 last years.  “But it is still nine too many,” she said.

“Over the past 10 years, there has been a 16.7 percent decrease of victims and a 28.6 percent decrease of shooting incidents”, Ellenbogen said. The number of fatalities due to gun violence according to Ellenbogen in the 9 incidents this year and 20 last year totaled 5.

“Gun violence has been at a historic low at the 77th precinct this year,” said Executive Officer Michael Marino, a police representative at the event. “New residents coming into to community should be more aware of the situations”, explained Marino.

Source: Rheanna Abbot/ Save Our Streets

Danny Dickson, a 41 year old resident of Crown Heights and a shooting victim who uses a wheelchair, said, “I’m trying to save our streets. Trying to talk to the young youth.”  Of his own wounding, he says, “I got shot. I’ve been in the (wheel)chair for 17 years. It didn’t kill me but made me stronger,” he said.  He said the dispute that led to the shooting began “over words”. “It didn’t have to go that far, but it did”, said Dickson.

Ryan Emanuel, a 12 year old resident, said he was in the march “for the safety of the streets and to make peace.” He said a 40 year old man who lived in his building got shot four times in the head on Christmas Eve two years ago.

Bishop Roberto Jemmot, of Nazareth Christian Fellowship, said, “We’re influencing young people in our church. We’re trying to mold their lives and teach them nonviolence, which is the principle of Christ.”

Borough President Marty Markowitz was also present at the event.  “A few anti-social deviants should not bring a lack of calm and respect to the neighborhood,” he said. “There is no question that there has been an increase in gun violence in New York City over the past year or two”, Markowitz said. “Part of it is because of the increase in unemployment rates. Part of it is easy availability of purchasing of guns. In some neighborhoods it is easier to buy guns than books in Brooklyn and New York City and that’s sad.”

Residents at the march want to see positive changes in their neighborhood and many hope that Thursday’s event will help spread the message. The purpose of the event according to the S.O.S team and representatives of the 77th precinct was spreading awareness about reducing numbers in neighborhood shootings, as well as awareness about streets in Crown Heights becoming safer for its residents.

Other speakers at the event included City Council Member Letitia James and State Senator Eric Adams. There was a strong presence of members of the S.O.S. (Save Our Streets) Outreach Team, whose antiviolence methods focus on making personal contact with at-risk young people.

Many marchers carried S.O.S. posters and the S.O.S. volunteers also distributed plastic badges reading “I SUPPORT S.O.S.”, for participants to pin onto their clothes. One resident waved a placard he had made himself which read, “In violence we forget who we are!!”

]]> http://thebrooklynink.com/2011/10/22/32649-crown-heights-march-to-end-gun-violence/feed/ 1 http://thebrooklynink.com/2011/09/07/28352-borders-under-siege-in-brooklyn-neighborhoods/ http://thebrooklynink.com/2011/09/07/28352-borders-under-siege-in-brooklyn-neighborhoods/#comments Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:25:22 +0000 Andie Park http://thebrooklynink.com/?p=28352 The moving boundaries of Prospect Heights unsettles Crown Heights residents, as realtors and landlords look to capitalize on development

A view from Eastern Parkway, left to right: Washington Avenue, Classon Avenue, and Franklin Avenue in Brooklyn. (Andie Park/The Brooklyn Ink)

In central Brooklyn, condominiums materialize and businesses open as if the housing slump and economic downturn were idle rumors.  The Collection Apartments, four new buildings, have taken over a block on Pacific Street, just east of Washington Avenue.  That’s Crown Heights traditionally, but these condominiums are marketed as Prospect Heights.

Two blocks further east of Washington Avenue, Candy Rush opened recently on Franklin Avenue.  That’s Crown Heights, but write-ups said the store was in Prospect Heights.  Recent real estate listings identified Franklin Avenue, rather than Washington Avenue, as the border between Prospect Heights and Crown Heights.  And some listings called the few blocks between Washington Avenue and Franklin Avenue “ProCro.”

Neighborhood nicknames pop up regularly in the city of New York, and confusion over the border may be a passing or harmless side effect of development.  But it could be something else.  Calling Crown Heights areas Prospect Heights could drive up rents and housing prices in those areas, pushing out residents and businesses that can no longer afford their homes or spaces.

After community uproar over realtors and landlords playing loose with the border, and the unsolicited nickname “ProCro,” local politicians responded by introducing a bill in the New York State Assembly to protect the integrity of neighborhoods.

Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat, introduced the Neighborhood Integrity Act in May.  Jeffries represents Assembly District 57, which includes Prospect Heights and Crown Heights.

If passed, the legislation would prohibit realtors from renaming, redesignating, or reconstituting a “traditionally recognized neighborhood” or its boundaries, except through an official process with input from community boards.  The bill defined “traditionally recognized neighborhoods” as those officially recognized by at least one community board.

Assemblyman Karim Camara, a Democrat, co-sponsored the bill and represents Crown Heights as part of Assembly District 43.  He acknowledged that sometimes neighborhood nicknames just happen, but, he said, “when it is realtors, realtors change the name of a neighborhood for the sake of profit motives.”

Prospect Heights is currently considered more developed, and thus more desirable, than Crown Heights in terms of amenities like restaurants, cafes, and shops.  That desirability translates into premiums; Prospect Heights is more expensive than Crown Heights.  By calling a Crown Heights location Prospect Heights, realtors or landlords can charge more — deceiving prospective residents and businesses as to where they are, pricing existing residents and businesses out of the community, whether intentionally or unwittingly.

The window of James Enterprise Realty, a local realtor on Classon Avenue, illustrated the price differential, or artificial inflation, that results from the practice of confusing Crown Heights with Prospect Heights.  Fliers in the window advertised five rental apartments on Classon Avenue as Prospect Heights, with rents starting from $1,325.  One apartment listed as Crown Heights was $925.  Classon Avenue runs between Washington Avenue and Franklin Avenue, right in the disputed area.

Garnett Alcindor, 32, opened Candy Rush a month ago in the building her fiance Kevin Phillip has owned for the last 10 years.  She related how some had suggested that Phillip increase the rent for a space from $1,700 to $2,300 based on the perceived desirability of the area as Prospect Heights.  He refused.

Alcindor has been in Crown Heights for four years and has strong ties to the community as a resident and business owner.  She supports the bill introduced by Jeffries.  Not just an issue of money, she explained what was in a name for Crown Heights.

“I’ve watched the people in this community work really hard at taking it from ground zero to a place that now makes everyone want to move into and buy and have businesses,” said Alcindor.  “Don’t take the name away from them.  For you to take the name, you take away the history.”

For Alcindor, the growth of the area was about community efforts to revitalize where its people live and work; focusing on “gentrification” was missing the point.  It wasn’t simply “gentrification,” as some see in condominiums going up.  It was revitalization that spurred the changes, making the area more attractive to “gentrifiers” as well as realtors looking to capitalize on the changes.

“You can’t blame people who are moving into the neighborhood” looking for more affordable and livable areas, Alcindor said.  “You blame the landlords, not the people.”

Dominique Leftwich, too, welcomed the changes.  Now 18, Leftwich has lived at Washington Avenue and St. Mark’s Avenue since kindergarten and knew her whereabouts as Crown Heights.

“I remember when Franklin Avenue used to be, honestly, horrible, nowhere near what it is now,” she said.  “And Washington Avenue, it wasn’t really all that bad, but it wasn’t as many shops as it is now.”

Leftwich currently works at Coffee Bites, which opened on Washington Avenue a year ago, with Prospect Heights as its location on its business card and in online reviews.

Damien Sherman, area resident since 2000 and a server at Abigail Cafe and Wine Bar on Classon Avenue, welcomed changes such as more businesses and increased safety, but criticized rents going up.

“I know couple of families that had to move because of the rent hike,” Sherman said, “and it’s not right.”  And to him, the area was Crown Heights.

According to Camara, some real estate brokers have already agreed to not engage in the practices targeted by the bill.  Corcoran, a real estate company in Brooklyn and Manhattan, recently changed its listing location of The Prospect, a condominium building on Classon Avenue, from Prospect Heights to Crown Heights.  A press release from Jeffries’ District Office confirmed that Corcoran CEO Pamela Liebman acknowledged their error.

But for realtors not so inclined, the Neighborhood Integrity Act would prohibit such practices.  The goal of legislation, Camara said, was not to subject realtors to fines or license revocations — written into the bill in current form — but to establish practices that respect the neighborhood and the residents.

The bill, which has been referred to the Committee on Local Governments in the Assembly, must move through the Committee next January to be considered by the Assembly and then the Senate.  The process could take one legislative session or years.

For now, residents have their strong feelings to fight any unwelcome side effects of revitalization and continued development.

“People call it Crown Heights, Franklin Square, Prospect Heights,” said Lily Olufunmi Johnson-Dibia, waving her hand behind the counter at Lily and Fig Bakery, which she opened in July 2009 on Franklin Avenue.  “It’s Crown Heights.”

As for “ProCro,” it follows the trend of calling parts of Harlem “SoHa” or South Bronx “SoBro,” or “BoCoCa” for an area near Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens.  Other neighborhood nicknames have stuck, as in SoHo and TriBeCa.

Leftwich hadn’t heard of “ProCro,” but quickly surmised what might be at play.

“It sounds like more advertising than what people usually know as Crown Heights,” she said, to avoid association with the negative image of Crown Heights in the easternmost areas such as Utica Avenue.

Alcindor was of similar mind.  Carving out a different identity for Crown Heights north of Eastern Parkway from south of Eastern Parkway could make properties look more attractive.

“I’m thinking maybe that’s what they’re trying to do, because when you cross Eastern Parkway, that Crown Heights is different,” she said, meaning less safe and less developed south of Eastern Parkway.

Despite sympathy for realtors, Alcindor was not into their reorganizing neighborhoods and making up nicknames.

“Stop it already,” she said.