Bloomberg to Deposit Money in Sunset Park's Amalgamated

Want to meet the mayor? Want to see a bank receive a deposit instead of a bail-out? Will you be around on Monday?

The new Amalgamated on 5th Avenue and 45th Street will receive a $10 million deposit on Monday as part of the City's Banking Development District program. Mayor Bloomberg will arrive on Monday the 29th of September to deposit the money in the hopes that Amalgamated will help Sunset Park provide full banking services to its residents.

It's true that the CitiBank in the 50's is often overrun with people at the ATM and in line for services. And while 8th Avenue has no shortage of banks, and 4th Avenue has a Commerce and Chase 12 blocks apart, 5th Avenue hasn't had a lot of bank attention. However, at least two more banks are set to open up along 5th Avenue at some point in the near future...but who knows what near future means these days where banking is concerned.

Could be a good photo opportunity for the mayor. Check it out.

Did You Try to Crack the Safe?

And did you succeed? The new Amalgamated on the corner of 45th and 5th held its traditional "Crack the Bank Vault" on Saturday. Here's the information about it from The Daily News...had I known about it earlier I would have advertised it, but I'm a bit slower on the uptake lately.

Sunset's New Amalgamated Received $10 Million

We have several banks popping up on 5th Avenue, and 8th has been inundated for a while. To me, it is better to have a bank than an empty storefront, but ideally I'd like to see more productive "neighborhood" type of establishments. Either way, it's great that the empty corner on 5th and 45th is no longer desolate.

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. and Finance Commissioner Martha Stark this week announced that the city’s Banking Development District (BDD) program has reached $200 million in deposits to support bank branches in underserved neighborhoods, including those in Brooklyn. In fact, Thompson and Stark made the announcement after Amalgamated Bank received a $10 million deposit through the BDD program following the opening of its branch in Sunset Park.

Read the rest of the article here.

Amalgamated Opted Out of Fencing

Apparently, the fencing was nixed after yesterday's major Ooops. It's been totally removed and cleaned up. It looks a lot more pleasant now anyway. There is still a lot of work to be done; the doors still even have the old Pollo Campero stickers on them. This will only be the second location for Amalgamated in Brooklyn. The other Brooklyn location is on Fulton Street. The Sunset Park location (5th Avenue and 45th Street) is slated to open in mid-August, September at the latest.

Fencing Outside New Amalgamated Tumbles

Around 1 PM on Sunday, the plywood and metal fencing surrounding the construction of the new Amalgamated Bank on 5th Avenue and 45th Street fell to the sidewalk. No one was willing to say if any pedestrians or workers had been hurt; everyone was very grumpy and sullen. For good reason, I'd say.

At about 1:45 PM there was an ambulance leaving the scene, but it wasn't in a hurry. This is a seriously heavy fence, so I hope no one was nearby when it tumbled. At about 4 PM (when the photo was taken), the workers were still putting the fencing up again. Hopefully it will be secured more carefully this time.

I saw News12 Brooklyn nearby, but I can't seem to access their webpage. If anyone knows more, please share!

*minor update: News12 Brooklyn (only on cable!) reported that minor injuries were sustained, but they didn't say if pedestrians, workers, or vandals sustained them. I'm just glad no one was crushed.