Downtown Brooklyn, NY

Historically, Downtown Brooklyn was built just up the hill from where present day Dumbo and Vinegar Hill stand in the middle 19th century as growth from the Port of New York on Manhattan caused shipping to spill over into Brooklyn. As Brooklyn came into its own in the late 19th century , Downtown Brooklyn became  primarily a commercial and civic center hosting the Brooklyn City Hall and Courthouse with relatively little residential development and only a handful of antique skyscrapers for office uses. The 1950s brought several generally harmful urban renewal projects to Dwtn including the redevelopment of several blocks project housing, street widening (i.e. Boerum Place) which leads to a widened approach to the Brooklyn Bridge, and the construction of I-278. My sense is that not  much changed in Dwtn Brooklyn between the 1960s and 2000s. But by 2000 after an important report by the  Regional Plan Association, Downtown Brooklyn pivoted to spur new growth by encouraging both new commercial and residential high-rises and realizing the report’s findings that it could become the City’s third-largest business district thanks to its proximity to Lower Manhattan. The major catalytic event was the rezoning of Downtown  in 2004, By 2015 Dwtn Brooklyn was also becoming a growing hub for education and by my estimates hosts at least 30K college students.

Thanks to its residential density, excellent transit & bike infrastructure, great retail amenities & vibrant pedestrian activity, solid park amenities, and proximity to Manhattan, this compact CBD is one of America’s best urban Downtowns even if it is overshadowed by Midtown and the Financial District. The biggest challenge facing Downtown Brooklyn is staggering high housing costs, although at least half of the rental product is rent stabilized. I would also like to see more cultural amenities in Dwtn (i.e. more restaurants, bars, theaters, and live music venues). While Dwtn has a great array of Department stores and name brand clothing stores concentrated along Fulton Street, it lacks locally owned boutiques and creative retail stores.

Click here to view my Downtown Brooklyn Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

• Solid architecture all around both historic and post WWII. Buildings generally have very good urban form.
• Top notch density for a Dwtn area at 50K per square mile. Only Midtown and Dwtn NYC are denser.
• Very limited surface parking and autocentric uses in Dwtn Brooklyn. The worst urban form are the two mid-century public housing projects (Concord Village & University Towers) which have surface prkg btwn the buildings. If these aren’t that egregious.
• Excellent ADA & sidewalk infrastructure throughout.
• The Skyline is not quite as nice as Downtown NYC, Midtown and Chicago but still pretty top-notch for American skylines.
• Great pedestrian activity.
• Excellent public transit hub providing a central point to the entire Borough of Brooklyn and out to Long Island.
• Excellent bike infrastructure within Dwtn Brooklyn with plenty of dedicated bike lanes. The Bike share system and comprehensive bike lanes however really only extends out to about 1/2 of Brooklyn and loses steam in southern and southeastern Brooklyn.
• Good number of schools in Dwtn Brooklyn with generally good ratings. Lots of specialty High Schools (both private and public). Some really good public schools in adjacent Brooklyn Heights.
• Great number of apartments in Dwtn Brooklyn but the market rate units are very expensive. Fortunately about half of the units are either rent stabilized or permanent affordable units under 2K. Market studios lease btwn 3K-5K, 1-beds 3K-6K, 2-beds 4K-8K. And some 3-beds units that are even more expensive.
• Solid park amenities including the large Cadman Plaza Park. Commodore Berry Park w/ a public pool, several smaller parks, and the large Fort Green Park just east of Dwtn.
• Columbus Park/Korean War Memorial/Cadman Plaza Park are really one unified plaza space with Columbus Park sitting just outside of Brooklyn City Hall. This is the civic heart of Dwtn and seems to get a good amount of events and active use.
• Good cultural & regional amenities in Dwtn but a bit underwhelming for NYC. In addition to plenty of food & beverage amenities there are a handful of art galleries, a couple museums, the Dekalb Market Hall, a indie movie theater, a couple theaters and night clubs, and the Barclay arena is just south of the neighborhood. Great surrounding cultural amenities in the adjacent neighborhoods and only a 20 min subway ride to Manhattan.
• 3rd largest employment hub in NY with btwn 50K-85K depending on how you measure Dwtn. Job # are on the increase.
• Great retail amenities including several supermarkets, a dwtn target, a Macy’s, Burlington, and several other big retailer names concentrated along Fulton St, a couple of pharmacies, a couple bookstores, several furniture stores, a hardware store, lots of jewelry stores, plenty of bakeries & gyms, a dwtn post office & library, a Brooklyn Hospital is just east if Dwtn. Not a ton of boutiques and local gift stores here however.
• Several large enrollment universities in and near Dwtn Brooklyn. About 30K students.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

• Decent age diversity and % of families with Children for a dwtn area but very limited kid friendly activities dwtn.
• Generally good connectivity and many shorter blocks but a good amount of highways and boulevards break out the street grid.
• Good amount of for sale condos but also very expensive. Studios and 1-beds sell btwn 300K-1M, 2- beds btwn 650K-1.5K Decent amount of 3-beds but very expensive. Selling generally btwn 1-3M.
• Decent number of restaurants & bars in Dwtn Brooklyn but kinda underwhelming for New York. Only a handful of breweries. Also not major conversion center here. .”