Every time we pass through Wallabout, the neighborhood down by the Brooklyn Navy Yard, we wonder when developers are going to start renovating some of the old buildings or putting up new ones. Last week, of course, the city announced a new mostly affordable housing development on the old Navy Brig site. The new Real Deal has an interesting article by Gabby Warshawer about Wallabout that suggest that it could be the next Dumbo. It even quotes Jed Walentas drawing some parallels between the two neighborhoods. Ms. Warshawer writes:
…the district near Brooklyn’s Navy Yard is poised to steal some of the luster of its well-heeled neighbor to the west.
Wallabout — which encompasses a mile-long stretch north of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill between Flushing and Park avenues near the Navy Yard — is the borough’s latest enclave set to undergo a gritty-to-glam story of urban revival. Several small- to medium-sized trendy retailers have set up shop in the neighborhood within the past few years, bringing increased foot traffic to a stretch of blocks still dominated by warehouses.
The story covers a lot of ground and is absolutely worth a read.
[Photo courtesy Lesterhead/flickr]
4 responses so far ↓
1 Lesterhead // May 2, 2007 at 7:39 am
I LOVE Wallabout! Problem there is the train situation (read: the lack of one).
2 SunnyReiser // May 2, 2007 at 7:21 pm
I live at the end of Clermont, right before Flushing Ave. and the Navy Yard, directly across the street from the former Brig site.
To be honest with you, the train access is not all that bad. I’m 6 3/4 blocks from the Clinton/Washington stop on the G, and it’s about a 10-15 min. walk on foot, all downhill, of course. I can also catch the B57 right outside my front door and be on the A/F/4/5/2/3 downtown in 15 mins. if the traffic is right, and access to the Q and Manhattan one stop away is maybe 20 mins. on foot at DeKalb Ave.
My ex- lives on E. 80th bet. 1st & York on the UES, and uses the 6 daily to commute to work, via 77th St., or the 4/5 @ 86th, and my walk is no farther than hers or her neighbors, and no one on the UES complains about the distance of their daily train walk.
Really, the biggest enemy is the stiff breeze off the river that is usually in your face in the colder months on your way home. Not bad at all.
What Wallabout will need, eventually, is a more full service grocery store someplace along Flushing Ave., once the Brig site residents and others start coming to the nabe in serious numbers. The Associated on Myrtle just does not cut it for any serious population, and the Pathmark at Atlantic Ave. is too far away.
my .02…
3 SunnyReiser // May 2, 2007 at 7:22 pm
I live at the end of Clermont, right before Flushing Ave. and the Navy Yard, directly across the street from the former Brig site.
To be honest with you, the train access is not all that bad. I’m 6 3/4 blocks from the Clinton/Washington stop on the G, and it’s about a 10-15 min. walk on foot, all downhill, of course. I can also catch the B57 right outside my front door and be on the A/F/4/5/2/3 downtown in 15 mins. if the traffic is right, and access to the Q and Manhattan one stop away is maybe 20 mins. on foot at DeKalb Ave.
My ex- lives on E. 80th bet. 1st & York on the UES, and uses the 6 daily to commute to work, via 77th St., or the 4/5 @ 86th, and my walk is no farther than hers or her neighbors, and no one on the UES complains about the distance of their daily train walk.
Really, the biggest enemy is the stiff breeze off the river that is usually in your face in the colder months on your way home. Not bad at all.
What Wallabout will need, eventually, is a more full service grocery store someplace along Flushing Ave., once the Brig site residents and others start coming to the nabe in serious numbers. The Associated on Myrtle just does not cut it for any serious population, and the Pathmark at Atlantic Ave. is too far away.
my .02…
4 Anonymous // May 17, 2007 at 10:39 am
I think Wallabout extends to Myrtle Ave, not Park.
Reasoning: new R5B zoning proposal to preserve the pre civil war housing there and that this area is not included in the Clinton Hill Historic Distric restructure.
“The proposed Wallabout Historic District is bounded roughly by Carlton Avenue on the west, Classon Avenue on the east, Myrtle Avenue on the south and Flushing Avenue on the north, which abuts the Brooklyn Navy Yard.”