Listening to stories and concerns of current and former neighbors. Tracking development and demographic change. Looking at our streets. What is the future of Prospect Heights and our city?

INTERSECTION

Prospect HeightsBrooklyn

Our places

Intersection | Prospect HeightsIn Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights neighborhood, the conversion of a few former industrial buildings to loft apartments in 1999 was followed by the announcement of the massive Atlantic Yards project in 2003, which in turn led to a dramatic increase in commercial and residential rents and an accelerated displacement of residents and businesses.

These forces are also faced by many other neighborhoods. Exposing change through individual stories, images, demographic data and public opinion research we hope the Intersection | Prospect Heights project provides insight into how rapid change driven by development has affected a diverse community and what hopes its members hold for its future. Can learning from Prospect Heights foster more nuanced and critical conversations on development, displacement and sustainability in the city?

Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani and Gib VeconiMay 2016

(left) Dean Street Park, Conrad McRae Youth League, 2001

(below) Dean Street Park, Construction workers on break, 2016

19992016

1999Shaya Boymelgreen files an application to convert the former Daily News printing plant into luxury apartments. To be called “Newswalk,” the project is the first large condominium development proposed for Prospect Heights in many years.

2000Two vacant manufacturing buildings near Newswalk, a former Spalding factory and what would come to be called the “Atlantic Art Building,” are approved for conversion to luxury residential use.

2003 DecemberAtlantic Yards project is announced - to include an arena, 2,250 affordable apartments, and 4,200 luxury apartments. It will use eminent domain to assemble its 22 acres, including the now-occupied Spalding factory and the Atlantic Art Building.

2006 JulyRelease of Atlantic Yards draft environmental impact statement triggers contentious public hearings and community protests.

2008 December“On Prospect Park,” a new luxury condominium at Grand Army Plaza designed by Richard Meier, begins marketing apartments.

2009 SeptemberNYS allows Atlantic Yards construction to extend to 2035 instead of 2020, but denies schedule has changed.

The New York City Council designates 850 buildings in Prospect Heights as a New York City Landmark district.

2010 AprilThe NYS Court of Appeals upholds the right to condemn property for Atlantic Yards through eminent domain.

2011 JulyA NYS Supreme Court rules that Atlantic Yards’ 2009 schedule change violated environmental law due to its failure to study the impact of 25 years of construction.

2013 OctoberProspect Heights is selected by the NYC Department of Transportation to receive a Neighborhood Slow Zone.

2015 WinterConstruction is in progress on 17 new luxury apartment buildings totaling over 300 units on infill lots in eastern Prospect Heights.

2016 FebruaryThe National Parks Service adds 600 Prospect Heights buildings to the National Register of Historic Places.

2014 JuneA community coalition settles a threatened fair housing suit against Empire State Development Corporation and Forest City Ratner in exchange for a commitment to complete Atlantic Yards’ affordable housing by 2025.

2012 SeptemberThe Barclays Center arena opens.

2003 MayA 1-bedroom

apartment on Sterling Place

rents for

$1,600

2010 FebruaryThe Sterling

Place apartment rents for

$1,900

2012 JulyThe Sterling

Place apartment rents for

$2,300

2015 MayThe Sterling

Place apartment rents for

$3,100

2002 JanuaryMichael Bloomberg’s first of 12 years as NYC mayor.

InProspect Heights

2004 JanuaryBruce Ratner buys the New Jersey Nets with plans to move them to Brooklyn once the arena is compete.

2002 MarchThe first Newswalk apartments go on sale.

2006 DecemberAtlantic Yards is approved by New York State [NYS].

2013 NovemberBill de Blasio is elected NYC’s next mayor.

2015 DecemberForest City Ratner sells its remaining Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center arena interests to Mikhail Prokhorov.

2014 June-AugustForest City Ratner sells 70% interest in Atlantic Yards to Greenland Group, owned by the government of Shanghai. “Greenland Forest City Partners” renames Atlantic Yards “Pacific Park.”

2016 AprilCiting a need to “recapitalize,” Greenland Forest City Partners begins marketing three Atlantic Yards parcels for development by others.

2014 DecemberModular technology problems delay B2. 535 Carlton Ave (300 affordable apts) & 550 Vanderbilt Ave (278 condos) break ground at Pacific Park. Forest City’s modular methods are not used.

2016 MayThe first affordable apartments at Atlantic Yards’ building B2 are offered through New York City’s housing lottery.

2010 MayConstruction of the Barclays Center arena breaks ground.

2012 DecemberAtlantic Yards building B2 construction begins, using new modular technology. Completion of its 180 affordable and 180 market rate apts planned for 2014.

2009 OctoberForest City Ratner sells a controlling interest in the NJ Nets, and a minority interest in Barclays Center arena, to Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.

2009 DecemberNYS and Forest City Ratner sign a definitive agreement for developing Atlantic Yards, meeting a federal deadline allowing tax-exempt financing for arena construction.

2002

Gus lives on the fourth floor, Lashawn lives on the third floor, and Dblock—his real name is Christian—lives here. I know them all from Met’s—they used to come and pack. Me and Gus, we played basketball and started talking and hanging out. That’s how we became friends. We went to see Paid in Full together. We try to get girls and stuff… we do a lot of things… we just hang out. David K.

“BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY.” You can’t miss this. There isn’t just a little sign saying this is for the public. This is huge, bigger than anybody. You see people standing outside, waiting for the place to open, even on freezing cold days. Because it’s a Mecca, it’s a place people like to go to. I mean, you see all kinds of people in there. It’s for everybody, you know? It’s very accessible. The public library at 42nd street isn’t. Yes, you can look at the lions. You sit on the steps. But do you go in? Whereas here, you sit on the steps, you have your kids screaming and playing and it’s not a big deal. Tanya

“A bit like home”

In the 2016 PHNDC survey, when asked to name the characteristic most important for quality of life in Prospect Heights, residents most often cited ‘sense of community.’

Underhill Playground, 2003

2015

Since the sixties, I would go to the park, where the water is, and watch the weddings. Every single Saturday. The kids who were in the wedding, if they had to go to the bathroom, I would put them behind the tree so they could go. And I always had pins in my pocketbook. There was a gentleman who came, and his pants were too long. I was afraid he was going to fall down those stairs. I pinned him up. I might go help the bride, fix her dress if it’s dragging on the floor. That’s how I enjoy the weddings.Rhoda

There are many lovely things about Prospect Heights, but one is the habit of leaving things on the sidewalk. My father passed away. A lot of men like to collect caps. So, I hung out his caps. I was very tearful when I was doing it, and this man picked up on my sadness. He took all of my father’s caps. He said, let me take these things. So, the sharing, that was happening.Akosua

The schoolyard of PS 9 was so disgusting. I asked the principal if I could speak to parents the way I gotta speak. I said, “How are we going to bring up kids if there are crack vials, syringes, and broken glass all over our school? We gotta lock up the schoolyard, get some brooms and shovels, and let’s clean it.”Mike

I had never been to Prospect Heights. A friend and I came to a Dominican restaurant. It’s pouring cats and dogs outside, so we got inside and had hot soup. Being from Venezuela, the hot food and Spanish music made us feel a bit like home. Our first impression of Prospect Heights is heavy rain, puddles and “home.” Maria

Underhill Playground, 2006

Vanderbilt Avenue, 2005

2003

If one thing talks most about this community, it’s probably the [Met Food] supermarket. Because of the people there and what they try to do. They do it to make money, granted, but they seem happy to be here, concerned about people, about delivering service to the whole neighborhood. It’s not that they came in and decided, “Oh, we’re getting rid of the Goya stuff here, you know? We’re going upscale.” No.

It’s what made this neighborhood for us. 25 years ago we got very lucky on the house, but really it’s the fact that it’s a comfortably mixed neighborhood. Now, I can’t pull down my veil of ignorance... I’m part of the dominant society, but it just feels to me like a comfortably mixed neighborhood.David

Handball courts used to be where the grass is. Now if you hit the ball over, you gotta climb over the wall. They used to have flat big kids swings, but the kids used to take ‘em and flip them over, so they put the baby swings, cause they don’t want the big kids on it.David K.

“A mixed community”

19,655 people

2000 2014

20,228 people

Asian

Two or more races

Some other race

White

African American/Black

Asian

Two or more races

Some other race

White

African American/Black

Asian

Two or more races

Some other race

White

African American/Black

Asian2 or more racesAnother raceWhiteAfrican American/Black

Population of Prospect Heights, Brooklyn

Vanderbilt Avenue, 2016

2015

This has been a mixed community for a very long time. Prospect Heights has had a lot people of different ethnicities and backgrounds for years and years, and we’re all part of the neighborhood and love it. ...I am an African American woman. A lot of my friends aren’t. Occasionally I will take my friend’s kid to the playground. And people say to me, “Um, do you take care of children around here?” It’s enraging. There are a lot of women of color who are caregivers. Not all of us. I say, “This is my best friend’s child, and we have a day in the park together. Just like you have a day in the park with your kids. This is my godson.” Denise

When I was very young, it was a cross section of Irish, African-American, Caribbean American, and people—I would call them “hippies”—from the outside, who bought the brownstones.Kathie

I love our neighborhood for its diversity. Economic diversity, racial diversity, cultural diversity, language diversity... At the now-fabulous Underhill Playground the variety of European languages you hear is amazing. I love the international quality of it...Debra

2001

I went into Vanderbilt Avenue when most of the buildings were abandoned. And I was there until now. My building was abandoned. You couldn’t walk up the front stairs. When I moved over I set up a darkroom and I started to do photography.

About twenty-four years I was there. I had the second floor and the store. I wanted to have a business of my own.

I would still have it if I hadn’t been introduced to a company that helped people in financial problems. They were a fraud. They said they’d do the work I needed and then hand the building over to me. They didn’t do anything, and the bank foreclosed on them. That’s why I’m out of Vanderbilt Avenue, and all my stock is in the dumpster. It’s a long story, and it makes me sick. My kids said look, let it go.

Now I’m in East New York. My wife just told me that the owner wants a rent increase already! Not even a year. I have to look for some place. Nothing has really changed with this neighborhood. But as time goes on, you know it will. Neville

“I would hate to leave”

Vanderbilt Avenue, 2004

In 2004 and 2016, what Prospect Heights residents most often perceived as in need of improvement:

Housing opportunities

Public education

Safety and security from crime

11%22%

11%28%

5%13%

2004 2016

2004 2016

Housing opportunities

Public education

Safety & security from crime

2015

We live in a rent stabilized apartment we’ve been in for 13 years, we sort of feel like we can never leave... Christy

Businesses are being displaced. The rent in our place was going up by $2600 per month. That’s a rent by itself! Bob

I wasn’t home when the gentleman doing the evicting came by. The guy looked at my housemate and said, “Why the long face? This place is going to look amazing when I’m done with it.” And I just went by last night and it’s still empty. Paula

Everything is topped up, and with my husband not well, I need a bath and two bedrooms. But you cannot find it, not in this neighborhood. If I have to go out of the neighborhood to find what I need, not want, but need, that’s what I’ll do, but I would hate to leave here, because I know everybody on both blocks. Rhoda

I knew Crown Heights/Prospect Heights as where my aunts lived. This was a place to get my hair braided, to go to the parade. When we were looking for apartments, it was really strange to be looking at spaces that used to be my elders’ homes...Samantha

I enjoyed living here, it was just a matter of being priced out. It really is displacement of people who have been living here, for generations, or ten, twenty, thirty years. This neighborhood is no longer affordable for the average New Yorker.Akosua

Vanderbilt Avenue, 2016

2002

It’s a very mixed crowd in here [The Usual, now closed], race, sex, age. You see people from all different backgrounds. Cops come in here, Sanitation, park police, plumbers, accountants, politicians, and you hear people talking trash… it’s funny!

Here in New York… America... you have this thing about being somebody of a certain level, the doctor, the lawyer, the Wall Street whatever. And you have people here who have a life, they run a luncheonette, and they make people happy. It appeals to me very viscerally.

It makes me realize, yeah, you need some money, but you don’t need to be just chasing a dollar, to the exemption of everything else. It doesn’t have to be a big thing that you do...Tanya

“It was not about money”

Underhill Avenue & Sterling Place, 2003

Prospect Heights Household Yearly Income

8,991 households

2000 2014

9,860 households

2000 2014

$75,000 to $99,999

$50,000 to $74,999

$35,000 to $49,999

$15,000 to $34,999

$14,999 or less

8,991 9,860

Prospect Heights households by income

$100,000 or mor

2000 2014

$75,000 to $99,999

$50,000 to $74,999

$35,000 to $49,999

$15,000 to $34,999

$14,999 or less

8,991 9,860

Prospect Heights households by income

$100,000 or morMore than $100,000/yr$50-100,000/yrUnder $50,000/yr

2015

I left Park Slope because I got tired of my feet getting run over by baby carriages. We have jokes in the [real estate] business: Prospect Heights used to be like Murray Hill. Brooklyn Heights is the Upper East Side... And Prospect Heights is becoming like the Upper West Side. I will tell you, those baby carriages are about twelve hundred dollars.Erica

The neighborhood, in the 23 years I’ve been here, has changed very much... When I was here, it was nothing about money. Everybody does need money in the world, but it was not about money. It’s become cutthroat. It’s very beautiful still, but if you don’t have money, you’re not welcomed, and be gone. There’s no such thing as “I’ll pay you tomorrow.”Mike

I have this memory of standing on Underhill, between the bodega and Blue Marble and seeing three young kids arguing. They had some money. And they were arguing about whether to buy an ice cream at the bodega, or buy an ice cream in Blue Marble. One of them thought there was a distinction, and others thought it didn’t matter—they should get whatever was cheaper. I remember thinking these kids, thinking the difference was just the cost, had an insight into this situation that I didn’t.Stuart

The candy store was a hub... a depository for ideas for the neighborhood, and Norma would lecture us: don’t do things that cause harm. Growing up, all the adults in the neighborhood had dominion over me. I don’t think there’s a store like that now.Bob

Underhill Avenue & Sterling Place, 2016

20,228

+13,500

+791

34,519

2014 population of Prospect Heights

Estimated residents of Atlantic Yards by 2025

Estimated residents in new infill development

Projected population of Prospect Heights by 2025, an increase of 71% from 2014

Atlantic Avenue & Flatbush Avenue, 2005

2006

People had signs up—Atlantic Yards pro and con—who’s a fool, you’re a fool, they’re a fool. “You say you’re for affordable housing, how you can be for affordable housing if you’re not for this project?” “You think there’s actually going to be affordable housing in this project?!”

Friends of mine and I, on opposite sides of the argument, see each other and we’re like, “We used to be more friendly.” And we couldn’t figure out what to do about being more friendly.

And I said, smile more; what I’ll do is I’ll sit on my porch more, I said, you sit on your porch more. We used to sit on the porch—we were so broke that was the only entertainment we had. Sit on the porch, have a cigarette, say hello to people, give ‘em shots. And we didn’t do it a lot, but we did it enough… We were saying that we used to be nicer, and I said, well, we used to have less money. Julia

“Everything they loved”

2014 population of Prospect Heights

Estimated residents of Atlantic Yards by 2025

Estimated residents in new infill development

Projected population of Prospect Heights by 2025, an increase of 71% from 2014

Atlantic Avenue & Flatbush Avenue, 2016

2015

You see the one that’s going up on Carlton and the one that’s going up on Vanderbilt ...all the places that used to be warehouses or car repair places are now condos... You can’t get a two-bedroom condo in this neighborhood for less than $800,000. Who can afford this? You can just imagine developers walking up and down the street saying, “If I can get my hands on that one, I can build 10 stories. If I can get my hands on that one, I can build 12 stories.” Christy

It’s sad for those of us who have been here a very long time and know that the people coming in won’t have similar values. They’ll come in and they won’t want you to sit on their stoop...They’ll look around and wonder how they can change everything they loved about this space in the first place. Denise

I don’t want to have high rises out my back yard. But I really hope that the texture of our neighborhood stays. Even with all that development. Debra

Despite the changes, it remains a fascinating and friendly and fulfilling place to live. I don’t want to romanticize it, because there are massive levels of inequality in Prospect Heights, and of course in the city more broadly, but I do think there is something ineffable and special about Prospect Heights. Maybe everybody feels that way about where they live.Stuart

Concept / Design / Photography : Buscada

Project partners Supported by

Council Member Laurie CumboPark Place/Underhill Avenue Block AssociationCarlton Avenue Block Association

Find out more : www.inter-section.org

The Intersection | Prospect Heights project explores the meaning of neighborhood places and rapid change through the eyes of residents of one Brooklyn, New York neighborhood. Neighbors first gave “tours” to artist and urbanist Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani in the early 2000s when she asked, “where is your Prospect Heights?” In 2015, we brought these stories back to the neighborhood in a series of “guidebooks” that popped up in exhibitions in everyday neighborhood places (like the supermarket, above) and a series of creative walking tours. These let people take a new look at the present through experiences of the not-too-distant past. People shared responses to these stories in public forums, individual oral history sessions at Brooklyn Public Library, and in writing in person and online.

Here, we bring together excerpts from the earliest interviews and from those responses gathered in 2015. These are placed in context with demographic data from the 2000 U.S. Census and 2014 American Community Survey and opinion research from surveys sponsored by the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council in 2004 (366 respondents) and 2015-2016 (508 respondents). The images here were made by Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani between 2000-2006 and 2015-2016.

Intersection | Prospect Heights