Photo via Curbed Flickr pool/threecee
Downtown Brooklyn is booming. The recent announcement that the Steiners will be putting up a 50 story tower on Flatbush Avenue means another addition to the skyline that’s already filling in with buildings like The Brooklyner and Toren. Dennis Holt projects in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle that planned new developments for DoBro and nearby areas foretells the addition of 15,000-20,000 new residents for the neighborhood, and worries if the area has the infrastructure to accomodate them: “Look at the narrow sidewalks and narrow streets and imagine the infrastructure — telephone lines, gas mains, water mains — that was designed for a much smaller population.”
When a megaproject goes into Manhattan’s Upper West Side, people who already live in the neighborhood scream bloody murder that schools need to be built or expanded to accomodate the expected rise in residential families. And the addition of several new high rises across town in Yorkville increased support for the construction of the Second Avenue Subway to relieve crowding on the already packed 4/5/6 lines. DoBro’s growth, on the other hand, is converting previously non-residential areas into a new urban core, so it lacks the built-in alarm bells that usually cry for necessary infrastructure improvements. Holt points out the phenomena is not just limited to DoBro, but other large areas of Brooklyn as well. Is Kings County prepared to handle its growing pains?
· Brooklyn Broadside: Downtown Building Boom Could Be a Planning Nightmare [BrooklynDailyEagle]
· The Brooklyner coverage [CurbedNY]
· Toren coverage [CurbedNY]
· DoBro coverage [CurbedNY]
Comments