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Nondo Waterfront: Many Brooklyn Construction Projects Stalled
By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 6, 2009
Modified Jul 6, 2009
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 6, 2009
Modified Jul 6, 2009
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Back in 2005, Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council rezoned a large swath of Williamsburg and Greenpoint to spark a boom in residential construction, and developers immediately raced in to begin work on luxury high rises. Then the economy curled up into a fetal position, and north Brooklyn is now littered with half-finished development. A team of building inspectors have found 143 stalled construction sites around the city, with the highest concentration in Brooklyn, which boasts a total 63 vacant lots and rusting steel building frames—18 in Williamsburg alone. Residents are increasingly outraged about the degentrication, which is attracting squatters and creating a fin de siècle atmosphere of urban blight. Philip DePaolo, who moved from The Bronx to Williamsburg in 1979, tells the Post his adopted neighborhood now reminds him of his old neighborhood: "It looks like I never left." And it's true—the artisanal cheese, the American Apparel, the burning buildings; life on the mean streets of Williamsburg these days makes the '70s-era Bronx seem like Greenwich, CT.
Tagged
brooklyn
condo
construction
greenpoint
stalled
williamsburg
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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