Williamsburg Comes to Crown Heights?
The New York Sun took a look at Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights yesterday, noting that “bodegas, hair salons, and fast-food restaurants lining the section of Franklin Avenue that runs between Eastern Parkway and Atlantic Avenue, on the western boundary of Crown Heights, are slowly being replaced by organic markets, cafés, and clothing boutiques.” One…
The New York Sun took a look at Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights yesterday, noting that “bodegas, hair salons, and fast-food restaurants lining the section of Franklin Avenue that runs between Eastern Parkway and Atlantic Avenue, on the western boundary of Crown Heights, are slowly being replaced by organic markets, cafés, and clothing boutiques.” One resident likened the newfangled street to Williamsburg, noting his own store has started stocking organic produce to please the new residents, moving in for the relatively cheap rent; one broker says apartments are about $300 less a month than similar pads in nearby Prospect Heights, and that retail rents can be $1 or $2 less per square foot. Not all residents think that if the street changes it will become a Bedford Avenue; Smith Street and 5th Avenue were invoked, as well, noting the new beer garden, Franklin Park (which apparently draws residents old and new to its halls), a fancy boutique, Point de Couture, a cafe and a tattoo parlor. A 21-year veteran is redeveloping his own building into a residential complex. Question: Is it possible for a neighborhood to shift like this without becoming Park Slope or Williamsburg, to withstand an influx of residents and retail and still be very much Crown Heights? If these new establishments manage to speak to those who’ve lived there for years, maybe we’ll see an example of it. What do you guys think?
Franklin Avenue Changes as Crown Heights Shifts [NY Sun]
Houses, Crown Heights. Photo by gkjarvis.
Another wild card for this area is the fate of the Bedford-Atlantic Armory, which borders on Franklin. The City’s current plan to redirect all homeless men from all 5 boros to the B-A Armory does not bode well for the northern part of Franklin Avenue, nor for Crown Heights in general (and adjacent parts of Prospect Heights, Clinton Hill and Bed Stuy). The area Amzi Hill references above could be particularly affected. Whether you are rooting for fast, slow, or no gentrification, the city’s current plan will move the neighborhood in a bad direction.
“No need to rush to having American Apparel, Starbucks, and the like homogenized Franklin Ave.”
Amen. Bless you, lincolnlimestone!
Williamsburg it will not become. There is too many rent stabilized/controlled buildings for a complete transformation like that. As a relatively new resident, I consider this a good thing: some affordable housing remains and long time residents benefit from the improved amenities. Not that rent control is the best way to provide affordable housing, but it does some good in this respect.
As for the retail/restaurant changes. As Franklin Park and other business show, the demand is there. If done well, new businesses getting in on this inflection point are posed to do very well. However, there are many other examples of poorly conceived or badly managed businesses that are trying to capture this new demographic and failing.
Also, the slower this process happens the better. No need to rush to having American Apparel, Starbucks, and the like homogenized Franklin Ave. But savvy local entrepreneurs understand what’s going on and will continue to transform the neighborhood along with it’s new residents.
I think that you will see more interesting housing in Crown Heights especially where the garages and warehouses are near Pacific and Atlantic Ave… This area really has potential to be something special.
Considering the long history of Crown Heights, ‘stoner, you pose an open-ended question. The architecture reveals the bourgeois residents who built their “weekend” homes here. The old Union League Club house had a grand address and control enough to erect the statue at Rogers and Bedford.
In the 80’s and 90’s it became an uneasy neighborhood, with West Indians and the Hasidim clashing occasionally, and harassing one another regularly. Even today, I witness or am occasional victim of such harassment by neighbor kids who assume I am Jewish, hurling street trash and epithets at me.
Today, though, the predominant threat to the peace along Franklin Avenue is a thriving drug trade. Mostly comprised of non-residents, the traffickers here are brazen, loud and deal openly in the streets. My building housed a very lucrative marijuana merchant for the first several months I lived there. I gave detailed information to the ‘undercover’ police operating here, and it stopped, thankfully.
So, will Crown Heights remain Crown-Heightsy? I sincerely hope not. Bless the communities here, and bless the architecture left behind, but I would very much like to see a return of law and order along Franklin Avenue. The wonderful people living there deserve it. And residents-to-come will require it.
the article certainly jumps the gun, but the popularity of both franklin park and I-95 say something positive about the energy of the neighborhood. I think operation impact is not given enough credit. Williamsburg is silly as a comparison–prospect hts more possible because the access to subway lines, the park and cultural institutions on E pkwy are similar as is the good housing stock. the one thing that is not explored is whether more of the garages that dot crown hts can be converted into interesting housing. i know it has happened in places, but it is a feature that is not in other neighborhoods.
“Question: Is it possible for a neighborhood to shift like this without becoming Park Slope or Williamsburg, to withstand an influx of residents and retail and still be very much Crown Heights?”
We can only hope.
will there be scantily clad female bicyclists to the dismay of the residents?
this is stupid. a few restaurants and stores and some writer invokes Williamsburg? Come on.