IN THIS ISSUE FIRST FOCUS 04 | Work in Progress Residents Get More NYCHA Jobs By Diana Scholl

10 | A Fork In The Paper Trail Dark Marks and Light Secrets By Neil deMause and Jarrett Murphy

04 | Health Care Diagnosing a Defeat By Neil deMause

04 | Government Obama and the Cities Vol. 35, No. 1 By Jarett Murphy March 2011

City Limits is published bi-monthly Magazine Distribution: For retail and THE FEATURE by the Community Service Society newsstand distribution opportunities, of New York (CSS). For more than 160 visit www.citylimits.org/distribution or years, CSS has been on the cutting edge e-mail [email protected] 12 of public policy innovations to Brooklyn support low-income New Yorkers in Sponsorship and Advertising: We offer The Borough Behind The Brand their quest to be full participants in organizations, businesses and agencies By Jake Mooney the civic life of the nation’s largest city. advertising and sponsorship opportuni- ties on CityLimits.org and in City Limits Photographs by Marc Fader City Limits magazine’s print and digital editions. 105 East 22nd Street, Suite #901 Additional advertising opportunities are New York, NY 10010 available on City Limits’ Mobile Page, 212-614-5397 Video Features and E-Newsletters. CHAPTERS Visit www.citylimits.org/advertise to CityLimits.org features daily news, download our media kit and rate card 14 | Waking the Dead investigative features and resources in or call 212-614-5398. Reputation and reality in today’s Brooklyn the city’s five boroughs. Letters to the Editor: We welcome Jobs and Marketplace: Submit job 23 | Hot and Cool letters, articles, press releases, ideas and listings, calendar events, marketplace submissions. Please send them to maga- listings and announcements at How Brooklyn became a destination [email protected]. www.citylimits.org/post. 33 | Quitting Time Subscriptions and Customer Service: Periodical Postage Paid: A factory’s fall, a neighborhood’s fallout U.S. subscriptions to City Limits are $25 New York, NY 10001 for one year for the print edition, $15 for City Limits (USPS 498-890) one year for the digital edition and $30 (ISSN: 0199-0330) 44 | Living on the Edge for both the print and digital editions. From East New York to Bay Ridge, change in Brooklyn Digital and print single issues are $4.95. If the Postal Service alerts us that your goes off script magazine is undeliverable, we have no fur- To subscribe or renew visit ther obligation unless we receive a corrected The Destination www.citylimits.org/subscribe address within a year. Postmaster: Please 44 | or contact toll free 1-877-231-7065 or send address changes to: P.O. Box 3000, The new history of Brooklyn write to City Limits, P.O. Box 3000, Denville, NJ 07834-9253 Denville, NJ 07834-9253 Copyright © 2011. All rights reserved. Contributions: City Limits depends on your support to provide investigative No portion or portions of this journal MORE ON THE COVER: journalism and cover the five boroughs. may be reprinted without the express 58 | Homework Brooklyn, the city’s most Contribute at www.citylimits.org/support permission of the publishers. City Limits populous county, has an or contact 212-614-5398 for development is indexed in the Alternative Press Index Explore Brooklyn international mystique and opportunities. and the Avery Index to Architectural has been the epicenter of Periodicals and is available on microfilm 62 | ExtraExtra demographic and economic For Bulk Magazine Orders: visit from ProQuest, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Events, Jobs, Announcements change in the five boroughs. www.citylimits.org/subscribe or contact and Offers How does that evolving City Limits’ subscription customer service reality match up to the long- at 1-877-231-7065 or write to P.O. Box standing reputation? Photo 3000, Denville, NJ 07834-9253 LookBack 64 | by Marc Fader Tip of an Iceberg

www.citylimits.org 1 City Limits staff

Director Mark Anthony Thomas

Editor-in-Chief Jarrett Murphy

Deputy Editor Kelly Virella

What’s new and what’s Contributing Editors Commuters on the No. 7 train platform at Grand Central. Photo by next at citylimits.org Marc Fader Neil deMause, Marc Fader, Jake Mooney, Diana Scholl, Back to Brooklyn Helen Zelon “It has been more than 70 years since New York City Advertising Director Thirty-five years ago this month, in blocky typeface on stapled causes and their impact is not simple. has opened a new subway line. Meanwhile, our Allison Tellis-Hinds yellow sheets, City Limits published its first issue. The lead Photographer Marc Fader, meanwhile, explores the world global competitors from London to Paris to Moscow Marketing Assistant article began with the word Brooklyn. of Brooklyn at night. In a borough that is big enough to be to Hong Kong to Tokyo have been steadily expanding How fitting that we launch this anniversary year with America’s fifth largest city, the true identity of neighborhoods Nekoro Gomes an issue dedicated to understanding—at least a little more can sometimes be detected only when most of its people have their transit networks.” - Gene Russianoff, Straphanger’s Campaign Responding to Creative Direction clearly—what has been going on in that borough. gone to bed. “ All I Want For Christmas Is A Subway To Staten Island,” By Samuel “Gridlock Sam” Schwartz, Dec. 16, 2010 Thanks to the pen of Neil Simon, the camera of Spike Lee Vast and varied, Brooklyn defies comprehensive depiction Smyrski Creative and the beats of everyone from the Beastie Boys to Jay-Z, in words or images. But Mooney and Fader give us a sense ECONOMICS HOUSING Proofreader Brooklyn has a world- of the more challenging, FLYING BLIND WORKING FROM HOME Danial Adkison wide cultural profile, more interesting reality representing something that lies beneath the bor- Interns authentically urban even ough’s reputation. It’s the Catherine Dunn, Becca Fink, Laura to people who couldn’t kind of story City Limits Gottesdiener, Isabella Moschen, find it on a map. was founded 35 years ago Joshua Peguero, Tiffany Walden The real Brooklyn has to publish.

never really matched And we’ve recently the image. And now learned that two founda- that reality is changing, tions are taking a bold When the City Council asked the Board its evolution measured stake in our ability to city’s Human Resources Agency For years, federal law required in the number of blogs continue that kind of for information on how levels of public housing authorities to Mark Edmiston, chair launched, the number journalism. The Ford welfare usage compared with employ residents in maintenance Adam Blumenthal Andy Breslau of high-rises built, the Foundation this month those of past years as well as and construction jobs. And for present needs, it got a surprising years the New York City Housing Michael Connor number of Chinese announced a grant of up answer: HRA didn’t know how Authority didn’t comply. But a new David R. Jones families moving to to $225,000 to expand our many people applied before 2009, NYCHA program is reversing that Andy Reicher Bensonhurst and the editorial capacity, and the doesn’t really explain why people record of failure. Is it changing Michele Webb transformation—for Brooklyn Community are falling out of the application lives as well? good and ill—of Williamsburg and Bushwick. Foundation last month agreed to partner with us in creating process now and doesn’t track how In the pages that follow, Jake Mooney explores three sides a Brooklyn bureau to provide the kind of in-depth coverage many errors it makes of the modern Brooklyn. In Fort Greene, we see the influx of the borough deserves. youthful energy and investment that is reshaping the borough. Thus, as it enters this landmark year, City Limits returns to Up Next At a site in Bed-Stuy, there’s evidence of a different—nega- where it started, looking at a part of New York that fascinates CHILD WELFARE BEHIND BARS ‘EMPTY’ RHETORIC tive—change from Brooklyn’s past decade: deindustrialization. the world. The stories have changed since 1976. But the thirst to Guards and inmates, And on the streets of East New York, Bushwick, Bensonhurst, understand them is still what animates our writers and readers. there are narratives of change that fit neither the script of real Mayor Bloomberg’s bid to take over the city’s youth sex and rape, in New estate resurrection nor the elegy for forgotten factories. Sincerely yours, justice system from the state has raised broad York’s prisons At each site, Mooney finds that sizing up the changes, their Jarrett Murphy support—and new questions. Coming in FEBRUARY

2 The Note City Limits / Vol. 35 / No. 1 www.citylimits.org 3 FIRST In part because of push- back from advocates call- FOCUS ing for residents to be employed on stimulus-re- lated housing work and in- NANCY HARDY AD creased follow-up from HUD, even NYCHA critics agree WORK IN PROGRESS: RESIDENTS the agency has made a real GET MORE NYCHA JOBS effort to step up job training and hiring of tenants. Since 1968, public housing authorities nationwide have largely been ignoring a

law requiring that they employ residents. Evidence suggests that at NYCHA, at fill in the gaps by offering these trainings. While the trainings least, that’s changing. fill up fast, at least NYCHA is now offering them. NYCHA isn’t providing these opportunities to residents solely on its own volition. Technically, they’re required by federal erome Mosley, a resident of the law. Section 3 of the 1968 Housing and Urban Development Thomas Jefferson Houses in Harlem, (HUD) Act created the goal of employing public housing was unemployed and wanted to residents on public housing development projects. The policy NYCHA staff members and 48 percent of new NYCHA staffers J get work in construction—which was amended in 1997 to state that housing authorities should in 2010. And residents’ share of the more coveted, well-paying would offer much better pay than the fill at least 30 percent of their full-time jobs with public hous- jobs with outside contractors that can lead to union membership, retail management job he had lost a ing residents—”to the greatest extent possible.” This language such as Mosley’s construction assignment, have also improved. year earlier. Despite filling out dozens of gives a lot of wiggle room and was rarely enforced by HUD. In 2009 there were only 265 placements with external contrac- employment applications, he was reach- In turn, public housing authorities, including NYCHA, tors. In 2010, there were 613. Eighty-five of those residents ing dead ends. Then in May he enrolled rarely complied. And even when jobs were available, one of became union members. According to NYCHA, the average in the Bloomberg administration’s Jobs the largest complaints by NYCHA residents about Section 3 job pays $33 an hour and lasts 11 months. Plus program, where he heard about compliance has been that is that there isn’t enough training The authority’s 2011 annual plan says 25 percent of a New York City Housing Authority to make residents eligible for those jobs. NYCHA’s workforce and 53 percent of its new hires in 2009 training program open to public hous- But in part because of pushback from advocates calling for were residents. ing residents like him. After taking a test residents to be employed on stimulus-related housing work “It’s a challenge, but I think it’s a significant success,” says and an interview, Mosley was chosen for and increased follow-up from HUD, even NYCHA critics NYCHA Senior Advisor Michelle Pinnock. Pinnock says NYCHA’s selective job training program. agree the agency has made a real effort to step up job training that NYCHA’s Section 3 progress was the result of increased After 40 hours of hands-on experience and hiring of tenants. training programs, as well as working with contractors and A year after losing a retail job, Jerome Mosley entered a job-training program for NYCHA residents. Now in painting and 125 hours of training he’s making good money on a roofing project. “I think more people are starting to hear about Section 3,” unions to create opportunities for career advancement. in carpentry and scaffolding, Mosley says Roxanne Reid, the Castle Hill tenant association president obtained his U.S. Occupation Safety and a member of the advocacy group Community Voices Only a start and Health Administration (OSHA) “I’m ecstatic,” Mosley says. “Not only years offered apprenticeship programs, Heard, who worked for eight hours a week through a Section These jobs, while an improvement, only make a dent in certification and was recently hired for am I working, but I’m learning.” it was only in September that it offered 3 contract from July through December, when the project unemployment among NYCHA tenants. In 2005, before the a roofing project for NYCHA through a Of the six people working on his cur- the first of its Resident Training Acad- expired. “They are getting people hired. Some of them are national recession, 20,000 NYCHA residents were seeking private contractor, GTS Construction. He rent project, Mosley is the only NYCHA emies. Mosley was one of 150 residents even getting into the union. I don’t like to see young kids on jobs—the equivalent of a 17 percent unemployment rate, has another project lined up in asbestos resident. Still, it is safe to say that Mosley’s who benefited from that Robin Hood the street, wasting their time. I just wish [NYCHA] would get according to a May 2009 study by Community Service Society abatement which he plans to start in story, though still rare among NYCHA Foundation-sponsored program. For more [people] on board and hire more, so they have something of New York (which owns City Limits). According to CSSNY, February. Both projects pay $40.50 an residents, would probably not have hap- most construction jobs, an OSHA card is to look forward to.” NYCHA residents’ pre-recession unemployment numbers hour for 38 to 40 hours a week. pened a year ago. While NYCHA has for required. In 2009 tenant groups tried to By the end of 2010, NYCHA residents accounted for 852 were comparable to those for similar demographic groups

4 TheFirst DeathFocus and Life of the Neighborhood Store City Limits / Vol. 3435 / No. 51 www.citylimits.org 5 HEALTH CARE throughout the city. However, as the report noted, “There is a cruel irony when residents from day to day Diagnosing a Defeat watch large-scale capital improvements being carried out in their developments, while family members Last winter, it seemed all but inevitable that New York and neighbors cannot access the jobs being created.” would become the latest municipality to pass a law man- In an unscientific survey by Community Voices dating that all city businesses provide paid sick leave to Heard in October 2010 of NYCHA buildings getting their employees. A veto-proof majority of 37 City Council stimulus dollars for public improvement projects, only members backed a bill that would mandate at least five one percent of the residents were working on a project, days of annual leave for all workers. and seven percent knew people working on projects. One year later, the Paid Sick Time Act is virtually dead. Erik Crawford, the president of the resident Why? Blame the murky science of calculating costs, politi- association at Davidson Housing in the Bronx says cal maneuvering by a potential mayoral candidate and the deferential customs of the City Council. he attempted to do Section 3 training. “I’ve never The Community Service Society (which owns City Limits) been called for contracting. My name got lost,” says estimated last year that about 48 percent of the private- Crawford, who currently works part-time elsewhere. industry workforce received no paid sick time, and 39 “I would like to get a job through Section 3. A lot of percent had no paid leave time at all. But the Partnership these jobs have great opportunities and benefits.” for New York City—the city’s largest business group—this Although NYCHA says the average Section 3 job fall released its own survey, which estimated that a mere BROOKLYN RESTORATION AD lasts 11 months, Crawford says among residents of his 12 percent of workers lacked sick time. development, the project appear to be shorter-term. And while sick-leave proponents figured that any “The few people that receive these jobs complain that added costs to businesses would be minimal—since the costs of sick pay were offset by increased productivity— they’re not long-term,” he says. the partnership study projected $789 million a year in According to National Low Income Housing Coali- added costs. tion Staff Attorney Catherine Bishop, who coordinates Opponents said the bill would force many firms that a Section 3 working group, tenants who qualify for already offer sick-leave to revise or expand their policies. Section 3 jobs across the country tend to be higher Backers said this wasn’t so. Details like these were expected educated. “The ones they end up serving are the ones to be hashed out in negotiations. But that never hap- easier to train,” Bishop says. “I’m not saying it’s easy pened—something that each side blames the other for. to make a carpenter into a computer programmer, The final nail in the bill’s coffin was when Council but it is easier than working with someone who has Speaker Christine Quinn declared in October that “now is simply not the right time for a measure that threatens no training. Most workforce investment programs the survival of small-business owners.” Some wonder if don’t reach the lowest income families who haven’t Quinn’s purported mayoral ambitions—if she runs in 2013, been in a legitimate job in the job market.” she’ll probably want the backing of business leaders and Pinnock says that the goal is to place people in Mayor Bloomberg, a strong opponent of the paid-sick- longer-term jobs. leave law—shaped her strategy. “Many of the jobs have been temporary, but people Whatever Quinn’s reasons, the Council had the num- are building a career and connecting to additional bers to pass the bill over the speaker’s objections. But opportunities. What you’re seeing is the steps that are such a mutiny hasn’t occurred in recent memory. With the underway to increase the participation of residents speaker having the power to control committee chair- manships and the stipends that go with them, it’s almost that [as a result of Section 3] constantly have money impossible for councilmembers to muster support for any come in and have a situation righted,” she says. bill without the speaker’s blessing. One uncomfortable aspect of Section 3 is that it Quinn says she’s open to reconsidering the legisla- is still primarily a boy’s club. According to CSSNY’s tion “in a better economy,” though she hasn’t provided 2009 study, female NYCHA residents are more likely specifics. One hopeful sign for proponents is that similar to be job-hunting. However, Section 3 jobs are largely legislation is moving forward going to men, as construction and janitorial jobs often elsewhere: The National Councilwoman Partnership for Women and do nationwide. Only 21 percent of the contractor Gale Brewer, sick Families notes that there’s jobs in 2010 went to female residents. To try to close leave bill author broad legislative support for the gender gap, NYCHA is now offering all-women statewide sick-leave laws classes in basic construction and janitorial services. in both Connecticut and “NYCHA has been improving its track record on Massachusetts. Section 3 within the last year or two,” says Victor —Neil deMause Bach, CSSNY’s senior housing policy analyst. “But I

6 TheFirst DeathFocus and Life of the Neighborhood Store City Limits / Vol. 3435 / No. 51 GOVERNMENT still think it needs to face the challenge, full- a steamfitter. He says he hopes to join she says. “They seem to wait for people far. Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) has Obama and the Cities scale, of tens of thousands of working-age the union, and get a job where he can to complain.” periodically introduced legislation to set resident who are seeking employment and work more hours. Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing much clearer benchmarks. However, it who have not yet been absorbed into training “The paycheck is great,” says Novarro, and Equal Opportunity at HUD John has not been re-introduced since 2007. With his political roots and job opportunities. I think the challenge the father of four. “The kids love it too. Trasviña counters, “Obviously we can In the meantime, HUD says it plans to on Chicago’s South Side, is even greater given the economic stimulus They know when it’s payday.” always use more resources, but there step up implementation. In 2009, only 20 Barack Obama has the capital funding that NYCHA received—$423 are things we’ve been able to accomplish percent of jurisdictions even reported to most urban pedigree of million. I think many resident leaders would What’s happening nationally? with the political will.” Trasviña says the HUD. In 2010, Trasviña says, 76 percent any president since one- have expected more by way of outcomes.” While NYCHA—the nation’s oldest and next step is making sure each jurisdiction of jurisdictions reported their progress. time New York City police largest public housing authority—has has a Section 3 coordinator to help with “[Section 3 compliance] is a priority of commissioner Theodore certainly stepped up its Section 3 game, enforcement. Trasviña says a new effort the entire administration. It speaks to Roosevelt. And his 2008 vic- Photo courtesy White House it’s unclear if other housing authorities toward that end will soon get underway, the economic situation. It also speaks tory owed much to cities: are following suit. There is little Section 3 but wouldn’t divulge details. to good government.” 86 percent of his popular-vote margin was generated in America’s “The paycheck is enforcement from HUD. The feds rarely A long-standing issue is Section 3’s —Diana Scholl 50 largest metro areas. impose sanctions, and because this is an language, especially the “to the greatest A month after his inauguration, Obama made good on his great,” says one unfunded mandate, it is easy for public extent possible” caveat that has given promise to create the White House Office of Urban Affairs. But worker, the father of housing authorities to simply not fund jurisdictions an easy out. “In the last ten while the office conducted a national listening tour and ordered job training, and then claim there are no years, I’ve reviewed a couple of drafts to federal agencies to consider how their policies affected cities and four. “The kids love qualified residents for the work. change the Section 3 regulation,” Bishop metro regions, it certainly didn’t garner headlines, which was part Bishop says that although she believes says. “But it is a bureaucracy. It’s very of what cities’ advocates hoped the White House office would do: it too. They know HUD is making some progress at enforce- time-consuming and complex to change elevate the urban agenda. ment, the Section 3 office is short-staffed. a regulation. You need someone who’s Now more ambitious urban programs are gathering steam. In when it’s payday.” “Because their staff is so small, they going make it happen.” October, the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, which links have not had the capability of doing There have been some efforts to change the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Depart- anything about Section 3 compliance,” the language, but it hasn’t gone very ment of Transportation to the Environmental Protection Agency, Getting contractors on board announced two mass funding awards encompassing $166 million The other chief complaint about NYCHA’s and 107 communities. Section 3 program is that outside contrac- One recipient, the Manhattan-based Regional Plan Association, tors are loathe to hire NYCHA residents. is working with a consortium of governments from Connecticut, Although contractor hiring is improving, Westchester County, Long Island and the city to develop the Hous- NYCHA doesn’t require contractors to hire ing Incentive Fund, which aims to spur more development near residents. “We will work with contractors transit centers, especially along the Metro-North rail line and Inter- and look at what is feasible,” says Pinnock. state 287 and to run a strategic planning process to gird New York “The expectation is they will hire residents City for the effects of climate change. when possible.” The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning received $4.25 Vincent Grays is one of those people. million to implement GO TO 2040, a comprehensive plan linking Already a trained electrician, he got his housing, transit and economic development. In Kansas City, the OSHA card renewed through the NYCHA Mid-America Regional Council was awarded funding to create a training. He worked at Queensbridge House, regionwide system so decisions on where to house people would as an electrician for sub-contractor Ohm’s include consideration of broader demand and wider supply than Electric for 10 months. Ohm’s plans to hire AQUARIUM AD just what’s located in one city or town. The Puget Sound Regional him permanently. Council already has a “Vision 2040” plan, and the region will soon “The whole experience has been wonder- build a new transit system, so the HUD money is supposed to help ful for me,” Grays says. “They paid me the PSRC fit the latter into the former. scale that was owed to me. I’d recommend The Capitol Region Council of Governments in Connecticut the training for anyone who’s serious about plans a raft of initiatives. But the linchpin of the CRCOG plan is a getting to work.” busway between Hartford and New Britain, a small city nine miles Another happy employee is Christopher from the capital, is suddenly imperiled by fiscal concerns—wor- Novarro, who received his OSHA card after ries that are likely to challenge all the plans fostered by Obama’s completing a training set up by his resident initiative.. association and is currently working eight —Jarrett Murphy hours a week doing scaffolding, making $33 an hour. He had previously worked as

8 TheFirst DeathFocus and Life of the Neighborhood Store City Limits / Vol. 3435 / No. 51

www.citylimits.org Manhattan in the THE FEATURE background: The view of downtown from downtown.

By Jake Mooney / Photographs by Marc Fader Brooklyn: The Borough Behind The Brand CHAPTER ONE

Junior’s, a 60-year- old institution, “as Brooklyn as it gets.” But the Junior’s brand is known well beyond the Lunch borough’s borders. At Junior’s Reputation and reality in today’s Brooklyn

omewhere on the westbound Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, past Newtown Creek and the low roof- tops of South Williamsburg but before the Jehovah’s Witnesses headquarters, drivers pass a billboard for Junior’s, the 60-year-old restaurant and cheesecake emporium on Flatbush Avenue. “As Brooklyn as it gets,” the sign proclaims. The billboard stands off to the right, next to the Brooklyn Navy Yard—the site, these days, of a tow pound and a movie studio, though no navy. To the left, past the square brick buildings of a public housing complex, is a glowing clock tower and, beyond it, the vast expanse of a borough that holds nearly a third of New York City’s residents. Junior’s, as Brooklyn as it gets, is a few blocks from the highway, its marquee lights flashing on a busy corner. Inside, what it is to be Brooklyn is not made clear, but the pictures on the dining room’s walls offer a hint. On one is Jackie Gleason, who hustled pool in his native Bedford-Stuyvesant and set his famous bus driver, Ralph Kramden, in an apartment there too. On another, there’s Biggie Smalls, who came of age on the same streets and reached for the same brash fame generations later. Nearby are Barbra Streisand, Lena Horne, Danny Kaye and Harvey Keitel. Across the room is a framed jersey for the Brooklyn Nets, a basketball team that does not yet exist and whose arrival in the borough will come, if it does, over the vehement protests of many of its closest Brooklyn neighbors. In another corner are two baseball gloves and a Brooklyn Dodgers hat—relics of a team beloved by its fans despite, or even because of, the years it spent as second best. No sooner had the team finally won than it left for California.

12 Brooklyn: The Borough Behind The Brand City Limits / Vol. 35 / No. 1 www.citylimits.org 13 All these images are, somehow, Brooklyn—as hardware store. So are Jay-Z, one-third of the Beastie is Junior’s, an enterprise that has grown from one Boys and Neil Diamond. So, as the writer Levi Asher restaurant near Borough Hall into a minichain, with (from Queens) points out, was Bugs Bunny. Brooklyn, By The Numbers locations in Times Square, Grand Central Terminal Something besides location—an attitude—links them Brooklyn isn’t one story—it’s 70 square miles and 2.5 million and Foxwoods casino. all together. When Marty Markowitz, the borough’s people worth of stories. The borough’s diversity and complexity The Brooklyn name itself has evolved into a power- voluble president, unveiled wisecracking highway is visible when you walk its streets, take the subway or look at ful marketing tool, for products made—or not—in signs, “Leaving Brooklyn—Fuhgeddaboudit,” even statistics on Brooklyn’s demography, economy, politics, health the borough. There is, of course, Brooklyn Lager and people just passing through got the joke. and crime. Throughout this issue are charts that capture some of Brooklyn Industries, and there are also Brooklyn Brine When you’re out of town and you tell people you’re these facts. And there’s more data online at www.citylimits.org pickles, Brooklyn perfume and Absolut Brooklyn from Brooklyn, says Karen Buryiak, a Junior’s waitress vodka, an apple-and-ginger-flavored spirit endorsed who grew up in Flatbush, people know what you’re by another figure from the Junior’s wall of fame, talking about. It brings an idea to mind. Spike Lee, but not on the menu at the Brooklyneer, a “Usually it’s the tough-guy thing,” she muses. “But Population 8,391,881 Brooklyn-themed bar and restaurant ... on Manhattan’s now I think it’s changing a little bit. You’ve got the 7,891,957 7,894,862 West Houston Street. hipster thing going on a little bit.” 6,930,446 7,071,639 8 Million There is reason to wonder if the image ever matched 5,620,048 reality. The borough was never populated exclusively 7 Million by wisecracking hustlers or tough guys with hearts 4,766,883 6 Million The Brooklyn name itself of gold, just as it isn’t wall-to-wall with hipsters now. New York “Like Queens and the Bronx and Staten Island,” 5 Million 3,437,202 has evolved into a powerful Asher writes, “the outer boroughs are where the service Brooklyn industry lived, and still lives. Plumbers, cab drivers, 2,738,175 4 Million 2,560,401 2,602,012 2,567,098 marketing tool, for products teachers, factory workers, receptionists, tailors, fry 2,018,356 2,230,936 cooks, executive assistants—it’s this economic sector 3 Million 1,634,351 made—or not—in the that makes Brooklyn Brooklyn.” 1,166,582 borough. It is all meant, in Something, though, has shifted of late. There are 2 Million Brooklyn tourists now, drawn over the bridge by 1Million a branding sense, to evoke guidebooks or carried by tour buses that stop at Junior’s for lunch. Brooklyn now is a destination. The borough something. But what? that was defined by its outsider status, that drew its 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2009 defining scrappiness and even hipness from its little- brother relationship to the metropolis next door, now It is all meant, in a branding sense, to evoke some- has a following of its own. In Park Slope, Fort Greene thing. But what? and even Red Hook, taxis from across the river ferry “Dere’s no guy livin’ dat knows Brooklyn t’roo an’ Manhattanites to trendy restaurants. Rents are higher t’roo,” the North Carolinian Thomas Wolfe once wrote, in Dumbo, with its vintage modernist furniture stores, Ethnicity .16% in what might have struck him and the New Yorker’s than in some parts of the Upper East Side. .02% editors as Brooklynese, “because it’d take a guy a life- Brooklyn even has skyscrapers, a cluster of new resi- .5% time just to find his way aroun’ duh goddam town.” dential towers just up Flatbush Avenue from Junior’s, .95% James Agee, another Southerner, put it more glassy and full of freshly minted Brooklynites. Their elegantly: “In the conviction of the body, there seems coming is celebrated as proof of Brooklyn’s emergence. White alone 19.59% almost no conceivable end to Brooklyn; it seems, on But is it the same Brooklyn, the real Brooklyn, Black of African Amerian alone land as flat and huge as Kansas, horizon beyond hori- that they are coming to, or is it a new place that they Hispanic of Latino zon forever unfolded, an immeasurable proliferation have made? of house on house and street on street; or seems as American Indian and Alaska Native alone China does, infinite in time in patience and in popula- Some things have been lost. In becoming something Asian Alone 36.61% tion as in space.” new, the borough has left behind much of what once Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific It is a land, in short, with a mystique—one that is made it known. Brooklyn Brewery is thriving, but Islander alone hard to pin down but easy to recognize. Maggio, the Schaefer is long gone, the site of its old brewery on 33.09% Some other race aone tough, doomed GI in From Here to Eternity, was from the Williamsburg waterfront now home to a condo- Brooklyn. So was Tony Manero in Saturday Night minium building that glows neon at night. Scores of Two or more races Fever, dreaming of glory and working in a Bay Ridge other industrial and manufacturing companies have

14 Brooklyn: The Borough Behind The Brand City Limits / Vol. 35 / No. 1 www.citylimits.org 15 OWN OR MANAGE A RESIDENTIAL BUILDING WITH 5 TO 75 UNITS? PLUG INTO SAVINGS* $$$ SAVING INCENTIVES ON LIGHTING, HEATING AND COOLING UPGRADES IT’S FAST AND EASY. THE GREEN TEAM WILL HELP YOU GET IT DONE.

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Up to $20,000 for an energy management system followed, out of Brooklyn or out of existence altogether. falls and evolutions happening in the borough at the This is the trade that has accompanied hipness: new same time. This conceals, from other urban areas that residents in and old jobs out. People have left too, for may want to emulate its rise, the lessons Brooklyn has Up to $50 each for most high efficiency light fixtures in the suburbs or the less expensive boroughs, and they to offer: why the new affluent people came to places have taken some of the character with them. Whether like Fort Greene, why the old businesses left areas like common areas ($150 for bi-level fixtures) it will come back is an open question. Clinton Hill and how other neighborhoods charted But if the image of the new Brooklyn has a dark side, their own separate courses of change. In-unit improvements worth over $100 per unit to help it also has stark limitations. The fact is, most of the bor- And it prevents New Yorkers from understanding ough—which would be the country’s fifth largest city their own history over the past decade, which Brook- residents save money and energy if it were independent—exists distinct from hipsters, lyn embodies but which is too often told as a tale that high-rises and padlocked factories. begins and ends with real estate development. Simply The new Brooklyn mystique leaves out vast swaths put, there’s more to it than that. Expert advice and energy surveys to determine eligible of the borough—from Karen Buryiak’s Flatbush, where In the chapters that follow are a few of the stories energy-saving opportunities for your building you can now stroll down Bob Marley Boulevard or dine of today’s Brooklyn—stories of the changes everyone on Afghan cuisine, to her father’s Brownsville, which has noticed and of the others as well. Along with the sank, like neighboring East New York, into the abyss consequences. of blight before starting to claw itself out. The image “Too much change can actually be harmful in a way,” CONNECT WITH THE GREEN TEAM AT leaves out the Canarsie of Allen Fleming, the general Buryiak says between customers. “So I hope they keep manager of Junior’s, who arrived there 20 years ago enough of the good old stuff in Brooklyn not to risk from Grenada, and it leaves out Bensonhurst, where losing its integrity.” CONED.COM/GREENTEAM storefront signs change from Yiddish to Chinese in the She pauses, answers a few more questions, then OR CALL 1-877-634-9443 TO SPEAK TO AN ENERGY REPRESENTATIVE space of a few blocks. repeats, “Hopefully, there’ll be enough of the good

All those places, and dozens more, make up a modern old stuff.” *Based on eligibility Brooklyn too complex to fit in a slogan. The rise of one part of Brooklyn, then, has obscured all the other rises,

16 The UnPlanned City City Limits / Vol. 34 / No. 6 www.citylimits.org 17 CHAPTER TWO Hot and

CoolHow Brooklyn became a destination

t was around 1858, historians say, when a woman named Mary Powers stood on the corner of Hanson Place and St. Felix Street, in a freshly built neighborhood in Brooklyn, and had a vision. Gazing at the rows of new houses that had sprung up on the former site of the Jackson family’s 30-acre farm, she pronounced that the spot would one day be the crossroads of a mighty city. She donated money to build a church. Nearly 70 years later, the trustees of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank—the fourth largest in New York—looked at the same crossroads and had a vision of their own. They had outgrown their headquarters on Brooklyn’s Broadway and envisioned a grand new building in a spot that they too believed would become the The Williamsburgh Savings Bank hub of the borough’s business life. In 1928, they laid the foundation, on building, now One Hanson Place, for a 512-foot neo-Romanesque tower, to be crowned Hanson Place, with one of the largest four-faced clocks in the world and the bank’s links the borough’s storied past to the signature gilded dome. more affluent side The cavernous first-floor banking hall was ornamented with icons of its present. of commerce: a grocer, a carpenter and an electrician on the room’s entrance gates; a printer, a textile worker and a jeweler on the elevator doors. The hall’s ceiling soared, vaulted in conscious imitation of a church—”a cathedral,” as the building’s architect put it, “dedicated to

18 Brooklyn: The Borough Behind The Brand City Limits / Vol. 35 / No. 1 www.citylimits.org 19 the furtherance of thrift and prosperity of the community it are its present—including one, a rental building called the serves.” At the far end of the hall, opposite the swinging doors, Brooklyner, that has surpassed the bank building as Brooklyn’s stood a glittering mosaic depiction of Brooklyn, the tower at tallest structure. What is not visible, from any height or price its center. Glowing rays of sunlight shone down from above. point, is Brooklyn’s future. Manhattan was a faded sliver in the background. For decades, the tower rose boldly above its neighbors, Helen Lee grew up in TK and moved to New York City its clock visible for miles. It was Brooklyn’s tallest building, in 1994 as a freshman at New York University. In the years one dedicated to the pursuits that its builders intended. The after that, she says, she enjoyed the flexibility of being young, main hall was a bank: first, Williamsburgh Savings and then, unattached and a renter. She moved yearly, she says, living for in the 1980s, a branch of Republic National Bank and, after a time at every street with a subway stop along TK between that, HSBC Bank USA. On the upper floors were offices for Canal and 96th. the types of professional depicted on the banking hall’s trim: Her arrival in Brooklyn in 2005 was a flop. In a year and a construction contractors, insurance agents and, most of all, half spent living in a co-op complex in the gentrifying neigh- dentists. The latter’s examination chairs, patients said, had borhood of Clinton Hill, she says, she found the appeal of some of the best views in New York. cheaper rents was outweighed by the lack of convenient transit service—the nearest subway line was the G train, which runs between Brooklyn and Queens but never enters Manhattan. Moreover, Lee says she was annoyed by her neighbors—by people smoking in the elevators or not picking up after their “I think it’s the equivalent of dogs. And as a new face in the area, she began to believe that the feeling was mutual. greenwashing. It’s sort of “I just wouldn’t feel welcome,” she recalls, “and I would over- hear conversations about how the local doughnut shop that had Brooklyn-washing.” been there for 30 years was being converted to a restaurant that nobody there could afford. It was very disheartening, because I couldn’t do anything about it, but I knew that a lot of these Until 2005, that is, when they had to leave. In the spring businesses were being formed to benefit me.” of that year, HSBC sold the building to a team of investors Though she says she had lived in uncomfortable areas including the Dermot Company and the retired basketball before—including the Lower East Side during the heroin- star Magic Johnson, who planned to convert it to condos. The plagued 1990s—she decided that Brooklyn was not for her. In banking hall went dark, and after a renovation, the building’s January 2006, she moved back to Manhattan, to an apartment upper floors were soon being prowled by Realtors, a species not on East 57th Street. depicted in the buildings brass etchings or stone carvings. By Just months later, though, she heard about One Hanson 2008, the former Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower, renamed Place from an old Clinton Hill neighbor who was a broker, One Hanson Place, was open to new residents. Some units and Brooklyn began to seem viable again. In fact, she and her fetch seven-figure prices. Brooklyn’s tallest building is now boyfriend, Kai Hecker, liked the building so much that they a monument to the borough’s biggest business: real estate. bid on a one-bedroom apartment there sight unseen. They The evolution of Brooklyn into a place where a former dentist’s went into contract that summer, as the seventh buyers in the office can become a million-dollar apartment was a gradual new condo tower. In 2008, when their apartment was ready, one, enabled by crowding in Manhattan, rising white-collar they moved in. salaries and the citywide drop in crime. Just as important, Lee, who is 34 and works in advertising at Google, and though, was a widespread shift in perception, one that made Hecker, a 44-year-old Web designer at Forbes magazine whom the borough—perennially second best—into a destination unto she married in September, are, government data indicate, the itself. For some buyers, the mosaic in the banking hall became face of a more prosperous Brooklyn. Between the 2000 Census a version of reality: Brooklyn as a favored world of its own. and the Census Bureau’s most recent update (with numbers But if all those changes make loving Brooklyn possible, collected from 2005 to 2009), the number of households in the is it the mythical Brooklyn—home of the Dodgers and the borough with a combined income of at least $150,000 more docks—that they love, or is it the changed one? And by arriv- than doubled, while Brooklyn’s overall population increased ing in a place, how much would they change it themselves? only slightly. The percentage of such households doubled The view from the tower is broad and wide, stretching to the too, from 3.29 percent of the total population to 7.17 percent. edges of Brooklyn and beyond. It takes in abandoned piers Lee says Hecker is a more natural fit for Brooklyn; he has that are the borough’s past and the apartment towers that lived in the borough since 1994, including in a Red Hook

20 Brooklyn: The Borough Behind The Brand City Limits / Vol. 34 / No. 6 www.citylimits.org 21 apartment from which he commuted 45 minutes by are out of the couple’s price range, she adds, “I think bike. Still, she says, their new apartment suits both at this point, I’ve fallen in love with Brooklyn. Which their needs. is very interesting.” “This building is probably why we get along,” she jokes. “It’s like Brooklyn lite because it’s so incredibly Had Lee made her way to the banking hall for centrally located. It’s one of the best commutes I’ve breakfast in the waning weeks of 2010, she might have ever had in my 16, 17 years in New York.” come across Michael Berick, a vendor at the Brooklyn Besides, the grittier Brooklyn that Lee remembers Flea’s holiday market. The merchants around him, from her days in Clinton Hill has receded farther into lined up along the old teller windows, were selling the borough. In the blocks between her old neighbor- antique land-use maps, baby onesies and terrariums. hood and her new building is the now fully gentrified Downstairs, an artist sold T-shirts with renderings neighborhood of Fort Greene, its streets lined with of the sign from the old Kentile Floors factory. (The boutiques and restaurants. And on weekends throughout company, which was located a block from the Gowanus the winter, the banking hall—now an event space that Canal, went bankrupt in 1992.) Nearby was a booth hosts weddings and private parties—is home to the with 19th-century clocks, some that had been produced Brooklyn Flea, a curated flea market selling antique by Ansonia at its factory in Park Slope, in a building furniture, vintage clothes, art and fresh food. Some- that is now co-op apartments. times, Lee says, she heads downstairs in her pajamas Berick was running a booth for Maptote, the company for coffee and a pastry. he and his wife, Rachel Rheingold, founded in 2006. She enjoys the building so much, she says, that she Maptote sells bags, bandannas would hate to leave—though she will probably have and baby clothes emblazoned to. In January, when Lee spoke to City Limits, she was with maps of cities around the LIVING IN THE CITY pregnant with her first child and was looking for a world, but Brooklyn, Berick larger apartment, having listed her current unit for sale says, is by far the most popu- More coverage of housing for $515,000. It’s less than she and Hecker paid. They lar. Customers, he says, just www.citylimits.org bought at the top of the real estate market. respond to something about But a bigger worry is over where to move. Nearby the Brooklyn name. Carroll Gardens, she says, is inconvenient to transpor- The irony, Berick says, is that making things in tation. Park Slope is too homogeneous. The leading Brooklyn is not easy to do. Aside from its onesies (which candidate—barring the possibility of a two-bedroom are produced in Los Angeles) and its note cards (in unit in their price range becoming available in One Ohio), the company does manufacture its products in Hanson—is one of the new high-rises on Flatbush the borough. But every year, Berick says, it seems that Avenue. the prices at factories in Midwood or Sunset Park have Notably, though, all of the possibilities are in Brook- gone up, or the shops are shutting down. Manufacturers lyn. Improbably, the borough has become home, Lee in China, meanwhile, can integrate every step in the says, though she believes only pockets of it are family- production process for cheaper. friendly. Still she hopes the public schools will improve Part of the appeal of overseas facilities, Berick says, is as new people continue to move in—a process that she cost-effectiveness. Besides, he adds, the local alternatives says seems likely. are scarce. “It’s just a dying breed of manufacturers in “People from Manhattan, young couples and young the city, and the country for that matter,” Berick says, families, are looking at Brooklyn very actively,” she “whether it’s mills that you’re getting your fabric from says “people who would never have considered living or factories where they’re cutting the fabric.” Brook- in Brooklyn.” lyn, then, may be more effective as a trademark than Lee says the borough is not all that has changed. She as a home base. That, of course, doesn’t stop some describes herself as more tolerant and open-minded, companies that manufacture abroad from claiming and more aware of the other boroughs, than she was Brooklyn as home—a trend that rankles advocates of in her Manhattan days. local manufacturing. “It’s made me more of a New Yorker. I really value “I think it’s the equivalent of greenwashing,” says living in a multicultural neighborhood,” she says. “That Paul Parkhill, director of planning and development 45-minute commute to the city, you get a really good at the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center. cross section of the people that are coming in from the “It’s sort of Brooklyn-washing.” greater depths of Brooklyn.” Still, Berick says he can sympathize with companies, Besides the fact that two-bedroom units in Manhattan like Brooklyn Industries and Brooklyn Brewery, that

www.citylimits.org 23 “It’s like old Brooklyn meets new Brooklyn,” Benfante says, “and people like that.” Education “Brooklyn has a certain James Cooper and Alessandra Lariu, both creative directors at Manhattan advertising agencies, are another 100% vibe to it that’s very hard to couple who bought an apartment at One Hanson without seeing the building. Cooper, who walked around the 80% Graduate or professional degree articulate … I would call it a area twice while visiting from his native London, says Bachelor’s degree Fort Greene reminded him of that city’s cosmopolitan 60% Associate degree ‘boutique Manhattan.’” Notting Hill neighborhood. He and Lariu bought their two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment three years Some college, no degree ago, he says, after having seen only the plans. 40% High school graduate (includes equivalency have produced their products outside the borough. The Now they are selling the apartment—it was listed in 9th to 12th grade, no diploma more complex the item, he says, the more expensive January for $1.05 million, also through Benfante—but 20% it would be to make locally—which can push some Cooper says they do not plan to go far. Aside from Less than 9th grade products out of potential customers’ price range. visiting friends in Park Slope and Williamsburg, he says, they have not had time to explore the borough “I’m happy that we make our stuff here,” Berick says. much. But they are looking for a brownstone nearby, 1990 2000 2009 “I used to kind of begrudge people who didn’t, but now one with a backyard. The Brooklyn-centric vision of I understand why. It’s a difficult thing.” Mary Powers, still shifting shape and coming into focus, Undeniably, though, Brooklyn’s appeal as a concept has claimed two more adherents. Presidential Votes is strong. When J. Crew commissioned a special line of “It was never like, ‘Oh, we’ll move to Brooklyn because the Maptote bags for sale in some of its stores, in fact, we can’t afford to move to Manhattan,’ “ Cooper says. Georg W. Bush it asked for the phrase “Made in Brooklyn” to be part “Even if I had like $15 million to buy a townhouse in 15% Al Gore of the design. Berick says the label is a simple matter of Manhattan, I wouldn’t do it.” 77% location, not cool hunting—but the use of the borough’s name has had an impact on sales. “Brooklyn has a certain vibe to it that’s very hard to George W. Bush 24% “It probably does better than ‘Manhattan,’ ‘New articulate,” Benfante says. “It’s more neighborhoody. John Kerry York City’ and ‘Queens’ put together, because I guess When you’re working in an office tower in the finan- 74% people have a lot of pride,” he says. “Whether it’s new cial district or something like that and you’re coming people that want to assert themselves, I guess it has a home to another high-rise, you’re not really changing John McCain 20% lot of cachet now.” your environment the way that you are when you come Barack Obama 79% to Brooklyn.” One Hanson is, of course, itself a high- Chris Benfante, the senior associate at the Corcoran rise. But people moving to the borough appreciate the 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 0 Group who is selling Helen Lee’s apartment, says about contrast, Benfante says, adding, “It’s got everything half of the building’s residents are new to Brooklyn, the that Manhattan has. Only, it’s got a different feel to it. other half relocating from somewhere else in the bor- It’s more urbane but less urban these days.” ough. Many, he says, are attracted to the tower’s history That contrast grows subtler by the year, eroded by Party Affiliation and its ties to the Brooklyn of old—it is a product of the the rows of glassy Downtown Brooklyn towers like same era as Ebbets Field and Coney Island’s Cyclone. the Brooklyner, or the condo buildings on Fourth Benfante, who grew up in Flatbush, has less romantic Avenue that replaced warehouses and tenements, or memories too. “My mom used to drag me there when the thousands of new housing units that stand to make .88% it was filled with dentists and orthodontists and stuff,” the Atlantic Yards site one of the densest in the city. 16.41% 2.09% he says. “Called it the House of Pain.” Newcomers are falling in love with a changed borough, Democrat Still, when the tower’s condos hit the market, Ben- but they are also changing it themselves, physically, in Republican fante bought one for himself. Several other real estate ways that seem permanent. What is at stake may be agents, he says, are his neighbors there. The building’s what made Brooklyn attractive in the first place. Indpendence 9.14% appeal, he says, is that while its exterior is steeped in The appeal of Brooklyn, Benfante says, often comes Other party the borough’s history, it is renovated inside, with central down to a vibe. He thought of the street life, the greet- No party air conditioning having replaced the window units that ings between neighbors, the small-scale storefronts, 11% used to cool the tower’s offices. Such touches, he says, and he settled on a metaphor. should help attract people who work at the Atlantic “I would call it,” he says, “a boutique Manhattan.” Yards development planned just across Flatbush Avenue, with its basketball arena and office towers.

24 Brooklyn:The Unplanned The Borough City Behind The Brand City Limits / Vol. 3534 / No. 16 www.citylimits.org 25

POVERTY

Poverty

45% 40% 40% 35% 31% 33% 28% 28% 30% 27% 28% 26% 21% 23% 22% 25% 21% 19% 18% 19% 17% 20% 14% 15% 11% 12% 13% 10% 5% 0%

Source: American Community Survey, 2005-2009 averages

HEALTH

Infant Mortality, 2009 Selected Causes of Death, 2009 (deaths per 1,000 live births) 45 40 11.3 35 HIV disease 12 30 9.5 25 10 8.7 20 Homicide 8 6.4 5.8 6.2 6.3 15 5.4 5.2 4.9 5.5 5 4.9 10 6 4.2 4.7 4.7 4.3 3.5 3.5 3.8 3.2 3.6 5 Diabetes mellitus 4 3 2.6 0 2 Chronic liver disease & cirrhosis 0

Mental disorders due to substance use & accidental poisoning

26 Brooklyn: The Borough Behind The Brand City Limits / Vol. 35 / No. 1 www.citylimits.org 27

CHAPTER THREE Quitting

TimeA factory’s fall, a neighborhood’s fallout

he morning of Monday, Jan. 22, 2007, brought just one of the industrial powerhouses that moved the borough’s mixed news for Pfizer Inc., the multinational economy—a blue-collar bastion that included shipbuilding pharmaceutical giant. Revenue in the previ- and auto parts manufacturing plants, chemical producers, ous quarter, the company announced, was flat breweries and, less than two miles northwest of Pfizer, the from a year earlier, at $12.6 billion. Earnings Domino Sugar refinery. By the time the Domino facility per share were up but only factoring in the closed in 2004, leaving its last 200 or so workers jobless, the one-time windfall from the company’s sale of Pfizer plant—operating with a fraction of the workers it had its consumer health care business. Otherwise, employed just a few years earlier— was one of the borough’s profit was down, and analysts were worried. only remaining traces of big industry. In the competitive drug industry, the company’s future was At the time, reactions to the Pfizer closing were mixed, a uncertain: Viagra, a Pfizer product, was losing market share to mélange of resignation, anger over the lost jobs and respect for rival erectile dysfunction drugs, and the patent for the heart the company’s long history in Brooklyn. Laid-off employees drug Lipitor, a Pfizer standard-bearer and one of the most told the newspapers they had been expecting cuts but were popular medications in the world, was set to expire in a few nonetheless surprised to see them come. Community leaders years. Cheaper generics would soon be cutting into sales, and praised the company for the good it had done in the neighbor- Pfizer had just halted development on a planned replacement hood, including building low-income housing and financing for the heart drug after trials linked that new medication to a charter school in one of the company’s vacant buildings. As an increased death rate. for the jobs, they said, the losses would hurt. But even so, there The company’s earnings announcement came paired with was an upside: At least the economy was good. a tough proposed remedy: In a move to save $2 billion a year, Four years later, the charter school is still there—a gravel Pfizer would close research sites in Japan, France and Michigan. lot next door, former Pfizer land, is strewn with half-deflated It would sell a factory in Germany and close one in Omaha, rubber balls, in pink, purple and yellow, that have escaped Neb. In all, the job cuts would total 10,000 worldwide—includ- over a playground fence. The low-income housing survives as ing 600 at one other shuttered factory: In a move that shocked well—tidy rows of townhouses just across a parking lot from workers at a facility that had only recently been featured in the old factory, immediately east of the city’s sprawling Marcy a prominent Pfizer ad campaign, the company announced Houses public housing complex. Even the 1940s-era factory The closure in 2007 it was closing its plant in Brooklyn, a 600,000-square-foot building itself is there, in a state of suspended animation, its of this Pfizer plant, brick hulk on Flushing Avenue—the site where Pfizer was guardhouse empty, its entrances clogged with piles of dry leaves. located on the site founded in 1849. What is gone are the jobs, from Pfizer, Domino and most of where the company was founded, For much of its century and a half in Brooklyn, Pfizer was the rest of industrial Brooklyn. From 1997 to 2007, according was another blow to the borough’s once booming manufacturing base.

28 Brooklyn: The Borough Behind The Brand City Limits / Vol. 35 / No. 1 www.citylimits.org 29 to a City Limits analysis of census data, the number The hole that industry left in the borough was a long of people employed in manufacturing nationwide time in the making. Jerry Krase, a professor emeritus of dropped 20 percent. In New York State, the decline sociology at Brooklyn College, says the fall of the New was 31 percent. Brooklyn was hit even harder: In York factory began citywide in the 1970s, with heavy 2007, more than 20,000 fewer people in the borough industry. Manufacturing from New York moved first were working in manufacturing than were a decade to the Southeastern states and then farther south to earlier—a drop of 46 percent. Mexico and elsewhere overseas, he says, with chemi- Experts doubt that the numbers will ever rebound. cal plants, textile mills and assembly plants following The question, then, is whether those good jobs can be a decade later. Krase recalls a friend who ran a shop replaced and what will occupy the physical space that making ambulances near the Gowanus Canal—import- Pfizer has left behind. ing trucks from Detroit and retrofitting them. “His business, I think, moved down to Georgia,” Krase says. “He went down to consult with them for a while.” At the time, some observers welcomed the shift away from manufacturing, arguing that pay in the “When the factory was open, sector was low and the work was dirty and dangerous. Better, the argument went, to see people employed in to get a job in there, it was the more modern fields like health care, technology and entertainment. These are the sectors that have a who-you-know type of grown in Brooklyn in recent years, and none more than health care, which saw a $5.9 million increase in thing. Now it’s becoming payroll in the borough from 1997 to 2007. The number an eyesore—the weeds of Brooklyn residents working in the field grew 560 percent during that period. Growth was 392 percent in are coming up, whatever educational services and 338 percent in arts, entertain- ment and recreation. the case may be. Mother In terms of raw jobs gained—192,705—those increases make up for the manufacturing losses nearly 10 times Nature’s doing what she do. over. But, Krase argues, the number of raw jobs tells only a small part of the story. For example, even though The thing is, now what do we the medical industry pays well on average, that average do with the space?” is skewed, he argues, by the salaries of a small number of employees: doctors. Middle-income medical work- ers, meanwhile, might make less than middle-income workers in a unionized factory. Magno Shaw, a 51-year-old immigrant from Panama “What you’re talking about is somebody who was who lives near the plant, once thought about getting a job working as a welder, or in an electrical factory,” Krase there or at one of the area’s other factories. But, he says says. “They would have been making a good, solid passing by the vast empty parking lot north of Flushing middle income. And that job, other than totally disap- Avenue on a chilly winter day, the hiring process was pearing or being no job at all, is somebody who is now long, and soon it was too late. Now he commutes to working at Kings County Hospital, or at some senior work at a hotel in Manhattan. The neighborhood, he citizens’ place as an aide, or at a bank or insurance says, feels the plant’s absence. company doing some kind of clerical work. And those “Around this time, they used to have their parties are not good jobs.” for employees, all that stuff,” he says. “The parking lot Similarly, he adds, many households’ source of income used to be full of people, cars. Right now it’s just an has shifted from one family member to another as empty space.” manufacturing jobs, traditionally held by men, have For a while, he recalls, there had been talk of a disappeared. The jobs that replaced them are so-called supermarket. Soon after the close, Pfizer officials told pink-collar jobs traditionally held by women—jobs The New York Times they would work with the city to that also traditionally pay less. develop housing and commercial space. As for the original wage earners, he says, “The point “Then nothing happened,” Shaw says, “and you is, there is no equivalent. There is no equivalent well- know, that was it.” paying job for someone who is not particularly well

30 Brooklyn: The Borough Behind The Brand City Limits / Vol. 35 / No. 1 www.citylimits.org 31 educated or skilled. There may be jobs there, but they’re in the West Bank.” not jobs where it’s possible to make a good living.” Naomi Colon, president of the tenants’ association of Marcy Houses, says her group has had no contact with In the Marcy Houses, some residents say the Pfizer leaders of the Hasidic community. But, she adds, there closing didn’t affect as many people as the site’s prox- are tensions, because many Marcy residents believe they imity might suggest. are improperly prevented from renting affordable apart- “When the factory was open, to get a job in there, it ments in predominantly Jewish buildings. Combined was a who-you-know type of thing,” says one resident, with the rising cost of market-rate apartments, she Salimah A. Malik, walking down Marcy Avenue between says, this leaves residents feeling stuck in the projects. the complex and the factory building one afternoon. Faced with the increased competition for local The problem, she says, is what has replaced the factory: resources, some are philosophical. “If you’re not going nothing. “Now it’s becoming an eyesore—the weeds are to take care of your shit, someone else will,” says James coming up, whatever the case may be. Mother Nature’s Young, who is walking his dogs in a Marcy courtyard doing what she do. The thing is, now what do we do one afternoon. with the space?” But, Colon says, one result of scarce housing is that Malik, for one, would like many of the 1,700-plus families in the complex are to see the Pfizer site used for now crowding more people into their apartments—a MADE IN NYC? housing that is affordable to move that is against the rules but to which there is no the working poor and to older alternative. She can tell people are doubling up, she says, The plight of urban people receiving Social Secu- because the complex generates more trash that it used manufacturing rity; Section 8 housing in the to, and units seem to use more electricity. www.citylimits.org area, she says, is too hard for She hopes the Pfizer site can be used for housing, BROOKLYN AQUARIUM SOCIETY AD many people to get into. At the she says, and that it is housing available to everyone. same time, the streets around “There’s a lot of families here that’s living with their the factory, in a border zone south of Williamsburg and children, grandchildren, their husband and wife and north of Bedford-Stuyvesant, are in increased demand other family,” Colon says. “That’s how it is. But it’s not for residential development. like they’re not trying to find apartments. It’s hard.” Part of the area’s rise in rents is the residual effect of Building housing on the Pfizer property is no simple new construction during the boom years of the past solution to the area’s crowding, in part because the com- decade—a boom during which the number of Brooklyn pany and local-government officials are at an impasse. residents working in real estate, incidentally, nearly Though company officials mentioned the possibil- tripled. One new building, across Flushing Avenue from ity of new housing early on, the site is still zoned for the Marcy Houses, calls itself the Platinum Condos, manufacturing use—a designation that would require with a banner outside advertising studio apartments an action of the City Council and the support of many in the $200,000 range, one-bedroom units more than others in the community and in local government to $300,000 and two- and three-bedroom units for upwards change. Whether that support would be forthcoming of half a million dollars. (Whether there have been from manufacturing advocates, community leaders buyers is unclear. A representative from the Real Estate or anyone else is uncertain. And while many officials Group, which was marketing some units in the build- support housing—most notably the powerful State ing, said it is no longer involved with the project, and Assembly member Vito Lopez—they do not necessarily a spokeswoman for the Corcoran Group, which was agree with Pfizer on the terms. marketing others, said they had all been temporarily Complicating matters further, many in government taken off the market.) were outraged that the company announced the plant’s Pressure is also coming from one community in which closing less than three years after accepting $46 million demand for real estate is still high: the Satmar sect of in city tax breaks aimed at job development. That deal Hasidic Jews from nearby South Williamsburg. The was frozen before Pfizer collected the full amount, and in Hasidic population’s growth in the area has overtaken December the city’s Industrial Development Authority much of the formerly industrial land north of the Pfizer announced the company had paid back the city $24.7 site and brought its members and the Marcy Houses’ million—twice the sum it had originally received. Still, predominantly black residents physically closer than in the view of some officials who support housing, Pfizer ever before. should pay a steep price to be able to develop the land. “I’m Muslim,” Malik quips, “so I tell my friends I live Lopez says in an interview that he still wants affordable

32 Brooklyn: The Borough Behind The Brand City Limits / Vol. 35 / No. 1 “One thing we certainly don’t need any more of is luxury condominiums. We’ve got plenty of them. It’s a question of keeping the working classes of this city in the city.”

Change in Employees by Industry, 1997-2007 housing to be built on the site, with Pfizer and the city, state “It was like old garbage,” she said of one odor that came and and federal governments subsidizing apartments for house- went with the seasons. -37,419 Information holds making between $40,000 and $60,000 a year. Without Colon, from the residents’ association, says jobs would be guarantees about the nature of the housing, he says, he is not welcome, but not at any cost. -23,534 Manufacturing inclined to support a rezoning that could raise the value of the “We have to be careful, because remember—Pfizer, when I +2,274 Education services site several times over. And in 2008, in a move aimed in part was a child, didn’t have a cap on that chimney of theirs,” she says. +2,914 Real estate and rental and leasing at pressuring the company to make a deal, Lopez introduced a “A lot of us, including myself, caught bronchitis and asthma.” bill to seize the property by eminent domain. Though the bill Though they have no proof it made them sick, she says, the + 4,210 Other services (except public administration) stalled initially, Lopez says he plans to reintroduce it this year. presence of the smell and the smokestack left many residents + 4,580 Arts, entertainment and recreation City Council member Steve Levin, who represents part of wary of industry. the site and who was once Lopez’s chief of staff, blames the Levin argues that residential construction—of a certain +7,774 Accomodation and food services company for the stalemate. kind, anyway—would be a way to address the problems of + 8,299 Administrative, support, waste “Pfizer would rather sit on that vacant property and wait for local working-class people from a different angle. +13,539 Professional, scientific and technical services the economy to come back so they can hold on to that plan “The way that I look at it is, there’s always going to be a need of doing luxury condos there,” he says. “Pfizer should give for affordable housing, especially in North Brooklyn,” Levin 32,527 Retail trade the property away for a dollar, is what they should do. They says. “One thing we certainly don’t need any more of is luxury + 132,547 Health care and social assistance don’t need the money.” condominiums. We’ve got plenty of them. It’s a question of Christopher Loder, a Pfizer spokesman, says that in 2007 keeping the working classes of this city in the city. Whether -30,000 0 30,000 60,000 90,000 120,000 the company sought proposals and community input for the it’s a place for them to live or a place for them to work, they’re Source: Economic Census of the United States site, with an emphasis on “core principles” such as afford- both valuable and necessary.” able housing, job creation and participation by female- and Still, some manufacturing advocates have mulled the idea of minority-owned businesses. The economic downturn, he repurposing the main Pfizer factory building for light industry. says, prevented the company from completing the process. The Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center, which “We notified community stakeholders in early 2009 that has four buildings totaling more than 600,000 square feet of while the properties would remain on the market, our proac- industrial space around Brooklyn, developed a plan to retrofit Commuting times in Brooklyn, 2005-2009 tive marketing efforts would be suspended as we waited for the facility in 2008, in response to Pfizer’s request for proposals. the market to strengthen,” Loder wrote in an e-mail. The plan would have subdivided the old factory building into “Though it is clear that the financial and real estate markets units ranging from 3,000 and 50,000 square feet and brought are still extremely challenging, we continue to be open to con- in a development partner to build affordable housing on the 4% 7% versations regarding potential development of these properties former parking lot and other vacant land around the site. The Less than 10 minutes and our commitment to our community-based development idea, which would have doubled the organization’s square 12% principles is unchanged,” he added. “We remain dedicated to footage, fizzled when Pfizer delayed plans to sell the property. 10 to 19 minutes making the best decisions possible for a neighborhood we Looking back, Paul Parkhill, the center’s director of plan- 21% 20 to 29 minutes have proudly been part of for more than 150 years.” ning and development, says the idea’s failure may have been 11% 30 to 44 minutes Notably, what the leading proposals for the site do not a blessing in disguise. include is more industry. Though Levin laments the passing “What was palatable to the neighborhood at large and what 45-59 minutes of an era when thousands of North Brooklyn residents could was achievable financially was kind of a big open question,” 60 to 89 minutes walk to work in well-paying, attainable manufacturing jobs, Parkhill says. Between the smaller number of tenants available 18% 90 or more minutes he calls the idea of replacing the lost Pfizer jobs “an awfully tall in a tight economy and the scarcity of loans available for large- 26% order,” adding, “It’s not something that looks very possible.” scale projects, he says, “it would have been a very heavy lift.” There is also the question of whether residents want indus- In short, he says, today’s Brooklyn may not have a demand try next to them. In an interview for the Brooklyn Historical for that much industrial space. And, though Pfizer has never Society, a former Pfizer employee named Roslyn Sheer recalled put it in these terms, he says he can understand why the fielding complaints from the plant’s neighbors about its smell. company might simply prefer to sell.

Source: American Community Survey, 2005-2009 averages

34 Brooklyn: The Borough Behind The Brand City Limits / Vol. 35 / No. 1 www.citylimits.org 35 Don’t Fuhgeddaboudit Events to remember from Brooklyn’s past

1624 First Dutch settlements spring up at Midwout would come to be known as one of the largest in U.S. and Vlackebos, now Midwood and Flatbush, amid history. the Lenape (or Canarsee) Indians. 1983 Brighton Beach Memoirs, the first installment PROSPECT ZOO AD 1776 American troops under George Washington of Neil Simon’s Eugene trilogy, opens at the Alvin lose the Battle of Brooklyn but manage to retreat to Theatre. Manhattan. 1987 Brooklyn Democratic boss Meade Esposito is 1829 The Coney Island Hotel is constructed, the first found guilty of bribery. step in creating a legendary amusement destination. 1988 Life magazine calls Red Hook the “crack capital 1841 The Brooklyn Daily Eagle is launched. It will print of America.” daily until 1955. 1989 Spike Lee releases Do the Right Thing. 1861 The Brooklyn Academy of Music is founded 1991 After a black child is killed and another is 1862 The famous ironclad USS Monitor is launched injured in an accident involving leading figures in from the Continental Iron Works. the Hasidic community, the Crown Heights riots erupt. 1867 Prospect Park opens to the public. A 29-year-old Jewish graduate student is killed. 1883 The Brooklyn Bridge opens. 1997 After being arrested outside a Brooklyn night- 1898 Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island consolidate club, Abner Louima is sodomized with a plunger with Manhattan and the Bronx to form the five-bor- handle in a bathroom at the 70th Precinct in ough city. Flatbush. 1927 The 37-story Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower 2005 Brooklyn Democratic boss Clarence Norman is is constructed. It will reign as the tallest building in found guilty of violating election law. Brooklyn until being replaced by the 51-story Brookly- 2006 The New York State Public Authorities Control ner in 2010. Board approves Atlantic Yards. 1943 Betty Smith publishes A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. 2007 The Pfizer factory in Bed-Stuy closes—another 1955 After losing the World Series to the Yankees five blow to the borough’s manufacturing sector. “We’ve noticed this in a lot of instances,” Parkhill says, heartache that results when young people finish college, look times in the previous 15 years, the Brooklyn Dodgers 2008 Ikea opens in Red Hook. “where an industrial business that owns a building will choose for a job and have to return to the projects because nothing is beat the Bombers in seven games. 2010 Over the city’s objections, the Gowanus Canal is to cash out because the value of the real estate exceeds the available. As for their younger siblings, she says, there is not 1958 The Brooklyn Dodgers leave for Los Angeles. named a federal Superfund site. value of the business.” much work to be had in the neighborhood. 1960 United Airlines Flight 826 and Trans World Air- Are, then, Brooklyn’s days of producing things nearing an end? “We have a Duane Reade on the corner of Myrtle and Nos- lines Flight 266 collide in midair, with the United jet Not necessarily, says Parkhill, who believes the area still has trand,” Colon says. “We have a Family Dollar across the street, crashing into Park Slope, killing everyone on board some natural advantages over other parts of the country and and I think a couple of young people from here work there. and six people on the ground. the world. First, he says, there is the area’s large and diverse Key Food all the way up the block, some girls work there.” 1966 The Navy abandons the Brooklyn Navy Yard, workforce, with plentiful skilled and unskilled labor. Even Krase, of Brooklyn College, argues that New York City has reflecting the deterioration of the entire waterfront. more important, there is its proximity to market: its location always come out of recessions well because of its versatile 1968 An experiment in community school control at the heart of an enormous population center, with minimal economy, with real estate and financial services existing in Brownsville leads to a dispute between majority- shipping required to reach millions of potential buyers. alongside manufacturing. The borough still has the workers black parents and mostly white teachers, triggering Whether the company is Greenpoint’s Acme Smoked Fish and infrastructure, he says; it is the balance between sectors a massive school strike. or Bushwick’s Supreme Poly Products—makers of plastic that has become skewed. In a healthy local economy, when 1972 Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected bags—there are reasons Brooklyn makes sense as a location for one sector weakens, others can pick up the slack. Without to Congress, receives 152 votes as a candidate for the scores of small manufacturers that remain. And, Parkhill diversity, cities become too reliant on the employers that they president at the Democratic National Convention. says, the city can do even more to keep industry, through tax have and suffer when those employers fail. 1974 Starrett City, the largest federally subsidized breaks, development incentives and lending programs. Many in the city, Krase says, did not realize soon enough housing complex in the nation, opens in Spring The natural advantages are, of course, some of the same what harm the departure of factories could do. Creek. advantages that made Brooklyn an industrial powerhouse in “There was this euphoria of gentrification and all these 1977 Rioting in Bushwick during a blackout leaves 27 the first place, before a decline that began decades ago and new industries that were going to develop, which just didn’t stores burned down. has not abated. happen and didn’t make sense even,” Krase says. “How long 1978 A Coast Guard helicopter patrol discovers an At the Marcy Houses, Naomi Colon says she has seen the can you sustain an economy based on retail?” oil slick in Newtown Creek. The Greenpoint oil spill

36 The Unplanned City City Limits / Vol. 34 / No. 6 www.citylimits.org 37 38 Brooklyn: The Borough Behind The Brand City Limits / Vol. 35 / No. 1 www.citylimits.org 39 CHAPTER FOUR Living on the Edge From East New York to Bay Ridge, change in Brooklyn goes off script

ighty years ago, when East New York was new, the land now known as Spring Creek along its southeastern border was where the city came to an end. When people fleeing the tenements built houses in an area of East New York called New Lots, when they grew vegetables on the empty land next door and watched government paving crews lay down Linden Boulevard, Spring Creek was the land beyond that. It was the scrubby turf where their teenagers played sandlot baseball, the forbidding tall grass where the ill intentioned stashed stolen cars, or worse. It was all this, in short, because Spring Creek was a part of Brooklyn that nobody wanted—well past the end of any subway line and miles from the Manhattan skyscrapers that were sometimes visible in the distance. But over the years, the city spread out. As East New York filled up, land in Spring Creek was there, cheap and available, to handle the overflow. In one corner, a street grid developed around Flatlands Avenue. Public housing projects followed in the 1950s, and in 1974 came the vast subsidized rental complex at Starrett City. By the Belt Parkway, in 2002, came the Gateway Center Mall.

40 Brooklyn: The Borough Behind The Brand City Limits / Vol. 35 / No. 1 www.citylimits.org 41 Large swaths, though, remained untouched. And in the city’s the neighborhood’s fringe, the change is unmistakable. Fresh lowest years, when drugs and guns threatened to drag poor streets stretch out to the south, lined with new sidewalks and Median Household Income places underwater, it seemed that the fringes of Spring Creek streetlights. Behind construction fences, workers are busy: They might stay empty forever. After all, the rest of East New York, are putting up a building that will hold two new schools, to White $52,368 long a bastion for the working class, itself felt hollowed out. go with the 2,200 units of owner-occupied housing that have Native Hawaiian / Other Pacific Islander $25,192 By the 1980s, the neighborhood’s residents picked their way already been built around it. Hispanic $32,308 home through blocks of vacant buildings that were burned The development is part of the Nehemiah Homes, the long- out, stripped or simply left to crumble. term neighborhood redevelopment project of East Brooklyn Asian $45,366 This is the East New York that lingers in the city’s imagina- Congregations, a community organization made up of 32 American Indian and Alaska Native $37,679 tion. As Brooklyn surged over the past decade, as Flatbush schools, neighborhood associations and houses of worship. Avenue and Fourth Avenue saw construction of tower after The group has been building housing on vacant land in East Black $39,009 tower, and as factories of all kinds (the Toy Factory apartments, the Chocolate Factory condos) filled with bright-eyed young Source: American Community Survey, 2005-2009 averages artists and professionals—somehow the image of East New York never changed in the public mind. As far as it was from Manhattan, it was further still—in the collective imagination Ethnic succession affirms 42% anyway—from the new Brooklyn. the city’s openness to Poverty Rates by Race / Ethnicity But something new was happening there too—a dozen 30% L-train stops past Williamsburg’s most intrepid hipsters. East newcomers, researchers Income Quintiles (2009) New York, a half-century ago a neighborhood of immigrants 23% 23% say, but it can also 21% and blue-collar commuters, was growing back into just that 23% 23% 22% 18% again. Since the early 1980s, on thousands of acres of vacant exacerbate racial 18% land, groups like East Brooklyn Congregations have built 15% more than 3,000 new affordable houses for local buyers. The segregation. empty core of East New York has, essentially, filled back up. “It’s all been rebuilt,” says Michael Gecan, a community organizer for the Industrial Areas Foundation. “And not for New York, Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick the artists, God bless ‘em, or the students or tourists or stock- since the 1980s—first in the interior of the neighborhoods 0$ to $17,738 to $37,866 $64,770 to $108,115 Black American Asian Hispanic Native White brokers. It’s all been built for the corrections officers and the and now, with most of that land filled in, on the edge. $17,737 $37,865 to $64,769 $108,114 and up Indian / Hawaiian / health workers and the city workers, almost all Hispanic and At the Spring Creek development, one-bedroom attached Alaska Native Other Pacific Islander black buyers and renters.” houses start at $204,000, with three-bedroom semiattached Source: Furman Center Taken as a whole, Gecan argues, the physical rebuilding of units going for as much as $548,000. The waiting list, says Source: American Community Survey, 2005-2009 averages eastern Brooklyn’s blighted neighborhoods ranks as one of the Grant Lindsay, an organizer with the group, is long. great public works projects of the past century. “And it’s not “There’s no limit to the amount of houses that we could build happening in the cool neighborhoods,” he says. “It’s in what at this price for homeownership,” Lindsay says, driving down used to be the uncool neighborhoods.” a new street in Spring Creek, past rows of houses stretched Bank Deposits (Millions, Top 10 ZIP Codes) All across uncool Brooklyn, in fact, neighborhoods have been out under a wide sky. “We could build 10 times this, and there $3000 regenerating. Some, like East New York and Bushwick, have would still be a waiting list for it.” $2500 come a long way back from disaster. Meanwhile, other neigh- The success of Nehemiah housing, named for the biblical borhoods far from Brooklyn’s trendier zones, like middle-class figure who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and repopulated the $2000 Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge, have maintained their prosperity city, was not always assured. In fact, before the housing initia- $1500 while undergoing dramatic yet largely peaceful ethnic shifts. tive launched, East Brooklyn Congregations began its work in $1000 These places, and neighborhoods like them, are not the the neighborhood in 1980 with a humbler target: street signs. Brooklyn for which David Beckham’s child is named. They “Signs are metal, and scrap metal and copper was one of the $500 aren’t the Brooklyn electrified by upwardly mobile newcom- things that, after the city had deteriorated, people had stolen,” ers or abandoned by industry, but they are where most of the Lindsay says. “The city never put them back up again.” borough’s 2.5 million residents actually live. They are places Once the signs were back, the group, in association with where the story of the new Brooklyn is different. the Industrial Areas Foundation, moved on to bigger causes, The story in Spring Creek is that on land that was empty like crosswalks and, eventually, housing. The land, much of

throughout the city’s history, someone is building houses. which had been seized by the city because of owner neglect, 11209 Bay Ridge 11230 Midwood 11235 Bath Beach 11201 Boerum Hill 11214 Bensonhurst 11204 Bensonhurst Driving down Flatlands Avenue now, along what used to be was easy to come by. One wide expanse of blight was across 11219 Borough Park

11234 Flatlands Mill Basin 11229 Madison, Homecrest 11215 Park Slope, Windsor

Source: FDIC. Data as of June 30, 2010

42 The Unplanned City City Limits / Vol. 34 / No. 6 www.citylimits.org 43 Mother Gaston Boulevard from the Our Lady of Mercy kept pace with the citywide decline in murders of 79 Roman Catholic church in Brownsville. percent over the same period. “When they looked out their door 30 years ago,” Meanwhile, East New York’s population has swelled. Lindsay says, standing on the sidewalk in front of According to an analysis by the Center for the Study the church, “what they saw were empty lots or half- of Brooklyn at Brooklyn College, the population of abandoned buildings that had been stripped of all their the neighborhood’s community district grew almost copper by bandits.” 17 percent from 1990 to 2008. The median household Looking to the left, they would have seen the tower- income, adjusted for inflation, actually declined slightly ing Samuel J. Tilden Houses, an eight-building public over those decades, and the poverty rate stayed level at housing complex that, residents say, even police were around 30 percent (compared with Brooklyn’s overall hesitant to enter. There were many residents inside poverty rate of 22.4 percent in 2008), but the percentage and outside the projects who wanted a better place to of residents over 25 with a bachelor’s degree or higher live, Lindsay says. But if the city had redeveloped the rose from 6.5 to 13.7, while the percentage of residents empty land itself, it probably would have built more without a high school diploma was cut in half. high-density rental housing. The Nehemiah concept, The changes are subtle enough that, on bad days, on the other hand, called for single-family houses they can be hard to see. But Lindsay insists they are assembled at the Brooklyn Navy Yard to be trucked there. A few years ago, as residents of one Brownsville into the neighborhood and installed for approved building met to discuss the things that would improve buyers. The city would donate the land and pay some the property, a gunfight broke out in an adjacent court- construction costs, and East Brooklyn Congregations yard. Now after a renovation of the complex sponsored would cover the balance and handle the sales. One by East Brooklyn Congregations, complaints tend to condition of sale: All residents would have to join a focus on noise from children homeowners’ association. playing. Skepticism was high, not least among the neighbor- In front of a row of Nehe- BROOKLYN’S WORLDS hood’s residents. miah houses on nearby “People were trying to get out and go to Queens, Thatford Avenue, Lindsay Covering the neighborhoods anywhere else,” says Carmelia Goffe, who grew up stops at a spot on the sidewalk www.citylimits.org in Brownsville and worked in control towers for the that was the site of a shooting Metropolitan Transportation Authority. When word last summer. of the housing plans got out, she says, “most people in “Maybe the difference,” between that recent killing the neighborhood said, ‘No, those are little stick houses and those of earlier years, “is they caught the guy, and over there. They’re not gonna last and be successful.’ “ people went down and testified, because they expect Goffe, who was living in Section 8 housing in East the police to do their jobs,” he says. “This is not the New York, decided to take a chance for one reason: neighborhood that it was,” he adds later, “and it will “Because it was affordable,” she says. “I had three sons, never be the neighborhood it was 30 years ago, because and I thought it would be a better type of situation for there’s people actively rebuilding it who won’t allow it them. I couldn’t afford to go to Queens or anything else.” to be that way.” Twenty-five years later, her sons have grown up and moved away, but Goffe, 62, and retired, still owns the One thing that has not changed about East New house. Her neighbors include bank workers, city work- York, at least in the few decades since white residents ers, nurses and businesspeople. The neighborhood is no abandoned it for the suburbs and Staten Island, is paradise—the Tilden Houses are still forbidding—but race. As it was in 1990, the community district today she says there are hopeful signs, like the arrival of chain is roughly half black. But other Brooklyn neighbor- stores on Pitkin Avenue. Goffe, who is on the board of hoods have seen stark demographic shifts. “For the the homeowners’ association, says early doubts have past 10 years, it’s been quite dizzying,” says Jerry Krase been proved wrong. of Brooklyn College. During that time, he says, Russians have taken over Eastern Brooklyn, city crime statistics show, has many of the businesses on 18th Avenue—also known indeed grown safer. Since 1990—the year that murders as Cristoforo Colombo Boulevard—in the longtime citywide peaked at 2,605—murders in the two police Italian stronghold of Bensonhurst. Middle Easterners precincts covering East New York, Brownsville and the have made their mark on Bay Ridge. And Chinese surrounding neighborhoods combined have declined immigrants, starting from a foothold in Sunset Park, by almost two-thirds, though the improvement has not have expanded into several surrounding neighborhoods.

44 Brooklyn: The Borough Behind The Brand City Limits / Vol. 35 / No. 1 www.citylimits.org 45 “If you could go back in the ‘70s and ‘80s and look at pictures of the neighborhood and the devastation and the flight, it’s totally different. If somebody had told you then, ‘Oh, we’re going to rebuild the neighborhood,’ you would shake your head and say, ‘No way.’”

The Center for the Study of Brooklyn’s numbers, derived from the Census, are dramatic: In 1990, the language other than English spoken by most people in Bensonhurst was Italian. By 2008, it was Chinese, followed by Russian, with Italian a distant third The percentage of residents who don’t speak English at all doubled, to more than 26 percent. In the neighborhood’s community district and in the district to the west that encompasses the neighborhoods of Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights, the population of residents with Asian ancestry has more than tripled. In both districts, the second most common place of birth, behind New York State, is China. But the change has come, the numbers indicate, without a corresponding socioeconomic shift. In both districts, inflation- adjusted household incomes have remained stable since 1990, and poverty rates have stayed low. The scene on 18th Avenue on a weekday afternoon is busy: has played out, with slight variations, across much of Brooklyn: don’t know if there’s going to be any Italians left.” street closures. Meanwhile, Bensonhurst offered people coming home from work, buying food for dinner. They the descendants of the last great wave of migration gradually Lanno says he plans to stay in Brooklyn for- good housing and schools. Besides, he says, “It’s stop at places like the Bari Pork Store and Salumeria or, just to giving way to the next great wave. ever—though not necessarily in Bensonhurst. a beautiful place to live, really, to raise a family.” its left, the Hong Bao Bakery. Rows of brick and wood-frame “The communities that used to live there are aging,” Mol- As for the bakery, he says, business is good; Chung’s group started in 2002 in response houses stretch away from the avenue on both sides. lenkopf says. “They were solidly middle class, but their children Chinese people come in to buy bread too. to violence and harassment of Asian students On the corner of 64th Street, the neighborhood’s recent his- don’t really want to live in Bensonhurst.” The Chinese community’s arrival in Ben- in local high schools. Since then, he says, the tory is neatly stacked in one two-story brick building: On the A few blocks down the avenue, 20-year-old Danny Lanno is sonhurst was a logical one, says Steve Chung, problems have faded. The Italians who remain ground floor is the J&V Pizzeria—in place, the sign says, since working in his family’s store, the Cristoforo Colombo Bakery. president of the United Chinese Association of in the area, he says, are friendly. As for the 1950. Above it, with a yellow-and-red sign mostly in Chinese, He grew up in the neighborhood, he says, and the change has Brooklyn, who came to the neighborhood from local Chinese, he says, recent immigrants need is a business called Guan Yuen Co. Asked what his upstairs come quickly. It started, he says, when Italian people moved en Hong Kong in 1973 and now lives in Marine education in American culture, while the more neighbor does, a pizzamaker just shrugs. (A man smoking masse to Staten Island and New Jersey. The result, as Chinese Park. Chung says the older Chinese destination established members of the community are a cigarette outside says the business helps new immigrants people filled the void, has been jarring. of Sunset Park started getting more crowded beginning to get involved in local government navigate government programs.) “Everyone is kind of, not pissed, but surprised. You know: and expensive, with cost concerns rising after and politics. John Mollenkopf, director of the Center for Urban Research Where did all the Italians go?” he says. “I feel like the only Sept. 11, 2001, as business in Manhattan’s Chi- “We’re still not up to my ideal community,” at the City University of New York, says the scene is one that Italians are the old people. And I feel like once they’re gone, I natown were stifled by increased security and Chung says. “My vision is, there shouldn’t be

46 The Unplanned City City Limits / Vol. 34 / No. 6 www.citylimits.org 47 any areas or borders between peoples. But a lot of the for 25 years, knows the area as well as anyone. The new immigrants, a lot of the different ethnic back- idea of housing in Spring Creek, she says, was a jolt. grounds, they tend to live together because they feel “I thought the whole idea was just so exciting,” she more comfortable.” says, “because this whole area was a place where you As encouraging as the area’s largely peaceful neigh- dump garbage.” borhood transitions can seem, they are not without She heard talk of development in the mid-’90s, downsides. Ethnic succession affirms the city’s open- she says, and signed on to the waiting list, and years ness to newcomers, researchers say, but it can also later got a letter saying she was approved. She delayed exacerbate racial segregation. Some ethnic groups, retirement for two years until her sale was final, and Krase suggests, have been attracted to neighborhoods she moved into her new house, where she lives with like Bensonhurst in part because of their middle-class her husband and son, in the summer of 2009. status—and their relatively low black populations. The garbage and tall weeds are long gone, of course, “Some of the newer groups don’t want to live in black just as the sprawling blocks of boarded-up houses are neighborhoods, so they don’t go there,” he says. gone from the rest of the neighborhood. In their place, A similar dynamic, Mollenkopf says, can be seen on the edge of the city, is Boyce’s three-bedroom house. in Bay Ridge. “The reason that people from differ- “I had never owned a home before and always wanted ent Arabic-speaking communities are going there is to own one,” she says. “However, I thought that when because it’s perceived to be a safe, white, middle-class I retired, I would have to leave New York.” neighborhood.” The Nehemiah program has its critics, who argue From the perspective of the existing ethnic groups, that low-density housing is an inefficient use of land he adds, “people don’t think that property values are in a crowded metropolis. Others say the emphasis going to fall because the Chinese are coming into the on homeownership and the program’s tight screen- neighborhood.” ing of potential buyers leave out many of the people Still, though the skin colors are different, the pattern in the community who are most in need of housing is the same: As in East New York, where Italians and assistance. But Nehemiah residents say the program’s Jews were replaced by black and Hispanic residents, strict rules have a clear upside: Their developments in Bensonhurst and Dyker Heights they have been have been remarkably stable and free of foreclosures, followed by immigrants from Asia. The process repeats even in the recent years’ economic collapse, when as new groups move to Brooklyn, establish themselves, neighboring areas, like Canarsie, were among the prosper and move out. worst-hit places in the city. “It creates an opening,” Krase says. “And then who’s “If you could go back in the ‘70s and ‘80s and look going to move in?” at pictures of the neighborhood and the devastation In Bensonhurst, the next change may already be and the flight, it’s totally different,” says Pat Worthy, a under way. In a drive to promote last year’s census, retired corrections officer who bought a house in the Chung’s group printed a set of fliers aimed at reach- New Lots Nehemiah development in 2000. “If some- ing some of the neighborhood’s newest arrivals, who body had told you then, ‘Oh, we’re going to rebuild so far have no civic group of their own. The fliers, he the neighborhood,’ you would shake your head and says, were in Spanish. say, ‘No way.’ “ But now, she says, “You come in the summertime, In Spring Creek, the opportunity for development everybody’s grass is green, everybody’s got nice flowers. has always been there, but the land was just too far People look at it, and they’re totally shocked.” from shopping or transit. East Brooklyn Congrega- tions hopes to change that. The group has plans for a supermarket on the site and is pressing the transit authority for bus lines nearby. Until those services arrive, the neighborhood’s downsides remain. But the long-fallow land is attractive anyway—in part because it is cheap, which makes for low housing costs. As the rest of Brooklyn becomes more expensive, East New York’s population is surging as poorer residents are forced eastward. Linda Boyce, a retired city administrator and travel agent who lived in the nearby Linden Plaza apartments

48 Brooklyn: The Borough Behind The Brand City Limits / Vol. 35 / No. 1 www.citylimits.org 49 CHAPTER FIVE

TheThe new history of Brooklyn Destination

ear the back of Junior’s, facing out into the restaurant from in front of a mir- rored wall, Bob Trentacoste waits for his salmon to arrive and ponders Brooklyn. He has just turned 60, and in a few weeks, it would be the 50th anniversary of his parents’ buying a house in Carroll Gar- dens. Years ago, he moved away to New Jersey for a while, but he came back to the house in 2006, after his parents died. Trentacoste, who used to work in software but is shifting into property management, has been coming to Junior’s twice a week for eight or nine years, he says. The food is good enough, he adds, that he takes the train and the bus across neighborhoods, bypassing countless other restaurants. Junior’s, he says, is one of the last places in the city where you can sit and drink an egg cream with your meal. For a student of Brooklyn—and he is one—that is important. And why study Brooklyn? That is a different question. “I suppose it’s where we grew up,” Trentacoste says with a small shrug. “If I grew up in East McKeesport, I’m sure I’d want to know the history of that.” But, he is asked, is there something more? Some mys- tique? Brooklyn, he allows, has probably had a richer history than East McKeesport. For example, he says, across Flatbush Avenue from Junior’s is a Long Island University building, home of a pool and some classrooms, that was once the Paramount Theatre. In its heyday, it played host to Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and some of the earliest rock-’n’-roll performers. Much farther down Flatbush, of course, was Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Trentacoste points to a set of stadium chairs mounted on the wall above a row of ketchup bottles.

50 Brooklyn: The Borough Behind The Brand City Limits / Vol. 35 / No. 1 www.citylimits.org 51 Brooklyn’s Share of New York’s Crime

Population 30.6%

Grand Larceny, Auto 32.3%

Grand Larceny 25.8%

Burglary 35.7%

Felony Assault 33.7%

Robbery 34%

Rape 30%

Murder 41.2%

Source: NYPD

CRIME

Total Felonies 3,500 3,100 3,000

2,500 2,120 1,974 2,011 2,000 1,829 1,836 1,733 1,457 1,404 1,500 1,323 1,334 1,264 1,364 1,249 1,197 1,143 1,106 1,023 899 986 906 1,000 845 581 500

0

52 Brooklyn: The Borough Behind The Brand City Limits / Vol. 35 / No. 1 “Before it was all factory, industrial and longshoremen, this area. The last 20 years, all the factories closed, the longshoremen, they’re not there anymore.”

“The owner himself told me that he bought them closed, the longshoremen, they’re not there anymore, on eBay,” he says with a smile. “They were billed as and slowly it’s become a more residential area.” For a bleacher seats from the original Ebbets Field. But the business owner, that kind of change is good. “It’s the owner himself admitted that has no way of verifying young people,” Buffa says. “They go for a good time, that they’re authentic.” spend the money.” Perhaps the appeal of Brooklyn, Trentacoste says, Over time, these new Brooklynites will grow old, and is that—Ebbets Field notwithstanding — most of the some of them will stay as long as Buffa has, or longer. infrastructure is intact, even as everything else around Some will leave their mark—either physically, with tall it changes. For some people, he adds, that makes the buildings, maybe even the tallest around—or in the new skyscrapers dotting the borough seem all the ever evolving spirit of the place. They will all change more disturbing. it a little, if only by their presence, but that is nothing “The way I like to say it is, sometimes history gets new: Ferdinando’s, has been serving chickpea-and- paved over,” he says. The example he has in mind is the ricotta sandwiches and Manhattan Special soda (made Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower, recently surpassed in Greenpoint) for 105 years. But at some point, more as the tallest building in Brooklyn. Something about the than a century ago, a new person found a spot near height of the new apartment building that dethroned the Brooklyn waterfront, looked around and decided it just feels wrong. So, for that matter, does the flea to create something. market crowding the tower’s banking hall, but mostly, Now, Buffa says, “It’s a destination, because they can’t what bothers him is the building’s loss of its top spot get this kind of food nowhere else.” to this apartment tower. The process—regeneration, expansion, adaptation— The emotions, though, are hard to explain. On one plays itself out eternally, even in East McKeesport. hand, he says, change is necessary. On the other ... But when people say Brooklyn is special, part of what “It’s tradition. It’s like losing an old friend,” Trentacoste they mean is the scale on which this all happens. It is starts, “psychologically, really.” a place with the Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower at He hesitates. one end, the Spring Creek Nehemiah homes at another “I mean, the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building and dozens of sprawling, roiling neighborhoods in is still standing,” he says. “It’s not going away.” between. In all of them, at any time, someone is leav- ing and someone else is arriving, and the Chinese in Just over a mile away, where the Brooklyn-Queens Bensonhurst have the same reasons for coming as Expressway cuts a gully along the edges of Red Hook the advertising executives in Fort Greene. They come and Carroll Gardens—a few blocks from Trentacoste’s because Brooklyn, whatever it is, can work for them. house, in fact—Ferdinando’s Focacceria is open for The image, though enduring, is secondary. Brooklyn business too. Its 1904 founding makes Junior’s, a half- is a concept, but it is also a place. Or really, it is many century younger, look like a glitzy new kid on the concepts and many places. They are held together, on block. Francesco Buffa, who arrived in the borough a rounded mass on the western tip of Long Island, by from Sicily 39 years ago, is the third-generation owner, convenient accidents of luck and landform and also manager and cook. by a notion in the heads of people around the world Ferdinando’s has some pictures on the wall too— who look at the name and think, “Now, that’s a place scenes from the old days—and it has drawn its share to be from.” And though they don’t quite know why, of tourists over the years. And like every other square they’re right. inch of its home borough, it has seen change. First and Francesco Buffa is talking about his restaurant, but foremost, in the people who walk in the door. he might be offering a motto for his adopted borough. “Before it was all factory, industrial and longshoremen, “Different type of people,” he says, “but the place is this area,” Buffa says. “The last 20 years, all the factories still here.” CL

www.citylimits.org 55 56 Brooklyn: The Borough Behind The Brand City Limits / Vol. 35 / No. 1 www.citylimits.org 57 into a consumer goods conglomerate. The in Park Slope was Classical. style of the house is transitional from the 12. 105 Eighth Avenue, between Presi- Romanesque revival of the 1880s to the dent and Carroll streets, may be one of Classical of the 1890s. the finest Classical houses in Brooklyn, 5. Grand Army Plaza, with the Soldiers’ and one of the cleverest, with the rounded and Sailors’ Memorial Arch (John H. colonnade lending a kind of monumen- Duncan, 1889–92) featuring the 1898 tality that would otherwise have been quadriga by Frederick W. MacMonnies, difficult to attain on the tight site. It was and the groups Army (west pier facing the built in 1912 for Michael Tracy, owner of park, 1901) and Navy (east pier, 1901). one of the East Coast’s largest stevedoring On the inside walls of the arch are two firms. Brooklyn’s Helmle & Huberty were EXPLORE BROOKLYN equestrian reliefs in bronze. One depicts the architects. Ulysses Grant, the other Abraham Lincoln. 13. 115 Eighth Avenue, northeast This is the only known equestrian portrait corner of Carroll Street, was built in 1888 of the 16th president. The human figures for Thomas Adams Jr., whose father had Brooklyn covers 70 square miles were sculpted by William O’Donovan, the invented modern chewing gum. Adams and is home to more people than horses by the great Philadelphia realist Jr. manufactured Chiclets and Dentyne, 16 states. Getting to know the painter Thomas Eakins. among other gums, and helped form the borough—or getting to know 6. Brooklyn Public Library, 1937–41, “chewing gum trust.” Architect C.P.H. it better if you’ve lived there for Githens & Keally. Be sure to go inside. Gilbert’s house is a bravura exercise in years—is a tall order. Brooklyn 7. Mary Louise Bailey Fountain, “Richardsonian Romanesque.” boasts at least 60 neighborhoods, 1932, Eugene Savage, sculptor, Egerton 14. 121 Eighth Avenue, southeast each one a world unto itself. Swartwout, architect. corner of Carroll Street, was built in 1894. And each one offers a bite-size 8. Though it is technically in Prospect Architect Montrose Morris, a master of way to explore the state’s most Heights, you won’t help noticing the strik- Richardsonian Romanesque, jettisoned populous county. Here are two ing, glassy Modernist apartment house that style for an exuberant Classicism tours for folks hoping to learn as One Prospect Park (2008), designed when that was what his clients wanted. they walk. For more information, Melrose, a low-income South Bronx neighborhood, was redeveloped along the lines of a community plan. by the world-famous Richard Meier, on 15. 838, 842 and 846 Carroll Street, on go to www.brooklynhistory.org/ Eastern Parkway across from the Brooklyn the south side between Eighth Avenue and publications/neighborhood.html: Public Library. Prospect Park West, were all designed by 9. The twin Tudor-style houses at 13 C.P.H. Gilbert and built in 1887. North Slope and 15 Prospect Park West (between 16. 850 Carroll Street, on the south Courtesy Brooklyn Historical Society President and Carroll streets) were built side between Eighth Avenue and Pros- 1. Francis H. Kimball’s Montauk Club in 1919. They represent the late incursion pect Park West, was built in 1922, one (1889–91), Eighth Avenue and Lincoln into Park Slope for the quaint and lovely of the last rich men’s houses built in the Place. The exotically decorated building suburban style (e.g., Forest Hills Gardens neighborhood. Mott B. Schmidt, architect housed the defining institution of elite in Queens) of the time. They also represent of Manhattan’s Sutton Place from around Park Slope gentlemen. one of the earliest instances of driveways the same time, designed the house in his 2. The néo-Grec brownstone (built in and garages in Park Slope. The architect trademark light Georgian Revival style, 1883) at 20 Eighth Avenue, across the was William McCarthy. so different in feeling from the Victorian street from the Montauk Club between 10. 869 President Street, between architecture of Park Slope. St. John’s and Lincoln places, was the Seventh and Eighth avenues, an “artistic 17. Speaking of that Victorian archi- home of William J. Gaynor (1849–1913) house” designed by Henry Ogden Avery tecture, William B. Tubby designed the during the time he served as one of the fraud, thus making it possible for the 3. On the north side of Lincoln Place Morris. The superb 1992 addition is by for Stewart Lyndon Woodford, built in delightful row of four Queen Anne most remarkable mayors in New York great amusement parks (Steeplechase, between Seventh and Eighth avenues is the Fox & Fowle. 1885. houses at 864–872 Carroll Street (south City history. A Christian Brothers mis- Luna Park, Dreamland) to thrive at Coney private Berkeley-Carroll School. It was 4. The house at 274 Berkeley Place, 11. 97 Eighth Avenue, southeast corner side between Eighth Avenue and Prospect sionary turned lawyer, he practiced first Island. Gaynor was elected mayor in 1909 founded as the all-girl Berkeley Institute between Eighth Avenue and Plaza Street of President Street, was built in 1909 for Park West), built in 1887. In this wildest in the town of Flatbush then in the city of and liked to walk to work from here to in 1887 by David Augustus Boody, who West, was designed by Lamb & Rich and John W. Weber, president of the William and most picturesque of styles, it’s some- Brooklyn. As a judge, he sent the notori- City Hall. He survived a 1910 assassina- would later be mayor of Brooklyn. The built in 1890–91 for George P. Tangeman, Ulmer Brewery in Bushwick. The architects times hard to tell where one house ends ously corrupt Gravesend political boss tion attempt, though complications from 1896 Jacobean-style building was designed owner of Royal Baking Powder, a company Daus & Otto designed it in a Classical and the next begins. John Y. McKane to prison for election his wound caused him to die in office. by Walker & that through its marketing expertise grew style at a time when virtually everything 18. 863 Carroll Street (north side

58 TheHomework Death and Life of the Neighborhood Store City Limits / Vol. 34 / No. 56 www.citylimits.org 59 between Eighth Avenue and Prospect Park going west from Eighth Avenue are its Brooklyn Heights. Trinity Church to form the Church of St. West), 1890, is a rare domestic work by the three siblings, the Serine, the Lillian and 8. Former Adrian von Sinderen resi- Ann and the Holy Trinity on Montague famous firm of Napoleon Le Brun & Sons. the Ontrinue. Buildings such as these dence: Built in the late 1830s, this is one and Clinton Streets. 19. Two houses at the northwest corner form the rich architectural background of New York’s largest remaining houses in 20. Packer Collegiate Institute: This of Prospect Park West and Carroll Street, of Park Slope and are as necessary to the the Greek Revival style. Later the home prestigious private school is housed in a 16 and 17 Prospect Park West, and two on neighborhood’s quality as anything by of the renowned stage designer Oliver lovely, romantic main building designed the opposite corner, 18 and 19 Prospect C.P.H. Gilbert or Montrose Morris. Smith, it is where the novelist Truman by Minard Lafever and built in the 1850s. Park West, are limestone Classical beau- Capote lived when he wrote his classic 21. Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite ties built in 1898–99 and designed by Brooklyn Heights New York novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s Rite Roman Catholic Church (formerly Montrose Morris to form a grand gateway Courtesy Brooklyn Historical Society (published in 1958). Church of the Pilgrims): Richard Upjohn, to this splendid block of Carroll Street. 1. Brooklyn Historical Society: 9. Former Alexander M. White resi- who designed Manhattan’s Trinity Church, 20. 28 Prospect Park West, at the Founded in 1863, the Brooklyn Historical dence: This beautiful Italianate brownstone designed this 1840s Congregational church southwest corner of Montgomery Place, Society’s building was erected in 1878-81 mansion was the childhood home of in the Romanesque Revival style—the was designed by Boston’s Charles Brigham as one of several important institutions Alfred Tredway White, philanthropist first church in America to be so designed. and built in 1901. that made this part of Brooklyn Heights and reformer who in the late 19th-century It was home to the Rev. Richard Salter 21. Montgomery Place was developed the cultural center of Brooklyn. pioneered the construction of model Storrs, one of America’s most famous by Harvey Murdock (co-developer of the 2. St. Ann’s School (formerly Crescent housing for working people in New York. 19th-century clergymen. Now home to resort Locust Valley farther out on Long Athletic Club): Originally a prestigious 10. Former A.A. Low residence: The Our Lady of Lebanon Church, the bronze Island), who had a close working relation- gentlemen’s sporting club, This 1906 build- near-twin of the house next door, this was doors were salvaged from the Normandie ship with a very young architect (only 24 ing, designed by Frank Freeman (one of home to Abiel Abbot Low, whose “House ocean liner. when he began work on Montgomery Brooklyn’s greatest architects), has since of Low:” was royalty in the 19th-century 22. Former Brooklyn Trust Company Place) named Charles Pierrepont Henry 1966 house a private school. China trade, employing beautiful clipper (now J.P. Morgan Chase branch bank): Gilbert, recently trained at the Ecole des 3. First Unitarian Church (a.k.a. ships docked across the East River at South One of New York City’s most beautiful Beaux-Arts in Paris. In his youth, Gilbert Church of the Saviour): This Gothic Street Seaport. His son, Seth Low, who banks, built in 1915 in the High Renais- was under the spell of Boston’s Henry Revival church, built in 1842-44, is one of grew up in this house, because a reforming sance style of Italy. Be sure to look inside. Hobson Richardson, who had evolved a the few remaining works by the architect mayor of Brooklyn, and later of New York The architects, York & Sowyer, are among personal variation on French and Spanish Minard Lafever, one of 19th-century New City, and president of Columbia University. America’s outstanding bank architects. Romanesque prototypes and in so doing York’s most important designers. 11. Brooklyn Heights Promenade: 23. St. Ann and the Holy Trinity created what struck many people in the 4. Former Herman Behr residence: Constructed in the early 1950s, the Prome- Church: This Gothic Revival church of 1880s as somehow peculiarly American. This beautiful house, in the Romanesque nade—one of the most popular attractions 1844-47 is considered architect Minard Richardson’s acolytes were numerous in Revival style, was designed by Frank Free- in Brooklyn, was cantilevered out from Lafever’s masterpiece. Unfortunately, its Brooklyn, and none was better or more man for a wealthy industrialist in 1888-90. the bluff of Brooklyn heights to minimize high tower—once the tallest structure in all prolific than Gilbert. It is now apartments. the impact of the new Brooklyn-Queens of New York—had to be removed when the 22. Two gorgeous Beaux-Arts Classical 5. St. George Hotel: The St. George Expressway on the Heights neighborhood. subway was built under Montague Street. apartment houses, 10 Montgomery Place was one New York’s largest hotel, with 12. Heights Casino: Built in 1905, this and 143 Eighth Avenue, stand at the 2,632 guest rooms, and featured the largest distinctive building is a private club for 15. 31 Grace Court: Among the homes architect and critic, built this charming southeast corner. Designed by Montrose indoor salt-water swimming pool in the the playing of racquet sports, especially in picturesque Grace Court, one of several chapel in 1875-1876. Morris and built in 1910–11, the four-story world. Built in several stages between 1885 squash, for which the club is world famous. quaint mews in Brooklyn Heights, this was 18. St. Charles Borromeo Church: This Make buildings are like rich French pastry. and 1930, the group of structures now 13. Hotel Bossert: Once considered one the home from 1947 to 1951 of the famous Roman Catholic church, built in 1868, is 23. Simeon Eisendrath, who had serves a variety of functions, including of the finest hotels in New York City, the playwright Arthur Miller, author of Death one of an estimated 500 to 700 churches the News worked in Chicago for Louis Sullivan, apartments. Bossert, opened in 1909, was especially of a Salesman, and the home from 1951 to designed by the Irish immigrant Patrick designed Temple Beth Elohim, 1908–10, 6. Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims: renowned for its Marine roof restaurant 1961 of the important African-American C. Keely, a Brooklyn resident who was the —Publicize your at the northeast corner of Eighth Avenue This was the home church of Henry Ward and nightclub, with its sensational views of philosopher, social critic and civil rights most prolific Catholic church architect in organization’s events. and Garfield Place. It is one of the most Beecher (1813-87), America’s most famous Manhattan. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, major crusader W.E.B. DuBois. American history. —Send news tips beautiful Classical synagogues in New preacher and anti-slavery crusader in the Heights landowners, now own the building. 16. Riverside Apartments: Alfred 19. Former St. Ann’s Church: James York City. 19th-century/ He helped design the simple 14. Grace Church: Richard Upjohn, who Tredway White, a son of privilege who Renwick, Jr., architect of Manhattan’s —Submit opinion pieces 24. The Belvedere, at the northwest 1849 church, which contains a great deal lived in Cobble Hill and was one of America’s used his wealth to effect reform in work- St. Patrick’s Cathedral, designed this corner of Eighth Avenue and Garfield of beautiful stained glass. most important 19th-century architects, ers’ lives, built these pioneering model spectacular example of the colorful and Do it all at Place, is a simple but elegant four-story 7. Eugene Boisselet Residence: This designed this picture-perfect example of tenements in 1890. flamboyant architectural style called “High www.citylimits.org apartment house from 1903 designed by lovely wooden house built in 1824 is one the Gothic Revival architecture of “High 17. Former Willow Place Chapel: Rus- Victorian Gothic.: the church was built in Henry Pohlman. Along Garfield Place of the best reminders of the early days of Church” Episcopalianism in the 1840s. sell Sturgis, an important 19th-century 1867-69. St. Ann’s later merged with Holy

60 TheHomework Death and Life of the Neighborhood Store City Limits / Vol. 3435 / No. 51 www.citylimits.org 61 Wednesday, February 16 developed the agency’s first domestic violence departmental staff, colleagues, and faculty. As issues and impact litigation; Bold and imagi- (5) years fundraising experience, including ALL DAY strategic plan, supported the placement of a key member of The Law School team, the native mindset and an ardent desire to act in a supervisory capacity; a proven record of Intelligent Infrastructure domestic violence consultants in child protec- Executive Director of Institutional Advance- in an entrepreneurial and collegial manner success and accomplishment; management of The Architecture of Progress tive offices throughout the city, and designed ment will be expected to contribute broadly to to design, shape and build a strong and suc- high dollar individual donors from identifying New York, NY mental health, substance abuse and medical all aspects of the fulfillment of the institution’s cessful institutional advancement program; prospects through securing major gifts; excel- Infrastructure is one of the great challenges policies and programs. In her most recent mission and growth. The Law School seeks Exceptional interpersonal skills combined lent interpersonal and team building skills; of the twenty-first century. Over the next 30 role as the Deputy Commissioner of Family an experienced professional with the dem- with the self-confidence and sensitivity needed ability to take initiative, work under pressure years, the global population will skyrocket Support Services, Ms. Roberts has overseen onstrated ability to respond effectively to the to build consensus for policy and operational and handle multiple coinciding deadlines; from roughly six and a half billion to between the city’s preventive service programs, working following challenges: Prepares for, plans and changes; Demonstrated ability to work effec- knowledge of, and commitment to, LGBT nine and twelve billion. Reserve your place to prevent child abuse and neglect and reduce executes the Law School’s first comprehensive tively with, and, by virtue of a keen intellect issues and communities. Background and Events, Jobs, Announcements today for Intelligent Infrastructure, the next the need for foster care placement. fundraising campaign. Creates and success- and superb written and presentational skills, experience working with city, state and federal and Offers event offered in the Ideas Economy series fully implements annual strategic plans for quickly gain the trust and confidence of, various elected officials highly desirable; proficiency from The Economist. To register, please visit fundraising and communications operations constituencies, including the Dean, the faculty, with Raiser’s Edge preferred. http://intelligentinfrastructure.eventbrite.com/ CITY LIMITS JOBS to innovatively lead the institution’s overall Board members, staff, potential donors, and To Apply: Executive Director of advancement efforts to a higher and more community and business leaders; Knowledge Submit a cover letter (stating desired posi- CALENDAR Institutional Advancement sophisticated level of achievement. He/she will of the culture of academic institutions and in tion and salary requirements) and resume, Thursday, January 6 ANNOUNCEMENTS The CUNY School of Law develop long-range plans, operating guidelines particular of graduate education; Patience, by email to [email protected]. For regular ALL DAY Safe Horizon Appoints New Job Type: Full-Time and department budgets. This position is in tolerance, maturity, stature, self-motivation, mail or fax: Center Human Resources 208 LEED Green Associate Seminar Chief Program Officer Job Category: Education/Academic CUNY’s Executive Compensation Plan. All energy, a personable nature, a strong work West 13th Street, New York, NY 10011 FAX New York, NY Safe Horizon, the nation’s leading victim executive positions require a minimum of ethic and integrity. (212) 924-2657. Duplicate submissions are The U.S. Green Building Council has made assistance organization, has announced the The Associate Administrator manages one a Bachelor’s degree and eight years’ related To Apply: not necessary. No phone calls, please. The a number of recent changes to the LEED appointment of Liz Roberts as Chief Program or more College administrative functions. experience. Additional qualifications are Send resume and cover letter to: Angela Center is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/ examination required for accreditation. “Green Officer, effective as of November 29, 2010. Liz He/she develops, implements, and assesses defined below by the College. Broad intel- Kofron Search Committee 65-21 Main Affirmative Action Employer. Learn more at Associate” is the Tier 1 achievement within Roberts comes to Safe Horizon with 23 years programs and services to produce high-quality lectual curiosity about, and familiarity with, Street Flushing, New York 11367. EQUAL gaycenter.org. USGBC’s new LEED 2009 three-tiered accredi- of experience as an advocate, clinician and results and meet strategic goals. He/she also political, academic and historical issues, on EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY; The City tation system, and signifies a strong knowledge administrator working on behalf of children coordinates activities among different units, a local, national and international level, and University of New York is an Equal Opportunity base of the principles of LEED Sustainable and families affected by violence. She began and with areas outside the College, and may in particular a knowledge of New York City’s Employer, which complies with all applicable Design without the technical knowledge her career as a shelter counselor, hotline oversee staff, budget, operations, and facilities. social justice community and its unique role laws and regulations, and encourages inclu- requirements of LEED AP+. This seminar goes worker, and children’s program coordinator He/she develops, implements, and assesses in the legal community; Understanding of and sive excellence in its employment practices over LEED principles and certified projects. For for community-based domestic violence programs and services to produce high-quality appreciation for the legal and social justice more information, visit http://www.greenedu. programs in the Boston area. At the Mas- results and meet strategic goals. He/she also needs of the communities in New York City com/new-york-city-leed-seminars/ sachusetts Department of Public Health, Ms. coordinates activities among different units, that are underserved and underrepresented; Deputy Director of Have an Event, Roberts trained more than a thousand health and with areas outside the College, and may Significant experience in the design and lead- Development Announcement care providers to screen for intimate partner oversee staff, budget, operations, and facili- ership of development, marketing, and public Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Thursday, January 27 violence during health care visits. Next, she ties. The Executive Director of Institutional relations programs within a complex higher Transgender Community Center or Job Listing? ALL DAY worked as a therapist with young children Advancement will be working with the Dean education environment and/or social justice Job Type: Full-Time Upgrading to World Class: who had witnessed violence. She has taught of the Law School. The successful candidate organizations, resulting in marked improve- Job Category: Social Service and Agency The Future of New York City’s Airports courses on family violence at the Columbia will oversee the development, marketing, and ment and growth; Progressively responsible, SUBMIT IT New York, NY University School of Social Work and at public relations operations. The successful can- substantial and diverse fund-raising experience The NYC LGBT Center is seeking an experi- Join Regional Plan Association, the Better Wheelock College in Boston. didate will work closely with the Dean, faculty, and a proven track record demonstrating the enced fundraising professional to work closely TO CITY LIMITS! Airports Alliance, and JP Morgan Chase at For the last ten years, Ms. Roberts has held volunteers, and colleagues (as appropriate) to ability to secure significant gifts, including with the Director of Development, Executive a major conference to address the chronic several leadership positions at the New York design and implement identification, cultiva- major gifts and annual fund, from both defined Director, key volunteers and committees to problem of airport congestion and delays in City Administration for Children’s Services tion, solicitation, and stewardship strategies and non-defined constituencies; Proven execute an aggressive fundraising strategy. www.citylimits.org/post the New York Region. For more information, (ACS). She began in 2000 as the Director of to build recognition and support for the Law ability to build strong relationships with key The Deputy will be responsible for all aspects visit www.betterairportsnow.org or call (212) the Office of Domestic Violence Policy and School. The Executive Director of Institu- audiences, including donors, colleagues, and of major donor and government relations 253-5796. Planning and became the Assistant Com- tional Advancement will serve as Executive peer organizations and individuals in the strategies, work with other development team missioner for the Office of Child and Family Director of the Law School Foundation and social justice community; Knowledge of and members to support overall departmental goals Health in 2004. In 2006, she was appointed will build strong working relationships with experience in developing communications and objectives, and will assume day-to-day the Deputy Commissioner of Family Sup- the Law School Foundation Board of Direc- advocacy campaigns on social justice legal management in the absence of the Director. port Services. During her years at ACS, Liz tors, the Office of the Chancellor of CUNY, issues, including local and national legislative Qualified applicants will have a minimum five

62 TheExtra Death Extra and Life of the Neighborhood Store City Limits / Vol. 3435 / No. 51 www.citylimits.org 63 Tip of an Iceberg

Today, Jing Fong restaurant is one of the icons 10 tipped workers didn’t receive the minimum of Chinatown, a dazzling palace of dim sum wage. Those and other forms of “wage theft” on Elizabeth Street just south of Canal. Fifteen might cost New York workers a billion dollars years ago, Jing Fong was the setting for a battle a year. between food service workers and restaurant Restaurants are far from the only perpetrators. Revisiting images owners over wages—a battle that continues, Vacco successor Eliot Spitzer found that a painting from our archives largely in other settings, to this day. contractor working on New York City schools had Organized by the upstart Chinese Staff and stiffed 13 employees of wages. Former Attorney Workers’ Association, Jing Fong workers claimed General (now governor) Andrew Cuomo won the restaurant had been stealing tips and shorting wage restitution from grocery stores, construction workers on overtime. In 1997, then New York contractors working on a state office building, State attorney general Dennis Vacco sued Jing a money transfer company, even the clothing Fong for $1.5 million. A short time later, the retailer Yellow Rat Bastard. CSWA claimed its offices were firebombed. The In the final month of his term, Gov. David state and restaurant ultimately settled for $1.1 Paterson signed a new wage theft law that pro- million and the reinstatement of one employee. tects workers who complain about wage theft Jing Fong’s lawyer told the press that the eatery from retaliation and gives workers who prove had not admitted wrongdoing. they’ve been ripped off a chance to get additional According to a 2009 study by a consortium payment for damages equal to the back wages led by the National Employment Law Project, they win; previous law capped such damages at three-quarters of workers in L.A., Chicago and 25 percent of back pay. New York were not paid for overtime, and 3 in -JM

64 TheLook Death Back and Life of the Neighborhood Store City Limits / Vol. 3435 / No. 51