Future of Fulton Mall Crystalizes Race Issues
NY Observer writer Matthew Schuerman, who also contributes much of The Real Estate, had a piece in the paper last week that spoke with unusual frankness about the issue of race in the borough’s process of gentrification and commercial revitalization. The future of the Fulton Mall, he points out, is forcing these issues out on…
NY Observer writer Matthew Schuerman, who also contributes much of The Real Estate, had a piece in the paper last week that spoke with unusual frankness about the issue of race in the borough’s process of gentrification and commercial revitalization. The future of the Fulton Mall, he points out, is forcing these issues out on the table. There is a lot of pressure from business leaders and residents of neighboring Brownstone Brooklyn to “improve” the mall–despite the fact that it commands some of the highest retail rents in the city and draws heavy foot traffic in its current state. At the same time, however, side streets are deserted and the upper floors of many of the historic buildings are underutilized as well. Community planners and landlords are confronting the reality that it’s going to be hard to attract cute cafes to those side streets and young professionals to buy lofts in an area whose anchor tenants include a “forlorn Macy’s, a Conway, three Payless Shoe Sources, two Foot Lockers and a Kids Foot Locker.” And forget about Class A office tenants: “It’s hard to lure Fortune 500 companies to downtown Brooklyn with people selling penis-engraved tooth caps next door,” writes Schuerman. Indeed. What to do?
Fulton Mall Fights for Existence [NY Observer]
Upscale Lofts in Mall’s Future [Brownstoner]
Wow! Gee- we’re not biased in our prejudices, all you anonymouses. Equal opportunity hating for all. Sad you have to use a really interesting forum about Brooklyn to vent and spew. Says a lot more about you than it does for the people you are insulting.And you’re cowards to boot- use a name why don’t you?
awjf you are so ignorant.
Read the Power Broker. Robert Moses for all his grand projects also destroyed viable neighborhoods.
5:45’s cooments didn’t have any anti-jewish remarks.
awjf-
The reference to Moses is a reference to Robert Moses, the master planner of post WW-II New York, not the Receiver of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. Relax people!
Although the image of Moses leading the fleeing Tribes of Israel through the Fulton Street Mall makes for a compelling mental image.
to awjf 6:07 I was refering to Robert Moses.
CrowhHeightsProud, unfortunately anyone can post useless and offensive comments. Ignore it or call him/her out on it for what it is.
Excuse me anon at 5:45- what was that comment about Moses and his kind? That comment certainly undercuts your call for multiculturalism. Well- I’ll just put it down to your obvious ignorance about Jews, history, civil rights and economics. By the way architectural is spelled with an “i”. Perhaps you should have finished the grade school you attended in Nazi Germany. By the way, you can get white sheets very inexpensively in Conway’s and the thread to finish off the edges of the eyeholes in the hood at one of the fabric stores on Bridge St. Thought you’d like to know.
anonomous 05:44 PM keep on hating
Thank you BrownBomber for expanding on my original point.
It seems to me that the Fulton Mall is what it is today not because the free market was allowed to work,but rather it is a result of past “urban planning”that was perpetrated on many American cities by men who were not lovers of cities and were racists to boot.Our beautiful cities were turned into dumping grounds for those who were to be excluded from the suburbs.
I was not raised in Brooklyn,I chose to live here so I’m not one of those who yearn for the days of “dem bums”,but I must say I feel a twinge of sadness whenever I see old photos of downtown with the movie palaces lining Flatbush ave. and the crowds of all races proudly streaming through the heart of thier WORLD CLASS city.THIS was the downtown that sprang from unfettered market forces.This is what was taken away by Moses and his kind.
We are now at a time and place when Brooklyn will be developed and changed for better or worse.What is sure is that Brooklynites will be living with these changes for decades to come.Lets hope that archectural preservation,and archectural standards for new buildings and respect and understanding of Brooklyns multiculturalism will all be part of a real URBAN plan.
5:13,
Why bother moving it to Far Rock?
In a few years, all the yuppies are going to need some beach front homes…. leading to the “discovery” of Far Rock, the removal of the “bad element” and with it, they’ll be forced to move the mall again.