Big Bucks for Jazzing Up 'Outdated' Fulton Mall
As part of a $40 million investment in the Downtown Brooklyn streetscape, the city’s Economic Development Corp. will pony up $15 million to spruce up the Fulton Street Mall. “You’ll have a great new open space a la Herald Square at 34th Street in Manhattan, and an overhaul of the Fulton Mall’s physical environment,” said…
As part of a $40 million investment in the Downtown Brooklyn streetscape, the city’s Economic Development Corp. will pony up $15 million to spruce up the Fulton Street Mall. “You’ll have a great new open space a la Herald Square at 34th Street in Manhattan, and an overhaul of the Fulton Mall’s physical environment,” said Joseph Chan, president of the city’s Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. The effort will include new bus shelters, benches and street furniture as well as the addition of new lights and trees. Another $3 million to $4 million will be out towards creating a 10,000-square-foot green space at the former Albee Square mall that could double as a place for public performances. Work is expected to begin a year from now. Even sooner, the greening of Downtown Brooklyn will also extend to two “gateway to Brooklyn” planting projects on Flatbush Avenue and Boerum Place.
$15 Mil for ‘Herald Square in Bklyn’ [NY Post]
Asian households are the richest and most educated (according to the census figures), perhaps Fulton should be targeting them.
yep, rich gentrifiers = most frequented nyc bus system users.
As we all know, new bus stops inevitably will open the floodgates to all those rich gentrifiers, who will round up and drive out the current tenants. Believe me, little geese.
3:33 Fulton Mall is primarily privately owned real estate, the current tenants presumably have leases (which may or may not expire in the immediate future) and these merchants currently pay some of the highest retail rents anywhere in Brooklyn. As long as the merchants are willing to keep paying market rate rents they arent going anywhere and FYI $15 million is a pittance in terms of the size of Fulton Mall not to mention relative to the value of the properties and leasholders buisnesses.
Believe me duckies,
the proposed improvements are meant to drive out the current merchants. Not “really” of course, but really.
That rendering is useless. Apparently the proposal is limited to a new bench with some white people.
Why are people concluding that improving the streetscape is somehow linked to attempts to drive out the current merchants? If you look at the slide show put together by the Fulton Mall Improvement Association (on their website) it does not give that impression at all. I think some people here are just looking for things to criticize (as usual).
The rendering frankly doesn’t look very different than what it currently looks like, at least to my eyes.
3:01 – There is something inherently racist about assuming that only White people can appreciate higher end stores and restaurants then what is currently available on Fulton Mall.
Just like it is inherently racist that many of the posters here apparently think that non-whites can’t appreciate more trees, better lighting, better street furniture or attractive/historical retail architecture. In fact so violently do posters here seem to hold that beleif that they think by simply offering such to non-whites will cause us minorities to stop shopping at Fulton Mall.