In Fort Greene you can find from historic brownstones on leafy streets to the booming Brooklyn Cultural District.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.
1 There are not many green areas in Fort Greene.
2 There is a lot of variety as far as housing is concerned.
3 Fort Greene is a quiet neighbourhood.
4 You can watch concerts and sporting events in the Barclays Stadium.
5 The subway and the railroad are the only means of transport in the district.
6 Wealthier and working class communities used to live all together.
7 Fort Greene had a bad reputation in the 60s and 70s.
8 Spike Lee's film company was called 40 Acres and a Donkey.
9 You can buy a mansion in Fort Greene for less than $8m.
10 Atlantic Yards will produce more than 7,000 units of housing in the next eight years.
It's one of the more culturally and ethnically diverse neighborhoods.
The trees, the lushness.
The feeling on the street and the sense of community.
There's such a rich history, whether it goes all the way back to the abolitionist movement to culture, and just in general, to the arts. I mean, it is a really phenomenal neighborhood. And that's what's so unique about Fort Greene.
Living in Fort Greene is kind of magical. It has some of the most beautiful housing stock.
It's one of the older neighborhoods in Brooklyn. You're going to find a lot of brownstones, a lot of short housing.
Fort Greene Park is like this little jewel.
There's peace, there's quiet. You can go in the house, drop your things, walk your dog.
You have the Brooklyn Academy of Music. You have the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts.
You have the Barclays Center which brings in concerts and sports. These are things that people generally thought would just be a Manhattan luxury, and now they're not just a Brooklyn reality, but they're a Brooklyn reality in Fort Greene.
The transportation alternatives vary in Fort Greene. You have 10 to 12 subway lines. You have Long Island Railroad on the peripheral. If you go deeper in, it's challenging.
Growing up in Manhattan the way I did, this is an incredible shock to me that I'm so far away from the subway. But what I am learning is with my son's love of buses, that the buses aren't so bad.
From its earliest developments, Fort Greene had two kinds of communities settling. You had elites building elaborate houses south of the park, and you had working class people settling in the northern part of the neighborhood. For African-Americans, their history in Fort Greene extended from the earliest foundings. The first colored school as it was called, which gradually became part of the public school system attracted black professionals, teachers, and administrators who formed the core of the first black middle class and professional class of Fort Greene.
There were hotels. There were theaters. This was the heart of Brooklyn.
And the whole area fell on bad times as much of the city did in the late 60s and 70s.
In the early 80s one group that began moving in, in somewhat larger numbers was a growing black creative class. One of the most critical artists in this movement was Spike Lee. In 1986 he set up his film company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks. The reputation that Ford Greene earned as a place for black artists, attracted a second wave. Fort Greene was a place to be.
The spectrum of people in Fort Greene runs the gamut. Fort Greene is really a microcosm of the larger city. From a housing standpoint, we have the Fort Greene housing projects, and we have mansions that now can trade for upwards of $8 to $10 million dollars.
The real estate market here has become extremely competitive. There's just not enough real estate to go around.
Moving forward in Fort Greene, the Brooklyn cultural district starts with BAM at the center. And the large high-rise rental towers that are being built right now. To the south you have Atlantic Yards. Atlantic Yards is the largest development in all of Brooklyn, that over the next eight years will produce nearly 7,000 units of housing.
There hasn't been planning around schools, hospitals, parks. I mean, in any other part of the country, adding 45,000 people to a neighbourhood would be a new town, right?
One of the things that has always been unique about Fort Greene is the diversity of people and of classes. This is the challenge that I think Fort Greene is experiencing today. The future of Fort Greene depends on the ability of the neighbourhood to sustain working people in the neighborhood.
We all love it here. And you get that feeling whenever you talk to anyone who's been here for five years or fifty years, they're very committed and devoted to this neighborhood.
Key:
1F 2T 3T 4F (Blarclays Center) 5F (buses also) 6F 7T 8F 9F 10F
