Crown Heights comes together at annual Sean Price mural memorial It’s been four years since Brooklyn rapper’s death By Meaghan McGoldrick Brooklyn JOURNAL
Controversy surrounding a Crown Heights mural faded to the background on Thursday as friends, family members and fans of the late rapper Sean Price came together to observe the four-year anniversary of his passing. Price — one-half of the Brooklyn hip-hop duo Heltah Skeltah — died in his sleep on Aug. 8, 2015, at the age of 43. The mural went up that weekend at the corner of Bergen Street and Kingston Avenue. The piece includes a portrait of the late Brownsville resident, the Brooklyn Bridge and some of Price’s lyrics: “Use your head for more than a hat rack.” Like the storied Biggie Smalls mural in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the tribute has drawn crowds from all over the world. Last week was no different: Close to 50 people came out Thursday from as near as the block and as far as South America to remember the family man whose music, many said, got them through hard times. “The turnout was amazing, as it is every year,” Price’s widow, Bernadette, reflected Friday morning. “It was an honor to be there to greet everyone and to be able to hear some of these stories. All of them still remember the time they had with him.” “I’m just thankful for everyone who came together, who stuck together and remembered him for the person he was,” Bernadette said. The mural has banded much of the Crown Heights community — and the Price fandom — together in recent weeks. When workers were spotted painting over artwork next to Price’s earlier this summer, word quickly spread that the beloved mural might be wiped away. The neighbors mobilized; Price’s friends and family members stationed themselves on the block to keep watch and local lawmakers began to investigate. Meat, a soon-to-open restaurant across the street that had already made a bad first impression on locals by allegedly skirting trash regulations and turning curious residents away, found itself in the limelight until, at the end of a community meeting, the focus shifted to the owner of the building the mural is painted on. One month after the rumors began, the Price
Artist MeresOne at the foot of the Sean Price memorial mural early Thursday evening. memorial appears to be safe — though an online petition is still garnering signatures. By last Monday, the push had more than 20,000 names attached to it. That same spirit of support was in the air on Thursday, but there were no signs of drama. Instead, Price’s music echoed through a portable speaker, children danced to the beat of live drumming and loved ones posed for pictures with the mural. Those in attendance also included 5Pointz cofounders Marie Cecile Flageul and Jonathan
Cohen. Flageul, a resident of the block, helped facilitate the mural and Cohen, the artist known as MeresOne, brought it to life. The pair said the evening’s turnout touched on what truly makes Brooklyn, Brooklyn. “This yearly vigil and tribute was such a beautiful showcase of what Brooklyn is about,” they said in a joint statement Friday morning. “So much love, music and emotions dedicated to Sean Price’s memory.” A pair of Crown Heights residents who have shown support to Meat also stopped by the vigil
Eagle photo by Meaghan McGoldrick
to pay their respects. Yaacov Behrman, founder of the Jewish Future Alliance, lit a candle in Price’s memory. Assemblymember Diana Richardson came to the corner equipped with a lawn chair and a group of summer interns at her side. Planning to stay a while, the lawmaker said she was excited to show the high school students firsthand what it looks like to come together as a community, fight for what is right and honor one of Brooklyn’s own. “This is a celebration of life,” she told them.
When bodegas are more common than supermarkets, health suffers, says report By Meaghan McGoldrick Brooklyn JOURNAL
For every one supermarket in Bedford-Stuyvesant, there are more than 50 bodegas, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s most recent Community Health Profiles. The profiles, compiled by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets using late-2016 figures, underscore a present-day issue of food inequity, or, inaccessibility to high-quality foods, an issue City Council Speaker Corey Johnson has recently targeted with a multi-pronged plan. Bodegas are less likely to have healthy food options than supermarkets, according to the profiles, and shoppers are more likely to make healthy choices when nutritious, affordable food is readily available. In simpler terms: the lower the ratio of supermarkets to bodegas, the healthier the community. Bedford-Stuyvesant’s ratio — 57 bodegas for every supermarket — is the highest in all of New York City. Sunset Park is close behind, with 45 bodegas to every supermarket. In the communities of Flatlands and Canarsie, on the other hand, there are nine bodegas for every one supermarket. “It’s outrageous that not all New Yorkers have the same access to healthy food,” said Johnson. “Something as basic as having a supermarket within a reasonable distance of your home is a big part of that.” For 10-year Bed-Stuy resident Rae Gomes, food justice coordinator at the Brooklyn Neighborhood Health Action Center (a part of the Health Department’s Center for Health Equity), the issue is
This type of healthy produce bin is a rarity in some low-income neighborhoods. both personal and professional. “It’s not particularly profitable for bodegas to sell fresh fruits and vegetable,” she told the Brooklyn Journal, stressing that, while there are already initiatives in place to help make bodegas health-ier, there’s often pushback from storeowners. “Bodegas have to buy these products in bulk, and they’re not always able to sell them as quickly as a supermarket might. A lot of this stems from the fact that there is no food distribution system that is not prof-it-based.” It’s largely about coming together as a community to work towards a common goal, she said. “It would benefit bodegas if we had a food distribution system that allowed them to sell these fresh fruits and vegetables based on community good versus profit,” Gomes said, pointing to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Vital Brooklyn Initiative, currently in the feasibility stages of creating a Central Brooklyn food hub.
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RAMIREZ VALENCIA NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT AN ORDER ENTERED BY THE CIVIL COURT, KINGS COUNTY ON THE 7TH DAY OF AUGUST, 2019, BEARING THE INDEX NUMBER NC-000963-19/KI, A COPY OF WHICH MAY BE EXAMINED AT THE OFFICE OF THE CLERK LOCATED AT CIVIL COURT, KINGS COUNTY, 141 LIVINGSTON STREET, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, 11201, GRANTS ME (US) THE RIGHT TO: ASSUME THE NAME
OF (FIRST) KHRYS (MIDDLE) JOHANSY (LAST) RAMIREZ VALENCIA. MY PRESENT NAME IS (FIRST) KHRYS (MIDDLE) JOHANSY (LAST) RAMIREZ VALENCIA AKA KHRYS JOHNASY RAMIREZ AKA KHRYS J RAMIREZ VALENCIA. THE CITY AND STATE OF MY CURRENT ADDRESS ARE BROOKLYN, NY. MY PLACE OF BIRTH IS HONDURAS. THE MONTH AND YEAR OF MY BIRTH IS SEPTEMBER 1997. #172704
6 • A SPECIAL SECTION of Brooklyn Heights Press/Brooklyn Eagle Weekly/Greenpoint Gazette/The Record/The PHOENIX/Brooklyn JOURNAL/Bay Ridge Eagle • Thursday, August 15, 2019