Special Projects

Greenpoint is known as a Polish immigrant neighborhood.

But if you walk north on Manhattan Avenue, past three blocks of shuttered storefronts, the Polish meat markets are being replaced by bodegas and Mexican restaurants.

If you go one block farther, you will see factories and giant brick industrial buildings.

Here in this unlikely location, at the northernmost tip of Greenpoint, and nestled between Box and Ash Streets sits the aptly named Ashbox Café, an upscale coffee shop.

Yoko’s Story

The owner, Yoko Kubo, 47, is a Japanese immigrant, who serves factory workers and local artists green teas, edamame, homemade tofu and Japanese fluffy bread. She is part of an increasingly diverse neighborhood that includes Poles, Latinos, loft-dwelling artists – and a handful of Japanese.

Kubo is a minority immigrant in a sea of others, yet she somehow feels at home here – even more so after a recent personal tragedy.

“The reason why I like living here is that the people are very friendly,” Kubo said from behind the counter one recent Tuesday afternoon.

When Kubo first immigrated with her husband, Yu, to the United States from Tokyo, Japan 13 years ago, they moved to Manhattan — a place where she never really felt comfortable.

“Tokyo is just like Manhattan. It’s so crowded. Too many people,” she said.

A Neighborhood Staple

Kubo got the opportunity to leave her job as manager of a fancy Japanese restaurant in Midtown in early 2008 when she and her husband took over management of the Ashbox Café, the northernmost coffee shop in Brooklyn. The two had been living in Greenpoint for 11 years by this point, and the café had been a staple of the neighborhood for five years, with two previous owners.

For Kubo, it was the perfect fit – she had run a coffee shop back in Tokyo and was an expert in teas. She infused the western coffee shop with a “Japanese taste” so that there would be “more than just sandwiches,” she said.

“There’s a similarity to some of the small shops [in Japan],” said Gregor Asch, a.k.a. DJ Olive the Audio Janitor, who has lived in Greenpoint for 19 of his 40 years. “The people who own the shop also do the cooking and are very attentive to the detail of what’s going in the food.”

Although Kubo is one of only a small number Japanese in the area, she says that she feels a greater sense of community in Greenpoint than what she ever experienced in Japan.

“It’s not so close in neighborhoods in Japan. So I feel more comfortable to live here, because of the people,” Kubo said.

The community atmosphere she strives to create for her customers — many of whom come to the shop three times a day — is similar.

‘A Warm Feeling’

“I’m always looking for places where I can sit with my laptop and work, and it’s a really, really peaceful environment here,” said Anya Rozenblat, 31, a photographer originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, who has lived in Greenpoint for three years.

Kubo’s husband passed away in March at age 67. He had been sick on and off for the past two years and the community supported the couple.

When Kubo was still working in Manhattan, “I gave the keys for my to apartment to my friends,” she said. That way if her ailing husband had an emergency, their Brooklyn friends could get to him faster.

After her husband died, Kubo closed the store for ten days. She returned to find her doorstep covered in prayer candles and flowers.

“I had a warm feeling for neighborhood and customers at Ashbox,” Kubo said.

On a warm night in Fort Greene, people often sit at tables outside a bustling restaurant on DeKalb Avenue, just down the street from the park. Inside, patrons sit at tables or the bar, sometimes just chatting, other times listening to music or a reading from an author.

For a decade, Madiba restaurant has been a cultural center for South Africans in the city. Mark and Jenny Henegan, co-owners and spouses, modeled Madiba after a South African shebeen, where locals gather to drink, socialize and talk about politics. As a native of South Africa, Mark Henegan wanted to bring a taste of his homeland’s culture to his adopted hometown.

Peaceful Feeling

“When I arrived in New York it was the first place I ever felt closest to world peace, where everyone lived together and walked together and ate together,” said Mark Henegan. “In New York you can be anybody you want. You can be connected with people.”

The Henegans opened the restaurant across the street from their apartment, using $10,000 in savings. The concept caught on, with the Henegans opening other branches in North Carolina and Florida.

The venture hasn’t been without its share of difficulties. In the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, Madiba and other restaurants along DeKalb reported a downturn in business. More recently, the recession has hit DeKalb Avenue. Madiba’s profits are down 20%, according to Henegan.

The restaurant joined with other businesses in the DeKalb Merchants’ Association to cut costs through bulk purchases. The Association also shares a garbage service. Henegan said these moves have made up the difference from the fall in profits.

Community Spirit

That same type of community spirit is present at the restaurant, where locals mingle with a diverse group of South Africans and other patrons from around the city. That’s in stark contrast to the realities that Henegan experienced growing up in apartheid-era South Africa, or even in his travels throughout the American South.

“Traveling across the South, I found a lot racism, a lot of separation,” said Henegan. “Though it was not labeled as apartheid, I found very similar towns to where I was raised in South Africa, where there was a lot of segregation. New York for me was not even part of the United States. It was a different place altogether.”

Walk along Fulton Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant and the Caribbean presence is undeniable. Residents stop by the West Indian grocery store to pick up yuca and Jamaican cooking spices. Ali’s Roti Shop sells Trinidadian street food from a walk-up window, while the Jamaican bakery on the corner turns out fresh bulla cakes daily.

Despite the neighborhood’s large Caribbean influence, the government has no accurate count for how many residents of Caribbean descent are living here. One organization is trying to change this by urging the United States Census Bureau to add a Caribbean-American ethnicity option to Census forms. The next Census survey is scheduled for April 1st, 2010.

Misleading Numbers

“I was just sick and tired of being told that Caribbean nationals, they’re not really important because of the numbers,” said Felicia Persaud, founder of the advocacy group CaribID2010.

More than 570,000 New Yorkers were born in the Caribbean – 20 percent of the city’s foreign-born population, according to Census figures. But the number excludes U.S.-born citizens of Caribbean ethnicity.

“There are no accurate figures in terms of measuring their spending power, their voting power, their contribution,” she said. “In New York City especially, there is a huge undercount in Caribbean populated areas, which is also pulling down the federal funding level that the city could get.”

Persaud, who is Guyanese, argues that without an accurate count, the country’s Caribbean population is unable to meet its full economic and political potential. Census results are used to draw congressional districts and to determine how much funding communities receive.

Funds at Stake

In the 2000 fiscal year, 85 percent of federal grants to state and local governments were distributed on the basis of Census data, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

While there are no Census counts for the number of Caribbean-Americans in New York, they represent one of the more prevalent immigrant groups. Four of the countries on New York’s list of top ten countries of birth for the state’s foreign-born population are Caribbean nations — the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti and Jamaica, government statistics show.

“The Caribbean community is very prolific in Brooklyn, in New York as a whole,” said Austin Tuitt, who runs the Global Caribbean Representation, a community organization that aims to connect Caribbean-Americans with their roots. Originally from Trinidad, Tuitt has lived in Brooklyn since the late 1960s.

“Everyone needs to be counted,” he said. “People are here.”

Bill Bid

In April, a bill was introduced in Congress by Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-Brooklyn) asking that a Caribbean origins category be added to Census forms. Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, represents several Brooklyn neighborhoods.

Still, the bill is not likely to progress quickly enough for the change to be made in time for the 2010 Census.

“Category changes for race do not happen overnight,” said Tony Farthing, New York regional director for the U.S. Census Bureau. “This has to go through all levels of government, and Capitol Hill, and not just the Census Bureau.”

He noted that other changes to Census forms — like the addition of Hispanic as an ethnicity, first used in 1990 — were achieved after years of campaigning.

“Obviously we’re aware it’s not going to happen for 2010 unless it’s a miracle,” said Persaud, who started CaribID2010 last year. “For 2010, we really want to reiterate that Caribbean nationals must fill out the form and write in their country of origin on Question Eight. It’s about whether they want to exist in this country and be counted, or remain invisible.”

Check Off Drama

Question Eight asks the race of the person filling out the form, with an option underneath for “some other race.” Ali Shah, who’s owned Trinidad Ali’s Roti Shop on Fulton Street for the past 15 years, said he checked off “black” on the last Census survey.

On a recent Wednesday afternoon, he chatted with two friends inside nearby Charlie’s Calypso City, a record store that sells reggae and steel drum music.

“I’m a West Indian just like these gentlemen here,” he said, pointing to his friends, who are also Caribbean.  ”They would put black automatically. I do the same.”

The “black” option is described by the Census Bureau as for someone who is “black or African American, a person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.” Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, this description does little to accurately describe Shah and his friends.

“I don’t know where they put me,” he said.

A Catholic church in Bushwick that serves many immigrant families is opening a new elementary school with a price that can’t be beat: the tuition is free.

The new Pope John Paul II Family Academy, to be part of St. Barbara’s parish, is being funded by a wealthy Brooklyn-born businessman who insists on remaining anonymous.

He also is insisting on some conditions: families must attend Mass every Sunday. Students have to provide baptismal certificates from a Catholic church, and parents must sign an agreement promising to keep the faith.

$2 Million Pledge

“We don’t want someone who has a baptismal certificate with fresh ink, that’s not the point,” said Soren Gutierrez, a representative for the mystery benefactor, who is putting up $2 million to open the school. “Part of this is about rejuvenating faith but it’s also about giving free education to the most deserving.”

In Bushwick, where 32 percent of residents earn less than $19,000 annually, a free parochial school is viewed as a godsend – particularly in the pews of St. Barbara’s, whose 1,200 parishioners include immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Ecuador.

“It will change the community for the better,” said the Rev. Fulgencio Gutierrez, Dominican-born pastor of St. Barbara’s.

“The whole family is going to be formed, going to be reshaped, and they are going to continue to form and reshape the children,” added the priest, who will serve as the new school’s head chaplain. “It also helps me to evangelize the parents to be more active in the church.”

Immigrant Families Welcome

Gutierrez said he distributed more than 300 applications to members of St. Barbara’s and other Bushwick parishes.  The school, slated to open in September, will accept 100 children for pre-k through third grade in the first year, with plans to eventually expand to eighth grade.

Immigrant families will have the opportunity to apply without fear of being deported, Soren Gutierrez said.

“As long as they meet the financial and faith requirements, any family is welcome to apply,” he said. “We just want to educate the children of the community regardless of their immigration status.”

The benefactor chose St. Barbara’s parish because of the need in the community, strong attendance at the church and because many Bushwick families remain intact, Gutierrez added.

Among the parents excited about the new school is Arileyna Duran, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic.

“I work in public schools,” said Duran, a mother of two. “I see what those kids are like.  I don’t want my kids turning out that way.”

Esmeralda Lopez hopes to enroll her son Joey in kindergarten at the new school this fall.  “My son is a handful, so I think it will do him good,” she said.

The mother of six boys believes the school is a chance at a better education: more individual attention, smaller classes and strong discipline.

“We’re looking for a school that really interacts and cares. I’d rather them call me 100 times a week because there’s problems than not call me at all,” said Lopez’s husband, Joseph Candelaria.

Work to be Done

The new school will be housed blocks away from the parish in a Menahan Street building owned by St. Barbara’s that’s currently home to a Head Start program. Some of the 106 children from the program, which will be displaced, are applying to the new school – but many do not meet the religious requirement.

There is a significant amount of work that needs to be done before the Pope John Paul II Family Academy can open.  The building’s basement requires renovation.  Families have yet to be interviewed and selected, and teachers haven’t been hired.

Still, the venture is seen a positive sign by many at a time when local parochial schools have faced significant decline amid shrinking parishes and rising costs.

While the benefactor is providing about $2 million to fund the Pope John Paul II Family Academy in its first year, he plans to start outside fundraising as the school grows.

“I think he is in it for the long run,” said Father Gutierrez,  “and pray that he is.”