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How to spend $20M in East Williamsburg? A discussion begins.
By
Willow Higgins
Published Nov 3, 2026 at 6:30 a.m. ET
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Willow Higgins/Gothamist
By
Willow Higgins
Published Nov 3, 2026 at 6:30 a.m. ET
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The East Williamsburg section of Brooklyn is wrestling with an enviable question: How to spend a $20 million grant from Albany?
Last summer, the neighborhood won the money through the governor’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative, which funds capital projects to spur economic development in commercial corridors.
Community members and organizations have been asked to submit project proposals to help decide how the money is spent. Applications close on Wednesday. Those close to the initiative say it’s a tricky question in a community with so many divergent needs.
The neighborhood has become a destination for wealthy families looking to raise their children, and young people seeking a version of the cool, creative Williamsburg that its namesake to the west once was. East Williamsburg is also home to generations of residents who have managed to stay, mostly in rent-regulated and tenant-protected sites.
City leaders in charge of allocating the grant funding are trying to identify projects that will serve the entire community, not just those who patron the new fancy restaurants and night clubs.
“Navigating the demands of the neighborhood … is really challenging,” said Francesca Fernandez Bruce, the president of the Grand Street Business Improvement District and leader on the project. “It’s a hard line to walk in terms of balancing and making sure that everything is inclusive.”
A residential block in East Williamsburg
Willow Higgins/Gothamist
Bruce said neglected infrastructure and aging public spaces are a concern, especially when residents can shop online instead. Low foot traffic was the paramount issue merchants said they were concerned about in a neighborhood needs assessment published this spring.
“East Williamsburg is a really great example of a community that has in many ways been underserved for a really long time, both from a design and a financial perspective,” Bruce said.
Tree canopy and open green space in the neighborhood is some of the smallest in the city, according to a report published alongside the request for proposals. Summers are desolate, she said, and winters are dark.
This "Bushwick" mural is in the heart of what Google Maps calls East Williamsburg.
Willow Higgins/Gothamist
“ At 4 p.m. in the wintertime you can't really walk down [the street] because cause there's no sidewalk lighting,” Bruce said. “People don't feel safe to go shopping, and that hurts our mom and pops.”
But, she said, a few simple fixes could make a big difference.
Theresa Middleton, now 53, said she agrees.
Middletown said she has lived in the same apartment in East Williamsburg since she was a child. The rent stabilized unit was passed down by her parents.
She said it’s the only reason she can still afford to live in the neighborhood.
Martinez playground, next to a school complex, is one of few in the neighborhood.
Willow Higgins/Gothamist
“I wouldn't be able to pay it, between light, gas,” Middleton said. “It's hard nowadays, especially with the cost of everything, trying to make ends meet.”
With all the new wealth in the neighborhood, she said she’s surprised that there’s not more open places for people to just hang out. She hopes the new grant funding can change that.
“It’s peaceful,” she said. “It's a good place to raise a family. There is a future there. There really is.”
A neighborhood identity crisis
The neighborhood’s own name makes some New Yorkers scratch their heads.
Alberto Valentin, who leads the Graham Street BID, told Gothamist that local lore is that East Williamsburg’s name was popularized by developers trying to take advantage of Williamsburg’s brand – which, before it became one of the most costly places to live in the city, was a hot spot for artists and hipsters.
Cooper Park in East Williamsburg, where a milk crate and wooden box doubles as a community donation space.
Willow Higgins/Gothamist
If it’s true, the developer’s trick worked. More than a decade later, the neighborhood has clearly gone through what Valentin calls the “g-word” – otherwise known as gentrification.
Bistros with no available reservations in sight, wine bars and luxury towers are now plentiful. The average one-bedroom apartment in the neighborhood, according to Rent Hop, an apartment rental website, is about $4,700 a month.
Farther east, the area is industrial, where warehouse clubs, some cramming in thousands of sweaty bodies at a time, are peppered among powerplants and manufacturing facilities.
Leah Archibald, the executive director of Evergreen Exchange, a nonprofit that represents the industrial and manufacturing community, said that “all the cool stuff migrated east,” after “Williamsburg proper” became home to luxury chains like Chanel and Hermès.
But, East Williamsburg, too, has become whiter, more affluent and more expensive to live, according to data published along with Downtown Revitalization Initiative’s request for proposals.
As of 2024, the number of non-white residents of East Williamsburg have declined since 2010, according to the report. The neighborhood's median household income rose 50% over the same period, to more than $82,000 — higher than the average for Brooklynites.
But there are still pockets of people living in poverty, said Antonio Reynoso, the Brooklyn borough president, and gentrification may have already maximized their displacement.
There are about six public housing developments in the same general area, he said, and “no one from those housing developments is going anywhere.”
The key, he said, will be to make the area inhabitable for the different demographics who now call the neighborhood home.
“ People assume that because of the gentrification, that there are no more poor people,” Reynoso said.
East Williamsburg, Reynoso said, is now lined with fancy bars and restaurants for what he calls “ a very specific demographic that has a lot of expendable cash.”
But the thousands who live in public housing or tenant protected units don’t necessarily benefit from that kind of development, he said.
The changes, Reynoso said, “are not supporting the longer term residents in the neighborhood.”
He said he hopes an influx in money for neighborhood improvements will change the script.
“ We feel like we can build an environment that is both fruitful and economically prosperous, while not forgetting that we have a large population of poor people that still need services as well,” Reynoso said.
The $20 million question
So how’s the money going to be spent?
“That’s the $20 million question,” Bruce said. The wish list for potential neighborhood improvements to East Williamsburg is long.
The planning committee Downtown Revitalization Initiative will ultimately decide from the project proposals that community members have thrown in the ring – and a consultant will help tweak the projects to make sure they are feasible.
Bruce and Reynoso said they’re particularly interested in projects that improve public space: efforts like adding more green space and better lighting, outdoor dining areas, turning cul de sacs into small parks, and sprucing up the existing parks with more trees, better benches, dog runs and lending libraries.
Only so much can be done with the money, Reynoso said, but he said he hopes the grant will open the floodgates for additional investment.
“ I expect the city to be big-time partners with us for this,” Reynoso said. “ I expect that at least $40 million to come down on this project once it's all said and done.”
As for Middleton, she said that the hopes from longstanding community members are simple.
“People just want to live decent and comfortable,” Middleton said. “They don't want that stress … Should I pay my rent, my light, or put food on the table for my children? They just want to be in peace and live. That's, that's all we hear.”
Tagged
Politics
Race And Justice Unit
brooklyn
east willaimsburg
economy
Willow Higgins
Willow Higgins covers changes in New York City neighborhoods for WNYC and Gothamist. She has previously reported on wrongful convictions, corruption in district attorney offices and Texas' child welfare system.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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