East Flatbush corners the parasite apartment building market

New York Gentrification Watch

 I live in East Flatbush and every once in awhile, I’ll take a bike ride out to the Flatbush-Nostrand Avenue Junction. Bike rides can run the gamut from exhilarating to boring. In the case of these trips out to the Junction, they’re usually a delight. The reason? Much has been made of so-called 

“Victorian Flatbush” but on the other side of Flatbush Avenue is “Suburban” East Flatbush, for lack of a better term. Here, you’ll find an eclectic mix of wood-frame and brick houses running the gamut from Queen Anne and Mediterranean to Italianiate and colonial. They’re by no means as impressive as the sprawling houses in Victorian Flatbush but every so often you’ll come across a house full of character.
 
On my previous bike trips through this area, I always made a mental note to grab my camera and do a photo tour of the houses there on a nice summer day. However, things being what they were, I never did and this mental note started turning into a kind of running joke, like something out of a sitcom. I’d hit the bike, sigh wistfully as I rode past the houses, then tell myself once again to make sure and take a photo tour in the future.
 
Well, in January 2020, the joke finally turned sour. Why? Because instead of seeing the usual mix of quaint brick and wood-frame houses, I saw this on New York Avenue:


 

As you can see in the above photos, parasitic development has made further inroads into East Flatbush. Thanks to predatory real estate home buyers, one of a kind wood-frame and brick houses are being destroyed to make way for ugly modernist apartment buildings that will only be affordable to those who can’t afford Manhattan. And, true to parasitic development, the new buildings are being placed and designed in such a way as to both irrevocably change the character of the area, as well as infuriate neighboring home owners into selling out.

The Chutulu Tower of East Flatbush

NYC Gentrification Watch

Last summer when I rode down Linden Boulevard, I was shocked the see the usually quiet, tree-lined street of wood-frame houses, row houses and 1920s apartment buildings had become one gigantic construction site. Literally dozens of men in hard hats and yellow vests were walking every which way, and cement trucks and materials lined the street on either side. As I explored further, to my shock and dismay, I saw several of Linden Boulevard’s signature low rise town and wood frame houses getting replaced with fugly generic modernist boxes. But just when things couldn’t have gotten worse, I encountered this huge, sprawling hulking monstrosity, right off Rogers Avenue:

The date? July 22, 2018.

The thing was so huge, so massive, I almost passed out. I couldn’t believe it. It took up of what looked like the place of three large apartment buildings, and could’ve have been more out of scale. But a hopeful part of my brain tried to see a silver lining in what looked like a very dark cloud. I thought, 

“Well, this is bad, but at least it’s not overshooting the local area buildings too much. What’s it gonna be? Ten, twelve stories? That’s bad, but it could be worse.”

Fast forward almost a year later, and this…thing…has topped out at 27 stories. It is so huge that the once open skies of East Flatbush and other surrounding areas have been forever blotted. As of June 2019, it is now visible from at least a 3 mile radius in every direction.

 Seeing this thing in photographs, it’s very hard to gauge just how obscenely large, out of context and out of scale it is. But trust me–this thing is so huge, so obnoxious that it is the biggest F*** YOU by developers I have ever seen since the proposed development for Two Bridges

She's not kidding. I went there myself and it's literally a hideous daylight devouring monster certain to cause displacement of the residents of those rowhouses and the neighboring apt. buildings and homes down the boulevard.

Also like to add that it's also the derelict mayor de Blasio's biggest fuck you to the people he swore to help in the still developing "tale of two cities" (pun intended).

Check out those precarious balconies too.

"Summer All Out" campaign will target high crime areas

From the Daily News:

Hundreds of cops will flood city streets beginning Monday as part of an aggressive NYPD initiative called “Summer All Out” to stanch the rise in murders and shootings.

More than 330 new police officers will take to some of the city’s grittiest blocks and precincts in an effort to bring this year’s homicide statistics back in line with last year’s historic lows.

The officers taking part in the crimefighting program will be assigned to work peak crime shifts — 4 p.m. to midnight and midnight to 8 a.m. — in areas like the 75th Precinct in East New York, Brooklyn (11 homicides through May 31), the 67th Precinct in East Flatbush, Brooklyn (seven homicides), and the 113th Precinct in St. Albans and Hollis, Queens (seven homicides).

They will also concentrate on public housing developments with the highest crimes rates.