Crown Heights Keepers have the ‘greenest block in Brooklyn’

🌱 The "greenest block in Brooklyn" can be found in the heart of Crown Heights, where a community of renters came together to transform their stretch of Eastern Parkway, between Franklin and Bedford avenues, into a hub for plants and people.

The Crown Heights Keepers (@crownheightskeepers) won the honorific in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's (@brooklynbotanic) annual contest, beating out 10 other finalists from over 100 entries. President of the botanic garden Adrian Benepe said that this is the first time since the contest began in the 1990s that the winner has been a block of mostly apartment buildings.

"What makes it the greenest block is, here's a neighborhood of apartment buildings that have come out and transformed the street into a Garden of Eden," Benepe said.

The street is lined with dozens of tree beds and planters full of flowers and natural pollinators, vegetables and a community herb garden. In order to enjoy the community space, the residents have placed upcycled community chairs and tables about so that people can gather and spend time outside.

A 14-year-old who lives on the street said that all the work the community has put into its space has made it a nice place to live.

"There's a lot of blocks that doesn't really have the same type of fluid life like this, you know, all around us is beautiful," he said.

🎤 Marla Diamond reports

📸 Marla Diamond

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