Bed Stuy is Greenest Block in Brooklyn

A MacDonough Street house on the winning residential block in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York. The block was selected for its exuberant, colorful plantings and overall green visual impact.

House planters full of petunias, window boxes brimming with begonias, and tree pits beautified with colorful groundcovers and mulch adding splashes of color. Sounds perhaps like one of the quaint up-state New York communities. Would you believe Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn?

Each year the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG), through it community horticulture program, Brooklyn GreenBridge, selects the greenest residential and commercial block in Brooklyn. Thirty judges, including BBG President Judith Zuk, travel throughout the borough over a one-month period evaluating the nearly 200 blocks that compete for top honors. The judges look for color; total visual effect; citizen participation; variety and suitability of plants; soil condition; conservation techniques; and use of mulch and other horticultural practices.

This year?EUR??,,????'???s winning residential block was MacDonough Street between Stuyvesand and Lewis Avenue in Bedford Stuyvesant. It was selected for its exuberant, colorful plantings and overall green visual impact.

?EUR??,,????'??The entire block was thrilled to win after working together over the last three years,?EUR??,,????'?? said Wilma Atwell, MacDonough?EUR??,,????'???s block president. ?EUR??,,????'??It is such a pleasure to see the hard work and care Brooklyn residents put into the street where they live,?EUR??,,????'?? noted Ms. Zuk. She sited Flatbush as the neighborhood with the greatest number of entries.

Of the 40 commercial blocks that entered the contest, MetroTech BID won the title of Greenest Business Block for Bridge Street between Willoughby and Fulton.

?EUR??,,????'??The winning block on Bridge Street completes the image of cleanliness and safety with a new garden feeling,?EUR??,,????'?? offered Manny Cabrero, director of retail/commercial development. ?EUR??,,????'??It is our hope and desire to have other commercial blocks in Brooklyn copy us and thereby improve the shopping experience throughout the borough,?EUR??,,????'?? he added.

?EUR??,,????'??Brooklynites are never bashful, but there are communities and commercial districts throughout the borough that should be incredibly proud of all of their hard work and dedication to these incredible gardens,?EUR??,,????'?? said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

The Greenest Block in Brooklyn contest is a project of Brooklyn Botanic Garden?EUR??,,????'???s Brooklyn GreenBridge program, and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. It is sponsored by the Independence Community Foundation.

Historic note: The neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant is situated in north central Brooklyn. Bedford was a farming hamlet purchased from the Canarsee Indians in the 1600s. It may have been named for the Duke of Bedford, or perhaps was a diminutive of England?EUR??,,????'???s Bedfordshire. Stuyvesant Heights is named for Peter Stuyvesant, director general of New Netherland during the 1600s. Bedford-Stuyvesant, or ?EUR??,,????'??Bed-Stuy,?EUR??,,????'?? become New York City?EUR??,,????'???s largest African-American neighborhood by the 1990s.

"The entire block was thrilled to win after working together over the last three years," said Wilma Atwell, MacDonough's block president.