🌟 Author’s Note
Happy June 1st and welcome to the 29 new subscribers of the Better Block Project, bringing our group to 161 individuals 🚀 looking to make positive change in Brooklyn. Over the last month, we made a major update to BetterBlockGPT and the community made a ton of progress on improving the Franklin and Fulton bus stop. The TLDR:
BetterBlockGPT now has access to NYC’s Public School Quality data, so you can research public and charter schools directly in the app
You can ask questions like, “What’s the best elementary school for my address” and get a ranked list of schools in your district based on English Scores, Math Scores and Attendance. Ask right here.
The petition from the Brevoort, Lefferts Place block associations and community have been submitted to the MTA to remove the shelters at Franklin and Fulton bus stop
With Chris from Brevoort and Andre from the Lefferts Place block associations, we met with DOT to urge them to add a new bus shelter as soon as possible to replace the existing damaged structures
Finally, tonight is CB3’s Community Board Meeting at 1368 Fulton Street. I won’t be there, but show up if you want to make your voice heard for Community Board 3. For the full update dive in below ⬇
🧑🎓 Discover the Best Elementary Schools in BetterBlockGPT
BetterBlockGPT was built to make learning about your neighborhood and getting active in your community in NYC easy. For many in our neighborhood, one of the biggest decisions you have to make is where to send your kid to school. Like many of you, I just went through the Pre-k application process with my daughter, and it’s a daunting task to know which is the best school. Well, now BetterBlockGPT can help.
NYC Open Data gives access to New York’s school quality reports. The school quality reports include data about every public and charter school in New York city. It captures key data like student achievement and learning environment in schools, such as:
Attendance rates
Scores on English, Language Arts (ELA) and Math exams
Graduation rates (for High Schools)
Postsecondary placement rates (for High Schools)
With this information, parents can make more informed decisions about where to send their kids to school. We incorporated this data into BetterBlockGPT, and created a simple ranking of top schools based on what address you enter or what geographic region you search for.
For elementary schools, we include ELA scores, Math scores and attendance rate in our data, and rank based on average ELA and Math score. For high schools, we include Post-secondary (college) enrollment, Earth Science and Geometry scores, and rank based on the average of all three.
You can ask questions like:
What is the best elementary school for [enter address]?
What is the best elementary school in Bed Stuy?
Can you tell me the scores for Jesse Owens Elementary school?
What’s the best elementary school in New York City?
Note, all of the public school data is in the app, so you can also ask about high schools or middle schools.
Note, the data isn’t perfect. School test data can often be influenced by the population of the students, and not actually represent the quality of the teachers or learning environment. However, I hope this data provides some additional guidance in this important decision for parents and neighbors, and would love any feedback on how we can improve it.
🚌 The Petition to Take Down the Shelters at the Franklin and Fulton Bus Stop has been submitted
It has been a busy month of community activism to improve the Franklin and Fulton Bus Stop. Led by Chris Roan from the Brevoorts Place Block Association and Andre from the Lefferts Place Block Association, the petition to remove the shelters at the Franklin and Fulton bus stop has been submitted to the MTA 📋 💪. Thanks to many of you at the Better Block Project who decided to sign.
In addition to this, Chris, Andre and I met with DOT to learn about next steps with getting a new, permanent shelter at the stop. Along with Chi Osse (our City Councilmember), we pushed DOT on when they could commit to adding a new shelter to the area, to minimize the time when there would be no overhang. We learned there that DOT owns the benches at the bus stop, while MTA is responsible for the shelters (we’ve been told different things by different officials). As a result, only the shelters will be removed.
DOT would not commit to a date when a new shelter would be added, but is now planning to circle back with a plan on next steps. This is unfortunate, despite the many months (and years) so many residents have been advocating to improve the situation, but they are feeling the pressure and have promised to act, so we’re optimistic.
In other good news, after lots of pushing and prodding, the NYPD light 🔦 has finally been moved to the correct location in front of the Franklin and Fulton bus stop. With this new lighting, it should improve safety in the area and reduce the risk something dangerous happens there.
There’s still lots more work to do to get the Franklin and Fulton intersection in good shape, but there were two meaningful steps forward this month, and so much credit goes to Chris and Andre for their continued advocacy.
That’s all for this month’s update. As always, if you know someone looking to make an impact in the neighborhood, forward them Better Block. We’d love to have them a part of the group.
See you next month,
David
