“Myrtle Avenue Loves Seniors” With Shopping Discounts, Exercise Classes, And A New Resource Guide

Myrtle Avenue and the 35th Council District is officially an age-friendly neighborhood!

This means that local businesses and community groups have banded together to offer everything from shopping discounts and senior-friendly exercise classes to food and prescription delivery services and more visible signage on doors and advertisements — which will all be listed in a Myrtle Avenue Senior Resource Guide, to be available beginning on July 15.

In a major “get” for local seniors, there will also be a mobile MetroCard van AND USPS mobile van making regular neighborhood stops close to NYCHA public housing and other gathering places, such as senior centers.

Even better? All of these services came at the recommendation of seniors themselves.

“Seniors chose the colors and designed the store decals — this participation is the way the [age-friendly] model is supposed to work,” said Meghan Lynch, project manager at the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM), which supports New York City’s age-friendly neighborhood initiative. “It’s not anybody acting like they know what’s best for seniors; the seniors are helping themselves.

“MARP has really taken the lead and done a fabulous job,” Lynch continued. “As this neighborhood changes, this designation ensures that seniors are part of that development.”

Lynch is referring to the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership / Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project (MARP), which spearheaded and guided Fort Greene and Clinton Hill seniors and businesses in the application process to get the neighborhood designated as age-friendly. This meant forming a Senior Advisory Council (SAC), conducting surveys, holding town halls, meeting with merchants, and connecting with city agencies. It also means compiling the Senior Resource Guide and continuing the senior outreach into the future.

“It’s been incredibly enlightening to talk to all the seniors [over the past year],” said Meredith Phillips Almeida, executive director of MARP. “They have so many ideas and we’re excited to share them with the rest of the neighborhood.”

The first official public event sharing one of these ideas was held on Tuesday, June 30 at Move With Grace (469 Myrtle Avenue), where owner Grace Tappin held the yoga studio-cafe’s first-ever Chair Yoga class for older adults.

“What does “friendlier” look like? I remember some of you asking if we can approach the yoga studio for classes,” said Jennifer Stokes, MARP’s director of business services, to the assembled seniors. “This is just the beginning. You’ll be getting calls into the summer and fall about events. We believe wholeheartedly that none of this would have happened without you. Thank you.”

Explaining why she enjoys chair yoga and similar exercise classes, Clinton Hill resident Valerie Brooks said that “chair yoga is easy to do. This is my first time at Move With Grace, but have had it at my church, Emmanuel Baptist. It keeps my mind and body active. There’s camaraderie and you live longer.”

Grace Tappin, owner and instructor at Move With Grace, agreed, adding that healthy living is important for seniors just as much as it is for younger individuals.

“Chair Yoga is a little slower than regular yoga and is focused on breathing, with postures modified to use a chair for balance and to strengthen the knee,” Tappin noted. “Since I’ve opened, I’ve always wanted to support seniors of all ages, but it’s challenging to find seniors to come,” so MARP and the age-friendly neighborhood designation will help with that.

“It’s good for the community to come together and it’s good for older adults,” she said. “It’s also karma! I’d want the same attention and thoughtfulness when I’m older.”

Other age-friendly projects in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill are as follows:

• Develop a highly visible Myrtle Avenue Senior Resource Guide.
• Launch a branded, age and culturally-appropriate marketing campaign.
• Continue to support and encourage senior discounts and programming among local businesses, aiming for at least 25 percent participation from the 160+ businesses in the district.
• Plan a resource fair to cultivate additional partnerships and bring information directly to older adults.
• Continue to work with the Senior Advisory Council.
• Continue to advocate for neighborhood sitings of the mobile MetroCard van and USPS mobile van.
• Increase accessibility of public buildings and places.
• Incorporate physical fitness and senior-friendly arts events into Myrtle Avenue Pedestrian Plaza.
• Incorporate senior-friendly lens into other MARP programs.
• Work with NYC agencies to address concerns regarding sidewalk safety, street closings, proper lighting, and park safety.
• Serve as a model for other areas looking to become age-friendly, also promoting expansion in our own community.

As for that Senior Resource Guide, Phillips Almeida told us that it will be released on Wednesday, July 15. “It lists discounts, programs for seniors, and more,” she said. “We will drop them off at senior and community centers and, with help from the Senior Advisory Council, will distribute them to NYCHA buildings and at Willoughby Walk, Kingsview, University Towers, and churches.”