A new diner for Brooklyn Heights, affordable housing in Vinegar Hill, Boerum Hill subway gun violence, Brooklyn Friends buys additional building and who moves to Downtown Brooklyn.
Downtown Brooklyn
Who moves to Downtown Brooklyn? Downtown Brooklyn’s rise as a luxury-living destination happened almost despite itself. In the 20 years since its rezoning, 22,000 new apartments have been built with 8,000 more on the way, and each luxury tower seems to function as a self-contained little universe for its contented inhabitants. “It’s a suburban-type lifestyle here,” says one resident. “It’s almost like a little bubble.” Read more here.
Brooklyn Friends School has finalized the purchase of 383-393 Pearl Street, the building on the corner of Pearl and Willoughby Streets and adjacent to their current Pearl Street campus in Downtown Brooklyn, once occupied by ASA College. Read more here.
Vinegar Hill
Construction is almost finished at the two building development at 218 Front Street in Vinegar Hill. The project will yield 218 rental apartments with 66 affordable housing units, as well as 350 square feet of commercial space and 180 square feet of community space on the ground floor. The large interior lot is bound by Front Street to the north and York Street to the south, and was formerly occupied by a one-story industrial warehouse and an open-air lumber yard. No timeline for the affordable housing lottery or rentals available yet. Read more here.
Brooklyn Heights
Excavation and pilings are underway at 88 Schermerhorn Street, the site of a 20-story mixed-use building in Brooklyn Heights. The building will feature 58 condo units with an average scope of 660 square feet, as well as 10,509 square feet of commercial space and a 30-foot-long rear yard. Read more here.
Montague Diner at 148 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights is opening on Monday, March 18 and will be open daily from 6 am to 11 pm. Read more here.
Share your ideas for the redesign of the Park at Borough Hall in the Community Input Survey here.
Boerum Hill
From our council member Lincoln Restler in response to the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Gun Violence: “Last week, a fight broke out on the A train as it pulled into Hoyt-Schermerhorn station, resulting in a man being shot and killed. Evidence has emerged indicating the fight began when a vigilante started spouting anti-migrant rhetoric at a fellow passenger. But regardless of the exact details, it’s devastating – and deeply scary – when gun violence takes place on our trains and in our neighborhoods. We should all feel safe and comfortable riding the subway — and we need real solutions that drive down violence and create more safety in our communities. We need to dramatically expand mental health outreach services in our subway system and connect homeless New Yorkers to safe haven shelters that are an evidence based policy to reduce street homelessness. I wrote an op-ed in City and State about the policy solutions we need, rather than fear mongering rhetoric, to ensure our safety on the subway.”
Park Slope/Prospect Heights
Its the beginning of the end of an era. Park Slope’s Fifth Avenue Open Street, one of Brooklyn’s most popular, won’t be reopening as planned this year. Another, Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights, will be cutting its overall operating hours by 40 percent; reducing its season by two months, from May to September instead of April to October; and ending five hours earlier on Sundays. The programs, which, usually on weekends, close blocks to traffic to create more public space, have been celebrated, somewhat controversial, and undeniably successful. But the city left it up to local groups to pay for and run a program it has long treated as a kind of block party, and four years in, the money has run out. Read more here.
This year, Time Out picked Fifth Avenue in Park Slope as the city’s coolest street—the 13th coolest in the world. You might be confused because the neighborhood has a reputation for its mommy mafia (or family-oriented character). This is not a strike against it in our book. If anything, it means the area is walkable, safe and has something for everyone.
