Patti Hoff Builds Community at the Flatbush Nostrand Junction BID

Drawn back to the neighborhood she grew up in to be closer to her family, Patti Hoff took one look at her part of Flatbush and wanted to do what she does best—inspire change, get people healthy, and, ultimately, create a stronger community. And in her first four months as Interim Executive Director of the Flatbush Nostrand Junction Business Improvement District, she’s already well on her way.

“This job is a great opportunity to learn the inside workings of this community, to learn what makes it tick from the other side,” Patti said. “I knew the one side of it from growing up here. I’ve been getting my birthday cake from Lord’s since I was five, and now my triplet daughters, when they turned one, they each had their own cake from Lord’s, and that continues.”

Her community-building experience began in Africa, where she spent 10 years working in non-profit management on humanitarian projects, volunteerism, community development, and projects with youth and families affected by HIV and AIDS.

“I love connecting with people, getting to know them,” she said. “That’s where my strengths lie, and that’s what I was able to do.”

When she became pregnant with the triplets, though, she felt it was the right time to move back to the States to be near family, and she came to live in her parents’ home near the Junction with her husband and their daughter. A move to Long Island for space, and then to Milton, MA for her husband’s work, gave Patti the inspiration for her next endeavors. She started the It Takes a Village Foundation, which connected back to her projects in Africa, and which continues today. Then in Milton, wanting to lose the pregnancy weight, Patti fell in love with fitness and health, and she found ways to incorporate her past community experiences with fitness programs.

She built her own studio with a staff of 12, and then began branching out into plans to tackle childhood obesity. She developed a curriculum, and her after-school program took off in the schools in her suburban area. But then a neighbor invited her to a Boston public school, and Patti realized where her program was needed most.

“I saw the immense difference from the school my kids went to,” she said. “It was, in every category, very different. And the kids didn’t have the opportunities to take advantage of after school or extracurricular activities, so I decided this would be my focus.”

The program grew to include about 25 schools in the greater Boston area, and it’s still going strong. It has branched into professional development, and recently added a special needs program as well.

Even though they were now all in the same time zone, Patti and her family moved back to her parents’ Brooklyn home last summer so they could see more of each other, to make up for lost time.

“I’m very much a family person,” she said, describing the home that’s filled with her family, her parents, and her two aunties. “I’ve got to be close to my family.”

She came back with the vision of becoming a Department of Education vendor, doing the same thing for the schools down here that she’d been doing in Boston. But then she noticed that the adults in her neighborhood were stuck with some of the same difficulties as the kids she’d worked with—limited access to affordable fitness programs.

“Sometimes I would get off the train coming home and see women with yoga mats, and I realized they had to go out of the community to do that,” Patti explained. “So I wanted to open a studio in the Junction.”

In researching properties, she met former BID Executive Director Lisa Solomon, who walked her through the Junction, and later let her know when the current Interim ED opportunity opened up. In her short time in the position, Patti has already gotten started on several initiatives, including:

The Junction Goes Green: Teaming up with Con Ed, they’ve helped several businesses in the BID to make eco-friendly changes. The BID is also installing new blue and green recycling containers at six strategic locations throughout the area, which will be installed this month. The BID will have a celebration to spread information about the program, so look out for that.

Streetscaping: A $4.5 million dollar project that’s been 20 years in the making is finally going to get started this summer. “I call it the Flatbush facelift,” said Patti, who has been working with the project manager on the details, which include new sidewalks with a pigment to them, trees, benches, new historic-style lamp posts, and banners. They’re also planning to turn the slip road at Avenue H ad Flatbush into a plaza with trees and benches, where people can sit and have a conversation. The project will be presented to the neighborhood through Community Board 14 in June, and construction is expected to begin this summer and last about a year.

Arts and Culture: For those new banners, the BID wants a new logo, and they’ll be holding a contest to find the next one. Patti would also like to see more art in the neighborhood, and is planning a series of exhibits at the Flatbush YMCA, starting with a look at the Junction’s past—with photos provided by residents–and visions of what it will be like in the future. “I’m nostalgic in that way,” she said.

Business Attraction: The BID just applied for an Avenue NYC grant. “If we get it, we hope to do a business attraction initiative on the north side of the Junction, on Flatbush Avenue from Glenwood to Farragut,” Patti said. “There are vacancies there, and we really want that place to be more like a small- town feel. That is the mom and pop area.” They’ll use data collected from a recent Pratt neighborhood survey to better understand what people want more of in the Junction.

All this doesn’t get in the way of Patti’s love of fitness, though. She’s interested in organizing a fun run for the Junction to emphasize health for her neighbors. She’s also still enthusiastic about the program she started in Massachusetts, and is already working on it at two schools in Brooklyn. On top of all that, she’s teaching fitness classes for adults in our area as well.

“It’s my stress reliever, and the way that I stay in shape,” Patti said. “Because if I didn’t teach classes, I’d be in trouble, because I love food!”

She’s running Zumba classes at Latin Fever Dance Studio on Cortelyou Road, and she’s also starting up a new series in an unusual setting—the Punjab Banquet Hall at 687 Coney Island Avenue will be her studio for classes on Saturdays at 10:30am and Mondays at 6:30pm through July. The class will be a combination of Zumba and another style that she created called Roots & Rhythms, which is based on the Caribbean music and movement that she and her family grew up with.

“I created it with this community in mind,” Patti explained. “This is a workout you can do in a church basement, in a beauty salon. So I’m used to going to nontraditional places to do classes, and that’s what made me go to Punjab.”

The classes at Punjab Banquet Hall got stared this week, and she’s hoping people will come with their family and friends for a great workout.

“We can get everybody ready for bathing suit season,” she said.

We’ll keep you posted about the upcoming events that Patti’s got planned at the BID, but keep in touch with her as well: email flatbushjunctionbid@yahoo.com, visit the BID website, and like them on Facebook and Twitter.

And if you see her around at any of the endless things she seems to be involved in, do say hello. If you miss your chance, though, don’t worry, you’ll have plenty more—she says she’s not going anywhere.

“I’m definitely looking to stay, to make an investment in the neighborhood,” she said. “I want to be in walking distance to the Junction–my family, and everything I know is here. I don’t want to leave this community.”