Here’s What Happened on Brownstoner Last Week: Watermelons, Roses, Bubbles, and More

Properties in Development

Brownstoner readers had mostly positive things to say about the renderings (pictured above) of the huge commercial and residential project slated for development on Fulton Street in Bed Stuy. The building, designed by the prolific Karl Fischer, will replace the Key Foods on the block with a brand-new supermarket. The current plan is for 11 floors with 189 units in total.

Readers were less enthusiastic about the seven mega-developments featured in our roundup of projects changing the face of Brooklyn. Are the buildings ugly? Do high-rises change the character of a neighborhood? Will the increased housing supply ever translate to more affordable housing for the average Brooklynite?

We put on our hard hats for a photo tour of William Vale, the new destination hotel coming to Williamsburg, and provided updates on the construction of Boerum Hill’s hotel and condo development on State Street. Listings have gone up online for apartments at Atlantic Yards Condos in Prospect Heights.

Openings and Closings

If all goes according to schedule, Mekelburg’s, a Clinton Hill grocery with dining and a craft beer bar, should be opening on Sunday. It might not be on the scale of Eataly in Manhattan, but it will be unlike anything else in the area.

What Are You Doing Inside?

The roses are in bloom at the Queens Botanical Garden!

Politics

Does the Department of Buildings need reforming? Our readers all agree it does. And none agree how to go about it. In the comments and on the forum, homeowners share their DOB horror stories.

Brooklyn History

Montrose Morris treated us to the story of the 1952 Gowanus Houses Baby Buggy Brigade, the history of some Renaissance-revival row houses in Crown Heights, and part two of her story of 139 Bainbridge Street and the ugly, front-page divorce of two of its wealthy occupants.

If you’re a sucker for Brooklyn history, be sure not to miss the free Wallabout Walking Tours that will be held in Fort Green throughout the summer. “Wallabout?” we hear some of you say. “What’s that all about?” Depending on who you ask, Wallabout is the neighborhood between Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and the Navy Yard, and gets its name from nearby Wallabout bay. (You can read more on the subject in this Brooklyn Paper article.)

OMG

Anti-gentrification fliers appeared on windshields across Stuyvesant Heights, making use of loaded imagery such as watermelons and fried chicken. “We’re not sure,” says the article, “but we think [the author of the fliers] might have been the same activist who was ejected from a Bed Stuy panel on gentrification last year for disrupting it.” Not a subtle or nuanced argument for sure, but does the author have a point? Our commenters have lots of opinions, naturally.

Meanwhile, the pictures from this inside look at a farmhouse-inspired Fort Greene renovation? Breathtaking.

photo by Valentina Powers via Flickr

Controversy

Is there a Brooklyn real estate bubble? Is it possible, as a lengthy article in Gothamist argues, that it will never pop? (Then how can you call it a bubble?)

Cate of Brownstoner dipped her toe into prognostication: “We’re not necessarily predicting a crash — we don’t know — but we won’t be surprised if the market cools when interest rates go up. The Fed has been talking about this for years but now may actually do it, as Fed chair Janet Yellen recently warned.”

What do you think? Join in the conversation if you dare.