Bed-Stuy's Front Yard Signs Are Relics From an Era of City Neglect: Report

BED-STUY, NY — The pleasant, white signs that today hang in front of Bed-Stuy's brownstones, greeting passerby with friendly reminders to keep the neighborhood nice, are actually relics from an era when white supremacists tried to kick black people out of Bed-Stuy, according to a recent Forbes article by contributor David Alm.

The signs say things like: "Children at Play Drive Slowly," or "Please Don't Be a Litterbug," or "Cooperate With Our Block." They're often framed by privately kept gardens and immaculate front yards.

But they have darker beginnings.

Back in the 1930s, Alm writes, more than 100 block associations had to fight efforts by white supremacist organizations to keep blacks out of Bed-Stuy. When the associations won and Bed-Stuy became mostly black, the city began to let the neighborhood deteriorate.

From Alm's piece:

Having successfully combatted the Midtown Civic League’s efforts to keep them out, members of these block associations soon saw that as Bed-Stuy became blacker, the city became more neglectful. Trash collected in empty lots and front yards. Dead street lights weren’t replaced. Potholes went unfilled and cracked sidewalks remained cracked. The associations’ members knew that if they didn’t take care of their neighborhood, no one would. So they banded together to clean up the trash, paint derelict buildings, and keep an eye on the street in case anyone needed help.

Bed-Stuy residents have made a concerted effort through the decades to keep their neighborhood clean and beautiful when the city wouldn't do it for them, Alm writes — even throughout the Redlining of the 1960s and '70s.

Now that the neighborhood is rapidly gentrifying and the price tags on its beautiful brownstones are climbing into the millions, though, the city is paying more than a little attention to Bed-Stuy — padding it with public transit and modern infrastructure. These days, the yard signs of a bygone era are hard to distinguish from the realtor's plaques advertising homes for sale.

Through it all, Alm says he hopes the old, self-made charm of Bed-Stuy can survive.

"As it only becomes more livable, with improved public transportation and amenities attracting a new and monied class, one can only hope that the community spirit that kept Bed-Stuy alive through those decades of neglect will, like the signs themselves, endure," he writes.

>>> Read the whole piece at Forbes

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