Baltic Street Needs a Miracle (Everyday)

When we walked from Smith to Hoyt on Baltic Street a couple of weekends ago, we couldn't believe that this was 2007 near the epicenter of Brooklyn. We passed two homeless men sleeping in the school doorways, another one dumpster diving and garbage strewn across the playground. We know that projects are just a block away, but this block seems to have something going on beyond its proximity to the projects. As one commenter said in an earlier thread, it's got bad karma.

It's also got a lot of new developments springing up. Number 360 is a 5-story, 14,000-square-foot building designed by Isaac & Stern Architects; Number 377 (which we discussed here), working the community facility angle, will be seven stories and 27,000 square feet; meanwhile, Joseph Chan is charging ahead with his (which we discussed 11-story tower) that has been the subject of much concern among neighbors.

Anyone have any updates on any of these projects? Perhaps more importantly, what's it gonna take to turn this block around? There are a lot of involved residents, so what's the problem? Are the police not pulling their weight?

360 Baltic: GMAP P*Shark DOB
377 Baltic: GMAP P*Shark DOB
382 Baltic: GMAP P*Shark DOB

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Mr. B, is this a permanent change to the site?

Posted by: Anonymous at February 21, 2007 10:02 AM

Not sure. Hopefully just a temporary measure, but we can't spend all our time playing cat-and-mouse with the troll...

Posted by: brownstoner at February 21, 2007 10:11 AM

You're not imagining things, and its not just the odd, underdeveloped block. Bloomberg, who has always been an old-school liberal despite the "R" next to his name, has been quietly reversing many aspects of Giuliani's broken windows reforms. While many advocacy and rights groups are cheering this, it does look like it is having a very negative impact on the city.

A couple of buddies on the police force have told me that the situation is indeed getting much worse, but they are actively discouraged by their Commanders from doing anything about the homeless, unless a serious crime is being committed. As a consequence, the squeegee men, et al. have all been crawling back out of the woodwork. Case in point...that boutique owner on the upper east side (I mean, the UPPER EAST SIDE) who had to sue a homeless guy just to get him to stop harassing his customers in front of the store, since the police wouldn't do anything about it.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 21, 2007 10:25 AM

Anonymous 10:25, if you are correct (and I suspect you are), then somebody needs to step up and start a watchdog blog to keep very public score on QOL-crackdown backsliding. We lived right on the frontier in the 80s and saw first-hand the incredible reversal with 'zero tolerance' for QOL offenses; everyone in this very diverse nabe had good reason to be grateful for 'Giuliani time.' If Bloomberg time means a downshift in the belief that antisocial behavior must be tolerated, it's the beginning of a very bad trend. (I, too, was disturbed by the bleeding-heart outcry over the upper-East-side sidewalk wino; anyone who has cleaned up human waste from their property knows just how few repeats of that experience it takes to have you getting ready to leave NYC for good...)

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at February 21, 2007 11:07 AM

I live on the block and have not in any recent times seen anyone, homeless or not, sleeping in the school doorways or even loitering on block.
Only panhandling in front of MetFood on corner of Smith.
The school grounds are usually kept very clean and attractive (except I have noticed the basketball court of late not swept for who knows what reason).
On garbage night, will often have someone break bags looking for whatever - but see this on many blocks.
With all the construction dumpsters on block and more to come (as 2 other projects have yet to begin)- wouldn't be surprised if people rummaging thru but haven't seen it myself.
The # of new housing units under construction and planned will increase population (no more easy parking) and change character of block - hoping for better- but you paint a far grimmer picture than reality of the block.
My biggest annoyance is spillover from Smith Street restaurants and bars on weekend nights - intoxicated, obnoxious
young adults who have more money than class.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 21, 2007 11:13 AM

I walk there every week (on my way home from tutoring at the Gowanus Houses for the past three years). Never saw a problem. The construction on the block has made it dirtier (just like that at 110 Livingston has made the whole block around it dirtier) -- trash form construciton workers blowing around and lack of street cleaning, garbage pickup.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 21, 2007 11:37 AM

As a public defender in the Bronx I have seen more, not fewer, arrests for quality of life crimes such as jumping the turnstile, drinking in public, "trespassing" in one's grandmother's building, etc. Can't imagine Brooklyn is all that different. My strategy on my block is to sweep up everytime I go out, ask prostitutes to move on, just make it clear that we do notice, and make things uncomfortable for those committing petty crimes. But there actually is no crime in being homeless and hanging out on public property.

Posted by: Putnam-denizen at February 21, 2007 1:52 PM

I've lived in Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill for the past 1-20 years. I never saw homeless people on Court Street until the past few years. Even in the in the 80s. Have to say, I felt like you needed a really good reason to walk down Smith St. back then, so I don't know if it was a problem there. Car thieves seemed to be the bigger issue backt then.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 21, 2007 1:55 PM

I live in Gowanus on border of CG, but also lived up in Boerum/Cobble/Heights hood: there are about four regular panhandlers on Court and Smith, one occasionaly gets a bit wacky and sings louder than usual. Most of the garbage issues I've seen have been from overflow of public cans that are now emptied less frequently, especially on Court come Sunday, thanks to Bloomberg. I used to park regularly on the block you talk about and while it can look a little dicey, it never really struck me that way. I saw the local police handing out QL tickets on a Saturday night a couple back, so not really sure about that. Now, there is a woman feeding stray cats by my apt, that in turn get into our garbage, can we get her a ticket, or at least compel her to seduce them to her block.

Posted by: Baer at February 21, 2007 2:33 PM

In my neighborhood we have the wheelchair-bound panhandler, who I gave some money to when I first moved here, but stopped since I saw him scoring drugs from some kid. Also, the tall thin black trannie, who was highly annoying (including my favorite activity, loitering in the bank vestibule) but has disappeared as of late.

My wife and I walked down Baltic this weekend to get a look at the building that is supposed to be lotteried. It sure needs a hell of a lot of work.

MY guess for the street is, with the school, 3 construction sites, one abandoned building, and the dumpsters, there's currently a lot of dead space (esp. when school's out). That invites sketchiness.

Once the new construction is done, and the lottery house reno'd and occupied, maybe things will be different.

Posted by: Brooklynite at February 21, 2007 3:49 PM

Surprised to read that wheelchair guy is still alive. He used to hang out in DUMBO/Brooklyn Heights, guess he just moved to a different nabe.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 22, 2007 6:35 PM

I live on this block and after 3 years have decided to move on out. It is a disaster of litter and scum, and seems to have gotten worse. With the little homeless man known as "Russia" tearing holes in every trash bag on the block, it becomes a field day of empty garbage. The other homeless guy named "Louis" is friendly enough, just wants to tell drunken stories. The construction is sporadic, will anything ever get finished? Maybe when these projects are done, a cleaner attitude will take over, but with the careless school students, dog walkers who NEVER curb their pets, loud brawls from the Gowanus houses, and the tenement-style housing across from the school, Baltic Street may always be a feast of chicken bones and pizza crusts in the street, the armpit of Cobble Hill. I just feel bad for the families with kids who have to play in the park where trash roams so freely.

Posted by: Anonymous at July 22, 2007 5:50 PM

This whole posting has been so helpful as I've been looking at an apartment on the corner of Baltic and Hoyt. It's such a cool apartment which makes it so tempting...but not sure it's worth living on such a depressing block.

Posted by: guest at August 30, 2007 2:14 PM

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February 21, 2007

Baltic Street Needs a Miracle (Everyday)

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