By Stephen Witt
No matter how one looks at the issue, 2006 ended on a decisive note with the state giving final approval to the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project. But while the thought of the first major sports team – the Brooklyn Nets – coming to the borough since the Brooklyn Dodgers left in 1957, is major news, it is far from last year’s only news in the Fort Greene/Clinton Hill area. Development in general continued as the major story in the neighborhoods, whether it be the former Williamsburgh Bank Building or two luxury high-rises buildings just east of Flatbush Avenue next to the Ingersoll Houses. The neighborhoods saw other changes as well such as the loss of a longtime supermarket, and a move to create a Fulton Street Business Improvement District (BID). In politics, the area also saw the retirement of two longtime elected officials – a congress member and an assembly member, and the election to replace them. In quality of life and quirky stories, 2006 was the year of writers in Fort Greene Park, and digging up giant boulders. Finally, although overall major crime fell in Fort Greene/Clinton Hill, a disturbing number of murders haunted the area. Atlantic Yards The year began and ended with the specter of lawsuits over the controversial $4 billion plan for an arena to house the Nets and 17 high-rise buildings for housing, commercial and retail development. The January 2006 lawsuit centered on two issues — FCRC’s plans to tear down six buildings it owned in the footprint of the project, and the Empire State Development Corporation’s (ESDC) use of the same environmental attorney that had previously represented FCRC in the project. The buildings in question included the Underberg Building at 608-620 Atlantic Avenue; 461, 463 and 585 Dean Street; and 620 and 622 Pacific Street. FCRC contended the buildings were not structurally sound and posed chemical hazards such as asbestos. Opponents of the project contended FCRC wanted to tear the buildings down to further the impression that the site was a “blighted” area. Among the groups signing on to the lawsuit included Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB), the Fort Greene Association, the Pratt Area Community Council, the Fifth Avenue Committee and the Prospect Heights Action Coalition. In February, the State Supreme Court, rendered a split decision, ruling FCRC had a right to demolish the buildings, but that the attorney in question, David Paget, had to step away from representing the ESDC. The ESDC appealed the case and won the appeal in May. However, to avoid any hint of conflict of interest, they hired the Brian Cave law firm to replace Paget to represent the organization in the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) process. For the next several months, as the ESDC was readying a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the project, opponents, supporters and FCRC continued to spin various events and press releases in trying to sway public opinion. At the same time, Borough President Marty Markowitz convened a series of meetings with experts related to scoping issues covered in the upcoming DEIS on the proposed project. These meetings included such issues as traffic, sewage, shadows, and other environmental impacts. The interim also saw the continued rise of the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods (CBN), a coalition of about 25 longtime civic organizations, who ultimately received City Council funds to hire an independent consultant to go over the environmental review process. Among the spins brought on by FCRC and supporters was a hearing in Albany, several mailings, including some resembling a newspaper, and a informational hearing drawing several thousand people looking for some of the proposed 2,250 units of affordable housing in the project. Not to be outdone, DDDB and opponents held a series of meetings and rallies decrying the plan, and created a celebrity-filled advisory board. However, DDDB’s much publicized July rally in Grand Army Plaza drew hundreds of people and not the thousands that were anticipated. On July 18 the ESDC and FCRC released the long-awaited DEIS, which set off a 60-day timeline for the public to respond before the ESDC could vote to approve a final GPP (General Project Plan and EIS. Supporters and opponents then battled publicly through a public hearing and two community forums on the issue at the New York City College of Technology, 285 Jay Street. In the interim, opponents suffered a major blow in the court of public opinion, when their candidates running largely on an anti-project stance were trounced in the September Democratic primary. Then in November the ESDC approved the release of the final EIS, and after yet another review due to some missing public comments, certified the FEIS and GPP in December, sending it to the state Public Authorities Control Board (PACB). Then on December 20, the PACB approved the plan, ending the legislative part of the process. However, DDDB and other opponents have filed another two lawsuits and promise more to come charging the project abuses the use of eminent domain. “The federal eminent domain lawsuit brought by citizens protecting their constitutional rights is rock-solid, and without those plaintiffs’ properties, Atlantic Yards as we know it – an arena studded with 16 outmoded super block towers – cannot be built,” said DDDB spokesman Daniel Goldstein. More Luxury Housing In June, NBA Hall of Fame player Earvin “Magic” Johnson came to the borough to announce the planned conversion and marketing of the Williamsburgh Bank Building into 189 luxury condominiums. Under the plan, the 35th and 36th floor penthouses would sell for $3 million and $2.7 million respectively, and feature outdoor rap-around terraces with panoramic views of the city and New York Harbor. “It’s an opportunity to own a piece of history. It’s the icon of the Brooklyn skyline,” exclaimed Corcoran Group Vice President Adam Pacelli, who is in charge of marketing the gold domed, 37-story landmark building with the largest four-sided clock this side of Big Ben. The building, which at one time also housed many dentist suites, will keep about 17 dental offices on the seventh floor. Groundbreaking was also done in April 2006 for the borough’s tallest new construction buildings – several stories (but not feet) higher than the Williamsburg Bank Building. And while some residents next door at the Ingersoll Houses may be scrounging for rent money, their future neighbors at 306 and 313 Gold Street, within walking distance of the Manhattan Bridge, will be living in their new luxury condominium buildings. “The two buildings represent the first step toward achieving the vision of a new Downtown Brooklyn, with apartments, grocery stores, retail shops, and open space, and foot traffic to restaurants, art galleries, and the amenities that every American city’s downtown offers,” said Borough President Marty Markowitz. “When completed, their innovative design will add glamour and high style to what is already a wonderful experience — entering the city of Brooklyn,” Markowitz added. But Margaret Brown, a representative from the nearby Farragut Houses, 251 Nassau Street, a low-income public housing project, near the new development saw things differently. “I am concerned that this type of project will displace people at the Farragut Houses. They’re building all around and we’re in the middle so we don’t know what’s going to happen with us,” said Brown. Across the street from the planned new buildings at the Ingersol Houses, 120 Navy Walk, a 26-year-old man who went by the name of “Jones” said he didn’t mind the new development since economic diversity would help the area in terms of jobs. However, the man added the new buildings are a sign of things to come including the displacement of more low-income residents as the areas closer to the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges become hotter real estate markets. Both developments also came in a year that saw ACORN (Association of Community Organizations For Reform Now) release a study showing that very few new developments in the Downtown Brooklyn area, including Fort Greene and Clinton Hill have affordable housing components. As such, ACORN held several protests in 2006 asking for reforms to the 421-a state provision which gives tax subsidies to any company that develops in the city. The year wound up with the city passing recommendations to the state that would mandate an affordable housing component in some neighborhoods, including Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, to developers using the 421-a provision. Business Good and Bad Local shoppers saw the closing of the Associated Supermarket, 176 Myrtle Avenue, in August to make way for demolition of the building. The store razing makes way for a development planned by John Catsimatidis – CEO of the Red Apple Group in Manhattan, which also controls the supermarket chain Gristede’s Foods – for a new retail and residential strip on Myrtle Avenue from Flatbush Avenue Extension to Ashland Place, just east of MetroTech Center. Catsimatidis plans to build a 400-foot building with up to 500 condos and luxury rentals, and several 160-foot buildings for mixed income affordable housing and retail. Preliminary plans also call for a Gristede’s on the new strip and to leave a Duane Reade drugstore at 166 Myrtle Avenue in place. In the meantime, the Pratt Area Community Council (PACC) continued spearheading the drive to create Central Fulton Street Business Improvement District (CFSBID). The BID would be on Fulton Street between Flatbush and Classon Avenues and include the offshoot thoroughfares of Lafayette, South Portland, Putnam and Greene Avenues, Fort Greene Place and South Oxford Street. “I think it [BID] is definitely needed, especially security,” said Kay Lee, who owns a grocery store, restaurant and hair salon within the proposed district. “There’s still people asking for money. A number of people still gather and it aggravates some residents and doesn’t look good. Things are changing but it still needs to be changed a little more,” Lee added. A BID is a formalized way for businesses in a commercial area to fund extra services in their community. The BID is expected to get final approval in 2007. Politics Opponents of the Atlantic Yards project had hoped for an electorate mandate in regard to two hotly contested primaries, in which the incumbents were retiring. In the 11th Congressional District primary, City Councilmember Yvette Clarke, who is in favor of the project, beat City Council member David Yassky, State Sen. Carl Andrews and Chris Owens, son of the retiring Major Owens. Chris Owens, the only candidate against the project, finished last in the four-way race. In the 57th Assembly seat to replace Roger Green, Hakeem Jeffries, a moderate on the issue, rode to a landslide victory over Bill Batson, who ardently opposed the project. Jeffries garnered 5,770 votes, or about 64 percent, to Batson’s 2,226 votes or about 25 percent of the electorate. Project supporter Freddie Hamilton finished third with 1,008 votes or about 11 percent. “I think this campaign was a contrast in approach. Some folks were running a negative campaign. We stayed positive. Some folks tried to create hostility in the community. We talked about hope,” said Jeffries following his victory. “We have an affordable housing crisis that is suffocating the neighborhoods of central Brooklyn and in communities across the district – Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights and parts of Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant,” he added. In specific regard to the Atlantic Yards project, Jeffries said his election was a triumph for a thoughtful approach to the development. Jeffries did write a letter to the PACB asking for a delay in the Atlantic Yards vote, but appeared satisfied with the vote after FCRC agreed to put in an affordable home ownership component to the project. Quality of Life One again, the Fort Greene/Clinton Hill neighborhoods showcased it quirky and artistic character, making it one of the most sought after areas in the city to live. Among the events the neighborhood hosted included the second annual Fort Greene Park Summer Literary Festival, featuring some of the borough’s literary lions reading their work. The writers present at the event included Jhumpa Lahiri, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning short story collection “Interpreter of Maladies,” and Sapphire, author of the novel, “Push,” and the poetry collection, “American Dreams.” Both writers also shared the reading stage with local young writers from the community in the August event. The young writers involved in the reading were all participants in a free summer-long series of creative writing workshops that took place in the park. “Once again, kids from the community have been writing and sharing their words in Fort Greene Park, where Richard Wright, Walt Whitman, Marianne Moore and many others all wrote,” said Aaron Zimmerman, founder and executive director of the NY Writers Coalition. “The series has drawn the next generation of writers from the neighborhood to add their own fresh and distinctive work to this wonderful legacy,” he added. Fort Greene Park also saw the installation of one of the three giant boulders dug up workers performing sewer upgrade work on Vanderbilt Avenue between Park and Myrtle avenues near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. “These stones belong in Fort Greene and maybe we can work something out to put them in the great playing area right in the center of Fort Greene Park. Maybe we can get children, like I did as a child, to play on the rocks,” said resident Roy (Rocco) Vanasco, after hearing the rocks would go to Queens. One of the boulders made it to the park thanks to the rock-solid support of City Councilmember Letitia James. “Save the boulder and keep it in Fort Greene Park,” lamented James. “I’m against displacement of people and rocks.” Crime Although major crime in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill fell about 8.3 percent for the year, there were 11 murders compared to only 1 in 2005. Of these homicides, the most brutal occurred at the Walt Whitman Houses in December where Haydee Soto, 42, and her teenage children, John James Bordoy, 15, and daughter, Valerie Rivera, 13, were bludgeoned to death. Also found at the crime scene was the killer, Hector Viera, 34, who committed suicide with a drug overdose. Aside from the gruesome murder statistic, however, the community worked hard with local police to confront such issues as the escalation of gangs through a community forum. Among the larger drops in crime was burglary, which fell nearly 20 percent in 2006 as compared to 2005, and robbery which fell about 17 percent.
