NYC Neighborhoods

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Flatbush, Brooklyn:


Flatbush: A Richer Mix of Stores for a Once-Rough Area

By JOHN HOLUSHA
Published: June 6, 2004

SOME neighborhoods, SoHo most notably, find that their mix of stores changes as wealthier residents replace old-timers and have more desire to buy designer clothes than 60-cent coffees.

Something similar is happening in the Flatbush Avenue section of central Brooklyn, although the shift is still subtle and the residents are not moving out. Rather, as young people move to the neighborhood from Manhattan and from other parts of Brooklyn, and as the immigrants from the Caribbean who live in the area become more affluent, the stores are becoming more vibrant and more varied to meet their needs.

Timothy Guillen, for instance, said he used to sell mainly athletic shoes in his Stride Rite shoe store on Flatbush Avenue. Today, he displays mostly boys' and girls' dress shoes. "We are more family oriented now because there is less crime," he said.

Not long ago, the street was a low-income shopping area with a number of boarded-up storefronts and merchants featuring products priced at less than a dollar. "These guys didn't invest anything in their stores, and they would disappear in the middle of the night, owing the landlord several months rent," said Jack Katz, executive director of the Flatbush Avenue business improvement district.

He said chain stores, including Lane Bryant, Radio Shack, Petland and Ashley Stewart, had moved in recent years into spaces formerly occupied by local retailers.

The growing economic strength of the neighborhood, which is bracketed by the Q subway line on one side and the 2 and 5 on the other, is not only encouraging local retailers to change their offerings, but also attracting national retailers. As a result, commercial rents are increasing, according to real estate executives.

"Eight years ago, I was involved in leasing some of these stores, and Flatbush Avenue had a 10 to 15 percent vacancy rate," said John G. J. Ritter, an executive vice president of Sholom & Zuckerbrot Realty, a brokerage firm active in Queens and Brooklyn. At that time, he said, "rental rates were in the high teens" in terms of dollars per square foot annually. "Now," he added, "the local rental rates match those of suburban malls, $30 to $40 a square foot."

It was those rising rents that persuaded Mr. Guillen, a native of the Dominican Republic, to acquire a building and move his store to its current location about four years ago after nearly a decade in the neighborhood. "The rent was getting very high, so I moved here and bought the building," he said. "Now I pay a mortgage, not rent."

Mr. Ritter, who recently brokered the sale of three retail properties in Flatbush totaling 30,000 square feet for $3.5 million, said the neighborhood is experiencing tremendous growth.

On Flatbush Avenue, a business improvement district on the stretch between Cortelyou Road and Parkside Avenue provides security, sanitation and promotion services, and changes are also evident on streets leading out of Flatbush Avenue.

Five blocks away, Nicholas Correra said he had been expanding the selection of wines in his liquor store facing the Newkirk Avenue subway station on the Q line. "I'm selling a lot more good wine than in the past," he said. He said residents who commute to Manhattan are increasingly stopping by to buy a bottle of wine for dinner.

Mr. Correra's store is in Newkirk Plaza, which opened in 1913. The shopping center has recently been improved, with new ironwork fences replacing crumbling concrete walls and new light fixtures and poles for promotional banners.

John Broderick, executive director of the Flatbush Development Corporation, an economic development agency, said the city-financed project involved "$1 million in amenities and $2 million to $3 million in construction underneath."

Mr. Broderick said that making shopping areas like Newkirk Plaza and Cortelyou Road more attractive was important to attract the younger people who are moving into the neighborhood.

"The people coming here from Manhattan and Williamsburg are in their 30's, and they are looking to buy," he said. He said that three-story Victorian houses in the area are priced in the $800,000 range and that condos in the six-story apartment buildings that house the majority of residents are rapidly appreciating in price.

"Stores in Flatbush are changing to tap into this new income," Mr. Broderick said. He said the Dunkin' Donuts chain recently invested $500,000 to refurbish a store in Newkirk Plaza. An old barbershop on Cortelyou Road is being converted into a white tablecloth restaurant, and a farmer's market now operates on Saturdays at the nearby Public School 139. "It's like a community meeting on Saturdays," he said.

But the gentrification has gone only so far. During the electrical blackout last summer, several stores on Flatbush Avenue were broken into and looted.

Mr. Katz said that when the business improvement district began organizing in 1986, there was a 30 percent vacancy rate along Flatbush Avenue. Now, he said, there are only three vacancies among the 270 storefronts in the 11-block district.

He said the densely populated area was a natural draw for national retail chains. He said these include Staples and Old Navy as well as fast food chains like McDonald's, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken. A 40,000-square-foot Modell's sporting goods opened recently on Church Avenue.

"This was a roughhouse neighborhood when I came here seven years ago," said Sol Velelis, the manager of a Cookie's Department Store on Flatbush Avenue. "We would get packs of kids who would take a lot of merchandise. But things have settled down since then."

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

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Sugar Hill, Manhattan:


Sugar Hill: Reclaiming a Place Where the Music Once Played

By NANCY BETH JACKSON
Published: June 6, 2004

WHEN Duke Ellington made "Take the `A' Train" his theme song in 1942, he established forever in music what everyone already knew. Sugar Hill was the place to go, the place to be, in Harlem. He lived on Sugar Hill and so did his collaborator Billy Strayhorn, who scribbled down the tune when the homesick band was playing in Chicago.

Sugar Hill, a ritzy neighborhood for the black bourgeoisie. Sugar Hill, the mythic center of the Harlem Renaissance between the World Wars. Sugar Hill, the good life.

For decades, African-Americans all over the country dreamed of living on Sugar Hill, but throughout its history, it has drawn people of all hues and nationalities.

"The biggest misconception about Sugar Hill is that at any time it was all black," said Willie Kathryn Suggs, a former ABC television producer who became a realtor after buying a Sugar Hill town house two decades ago. "Of all the Harlem neighborhoods, it has always been the most diverse."

The word "hill," too, is misleading, because the neighborhood, part of Hamilton Heights, perches on a bluff high above the Harlem Plain. When affluent and influential African-Americans began moving in after World War I, the name "Sugar Hill" came into use, probably because "sugar" was said to signify money and the sweet life. David Levering Lewis, describing it in "When Harlem Was in Vogue," wrote that in 1929 "Sugar Hill, a citadel of stately apartment buildings and liveried doormen on a rock, soared above the Polo Grounds and the rest of Harlem like a city of the Incas."

In its broadest geographic definition, Sugar Hill extends westward from Edgecombe Avenue to Amsterdam Avenue. The southern boundary sometimes is placed at 145th Street, or into the West 130's where the topography starts climbing toward Coogan's Bluff. But the heart of Sugar Hill is in the Hamilton Heights-Sugar Hill Historic District between 145th and 155th Streets, from Edgecombe Avenue to a border approaching Amsterdam and squiggling down to Convent Avenue.

In those few blocks lived pioneering civil rights activists like W. E. B. Du Bois, Walter White, Roy Wilkins and the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Sr.; writers like Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison and Zora Neale Hurston; musicians like Paul Robeson and Cab Calloway; and professionals like Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American to become a United States Supreme Court justice. Even into the late 1950's, Sugar Hill still delivered the good life, older residents recall, but by the 1970's, many of the row houses had been divided into rooming houses and heroin was sold on the streets.

Another renaissance is under way as Sugar Hill addresses regain some of their old cachet, pumped up by the hot real estate market and by the neighborhood's activist tradition. Prospective buyers come from downtown, Europe and Asia to bid on 19th-century town houses, some priced at considerably more than $2 million. African-American professionals have rediscovered the neighborhood. Actors by the dozens rent in historic apartment buildings.

The Hamilton Grange Public Library, which closed all but the first floor in the 1970's, recently completed a $1.2 million renovation. Jazz headliners downtown head uptown to jam at St. Nick's Pub. The Dance Theater of Harlem has its headquarters on West 152nd Street. When the 16th annual Hamilton Heights House and Garden Tour takes place today, half of the properties being shown will be in the heart of Sugar Hill.

The neighborhood has not fully returned to its old glory, however. The stately apartment buildings do not have the liveried doormen of days past, for instance. "It is the extremes right now," said Nora Cole, an actor, who on a Saturday morning was weeding one of two pocket parks maintained by volunteers on Edgecombe Avenue above Jackie Robinson Park, the old Colonial Park.

A SOLID core of well-to-do African-American families passes properties from generation to generation, yet other residents still toss disposable diapers into the Edgecombe pocket park, Ms. Cole said. Overall crime rates have dropped more than 60 percent in the last decade, according to statistics from the 30th Precinct, but drugs are still sold on some street corners.

Paula Hill, with three children under 8, says the attraction is space, which sometimes includes a backyard, and the parks in every direction. But most of all, it's the sense of community, she said. "In seven years in Greenwich Village nobody knew us, but here we have a parents' network to help each other out and address issues like schools," she said. Through it, more than 90 families keep in touch online.

While many children attend private schools in the city, a group of parents has established the Hamilton Heights Academy, an alternative school with a diverse socioeconomic mix and a progressive curriculum, within Public School 125. Ultimately to have kindergarten through eighth grade, the academy will enroll about 100 students next fall in kindergarten through second grade. Also in the neighborhood is Mott Hall (Intermediate School 223), with an academically rigorous program in math, science and technology for the fourth through eighth grades.

Until the Eighth Avenue elevated railroad reached 145th Street in 1879, the area was mostly rural, a country-home favorite because of its cool breezes. Alexander Hamilton's last home, the Grange, originally stood at what is now 143rd Street and Convent Avenue. The national memorial was moved to 287 Convent Avenue in Hamilton Heights in 1889.

Residential development took off between the 1880's and World War I, spurred by subway construction in 1904. Many lots are only 16 feet wide, but architects like Henri Fouchaux and Frederick P. Dinkelberg designed block-long compositions for white upper-class clients.

Luxury apartment houses followed in the early 1900's. The Colonial Parkway Apartments at 409 Edgecombe became Sugar Hill's most desirable address with tenants like Jules Bledsoe, who sang "Ol' Man River" in "Show Boat." The six-story Garrison Apartments, originally named Emsworth Hall, built on Convent Avenue in 1910, opened as an African-American co-op in 1929. When an apartment becomes available, it is quickly snatched up, says Nancy Love, an agent with the Corcoran Group. A two-bedroom apartment listed at $300,000 was on the market less than a week this spring.

More recent construction includes the 1956 Hillview Apartments, which since 1999 has been popular among foreigners seeking pieds-à-terre in Harlem. A prewar building on Convent has just been converted into the 10-unit Sugar Hill Condominiums, which quickly sold out with prices ranging from $339,000 to $449,000. The Bradhurst Urban Renewal Area south of 143rd and east of Edgecombe is being developed for middle-income families, adding a chain supermarket and pharmacy within walking distance of Sugar Hill.

The biggest real estate activity is in row houses, many of which haven't been on the market in decades, if ever. More are on the market now because the owners are dying or becoming too infirm to climb the stairs.

Some properties are little more than shells. Lawrence Comroe, a vice president at Corcoran, said that a facade without a roof runs around $575,000 and up.

At the other end of the spectrum is a 114-year-old town house with well-maintained original details like basket-weave lattice, offered for $2.3 million.

In between are town houses in need of considerable renovation. Lorraine D. Gilbert of ReMax Upscale Properties sees more buyers restoring rooming houses to their original single-family status, but buildings "without issues" — claims from tenants — command higher prices.

But anyone planning to rent or buy in the neighborhood should consider more than real estate values, the people who live on Sugar Hill say. It's not just high ceilings, parquet floors and gracious space. It's involvement, beginning with the early N.A.A.C.P. leaders and continuing today among parents working for better neighborhood schools.

Even in the worst of times, Sugar Hill residents speak up. A small group of female volunteers in 1985 reclaimed an eyesore triangle plot at St. Nicholas and Convent Avenues. Led by Luana Robinson, the women created a Convent Garden, today a jewel of green space with lush grass, flower beds and a gazebo.


Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

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Kensington, Brooklyn:


BROOKLYN - FOR PENNIES


By JANET HUEGE
July 10, 2004

It's like Park Slope, except the bookstores aren't there yet. At least that's the argument of the boosters of Kensington, Brooklyn, a little area nestled between Borough Park, Windsor Terrace and Ditmas Park.

The range of housing is staggering in Kensington, and prices are around 30 percent to 40 percent lower than in Park Slope. Now only if it were more convenient.

"You can't walk out your front door and into shops and restaurants," says Betsy Andrews, senior editor at Zagat Surveys. Still, she purchased a 750-square-foot one-bedroom co-op three months ago, in what she calls "a transitional neighborhood," for $167,000. The reason? "Kensington is the nicest and most affordable neighborhood within close proximity to Prospect Park."

A lot of Brooklyn neighborhoods are trying to be "the next Park Slope" (see box), but Kensington's housing mix may actually encourage the income diversity that Slopers cherish. "It's the most eclectic neighborhood in Brooklyn," says John Reinhardt, president and CEO of Fillmore Real Estate. "Kensington is a great mix of properties and residents."

Developed in 1885 after the completion of Ocean Parkway, the neighborhood (originally colonized by Dutch farmers) was named after the west borough of London, at the turn of the century.

It runs from Fort Hamilton Parkway and Caton Avenue to the north, Coney Island Avenue to the east, Foster Avenue to the south and McDonald Avenue to the west.

Now many more New Yorkers are beginning to discover it. "It's a perfect neighborhood for Park Slope refugees and people being priced out of other parts of Brooklyn," says Shannon Reese, senior associate with the Corcoran Group.

Jewelry designer Linda Beigelmacher and her engineer-husband, Manny, purchased a three-story single-family detached home, in move-in condition with basement and finished attic, two and a half years ago for $360K. It is now worth almost $560K.

"We have skylights, stained-glass windows, a garden and a fireplace," says Beigelmacher, who lived in Windsor Terrace for nine years before moving to Kensington. "You can't find a house like this for this price anywhere else."

"The neighborhood is perfect for us," she adds. "There are a lot of kids, and it is lively but also quiet."

As far as rentals are concerned, apartments in Kensington are found in prewar and postwar buildings that are usually five to six stories high. There are rent-stabilized units, some lime- and brownstones, as well as units in private homes.

If you decide to rent, prices for a 400- to 500-square-foot studio range from $750 to $1,000 per month. You can find 600- to 900-square-foot one-bedrooms for $950 to $1,200.

Two-bedrooms range from $1,000 to $1,600 for 750 to 1,200 square feet of space, while 850- to 1,400-square-foot three-bedrooms run $1,500 to $2,100.

Hannah Sohn, who works for a conference company, and her husband, Noah Hidu, a jazz musician, are both owners and landlords. The couple, who lived in Park Slope for three years, bought a one-bedroom co-op in Kensington two years ago.

"It's a safe, cozy and green neighborhood," says Sohn. She and Hidu also own a 550-square-foot studio in Kensington that they rent for $900 a month.

Diane Stein, who works in health education, has lived in Kensington for two years with her boyfriend. "It is a comfortable neighborhood that is ethnically and economically mixed," she says. Stein, who owns a 1,100-square-foot two-bedroom co-op, purchased it two years ago for $135,000. It is now worth $230,000.

"I love living here," she says, "but there are no bookstores in the neighborhood, and the library has no Saturday hours."

Kensington also offers a wide variety of houses. "There are single-family, two-family, detached, attached, semidetached and everything in between," says Fillmore's Reinhardt. "Styles include frames, Victorians, Capes, Queen Annes and row houses, but the most predominant type is brick." Single-family homes can run from $475K to $800K. Two-families can begin as low as $575K and go as high as $875K.

Detached homes are usually on the higher end. And as with any property, condition, original details and uniqueness of style all factor into the price. "The houses range from those needing a lot of work to completely re-done resells," says Warren Lewis Realty associate broker Aaron Isquith. "Many of the properties have yards, driveways, garages and basements, which make them very attractive."

If you're buying in Kensington, studios range from $70K to $100K for 450 to 500 square feet. One-bedrooms begin around $115K and go as high as $180K for 550 to 1,000 square feet. You can find two-bedrooms for $160K to $225K for 850 to 1,400 square feet of space. Three-bedrooms range from $275K to $325K for 1,200 to 1,400 square feet.

The buildings are usually very large. With hardwood floors, plaster-cast moldings, high ceilings and other original details, all of the residences have laundry facilities, while some have doormen, courtyards, balconies and underground parking.

"Along Ocean Parkway you can find luxury apartments," says Marcia J. Miller, broker for Open Options Real Estate.

"We see young couples, singles, professionals, artists, young families and same-sex couples of all ethnicities moving to Kensington," she adds.

Still, the neighborhood hasn't quite developed as quickly as the new residents might like.

"There are a lot of ethnic family-owned restaurants and delis, but not a lot of coffee shops or bars," says Dan Twohig, who, along with his wife, Sheila, purchased a 900-square-foot one-bedroom co-op less than a month ago for $155K.

"It's an up-and-coming neighborhood," notes Sheila. "It will take time, but there will be a turnover in stores and restaurants. The same thing happened in Windsor Terrace five years ago."

"And," adds Dan, "in the meantime we go to Park Slope, which is only five minutes away, for things we can't get here in Kensington.

"It's the best of both worlds."


Copyright 2004 NYP Holdings, Inc.

[Gulcrapek]

When I was younger my best friend lived in Kensington. His house was Victorian style with three floors (maybe four?) and four (maybe five?) bedrooms. The living room was gigantic. He lived on a quiet, tree-lined block with other beautiful homes.

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Yorkville, Manhattan:


Despite Upper East Side pedigree, Yorkville still affordable


By Eric Marx
July 2004

Viewed by some as one of the most affordable areas in Manhattan despite its Upper East Side pedigree, Yorkville has seen a continuous 10-year building boom that has kept inventory plentiful, although prices have begun to rise, as they have throughout the rest of the city.

A 65-block area running from 79th to 96th Street and Third to East End Avenue, Yorkville is still very much a neighborhood of contrasts - somewhat undervalued but affluent. The area attracts fresh-out-of-school graduates looking for affordable studios and one-bedrooms in the side street walkups or high-rise apartments west of Second Avenue on 79th, 86th or 96th Streets, as well as families with young children who want to be near East End's Carl Schulz Park.

A neighborhood bursting at the seams with residential high-rise development, Yorkville is often associated with the towering edifices that, according to old-time residents, make the area around First, Second and Third Avenues somewhat cold and forbidding.

A serene, small-town residential feel still dominates the low-lying townhouses and prewar tenement buildings that dot the side streets. Further east along York and East End Avenues' rolling promenades, open green spaces and discreet restaurants and shops lend the neighborhood a parochial, even folksy air.

"It used to be much more of a bargain than it is now," said Seiglinda O'Donnell, a 30-plus-year East End resident and vice president with William B. May. She offered as an example a three-bedroom post-war apartment on 86th Street between First and York Avenues, which she sold for $452,000 four years ago and which has since doubled to $925,000.

Recently built high-end buildings such as the Chartwell House (finished in 2001) on Second Avenue between 91st and 92nd Streets and the Philip Johnson-designed Metropolitan at 90th and Third Avenue (nearing completion) filled up quickly and are near 100 percent occupancy, noted Gordon Golub, manager of Citi-Habitats' East 84th Street office.

With interest rates rising, many buyers are turning to the rental market instead, and rental prices for high-end apartments in the area have increased more than 10 percent in the past six months, according to Golub.

Overall, in the past four years, about 1,000 rental units have been developed along First Avenue in the high 80s and low 90s, most of them in the $2,400 to $5,000 a month range, Golub said.

Older luxury high-rise buildings such as the Normandie Court at Third Avenue and 95th Street are also seeking to draw more high-end renters by combining units to draw families to the building.

"We've already noticed a change in more married couple types and families," said John Sutherland, director of leasing for Ogden Cap Properties, which manages the Normandie Court, a 20-year-old 1,477-unit complex that has a reputation as one of the most affordable high-rise buildings in Manhattan.

In recent months, the Normandie added a children's playroom and renovated its apartments, with particular attention focused on combining units to form larger two and three-bedroom apartments.

"We still have a number of people fresh out of college and sharing units, but the big difference is they're paying more money," Sutherland said of the building, which has earned the nickname "Dormandy Court" because of its young population.

Sutherland said rents have increased roughly 10 percent at the Normandie in the past six months, part of the first sustained resurgence for rentals in the city since Sept. 11.

Going forward, in addition to expansion northward, the neighborhood could soon see new residential development at the site formerly known as Doctor's Hospital on East End Avenue, opposite Gracie Mansion. The trustees of Beth Israel Hospital voted in May to sell the site, and have reportedly attracted over 40 bids, most of which have plans for residential development. The site could be one of the most valuable sold for development in years.

With the new and existing development, Yorkville's density is a concern to
some residents and community activists like Gorman Reilly, president of CIVITAS, a zoning land use and neighborhood advocacy group. Reilly said the population is taking a toll on the transportation infrastructure in the area. "The M15 is the most heavily used bus route in the city, if not the nation, and it's difficult to make any time [getting downtown]," Reilly said. He is lobbying the MTA for a rapid transit bus service for the area.

While the planned Second Avenue subway line - if it's ever completed- could ease transportation woes, it would also spur on more condo and retail development as the area continues to evolve, said O'Donnell - something that she and other residents in the area said they welcomed.

"Up until six months ago Fresh Direct refused to deliver to the neighborhood," said O'Donnell. "And now we have a health spa. We're thrilled to pieces. The only thing we don't have is a museum and a department store."


Copyright 2003-2004 The Real Deal.

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Washington Heights, Manhattan:


REACHING NEW HEIGHTS


By PATRICK GALLAHUE
July 28, 2004

Just about everything is rising in Washington Heights these days.

Rents, businesses, foot traffic — everything is on the rise, except the crime rate.

"I call it the wow factor," said NYPD Deputy Inspector Jason Wilcox, 39, the 33rd Precinct's Commanding Officer.

"The police say, 'Wow, look at that. BBQ's is here and steakhouses are opening up' . . . You can't help it."

The same street corners that once served as open-air markets for drug dealers are now home to chi-chi restaurants. And street life above 155th Street in Manhattan now means shoppers, and even bar-hoppers, after dark.

"It's an entirely different ballgame here in Washington Heights," said David Hunt, a native of neighboring Inwood and co-owner of Coogan's Bar. "Sure, the crime stats are way down, but the whole tenor of the neighborhood has changed."

Hunt said 10 years ago, one of Coogan's main selling points was the feeling of security "to be in off the streets." Now, he is considering opening a sidewalk cafe.

"It seems now the street crime is nonexistent," he said.

Not quite, but things are moving that way.

In the 33rd and 34th precincts covering Inwood and Washington Heights, murder has decreased more than 80 percent in the past 10 years. Rape is down more than 50 percent, and crime overall has plummeted almost 70 percent since 1994.

Veteran cops say the decline is the result of a multilayered approach. The most important, they say, was the 1994 creation of the 33rd Precinct, which greatly alleviated the stress on one of New York City's most thinly spread police stations.

"It was really big," said Wilcox, who was a sergeant in the 34th Precinct in the early 1990s. "The 34th Precinct was just tremendous in size and it was almost overwhelming because you had a lot of crime and a lot of area to cover. It was just too much."

Anti-narcotics programs in the area — such as the Northern Manhattan Initiative and model-block program — also took a hefty bite out of crime.

"In 1996 or so, we began to see a turnaround in the level of crime and the overall quality of life," said Walther Delgado, president of the Audubon Partnership for Economic Development.

Banks stopped abandoning the area, chain stores started to show an interest in the neighborhood, and longtime residents began to feel comfortable investing their money in the area, Delgado said.

In addition to crime reduction, Delgado credits a large part of the resurgence of Washington Heights and Inwood to the increasing business savvy of first-generation Dominican-Americans and those who grew up in the neighborhood and went on to college.

But not all of the area's changes are homegrown. Wealthy New Yorkers also have sought residences in Washington Heights and Inwood.

As a result, income and rent averages in the area are swiftly soaring.

"People are getting priced out," said Delgado.

Old-timers like Hunt say they hope rents and real-estate prices start to stabilize. But in the meantime, the old and new elements still sit comfortably side by side at Coogan's.

"They all get along," Hunt said. "I haven't sensed any anti-gentrification among the older crowd."


Copyright 2004 NYP Holdings, Inc.

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Jackson Heights, Queens


FROM GLOOM TO BOOM


By ALEX GINSBERG
July 27, 2004

Home prices have soared and communities been reborn as the streets of New York City have become safer over the past decade.

In 1993, we lived in a town with more than five murders a day, 11 burglaries an hour and a robbery almost every six minutes. Ten years later, there are 70 percent fewer murders, and the plummeting crime rate has led to a cultural and commercial renaissance.

Simply put, people feel safe where they didn't before — safe to spend their money in formerly crime-infested neighborhoods, and even to buy homes and raise children there.

"One of the key aspects of our economic-development plan is making the city and its neighborhoods more livable," said Mayor Bloomberg. "And the quickest way to do that is cut crime."

In this, the second part of The Post's in-depth series on the city's plunging crime rate, we look at how Jackson Heights, Queens — the Big Apple's former cocaine capital — sprouted trendy stores and co-ops, and siphoned off young professionals from Manhattan and Park Slope.

Jackson Heights, Queens — once New York's "cocaine capital" — is on its way to becoming the city's co-op capital.

Nestled in the pocket created by the BQE and the elevated tracks of the No. 7 subway line, Jackson Heights is home to a diverse community of Latin-Americans and South Asians, a longer-established white population and a growing gay and lesbian community.

And although Jackson Heights has been on the rebound for some time, only in the past five years has the community come into its own, with trendy new shops and an influx of young professionals.

"There were blocks in Jackson Heights where you would see broken glass on the street from cars being broken into," recalled state Sen. John Sabini (D-Jackson Heights), who grew up in the neighborhood. "You don't see cars with signs that say 'no radio.' That used to be commonplace. Now it's rare."

Police Department statistics for the 115th Precinct, which covers Jackson Heights, show that while major crimes like rape and murder have stayed more or less the same over the past five years, most street crime has continued to plummet. Assault and robbery have each fallen by more than a third and auto theft by almost half since 1997, when the city had already recorded historic reductions in crime.

Douglas Rolston, the 115th Precinct's commanding officer, credits the NYPD's long-standing approach of targeting low-level quality-of-life crimes before they snowball into more serious crime patterns. He also said the department's Operation Impact, which has placed some 40 newly graduated officers along a stretch of Roosevelt Avenue for the past year and a half, deserved credit for bringing crime down even further.

Insiders say Jackson Heights has bounced back faster than other communities because of its treasure-trove of high-quality historic housing — primarily the landmarked historic district encompassing 30 square blocks of 1920s-era stone apartment buildings. That core drove a boom in prices in the 1990s that led to a massive changeover of rentals to co-ops all over the neighborhood.

Richard Cecere, chairman of Jackson Heights' Community Board 3, said two-family semi-detached homes were selling for as much as $660,000.

"It's the co-ops," he said. "They've come back, and they've come back strong."

And that's led to even safer streets, said Joseph Corsini of 37th Avenue's Joseph Lock and Alarm.

"The buildings went co-op, the owners pumped money in, upgraded, put in intercoms and made sure there was less loi tering," Corsini said. "The community is now more stable."


Copyright 2004 NYP Holdings, Inc.

[Pottebaum]

"Up until six months ago Fresh Direct refused to deliver to the neighborhood," said O'Donnell. "And now we have a health spa. We're thrilled to pieces. The only thing we don't have is a museum and a department store."



Why would have Fresh Direct refused to deliver to the neighborhood?

[Schadenfrau]

I'm absolutely certain that the Fresh Direct truck drivers weren't too frightened to deliver groceries to Yorkville. They probably just hadn't expanded the delivery area to include it.

The fact that Ms. O'Donnell thinks Museum Mile is just too darn far away is pretty funny.

[TonyO]

Fresh Direct has been expanding its service in Manhattan for a while.

This is from their website: "We deliver to certain neighborhoods in New York. Very soon, we'll be delivering to every address in Manhattan as well as parts of Brooklyn and Queens."

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Red Hook, Brooklyn:


SAFER STREET


July 29, 2004 -- In 1992, gunshots were a common sound in the Red Hook, Brooklyn, projects and as one neighborhood leader said, "There was no hope."

But when bullets claimed the life of popular school Principal Patrick Daly, residents knew they'd had enough.

Police stepped up their focus on Red Hook — and tenants in many instances worked with them — to save the neighborhood against all odds.

"I think the cops have a lot to be proud of," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. "And they are proud of how neighborhoods have turned around."

Our fourth installment about communities transformed by the dramatic decrease in crime takes a closer look at how Red Hook went from a battleground to a neighborhood that is redefining itself.


Copyright 2004 NYP Holdings, Inc.


RED HOOK REBORN


By PATRICK GALLAHUE

July 29, 2004 -- Who could have predicted that this year, there would be more bodies pulled into Red Hook's art galleries and restaurants than out of its Buttermilk Channel?

But as the neighborhood's gory days fade into Brooklyn's history, the area — once notorious for its booming crack trade — is now more famous for its burgeoning culture.

And amid all the talk of Red Hook as one of New York's next "it" neighborhoods, some have even begun to forget its tawdry past.

"The neighborhood was drug-ridden, crime-ridden . . . There was really no hope," said Earl Hall, 36, a former resident of housing projects. "A lot has changed."

In the 1990s, Red Hook's gritty but picturesque streets were hidden behind sprawling public-housing projects, the second largest in the city, which suffered through daily shootouts and bore the full brunt of the crack epidemic.

"Everybody had an opportunity to get their hands on drugs," said Hall, a self-described former hustler. "Soon, it became territorial and brought an intense rivalry to the streets."

Officer Carlos Quintana, 40, a fifteen-year veteran of the 76th Precinct, put it more succinctly.

"You could hear gunfights every night," he said.

The neighborhood had its darkest hour — and its turning point — on Dec. 17, 1992, when popular school Principal Patrick Daly was killed in the crossfire between rival drug gangs.

"When that happened, Red Hook changed," Quintana said.

More than 100 calls were made to 911 reporting the gunman's location, Quintana said.

And from the next day on, people's attitudes toward law enforcement changed. The community demanded a stronger police presence — and the city delivered.

"When Mr. Daly got killed, the community said enough is enough," Hall said.

The area was flooded with cops; drug dens were raided; and wanted felons were tracked down.

"We just saturated Red Hook," Quintana said. "Manpower — that was the bottom line."

Daly's killers were ultimately brought to justice.

"A lot of the dealers went to jail," said Dorothy Shields, 72, a resident of the Red Hook houses for 50 years.

A multijurisdictional court — containing civil, family and criminal courts — handles cases only from the three surrounding precincts, giving the police closer contact with the justice system. They say it helps ensure harsher penalties for the worst offenders and appropriate community service for the smalltime crooks.

And it's worked.

Overall, crime in the community has declined 60 percent since 1993, and murders plummeted from 12 in 1995 to none in 2003. Robberies and rapes have plunged 64 percent and 33 percent, respectively. And burglaries have taken a 68 percent nosedive since 1993.

Unfortunately, with such lows, there was nowhere to go but up, and Red Hook saw its first murder in well over a year in May. The entire precinct has also seen a small increase in overall crime this year.

But even as Red Hook's crime drops —and richer people move in — the area still wrestles with crippling poverty. It has a 20 percent unemployment rate — twice the city's average — and the median family income in 2000 was less than half the city average, at $18,203.

But the promise of safety is slowly but surely creating some opportunities.

A gourmet Fairway Supermarket is scheduled to open next year, and other chain stores and businesses are eyeing the neighborhood.


Copyright 2004 NYP Holdings, Inc.


RESTAURATEUR EATS UP THE NEW, EASYGOING AMBIENCE


July 29, 2004 -- Until Arnaud Erhart opened the French restaurant 360 last year, the Statue of Liberty was the closest thing Red Hook had to France.
But now that the neighborhood's crime and drug problems have receded, things have changed.

"I am a longtime resident of the neighborhood and I realized there was a high demand for a simple place to eat," said Erhart, 34, a native of Strasbourg, France.

"If we did something good enough and original enough, Brooklynites would travel. And they do."

Erhart is one of the pioneering entrepreneurs of Red Hook, opening a relatively chic establishment in a neighborhood long ago considered one of Brooklyn's worst.

But as crime dropped, Van Brunt Street became a respectable commercial corridor with several well-known eateries, and more on the way.

"I've seen every single restaurant entrepreneur come to Red Hook in the last year," Erhart said. "Are they all ready to open something down here? I don't think so. A lot of people are still afraid — but of the [sparse] foot traffic."

Erhart came to New York in 1988 to work as a sommelier in Manhattan. But from the moment he first visited friends in Red Hook, he fell in love with its waterfront views and gritty industrial ambiance.

In order to come to Red Hook, though, he had to drop a rent-controlled apartment on the Upper East Side, so he'll be the first to say he didn't come to Brooklyn to save on rent.

"It actually cost me money to come to Red Hook," he said. "But I'm not in Red Hook for cheap real estate."

He moved to the area in 1994 so as crime plummeted and the early waves of "pioneers" began making their way to the neighborhood, Erhart didn't have to look far to read the writing on the wall.

"Would the business have been sustained back in the late '80s? No, it wouldn't have," he said.

"But neither would any other type of business that deals with the public . . . I'm sure that safety is one of the things [that bring people here]." Patrick Gallahue


Copyright 2004 NYP Holdings, Inc.

[Pottebaum]

Does Yorkville have a history of high crime?

[Schadenfrau]

Not in the least. I think the only way it could be considered a rough area is if your standard is based upon the Gold Coast.

[krulltime]

Flatbush, Brooklyn:

Rediscovering Flatbush
Attainable Victorian homes and a short commute to Manhattan are just two of the Brooklyn neighborhood’s charms


Catherine Curan is a freelance writer.
January 14, 2005


When Faith Justice told her daughter that their family planned to move to Brooklyn from Manhattan's Upper West Side, 13-year-old Hannah did not want to leave the only neighborhood she'd ever called home.

Then she saw the sprawling Victorian house in Flatbush, with a front porch, a garden and five bedrooms - including one for her to sleep in and one for her trampoline - and Hannah changed her mind.

"When we saw the house, I said, 'Well, I'm in love.' She said, 'Well, I am, too,'" Justice, a writer, recalls.

Last spring, Justice, 52, her husband, Gordon Rothman, 48 and a TV news producer, and Hannah left their cramped five-room apartment for the "mansion" on Stratford Road. At about $800,000, the 3,500-square-foot house was more affordable than six-room apartments the family looked at on the Upper West Side.

Since the move, the former Manhattanites have been adjusting to living the suburban life in the city. Last summer they enjoyed the pleasures of backyard gardening and swimming in their above-ground pool, knowing that when they craved the bustle of Manhattan, they could reach Union Square in half an hour on the Q train.

"We're really happy," Justice says. "It's a very diverse neighborhood, which I enjoy. That was one reason I didn't want to move to the suburbs."

Given the eye-popping prices in Manhattan and other Brooklyn neighborhoods such as Park Slope, an increasing number of families that want to own houses yet still live inside the city limits are turning to Victorian Flatbush. The neighborhood, which is just south of Prospect Park, includes three landmark historic districts - Prospect Park South, Ditmas Park and Albemarle-Kenmore Terrace - and is said to contain the largest concentration of Victorian homes in the United States. In the 1980s the area was drug-riddled, but a drop in crime and revitalization efforts by neighborhood associations have inspired new interest. Priced from about $650,000 to $1.5 million, these distinctive turn-of-the-century homes provide buyers with suburban amenities such as spacious yards and garages within a diverse urban community close to Manhattan.

"We've been discovered," says Mary Kay Gallagher, a local broker and a 45-year resident of Victorian Flatbush. "It's family-oriented, with lots of kids. People get what they don't have in Park Slope: parking, driveways, garages. There's space and breathing room."

Driveway, she said

For art director Elizabeth Blatchford, 41, the driveway is one of her favorite features of the $1.177-million home on East 17th Street that she and her husband, Peter, 42, an options trader, recently moved to from Park Slope. Sure, she likes the retro details, including a 7-foot-long claw-footed bathtub and 1902 tiles in one of the bathrooms. She's also happy to have the same commute to work but a quiet house to come home to at night. After paying high garage fees for two cars and dealing with Park Slope's congestion, though, she finds that simply having a place to park means a lot.

"We won't have to pay parking or find space on the street. All of that simple stuff you take for granted. I don't have to double-park to take groceries out of the car. I can just pull into my own driveway," she says. "You can't even believe you're in Brooklyn."

In the past year, demand has risen so much that attorney Jamal Jbara, 39, and his wife, Marlena, 32, a radiologist, thought they might not find a house in Victorian Flatbush. The couple lost several bidding wars for homes priced for more than $900,000. But persistence paid off when the Jbaras drove through Ditmas Park one weekend and saw a "for sale" sign on a house they liked.

This time, the Jbaras offered the winning bid, paying $750,000 for a six-bedroom home on a 50-by-100-foot lot. The couple expects to spend another $200,000 on renovations before moving in. Jbara says he will miss Park Slope's restaurants and schools. After checking out a public school near his new home and seeing average test scores, Jbara said he may send his children to private school instead. His new neighborhood does boast Andries Hudde Junior High School, which offers programs for gifted students, and Midwood High School, which sent 96 percent of the 2003 graduating class to college. And, he believes his family scored a good deal.

A renaissance in the works

"I think this is going to be the next up-and-coming Park Slope," he says. "The neighbors are telling us that younger families, kids who grew up here and left, are returning, or, like us, couldn't afford anything they liked in Park Slope."

New homeowners such as the Jbaras are helping inspire a retail renaissance along the Cortelyou Road shopping strip, setting a course for the Slope-style gentrification they crave. A couple of restaurants and a hip coffee shop have recently opened, and similar retailers are expected to follow suit.

"Cortelyou Road is being revitalized with classier types of stores," says Julie Kestyn, an area resident and a broker at Kestyn Real Estate. "We want it to look more like a little European Village."

Copyright © Newsday, Inc.


Is it worth $4 million?


Catherine Curan
January 14, 2005

"In Boston they ask, 'How much does he know?' In New York, 'How much is he worth?'"

If Mark Twain were making this observation now, he might well add another question often on New Yorkers' lips because of soaring real estate prices: How much is the house worth?

The owner of one Colonial in Victorian Flatbush hopes the answer will be $4 million. Mary Kay Gallagher of Mary Kay Gallagher Real Estate is marketing the 20- room mansion, on a 100-by -130-foot lot on tony Albemarle Road. The house looks like a Southern plantation home, with white two-story Ionic columns in front. Inside are two master bedroom suites, a ballroom and a mahogany-paneled library.

Gallagher sold the house to the current owner eight or nine years ago for $800,000. She recently closed her first sale of more than $1 million, but locals are skeptical of the $4-million price tag for 1305 Albemarle Rd. Whatever the price, like many of the homes in this century-old neighborhood, this one needs some work, including a new roof.

"It's a big house and it's a lot to think about," said Gallagher, adding that the buyer "has to be somebody who can handle it."


Copyright © Newsday, Inc.

[alex ballard]

Since Victorian flatbush has been found, what do you think the future for East Faltbush and the rest of Central brooklyn (Rugby, Prospect gardens, Wingate, Farrgut, Flatlands, and the area around Brooklyn College) holds in store?

[muscle1313]

Alex, like everything else its going to take time. But all of Brooklyn is coming back strong and in my opinion a good amount of credit should go to BP Marty Markowitz and Bruce Ratner. Marty is Brooklyn's greatest promoter and Ratner has brought Brooklyn development to the front page. Every developer is taking notice. Its an unbelievable period for Brooklyn. In the 80s everybody was leaving. 20 years later everybody is coming back to Brooklyn (if they can afford it).

[billyblancoNYC]

Since Victorian flatbush has been found, what do you think the future for East Faltbush and the rest of Central brooklyn (Rugby, Prospect gardens, Wingate, Farrgut, Flatlands, and the area around Brooklyn College) holds in store?

I think it's a matter of time before many of the more suburban areas of NYC become more and more popular. It's good to see. This is why it's important to have a number of different neighborhoods and housing stock...to be all things to all people. I love to see this stuff.

[alex ballard]

Alex, like everything else its going to take time. But all of Brooklyn is coming back strong and in my opinion a good amount of credit should go to BP Marty Markowitz and Bruce Ratner. Marty is Brooklyn's greatest promoter and Ratner has brought Brooklyn development to the front page. Every developer is taking notice. Its an unbelievable period for Brooklyn. In the 80s everybody was leaving. 20 years later everybody is coming back to Brooklyn (if they can afford it).

It can take it's time. But those are areas that really seem isolated from the city and in a way had fallen off the real-estate radar during the days of Urban renewal. It would be amazing to see the area around Holy cross Cem and Brooklyn College really come back strong.

[muscle1313]

Hey Alex, One area I know about is the Flatlands /Georgetown/ Canarsie area. There has been a big buildup of condo development in that area. From Seaview Estates (right on the water) to Bergen Gardens to Scott Village. Very big Caribbean immigration in the area in the last decade and I have read that the Asian community is starting to buy there too now. The houses in Canarsie are really nice, I don't like the small houses in Flatlands but I love the new condo developments. Also right next to Starrett City a huge outdoor shopping center - Gateway is doing a ton of business since it was built. Home Depot, Target, Red Lobster, Olive Garden etc Its got it all. Also read Target is shooting for a site right near Brooklyn College. By the way Midwood near Brooklyn College on Bedford Avenue has homes going for 1-2 million dollars. The houses on Bedford from around Avenue U all the way to Brooklyn College are some of the biggest most luxurious homes in Brooklyn. A large and growing Orthodox Jewish community. Lots of good things happening in Brooklyn.

[alex ballard]

Hey Alex, One area I know about is the Flatlands /Georgetown/ Canarsie area. There has been a big buildup of condo development in that area. From Seaview Estates (right on the water) to Bergen Gardens to Scott Village. Very big Caribbean immigration in the area in the last decade and I have read that the Asian community is starting to buy there too now. The houses in Canarsie are really nice, I don't like the small houses in Flatlands but I love the new condo developments. Also right next to Starrett City a huge outdoor shopping center - Gateway is doing a ton of business since it was built. Home Depot, Target, Red Lobster, Olive Garden etc Its got it all. Also read Target is shooting for a site right near Brooklyn College. By the way Midwood near Brooklyn College on Bedford Avenue has homes going for 1-2 million dollars. The houses on Bedford from around Avenue U all the way to Brooklyn College are some of the biggest most luxurious homes in Brooklyn. A large and growing Orthodox Jewish community. Lots of good things happening in Brooklyn.

Are the Irish and Italians still holding ground in Brooklyn? Also, what does Canarsie look like now, I heard it turned getto in the 80's but some have said this poised to become another plosh suburb for immigrants and manhattanites.

[alex ballard]

Bump. Any new developments? Are the immigrants settling down anywhere? Where is the new middle-class haven?

[BrooklynRider]

Don't waste our time with useless bumps.

[alex ballard]

Don't waste our time with useless bumps.

You have an attitude becasue you lost on both the Jets and Nets. I'm sorry your so allergic to progress, may I suggest Detroit? You'll love it there, nothing gets done ;).

[ryan]

You have an attitude becasue you lost on both the Jets and Nets. I'm sorry your so allergic to progress, may I suggest Detroit? You'll love it there, nothing gets done ;).

No, really, the bumping is annoying. Post something real to start a conversation - if someone had something to say or post they would.

[billyblancoNYC]

What the hell is a bump?

[ryan]

What the hell is a bump?

Posting "any new info on this?" etc... to raise the thread to the top of the forum, or bring it into "new posts"

[NewYorkYankee]

Bumping is posting useless remarks. It wastes peoples time reading it.

[billyblancoNYC]

Thanks. Logical, but needed to know for sure.

[krulltime]

Upper West Side, Manhattan:

April 2005

Looking Back: On UWS, from sleazy to staid

By Philana Patterson

Tourists and newcomers to New York might find it hard to believe that the word "sleazy" could be used to characterize the Upper West Side, but that's just how the New York Times described Broadway between 59th and 96th streets in a 1982 article, which credited the area with a "sleazy vitality" that improved on its condition in the previous decade. At the time, in the midst of its early- 80's redevelopment, the ambiance was becoming "genteel, even prissy" and "increasingly successful at attracting the class of young affluent professionals who have for so long felt at home on the Upper East Side," the Times reported.

Today, Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue are lined with restaurants--some with white tablecloths and candles, some less classy--as well as boutiques and national chain stores such as Victoria's Secret and Pottery Barn. Housing prices have increased by extraordinary lengths since the Gray Lady weighed in back then, and now the Upper West Side has relative pricing uniformity up as far as 110th Street.

For decades, property values on the West Side trailed far behind those of the East Side, but in 1979, the margin narrowed dramatically, almost overnight, wrote Barbara Corcoran, founder of The Corcoran Group, in her book "Use What You've Got, and Other Business Lessons I Learned from My Mom."

The reason for the speedy gentrification, according to Corcoran: the "thirty-something" children of affluent parents on the East Side were moving in. She ignored naysayers who she said called her "crazy" and opened a huge West Side office to capitalize on the influx.

The Upper West Side's rejuvenation happened despite abundant graffiti, abandoned buildings and the city's fiscal crisis. At the same time neighborhoods such as the East Side, Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Yorkville and Park Slope were transformed by an urban-style social revolt.

Baby boomers rejected the lifestyles and values of their parents and "moved to rural Vermont or back to the city that Mom and Dad fled," according to the Times. On the Upper West Side that often meant moving in to new construction or renovating old brownstones and hotels. At the time, the changes were expected to push poor residents from the neighborhood, and as observers correctly predicted put the squeeze to many middle-class residents as well.

Today, the Upper West Side is synonymous with a sort of settled, familial affluence. The asking price of a five-story townhouse recently listed by Corcoran is $8.25 million, an unimaginable price 20 years ago. Two-bedroom co-op apartments averaged more than $1 million last year, and two-bedroom condos around $1.7 million. Prices reach up to $23.5 million, the asking price for three adjoining apartments being sold in the legendary San Remo that could set a record for the most expensive apartment on Central Park West.


Copyright © 2003-2005 The Real Deal.

[krulltime]

South Bronx, The Bronx:

April 2005

The (South) Bronx is up: a neighborhood revives


By Tom Acitelli

During a 1977 World Series game at Yankees Stadium, television commentator Howard Cosell directed the cameras away from the Yankees and Dodgers on the diamond toward a burning building a few blocks from home plate. "Ladies and gentlemen," Cosell announced to the nation, "the Bronx is burning."

It wasn't much of an overstatement.

Much of the borough's lower regions--that collection of neighborhoods roughly below the Cross Bronx Expressway known as the South Bronx - had been in disrepair and decline for decades.

By the late 1970s, landlords craving insurance money--and other arsonists-- regularly torched South Bronx buildings, sparking fires that sometimes consumed entire blocks, scarring the region with emptiness and inviting comparisons to bombed-pocked German and Japanese cities at the end of World War II.

Barely a generation later, gentrification is replacing conflagration in the South Bronx. While it's far from becoming the next East Village or Williamsburg--crime remains high and air quality low, for instance - the population of the once-emptying region is growing, and the real estate scene is evolving as more people discover a cheaper alternative to Manhattan and Brooklyn neighborhoods.

Randy Lee has watched the South Bronx real estate market since the 1960s. Lee, CEO of Leewood Real Estate Group, said middle- to high income homes are going up in the South Bronx, although only 10 years ago developers stuck mostly to building low-income housing. That fresh housing, Lee said, is being snatched up by people who would've left the South Bronx after a raise at work or starting a family, as well as by people who are returning to an area once synonymous with urban blight.

"What I see is that, where developments were a dime a dozen even five years ago," Lee said, "the competition today from as far down to the 140s is hot."

The South Bronx's population increased 11.8 percent in the 1990s, according to the Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems at New York University, which spearheaded a policy study of the region in 2004. That's a greater population increase for the decade than the borough, the entire city and the state. With an approximate population of 523,000 as of 2000, the South Bronx is home to 40 percent of the borough's population. The demographics there are shifting, with the percentage of African-Americans in the South Bronx dropping in the last several years and the Latino population increasing by double-digit percentages.

Artists and musicians are now part of the mix as they head north across the Harlem River in search of cheaper real estate. These reformed Manhattanites have rejiggered their new neighborhoods so much that the local media now speak of the South Bronx as a potential "next East Village." That lower Manhattan neighborhood was once synonymous with drugs, crime and squatting, and is now the site of $2,000-a-month studios and $500,000 walk-up one-bedroom apartments.

Could the South Bronx ever commonly command such prices? Short answer: No. Long answer: Yes, but it'd take a while.

A brownstone dating from the late 1880s recently went on the market in Mott Haven for $470,000, a much lower price than a similar property would command anywhere in Manhattan. Many detached, framed houses sit snugly among the South Bronx's public housing buildings and still-vacant lots, and, generally go for well under $1 million. Rentals mirror prices available in much of Queens, Brooklyn or Staten Island. A two-bedroom for under $2,000 a month is not uncommon in the South Bronx. Rezoning by the Bloomberg administration will soon make considerable amounts of industrial space available for commercial and residential use.

Lower rents are a draw for artists moving into the region, said Barry Kostrinsky, a co-founder of the Haven, an art space on 141st Street in Mott Haven. He has worked in the South Bronx since the early 1980s and lived there in the 1960s. Part of the region's allure for artists in addition to being cheap is its accessibility to galleries in lower Manhattan, Kostrinsky said.

"The express subway stop on 138th means it takes 20 minutes to get to 14th Street, to the galleries there," he said. "I've gone to 86th Street in 10 minutes."

Also, because of its bad reputation for so many years, time forgot some areas of the South Bronx, Kostrinksy said. Development ebbed to a trickle, and industrial areas converted into art spaces now serve as islands of quiet in which artists can produce.

"So, the South Bronx," Kostrinsky said, "it was terrible, right? That's what people said. But it started to clean up 20 years ago."

Still, crime rates remain higher in the South Bronx than in much of the rest of New York despite a more than 70-percent drop in major crimes over the past 12 years, according to the New York Police Department. The area's crime-ridden reputation, established decades ago, lingers.

Crime, asthma, unemployment -- not exactly strong selling points to lure new buyers and renters. Couple these with the resistance of some current residents who reject a gentrified South Bronx as another homogenous, expensive enclave, and real estate brokers have a clear challenge touting the region to outsiders, even with lower prices than much of the city. "

It would be trite to say it's an up-and-coming place," Lee said, "but I think it's certainly a comeback place."

Perhaps if (or when) the Yankees host another World Series in the South Bronx, a successor to the late Howard Cosell will gaze over the borough's southern environs and declare, "The Bronx is gentrifying."


Copyright © 2003-2005 The Real Deal.

[krulltime]

Port Morris, The Bronx:


Rebuilt for Comfort, Not for Speed
The South Bronx is going upscale—but don’t expect an Armani store to move in just yet.


By Alec Appelbaum


Near the Third Avenue–138th Street stop on the 6 train, the Bronx neighborhood known as Port Morris looks frozen in the seventies. Forlorn-looking public-housing towers face one-story delis and Hub Cap City across Lincoln Avenue, and other bleak towers block views of the midtown skyline. There’s a steady hum of traffic over the Harlem and East River bridges.

But walk a few blocks to the west, crossing under the Major Deegan Expressway, and you’ll see the first flickering signs of what Bronx officials have promised for decades. Young women in knit hats and pale fellows with delicately messy hair slouch by. A brick five-story building called the Clocktower (pictured) stands near the Third Avenue Bridge on-ramp, and there are satellite dishes bolted to a few of its windowsills, marking, like pins in a map, where residents have replaced factory workers. The Bruckner Bar and Grill, under the on-ramp to the highway, resembles a set for a mid-budget movie about Irish cops—cops who eat portobello sandwiches, that is. Is the South Bronx’s reinvention for real? Is Port Morris going from gritty to “gritty”?

Yes, but slowly. The Bloomberg administration and the Bronx borough president’s office are pruning the zoning rules here, to encourage a modest yuppie influx without bumping out the factories and small businesses that make their homes at this nexus of expressways. If they pull it off—and despite reports of tofu on sale at the Western Beef on Morris Avenue—boho in the Bronx isn’t going to take its usual home-wrecking, mesclun-strewn path.

Port Morris’s shift began in 1997, when a big local nonprofit called SOBRO spearheaded streetscape improvements—installing sidewalk benches and the like, planting trees—to coax antique dealers to Bruckner Boulevard. Around that time, the city rezoned five blocks near the water to allow residential as well as light-industrial use of vacant properties. Artists started moving into the lofts; a gallery, Longwood, now showcases local creatives.

Now they’re bracing for company. On March 9, the City Council voted to expand the mixed-use district another eleven blocks toward the river. “Our aim here,” says Purnima Kapur, the Department of City Planning’s Bronx director, “is to take an area that seems very well situated and increase its potential.” When I speak to Adolfo Carrión Jr., the thoughtful borough president, he admits to drawing inspiration, and early-adopting residents, from that other revitalized B-borough.

One of those early adopters, Melissa Calderón, is now a coordinator for the Bronx Council on the Arts. “A lot of people came from Williamsburg and Dumbo in the past year,” she says. A visual artist, Calderón took loft space in nearby Mott Haven in 2002 and recently opened a gallery, Haven Artspace. “Now there’s food-shopping runs to Fairway so you can get the good stuff,” she says.

To that end, some of what’s going on is the usual upscaling story. The Clocktower, at Lincoln Avenue and Bruckner Boulevard—in the area rezoned in 1997—symbolizes one of Port Morris’s potential futures. It’s a former knitting factory that contains 75 lofts, all but two now rented as residences. Isaac Jacobs of Carnegie Management, whose father started the Clocktower project, says the company bought the building and adjacent lots for $4.75 million in 2000 and finished it this year. He’s charging $900 to $1,600 for units of 700 to 1,200 square feet—sized for professional-class apartment-dwellers, not artists who need space to stretch canvas or weld. The tenants are aesthetically alert, judging by the sculptures outside a couple of their doors, but most of them probably have day jobs. Carnegie even has plans to raze three buildings facing the Clocktower and build another 150 apartments.

The nearby blocks up for rezoning are mostly low- and mid-rise warehouses, all of which could see conversions. Some of them already have artist tenants, living illegally on commercial leases. They withhold their names and worry that rezoning would spur costly adjustments to their space, pricing them out. Representative quote from a resident: “It’s important to look out for the artists, and when someone like you writes an article, it’s a death knell.”

So far, it sounds like Soho in 1974 or Williamsburg in 1992—and we all know how those neighborhoods changed next. But something’s different in the Bronx. The usual gentrification script calls for manufacturing businesses to vanish from a neighborhood as residents pour in, and this part of the Bronx just isn’t headed down that road. Ask Allison Jaffe, a real-estate agent selling single- and multi-family houses for under $500,000 a few blocks inland, on Alexander Avenue. “Port Morris always sat at the crossroads of New York’s commercial routes,” she notes. “So this neighborhood will always retain a kind of mixed culture.”

Unlike prior loft-to-luxe neighborhoods, Port Morris isn’t half-deserted—it has an active, noisy working waterfront. Waste Management runs the borough’s transfer station in the Harlem River rail yards. Other big employers include a New York Post printing plant and the more olfactorily appealing Zaro’s Bread Basket bakery. The Bruckner runs right through the area. “The real issue,” says SOBRO senior vice-president Neil Pariser, “is going to be how residential fits in with industrial.”

The area’s proximity to Manhattan and airports attracts small offices and manufacturers like Antoine Debouverie, a 31-year-old importing laser-cut steel gazebos. Debouverie lives in his 3,000-square-foot Third Avenue loft, soaking up the local character when he’s not traveling on business, and sees the area growing organically. “If you don’t speak Spanish here, you’re not going to have good food,” he says. “The first grab [for housing] is going to be by Bronx locals.” Though the rezoning could theoretically open up the river to a cluster of blah towers, like the ones edging the Queens waterfront and planned for Brooklyn, that’s not likely in the Bronx’s political climate. “I’m not worried about displacement” of businesses, Carrión declares. “I’m more worried that we not create an enclave for high-income-earners only.”

So far, that worry seems somewhat academic. The area still lacks the services and buzz that would stoke speculative construction. Even so, neighborhood residents like Calderón are talking about organizing for low-income set-asides in new developments, and people like Carrión are taking the idea seriously. In short, the borough president is trying to simultaneously bring about change while managing it and making it prettier. His office and nonprofits like Sustainable South Bronx and the Point are trying to fund waterfront greenways and a footbridge to Randalls Island. “The Bronx is bearing the ball and chain from the 1970s,” says Carrión. “Development like this is going to break that chain.” It may. Just not all at once.


Copyright © 2004 , New York Metro

[krulltime]

Greenpoint, Brooklyn:


April 2005

Waterfront projects may put green in Greenpoint


By Dorn Townsend

On a recent sunny weekend afternoon, a small group of bed-headed twenty-somethings waited for a table outside the Greenpoint Coffee House on Franklin Avenue. New arrivals in what used to be the most overlooked and run-down section of the neighborhood, they pointed out some of the new bars and galleries and said they were comforted by the area's budding chic.

"The hardest thing about living in this neighborhood is getting to Manhattan for work," said Eric Marshall, a 29-year-old graphic artist. "But our remoteness works both ways; it means that it's also hard for people to get here, so maybe this area won't go crazy with development like other parts of Brooklyn."

But had this group heard about the proposed rezoning of the adjacent waterfront?

"I hear they're still fighting that one out in court, so it probably won't start for a few years," said Marshall.

Marshall and his friends are part of a continuing influx of new, young residents who have brought this Polish enclave a smattering of bright ethnic restaurants, bars playing alternative rock, and sharply rising rental costs. Last month, the city planning commission approved a plan to rezone a huge swath of the Williamsburg- Greenpoint waterfront, ushering in a transformative new era of development that will affect the neighborhood's last frontier. The plans have been sent to the City Council for review, the final step in the city's formal, seven-month public review process known as the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. The Council is expected to hold hearings this month.

Plans include a two-mile-long pedestrian esplanade to replace chain-link fences now blocking access to the waterfront. Studded along that landscaped ribbon, 20 condominiums of varying heights will be built. Plans also exist for several playgrounds, retail space at the base of those condos, and water taxi service linking Greenpoint with Midtown.

"The whole landscape of Greenpoint will change," said Tom Le, a Fillmore broker. "This is a very exciting time, and the waterfront development will impact the whole market."

No definitive plans exist, but brokers anticipate that over the next decade between 3,000 and 8,000 new units will be built along the waterfront in Greenpoint. All of this construction will occur in what is now the most desolate pocket of the neighborhood.

Brokers say that the waterfront construction will greatly accelerate developments already changing that no-man's land. In the last two years, several new cafes, bars, galleries, and yoga studios opened along Franklin Avenue, the main artery of that sliver of Greenpoint. Despite the lack of convenient public transit to Manhattan, brokers say that many of their young walk-in clients are looking to rent space in that area.

"The same thing that happened along Bedford 10 years ago is happening along Franklin Avenue right now," said Rosemarie Pawlikowski, a real estate agent for Albero Parkside Realty. "Young people and artists have begun turning those warehouses into loft spaces. That part of Greenpoint is becoming the new Williamsburg."

It is unclear just how much waterfront development will change Greenpoint's real estate market. According to Fillmore, the cost of one- and two-family houses has already risen by 25 percent to 38 percent, depending on whether the home is built with brick or wood.

Rental prices, however, have stabilized. Several years ago the average monthly cost of a one-bedroom apartment was about $1,400, but these days, brokers agree similar apartments are going for $1,200.

"Greenpoint is a very stable neighborhood and the biggest problem has always been the lack of transit directly to Manhattan," said Le. "But what's about to happen to this neighborhood is going to change the whole landscape."


Copyright © 2003-2005 The Real Deal.

[krulltime]

Riverdale, The Bronx:


Riverdale Confronts Change


By NADINE BROZAN
Published: May 1, 2005

WITH its mix of mansions, attached houses, highly regarded private and public schools, colleges, religious institutions and the pastoral Wave Hill public garden, Riverdale seems set off from the rest of the Bronx - indeed from the rest of the city.

But while it may seem bucolic, it is a cauldron of controversy, a stage on which the major dramas of real estate - preservation versus growth, public interest versus entrepreneurship, trees and rocks versus roads - are playing out. Even the question of whether basketball hoops ought to be permitted in front of the stately homes of its Fieldston section can raise hackles.

But, more urgently, the accelerating pace of construction, particularly for tall apartment buildings, concerns some residents of Riverdale who fear the loss of something special.

"We are a shellshocked community," said Anthony Perez Cassino, chairman of Community Board 8, whose district includes Riverdale. "People cannot believe how quickly things are changing before their eyes. There are lots of big holes in the ground."

Bradford Trebach, an associate broker and general counsel with Trebach Realty, a family firm in business there for 33 years, agreed. "I have never seen this pace of development in the more than two decades I have been living and working in Riverdale," he said.

There is considerable resistance from civic organizations, government officials and residents like Eleanor Maute, who is constantly fending off offers - including one for $2 million - for her three-story stone-and-stucco Tudor in central Riverdale. An 82-year-old widow and great-grandmother, she is determined to stay, no matter how great the temptation to sell. "I am comfortable here," she said. "What would I buy by myself?" Nevertheless, her neighborhood is changing; a seven-story condo is under construction at the edge of her property.

There have been, of course, apartment towers in Riverdale, but until now, they were concentrated on the Henry Hudson Parkway, where they do not loom so markedly over houses like Mrs. Maute's.

Now it is impossible to drive around without coming upon one construction site after another or hearing speculation about the conversion of existing buildings.

All told, 11 condominium projects and a rental development of five three-family town houses are in various stages of planning or under construction. In addition, many schools, nursing homes and other institutions are pressing at their boundaries. All of that ratchets up the tension between proponents of growth and advocates of the status quo.

"Riverdale is a hotbed because it has an affluent, intellectual and verbal community and several platforms for debate including two community newspapers that compete and keep the dialogue going," said Charles G. Moerdler, chairman of the community board's land use committee. Among the more controversial developments are the projects being put up by Shmuel Jonas and Joseph Korff.

When it became clear last fall that a new zoning regulation was about to pass that would limit new construction to eight stories in parts of central Riverdale, both developers raced the clock to get their foundations in the ground under the old rules.

David Mandl, the architect of the Jonas project called Arlington Suites, a 13-story building going up on an irregular parcel between Arlington and Netherland Avenues, recalled how the developer managed to get the building going before the new rules took effect. "We compressed six months of work into 45 days, digging out bedrock, excavating and pouring 18,399 square feet of foundation," he said. "On Sept. 27 I went to the Buildings Department myself and got the last permit at 3:45 p.m. They shut the permit window at 4 p.m. The next morning the City Planning Commission voted to change the zoning, restricting heights to 70 feet."

Though he encountered several challenges to the project's eligibility for coverage under the old code, which requires that the foundation be virtually complete, he did get a stamp of approval from the Board of Standards and Appeals.

"It is all over," Mr. Mandl said triumphantly. "This is the last tall building in Riverdale."

Well, not quite. Mr. Korff's condominium project on a mostly vacant parcel at 237th Street and the Henry Hudson Parkway will rise to 19 stories. The new regulations limit building heights in a 30-block area of central Riverdale and Spuyten Duyvil. They also confine new construction in north Riverdale to single-family and semidetached dwellings.

Developers working in other parts of Riverdale will not have those restrictions - at least not for now. But rezoning is being considered for other areas.

Some of the new projects sit on land occupied until recently by small homes, inciting arguments about scale, context and scarcity of parking. Others are going up on vacant lots, raising environmental hackles. In fact, regulations governing the Special Natural Area District, which was created in 1975 to protect the topography and plant and marine life, were tightened in February..

Four houses came down to make way for Arlington Suites, the Jonas building at 3220 Arlington Avenue. Originally Mr. Jonas, who is the 23-year-old son of Howard Jonas, a telecommunications magnate, wanted to put up a 32-story tower. He approached St. Gabriel's Church next door offering to buy 5,000 square feet of its land and about 42,000 square feet of air rights for what he says was about $3.7 million.

As word got out and parishioners began to object, the plan collapsed. "It is hard to diagnose why, but you can always count on vocal opposition to any development," said the Rev. Thomas R. Kelly, pastor of the congregation. "We decided it was not in the interest of the parish to pursue this development."

But, he added, "this does not preclude future development."

As an alternative, Mr. Jonas decided to build a 17-story building. In a subsequent compromise reached with Mr. Moerdler, who was representing the community board, four more stories were lopped off.

When it is completed sometime next year, the building with three setbacks will contain 26 large three- and four-bedroom apartments. Although he cannot begin marketing the apartments until the offering plan is approved by the attorney general, Mr. Jonas said he anticipated that prices would run from more than $700,000 to $2 million.

Though Mr. Jonas said he is not planning to market the building specifically to Orthodox Jews, he said that it will have a "Sabbath elevator," programmed to stop on all floors without buttons being pushed.

Arlington Suites has come to represent the change that people dislike in Riverdale. "This building is the line in the sand," Mr. Perez Cassino said. "People feel inundated by the newer developments, and 1,600 signatures were collected opposing it."

Though Patrick Boyle and Norman Danzig, founders of a group called Concerned Residents of Riverdale who collected the signatures, say they are pleased that the height has been reduced, in their view that it is not enough. "In a neighborhood that has only seven-story buildings, we will now have a 13-story eyesore," Mr. Danzig said. "I am sure it will be architecturally fine, but 13 stories is still out of context."

Mr. Mandl disagreed. "Virtually the entire neighborhood is six stories built right out to the property line with heights of approximately 75 feet," he said. "Thirteen stories set back gives the area architectural variety rather than another boring six-story building."

The Korff building on 237th Street also aroused protest. When Leah Kaplan, a physical therapist who lives across the street, learned that every tree in the lot was being chopped down, she went out with a petition.

"We feel that a needle of a building is being thrust onto a small piece of land and it feels like a tower in the wrong place," she said. "What also riles the community is that he knew full well that the zoning code had a good chance of passing, so he broke ground to rush his foundation. That is a slap in the face to the community."

Mr. Korff denied that the height would be obtrusive. "It will have a great deal of light and air, but will not cast shadows impacting our neighbors to any great extent," he said.

He has been interested in the site since 1986. "As a result of the burgeoning real estate market and pricing in Manhattan and the attractiveness of Riverdale as a community, I decided this would be the time to attempt the risk of building luxury apartments," he said. Mr. Korff expects the project to be completed next spring.

In the view of G. Oliver Koppell, the area's City Council representative, such buildings "are out of scale and not a positive addition to the community."

But he added: "Will they be fatal or overwhelmingly ruinous? No, both are in areas that are already built up. They are not going into virgin territory."

To residents, every house torn down for an apartment is another domino falling. Nowhere is that more deeply felt than on Tulfan Terrace, a tiny cul-de-sac that sits high on a bluff in central Riverdale in an area that was not rezoned.

Three of its eight houses were demolished in March to be replaced, pending the approval of the Buildings Department, by a 20-story condo with 30 units to be constructed by D.J.C. Realty. Initially the Tulfan Terrace owners banded together, contacting public officials and hiring an urban planner. But one by one, three owners on the south side of the street gave in, tempted by breathtakingly high offers, fearful of being engulfed by a large structure and after hearing rumors, unfounded as it turned out, that everyone else was selling.

"I did sell my house after much protest and many misgivings," said DiAnn Pierce, a widow who lived in her house for 36 years. "The neighbors all told me, 'They couldn't offer me enough money to sell.' But one by one they caved in and the houses on either side of me went. I was afraid I would live between two construction sites."

She told the broker for the buyer, Stephen Eldridge, that she would reconsider. "They just quietly offered me more money until my price was met," she said. "That is the way business is done and it is very sad." Mrs. Pierce would not divulge how much she got.

Robert Wagner, a partner in D.J.C. Realty, said the houses were bought at fair market prices, without any pressure, "from the owners who were happy to sell to us."

Philip Friedman, a mechanical engineer, bought his house on the north side of Tulfan Terrace for $650,000 in July 2002. "It had been on the market for 18 months and at that time, developers were not interested," he said. "A week after I moved in, I was told that one of my neighbors was trying to sell a vacant lot, and I made an offer to buy it for about $275,000, intending to build a house for my mother." The neighbor sold it instead to Mr. Wagner.

Mr. Friedman is determined to stay put, no matter what. "I moved here because I wanted my kids who are 5 and 7 to grow up in a small community," he said.

The same determination motivates Mrs. Maute, whose husband, a retired firefighter, died last year. She raised five children in her house and plans to stay. "I have lived here since 1948 and my brother lived here before that," she said. "As the years went along, one house after another was sold and apartments gradually came about. The last house next door to me sold a year and a half ago, and a seven-story apartment building will go up adjoining my house."

The developers of that project, whom she declined to name for fear of antagonizing them, have been among her more ardent suitors. "My house will determine how they build there," she said. "If I sold to them, they could be secure that the windows facing me would not be shut off if another apartment house goes in."

"They offered me an amount up front with an agreement that I could stay but they would take complete control of the house," she said. "I told them, 'Absolutely not.' "

Not all the controversies roiling Riverdale revolve around apartment towers. In Fieldston, there has been enough concern about so-called McMansions to prompt efforts to have the enclave given landmark status. It is being reviewed by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

With some residents either tearing down or expanding their houses, Mr. Trebach said, "they are regarded as a little too close to the neighbors, a little too new looking, too plain faced given the number of Tudor, Federal and Georgian-style houses that are common or a little too garish."

Even more worrisome, residents say, is the prospect of a cluster of houses planned for Chapel Farm, a pastoral 16-acre site abutting Fieldston's northwest border.

John E. Fitzgerald, a lawyer and developer, acquired the property in 1990. Since then he has been jousting with opponents, including the Fieldston Property Owners Association, and has filed lawsuits against various parties in both federal and state court.

Mr. Fitzgerald, who has changed the name of the complex to Villanova Estates in honor of his alma mater, said he intends to build 15 mansions - Tudors and colonials among them - measuring at least 10,000 square feet each.

Though Marc Odrich, chairman of the Fieldston Property Owners Association, which is being sued by Mr. Fitzgerald, said he could not comment while litigation was pending, the bone of contention appears to be access through the streets of Fieldston, which are privately owned.

In addition, said Mr. Moerdler, the chairman of the community board's land use committee, "I've gotten call after call objecting to the fact that the owner has removed half or more of all the trees, even where he is not going to build."

But the hostility may run deeper. "What you are seeing is legal maneuvering on both sides," Mr. Perez Cassino said. "People just don't want to see it developed."


Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

[krulltime]

Prospect Park South , Brooklyn:


Near Prospect Park, a Touch of Greenwich


By CLAIRE WILSON
Published: May 1, 2005

WHAT do you get when you sell a three-bedroom, 1,500-square-foot Brooklyn Heights co-op for $1 million and buy a seven-bedroom, 4,000-square-foot house 10 minutes away in Prospect Park South for $1.025 million?

According to Felicia Kang, who, with her husband, Tom Rosenthal, just made that move, you get a terrific bargain with lots more room - and a serious furniture deficit that has only one short-term solution.

"We just let the kids ride their bikes and scooters around and around," said Ms. Kang, who has three children, Emma, 5, George, 3, and 7-week-old Julia, born right around moving day. "We don't have to worry about them knocking into the piano."

There's also plenty of green space for children outside the family's landmarked Dutch colonial house, which sits with other stately homes along a landscaped median in Prospect Park South, one of Brooklyn's prettiest neighborhoods. Just steps from the 526-acre Prospect Park and served at two stops by the Q and B subway lines, Church Avenue and Beverley Road, the neighborhood is part of what is known as Victorian Flatbush.

But that term doesn't do justice to the mixed bag of grand, sprawling, early 20th century architectural gems that range from Colonial Revival, Tudor, Italian Villa, Queen Anne, Arts and Crafts and Greek Revival to a whimsical Japanese-inspired house complete with pagoda-style curlicues along the roofline.

"It is like living under a Christmas tree, this village of neatly arranged houses under a green canopy with a mall going down the center," said Roslyn Huebener, who is a principal in Aguayo & Huebener, a Brooklyn real estate company, and the former owner of the house bought by Ms. Kang and Mr. Rosenthal. "It's hard to believe you are in the city."

The sense of a "Country in the City" was what the developer Dean Alvord set out to create when he purchased 40 acres from the Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church in 1892. The streets were given British names, and houses went up on minimum lots of 50 by 100 feet, set back 30 feet from the curb. Early residents included chief executives of Gillette, Sperry Gyroscope and McAllister Brothers, the tugboat fleet.

Two of the streets, Buckingham Road and Albemarle Road, have medians. Lots along them are slightly larger than those of their neighbors; one house, with 21 rooms and a ballroom, is on the market for $4 million. But even with smaller yards and no median, houses on the other dozen or so blocks within this 0.08-square-mile garden spot are no less desirable. Price tags of $1 million have become the norm since breaking that seven-figure barrier in December and prices in what has long been considered a seriously undervalued area are going up at a faster rate than they ever did, according to Nicole Shaw, an associate broker with the Corcoran Group.

"Prices have gone up between 10 percent and 20 percent since January, but it is still a good value," said Ms. Shaw.

Reginald Middleton, an Argyle Road resident, calls his neighborhood the Gold Coast of Victorian Flatbush. He estimates the value of his 6,070-square-foot house, which includes a screening room and koi pond, at $2 million in the current market, up from the $780,000 he paid for it in 2002. But he says that at $380 a square foot, Prospect Park South is a bargain compared with $580 a square foot in downtown Brooklyn neighborhoods and $1,100 a square foot in Manhattan's Chelsea.

"We also have amenities that are unheard of in Brooklyn Heights and we're eight minutes away: large yards, private security and a community feel, and we also now have restaurants and a dry cleaner that delivers," said Mr. Middleton, a real estate investor with two sons. "Weigh everything, and net-net the property is undervalued."

Mary Kay Gallagher, a broker in the area for 35 years, draws another important distinction between Prospect Park South and gentrified row-house Brooklyn. "We have driveways and parking - parking is key," said Mrs. Gallagher, who has lived in the same house on Marlborough Road for almost four decades. "Park Slope has no driveways and no garages, and you have to negotiate to get a parking space."

The one co-op in the area, a red brick 28-unit prewar building at 1409 Albemarle Road, is 95 percent owner-occupied and units seldom come on the market, according to Hal Lehrman, principal broker for Brooklyn Properties.

"We sold a 900-square-foot two-bedroom, one-bath unit in 2002 for $127,000 and I would expect to sell that now for over $300,000," he said. "The views are spectacular."

There is only one rental building, and available apartments are rare. The going rate is $1,100 a month for a two-bedroom, one-bath apartment, according to Mrs. Gallagher.

There are 1,500 residents in Prospect Park South, and the median household income is $57,823. It is 35 minutes by subway from Midtown Manhattan. The community as a whole is often loosely referred to as "Ditmas," for the better-known nearby districts of Ditmas Park and Ditmas Park West, two of 10 adjoining enclaves within Victorian Flatbush, each with its own civic association.

Prospect Park South homeowners pay $500 a year for security guards although the crime rate is among the lowest in the 70th Precinct, according to Nathan Thompson, security chair for the Prospect Park South Association. "Most of our issues are on the fringes - around the subway stations," Mr. Thompson said. "We've had a great year, but the reality is you are still in New York."

Like the Kang-Rosenthal clan, most new residents come from other parts of Brooklyn and they are primarily young families drawn by an enthusiastically child-friendly atmosphere. Bruce Williams, a vice president with J. P. Morgan, and his wife, Bridget, owner of Hot Toddie Children's Clothier, a store selling children's clothes, toys and accessories in Fort Greene, moved from Clinton Hill and still can't believe the welcome for their two children, Jett, 4, and Lola, 2. "We hadn't even moved in yet and they were calling to invite us to the Halloween March," said Ms. Williams, who moved in December into a nine-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath Victorian house for which the couple paid $975,000. "The families with children are amazing in the way they reach out."

Ms. Williams also has high praise for the large number of ethnic groups living in the Flatbush community at large. "Stand on the Q train platform and you see everybody from every walk of life, every complexion and every religion," she said. "It's wonderful - you feel like you live in New York."

This year's Victorian Flatbush House Tour on June 12 will be held in tandem with a daylong arts and crafts fair. But children's activities dominate the local calendar, from play dates to pick-up games of volleyball or basketball organized in the Parade Ground a block away by Flatbush Athletics volunteers. There are children's events every Wednesday at Vox Pop, the new neighborhood bookstore/cafe, and an association called the Flatbush Family Network keeps everyone informed.

Schools in the area include Public School 139 on Rugby Road, with prekindergarten through grade 5. Of fourth grade students there, 65.4 percent scored at or above grade level in English while 74.7 percent scored at or above grade level in math. At Public School 217 on Newkirk Avenue, also with prekindergarten through grade 5, 60.7 percent of fourth graders scored at or above grade level in English and 75.6 percent performed at or above grade level in math.

Two middle schools serve the area. At Junior High School 62, the Ditmas School on Cortelyou Road, 21.4 percent of eighth grade students scored at or above grade level in English and 34.7 percent performed at or above grade level in math. At Intermediate School 240, the Andries Hudde School on Nostrand Avenue, 59.9 percent of eighth graders scored at or above grade level in English and 71.1 percent in math.

Most local students go on to Midwood High School on Bedford Avenue. Of students there taking the 2004 SAT reasoning test, the average score was 514 on the verbal test, compared with 444 statewide, and 544 on the math, compared with 472 statewide.

Church Avenue pulses with commercial activity, but the shopping street of choice for most is Cortelyou Road a block away. There is an Associated Supermarket, the Flatbush Food Co-op and a seasonal Greenmarket, which will have 12 to 15 vendors beginning in early June.

Cortelyou Road is getting spruced up with new street lamps and benches, and new businesses moving in might suggest an invitation for the hipster crowd to have second thoughts about Williamsburg. Sander Hicks and his wife, Holly Anderson, own Vox Pop (Motto: "Books, Coffee, Democracy"). There are lines to get a table at Picket Fence, owned by Graham Meyerson, who cooked at the Union Square Cafe.

Interested hipsters may have to wait for space in the neighborhood, just as they wait for tables at Picket Fence. "Nobody is moving," Mrs. Gallagher said. "Why would they?"


Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

[ryan]

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13 May 2005 | HOW TO (http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/how_to/index.php)
The Non-Expert: Gentrify! Gentrify!

Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week Andrew Womack shows how you can fight New York’s soaring real-estate costs when you invade an unfamiliar neighborhood. Making friends will never be so hard.


Have a question? Need some advice? Ignored by everyone else? Send your questions via email. The Non-Expert’s Desk handles all subjects and is updated every Friday, and is written by a member of The Morning News staff.

Question: Hi! I’m thinking about moving to New York but every time I look at rent prices I’m just blown away by how expensive everything is. I know there are parts of Brooklyn that are good to move to, but even those seem pretty pricey. Any suggestions on new places to live in New York?—Jill A.

Answer: Since 1621, when Dutch traders purchased Manhattan from Native Americans (and ever since which time many agree that it’s “really lost its edge”), patches of land in New York have been in a constant state of gentrification—of being rediscovered, remodeled, and resold as acceptable areas in which to live. In fact, only 30 years ago Soho was uncharted territory, the domain of artists and their drug dealers, and Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke could regularly be spotted having sex in a stairwell. Look at it now! These days, you can’t even afford that stairwell. So to move here on the cheap, you have to find someplace new to people like you but old to people like them, someplace that nobody at New York magazine knows anything about yet. Someplace you can gentrify on your own.

It’s true there are still such parts of New York, parts even real-estate brokers can’t with a straight face qualify as “up-and-coming neighborhoods.” And those areas are exactly the outskirts, the hinterlands, the ridiculously cheap-rent neighborhoods you’re looking for! You want to find a place that makes you, upon emerging from the subway and coming face to face with the locals, recoil in fear. But no worries! You are a pioneer, and everybody loves a pioneer, and you have health insurance.

Here’s how you do it.


Find a Neighborhood

First familiarize yourself with all of New York’s many wondrous neighborhoods. Now immediately scratch those off your list. Accept now that you won’t be living in a desirable area—that is, until you’re done gentrifying it! Also, knowing where the sought-after areas are located will make you privy to the ways New York real-estate brokers redraw neighborhood borders to spiff up their housing ads. For example, according to brokers right now “Williamsburg” reaches all the way north to Long Island City, everything is “ONLY 15 MINS TO MANHATTAN,” and Brooklyn’s “South Park Slope” is in fact the northern tip of Staten Island.

No, brokerages and housing ads won’t find you into the place you’re looking for, because the only places worth advertising are already well-gentrified or close enough. Thus, you’re going to have to go a step further—or rather, a stop further. Take a train, any train, to any desirable area, stay on for four more stops, get out there, and perform the following litmus test.

Do you see anyone between the ages of 18 and 34 with speckles of paint on their clothing?

No?

Do you see any bars, restaurants, or stores that look worth going into?

No?

Was that a tumbleweed that just blew by?

Welcome home.


Rent an Apartment

The best way to find somewhere to live in an ungentrified area is through word of mouth. Since you don’t speak the native language around here (Is it Dutch? Can’t tell), you’ll have to do the next best thing—look for rental signs taped up in windows. Lucky for you, every landlord the world around uses those pre-printed “ROOM FOR RENT” signs you can pick up at the hardware store, so just keep walking up and down the blocks until you spot one. Then knock on the door and play it by ear.

Landlord: [says something in Dutch]

You: Hi! I’m here about the apartment?

Landlord: [looks you over, says something else]

You: Is now a good time?

Landlord: [silent, steps back, folds arms across chest]

You: How does five hundred dollars a month sound?

Landlord: [lets you in, leads you up to your new apartment]


Blend in With the Locals

You may have bought your way into the area, but you won’t be able to buy your way into their hearts. In fact, being a New York gentrifier is a lot like being a nerd in middle school: Everybody around you thinks you’re dressed funny, you can’t even pay people to be your friends (you’ve tried), and you get beat up every time you walk home from the subway.

Thankfully, the area’s homeless aren’t as discriminating. Besides, the locals know to steer clear of them—so by befriending a bum, you get a bodyguard at the same time. But don’t offer your friendship through the expected ply of free alcohol and cigarettes. No, get a bum to be your roommate. But claim the top bunk now, and I cannot stress how important this is.

Then it’ll be just like the movie My Bodyguard, with the bum being the big, tough guy who protects you, and you being the other guy. Lucas or something. Rodney maybe.


Buy Property

Once you’re ready to plant permanent stakes, it’s time to say goodbye to your landlord and your roommate (leave no forwarding address to either, by the way) and consider purchasing your very own home. By now you will have learned your way around enough to know where those guys who stole your iPod usually hang out, so it’s best to not shop in that part of town.

While looking into residential dwellings may sound sweet to your domestic side, keep in mind that you’re not just here for the cheap housing—you’re here for the spoils. Look for empty warehouses and shut-down factories, the kinds of places you’ll eventually build into lofts that you’ll sell in 2025 for a billion dollars a pop to Busta Rhymes’s children.

Keep in mind, though, that there are some types of buildings that are especially well-suited to your dreams of a future—and marketable—loft empire that will attract young financial workers. Such buildings include:

—burned-out plastics factory

—abandoned experimental psych ward

—anything haunted or said to be haunted

—Men’s Wearhouse


Start a Real-Estate Craze

Now that you’re living rich, or at least not rich—yet—but you’re living cheap with lots of floor space, remember this: The neighborhood needs some high-profile attention or it’ll never become the kind of place other people would pay, beg, or provide their parents’ tax returns to live in. So take a grassroots approach, and tell everyone how great your new neighborhood is…whatever it’s called. Helpful tip: If the neighborhood’s old name has an unfortunate history or reputation to, simply add “Heights” or “Hill” to its original name.

Before you know it, your friends will move into the buildings around you, art galleries will open their doors, finally a decent place to get cilantro will show up around the corner, and people will be absolutely flooding over from Manhattan—which you can tell everyone is only 15 minutes away.

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Andrew Womack (http://www.andrewwomack.net/) is a co-publisher of The Morning News, and lives in Brooklyn. Click here to read his other stories on TMN (http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/andrew_womack/).

[jennifer]

This whole thread makes me want to vomit. "HOW TO GENTRIFY?" WTF. Now I know why my neighborhood is going down the tubes. Thanks!

[Schadenfrau]

Welcome to the boards! I have a feeling that you and I are going to get along just fine, Jennifer.

[jennifer]

Err... are you messing with me? (I do fully expect that with what I posted).

I just hate seeing my neighborhood become a yuppie hellhole... it's rather depressing. And hoping I don't get kicked out to make room for a trustfunder who gets everything from Mommy and Daddy...

[billyblancoNYC]

Indeed, crack viles and boarded up windows rule...

[ryan]

Err... are you messing with me? (I do fully expect that with what I posted).

the morning news "how to" is a joke, but Schadenfrau's not. You'll find more posters that think gentrification is good than not on the board, but you're not alone.

[Schadenfrau]

Thanks for clarifying, Ryan.

[ryan]

Thanks for clarifying, Ryan.

not that you need it...

[Schadenfrau]

I'll throw a blanket compliment right back at you.

[jennifer]

Indeed, crack viles and boarded up windows rule...

See that's more along the lines of what I'd *expect* to hear... and of course obnoxiously WRONG.

I would, however, rather see crack vials than another wannabe Park Slope neighborhood with NO flavor.

Thanks to those who didn't judge my comment - I appreciate it.

[BrooklynRider]

See that's more along the lines of what I'd *expect* to hear... and of course obnoxiously WRONG.

I would, however, rather see crack vials than another wannabe Park Slope neighborhood with NO flavor.

Thanks to those who didn't judge my comment - I appreciate it.

Park Slope checking in here, Jennifer. Why is it that Shadenfrau and I agree on so many issues and you have to pick on my neighborhood from the get go?

The Slope is no "Yuppie Hellhole" and if you'd read up on it you might find that in THIS neighborhood residents actually took action to maintain the socio-economic mix - including but not limited to passing new zoning rules along 4th Ave, creating and supporting a residential zone where long-time lower income residents would be protected from "gentrification" displacement, the creation of the Fifth Avenue Committee (one of the earliest proponents of inclusionary housing and inclusionary housing credits).

Park Slope is rated as the THE most liberal neighborhood in the city and is often called the Berkeley of the East. The neighnorhood voted 98% Democrat and or Working Families Parties in 2004 election with the other 2% going to Green Party and Socialist Candidates. We have managed to block nearly every major sweat labor retailer from our business district and Starbucks fought its way in with only ONE location about three years ago. We have two chain stores: Barnes & Noble and Rite Aid. That is it. We support Mom & Pop operations. This neighborhood has evolved slowly. I'm here for 8 years now and it is still evolving. Fifth Avenue has only tranformed in the last four years or so.

So, don't make me come up there and spank you Jennifer.

[billyblancoNYC]

See that's more along the lines of what I'd *expect* to hear... and of course obnoxiously WRONG.

I would, however, rather see crack vials than another wannabe Park Slope neighborhood with NO flavor.

Thanks to those who didn't judge my comment - I appreciate it.

How am I wrong? And you're a fool to want crime and decay over development and safety. That whole "edgy, urban grit" stuff is simply to try and make a shitty situation seem ok.

Do you live in Brownsville? East NY?

[Schadenfrau]

A lack of gentrification doesn't necessarily mean "crime and decay", BillyBlanco. There is a balance between a Starbucks and a crack house.

Also, did someone invent a time tunnel back to 1987? That's probably the last time boarded-up crack houses were a pressing issue for the city.

[ryan]

Contrary to my personal political beliefs, I think I fall somewhere in the middle when it comes to gentrification. The issue seems to have been polarized through overstated "fightin words" like much of our political discourse into an over-simplified issues. Starbucks vs. Crack House. Cities (and neighborhoods) are (and have always been) constantly evolving entities so a complete resistance to change seems a bit self-serving to me (as in, I don't want my neighborhood to change because I don't want my rent to increase). Beating the mindless drum of development at any cost seems no more appealing and is probably even more self-serving (profit, profit, profit).

It's a distraction from talking about what smart development could be in this city, which I think involves more questions than pat answers. How can we promote small, nyc-based businesses and provide mixed income housing? How can the poorest neighborhoods be improved without forcing out long-term populations? How can ethnic neighborhoods be preserved?

[BrooklynRider]

If the Bronx follows the pattern similar to Brooklyn, you will see more local developers jumping into the mix - rather than the big Manhattan developers. It does make for a more natural feel to the evolution. Also, if there is such truly overwhelming concern for what might become of the area, attend community board meetings. But there a drug infested area can only benefit from improvement and socio-economic strata can be accommodated if they are willing to engage in the process rather than simply (1) giving up or (2) remaining silent.

[billyblancoNYC]

A lack of gentrification doesn't necessarily mean "crime and decay", BillyBlanco. There is a balance between a Starbucks and a crack house.

Also, did someone invent a time tunnel back to 1987? That's probably the last time boarded-up crack houses were a pressing issue for the city.

Well, that is not 100% true. In fact, I'm sure there are still some areas that have some boarded up buildings today. They may not be a "pressing" issue, but it's not gone.

As far as crime and decay, show me a low income area, with only low income residents, that is very well maintained and low in crime. If you can, that would be great and I would stand corrected, to a point.

I'm not saying Starbucks is great. I personally hate Starbucks and chains, etc, and don't think there should be a sushi joint on each block, but people in this city love to romanticize the bad old days...like in Times Square for example. Well, the 70's and 80's and early 90s weren't all that great in a lot of ways.

[Schadenfrau]

Port Morris has less crime than Williamsburg and is located in what's famously the poorest congressional district in the United States.

I think you're confusing the outward trappings of prosperity with actual progress.

[czsz]

We have two chain stores: Barnes & Noble and Rite Aid. That is it.

There's no Duane Reade in Park Slope!?!?!? Unbelievable.

[sfenn1117]

There's no Duane Reade in Park Slope!?!?!? Unbelievable.

Duane Reade JUST moved into Bay Ridge. There used to be an A&P there so we lost our grocery store which really sucks. But we already had RiteAid and Eckerd. Most of the neighborhood goes to Lowens, a family owned pharmacy that's been here a long time. And I like that.

There's a rite aid on 69th st and 4th ave, and 64th street and 4th ave. WHY???

[billyblancoNYC]

Port Morris has less crime than Williamsburg and is located in what's famously the poorest congressional district in the United States.

I think you're confusing the outward trappings of prosperity with actual progress.

If that's true, great. I'd love to see the latest numbers.

I have a question, is Port Morris mostly industrial? Does this include South and North Williamsburg, because South Williamsburg, I think, has a lot more crime than the much more gentrified Northern section?

Even if this is true, this is surely the exception and not the rule. It's pretty basic if you look at it. The city has seen some tremendous gentrification over the last decade or so, either by Yuppies or by immigrants that have money or work and get money. Not surprisingly, crime has plummeted in that time. It's a lot more than a coincidence.

The same can be said of rehabilitation of