Prospect Lefferts Gardens- An Eclectic Brooklyn neighborhood just east of Prospect Park and Home to a Large Carribean-American Population

Prospect Lefferts Gardens is a residential neighborhood that many refer to as the broader Flatbush community. Prospect Lefferts Gardens is a combination of the names of three nearby locations which was coined in the late 1960s with the creation of the Prospect Lefferts Gardens Neighborhood Association. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that the area was built up starting with the development of the Lefferts’s estate in 1893 by James Lefferts. In order to ensure that the neighborhood would contain homes of a substantial nature, Lefferts attached land-use deed restrictions to the lots dictating that each lot contain a single family residence built of brick or stone at least two stories in height. These restrictions exist to this day and explain why a good portion of the neighborhood’s historic brownstones remain in tact. The land restrictions became more formalized with the Lefferts Manor Historic District in 1992. Through the decades Prospect Lefferts Gardens developed a very eclectic mix architecture from gorgeous brownstones, to ornate single family homes, to 1920s and mid century apartment bldgs, and even brick/tudor rowhouses and more working class rowhouses on the eastern edges. There is some modern in-fill scattered through the neighborhood (esp. along Clarkson) but the neighborhood has only begun to see gentrification since the 2000s and it seems to be spreading relatively slowly. Since after WW II the neighborhood became more and more ethnically diverse first welcoming African Americans during the Great Migration and then large Caribbean families. Caribbean immigrants have also settled in surrounding areas such as East Flatbush, Flatbush, and Crown Heights. The overlapping sections of these neighborhoods is often referred to as Little Caribbean.

From an urban Prospect Lefferts Gardens is yet another turn of the century Brooklyn neighborhood with great public transit access and walkability. It also has great park amenities thanks to its convenient proximity to Prospect Park, solid cultural and retail amenities, and still contains good racial and economic diversity. Since gentrification got underway in the early 2000s I sense the school quality has improved and crime has dropped. The business districts however ( Nostrand, and Rogers Ave) remain gritty with a fair amount of vacancies and there is a good amount of autocentric uses and surface parking lots along the neighborhood’s eastern and northern edges. The neighborhood needs more dedicated bike lanes and a major supermarket and more boutiques. I hope Prospect Lefferts Gardens can keep its racial and economic diversity moving forward. This will largely depend on whether it can retain its stabilized rental units and expand affordable housing options.

Click here to view my Prospect Lefferts Garden album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Solid sidewalks and ADA infrastructure. Most intersections have modern ADA curb cuts.
Great urban density at 56K residents per square mile.
Very eclectic architecture from gorgeous brownstones, to ornate single family homes, to 1920s and mid century apartment bldgs, and even brick/tudor rowhouses and more working class rowhouses. Some modern in-fill scattered about the neighborhood.
Good access to Dwtn Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan and Midtown 30-40 mins by subway but not as good as the Inner Brooklyn neighborhoods.
Nearly before urban grid and connectivity.
Good bike infrastructure including plenty of dedicated bike stations but only a handful of bike lanes, much less than other surrounding Brooklyn neighborhoods.
Solid tree canopy except the southern and eastern edges of the neighborhood.
Good racial diversity and still a Black Majority neighborhood with larger Hispanic and growing White populations. Excellent economic diversity.
Pretty good age diversity thanks to the diverse array of housing types.
Decent range of rentals although listed rentals are very expensive. Studios and 1 beds lease btwn 2K-3.5K, 2-beds btwn 2.8-4.2K, and plenty of 3-beds leasing btwn 3-5K with a handful of more expensive options. Good amount of the rental supply is dedicated affordable rentals or rent stabilized as 3/4s of rental product lease under 2K.
Solid school amenities with a good number of public schools that are generally well rated and pretty good choice of charter and private schools.
Great park access thanks alone to the neighborhood’s proximity to Prospect Park where no resident is more than a 10 min walk from. Also a handful of small and medium sized parks sprinkled throughout the district.
Solid cultural amenities including plenty of restaurants, bars & cafes, several art galleries and local music venues, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Zoo, and Brooklyn Museums are short walk to the west.
Solid retail amenities including several medium and smaller grocery stores, plenty drug stores and hardware stores, a decent # of boutiques/clothing/gift stores (but mostly concentrated on the more gentrified Flatbush Ave), a couple bookstores and florists, several home goods and furniture stores, some gyms and dessert joints, a couple public libraries and post offices sit just outside the neighborhood boundaries. tons of churches, and NYC hospital is along the neighborhood’s eastern edge. An urban home depot and a 5 Below stores are located just south of the neighborhood boundaries along Flatbush Ave.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Streetscaping along the business district are fine with often wide sidewalks but very gritty and outdated.
Overall solid urban form along the main biz districts of Flatbush, Nostrand, and Rogers Avenue but good amount of surface parking and some autocentric uses here and along the northern border of Empire Blvd.
Prospect Lefferts Gardens is generally safe but the gentrified western half is certainly safer than the gritter eastern half.
For sale housing are expensive but much more reasonable that many other Brooklyn neighborhoods. There is a decent # of moderately priced studios selling btwn 200K-550K, 1-beds sell btwn 300K-850K, 2-beds range btwn 400K-1.2M, 3-beds btwn 700K-3M. 4 beds range anywhere btwn 800K and 4M.
Missing a major supermarket within the neighborhood, a larger Home goods stores, and banks are limited. Also limited # of boutiques and locally owned creative stores more plentiful in other more gentrified Inner Brooklyn neighborhoods.”

Crown Heights- Historic home to the Weeksvilles African American Settlement and Present Day Diverse Neighborhood Sitting on the Eastern edge of Prospect Park

Crown Heights was largely rural until the late 19th century with the exception of the “Weeksville” settlement, founded by free slaves in 1838. The majority of Crown Heights began seeing development thanks to the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 and the subsequent creation of subway lines. into the Borough. Development continued to boom into the early 20th century. The western half of Crown Heights became known for its elegant architecture show casing Victorian, Italianate, and Renaissance Revival styles, especially along the main thoroughfare of Eastern Parkway, a tree-lined boulevard designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. Crown Heights quickly became a very fashionable neighborhood and a second home for Manhattan’s growing bourgeois class . However, as the neighborhood continued to push eastwards the character of the streets became very working class with many rowhouses constructed without ornamentation. While the neighborhood initially had a predominantly white population, by the 1930s large numbers of Ashkenazi Jewish families moved in the neighborhood along with many African American thanks to the Great Migration. By the mid-20th century, Crown Heights had become one of the most significant African American communities in New York City and also attracted many immigrants from the Caribbean. While Crown Heights still contains a sizable African American and Jewish population, it like many other Brooklyn neighborhoods has witnessed a significant amount of gentrification, especially in its western section. Currently the neighborhood has great economic and racial diversity. We shall see if this continues in the upcoming decades.

From an urban perspective this is a solid neighborhood with great walkability thanks to the 5 subway lines that service the neighborhood, convenient access to Dwtn Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan, and Midtown, great bike infrastructure, and several business districts (Washington, Franklin, Nostrand, Kingston, Utica, and Empire Avenue) serving the neighborhood. Crown Heights also has a plethora of walkable well-rated schools, great access to Prospect Park and other recreational amenities, and continues to see its crime drop. The eastern half of the neighborhood is still quite gritty which makes sense as gentrification forces are mainly coming from the west and this section of the neighborhood was built with much less elegant housing stock as the western half. Crown Heights has a significant # of permanent affordable housing units in its many mid-century housing towers and a large number of stabilized rental units. Hopefully these restrictions are strong enough to keep this a diverse community. Atlantic Avenue, the northern border, could use much better urban in-fill as the corridor hosts many autocentric and industrial uses.

Click here to view my Crown Heights album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Solid density at nearly 60K residents per square mile.
* Solid ADA and sidewalk infrastructure but about 35% of curb cuts are not ADA standard.
* Excellent connectivity.
* Great access to 3 Dwtns only a 30 Min subway ride to Dwtn Brooklyn, and 40 mins to both Lower Manhattan and Midtown.
* Excellent bike infrastructure including plenty of dedicated bike lanes and bike share stations.
* Great racial and economic diversity. Crown Heights is still holding on to a large African American population and middle class households even after gentrification.
* Really solid schools with a great array of generally well rated public and charter schools covering all age groups and tons of smaller private schools.
* Solid park amenities thanks to Prospect Park on the neighborhood’s western edge with convenient access to the Brooklyn Zoo and Botanical Gardens. Decent number of small and medium parks spread through the neighborhood and a recreation center with an indoor pool.
* Solid urban form throughout most of Crown Heights. Atlantic Ave has the worst urban form with a significant amount of autocentric and industrial uses. All the north-south biz district where pretty solid. Urban form along Empire was generally good with a couple rough blocks.
* Good historic architecture especially the ornate brownstones in the western half of the neighborhood and in the Crown Heights Historic District. The eastern half of Crown Heights is characterized by much more working class rowhouses and is generally grittier. Modern In-fill generally has solid urban form but not particularly cutting edge in Crown Heights and lots of bland mid-century residential towers here.
* Lots of business districts running through Crown Heights creating great mixed-use fabric and plenty of residential corners filled with storefronts.
* Good cultural amenities including plenty of restaurants, bars & cafes, several art galleries. The food & beverage amenities tend to be focus in the more gentrified western edge. Also a good array of museums including the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, the Weeksville Heritage Center, and the Brooklyn Art Museum. Also some live music venues and night clubs, and convenient access to the Botanical Garden and Zoo.
* Great range of rentals although pretty expensive. Studios lease btwn 1.8K-3K, 1-beds btwn 2K-4.5K, 2-beds btwn 2.3K-7K, and plenty of 3-beds leasing btwn 2.7K-7K. Significantly amount of the rental supply is dedicated affordable rentals or rent stabilized as 4/5s of rental product least under 2K.
* Solid retail amenities including several supermarkets (concentrated in the gentrified western half) and plenty of small and medium grocerias (concentrated in the eastern half), plenty drug stores and hardware stores, a decent # of boutiques/clothing/gift stores, several bookstores, several home goods and furniture stores, plenty of gyms and dessert joints, a local public library and several post offices, tons of churches, no major hospital but plenty of medical centers and doctor’s offices here.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Street canopy is better in the most historic western half of Crown Heights and thins out in the eastern half of the neighborhood, which historically is the more working class section.
Crown Heights has come a long way the past decade or so with safety. Likely still rougher than Inner Brooklyn neighborhoods, especially the eastern edge of the neighborhood. Also a fair amount of grit in this section of Crown Heights.
For sale housing is expensive but relatively reasonable compared to Inner Brooklyn neighborhoods. Studios and 1-bed condos sell btwn 300K-1.5M, 2-beds range btwn 350K-2.5M, 3 & 4-beds are quite reasonable comparatively selling anywhere btwn 650K-3M with a handful selling btwn 3-4M. Higher end product is concentrated along the western edge of Crown Heights.”

Fort Greene- Brooklyn’s Historic African American District and now Top Tier Urban Neighborhood

Fort Greene was named after an American Revolutionary War era fort built in 1776 under the supervision of General Nathanael Greene. Fort Greene Park, originally called “Washington Park”, is Brooklyn’s first park and in 1864 was redesigned by none other than Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. In the 1850s, Fort Greene’s growth spread out from stagecoach lines along Myrtle Avenue and Fulton Street and became home to many prosperous professionals, second only to Brooklyn Heights in prestige. The mid 19th century brought many Italianate brick and brownstone row houses as Fort Greene continued to grow. The neighborhood is also the historic African-American heart of Brooklyn where many professional Black families began to settle in the mid-19th century. By 1870, more than half of Brooklyn’s Black population lived in Fort Greene, most north of the Park. By the 1870s, Fort Greene was virtually built out but slowly densified and transportation connections improved. Fort Greene is also a haven of the arts thanks to the relocation of the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1908. Increasingly in the 20th century Fort Greene lost its prestige as more and more wealthy families moved further east. The New York City Housing Authority also built 35 brick project housing in the 1940s and by the 1960s Fort Greene struggled with issues of poverty, crime, and the eventually the crack epidemic in the 1980s. Yet by the late 1980s artists, preservationists and Black professionals began to claim and restore the neighborhood and by the early 2000s Fort Greene was welcoming many new residents & businesses and was well on its way to gentrification. Sadly this partially resulted in a significant drop in the neighborhood’s Black population which decreased from 42% in 2000 to 23% in 2020. While the neighborhood has welcomed more and more affluent White families it has also grown in its Hispanic and Asian Population, which both now comprise about 11% of the population. Fortunately much of the economic diversity has been preserved thanks to a large number of dedicated affordable units and stabilized rentals.

Given its proximity just east to Dwtn Brooklyn, a 25 min subway ride to both Lower Manhattan and Midtown, and excellent walkability and urban amenities, this is a top tier American urban district lined with gorgeous historic brownstones. Fort Greene also has excellent park, retail, and cultural amenities, great schools, and is one of Brooklyn’s safest communities. The only areas to improve the neighborhood is to encourage more urban infill and road dieting along the autocentric thoroughfares of Atlantic and Flushing Avenues. Significant effort should also good towards maintaining affordable rentals and creating new affordable condos likely through a Community Land Trust structure.

Click here to view my Fort Greene Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Solid urban density at 50K per square mile.
* Excellent access to CBDs being just east of Dwtn Brooklyn a 25 min subway ride to Lower Manhattan and 30 mins to Midtown.
* Greet ADA Curb and sidewalk infrastructure throughout. About 15-20% of intersections have outdated ADA curbs.
* Solid connectivity and urban grid as well including some diagonal streets too providing smaller blocks. The street grid gets disrupted a bit on the norther edge thanks to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and several housing projects.
* Excellent bike infrastructure including several dedicated bike lanes and tons of bike share stations.
* Excellent urban architecture including an extensive amount of stately late 19th century Brooklyn rowhouses along most residential streets, a handful of good urban infill buildings, quality Dwtn modern infill along the western edge. The only poor architecture is along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway there is a large unattractive mid-century project and a some low quality industrial uses.
* Very thick tree canopy for such a dense and urban district.
* Other than a couple throughfares (Flushing’s & Atlantic) urban form and streetscaping is excellent.
* Very safe community, one of Brooklyn’s safest.
* Good economic diversity and even better racial diversity. Also solid age diversity and lots of families here.
* Great walkable schools really across all categories and most of the public schools are well rated.
* Solid cultural amenities including plenty of restaurants, bars & cafes, a couple art galleries, several performing arts theaters (mostly included within the Brooklyn Academy of Music), a couple Indie Movie Theaters, the Barclay Center, a couple live music venues, and a couple local museums.
* Solid retail amenities including several supermarket, grocerias, and co-ops, several drug stores, several # of boutiques/gift stores, a couple book stores and hardware stores, a couple gyms and several dessert joints, a couple of florists, 3 public libraries, a local post offices & public library, and a major hospital, On the southern edge of Fort Green there is a Target & Marshall’s, Best Buy, Burlington, and many other stores in the Atlantic Terminal Mall.
* Solid park amenities including the expansive & historic Ft. Greene Park, several well dispersed playgrounds, ball courts, and parklettes, and a public pool.
* Good amount of rental product especially along the western boarder with Dwtn Brooklyn. But market rentals are very expensive. Studios lease btwn n the 2.5K-4.0K,1-beds btwn 2.5K-5.5K, 2-beds btwn 3K-7 K. Not a ton of 3-bed product. Good number of rental stabilized units however and the number of rentals below 2K exceeds far exceeds the # above 2K.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Few churches here.
Flushing’s and Atlantic are both wide boulevards with a fair amount of unattractive and autocentric uses along them.
A lot of for sale condo product but generally very expensive. Limited # of studios but plenty of 1-beds selling btwn 500K-2M. . 2-beds range btwn 650K-2.5M with most units selling btwn 1.2M–2.5M. Decent # of 3-beds but very expensive ranging anywhere from 850K-3.5M. Lots of 4-bed townhouses generally selling btwn 2M-4M.”

DUMBO/Vinegar Hill- Historic Brooklyn Docklands & Warehousing Distict now one of NYC’s most Inclusive Neighborhoods

Dumbo has historically been known by several names, including Gairville, Rapailie, Olympia, and Walentasville. The area was originally a ferry landing, characterized by 19th- and early 20th-century industrial and warehouse buildings, and Belgian block streets. In the 1890s, the western portion of the neighborhood was known as Fulton Landing, after the ferry stop that connected it to Manhattan before the Brooklyn Bridge opened. With the deindustrialization of New York City in the 1970s, Dumbo attracted many artists and other young homesteaders seeking large and inexpensive loft apartment spaces. The acronym “Dumbo”, which simply stands for [Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) arose in 1978, when fearful new residents coined it in the hope that such an unattractive name would help deter developers. This worked for some time as DUMBO became one of New York’s best arts scenes while maintaining its gritty edge into the late 90s. But eventually a large number of buildings in Dumbo were bought by developer David Walentas and his company Two Trees Management who remade the neighborhood into an upscale residential and commercial community—first becoming a haven for art galleries, and currently a center for technology startups. Dumbo eventually earned the nickname “the center of the Brooklyn Tech Triangle”. DUMBO has also become Brooklyn’s most affluent neighborhood and the fourth-wealthiest community in New York City. Just east of DUMBO lies the remains of the historic Vinegar Hill neighborhood named after the Battle of Vinegar Hill in an attempt to attract Irish Immigrants By the early 19th century large numbers of Irish families settled here to be close to jobs at the Brooklyn Dockyards and other nearby factories. Most of the neighborhood’s rowhouses were built out by the mid-19th century in the Federal Style and Greek Revival styles. Much of Vinegar Hill was removed by the construction of the Manhattan Bridge in the 1900s. This likely led to the decline of the neighborhood’s Irish population and by 1930 75% of the neighborhood were Lithuanian Immigrants. Before the construction of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in the 1950s Vinegar Hill extended south to the area now called Bridge Plaza. This sits on the edge of Dwtn Brooklyn and still hosts many mid-19th century rowhouses.

DUMBO/Vinegar Hill are amenity rich walkable communities with incredible convenient access to Dwtn Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan, and Midtown. There are also great park amenities, decent access to walkable schools and solid bike amenities. The biggest downside is a lack of economic diversity and affordable housing options. Unlike other Brooklyn neighborhoods few apartments are rent stabilized not allowing the gentrification of the neighborhood to coincide with a decent working & middle class presence. When the neighborhood redeveloped in the early 2000s, affordable housing preservation was not top of mind for civic and community leaders.

Click here for my DUMBO Album & here for my Vinegar Hill Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Solid density especially for a post industrial area.
* Great access to CBDs being just north of Dwtn Brooklyn, 1.5 miles across the river from Lower Manhattan, and a 20 min subway ride to Midtown.
* Plenty of dedicated bike stations. Bike lane connections to Manhattan on both the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. Only a couple bike lane connections outside of the neighborhood to Brooklyn.
* Generally good sidewalks and most intersections have modern ADA curb cuts.
* Great urban architecture overall including tons of tastefully converted warehouses, quality urban infill, and cobble stone streets. Some unattractive Industrial use in spots and a bland mid-century public housing complex.
* Lots of pedestrians especially in DUMBO. Crowed in the more touristy spots.
* While this is some grit in spots, especially the eastern edge of Vinegar Hill, this is a very safe area.
* Solid access to schools including a couple public elementary schools, several smaller private and charter schools, and several specialized high schools in Dwtn Brooklyn.
* Solid park access including a public beach and several waterfront parks along the East River. Also a nice recreational trail running along the river connecting Dumbo to the Pier parks below Brooklyn Heights and several other small pocket parks and plazas.
* Excellent cultural amenities including a ton of restaurants, a food hall, bars, cafes, and art galleries, a couple local museums, several night clubs, a couple music venues, lots of event venues, and a performing arts enters. Dumbo certainly hosts more amenities than Vinegar Hill. Also convenient access to all the cultural amenities Dwtn.
* Good retail amenities including several supermarkets, a couple drug stores, a hardware store, tons of boutiques/clothing stores, home good/gift shops , antiques/furniture stores. a couple bookstores & toystore, plenty of gyms and dessert joints, Also a the Brooklyn Flee Market is open on the weekends.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Some racial diversity but the neighborhood is filled with high earning young professionals with little else.
* No churches in the neighborhood but plenty nearby. Also not hospital located here but a fair amount of doctor’s offices. No department stores but Macy’s and other departments stores concentrated on Fulton Street are only a mile walk.
* Good amount of rentals but very expensive and Dumbo/Vinegar Hill have maybe 15-20% of their housing as rental stabilized, which is low for Brooklyn. Studios lease in the 3Ks, 1-beds lease btwn 4-5K, 2-beds btwn 6-7K, and a few 3-beds for 7-9K.
* For sale options are also very pricey. Decent amount of 1-bed condos that sell btwn 750K- 2.1M, 2-beds btwn 1.3M-2.7M, 3-beds btwn 2M-4.5M.

Park Slope- One of America’s Best Urban Communities Sitting on the edge of Olmsted’s Prospect Park

I used the expanded Google Map Boundaries for Park Slope. There is also a smaller South Slope District on the southern edge of Park Slope starting by most accounts at 15th Street and running south across the Prospect Expressway. This likely predated the highway. For simplicity sake I am breaking this up in my evaluations between Park Slope and Greenwood Heights. Sadly the highway has kinda obliterated this historic neighborhood running right through the middle of it.

Generally, the neighborhood is divided into three sections from north to south: North Slope, Center Slope, and South Slope. The neighborhood takes its name from its location on the western slope of neighboring Prospect Park. The area was mostly farms and woods until the early 19th century, when the land was subdivided into rectangular parcels. The western section of Park Slope was occupied in the mid-19th century, being located near the industrial Gowanus Canal and ferries. After the completion of Prospect Park, numerous mansions and rowhouses were developed in Park Slope’s eastern section in the 1880s. By 1883, with the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, Park Slope continued to boom and subsequent brick and brownstone structures pushed the neighborhood’s borders farther. The 1890 census showed Park Slope to be the richest community in the United States. Park Slope gradually became a more working class neighborhood. Large and opulent brownstones were subdivided and large apartment buildings were constructed. Park Slope experienced decline for a couple decades after WWII but this was not to last as the an influx of young professionals recognized the value and beauty of its brownstones and rowhouses. In 1973 much of the neighborhood was included in the Park Slope Historic District. The neighborhood quickly popularized and once again the upper class of Manhattan began moving back into Park Slope. However this time Park Slope has a wider variety of housing types as many small apartments and condos still remain and many units are stabilized rentals, allowing a good number of working and middle class residents to continue living here.
From an urban perspective this is likely one of American’s top 5 urban neighborhoods thanks to its proximity to the expansive Prospect Park, perfectly gridded streets, excellent subway and bike access & infrastructure, 30 min subway ride to Dwtn Brooklyn, Lower Manhanttan, and Midtown, great schools, top notch cultural & retail amenities, and several biz districts cutting thru the neighborhood (4th, 5th, & 7th Aves, 9th St, and Flatbush Ave). The biggest area for improvement is more racial and economic diversity. This can mainly be achieved through providing more affordable housing. In order to achieve this, the Park Slope Historic District regulations need to be loosening a bit to allow new denser development.

Click here to view my Park Slope neighborhood on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Excellent residential density at just over 60K residents.
* Convenient access to 3 NYC CBDs. 30 mins subway to Dwtn Brooklyn and 40 mins to Midtown & Lower Manhattan.
* Nearby perfect street grid besides a couple blocks on the southern edge of the neighborhood.
* Great public transit access with several subway lines servicing the neighborhood. Also outstanding bike infrastructure include many dedicated bikes lanes and several of them are protected. Great access to bike share stations as well.
* Park Slope is one of the safest communities in Brooklyn with only a touch of blight along Flatbush and 4th Avenue.
* Good ADA and Sidewalk in structure but a good 35% have outdated curb cuts.
* Excellent historic architecture. Really only a handful of American neighborhoods are better.
* Some modern-infill (especially along 4th Ave). Generally of very high urban quality except for a couple of blocks along 4th Avenue that still have some autocentric/industrial uses where Park Slope borders Gowanus.
* Solid tree canopy especially as one moved further from Gowanus.
* Good # of young families living here and pretty good age diversity.
* Excellent array of walkable schools including a good mixed of private & public and generally highly rated public schools. Also a good mix of elementary, middle and high schools.
* The massive Prospect Park itself provides Park Slope excellent and varied park amenities including the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and Prospect Park Zoo to name a few. Also several small parks within the neighborhood a community pool and the expansive Greenwood Cemetery to the south.
* Great array of cultural amenities including tons of bars, restaurants & cafes. several art galleries, several live music venues, a couple performing arts theaters, an Indie Theater, and the Brooklyn Museum, Barclay Center, and Botanical Gardens are nearby.
* Excellent retail amenities including several supermarket, grocerias, and co-ops, several drug stores, great # of boutiques/gift stores,/home good stores, several book stores and hardware stores, several gyms and tons of dessert joints, several bike shops and florists, tons of churches, 3 public libraries, a couple post offices, an ambulatory center is located within Cobble Hill and a major hospital and many doctor’s offices nearby. On the northern edge there is a Target & Marshall’s, Best Buy, Burlington, and many other stores in the Atlantic Terminal Mall.
* Good amount of rental product as well but also very expensive. Studios 2.5K-3.5K, 1-beds btwn 2.5K-6K 2-beds btwn 6K-7.5K. Some 3-beds. ranging btwn 4K-9K. Good number of rental stabilized units however and the number of rentals below 2K exceeds the # above 2K.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Not great racial diversity and so so economic diversity but still a good # of rent stabilized units. Likely close to 50% of all units.
* A lot of for sale condo product but generally very expensive. A good number of studios selling anywhere btwn 250K-1M, an extraordinary number of 1-beds selling btwn 400K-3M. But most of these units sell btwn 400K-2M. 2-beds range btwn 650K-4M with most units selling btwn 850M–2.5M. Good # of 3-beds but very expensive ranging anywhere from 500K-5M with most product selling btwn 1.25M-3 M. A lot 4-bed product generally selling btwn 1M-7M. I saw some under market sales as well which makes me think there is likely a Community Land Trust operating in the Neighborhood on a small $ of units.

Carroll Gardens- Historic Home to Irish & Italian Immigrants and now a Gentrified Inner Brooklyn Neighborhood with Distintive Setback Brownstones

The Carroll Gardens neighborhood was named after Charles Carroll, the only Roman Catholic signer of the who immigrated from Ireland. As the neighborhood witnessed a large influx of Irish Immigrants in the mid-19th century this was a good fit. Irish Immigrants were followed by Norwegian immigrants later in the 19th century. The development of South Brooklyn was spurred in the 1840s with the creation of the Green-wood Cemetery and the desire to connect the cemetery to Manhattan.. Ferry lines and streetcar lines were built to achieve such a connection and this began the neighborhood’s development centered around Carroll Park Brooklyn’s third-oldest park. At this time building codes required several streets south of Carroll Gardens to be set back further from the street than was common in Brooklyn. With the draining of the Gowanus Creek, surrounding swampland, and the creation of Gowanus Canal development boomed in the neighborhood as the Carroll Gardens Historic District was born with the large set backs. These set back brownstones were included in a Historic District in the early 1960s and is concentrated between 1st Place and 5th Place. By the late 19th century Italian immigrants began migrating into the neighborhood drawn by jobs at the nearby Brooklyn Navy Yards. The Irish and Italian clans were often at odds but by the 1950s most of the Irish population left the neighborhood. The creation of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway helped give Carroll Gardens a separate character separating it distinctively from Red Hook, a deeply working class Italian neighborhood. By the 1960s young middle-class professionals began to move to Carroll Garden and this began the neighborhood’s gentrification process. The Italian population remained strong through much of the 20th century but by 1980 it started to drop off decreasing to only 22 % by 2012. More recently French immigrants have moved into the neighborhood opening lots of French bakeries and restaurants.

This is a very solid neighborhood from an urban perspective with great retail and cultural amenities, great public transit and bike amenities, good schools, high level of safety and in general an ideal walkable neighborhood. Expensive housing, especially for-sale options, is the biggest challenge facing the neighborhood. I would like to see the north half of the neighborhood (outside of the Carroll Historic District) opened up for new development with large affordable requirements. There is very limited modern in-fill in the neighborhood. The neighborhood could also use some park amenities, an additional supermarket, and more name brand retail.

Click here to view by Carroll Gardens Album on my Flickr Page

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Excellent density at 54k people per square mile.
* Great public transit access.
* Great ADA and sidewalk infrastructure. A handful of intersections are without updated ADA curb cuts.
* Good tree canopy but lessens on the eastern edge with Gowanus.
* Generally excellent urban form except along the eastern edge of the neighborhood along Smith St where some industrial uses remain. Solid urban streetscaping as well.
* Great access to CBD’s being a 10-15 minute train ride to Dwtn Brooklyn and 30 minute train ride to Lower Manhattan and Midtown. Also excellent bike infrastructure including several dedicated bike lanes and bike share stations.
* Very safe community.
* Decent number of families living here.
* Good walkable schools including several well rating public grade schools. Also plenty of decent sized private schools that are K-8. Several high schools as well but generally specialty ones.
* Good amount of rental product as well but also very expensive. Studios & 1-beds lease btwn n the 2.5K-4.5K, 2-beds btwn 3K-5.5K. Some 3-beds. ranging btwn 3K-6K. Good number of rental stabilized units however and the number of rentals below 2K exceeds the # above 2K.
* Tons of restaurants, bars, & cafes and a handful of breweries. Only a handful of non-food & beverage cultural amenities including some art galleries & night clubs, a performing arts theater and indie theater, a couple local museums.
* Excellent retail amenities including a supermarket & several groceries, a couple drug stores, great # of boutiques/gift stores,/home good stores, a couple book stores, a hardware stores, several gyms and tons of dessert joints, a couple bike shops, several florists, some churches a public library, an ambulatory center is located within Cobble Hill and a major hospital & lots is only 10-15 min walk.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Very limited urban in-fill but the very newer buildings that do exist are of sound urban design. This lack for in-fill is not really a detriment to the urbanity of Carroll Gardens.
* Not great racial diversity as over 70% of the residents are white but better economic diversity.
* A lot of for sale condo product but generally very expensive. Limited # of studios but plenty of 1-beds selling btwn 600K-3M. But most of these units sell btwn 750K-1.5M. 2-beds range btwn 850K-4M with most units selling btwn 1.2M–2.5M. Good # of 3-beds but very expensive ranging anywhere from 750K-4.5M with most product selling btwn 1.8M-3.5 M. A lot 4-bed product generally selling btwn 1.6M-4.8M.
* Decent park access including several small but efficient parks..
* Community post office is just south of the neighborhood. Also no walkable access to any Department stores, Home Depots or the big box chain stores.

Gowanus- Historic Dumping Grounds of Brooklyn now being Cleaned up and becoming one of Brooklyn’s most Trendy Neighborhoods

The neighborhood is named after a local Native American and became the site of the first settlement by Dutch farmers. The ponds of Gowanus meadowlands served to drive early settlers’ tide-powered gristmills. In the 1860s, the Gowanus Creek was turned into the Gowanus Canal, and the area became a hub for manufacturing and shipping. However, intensive industrial development and a combined sewer system dumped waste water directly into a designated outflow at the head of the canal. By the late 19th century the neighborhood quickly became one of the most polluted areas of New York. By the mid 20th century with the decline of shipping at the port of Red Hook and manufacturing around New York, Gowanus lost its industrial edge and fell into neglect and decline. In the late 1940s, the neighborhood also became the site of several NYCHA housing projects built to house returning WWII veterans. These projects remain in the neighborhood’s northern edge. In 2010, the EPA designated the Gowanus Canal as a Superfund site and allocated 1/2 Billion dollars to cleanup the decades of industrial pollution and sewage contamination. This lead to renewed interest to redevelopment the area, adjacent to the long gentrified inner Brooklyn neighborhoods. For years, new development was hindered by the industrial zoning and the problems of the sewage overflow through the canal water. The City Planning department has been working with local residents for years on a Gowanus Neighborhood Development Land Use Plan with the goal of thoughtfully adjusting local zoning to direct development in appropriate parts of the neighborhood while also building a significant amount of affordable units through inclusionary zoning laws and creating new park space along the Gowanus Canal. Already there are thousands of new apartments and condos in Gowanus along the eastern and north edges of the neighborhoods. There will likely be an additional 10K units by 2035 with a significant # of them as permanent affordable housing.

The industrial uses of Gowanus, especially in the Southeastern edge of the district certainly reduce its urban viability but Gowanus still remains a pretty dense and very mixed use neighborhood with good public transit & bike infrastructure making it a very walkable neighborhood. Gowanus also has a excellent Cultural amenities as it is one of Brooklyn hippest places for night life and good retail amenities including several big box stores, a Whole Foods, and a good amount of local retail mostly concentrated along 3rd & 4th Avenues and Union Street. With the thoughtful Gowanus Neighborhood Development Land Use plan and EPA Superfund well underway I feel confident that Gowanus will continue to redevelop in a productive way adding a good of affordable units alongside market housing, creating more park spaces, and remediating industrial uses and waste sits. Gowanus has the potential to be an very interesting urban district.

Click here to view my Gowanus Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS

* Solid density at 24K residents per square mile but a bit low for Brooklyn.
* Great public transit access. Also solid bike infrastructure including several bike lanes and plenty of dedicated bike shares.
* Solid access to 3 NYC CBDs including a 30 minute subway ride to Dwtn Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan, and Midtown.
* Gowanus is overall a very safe community but has a lot of grit thanks to the past and present of Industry in the neighborhood.
* Modern in-fill from the past 15 years is some often urban in-fill. Decent amount of autocentric/industrial crap still around, especially in the southeastern quadrant of the neighborhood.
* Solid walkable school access within and nearby Gowanus. Thanks to Gowanus’ proximity to Carroll Gardens and Park Gardens it has convenient access to several well rated public elementary and middle schools Good # of private schools too. But walkable high school options are pretty limited.
* Good amount of rental product and the market rate units are certainly very expensive. Because of all the new construction Gowanus has some higher price points than surrounding districts that have extensive historic districts. But Gowanus has a very high % of dedicated affordable and rent stabilized units. There are several large projects were constructed on the north edge of the neighborhood. The number of units below 2K is 4 times more than the number above 2K. Studios lease in the 2Ks 1-beds btwn 2.5K-5.3K, 2-beds btwn 3K-7K. Some 3-beds. ranging btwn 4K-9K.
* While there are not large parks decent# of small and medium sized parks within or on the edge of Gowanus including a public pool and even some modest waterfront parks running along the Gowanus Canal.
* Good array of restaurants, bars, cafes, and breweries especially in the Northeast gentrified quadrant of Gowanus near Union Street. Also tons of art galleries taking advantage of all the industrial bldgs, a couple local museums, a couple live music venues and night clubs, and several local performing arts theaters.
* Good retail amenities including a Wholefoods, a couple of other supermarkets and small grocerias. Also a Home Depot & a Lowes along with several hardware stores, a Staples, a couple pharmacies, decent # of home goods/antiques/gift stores, handful of clothing/boutiques, a couple bookstores & bike shops, good # of bakeries & dessert joints, plenty of gyms, some churches, and a local post office.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Overall sidewalk infrastructure is good but only about 50% of all intersections have proper ADA curb cuts and a fair amount of the sidewalks are weathered thanks to all the industrial issues present and historical.
* Good amount of surface parking lots and autocentric uses in the Southeastern quadrant of Gowanus that remains very industrial still.
* Not surprisingly tree canopy isn’t that great. Ok along the more residential streets however.
* Pretty consistent grid but connectivity gets disconnected out points due to the Gowanus Cannel and industrial uses.
* Pretty historically negative perception as the neighborhood was literally the sea spool of Brooklyn. But more and more people are finding this an attractive place to live as more and more factories close and the area cleans up.
* Historic rowhouses are generally very working class and therefore pretty plain and often gritty. Plenty of historic warehouses here too.
* Much less pedestrian activity than other surrounding Brooklyn neighborhoods but pretty good in spots (western edge and northern edges).
* A lot of for sale condo product but generally very expensive. Limited studios. Some 1-beds esp. along 4th Ave that sell btwn 650K-1.1M. 2-beds range btwn 850K-2.8M with most units selling btwn 950K-1.5M. Decent # of 3-bedselling btwn 1.3M-2.8M with most product selling btwn 1.8M-3 M. Even more 4-bed product selling anywhere from 1.3K-3.8K. Still a decent # of “cheaper” rowhouses.
* Only a handful of medical offices, but a major hospital is only 1/2 east of Gowanus, no post office,

Boerum Hill- Diverse but Gentrified Inner Broolyn Neighborhood and Historic Home of the NYC Mohawk Community

I followed the Google maps boundaries for the neighborhood using Smith St as the eastern boundary and DeGraw as the southern. Boerum Hill is named for the colonial farm of the Boerum family, which occupied most of the area during early Dutch settlement. Most of the housing in Boerum Hill consists of three-story row houses built between 1840 and 1870 and are more plain than the housing in Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights as the neighborhood historically hosted many working class families, especially iron workers in the late19th/early 20th century. Boerum Hill was home to a significant Mohawk community who came to NYC to work on the cities booming skyscrapers. From the early 1970s until about the early 2000s, Boerum Hill was populated mostly by working & middle-class African-American and Puerto Rican families. But by the late 1990s the neighborhood had largely gentrified and became one of the wealthiest neighborhoods outside of Manhattan. Thankfully this is still a minority majority neighborhood as many working class families were able to stay in the community thanks to the high number of stabilized rentals in the district.

Other than the high housing prices, Boerum Hill is a top notch urban district and arguable one of the best in America. It has excellent public transit access, located just south of Dwtn Brooklyn and an easy subway ride to Manhattan, has quality schools, great retail and cultural amenities all making it very walkable community. Other than the need to provide more affordable housing (especially ownership options) I would like to see are more park amenities and some more dessert joints and bakeries.

Click here to view my Boerum Hill Neighborhood on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Excellent density at 58K residents per square mile. This is accompanied by excellent transit access to 8 subway lines. Also has excellent access to Dwtn Brooklyn located just north of the neighborhood and a train ride to Lower Manhattan and Midtown are 25 & 30 mins, respectively.
* Excellent bike infrastructure including several dedicated bike lanes and plenty of bike rentals.
* Generally excellent sidewalks and modern ADA curbs, but still several curb cuts that have not been updated. * Great connectivity with gridded, generally small blocks.
* Urban form is really solid with only a handful of surface parking lots and modern public housing bldgs set back from the street. Streetscaping is also solid but a bit outdated on the biz districts.
* Historic architecture is also generally very attractive but does includes some industrial warehouses abutting Gowanus and the brownstones are not as ornate as Brooklyn Heights. Modern infill generally has solid urban form.
* Good tree canopy but not as full as neighboring Cobble Hill or Brooklyn Heights.
* Very safe community with limited blight except some in the transition zone with Gowanus.
* Solid racial and economic diversity. Much better than surrounding Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights.
* While market rents are certainly very high, lots of Stabilized rentals in Boerum Hill helping it to remain a diverse neighborhood after it gentrified.
* Solid array of walkable schools including a nice mix of public and private. Public schools are generally rated well but a couple of poorly rated ones. The Brooklyn High Schools of the Arts is located in Boerum Hill and highly rated.
* Good amount of rental product as well but also very expensive. Studios lease in the 2Ks 1-beds btwn 3K-4K, 2-beds btwn 4K-7K. Only a handful of 3-beds. However, there are a fair amount of rent stabilized units as over half of all units rent below 2K.
* Decent park access including several small but efficient parks. Good access still the expansive park amenities running along the East River.
* Solid cultural amenities including plenty of restaurants, bars & cafes, a comedy club, several art galleries, a handful of live music venues & community theaters, a couple of local museums, and the several theaters that make up the Brooklyn Academy Music just east of Boerum Hill and the Cobble Hill Cinema is nearby.
* Excellent retail amenities including several supermarket, a couple drug stores, several department stores including a target, two Marshalls, and much more sit just North of Boerum Hill. including many name brand clothing stores in Dwtn Brooklyn. Also a great # of boutiques/gift stores,/home good stores, a couple book stores, a couple hardware stores, several churches a public library & post office, several doctor’s offices are located within Boerum Hill and a major hospital & lots is only 10-15 min walk.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Decent parks including several small but efficient urban parks. Only large park within 20 min park is Fort Greene Park.
A lot of for sale condo product but generally very expensive. Fair amount of studios and 1-beds selling btwn 330K-650K. But most of these units sell btwn 700K-1.5M. 2-beds range btwn 850K-3M with most units selling btwn 1M–2M. Good # of 3-beds but very expensive ranging anywhere from 1.8K-4M with most product selling btwn 1.8M-3 M. A lot 4-bed product generally selling btwn 2M-5M.
Only a handful of dessert stores & bakeries

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. .”

Downtown Buffalo, NY

My evaluation of Downtown Buffalo includes the entire area between Elmwood and Michigan from west to east and Tupper St to the north south to the Buffalo River. In the Southwest corner of Dwtn where Elmwood Ave turns to the Buffalo Skyway as it doglegs right, I draw an imaginary straight line south to Erie St and thus catch more of the waterfront in this evaluation.

One can tell that Downtown Buffalo was once a grand City by the Historic Architecture still largely in tact. Downtown has a wonderful array of antique skyscrapers (i.e. City Hall, the Electric Tower, Guaranty Bldg, Rand Bldg, Liberty Bldg, etc.). Buffalo’s Art Deco City Hall is one of my favorite City Halls in America. But Downtown Buffalo has struggled to built momentum even since the return to the City movement of the 1990s. Apartment bldg conversions have been limited, the Main Street pedestrian mall conversion of the 70s and construction of Main Place Mall largely failed, and much of Dwtn has languished and feels pretty dead after 9-5 work hours.

Things started to improve for Downtown Buffalo since 2014 with the Canalside development opened new apartment bldgs, office space, and the a new hocky area. This is south of what I consider the core of Dwtn Buffalo. More recently, a plethora of residential conversion and new projects have been announced for the core of Downtown. Main street is being converted back to car traffic (fortunately with major streetscaping and renovation dollars fixing its mostly in-tact but often vacant building stock). Downtown Buffalo still has a long way to go to catch up to the likes of Dwtn Cleveland, Buffalo, Cincy, and Pittsburgh but it seems poised to make significant progress in the 2020s.

Click here to view my Downtown Buffalo Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* ADA infrastructure is generally good but some under invested intersections at the edges of Dwtn with proper curb cuts.
* Downtown Buffalo serves as a solid huge for public transit in the region. At least good public transit through the entire City of Buffalo. This extends a bit to the inner ring suburbs but quickly drops off.
* Good connectively in Dwtn and a nice set of diagonal streets similar to Detroit (but not as good). Lots of wide street s though. Fortunately most of them are 2-ways many have bike lanes on them.
* Dwtn has a nice array of bike lanes. Within the City there is great bike lane coverage along the lake, which extends well north of the City. An ok # of bike lanes in the City. Not great coverage in the suburbs. Great bike share system covering about 60% of the City and extending to some of the northern suburbs.
* Generally good diversity dwtn reflected in its residential demographics and activities. Plenty to do for kids with the AAA ballpark, children’s museum, ships, and other museums.
* Nice concentrations of schools across all grades. Mix bag with ratings.
* Decent college presence dwtn with several smaller colleges adding up to an enrollment of about 5K.
* Pre-pandemic Buffalo had about 50K jobs, a high number for its metro size. Total office space was pretty flat pre-pandemic and vacancy pretty height at ~25%.
* Dwtn is a major gov’t jobs center helped with its large Art Deco City bldg and several court houses. It also hosts a convention center, ballpark & NHL hockey arena & a smaller hocky arena next door. Historic post office is no longer a post office. Large modern library.
* Culturally many theaters (many historic), a cineplex, lots of live music venues & night clubs, plenty of restaurants, bars & cafes, several art galleries, and many museums.
* Great historic architecture. One of the best for its size.
* Buffalo generally holds its urban form together. Only a few streets like Main street are mostly in-tact but most areas of dwtn have over 60% of bldgs remaining. The eastern and southern edges host the most surface parking and low intensity bldgs.

URBAN WEAKNEESES:

* Density is pretty low here. Not a ton of hsg in Dwtn Buffalo.
* For sale housing is pretty limited in Dwtn. Not even any studio options. Some 1-beds (esp. near the waterfront), these sell btwn 200K-350; 2-beds sell btwn 300K-800K, 3-beds are concentrated along the waterfront and sell btwn 500K-1.2M.
* Rentals are very limited for a dwtn area but at least are moderately priced. 1-beds lease in the low 1Ks, 2&3 beds 1.5K-3K.
* Parks are pretty underwhelming Dwtn. There are a handful of nice smaller parks (i.e. Lafayette, Fireman’s, Niagara Sq, Fountain Plaza & Roosevelt) but nothing is outstanding. Decent park at Canalside a waterfront trail for about 1/4 of a mile.
* Fountain Plaza is Buffalo Civic heart but is pretty mediocre in my opinion. The fountain takes up more than half of the space. Some seating and another fountain.
* Pedestrian activity dwtn is so .
* Buzz is slowing growing for Dwtn Buffalo but its coming from a pretty low point. Locals have loathed their Dwtn for a long time.
* Retail amenities are a bit limited dwtn. The best amenity is a local supermarket. Dwtn has a drug store, a handful of boutiques & clothing stores, several banks & dessert joints, plenty of gyms & churches, and decent access to Buffalo General a mile away. Retail amenities dwtn went downhill when the Main Place Mall closed.
* Modern in-fill Dwtn is so . Handful of mid century towers, a couple 80s/90 office bldgs, and some better modern in-fill at Canalside. The Convention Center and the Main Place Mall are examples of unattractive 1960s-1970s in fill.