I'm going to head over to the Major Owens headquarters. It's just a block from my house at 671 Washington Avenue. The Barbaro campaign has set up a phone bank there and that'll be my election day contribution.
I love this new neighborhood. First, it's a real neighborhood. A stream of people passed my front door this morning, on their way to vote at the school a block away. While sweeping up leaves, a thankless chore, people stopped and engaged me in conversation.
I went exploring, walking over to bustling Flatbush Avenue. It's so quiet and peaceful on Underhill and so busy and noisy on Flatbush, just a couple of blocks west. When you move to a new neighborhood you have to get a new compass installed (in your head). How do the streets work; where do they intersect? Where are the stores that you need on a daily basis? Groceries. Hardware. Greengrocers (one of those mostly-Brooklyn phenomenons; We moved from the Brighton Beach area which probably has about 20 or so fruit stores in a ten block area). Coffee houses, restaurants, bars, bagel stores. I've been scoping these out.
Busy Flatbush Avenue - the apartment across the way says "1889 Prospect View" on its peak.
I am enthralled with the housing down here: the architecture of Brownstone Brooklyn is divine. Thankfully, vast areas of downtown Brooklyn were preserved and stand today, testament to the beauty and craftsmanship of the late 19th and early 20th century home builders. Of course, like everywhere, the power of money entwined with developers is challenging downtown. A big battle is ensuing right now. Those who cherish the old and want to preserve its beauty are on the defensive. This time the culprit is a Bruce Ratner, a mega-developer who wants to build a sports stadium at the junction of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues, arguably it's already the busiest and most congested (with cars, trucks and buses) in all of Brooklyn.
Elegant town houses on Park Place, just around the corner from our place.
In Brooklyn (as I learned earlier while battling unrestrained development on the seashore at the Brighton Beach Baths), politics and politicians are inextricably entwined with the power and money of developers. And so it is true in this battle that is shaping up. Ratner wants to be funded by our tax dollars to build his stadium and high-rise "luxury condos" (don't you hate that phrase by now?) He also wants the Pataki/Bloomberg bunch to use the state's power of eminent domain to evict tenants and homeowners to clear a vast area for his new empire.
Many of the Brownstone's in the area have signs displayed in their window in opposition to this Rat(ner)'s enrichment schemes. Windows are emblazoned with the likes of "I love Brownstone Brooklyn," "End Eminent domain Abuse," etc.
This is a neighborhood that is truly a mixed bag. Parts, you can feel, must have been so elegant at one time (a bit faded today), with their glorious brownstones; these were the townhouses built for people wanting to live out of the city (Manhattan). Other streets are lined with light-industry buildings: workshops, warehouses and low quality housing thrown in here and there.
It's a neighborhood that went way, way down as whites fled, property values fell, crime soared and vacant stores were boarded up. Today, it's on the way up again. Brownstones in my neighborhood (which is not nearly as prosperous or upscale as adjacent Park Slope) are fetching a million dollars and up. Quite a turnaround. The big question is - what happens now? Do the Ratnerites win and push working people out, Manhattanize the downtown area with high rises and destroy this jewel of green, low-rise and beautiful houses? Or does this diverse and integrated community rise up and say NO to untrammeled development? The end of this story has not been written.
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