Katelin Penner Land Use, People and Environment

Professor Blessing 03/28/24

Assignment 2: Land Use Survey

Background, Locational Description, and Transit

This survey observes the built environment in Brooklyn Block 3173 and Brooklyn Block

3174, both of which are in the western portion of Bushwick. Block 3173, the southernmost city

block in the survey area, is bounded by Central Avenue to the south, Jefferson Street to the west,

Troutman Street to the east, and Wilson Avenue to the north.1 Block 3174 is directly north of

Block 3173, as it is bounded to the south by Wilson Avenue, Jefferson Street to the west,

Troutman Street to the east, and Knickerbocker Avenue to the north.2 Jefferson Street is a

primarily residential street that serves one-way, northbound traffic. Troutman Street is a

primarily residential street that serves one-way, southbound traffic. Central Avenue is a primarily

residential avenue with some ancillary commercial and community facility uses that serves one-

way, east bound traffic. Wilson Avenue is a primarily residential avenue with some ancillary

commercial and community facility uses that serves two-way traffic to the west and the east.

Lastly, Knickerbocker Avenue is a major commercial corridor in Bushwick that also hosts some

residential uses. Knickerbocker Avenue serves one-way, west bound traffic.

Both Blocks are well served by reliable transit – the Myrtle-Broadway stop on the J/M/Z

train, the Morgan and Jefferson Avenue stops on the L train, and the Central Avenue stop on the

M train are within three quarters of a mile of the Blocks.3 Furthermore, the B60 Bus, which runs

between Williamsburg and Canarsie, stops in between Blocks 3173 and 3174 on Wilson Avenue.

1 “Property Information Portal,” New York City Department of Finance, accessed March 28, 2024,
[Link]
2 “Property Information Portal,” New York City Department of Finance, accessed March 28, 2024,
[Link]
3 Note: I used 3/4s of a mile instead of half of a mile here to account for the distance within the blocks themselves.
There are also bicycle lanes on Troutman Street, Knickerbocker Avenue, and Central Avenue,

though none of these lanes are protected.

History and Demographics

Bushwick is a rapidly changing neighborhood in North Brooklyn that was first stewarded

by the Canarsee Tribe, a subgroup of the Munsee-speaking Lenape tribe.4 Bushwick was unjustly

bought by Dutch settler-colonists in 1638, who named the region “Boswijck.”5 By the late 17th

century, these Dutch settler colonists subsequently incorporated Bushwick as one of the

4 Janine Ramirez, “What’s in a Name: Native Americans and Dutch Settlers Gave Brooklyn Landmarks Their
Names,” Spectrum News NY1, 2015, [Link]
a-name--native-americans-and-dutch-settlers-gave-brooklyn-landmarks-their-names?ref=[Link].
5 Ramirez, “What’s in a Name”, 2015.
“villages” in the city of Breukelen, the predecessor to the modern day borough of Brooklyn.6 In

the 1840s, German Americans had begun to move to Bushwick, and started breweries on

Bushwick Avenue, one of the neighborhood’s major thoroughfares.7 These breweries, many of

which now have historic significance, were a major source of economic stability in the area

throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries.8 Once the Prohibition era began, most of these

breweries were forced to close, and many immigrant residents of Bushwick lost their jobs. 9

However, at the time, North Brooklyn still had a strong industrial core, and many Sicilian, Puerto

Rican, and later, Dominican immigrants and migrants were able to find jobs in factories such as

the iron and stone industrial centers along Grand Street.10

In the middle of the 20th century, Bushwick’s economic security declined, as residents

dealt with several structural urban injustices, such as redlining, “planned shrinkage”, industrial

decline, white flight, and mass arson.11 By the early 1980s, Bushwick was almost exclusively a

poor, Latinx community, as the more affluent Italian immigrants of the early 20th century began

to flee the neighborhood en masse.12 However, over the last two decades, shifts in the real estate

market have created substantial displacement pressures in Bushwick.13After Mayor Michael

Bloomberg rezoned the neighborhoods of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, which are further north

in Brooklyn, in 2005, the impacts of gentrification in these northernmost neighborhoods in

6 Jeff Scherer, “The Six Towns That Became Brooklyn,” Brownstoner, July 18, 2015,
[Link]
7 Nicole P. Marwell, Bargaining for Brooklyn: Community Organizations in the Entrepreneurial City (Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press, 2007), 30-34.
8 Marwell, 31-32.
9 Marwell, 31.
10 Mario Hernandez, “‘We Are without God Now’: Benign Neglect and Planned Destruction of Brooklyn’s
Bushwick Neighborhood,” Journal of Urban History 49, no. 2 (February 4, 2023): 411–29,
[Link] 413.
11 Kim Phillips-Fein, Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics (New York, NY:
Picador, 2018), 228-229.
12 Marwell, 101-103.
13 Valli, Chiara. "A sense of displacement: Long‐time residents' feelings of displacement in gentrifying Bushwick,
New York." International Journal of Urban and regional research 39, no. 6 (2015): 1191-1193.
Brooklyn began to spread eastward in the decades that followed.14 These shifts have led to a

catastrophic rise in rents throughout the neighborhood; Bushwick had the highest average rent

increase out of any neighborhood in Brooklyn between 2013 and 2014.15

Bushwick’s changing demographics are well-captured by Census Tract data that includes

both Block 3173 and Block 3174. The population of these two Census Tracts, Brooklyn Census

Tract 425 and 427, is currently 55% Hispanic, 30% White, 5% Black, and 5% Asian, with the

remainder of the population identifying with two or more races.16 While these two census tracts

are still majority Hispanic, there was an 18% reduction in the Hispanic population between 2010

and 2020, showing the threat of displacement in the neighborhood.17 Furthermore, median

household incomes in both census tracts have nearly doubled between 2010 and 2020; in Census

Tract 425, the median household income skyrocketed from $30,025 to $79,550, while in Census

Tract 427, the median household income rose from $38,952 to $60,549.18

Built Environment and Streetscape

Blocks 3173 and 3174 share a similar built context, as both blocks are within primarily

residential areas of Bushwick. The built character of western Bushwick is two-to-four story

apartment buildings or two-family homes, most of which are built with brick, clapboard, and

concrete. Blocks 3173 and 3174 are predominantly characterized by three story walk-up

apartment buildings, a very common built form in areas with R6 zoning, which allows for a

14 Thomas Angotti and Sylvia Morse, Zoned out!: Race, Displacement, and City Planning in New York City (New
York, NY: New Village Press, 2023), 73-75.
15 Valli, “A Sense of Displacement”, 1198.
16 “NYC Planning Population Factfinder,” NYC Department of Planning | US Census Bureau, 2020,
[Link]
17 “NYC Planning Population Factfinder,” NYC Department of Planning | US Census Bureau, 2020,
[Link]
18 U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2020 and 2010 American Community Survey 1-Year
Estimates, Table S2503; generated by Katelin Penner; using [Link];
<[Link]
maximum FAR of 2.43.19 No building in either Block 3173 or Block 3174 was taller than four

stories, indicating that these buildings are likely compliant with the large R6 zoning district that

covers a majority of the neighborhood. However, it is challenging to know this for sure – since

R6 districts have relaxed limitations on building height, an in-depth measurement of the

building’s floor area ratio is typically necessary to formally determine building compliance. 20

On major commercial strips, such as Knickerbocker Avenue, mixed uses are permitted

through a C1-3 commercial overlay. This overlay allows for the mixture of commercial and

residential uses, enabling developers to construct a commercial FAR of up to 2.0.21 However, the

maximum overall FAR in these overlay districts is still governed by the residential district,

meaning that if a developer chose to build 2.0 FAR of commercial in the R6/C1-3 district on

19 New York City’s Zoning Resolution (New York, N.Y.: The Department of City Planning, 2024), §22-153.
20 New York City’s Zoning Resolution (New York, N.Y.: The Department of City Planning, 2024), §23-00.
21 New York City’s Zoning Resolution (New York, N.Y.: The Department of City Planning, 2024), §22-153.
Knickerbocker Avenue, they would only be able to build 0.43 FAR of residential space.22 As a

result, no building on Block 3174 has more than one story dedicated to commercial uses. Instead,

the predominant built form along Block 3174’s frontage on Knickerbocker Avenue is three-to-

four story apartment buildings where the first floor is dedicated to commercial use. Interestingly,

the only place in the survey where it seems that there are uses that are out of line with the zoning

code is along the frontage of Central Avenue, where there is no commercial overlay. Despite

this, on Central Avenue between Jefferson and Troutman Streets, there are mixed use buildings

where the ground floor is a bar and a bodega. Both uses, but especially the bar, do not seem

compliant with a mid-density residential district.

Blocks 3173 and 3174 both have pleasant streetscapes. In both the survey area and its

surrounding blocks, there is a very unified street wall, with only a small number of buildings

utilizing either setbacks or side yards. However, the building typologies are diverse in both

Blocks 3173 and 3174, as newer architecture often is directly next door to an older brick
22 New York City’s Zoning Resolution (New York, N.Y.: The Department of City Planning, 2024), §35-22.
building. As a result, the street wall feels somewhat unified, yet still varied enough to be

interesting for pedestrians. Furthermore, in both Blocks 3173 and 3174, the facades on the

buildings vary substantially, particularly because not all the buildings are the same height. This

creates more visual variance that is interesting for pedestrians and encourages people to take

their time when strolling down the block. However, the streetscape in this area of Bushwick

could be made more pleasant by adding additional street trees, something the neighborhood has

lacked for a long time now. Street trees would not only help with improving the aesthetic quality

of the streetscape – they also have the potential to keep a neighborhood like Bushwick, where

park space is somewhat minimal, cooler throughout the summer.

Jefferson Street between Wilson and Central Avenues

 Central Avenue Between Jefferson and Troutman Streets

Conclusion

Blocks 3173 and 3174 are representative of the patterns of the built environment in much of

Western Bushwick. Two-to-four story apartment buildings are the dominant mode of housing in

residential districts, while ground floor retail topped by two to three stories of residential square

footage is common in areas like Knickerbocker Avenue, where there is a commercial overlay.

While walking in the area is pleasant, due to the blocks’ accessible streetscape, the planting of

more street trees could further improve the pedestrian experience.

 Works Cited

Angotti, Thomas, and Sylvia Morse. Zoned out!: Race, displacement, and City Planning in New
York City. New York, NY: New village press, 2023.

Hernandez, Mario. “‘We Are without God Now’: Benign Neglect and Planned Destruction of
Brooklyn’s Bushwick Neighborhood.” Journal of Urban History 49, no. 2 (February 4,
2023): 411–29. [Link]

Marwell, Nicole P. Bargaining for Brooklyn: Community organizations in the entrepreneurial

city. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

“New York City’s Zoning and Land Use Map (ZOLA).” New York Department of City
Planning. Accessed March 28, 2024. [Link]

New York City’s Zoning Resolution. New York, N.Y.: The Department of City Planning, 2024.

“NYC Planning Population Factfinder.” NYC Department of Planning | US Census Bureau,

2020. [Link]

Phillips-Fein, Kim. Fear city: New York’s fiscal crisis and the rise of austerity politics. New
York, NY: St Martins Press, 2018.

“Property Information Portal.” New York City Department of Finance. Accessed March 28,
2024. [Link]

Ramirez, Janine. “What’s in a Name: Native Americans and Dutch Settlers Gave Brooklyn
Landmarks Their Names.” Spectrum News NY1, 2015.
[Link]
native-americans-and-dutch-settlers-gave-brooklyn-landmarks-their-names?
ref=[Link].

Scherer, Jeff. “The Six Towns That Became Brooklyn.” Brownstoner, July 18, 2015.
[Link]