Addressing Wallabout's Wealth
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Addressing Wallabout’s Wealth Gap: FA19 Preservation Planning Studio Pratt Institute Graduate Center for Towards a Circular Economy Planning and the Environment Table of Contents PREPARED FOR REPORT PREPARED BY 1 Introduction 01 Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership Pratt Institute’s Preservation Planning Studio Fall 2019 Alex Jackson 2 Neighborhood Context 05 PROJECT PARTNERS Andrea Lustig Historic Development Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership Anvitha Reddy Gandu Wallabout Today Chad Purkey Delaney Taylor Kristin Brown Eileen Huggard Elizabeth Horen 3 Recommendations 17 Pratt Institute Jacqueline Ting Towards a Circular Economy 19 John Shapiro Joe Urso Sadra Shahab Josephina Matteson Zone 1 21 Ward Dennis Kelli Peterman Farming on NYCHA Luis Diaz Pallavi Shrikant Kanthe St. Michael-St. Edward Church SPECIAL THANKS TO Samuel Brodersen Myrtle Avenue Market Pratt Institute Faculty Members Timna Churges Golan Funding the Circular Economy Christopher Neville Travis Matts Eve Baron Zone 2 39 Juan Camilo Osorio Richard Wright Way Ron Shiffman Pratt Institute’s Preservation Planning Studio Vicki Weiner is a second-year, Graduate Center for Planning Stormwater Capture Under the BQE and the Environment course. The studio is Solar Windows and Green Energy Guest Critics and Speakers run in much the way a professional office Charlie Cunningham, EA Creative approaches a large-scale project. Students Zone 3 49 Kevin Kraft, NYC Dept. of City Planning apply analysis and synthesis skills; practice BQE Greening Initiative Sydney Céspedes, Pratt Center oral, graphic, and written communication Microtransportation Michael Higgins Jr., FUREE skills; and participate as effective members of a professional urbanism team. Maritime Freight Transportation Zone 4 57 New Industrial Zoning Overlay BID and IBZ Expansion Industrial Historic District Expansion Affordable Housing 4 Next Steps for the Partnership 71 References 73 Image Credits 78 Chapter 1 Introduction Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership p.03 Stakeholder Engagement p.04 Kids painting at Myrtle Avenue’s annual Move about Myrtle event, September 2010 01 The Wallabout Transition Section or Chapter Title 02 Stakeholder Engagement During the semester, we interviewed over 30 people with an interest in and knowledge about About the Report the community, as well as the topics we explored—from NYCHA tenant representatives to community board representatives to industry executives. Stakeholders included experts in This report aims to uncover and connect housing, community development, public health, and the industrial and manufacturing sector. Community Development Housing past and present stories of Wallabout, uplift • Ann Friedman, NY Landmarks Conservancy • Darold Burgess, Ingersoll Tenant Association • Frank Lang, St. Nicks Alliance • Isabella Lee, Walt Whitman Tenant Association narratives that call attention to the injustices • Geoffrey Wiener, GWW Planning & Development • Yianice Hernandez, NYCHA that have shaped the area, and envision a • Michael Zisser, University Settlement • Morriah Kaplan, Brooklyn Workforce Innovations Planning and Preservation Experts more economically just future. • Melissa Aase, University Settlement • Beth Bingham • Natasha Harsh, Artisan Market • Jen Becker • Robert Perris, Brooklyn Community Board 2 • Marcel Negret • Steve Davies, Project for Public Spaces • Paul Mankiewicz This report was prepared for the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership by members of the Histoic • Theo David Preservation and Planning studio at Pratt. The study area is the neighborhood of Wallabout, Industrial and BID Experts Brooklyn, located in the northern section of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, just south of the • Adam Friedman, Pratt Center Public Health Brooklyn Navy Yard. It encompasses the Raymond V. Ingersoll and Walt Whitman New York City • Bill Wilkins, East New York LDC • Staff Member, Brooklyn Hospital Center Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments, the largest public housing site in the nation. In this • Josh Levin, Long Island City Partnership • Ivory Harris, GrowNYC study, we aimed to uncover and connect the past and present stories of Wallabout, highlight • Leah Archibald, Evergreen • Kim Truong, DOHMH community characteristics that make Wallabout exceptional, uplift narratives that call attention • MIquela Craytor, NYC SBS • Liz Carolla, GrowNYC to the injustices that have shaped the area, and envision a more economically just future. In this • Neil Padukone, NYC SBS Saara Nafici, Red Hook Farms document, we will provide a new perspective on Wallabout’s history and existing conditions and • Nur Atiqa Asri, Streetsense provide a path forward to correcting divides within the community, as well as provide a set of recommendations for the Partnership. In our recommendations, we identify community engagement strategies and suggest that the Partnership create a prioritized advocacy and community engagement plan. Engagement tools, Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership chosen and organized by steering committees and community working groups, might include The Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership (“the Partnership”) is comprised of two entities: the public meetings, design charrettes including Place It! workshops with children and teenagers, Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project LDC and the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Business Improvement engagement booths on the Richard Wright Way, pop-up events on Myrtle Avenue, and focus District (BID). The Partnership is widely seen to be a good example for how a BID can support groups with business and property owners. economic revitalization from a conscious, justice-oriented perspective. The Partnership seeks to foster an inclusive, vibrant community and neighborhood commercial corridor that serves a diverse community of property owners, businesses, residents, workers, and visitors. FIGURE 1. FIGURE 2. Study Area Boundaries for the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership Studio (“Wallabout”) Services Area Boundaries 03 The Wallabout Transition Introduction 04 Chapter 2 Neighborhood Context Historic Development p.07 Wallabout Today p.15 Aerial View of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Navy Yard 05 The Wallabout Transition Section or Chapter Title 06 Historic Development Wallabout’s history is a story of racial and social class injustices—and resilience—that date back to colonial times. Enslavement to Self-Determination Gradual emancipation occurred in the early Wallabout is a part of the East River flatlands, 19th century through the efforts of local anti- an area historically good for farming. In the slavery organizations such as the Brooklyn land along the river between the Wallabout African Woolman Benevolent Society, and and Gowanus Bays, the Maereckkaak and people like local residents James W. C. Canarsee Native American tribes grew maize Pennington and Sylvanus Smith. In the before the Dutch settled in the area. Seeing Wallabout area, Brooklyn’s emancipated the land’s value, the Dutch colonized the area, black community mostly lived in what is now forming compact settlements and plantations DUMBO and Vinegar Hill, with the largest throughout the early 17th century. Many concentration living on and between Fulton, Native Americans were displaced through Main, and Front Streets. questionable land deals; many others died FIGURE 3. Industrial Growth and Class Segregation from infectious diseases brought over by The abolishment of slavery in New York State View of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Established in 1801, the Brooklyn Navy Yard from Fort Greene, 1847. Walt Whitman, A Key Influencer of European settlers. in 1827 did not mean free and equal however; was a major driving force in the development Wallabout’s Historical Narrative it resulted in segregated communities, and and urbanization of Wallabout. Although – Whitman came from a family of Dutch settlements were built by the labor inequality in education, housing, voting, the Brooklyn Navy Yard is not within the carpenters who contributed significantly of enslaved Africans, initiating 400 years of and employment only increased during the Wallabout neighborhood, its waves of to the area’s built character. He lived in inequality, oppression, and resistance of years following emancipation. Some in the expansion through the 19th century attracted Wallabout at 99 Ryerson Street when “Leaves African Americans in the area. It is believed the community found empowerment through workers to the area, and was a contributing of Grass” was first published in 1855. last public sale of human beings in the town of the establishment of social institutions, as factor in Wallabout’s growing industrial Brooklyn was to a widow in Wallabout in 1773. seen with the founding of the first African sector. By the mid-1800s, the Navy Yard was Whitman consistently fought for the rights Free School eight blocks west of Wallabout. employing African Americans in addition to of the working class and used his position as By 1820, Kings County was home to the largest The African Free School, which opened in Irish and other immigrant workers. Editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle to advocate number of enslaved and free black people in 1827, was started by the black community on for the creation of Fort Greene Park as “a New York State, and Wallabout was a small Nassau Street in what was then the Village At the same time, Brooklyn and Wallabout place of recreation… where, of hot summer farming community of about 215 people. Two- of Brooklyn to educate students excluded experienced a housing boom. Many Irish, evenings and Sundays, they can spend a few thirds of