As part of NY1's look at how some of the city's historically black neighborhoods have changed since NY1 launched 25 years ago for Black History Month, Jeanine Ramirez looks at Bedford-Stuyvesant as seen through the eyes of a resilient group that's survived through thick and thin.
They started as an ambulance service without an ambulance. Now, more than 25 years and four donated ambulances later, the mission of The Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps remains the same.
The nonprofit's founder, James "Rocky" Robinson, is still training young cadets in a trailer at the corner of Marcus Garvey Boulevard and Greene Avenue. But the emergency calls in this gentrifying neighborhood have changed.
Back in the late '80s and early '90s, the crack epidemic was at its height.
"Every other call was drug-related," Robinson said. "People were stealing shoes, they were killing each other, and my people were laying in the streets in Bedford-Stuyvesant."
Along with the rest of the city, crime has dropped to record lows. Back in 1990, there were 71 murders in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Last year, there were seven.
Now, the ambulance corps says it's dealing with a different kind of drug epidemic.
"That K2 has them walking in the streets like this," Robinson said. "And it's cheap. You can buy it over the counter."
"A lot of people on these prescription medications, so they take these prescription meds, and when they don't have access anymore, they start using heroin," siad Antoine Robinson, a member of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
The group might as well be counting the rate rents and home prices are rising in the area. Robinson is struggling the same as ever to fund his operation, to pay for uniforms and training. Three of the ambulances can't run because he can't afford the insurance.
The trailer sits on a city-owned lot that Robinson doesn't pay for. But he says he's getting pressure to move.
"The property has become very valuable," he said. "There's no reason for them not to give us this lot."
A new luxury complex is going up adjacent to the trailer, and homes in Bed-Stuy are selling for more than $1 million. But Robinson says the real value is saving lives, including those of the young people he trains who go on to work as certified EMTs.