June, 2007

Dear Fellow Resident,

While every business on the block on Greenwich Avenue between West 12th and West 13th has signed a letter supporting our campaign to have the block co-named “Little Britain”, and, five thousand people have signed the petition in support, we understand that there is some resistance in the community to the idea, which we would like to address in this letter to you.

We make no bones about it, we conceived this idea to generate as much publicity as we could! Like many small, local, businesses in the neighborhood - that contribute to the West Village’s personality and diversity - we are under threat from landlords demanding huge hikes in rent, and consequently, the homogeneous, global, brands that can afford to pay them.

To survive, we have to compete with big business and stand up for ourselves. Creating a novel reason for people to come to the West Village, as it is today, will only benefit all the existing small businesses in the neighborhood, while preserving Greenwich Avenue from turning into a carbon copy of Bleecker Street.

Moving on from the business reasons, some people in the community feel the Brits have no real cultural history in the neighborhood, while perversely, other local people think there is enough already, so, arguably, the latter group answers the former! But, seriously, the history of neighborhoods and street naming in New York is a rich and varied blend of culture and commerce. There is no right or wrong way to go about it, we created a tongue-in-cheek political campaign because we believed it would get noticed and talked about by more people than the now all too familiar small business versus big business story.

What’s really important here is the end result.

To paraphrase the expert on American cities, Jane Jacobs, the ingredients for a successful neighborhood are, lively and interesting street life, a diversity of uses, and the importance areas with a functional and recognizable identity.

The Campaign For Little Britain is all about this, and, in purely practical terms, simply means adding two words to one sign-post.

We were fortunate that the underdogs champion, Richard Branson, joined us to make the campaign happen, we hope we can count on your support in the coming weeks.

Best wishes

Nicky Perry and Sean Kavanagh-Dowsett , co-founders C.F.L.B.