Coney Island Avenue Planning Study: Existing and Emerging Conditions

Presentation script/talking points for PowerPoint presentation

March 2010

Slide 1

(Opening slide)

Slide 2

(Acknowledgements)

Slide 3

Geographic context: CIA surrounded by various neighborhoods.The study area for this planning study: both the Pratt Institute graduate planning studio class and this planning study will consider CIA from Parkside to Cortelyou. Wedidn’t want to bite off more than we could chew for this initial phase. There ispotential for future studies to look at CIA further south.

Slide 4

Historic themes that help us understand how the avenue has evolved over the yearsand still have a lot of relevance today:1)

Thoroughfare

One of the borough’s first roads: Native Americans used it as afoot path. First developed as a toll plank road then as the horse-drawn Coney Islandand Brooklyn Railroad (formed in 1862 and went electric in 1890). It served as animportant way to get to the beach. Its unusual width (70 feet from curb to curb) islikely due to its history as a railway and a road. In 1910 the streetcar tracks weremoved to the street’s center, allowing for traffic on both sides.2)

Service Road

As Flatbush transitioned from farmlands into residential suburbs in the late 1800’s, CIA changed from just being a good route to the beach into acommuter route serving suburban Flatbush. Moreover, it also developed into ashopping area to meet the needs of the growing residential communities thatsurrounded it.3)

Border

In the late 1800’s, the development of strong residential neighborhoods took place – many of them with goals of exclusivity by creating both physically andsocially insular neighborhoods. For example, neighborhoods like Prospect Park

2South were deliberately designed to create a quasi-rural atmosphere that shut outsurrounding busy city streets. This helped contribute to the corridor’s role as aborder between different distinct communities.4)

Home

While residential communities have flanked CIA for a long time, only in thelast 40-odd years have rapidly growing immigrant communities started to claim it as their space. One of the best examples of this is the annual Pakistan Day parade that takes place on the avenue (although it occurs to the south of the study area for thisplanning study).

Slide 5

Planning students engaged in “observational mapping,” whereby they took note of the locations of where there were concentrations of noise, pedestrian activity,commercial activity.This map shows the location of some of their observations (light mustard = low levelof activity, rust color = high activity levels):1) Uneven nature of where there is concentration of activity, both from North to Southalong the avenue and from one side of the street to the other.2) Domination of cars, with some pedestrian activity, especially towards Cortelyou.3) Busy zones to the north and south of study area.

Slide 6

Various “districts” that flank CIA which have similar qualities by the built form and their use:

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Urban residential (aqua)

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Suburban residential (yellow)

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Service retail (pink)

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Convenience retail (purple)

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Park-recreation (green)Smooth (blue diagonals) vs. harsh transitions (black diagonals)

Slide 7

Starting with population density, we’ll take a look where there are concentrations of people surrounding the CIA corridor.

(Explain that numbers on screen are per squaremile, but this tells us which Census tracts have more density than the Community District as a whole, and which have less.)

Obviously, the density of people is related to the built form, so we shouldn’t besurprised to find that the Western side of the avenue is denser than the Eastern sidewith all its single-family homes in Victorian Flatbush that are just south of the CatonPark area with its larger apartment buildings.

3There are significant areas of population density that flank CIA, including parts of Kensington and Parkville (aka Little Pakistan) and the Caton Park area. These areasare denser in population than the average population density of Manhattan.The takeaway here is that there might be an untapped market of nearby shopperswhich could be an opportunity for CIA to have a stronger identity as a commercialcorridor that serves the surrounding communities.

Slide 8

The most dense tract is one of lowest income tracts in area; the least dense tract ishighest income.

Map shows us that the Census tract that contains Victorian Flatbush has the highestmedian household income in the area, at around $50,000 in the 2000 Census.There have been some notable increases in income since 1990, largely due to newhouseholds moving in, many of whom came from higher-rent neighborhoods to theNorth. The biggest increases were in Kensington (Census tract 504) and whereVictorian Flatbush turns into Ditmas Park (Census tract 526). Household incomewent up in these neighborhoods by 30% and 38%, respectively.Demographic data since 2000 points to similar trends for the larger areas of Community District 12 (West side of CIA) and Community District 14 (East side of CIA)which had increases in income of 35% and 28%, respectively. (This mirrors trends inBrooklyn and the City overall.)

Slide 9

Although it’s been a decade since the decennial Census was done and therefore wedon’t have recent demographic information available for the various neighborhoods that flank the avenue, we are still able to document some trends since 2000 for the two community districts that flank CIA:

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Post-9/11 immigration crackdown caused a significant reduction in the Pakistaniand South Asian communities after this group grew in the decade between 1990and 2000.

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Decrease in the black population – went down by 20% in Community District 12and by 13% in CD 14. Some factors to explain this include middle-class blackhouseholds leaving for Queens and the suburbs and rent pressures causing theirdisplacement