Downtown Brooklyn | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 40°41′38″N73°59′14″W / 40.69389°N 73.98722°W | |
Country | United States |
State | New York |
City | New York City |
Borough | Brooklyn |
Community District | Brooklyn 2 [1] |
Area | |
• Total | 0.433 sq mi (1.12 km2) |
Population (2010) | |
• Total | 7,053 |
• Density | 16,000/sq mi (6,300/km2) |
Economics | |
• Median income | $110,436 |
Time zone | UTC−5 (Eastern) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) |
Zip Codes | 11201, 11217 |
Area code | 718, 347, 929, and 917 |
Downtown Brooklyn is the third largest central business district in New York City (after Midtown Manhattan and Lower Manhattan [2] ), and is located in the northwestern section of the borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is known for its office and residential buildings, such as the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower and the MetroTech Center office complex.
Since the rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn in 2004, the area has been undergoing a transformation, with $9 billion of private investment and $300 million in public improvements underway. The area is a growing hub for education. In 2017, New York University announced that it would invest over $500 million to renovate and expand the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and its surrounding Downtown Brooklyn-based campus. [3]
Downtown Brooklyn is part of Brooklyn Community District 2 and its primary ZIP Codes are 11201 and 11217. [1] It is patrolled by the 84th and 88th Precincts of the New York City Police Department. [4]
This area was originally inhabited by Lenape Native Americans, until the 17th century. The area close to the Wallabout Bay was called Rinnegokonk. [5] At that time the Dutch arrived, gained control of the land, and called it Breuckelen. The waterfront area being sold by Indians to Joris Jansen Rapelje, who used the land for farm purposes. Until 1814, Downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights remained sparsely populated. Robert Fulton's new steam ferry then began to offer an easy commuting option to and from downtown Manhattan. It made Brooklyn Heights Manhattan's first suburb, and put Downtown Brooklyn on its way to becoming a commercial center, and the heart of the City of Brooklyn.
The city was home to many prominent abolitionists at a time when most of New York was indifferent to slavery. Many Brooklyn churches agitated against legalized slavery in the 1850s and 1860s and some acted as safehouses as part of the Underground Railroad movement. Walt Whitman was fired from his job as a reporter at the Brooklyn Eagle due to his support for the Wilmot Proviso when he lived at Willoughby and Myrtle Avenues. A group of buildings at 223, 225, 227, 231, 233, and 235 Duffield Street, in addition to the African Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church located in MetroTech Center, were believed to be among the safehouses. [6]
The middle 19th century growth of the Port of New York caused shipping to spill over into the City of Brooklyn; many buildings now used for other purposes were built as warehouses and factories. Manufacturing intensified with the building of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges; buildings from that time include the 1915 Sperry Gyroscope Company building, now known as the Howard Building of the New York City College of Technology. [7] New, extensive infrastructure served the Brooklyn Bridge trolleys.
Following World War II, the City Planning Commission, in conjunction with the Borough President's Office, presented and adopted a Master Plan for the Civic Center, which included an ambitious public improvements program. The program included plans for new buildings for City and State agencies, significant street widening and major housing construction in adjacent areas. A study conducted eight years later highlighted the progress made, emphasizing the widening of Adams Street (and later Boerum Place), which created a long and sweeping approach to Downtown Brooklyn from a modernized Brooklyn Bridge.
By the late 1960s, the patterns of transition that affected much of urban America initiated concern to protect the borough's Central Business District from deterioration. In 1969, a comprehensive plan for the entire city was completed and in the report the City Planning Commission stated, "Downtown Brooklyn's economy is vital to the borough and important to the entire metropolitan region."[ citation needed ] In re-affirming Downtown Brooklyn's central role and identifying its problems, the Plan was optimistic that a combination of public and private efforts would stimulate office and commercial construction. A 23-story privately financed office tower at Boerum Place and Livingston Street opened in 1971 and the anticipated growth of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) succeeded far beyond expectations, giving this cultural institution an important role as a symbolic anchor amid increasing decay during the following decade.
After suffering with the rest of New York through the fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s, Borough President Howard Golden, first elected in 1977, moved forward with a more aggressive economic development program to revitalize Downtown Brooklyn. He identified the need for greater equity in resource allocation between Manhattan and the city's other boroughs. An important moment in the history of Downtown Brooklyn came in 1983 with the release of a Regional Plan Association report for the area. According to the document, Downtown Brooklyn could become the city's third-largest business district because of its proximity to Lower Manhattan (closer by subway than Midtown). It also could serve as a prime location for high technology industries and new market-rate housing. The State Street Houses Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. [8]
Historically, Downtown Brooklyn was primarily a commercial and civic center, with relatively little residential development. Housing included a few apartment buildings on Livingston Street, and seven 15-story buildings that make up the over 1,000 unit Concord Village co-op development on Adams Street, at the borders of both Brooklyn Heights and Dumbo.
Since the rezoning of parts of Downtown Brooklyn in 2004 to allow for denser residential development, the area has seen the arrival of new condominium towers, townhouses, and office conversions. In all, 14,000 residential units were planned for Downtown Brooklyn at that time.[ citation needed ] A New York Sun article from November 7, 2007, reports on the arrival of Downtown Brooklyn as a 24/7 community, estimating that 35,000 residents will come to the area in the next five years. [9] In January 2008, residents started moving into the new residential buildings, according to a New York Sun article. [10] The New York City Department of City Planning approved another, significant rezoning for portions of Downtown Brooklyn, including the Fulton Mall area, which resulted in significant expansion of office space and ground-floor retail, such as those at City Point. [6] The rezoning consists of "zoning map and zoning text changes, new public open spaces, pedestrian and transit improvements, urban renewal, [and] street mappings". [11] The City Planning initiative also seeks to improve the connections between Downtown and the adjacent neighborhoods of Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, and Fort Greene.
As of March 2012 [update] , the rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn had caused gentrification in nearby neighborhoods. [6] Affordable housing was created in the area after the 2004 rezoning, with 420 affordable units in 2014. The housing increase has also resulted in positive effects on other aspects of Downtown Brooklyn's economy as well, with revenues for the area's hospitality industry having tripled since 2004. [12]
Some of this gentrification was controversial, however. In 2007, the city government was to acquire the houses at 223–235 Duffield Street via eminent domain, then demolish the houses and replace them with 500 new hotel rooms, 1,000 units of mixed-income housing, more than 500,000 square feet of retail space, and at least 125,000 square feet of new office space in the area; however, only 231 Duffield Street was replaced by a hotel. [6] Still, this caused historians to protest over the planned demolition of the historic houses because of their importance to abolitionists during the American Civil War. [13]
Downtown Brooklyn is the civic and commercial downtown center of the former City of Brooklyn, which, as of 2020, has more than 2.7 million residents. Alongside immediately adjacent neighborhoods, the general area encompasses Brooklyn Borough Hall, the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Municipal Building, the Kings County New York State Courthouse and the Eastern District of New York's Theodore Roosevelt United States Courthouse. Attractions within the area include the Fulton Mall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the New York Transit Museum and Barclays Center.
Three days a week the Borough Hall Greenmarket, featuring fresh produce from local farmers, operates on the plaza fronting Borough Hall. Formerly called Supreme Court Plaza, the location was renamed as Columbus Park in 1986.
MetroTech Center, a business and educational center, lies between Flatbush Avenue and Jay Street, above the Jay Street – MetroTech subway station, north of the Fulton Street Mall, and south of the busy Tillary Street. [14] [15]
The original location of Junior's, founded by Harry Rosen in 1950. [16] The building, at the corner of DeKalb Avenue and Flatbush Avenue Extension, is 17,000 square feet of red-and-white-striped menus, flashbulb-adorned signs, rust-colored booths and a wooden bar. A shrine to the Brooklyn of old, it has become a must-visit for politicians from borough presidents to President Barack Obama, who bought two cheesecakes and a couple of black-and-white cookies during an October 2013 visit with Bill de Blasio. [17]
9 DeKalb Avenue, a residential skyscraper adjacent to the Dime Savings Bank of New York. Upon completion, it became the first supertall building in Brooklyn and the tallest structure in New York City outside of Manhattan. [18] [19]
Cadman Plaza Park, named for prominent Brooklyn-based liberal Protestant clergyman S. Parkes Cadman, provides 10 acres (40,000 m2) of green space in the neighborhood, and was recently renovated by the New York City Parks Department. These and other parks form a long mall from Borough Hall to Brooklyn Bridge. A new park is also planned for the area, known as the Willoughby Square Park. [20] [21]
At the northeastern corner of Downtown Brooklyn is Bridge Plaza, bounded by Flatbush Avenue Extension and Manhattan Bridge on the west, Tillary Street on the south, and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) on the north and east. [22] [23] The newer term RAMBO, an acronym for Right Around The Manhattan Bridge Overpass [24] [25] [26] [27] is sometimes applied to the area, comparing it to DUMBO. The neighborhood was connected to Vinegar Hill until the 1950s, when construction of the BQE effectively isolated it from surrounding areas.
Downtown Brooklyn is served by two ZIP Codes: 11201 north of DeKalb Avenue and 11217 south of DeKalb Avenue. [28] The United States Postal Service operates the Brooklyn Main Post Office at 271 Cadman Plaza East. [29]
Downtown Brooklyn is connected with Manhattan by the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.
The neighborhood has extensive public transportation accessibility; it is served by the New York City Subway and many bus lines. All but one Manhattan trunk line in Lower Manhattan has a direct connection to Downtown Brooklyn. From south to north, the IRT Lexington Avenue Line ( 4 and 5 trains) via the Joralemon Street Tunnel, the BMT Broadway and BMT Nassau Street Lines ( N , R , and W trains) via the Montague Street Tunnel, the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line ( 2 and 3 trains) via the Clark Street Tunnel and the IND Eighth Avenue Line ( A and C trains) via the Cranberry Street Tunnel provide that service. Slightly farther north, the Manhattan Bridge ( B , D , N , and Q trains) and Rutgers Street Tunnel ( F and <F> trains) also feed subway trains from the Lower East Side into Downtown Brooklyn.
Major stations in the neighborhood are:
A $130 million capital project to connect Lawrence Street–MetroTech ( N , R , and W trains) and Jay Street–Borough Hall ( A , C , and F and <F> trains), which also included renovation of both stations, was completed on December 10, 2010. [30] It features an underground corridor on Willoughby Street connecting both stations, which includes new escalator and elevator access to Lawrence Street.
The Long Island Rail Road stops at the Atlantic Terminal, located at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues.
Public schools are operated by the New York City Department of Education.
In 2021 the private school German School of Brooklyn moved all levels to its permanent site at 9 Hanover Place in Downtown Brooklyn. [31] The Khalil Gibran International Academy High School opened in September 2024. [32]
Schools include Brooklyn Technical High School (one of the city's nine selective specialized high schools), Brooklyn Friends School, Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School, St. Francis College, St. Joseph's College, Brooklyn Law School, New York University's Tandon School of Engineering, the Center for Urban Science and Progress, the New York City College of Technology, Adelphi University - Brooklyn Center and Long Island University's Brooklyn campus.
Brooklyn is a borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelve original counties established under British rule in 1683 in the then Province of New York. As of the 2020 United States census, the population stood at 2,736,074, making it the most populous of the five boroughs of New York City, the most populous county in the State of New York, and the ninth most populous county in the United States. In 2022, the population density of Brooklyn was recorded at 37,339.9 inhabitants per square mile (14,417.0/km2), making it the second most densely populated county nationwide, behind only Manhattan. Had Brooklyn remained an independent city, it would today be the fourth most populous American city after New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Prospect Heights is a neighborhood in the northwest of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The traditional boundaries are Flatbush Avenue to the west, Atlantic Avenue to the north, Eastern Parkway – beginning at Grand Army Plaza – to the south, and Washington Avenue to the east. In the northern section of Prospect Heights are the Vanderbilt Rail Yards, built over as part of the Pacific Park project. The Barclays Center, home to the NBA's Brooklyn Nets basketball team, is located in the northwestern corner of the neighborhood in Pacific Park at Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues.
Flatbush Avenue is a major avenue in the New York City Borough of Brooklyn. It runs from the Manhattan Bridge south-southeastward to Jamaica Bay, where it joins the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, which connects Brooklyn to the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. The north end was extended from Fulton Street to the Manhattan Bridge as "Flatbush Avenue Extension".
Atlantic Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. It stretches from the Brooklyn waterfront on the East River all the way to Jamaica, Queens. Atlantic Avenue runs parallel to Fulton Street for much of its course through Brooklyn, where it serves as a border between the neighborhoods of Prospect Heights and Fort Greene and between Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, and between Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill. This stretch of avenue is known for having a high rate of pedestrian fatalities and has been described as "the killing fields of the city."
Fulton Street is a long east–west street in northern Brooklyn, New York City. This street begins at the intersection of Adams Street and Joralemon Street in Brooklyn Heights, and runs eastward to East New York and Cypress Hills. At the border with Queens, Fulton Street becomes 91st Avenue, which ends at 84th Street in Woodhaven.
The DeKalb Avenue station is an interchange station on the BMT Brighton Line and BMT Fourth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway, located at the intersection of DeKalb and Flatbush Avenues in Downtown Brooklyn. It is served by the Q and R trains at all times, the B train on weekdays, and the D and N trains during late nights. During rush hours only, a few W train trips also serve this station.
Brooklyn Commons, formerly MetroTech Center, is a business and educational center in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City.
Myrtle Avenue is a 8.1-mile-long (13.0 km) street that runs from Duffield Street in Downtown Brooklyn to Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill, Queens, in New York City, United States. Myrtle is a main thoroughfare through the neighborhoods of Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick, Ridgewood, and Glendale.
The High Street station, also signed as High Street–Brooklyn Bridge, and also referred to as Brooklyn Bridge Plaza and Cranberry Street, is a station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. It is located at Cadman Plaza East near Red Cross Place and the Brooklyn Bridge approach in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn. Its name comes from older street names; its original location was at the intersection of High Street and Washington Street. It is served by the A train at all times and the C train at all times except late nights.
59th Street is a crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, running from York Avenue and Sutton Place on the East Side of Manhattan to the West Side Highway on the West Side. The three-block portion between Columbus Circle and Grand Army Plaza is known as Central Park South, since it forms the southern border of Central Park. There is a gap in the street between Ninth Avenue/Columbus Avenue and Columbus Circle, where the Deutsche Bank Center is located. While Central Park South is a bidirectional street, most of 59th Street carries one-way traffic.
The B41 is a bus route that constitutes a public transit line operating in Brooklyn, New York City, running along Flatbush Avenue between Downtown Brooklyn and Marine Park. The B41 is operated by the MTA New York City Transit Authority. Its precursor was a streetcar line that began operation in 1860, and was known as the Flatbush Avenue Line. The route became a bus line in 1951. Limited-stop service began along the route in 1992.
The B103 constitutes a bus route in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Originally operated by Command Bus Company, the bus route is now operated by MTA Bus Company, running between Downtown Brooklyn and Canarsie.
Fourth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It stretches for 6 miles (9.7 km) south from Times Plaza, which is the triangle intersection created by Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues in Downtown Brooklyn, to Shore Road and the Belt Parkway in Bay Ridge.
Bridge Plaza is the northeastern corner of the downtown area of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Its borders are Flatbush Avenue Extension and Manhattan Bridge on the west, Tillary Street on the south, and the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway (BQE) on the north and east.
Broadway is an avenue in the New York City borough of Brooklyn that extends from the East River in the neighborhood of Williamsburg in a southeasterly direction to East New York for a length of 4.32 miles (6.95 km). It was named for the Broadway in Manhattan. The East New York terminus is a complicated intersection with East New York Avenue, Fulton Street, Jamaica Avenue, and Alabama Avenue. The BMT Jamaica Line of the New York City Subway runs on elevated tracks over Broadway from the Williamsburg Bridge to East New York on its way to Queens. Broadway forms the boundary between the neighborhoods of Bushwick, which lies above Broadway to the northeast, and Bedford–Stuyvesant, which is to the southwest.
The Brooklyn Tower is a supertall mixed-use, primarily residential skyscraper in the Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood of New York City. Developed by JDS Development Group, it is situated on the north side of DeKalb Avenue near Flatbush Avenue. The main portion of the skyscraper is a 74-story, 1,066-foot (325 m) residential structure designed by SHoP Architects and built from 2018 to 2022. Preserved at the skyscraper's base is the Dime Savings Bank Building, designed by Mowbray and Uffinger, which dates to the 1900s.
City Point is a mixed-use multi-building residential and commercial complex in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City. City Point is, by square footage, the largest mixed-use development in the city. City Point III, standing at 720 feet in height, is currently the second tallest building in Brooklyn as well as the fourth tallest on Long Island.
The following is an alphabetical list of articles related to New York City. New York City is a city in the United States state of New York.