Brooklyn Photo Blogging

posted by The Vidiot @ 1:54 PM Permalink

Here is an example of what I like to call Bizarro Infill Development. Infill, as you might recall, was coined by Jane Jacobs and it means to take vacant lots and develop them in a way that increases the availability of affordable housing in a neighborhood. It's a sane alternative to developing outside of a city, which would create urban sprawl and whatnot.

Anyway, in the above picture, you see Bizarro Infill. Here, a yuppie has put a thriving deli out of business (it used to be the ground floor), displaced at least one tenant and is probably (though I'm only guessing) terribly inconveniencing the remaining tenants while at the same time internally redistributing the floor space to create an extra large duplex with parking by raising the ceilings in the basement. (Basements in these buildings are usually not more than 6 or 6.5 feet) The end result is less available housing and less neighborhood-friendly business in exchange for an increase in yuppie breeding space.

I wish I had a before picture so you can see just how very different it is. This is like a mini-mcmansion with two rental units plopped on top of it.

To make matters worse, this little project of theirs is taking forever. It's been going on for what seems like 6 months or so. And the inside is still a mess. Every now and then I see a woman drive up, talk to the workers, not look very happy and then climb back into her white SUV.

My prediction: they'll run out of money and/or run into issues with the buildings department and it will remain in an unfinished state forever.