Our Future Environment

Our neighborhood of interest, Crown Heights, is bounded by Washington Avenue to the west, Atlantic Avenue to the north, Ralph Avenue to the east, and Clarkson Avenue to the south. Neighborhoods bounding Crown Heights are Prospect Heights to the west, Prospect Lefferts Gardens to the southwest, Wingate and Rugby to the South, Brownsville to the east and Bedford-Stuyvesant to the north. The west and southwest neighborhoods are middle to upper middle class but the other surrounding neighborhoods are similar to Crown Heights in respect to lower incomes. Crown Heights extends through much of Brooklyn Community Board 8 and 9. In this study, we will focus on a three square block section, census track 223 in Community Board 8, because it has a mix of rapidly gentrifying and abandoned buildings. Rising real estate values and gentrification have recently become part of the changing Crown Heights landscape (Zeltzer-Zubida, 2006).
Crime and demographic characteristics for Crown Heights has also undergone recent shifts. In 2007 the 77th precinct, which includes a significant part of Crown Heights, has experienced a year-to-date decline of 22% in the number of murders but felony assaults and burglaries have increased roughly 17%. Overall, crime in Crown Heights has decreased 37% since 2001 and 82% since 1990 (Comstat 2007). In Crown Heights, resident population is 96,076 with 78% residents reporting African-American descent (Census 2000). Percent of residents reporting African –American descent has decreased 7% since 1990 but residents reporting white/non-hispanic descent has increased 24% since 1990 (Census 2000). Our census track of interest, 223, has a population of 3,996 residents.

Filed under: environmental planning on April 3rd, 2008