Business owners on Ralph Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant have formed Ralph Avenue Businesses, a coalition uniting local merchants, schools and residents to strengthen community ties and preserve the neighborhood’s identity
Co-founded by Shalonda Vasquez, the owner of Sofia & Grace Cookie Company, RAB covers Ralph Avenue between Broadway and Fulton Street. The coalition covers dozens of businesses on the commercial strip, but also includes three public schools.
RAB’s initial meeting was held on Jan. 7, and had an overwhelmingly large turnout and interest from business owners, members said.
“Instead of working together, we [were] working alone,” said Cindy Weathers-Smith, RAB’s secretary and owner of Kokos Louve, a skincare company. “There are a lot of great businesses on Ralph Avenue that a lot of people don't know about and we need the traffic. If we work together, we know that we can bring the foot traffic into amazing things, not just for our businesses, but for the community as well.”
As more and more mom-and-pop shops close in the neighborhood, Ralph Avenue businesses are hoping to keep the identity and culture of the strip, said Keisha Hickson, owner of Shining Star Kids Salon.
Though Hickson considers herself as a Bed-Stuy transplant as she is originally from Flatbush, she opened her salon on Ralph Avenue post-pandemic and has already seen the business culture change.
“Some businesses never really recovered from COVID,” explained Hickson. “They were playing catch up, and now they've been priced out,” as commercial rents climb higher in the outer borough.
Luis De La Cruz, the owner of The Spot, which serves Dominican comfort food, said he has lived on Ralph Avenue most of his life and has seen it change over time.
“What I miss the most about the old neighborhood that we used to live in is just the talking,” said De La Cruz. “There's no sense of getting to know someone anymore. And I feel like, again, this is why I brought the cafe to a business because I want people to talk. There's no human connection anymore. And I want to change that.”
Despite the name, the Ralph Avenue Businesses coalition isn't just for merchants. The association has teamed up with P.S. 40, P.S. 5 and P.S. 309, to help increase enrollment in the schools and offer support services to the families who attend them.
“We became a community school,” Louise Antoine, the principal at P.S. 40 told BK Reader. “We found out what was needed in the community, and we brought them in… We have a partnership with a lot of the businesses here in the Stuy, and they come in and they support our students."
The coalition and schools now collaborate on school events and workshops throughout the year, she said.
Some of the more immediate goals for RAB is beautifying the avenue by conducting a garbage cleanup, adding flowers and plants and asking the city to add more street lighting on the corridor.
