On Flatbush, a $3 Billion Pipeline of Projects
There is more than $3.1 billion of construction projects in the pipeline for the one mile stretch of Flatbush Avenue between the Manhattan Bridge and the Williamsburgh Bank building, calculates The New York Post this morning. Here’s how it breaks down: In addition, there’s another $1 billion in projects off the northern end of Flatbush…
There is more than $3.1 billion of construction projects in the pipeline for the one mile stretch of Flatbush Avenue between the Manhattan Bridge and the Williamsburgh Bank building, calculates The New York Post this morning. Here’s how it breaks down: 
In addition, there’s another $1 billion in projects off the northern end of Flatbush and, of course, a $4 billion project some of you may have heard of called Atlantic Yards. “Flatbush Avenue is the borough’s quintessential boulevard and the gateway into Brooklyn,” said Joseph Chan, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. “It is to Brooklyn what Broadway is to Manhattan, and it is poised for some dramatic change.”
Boom on Flatbush [NY Post] GMAP
5:21 – I don’t want to live downtown, I could care less about living downtown, and for your information, I’ve lived in Brooklyn for a very long time, and probably know more about this borough than you ever will. My comments concern the Brooklyn that is now being built, something I have just as much of a right to be concerned about as anyone else who lives here and pays taxes.
I am well aware of middle class neighborhoods, funny how half of the ones you mentioned went from ghetto/slums in everyone else’s opinions on the board to middle class neighborhoods in one fell swoop when someone wants to excuse what’s happening to Bkln. All of a sudden neighborhoods that are never spoken of in the same breath are now hand holding brothers and sisters of equality. Brownsville and East New York, where most of you would be nervous driving through with an armed motorcade, is now in the same middle class boat as Kensington and Bay Ridge. Interesting.
If you can write anything so “stupid and ridiculous”, I reserve the right to my own opinions, as well. And who are “you people”? The only people I see here who have a blind sense of entitlement are those who think that the size of your wallets entitle you to run roughshod over the rest of us. Not without a fight, you won’t.
Agreed anon 4:48 and 5:21.
Absolutely 100% agreed.
4:48, if you’d lower your blood pressure enough so that you could actually read and comprehend what I wrote, I never said anyone was displaced. I’ve probably lived here longer than you have, and know full well what has been in this corridor for generations.
Secondly, downtown is not brownstone Bklyn, this is not a discussion of brownstone Brooklyn, and no one said anything about the rest of Brooklyn, least of all me. Let’s get the exaggeration and hyperbole, like affordable housing on 5th Ave, out of the discussion, shall we? Your crowd of money buys everything, end of discussion debaters always create some kind of absurd situation like that and use it to poorly defend your position.
18 new projects – 18! 3784 luxury and market rate units, only 638 affordable units. That is abyssmal, no other word for it. It’s crap that they can’t afford to develop more affordable units in these projects. Oh, poor, poor developers! They don’t want to, that’s all. If you are building a tall residential tower, how much more money is it to build a few more affordable units in the same building? If anything, it should cost less. Basic construction should be the same, the only difference would be finishings.
Thirdly, half of Brooklyn may be what you want to call affordable, but whether people want to live there is certainly the other topic de jour on this site. If it’s so ok to live in the hinterlands, why don’t all of you “get the f out people” go there and homestead? No? The lack of middle class housing is not imaginary. It may be impossible for you to comprehend not buying a million dollar plus home or apartment, but it’s an impossible dream for 90% of the population. You are vastly outnumbered.
Since we are talking about new construction here, why not have some sound city planning that plans for mixed incomes in a percentage that’s not a token nod to the law or allows for just enough to allow the developer to qualify for some tax break that he really didn’t earn. Let them help build a city for all of Brooklyn, not just the rich. That was my point last week, where we certainly did NOT get our butts kicked, and remains my point now.
Can’t stand the thought of a diverse and vibrant Brooklyn? Get the @%#!K out!
Ah, Anon 4:48, once again you’ve shown your true colors…and I doubt your personal spectrum includes anything other than white. I’m surprised you could tell left from right without a compass, my man.
Sterling Silver, where is the working class/middle class going to live?
Ever heard of Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, PLG, Kensington, Windsor Terrace, Midwood, Marine Park, Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, Bath Beach, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurts, Fort Hamilton, Williamsburg, Bushwick, Gravesend, Sheepshead Bay, Flatlands, Bergen Beach, Brownsville, East New York, Canarsie and Greenpoint? Are you kidding me?!?
You are so pathetic! Asking “where will the middle/working class live in Brooklyn” is perhaps the dumbest question ever posted on this board! The middle/working class are living very well all over Brooklyn and have been doing so for decades! Did you just discover our fine borough? If not, where do you get off asking such stupid and ridiculous questions?
I come from a solid blue collar – middle class background in Flatbush and no one I know ever felt deprived because we didn’t live right downtown! In fact, we preferred to live in the quieter residential neighborhoods further from the city.
This insane and insatiable need to be in “the mix” downtown is a recent phenomenon. I find this blind sense of entitlement unconscionable? Why the heck do you people think that they should be able to purchase a two bedroom apartment in a new $300M+ residential condo tower for just $200k where the same apartment elsewhere in the building cost $1M? Are you fucking kidding me?!?! Some of you people obviously do not work for a living or understand the value of a dollar earned.
Give me a break with the “lack of affordable housing for the middle class” crap already! 75% of Brooklyn is easily affordable for the middle class! WTF?!? First, if you can’t afford to live in brownstone Brooklyn then move someplace! No one has an inalienable right to live where they can’t afford to! There’s a lack of affordable housing for the middle class on Fifth Avenue but I’m not burning down City Hall in protest either!
Second, none of these developments are displacing middle class residents. For the most part, you’re talking about empty lots and former low rise commercial properties that have outlived their useful purpose. Please stop the BS because no one is kicking out the middle class from downtown Brooklyn (for the most part they were never there, thus why the place is a shit hole). Now if the issue is why aren’t developers building housing for the middle class in downtown then that’s another question. Answer, don’t blame them. Blame the escalating cost of properties and construction in the city. It’s not economically feasible to build low to middle income residential developments on these highly expensive to acquire sites. Third, if you truly want to rehash a thread on the imaginary “lack of the affordable housing in NYC for the middle class” issue, please see last week’s thread (and witness another butt kicking of the LEFT from the RIGHT) on Albee Square Mall. Can’t afford NYC? Get the @%#!K out!
Preservationista, didn’t you know that infrastructure issues are always the problem of the next mayor? The object is to change the face of Brooklyn, not what’s behind or underneath it. As Mayor Mike and the developers seem hell bent on giving the suburbs a run for their money in competing for the high-income earners and the tax revenues they generate, I really worry more for the people that seem to be buying a pig in a poke. Luxury housing with ghetto facilities just doesn’t make sense to me.
Given the abysmal amount of middle income and affordable housing in all of this development, they should leave the projects right where they are and change them from rentals to lost cost condos or co-ops, with current residents having the right of first refusal. People should be allowed to return, with the exceptions of known troublemakers. Most people there just want decent places to live that they can afford to live in in peace and safety. Just like the rest of us. They’ve been there for the worst, they should share in any improvement for the best.
Neighborgood, I’m sure the city has put absolutely no, as in zero, planning into infrastructure, traffic, public transportation, or schools for this corridor. Cynical? With the ever rising population in Wmsburg – where are the extra trains? Traffic and transportation planning for AY? Not. I don’t know why people who are paid to think of these things seem to think we’ll all just squeeze in and deal.