The Q at Parkside

(for those for whom the Parkside Q is their hometrain)

News and Nonsense from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Lefferts and environs, or more specifically a neighborhood once known as Melrose Park. Sometimes called Lefferts Gardens. Or Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Or PLG. Or North Flatbush. Or Caledonia (west of Ocean). Or West Pigtown. Across From Park Slope. Under Crown Heights. Near Drummer's Grove. The Side of the Park With the McDonalds. Jackie Robinson Town. Home of Lefferts Manor. West Wingate. Near Kings County Hospital. Or if you're coming from the airport in taxi, maybe just Flatbush is best.

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

What's Cooking At the Spice Factory

So, what to do at 960 Franklin Avenue, a/k/a the Spice Factory? Well, here's the latest proposed plan by the new owners, who bought from longtime owners Morris Golombeck.
A rendering of the new project, handed out at last night's meeting to show proposed heights
in exchange for hundreds of new affordable housing units (dark coloring are the potential rezoned additions)

We all knew it was just a matter of time. Large site, near the Park and Garden, right next to the Q, B and Shuttle trains. Into town in 20 minutes, easy.

The Q advocated, hard, for a neighborhood planning study and rezoning that would have likely allowed for higher buildings along transit hubs in exchange for protections and downzonings for historic inner blocks. That effort failed, in large part (gotta hand it to her; she won) Alicia Boyd and MTOPP, which is basically her and a couple acolytes. Since then, her efforts to prevent any and ALL rezonings in southern Crown Heights and Lefferts Gardens have brought about the firing of the old district manager, preventing the hiring of the new district manager, the resignations of many Board members, and the resignations of not one, not two, but three Board chairs. Incidentally, that's a position that's often held for years if not decades. Turmoil is Boyd's middle name, and even as she loses her lawsuits, the drag on the process takes its toll. Again, hats off. A worthy foe indeed.

Since then, the Crown Heights Tenants Union and now even the East Harlem's anti-rezoning activists have joined the fight, as the City's activist networks take on the developers and City Planners to stop building high in order to subsidize "affordable housing," which, as they argue, is not really affordable to the actually poor and homeless. I suppose they're right in this regard. Even $1000, or $1500, or $2000, despite the fact that they're being built to stay stabilized, is too much money for a lot of people. Though I must say that any tenant still paying less than $1,000 for an apartment is under extreme pressure, both legal and illegal, to leave their homes, as landlords recognize the potential profits from these older stabilized apartments. That fact remains, regardless of any new buildings.

In a certain sense, this is a battle of the Left vs. the Super Left, in that many of the Mayor's "Mandatory Inclusionary Housing" plans have been lauded as a step in the right direction towards creating more long-term, stabilized below-market-rate housing. You can't fight a housing crisis without building, and in NYC, that means building tall, so goes the argument.

What's a good liberal to do?

Last night, one thing became perfectly clear. The Community, as represented by the subset of that community who are on the ULURP Committee and Community Board, want nothing to do with rezonings, no matter the trade-off offered by developers or City. They don't trust that folks in the neighborhood will benefit. They believe that any and all tall buildings will lead to greater displacement than is offset by the new units of affordable housing. (And frankly, I would argue that's not even the point. The point of all this new building is for the future of the City, not just for those currently facing eviction.)

Professor Tom Angotti of Hunter College has become the intellectual of choice for the anti crowd. His book Zoned Out is their bible. CHTU leads the reasonable wing of the movement, in that they represent real tenants, real rent battles, and are co-led by the endlessly impressive and intelligent Esteban Giron, who often holds court at meetings because, frankly, he's the most knowledgeable and coherent anti-displacement advocate you'll find. He lives on Franklin near Carroll, and he and husband are under pressure to move out too. He'll tell you heartbreaking stories and win you over with reasoned arguments and a warmth that I find lacking from most of the hard-left activists. I have the utmost respect for Esteban, and in many ways, my own views have been shaped by my following his analysis.

Tom Angotti, on the other hand, seems to me a bit too smug and sure of himself as an ex-City Planner for me to drink his Kool-Aid. When his book is mentioned he smiles like a gloating David having slingshot his rock at Goliath. Like last night, he often tells tales that are patently false - like how Windsor Terrace fought back gentrification by fighting rezoning, and that Park Slope has therefore gentrified much faster as a result of their own rezonings on 4th Avenue. Say what, now? That doesn't jibe with my own experiences and even with the facts of rental and home increases. The neighborhood is, and long has been, all white, and has become terribly unaffordable to longtime residents there, many of them of Italian and Irish heritage (ever been to Farrell's?) One of my best pals is being forced out of his $2200 one-bedroom right now in WT. Angotti claimed prices have jumped 10 times in Park Slope while just 2 1/2 in the Terrace. Say what? Clearly he doesn't read the Zillow much.

The final analysis of the Committee might be a head-scratcher to those not familiar with the lines of argument. NO, says CB9. No rezoning. Make the developer stick with what he gets under current rules - supposedly up to 7 stories, ALL market rate, which around there is probably closing in on $3,000 if not more. Bring it on, says the ULURP committee. But you don't get an inch of extra height, and you can take your supposedly affordable units and shove 'em, we don't need 'em, because your longterm goal Mr. D (developer, devil?) is to get all the poor and POC's out to make way for your dream of a less colorful (in more ways than one) neighborhood.

Where do you stand?




24 comments:

pam said...

hi Q, I am no zoning maven, but if you rezone a non res to a residential zoning, doesn't the land become way more valuable? and if the City's action made your property way more valuable, can't the City as a condition of the rezoning then demand that a sig. % of any res development be very low or low income units? the rezoning is effectivly a huge financial grant to the current owner. Or is that not true?
p

Clarkson FlatBed said...

It's a great point - except, this land is already zoned for residential, despite the fact that it's had "factory" on it for decades. The whole area was rezoned in the early '90s as part of an effort by the BBG. Times change though, and the BBG and others have sold their holdings.

Very little can be built higher than 10 stories right now. But to make it profitable at that height, it would have to be all market-rate (say the developers, who have very little incentive to add affordable, unless they're given a huge (extra) tax break or enviable leverage terms).

Alex said...

Some anti-everything people in Inwood "won" a similar fight, and therefore they are getting a large, market rate building with no units set aside for affordable housing. So much winning.

Clarkson FlatBed said...

You gotta wonder whether 10 years from now folks will look back and say "what were they thinking?"

diak said...

Ten years from now people will look back and say "you know, this used to be a fairly diverse neighborhood until the anti-development purists decided it was all or nothing. And they got the latter..."

JMB said...

I'm impressed at the assumption that there will be anything to look back on in 10 years.

Clarkson FlatBed said...

I believe such pessimism has been expressed by various people and factions at every age. To assume destruction is to evade responsibility, is it not? It's a shit show right now to see sure, but it's a revival, not a premiere.

Curious27 said...

Just a side note/observation, when we had the snow a few weeks ago, all the houses on a certain strip of Sterling had shoveled the sidewalk in front, with the exception of one house. You'll never guess whose...

Bob Marvin said...

I'm surprised her wingnuts didn't do it for her.

Alex said...

I get sad and frustrated when I see pleas on the Lefferts FB page from families urgently looking for housing, knowing that some of the sympathetic commenters (possibly even the posters) are people who fight against the development of affordable housing. Someone recently posted looking desperately for a decent apartment for a family of four with a budget of around $2K. Sounds like this family falls into exactly the category that inclusionary zoning is intended to help - families with moderate (aka regular) incomes who want to stay in the city but find themselves priced out.

Anonymous said...

Like last night, he (Angotti) often tells tales that are patently false - like how Windsor Terrace fought back gentrification by fighting rezoning, and that Park Slope has therefore gentrified much faster as a result of their own rezonings on 4th Avenue.

Yeah, well, according to the dim-witted assessment of Angotti, Greenwich Village has stopped gentrification in its tracks.

It wasn't long ago Windsor Terrace was an Irish Catholic stronghold. Many of the residents were civil servants. The usual cops, firemen, teachers, and other city employees.

Now? A big uptick. Doctors, lawyers, Wall Streeters.

Rents have risen -- a lot. But there has not been the skyward building boom in Windsor Terrace. But WT is not PLG. And the sky is the limit in PLG. If not now, soon. That's obvious. Fighting it, and slowing the process only makes the values pop even more when the green light is finally given.

MikeF said...

The Irish Catholics that used to own houses in Windsor Terrace now own houses in Florida. ...just as they have always dreamed they would

ANEW said...

I just don't understand why there is little to no movement pressure to force existing landlords to rent to the people that need homes at the price they can afford? Picture the Homeless volunteers did a study and found hundreds of thousands of empty units around the city and that is just what the were able to observe. Owners of both retail and residential space are routinely displacing business, organizations, and individuals and then they will just sit on empty spaces sometimes for years at a time. I know that won't entirely solve the problem but I'd love this to be a more nuanced conversation where we aren't just focusing on building and what we can get out of developers. All those developed buildings will presumably have owners/management companies, why is the city basically rolling out the red carpet for them to do as they please?

Also where is the greater community vision? Why should all our hard earned money be flowing out of the neighborhood to large corporations like Target and Amazon? Where is the space for business owners who truly have/want to have a long-term commitment to the neighborhood?

Your formidable foe on Sterling is no friend of mine, but there has gotta be a better way than simply lying prostrate and letting Alicia Glenn, Bill DeBlasio and their wealthy buddies roll in the bulldozers and start building everything up to the heavens.

Clarkson FlatBed said...

Greetings from the Mekong Delta, where communism is just another word for one-party crony capitalism.

Where are these hundreds of thousands of rental apartments?

ANEW said...

Happy travels! You can read more about it here http://picturethehomeless.org/victory-ten-years-making-passed-housing-not-warehousing-act/

Clarkson FlatBed said...

Fascinating. I get warehousing. They did that at 35-41 Clarkson to take the place condo. They're doing it at Tivoli Towers. But vacant lots need more than a census. They need shit-tons of non-profit development money. The City could do it in boom times like this...will they take the opportunity or just count them?

ANEW said...

Good question. I'm hoping for the best but bracing for the worst. Oy!

Camille from ANEW said...

Also, here's one more good read https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-02-22/new-york-s-housing-market-favors-wealthier-renters

Anonymous said...

Two questions:
1) Are they keeping the spice factory brick building and building the new towers around it? I'm only seeing the view from the west that you posted and cannot tell.
2) Any word on what will be in the building's street level facing Franklin Avenue? i.e. Ground-level retail like the Franklin Avenue to the north? A lifeless fence or blank wall like Ebbets Field Apartments, the Medgar Evers parking lot, or Western Beef? A combination of the two? Or something else?

Anonymous said...

The hold up is annoying. New buildings often mean new services and the area by the Spice Factory is in need of services besides fast food and storage facilities. Empire Boulevard near there is a real drag and that Western Beef also needs a serious upgrade.

Alex said...

Anon, go ahead and send a thank you note to Alicia Boyd/MTOPP for the lack of progress on Empire :-)

She'll appreciate it!

Anonymous said...

re:" New buildings often mean new services and the area by the Spice Factory is in need of services besides fast food and storage facilities."


Services like what?


re:"that Western Beef also needs a serious upgrade"
There is a new market opening up on Lincoln Road by the Prospect Park station soon.

What's wrong with the supermarket on Franklin and Crown Street?

Camille from ANEW said...

We have a few new buildings here by the Associated on Nostrand and all we got were higher prices at Associated and empty ground level retail space. Big whoop!

Anonymous said...

https://nypost.com/2018/02/28/prices-are-skyrocketing-in-these-new-york-neighborhoods/