say no to less

We are requesting backup from the community:

• Attend and speak during public comment periods at Community Board General Meetings and Community Board Committee Meetings. (virtual & in person) , (e.g. Housing / Land Use / Transportation committees).
• Form a Block Association.
• Join the Land Use or Housing Committee of Community Board 9 or
• Tell a friend or neighbor
  

• Spread the word to your neighbors and local businesses & join us on weekly neighborhood calls see here for more details
  

• 11/20 - Join CB9 General Board Meeting

• 11/30 - PUBLIC HEARING for Kingsboro Psychiatric Center Mixed-Use Project (This is a part of Vital Brooklyn the largest stand alone projects).
  
• See this page for details
  
• Share your concerns live and send written comments now through January 8th

Registration Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/hWN_AMBmov3PTtC41EnQUuBQLg

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

• Community Board action
  

• Government Investigations & Studies
  

• Community Engagement
  

• Stronger Tighter Neighborhood
  

• "Home Rule" (Local district makes its own decisions)
  

#1 Concern from residents as of 10/23

Quotes from Impacted Residents

“I fear for the safety of my children who walk to school if the homeless/mentally disabled move into the neighborhood and aren't accepting of treatment or stay in their homes.”

The overall concern is the potential lack of background checks to be conducted for residents. In addition, many of these projects are near schools. There has already been one incident involving a child. School staff members are very concerned for their own safety as well. “

“We are currently inundated with shelters in our community, with an increase in shelters there has been an increase of crime in our community, human feces behind my back yard, property being stolen from my porch, theft from cars and a decrease in public safety. Our children should be able to walk home from school without fear of being accosted by emotionally disturbed individuals. The elderly should be able to enjoy walks with no fear of being robbed.

“When a homeowner or a tenant moves into any neighborhood, these are the key concerns that they will consider upon moving. Yet we are not being given an opportunity to consider these things prior to moving into a neighborhood, because we are already here, and the city and state governments are forcing these problems upon despite our objections. Further, I guarantee you that none of these elected officials or developers that are implementing these projects have these projects in their own neighborhoods.

“I understand people need housing but at what cost to my daughters safety? I also would hate to see our neighborhood messy and dirty if it becomes overly populated.

“No infrastructure support for 13 buildings! Electricity, sewer, plumbing will be overcrowded and destroy the area. Crime and homeless wiill plummet home values

“With all that is happening if new buildings go up and lack of infrastructure and the occasional sewer backup will just continue to get worse because the sewer is very overworked and everytime it rains my basement floods if we have more buildings go up the infrastructure will get only worse. Parking will get harder. The increase in crime is causing safety issues and the amount of people squating on properties and just laying around is getting out of hand.

“Me and my family do not feel safe, the discharge of the homeless and mental health issues are worrisome. Parking is a very serious issue with more dwellings added to our community, I think we will be severely depressed. There are other infrastructure issues, such as water and the appropriate run off to prevent flooding of streets and homes due to clustering of dwellings”

“The men's shelter and half way houses being filtered into our community is negatively affecting our quality if life. Stealing our personal property, breaking our cars, robberies with violence as well.”

“An over saturation of homeless and mentally ill makes for an unsafe, dirty, and drags property value down. The lack of care and ownership in the well being of the neighborhood and the residents is apparent by local agencies we deserve better.

“While I have many concerns safety is my number one as this area has many religious Jews, many seniors and children. For mentally unstable people this is a very bad mix.”

I have seen the increase of incidents/ accidents, moore garbage in the neighborhood rise and less police patrol . “

These quotes are from people who currently live around these projects...it’s simply too much for one neighborhood to take on.

Housing is needed in New York City, but is the rate of supportive housing in one specific portion of a neighborhood good for current residents as well as proposed new tenants???

This isn’t the right location for such a project. We live here, we know! W

We all want to ensure everyone has a safe place to lay their heads, but our concern is driven off of the oversaturation of certain projects in one neighborhood.

Our concerns are driven off of the lack of care for the wellbeing of the residents who live here.

These developments will impact our wellbeing to include but not limited to safety, parking, traffic, lack of public transportation to support the drastic increase in population.

We’ve already seen significant impacts since Covid and have huge concerns for what this could do if it moves forward.

non Vital brooklyn

Vital Brooklyn and other affordable housing developments in East Flatbush are a trojan horse for homeless dumping and overdevelopment without appropriate onsite parking.

The Vital Brooklyn "hurricane" will make landfall at Clarkson & New York Ave and travel eastward on its path of social service oversaturation.

The supportive housing population of 868 will spiral up 843 units to a sky high number of 1711 units.

The parking tsunami of 1313 non-supportive affordable housing units with only 57 onsite parking spots will spill over and flood nearby streets. The two supermarkets and addition of commercial feet will make Brooklyn feel like Manhattan.

Families are left out with only about 5% of the new housing units being 3 BR apartments. A disproportionately high amount of new housing units (close to 50%) are being built for social services (formerly homeless, homeless, supportive housing). Kingsboro West, the largest new development of 1090 units, still has yet to disclose bedroom size counts. This is not Fair Housing for All. It's Housing for Special Interests who receive massive government subsidies to segregate the disabled on Clarkson Ave.

The big winners of Vital Brooklyn are the two local social service providers, CAMBA and Breaking Ground, who will expand their existing real estate portfolios on Clarkson Ave.

The losers are those who leave the neighborhood because there's no parking spots, too many panhandlers, not enough 3 BR apts for families and not enough jobs to replace the ones that were replaced by "affordable housing". You will see CEO's with shovels in photo-ops, lots of young bright eyed Ivy league volunteers who want to help save the world, elected officials complimenting each other, but at the end of the day, none of who are in favor of Vital Brooklyn projects would volunteer their own neighborhoods for the kind of homeless dumping, parking problems and overcrowding that will be coming to Clarkson Ave and the Kingsbrook vicinity.

SUMMARY OF NEW PROJECTS

Formerly Homeless and or Supportive Housing Units / Total(Percentage )

Kingsboro - 681 Clarkson Ave. - 427 / 1090 (39%)

Kingsboro with Shelter Beds (Assuming 1 Bed = 1 Unit)

681 Clarkson 791 / 1454 (54%)

427 units + 364 shelter beds

Utica Crescent - 832 Rutland Rd 89 / 322 (27%)

Kingsbrook Estates - 832 Rutland 133 / 266 (50%)

777 Rutland Rd 30 / 182 (16%)

(Not a Vital Brooklyn Project)

Clarkson Estates - 329 Clarkson Ave 164 / 328 (50%)

----------------------------------------------------------------

Total New Units 843

(Excludes Shelter Bed Rebuld )​

Total Old Units 868

----------------------------------------------------------------

Total New & Old Units 1711

The Developments

01

Kingsboro West - New - Proposed

681 Clarkson Ave - 15 stories

(Albany & Clarkson)

NEW

02

Utica Crescent - New - Proposed

832 Rutland Av - 12 Stories

(Rutland & Utica)

NEW

03

777 Rutland Rd - 12 Stories

(Rutland & Schenectady)

NEW

The Developments

04

05

06

Clarkson Estates - New - Proposed

329 Clarkson Ave - 9 stories

(Clarkson Ave between New York & Nostrand)

NEW

KIngsbrook Estates - New - Proposed

Just West of 832 Rutland Rd

(Kingsbrook Jewish)

(Rutland & Schenectady)

NEW

7Utica Hotel Ccs - New - Proposed

599 Utica Ave

(Utica & Winthrop - Across from Dunkin Donuts)

NEW

The Developments

07

CAMBA Gardens I

690 & 738 Albany Av

(SW Corner of Albany & Clarkson)

( Across the street from 681 Clarkson Kingsboro West)

EXISTING

08

KCAMBA Gardens II

560 Winthrop St

(SE Corner of Albany & Winthrop)

(Across the street from 681 Clarkson - Kingsboro)

EXISITING

09

7Kingsboro & Salvation Army Shelters

681 Clarkson Ave

(NE Corner of Albany & Clarkson )

(SE Corner of Albany & Winthrop)

( Across the street from CAMBA Gardens I & II )

EXISTING

The Developments

10

11

Breaking Ground East Haven Safe Haven

781 Clarkson Ave

(Clarkson Av, Between E 48th & E 49th)

EXISTING

The Bridge Maple Street Residence

918 East New York Ave

(close to Utica Av)

EXISTING

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

CB9 Calendar

Join Community Board Conversations

CB9 Past Meetings - YouTube

Review Past Meetings

71st Precinct

Meetings: Community Council meetings typically take place on the third Thursday of each month at 7:30 PM at IS Middle School 61.

New-Development #1

New-Development #2

New-Development #3

777 Rutland Rd - 12 Stories

(Rutland & Schenectady)

ULURP Upzoning Request from R6 to R7X Zoning and Removing Deed Restriction

(Brooklyn Community Board 9 will give advisory opinion to NYC Council)

City Councilwoman Darlene Mealy will eventually vote on this.

A) Supportive Housing Units and Shelter for Formerly Homeless / Supportive with Mental Health Diagnosis : 30

B) Affordable (non-homeless) Units Total: 152

12 Stories - 180,929 total sq ft

154,436 residential sq ft - 12,741 commercial sq ft

21,752 Church sq ft - 3044 Church sq ft parking

​

C) Three Bedrooms: ZERO

D) Parking spots: ZERO

New-Development #4

New-Development #5

KIngsbrook Estates - New - Proposed

Just West of 832 Rutland Rd

(Kingsbrook Jewish)

(Rutland & Schenectady)

A) Supportive Housing Units / Formerly Units:

133 Total Supportive Units

Disabled Military Veterans (19 units)

Frail Elderly (57 units) (55 & older)

Intellectually & Developmentally Disabled (IDD) (57 units)

133 units / 266 units = 50%

B) Affordable Housing (non-supportive) units: 133 units

7403 Sq ft Ambulatory Care Center

​

C) Three bedroom Units: 12 / 266 units = 5%

D) Parking = 27 parking spots

​

E) Amount of time community was Kept in the Dark about project details:

July 09 2021 - Press Release Date

New - Development #6

Utica Hotel Ccs - New - Proposed

599 Utica Ave

(Utica & Winthrop - Across from Dunkin Donuts)

( Homeless Asylum Seekers )

Exisiting - Development #7

CAMBA Gardens I

690 & 738 Albany Av

(SW Corner of Albany & Clarkson)

( Across the street from 681 Clarkson Kingsboro West)

146 units are supportive housing for formerly homeless/special needs

( 146 / 209 = 70% )

Exisiting - Development #8

CAMBA Gardens II

560 Winthrop St

(SE Corner of Albany & Winthrop)

(Across the street from 681 Clarkson - Kingsboro)

182 units are supportive housing for formerly homeless families & individuals / special needs

182 / 293 = 62%

CAMBA I (146 units) plus CAMBA II (182 units) = 328 units

Exisiting - Development #9

Kingsboro & Salvation Army Shelters

681 Clarkson Ave

(NE Corner of Albany & Clarkson )

(SE Corner of Albany & Winthrop)

( Across the street from CAMBA Gardens I & II )

364 Shelter Beds in Aging Shelters

Scheduled to be Rebuilt

Exisiting - Development #10

Breaking Ground East Haven Safe Haven

781 Clarkson Ave

(Clarkson Av, Between E 48th & E 49th)

110 Shelter Beds

Exisiting - Development #11

The Bridge Maple Street Residence

918 East New York Ave

(close to Utica Av)

​

66 Supportive Housing Beds

Originial Vital Brooklyn

The neighbors who were aware supported this not what we have in 2023.

Fair Use Disclosure​

The purpose of this website is to inform the user about Vital Brooklyn projects in East Flatbush , and about various cultures in East Flatbush through interviews, documentaries and music videos. This website does not charge or advertise any professional services and is a FREE Public Service Announcement with an informational and educational purpose. ​

The Copyright Laws of the United States recognize a "fair use" of copyrighted content. Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act states:

​

"Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work,

including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright."

​

This website may contain copyrighted works that were not specifically authorized to be used by the copyrighted holder(s) , but which I believe in good faith are protected by federal law and the fair use doctrine for one or more of the reasons noted above.