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September 29, 2009

925 Fulton In Turnaround

925-Fulton-Street-0909.jpg
After unsuccessfully trying to sell 925 Fulton Street for, at one point at least, $1,500,000, the owner has given up and started to rehab the beautiful shell of a building. At the end of August, DOB granted permits for a complete gut renovation, including the construction of new stairs. This is great news for Fulton Street. This stretch of buildings on the corner of Waverly has long been a blight and a barrier to reviving the commercial strip. Now if only something could be done about the methadone clinic across the street.
Shell of Its Former Self, 925 Fulton Street For Sale [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark DOB




Posted by Brownstoner at 10:58 AM | Comments (27)
Categories: Clinton Hill, Development, Quality of Life

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Comments

Wha?, trendies don't need methadone? I thought we were trying to attract Artists...

Posted by: Joe from Brooklyn at September 29, 2009 11:06 AM

yeah, screw people trying to kick their addiction. i want my property value to increase!

Posted by: randolph at September 29, 2009 11:11 AM

Methadone clinics need to be somewhere. If there were more active retail and restaurants on this stretch the clients of the clinic would not be so noteworthy and blend more into the streetscape than they do now. I guess that's the Catch 22 of the situation. Really they have caused me no trouble in my time in the neighborhood but I am sure that they do not exactly function as a welcome mat to prospective commercial tenants. A tough situation for sure.

Posted by: wasder at September 29, 2009 11:12 AM

Perhaps Mr. Brownstoner was only suggesting that the Methadone Clinic needs to be spruced up like the building with the Stevie Wonder quote graffiti on it that is the headline of this article. Put a plant in a pot and put it on the sidewalk and make the yuppies happy.

They're also fixing up the "Future Home of Salvation Baptist Church" building next to the post office. Methinks it has something to do with a Bloomberg policy where blighted buildings need to be functional or sold.

The meth clinic is annoying to me because I've witnessed their clientele littering the streets with butts, getting in fights, partaking in drug deals, and otherwise loitering. The clinic would improve its standing in the neighborhood if they kept closer tabs on what its users do after they get their fix.

Posted by: Lothar of the Clinton Hill People at September 29, 2009 11:46 AM

It would be good if they start to fix the building by the post office, it's actually starting to crumble, with bricks falling off etc. I was going to call 311...

Posted by: 1842 at September 29, 2009 12:07 PM

Lothar--no doubt that the methadone clients are loud and litter alot. I have not personally witnessed them engaging in drug deals but I guess that's not a surprise.

Posted by: wasder at September 29, 2009 12:12 PM

I guess this hood won't be perfect until it's 100% lilly white, don't think for a minute that your surburban shite doesn't stink. If you don't like the behavior of the meth clinic's clientel how about speaking to them I do.

Posted by: momo284 at September 29, 2009 12:15 PM

I'll miss that ESPO piece. It's at least 6 years old, maybe much older.

Posted by: zinka at September 29, 2009 12:17 PM

I talk to meth clinic users all the time, thanks momo.

I have talked to a drooling old black woman about kids, grandkids, life, and happiness and found her to be wise and sweet. I have picked up a pack of cigarettes discarded on the street by a white man who came out of the clinic and told him how I felt about treating the neighborhood with respect.

You can play the race card if you want, but the methadone clinic situation is much more complex than that.

Posted by: Lothar of the Clinton Hill People at September 29, 2009 12:30 PM

"but the methadone clinic situation is much more complex than that"

True that. Its a rainbow coalition of junkies there.

Posted by: wasder at September 29, 2009 12:31 PM

My kid and I walk by them almost every day and they don't bother us. I am more bothered by the homeschooling freaks in the neighborhood who feel compelled to make excuses about why they do so in Salon.com.

Posted by: Heather at September 29, 2009 12:36 PM

What a predictable bunch of knee-jerk responses. It's well documented that this area has WAY more than its fair share of methadone clinics and that this particular one is one of the major reasons that retail on this stretch of Fulton Street has had such a difficult time. If the folks visiting and running the methadone clinic were better neighbors we might feel inclined to cut them some more slack, but that ain't the case.

Posted by: brownstoner at September 29, 2009 12:39 PM

What exactly are they doing besides standing around talking and smoking cigarettes, Mr. B? Because that's all I ever see them doing. And I'm okay with that.

Posted by: Heather at September 29, 2009 12:44 PM

They buy drugs, Heather. I've seen it several times on the corner of St James and Fulton. That's the crux of my beef. It keeps the dealers around too.

Posted by: Lothar of the Clinton Hill People at September 29, 2009 12:51 PM

Littering, loitering and upon occasion acting irrational and menacing, none of which is good for business. This stretch of Fulton needs all the help it can get.

Posted by: brownstoner at September 29, 2009 12:53 PM

Here's an older post about Hakeem Jeffries and Tish James calling the clinics to task: http://bk.ly/GN

Posted by: brownstoner at September 29, 2009 12:56 PM

That is what I was trying to hit on in my initial response. They clearly are not good for attracting business. And yet I personally have not had an encounter that has made me feel threatened. I certainly am in favor of any initiative that can help Fulton Street improve and rebuild. And yet I wonder where else the clinic and how that neighborhood will feel. In a more established commercial strip the clinic patients would be more discreetly absorbed into the streetscape and yet those neighborhoods are better organized against such clinics.

Posted by: wasder at September 29, 2009 12:57 PM

Help that is coming when those burned out hulks of stores are renovated. I agree, it's not the most savory stretch of Fulton. Head a few more blocks in either direction and Fulton gets nicer. But I'd blame that more on the fact that those buildings are burned-out hulks and that there are drug dealers, not the people getting methadone. I'd blame people actually using illegal drugs -- and yes, pot does count, by the way. Please remember that, even if your guy delivers.

Sorry, like I said, I get that it's not the most savory corner. I can see that. But you chose to live near it. And it is improving. Generally, I think you do a fair job of being pretty even-keeled, Mr. B. But save your ire for the dealers, not the people trying not to use the dealers. Shouldn't they get some respect for trying to turn their lives around?

Posted by: Heather at September 29, 2009 1:02 PM

Well Brownstoner, knee-jerk? I'm sorry but if you had said that there are more meth clinics there than most other places, that are "poorly" run, you probably wouldn't have gotten the blowback. Well documented or not, not everyone knows that. Good save though.

Posted by: Crownlfc at September 29, 2009 1:17 PM

1842, Please CALL 311, it's the only way to prevent someone from actually getting hurt. And it forces DOB on site to ensure the building is safe.

Posted by: brokestone at September 29, 2009 1:25 PM

I'm sure that there are some meth clinic clients that are trying to turn their lives around, but enough that aren't. The nice folks at Green Planet had to remove their bench (meant for their customers) out front because of non-customers taking it over. Sorry, but it looked like the meth crowd to me. They've recently put it back and will hopefully have better luck.

The bargain store guy next to Green Planet has similar complaints. So it's not just neighbors but merchants that are less than thrilled with the clinic clients. I'm hoping the BID will do some good.

Posted by: tinarina at September 29, 2009 1:44 PM

I spoke with the "Country Inn Diner" people and they told me that some of the addicts come in once in a while.

They caught an addict stealing tips from the table.

BTW, can anyone point to any statistics on the success of addicts after Methadone treatment? Does it actually work?

Posted by: InvestorLlew at September 29, 2009 1:50 PM

Far more than being destroyed by methadone clinics, neighborhoods are destroyed by multiple abandoned (and/or now, foreclosed) properties and lack of services, failure to maintain or provide housing, services and good schools, and populations struggling with unemployment or underemployment. A methadone clinic existed in Park Slope for nearly 30 years at 5th St. and 8th Ave., until it was replaced by Gilda's Club in approx. 2003. Whatever issues/problems may have needed addressing, neighborhood gentrification clearly was not thwarted by the existence of that clinic, or by housing homeless in its armory. Park Slope was kept vital throughout by its diverse and working class population (only in the last decade or so brought close to extinction by the very gentrification that "improved" the neighborhood). Gentrification in Park Slope has also not been thwarted by more than one abandoned building near other "prime" locations, such as 7th Ave. & 2nd St. A singular measure of neighborhood vitality does not exist. It's very good news that the building in question is being rehabilitated, but the matter is hardly as simple as the math of clinics and abandoned properties.

Posted by: vinca at September 29, 2009 1:52 PM

I do agree that Park Slope still improved although there was a Methadone clinic on 8th Ave and 5th Street.

However, I would say that it improved INSPITE of the Methadone clinic.

When you have a wonderful amenity like Prospect Park and all the benefits you get from it, even a Methadone clinic could not stop the improvement of the neighborhood.

I would suggest, however, we have another example where a Methadone clinic had an opposite effect or where there are not enough neighborhood amenities to counteract the effects of such a clinic.

Posted by: InvestorLlew at September 29, 2009 2:05 PM

BTW, I am thinking that the Methadone clinic on Waverly should be moved to Park Slope. They have the amenities to continue to be desirable and withstand the negative stigma of the clinic.

Unfortunately for Waverly and Fulton, that's not the case. Not enough neighborhood amenities.

Posted by: InvestorLlew at September 29, 2009 2:13 PM

is the quadriplegic who's always on washington between atlantic and fulton a meth clinic client? he's always there and sleeping on the doorway of the church every day and he doesn't cause much trouble other than begging for money in the middle of traffic.

altho once i did see him exchanging something surreptitiously with another woman...

if you take the clinton/washingotn subway stop in the mornings, you can definitely hear the meth clinic clientele arguing/speaking loudly..hardly a quality of life issue, i guesss..

Posted by: ltjbukem73 at September 29, 2009 3:49 PM

no that piece is older than 6 years zinka.ESPO is a legend when i comes to NYC graff.i even seen his stuff as far away as philly

Posted by: buckfast at September 29, 2009 5:07 PM

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