Annual Report 2013

Annual Report
2013
Sunnyside
by the
Numbers
M e d i a n H o u s e h o ld i n co m e
Greetings from Sunnyside
Dear Supporters,
This is an exciting time to be in Sunnyside.
2013 was a great year for the neighborhood,
with nine new businesses opening
their doors and a variety of events and
promotions to draw both residents and new visitors to Sunnyside’s commercial district.
Sunnyside Gardens Park
The Median Age is
Torsney Playground
48th St.
47th St.
46th St.
Years
45th St.
44th St.
43rd Ave.
43rd St.
42nd St.
PS 150Q
41st St.
High School Diploma: 26%
32%
White
40th St.
38th St.
Some College: 22%
Skillman Ave.
38%
Latino
39th Pl.
Bachelor’s Degree: 21%
39th St.
27%
Asian
308
Sunnyside
Community
Services
Center
Theater
Queens Blvd.
Queens Blvd.
40/Lowery St. Sta.
Sabba Park
46/Bliss St. Sta.
Subway Swipes, 2013
PS 199Q
40th St Lowery Street
/
3,393,418
46th St / Bliss Street
4,638,262
Source for subway ridership data: MTA
S ource for demographic data: 2008-2012 American Community Survey, prepared by
the U.S. Census Bureau, 2013. Area covered: within ¼ mile of the BID boundaries.
Source for business data: Sunnyside Shines BID business directory.
G
re
po
A
ve
IS 125Q
New Businesses That Opened
48th Ave.
in the BID
This Year
Wespaw Pets
Los Verdes
50th Ave.
Sunnyside Ballet Studio
Dragon Puffz Hookah Lounge
KMIA Salon
Advance Auto Parts & Pep Boys
Venturo
Taiyo Foods
Sunnyside Pediatrics (relocated)
50th St.
.
48th St.
en
t
in
46th St.
Noonan
Playground
43rd St.
Thalia
Theater
42nd St.
is the total population of Sunnyside within ¼ mile of the BID boundaries
Queens
Vocational
HS
businesses
in the BID
45th St.
BID
Office
44th St.
41st St.
40th St.
39th Pl.
39th St.
38th St.
PS 313Q
47th St.
Post
Office
47th Ave.
We are especially proud of the many partnerships we engaged in this year, which yielded
fantastic results for the neighborhood: a new illustrated map of Sunnyside in partnership
with the Sunnyside Chamber
of Commerce and LaGuardia
Community College; the firstever Sunnyside Restaurant Week
in partnership with the arts
organization No Longer Empty;
vibrant hanging flower baskets
.
ve
a community clean up day
tA
land
e
v
e
os
in partnership with Council
Ro
Member Jimmy Van Bramer; a
springtime business promotion
with Sunnyside’s Boulevard
Bars and a new monthly graffiti
removal program with funding from the TD Charitable Foundation – just to name a few!
50th St.
Graduate or Professional
Degree: 11%
49th St.
2% Other 1% Black
49th St.
Ethnic Breakdown
Educational
Attainment
“We are especially proud
of the many partnerships
we engaged in this
year, which yielded
fantastic results for the
neighborhood.”
In 2013 we conducted a survey of more than 400 local shoppers, which provided great
insight about shoppers’ opinions and behaviors. We are looking forward to using this
data in 2014 as a part of a thoughtful
business attraction strategy. Our new
About Sunnyside Shines
website and social media presence will
Business Improvement District
help communicate our progress, as
well as highlight the exciting events and
Sunnyside Shines is one of NYC’s 68
happenings in Sunnyside.
business improvement districts, a
New Calvary
Cemetary
Thank you to our supporters and partners
for another great year. We are looking
forward to an exciting 2014, and we’ll see
you in Sunnyside!
Sincerely,
John Vogt
Rachel Thieme
ChairmanExecutive Director
partnership of local property owners,
businesses and residents. We were
formed in 2008 to enhance the
commercial district through programs
like supplemental sanitation, district
marketing, and beautification efforts.
Learn more about our organization
and programs at sunnysideshines.org
1
Ma r k eting a nd E vents
Sunnyside Map
Make Music NY
We partnered with the Sunnyside Chamber
of Commerce and LaGuardia Community
College to create a map highlighting
Sunnyside as a destination. Art students at
LaGuardia submitted a number of strong
pieces, and we were so pleased to select
Carmen Zhu’s beautiful watercolor for print.
The map highlights Sunnyside’s architectural
and cultural institutions and contains a
P H OTO: E li z abeth L arison
M ar k eting a nd E vents
We kicked off the summer with Make Music
NY, a city-wide music festival that brings live
music to where the people are on a beautiful
day with perfect weather: outside. We set up
directory of local businesses. Ten thousand
copies were printed and distributed to nearby
hotels, real estate offices and local businesses.
Sunnyside Restaurant Week
During three Saturdays this summer we
turned the stretch of 46th Street below the
Sunnyside Arch into a car-free public plaza.
Our Sunnyside Summer Strolls series included
a vibrant mix of live music, crafts, fine art, and
dance. On the final weekend we also laid out
a 600 square foot lawn so that everyone could
enjoy the feeling of fresh grass between their
toes. The space below the Sunnyside Arch is
our neighborhood’s center, and an excellent
space to bring the whole community together.
P H OTO: M icha el r app
Sunnyside Summer Strolls
Holiday Store Window Photo Contest
This holiday season we held a contest to determine which Sunnyside
businesses had the best holiday window displays. With so many great
entries it’s no easy task to select winners, so we turned to social media
to find out which displays were most popular. Congratulations to our
three winners, Sunnyside Thrift Shop, Los Verdes and Sunnyside Florist.
2
P H OTO s: M ichael r app
The first-ever Sunnyside Restaurant Week took place the first
week in November - a five day celebration of the incredible dining
scene in Sunnyside, featuring special lunch and dinner menus
at 16 local restaurants. We partnered with No Longer Empty to
curate site-specific art installations at four of the restaurants, which
brought an exciting element of creativity to the event.
tables and chairs in the plazas below the 40th
Street and 46th Street 7 train stations, turning
the underutilized public spaces into music
venues and gathering places for the whole
community.
Hoppin’ Thursdays
Every Thursday in May, 33 local
businesses offered discounts to
customers as a part of Hoppin’
Thursdays – a fun neighborhood promotion in
partnership with Sunnyside’s Boulevard Bars.
Discounts ranged from “buy one, get one
free” drinks to special prix fix dinners at local
restaurants and deals on unique merchandise
at local retailers. Shoppers collected stamps on winners who collected at least five stamps
their Hoppin’ Thursdays cards, and three lucky received prizes at the end of the promotion.
Daily News Supplement
In the summer we partnered with the Sunnyside Chamber
of Commerce on a supplemental section for the Daily News.
The special section was included in copies of the paper
delivered along the 7 train line and throughout western
Queens. Coverage highlighted the events, shopping, and
dining that make Sunnyside not only a lovely place to live,
but also an excellent place to visit for a night out. As the
Daily News section showed, Sunnyside has got it all.
3
ST R E E T S C A P E I M P R OV E M E N T S and B E AUT I F I C AT I O N
Street Trees
Sunnyside’s street trees are among the
neighborhood’s best assets, and so we were
pleased to partner with Council Member Van
Bramer, Greening Western Queens, TreesNY,
Big!Compost and the NY Tree Trust for a
neighborhood beautification day in October.
With a strong turnout we removed litter and
weeds to help our trees remain strong, and
planted 2,400 daffodil bulbs that will bloom
in the spring.
ST R E E T S C A P E I M P R O V E M E NT S and B E A U T I F I C AT I O N
Flower Baskets
Number of Trees
in the district: 120
Thanks to Council Member Van
Bramer’s generous support our
46 hanging flower baskets remain
important fixtures on Queens
Boulevard and Greenpoint
Avenue. Seen from the street,
the flower baskets add vibrant
colors to our sidewalks, and help to bolster
the sense of place of Sunnyside’s commercial
P H OTO s : C ouncil M ember Van B r a mer’s office
Graffiti Removal
In 2013, thanks to a generous grant from
the TD Charitable Foundation, Sunnyside
Shines was able to expand our graffiti removal
core. Our sanitation team takes great care to
keep the flowers healthy and well hydrated.
Average number of graffiti
incidents removed from
stores per month: 18
program to once a month. On our monthly
graffiti cleanup nights our sanitation crew
works long hours to remove graffiti from
storefronts and street furniture within the BID.
Keeping Sunnyside graffiti-free is an important
part of making the neighborhood attractive
for living and shopping.
Our sanitation team is a frequent sight on
Queens Boulevard and Greenpoint Avenue.
Seven days a week the crew from Atlantic
Maintenance is outside sweeping our
sidewalks and making sure that there’s room
in the trash receptacles.
4
Number of trash bags
collected: 38,506
P H OTO s: S unnyside S hines
Supplemental
Sanitation
5
C ommunity E ng a gement
Holiday Lighting
Our New Website
P H OTO: Lu k e Ad ams
P H OTO: N ic k G ulotta
C ommunity E ng agement
What better place for a holiday lighting
ceremony than below our own Sunnyside
Arch? In late November we turned on
the bright lights and illuminated Queens
Boulevard and Greenpoint Avenue. Our
winter mix included plenty of snowflakes and
streamers, as well the “Welcome to Sunnyside”
lights that greet all who pass through.
2013 Sunnyside Shopper Survey Increasing the BID's Draw Advocacy and Business Assistance
Sunnyside Shines is available year round
to answer questions from local businesses
and to serve as their advocate. In March we
partnered with both the Queens Chamber of
Commerce and the Sunnyside Chamber of
Commerce to host a social media seminar at
the Sunnyside branch of the Queens Library.
The topic? The essentials of email marketing,
best practices, and social media. Social media
is an important part of the business landscape,
and we’re happy to help local businesses
connect with the tools they need to succeed.
6
AvG. page views/month: 4,388
This year, with funding from the
NYC Department of Small Business
Services, we revamped our website.
The new site still features substantive
information about Sunnyside,
but also boasts expanded social
media integration and lots of
photos of the neighborhood. Also
new is our website’s “Meet our
Merchants” section, which was
created with funding from the
Surdna Foundation. Each month
this section profiles a different
business within the BID, giving
business owners a chance to show
off the goods or services that make
their business a must visit and to
talk about why Sunnyside is special.
You probably already know about the wide
range of stores in the neighborhood, but the
merchant profiles provide an easy and fun
way to find out more about local businesses.
Shopper Survey
Number of surveys
This summer
completed: 418
we surveyed
local shoppers
in person and online to get their thoughts on shopping in
Sunnyside. The survey inquired about what kind of retail
and dining residents would most like to see come to the
neighborhood, as well as shopping and travel behavior. We
gathered a lot of great data and plan to use the findings to
inform future business attraction efforts.
Newsletter Sign Up
Stay up-to-date with all the latest Sunnyside
Shines happenings by connecting with us on
social media and signing up for our newsletter.
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
7
Board of Directors
Financial Data
2011-20122012-2013
Actual
Actual
Board Officers
John Vogt
Chair
White Castle System
Support & Revenues
Special Assessment
$300,000 $300,000
Grant income
$5,000
$8,299
Program Fees
$12,026 $10,501
In-kind Contributions
$460
Contributions
$3,200
Other Income
$51
$2,950
Interest Income
$253 $263
Total
$317,330 $325,673
Chris Winchester
Vice-Chair
Pickman Realty
Arthur Weiner
Treasurer
LIC Building, LLC
Czarinna Andres
Secretary
Bing’s Hallmark
Thomas Conte
Conte’s Realty Corp
Gerald Lederman
Triad Management
Michael Fonte
TD Bank
Maureen Lynch
Lynch Funeral Home
Maria Torres-Springer
Office of the Mayor
NYC Dept. of Small
Business Services
Hon. Jimmy Van
Bramer
New York City
Council Member
Steven D. Fleischer
Ownership Realty
Alicia Prendergast
Sunnyside Resident
Hon. Scott Stringer
New York City
Comptroller
Sunnyside Conley
Gardens Park
Joseph
Queens Community
Board 2
Lillian Gavin
L&K Realty
Maureen Stathis
Offmiss Realty, LLC
Board Members
Expenses
Hon. Melinda Katz
Queens Borough
President
Program Services
Streetscape
$74,079 $69,565
Marketing
$134,096 $88,408
Sanitation
$116,358 $122,111
District Map
Torsney Playground
Skillman Ave.
Sunnyside
Community
Services
50th St.
49th St.
48th St.
47th St.
$331,040
46th St.
$388,644 Total Expenses
45th St.
$5,004
44th St.
$8,526 43rd Ave.
43rd St.
Fundraising
42nd St.
PS 150Q
41st St.
$45,952
40th St.
$55,585 39th Pl.
Management
39th St.
38th St.
Supportive Services
Center
Theater
R
Queens Blvd.
s
oo
ev
el
v
tA
e.
Sabba Park
Queens Blvd.
40/Lowery St. Sta.
Thank you to our funders during the 2012-2013 fiscal year:
BID Property Owners, Council Member Van Bramer, NYC Department
of Transportation, and the TD Charitable Foundation.
P H OTO s: M ichael R app
re
48th Ave.
PS 199Q
B AC K C OV E R P H OTO: M ichael r app
G R AP H I C D E S I G N: B P NYdesign.com
50th Ave.
.
IS 125Q
49th St.
ve
48th St.
po
A
47th St.
en
44th St.
G
43rd St.
42nd St.
Thalia
Theater
Noonan
Playground
t
in
46th St.
BID
Office
45th St.
41st St.
40th St.
39th Pl.
39th St.
38th St.
PS 313Q
47th Ave.
50th St.
Post
Office
Queens
Vocational
HS
8
46/Bliss St. Sta.
New Calvary
Cemetary
BID
Boundary
PO Box 4477
45-56 43rd Street
Sunnyside, NY 11104
Tel: 718-606-1800
Fax: 718-228-5554
[email protected]
www.sunnysideshines.org