Pia Raymond sits at a table in Starliner Café and Market, 1206 Nostrand Avenue in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, sipping on a takeout coffee while the café bustles around her. Looking around the place, she says it’s an example of the work that can be done in the community.
She says that the owner, Isaac Peachin, visited a workshop that the Flatbush Artrepreneur Project held for local residents wishing to start and maintain small businesses.
“When Isaac first came to the workshop, he said ‘I want to open a business, I’m not sure what that’s going to look like,’” said Raymond. “So we helped him formulate the idea, get the space, everything.”
Now that space where we were sitting sells breakfast, lunch and fresh produce from Peachin’s family farm in the Catskills. Raymond says this is just one example of the ways that the Nostrand Avenue Merchants Association, of which she is Vice President, works to promote local entrepreneurship and career building.
Raymond argues that it’s important to empower the community economically. She says that she originally got involved with the Nostrand Avenue Merchants Association after losing the lease to her family’s business of 47 years.
“I thought, ‘this can’t happen to other people,’” said Raymond. “And they don’t know that it’s coming.” She added that protecting local business could come down to something as simple as ensuring that existing businesses are aware of the nuances of city agencies like the department of health.
She says that thriving local businesses, opened and owned by residents, can stabilize the community. She argues that part of the problem of displacement comes from the fact that the incomes of residents cannot keep up with rising rents.
“The underlying thing is ‘I work, and I’m very proud that I work, and I may work two or three jobs,” said Raymond. “And it’s still not enough for me to pay my rent for my family.’”
Raymond says that housing is the most important issue facing the district. She argues that it is crucial to provide legal counsel for residents in housing court, adding that 90 percent of people who don’t have access to legal counsel are evicted or lose their homes. She adds that holding landlords accountable for abuses is also important, through fines or even jail time.
Raymond says that the housing situation has affected the most vulnerable residents in the district. For example, she references senior residents who are homeless as a direct result of being tricked into selling their homes below market value. She says that the many undocumented immigrants in the district are also at risk of displacement.
“Landlords leverage that too, because they know if they have a lot of tenants in that building who are not citizens, who don’t have resident status, they know they can take advantage,” said Raymond. “Because that person is less likely to go to housing court when they don’t have ID.”
Raymond says another significant obstacle to the community is gun violence. She says that compounded with rising rents and changes in the district, gun violence is still rampant.
“It’s interesting, in the midst of all of this gentrification, and how expensive rent is, you still may have to run down the block because someone’s shooting,” said Raymond. “It’s a complete disparity.”
She calls gun violence a health concern, and argues that though Council Member Mathieu Eugene often references his work in the area of health care, he is not present in the community enough to help it.
“You’re not addressing the preventive health care when you tout yourself as a healthcare person,” said Raymond. “And you don’t address any of it, because you’re not walking this community.”
Above all, Raymond says that education is key. She argues the only way to overcome the disempowerment she sees in many parts of the community is educating and empowering children at school.
She says that afterschool programming teaching creative, career, and vocational skills as well as digital technology, could give kids confidence and knowledge that they might take back home.
Raymond says that her own two children, a two-year-old daughter and five-year-old son, were part of the reason that she decided to run in the first place.
“I want this to be a place they can grow and thrive with the community,” said Raymond. “And I don’t think our community can afford another four years without representation that’s adequate to say the least. It literally kept me up at night.”
