StreetLevel: On the Banks of Park Slope

Park Slope’s old money (Seventh Avenue and parkwards) may be getting some competition from Park Slope’s new money (Fifth Avenue and environs), but it’s looking like the twain will soon find their respective coffers a little easier to access. Over on Fifth Avenue, signage has gone up for a Chase branch at the corner of Degraw Street. Interestingly, the branch is replacing a Countrywide Home Loans outfit—a sign that it’s better to keep those assets liquid nowadays? Meanwhile, on Seventh Avenue, there’s a rumor that part of the recently shuttered D’Agostino’s at Sixth Street will be given over to a Bank of America branch. We stopped by the old supermarket the other day and talked to one of the crew members gutting the space, and he confirmed that a bank expressed interest in leasing part of the 60,000-square-foot property (which is being combined with the Gothic Cabinet Craft that was on the corner). He also said the building’s owners are looking to place up to three users in the location. “They told me one of them is going to be an anti-terrorist task force—but maybe they were just pulling my leg,” he said. “Can you imagine, an anti-terrorist task force in this neighborhood?” It’s true, it’s hard to imagine how an organization devoted to all manner of surveillance and paranoia would ever get along with the locals.