Historic Bed-Stuy Brownstone Has Wall Painted Black By Neighbor, Angry Owner Says

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — The owner of a Bed-Stuy brownstone says the side of her historic red-brick building was painted pitch black by her real estate developer neighbor.

Evette Simmons said she got a complaint from one of her tenants living in the buiding and, when she got to the Hancock Street address, she found next door's facade completely black — and the color also daubed over the side of her home.

“The community, including myself, are tired of the disrespect,”she said. “I think God chose me as the vessel to put a lid on this crap.”

Simmons, 59, a nurse practitioner whose brownstone is near Malcolm X Boulevard, said her 100-year-old property was painted in December.

“Why would you paint a building black?” Simmons said. “This piece of garbage sitting next to me, it gives the block a sore eye — it’s ugly.”

Since then, repeated efforts to get Ozone Development, LLC, which DOB records show to be the neighboring property's owner, to pay to remove the paint have been unsuccessful, she said.

She estimates it will cost $8,000 to put right.

Simmons has started an online Petition to gather neighborhood support and has filed a suit in small claims court, she said.

Her campaign is not about money, Simmons said, but about a lack of respect her neighbors have shown for a building that is rife with history.

Her brownstone once belonged to her grandfather, Joseph Simmons, who is the son of New York City’s first African American police officer, Moses Cobb, she said.

“They’re picking up properties like sweets from a candy dish,” said Simmons. “So many people have the same experience and nothing is being done.”

Ozone Development did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Image via Kathleen Culliton