Jeremy Smerd, editor of Crain’s, writes:In the four-plus years I’ve lived in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Noel Brown has gone from fearing gentrification to embracing it. That’s because his business is booming. Not only have his old customers not left, but he has also gained new ones. Like me.I used to pass Brown’s Bake Double Shop daily on my way to the Nostrand Avenue A station. Invariably a line would snake out of the 300-square-foot spot onto the sidewalk as customers waited to pay a couple of bucks for doubles—Trinidadian street food that consists of two fried flatbreads filled with curried chickpeas.I have since moved to another part of the neighborhood. Soon Brown will be moving too. In the coming weeks he’ll open a 3,000-square-foot restaurant on Fulton Street that will serve lunch and dinner—in addition to his signature doubles. His staff of eight will grow considerably. “I was skeptical,” said Brown, whose small shop has been open for 17 years. “The original people were moving out, and new people were moving in. But my business exceeds the limit I was thinking about by 15%.”The story of Bed-Stuy is Brown’s writ large. Since he opened his shop, the number of businesses in the neighborhood has grown by 73%, to 1,910, as violent crime fell by 44%, according to a report published last week by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Employment is at a record high, having increased by 45%, to around 17,000 jobs since the end of the Great Recession.
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