A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from September 21, 2005
Murder Avenue (Myrtle Avenue)
Myrtle Avenue (Fort Greene, Brooklyn) used to be known as "Murder Avenue" in the early 1990s, but the neighborhood has changed.

http://www.myrtleavenue.org/newsPress_media_2004.cfm
Myrtle Avenue the Hot New Strip
The Brooklyn Paper, March 27, 2004
By Deborah Kolben

Parents looking for that perfect camouflage diaper bag or ironic "onesie" sporting a picture of AC/DC lead guitarist Angus Young or Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara need took no further than a new chartreuse boutique on Myrtle Avenue.

Yes, Myrtle Avenue.

Once better known as "murder avenue," the major thoroughfare is going through a revival of its own these days bringing health food stores, trendy bars and even stylish pint-sized duds. (Read more at The Brooklyn Paper).

http://brownstoner.blogspot.com/2004/10/fort-greene-murder-ave-no-more.html
Monday, October 18, 2004
Fort Greene: Murder Ave. No More

According to the Post, the long arms of gentrification in Fort Greene are reaching all the way to the BQE...

On maps, Myrtle Avenue has always run through the heart of Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuy. But upmarket merchants and condo buyers have only "discovered" it in the past couple of years. Perhaps that's because it's a longer haul from the subways than DeKalb; perhaps that's because a reputation as "Murder Avenue" had outlasted reality about crime rates.

http://www.nypost.com/realestate/31855.htm

http://www.curbed.com/archives/categories/brooklyn_fort_greene_clinton_hill_downtown.php?page=2
Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Lubing Up in Clinton Hill
In the Brooklyn hoods of Clinton Hill and Fort Greene, the perils of quik-gentrification. The Myrtle Avenue strip once known as "Murder Avenue" has a new face - Pleasure Avenue - since the May opening of adult store Planet Pleasure. The owner says he chose the spot after noting that 70% of the traffic on his website came from the neighborhood. "It's an artsy, First Amendment, liberal neighborhood," he told the NYT's City Section. "Everyone in this area has a sex toy, everyone has lube. If not, maybe they're the ones who need help."
· Racy Store, Ruffled Neighbors [NYTimes]

http://gothamgazette.com/community/35/news/1764
As "Adult-Oriented Store" Moves In, Neighbors Worried Crime May Follow
by COURTNEY REIMER
July 18, 2005
New York Times

Planet Pleasure, meet Murder Avenue.

Back in the early 1990's, thanks to a high crime rate and a popular song by the Brooklyn rap group the Geto Boys, the stretch of Myrtle Avenue that runs through the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Clinton Hill and Fort Greene acquired the nickname Murder Avenue.

But the avenue, which is home to a new "adult-oriented store," the only one in the two neighborhoods, has cleaned up its act. In the 12 years since the rappers sang about the street, crime has dropped significantly in the surrounding areas; according to the 88th Police Precinct, which serves the area, total crime is down 70 percent, and there have been no murders this year, compared with 25 in 1993.

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Streets • Wednesday, September 21, 2005 • Permalink


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