The history of changing neighborhoods in Brooklyn is that of richer people invading a neighborhood and displacing the primary residents. And then once they become the dominant group, there’s a tendency to want to keep others out. Affordable housing, in this scenario, is a humane aim to hold up – unless it’s in their backyard. An influx of poorer people who will change the tenor of the area is a source of fear.
This is not the case in my neighborhood, Greenwood Heights. Nobody I’ve spoken to is worried about less well-off infiltrators. We’re worried about driving our neighbors out of their affordable apartments. We’re against a 13-story building of mostly luxury apartments on the site of the one-story Arrow Linen & Uniform Supply Company plant at 467 Prospect Ave.
The owner of Arrow Linen is asking for the area to be rezoned. Where a one-story laundry structure and some three-story houses exist, they’d like to see 13-story towers. In total, the plans would add roughly 300 apartments to the block. Only 25% of the units created would be so-called affordable. In other words, only 75 of the apartments would be offered at someone’s idea of an affordable price. No one I’ve spoken to resists 75 newly constructed apartments of affordable housing. What they oppose is looming towers literally overshadowing the neighborhood. They oppose forcing long-time tenants out of their rent-stabilized apartments as developers raze the existing structures to create a larger footprint for their high rises. And my neighbors oppose apartments at a high price that can be found at plenty of other places in the borough.
The rezoning law that was enacted by the Department of City Planning in 2005 was for the express purpose of ensuring that new development fits the context of an existing residential area. You cannot tell us that a skyline 10 stories higher than the neighboring houses doesn’t constitute out-of-scale development. The proposal for the Mayor Eric Adams’ “City of Yes” housing proposal asks residents to say yes to some additional housing units. We are saying yes – just not to the rezoning for 13 stories.
A reasonable alternative by a non-profit developer has been presented to Shahana Hanif, Council Member for Brooklyn’s 39th district. She is also the co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, which publicly espouses creating permanent, deeply affordable housing. The non-profit developer has created a plan that would provide over 200 verifiably affordable housing units. Rather than cast the shadows of a 13-story structure over the adjacent buildings, this plan would be housed in seven-story buildings. In other words, it would fit into the culture of the neighborhood in both size and affordability.
So why not espouse the non-profit developer’s plan? Because the Arrow owner, John Magliocco, won’t maximize his profits that way. Why has Council Member Hanif appeared to back the Arrow owner’s bid for rezoning, which goes against her public stance as co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, as well as the wishes of a wide swath of her constituents? There are a number of cynical explanations, none of which can be verified.
Mayor Adams’ City of Yes plan calls for providing much-needed housing in the city. The non-profit developer’s plan does this. It provides housing at a price that people who will be displaced could afford. And it does this without depriving the longtime residents of daylight. Let’s jump on this historic chance to set the precedent for humane development.
