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A dozen years ago, an impressive coalition of City officials and business leaders launched a re-development plan for Downtown Brooklyn. By 1975, implementation had progressed enough that Ada Louise Huxtable could write in The New York Times of “the blooming of Downtown Brooklyn,” with “enough visible accomplishment in terms of design, development and the creation and reinforcement of community and amenity for a dozen other cities.”

The City’s financial crisis and the nation’s recessions slowed the progress, however, and the resurgence of the City economy after 1977 did not spread outside Manhattan. So a new team of City officials and Brooklyn business leaders asked Regional Plan Association to review Downtown Brooklyn’s prospects once again. The project was initiated by Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden and sponsored by the Downtown Brooklyn Development Association, with financing from the City’s Office of Economic Development, 18 business organizations and Regional Plan Association.

Regional Plan Association undertook this project in support of its overall plan for the tri-state New York Urban Region. Four regional planning principles are at stake:

keeping activities in downtowns, to support public transit and, with it, the mobility of those who cannot drive;
keeping places where all races and income groups gather, where opportunities are within reach of all;
preserving and using existing investment; keeping development compact, which saves energy, air and water quality and open land.
keeping development compact, which saves energy, air and water quality and open land.

In this new review, Regional Plan arrived at much the same conclusions as the 1969 Brooklyn plan. The main issue is not what to build, but how to attract the investment. This report recommends a number of implementation steps and a process to mobilize the whole Brooklyn community in support of a new wave of Downtown vitality and growth.

John P. Keith
President, Regional Plan Association