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August 10, 2012
Black-owned Businesses, Which Helped Fulton Street Survive, Fall Victim to its Revival
The Brooklyn Ink
by Shayna Estulin
Although there was widespread public and private disinvestment from Fort Greene in the 1980’s and early 1990’s, Sutton said that black entrepreneurs saw the potential to change a black ghetto into an enclave of business and culture that would attract customers who wanted to patronize black establishments.
Those businesses– clothing shops, bistros, and art stores– gave Fort Greene its unique character, bolstering real estate values, bringing in tourists and new residents and eventually attracting outside developers and businesses. In 2000, the city announced a multi-million dollar cultural redistricting around the neighboring Brooklyn Academy of Music. Six years later, the Atlantic Yards project – including luxury housing, high-end retail and arena for the Nets basketball team — broke ground.
Since then, rents have risen exponentially. Small storefronts along Fulton Street that were being leased for only $2,000 or $3,000 a few years ago now go for $6,000 to $8,000.
NoLandGrab: Surely that exponential increase in rents has nothing to do with Bruce Ratner's giant gentrification machine.
Posted by eric at August 10, 2012 12:31 PM