Speak Up for the Walgreens Plaza

Tomorrow at 7 p.m. Community Board 12 will meet, and the public is invited. Those neighbors dedicated to turning the cement bump-out in front of Walgreens at Church and Beverley into a plaza, as first proposed here last summer, http://www.kensingtonprospect.com/news/finally-a-plaza-for-kensington, could make it a point to show up. The meeting will take place at 5901 13th Avenue, 3rd floor (corner of 59th Street; entrance on 59th Street). Tel: (718) 851-0800

Please sign up to speak. When you are called, get up and ask for the whole enchilda: not just a few trees, or flowers in the tree pits, or benches, but implementation of a thought-out design: including trees or bushes to lower street noise, landscaping, benches or blocks to sit on, tables to eat at—the works.

The plaza is one more paving stone on the path laid out by the Kensington World’s Fair: to break down language, class, race, and nationality barriers by building a cohesive Kensington community. Perhaps you think that’s hyperbole, but see what benches can do in this article about Amman, Lebanon: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/world/middleeast/24amman.html?_r=2