Prospect Heights, Brooklyn

Prospect Heights is a neighborhood in the northwest of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The traditional boundaries are Flatbush Avenue to the west, Atlantic Avenue to the north, Eastern Parkway to the south, and Washington Avenue to the east. In the northern section of Prospect Heights are the Vanderbilt Railyards, which could become part of the massive and controversial Atlantic Yards project.

Prospect Heights is relatively small and is notable for its cultural diversity as well as its tree-lined streets. It has seen rapid demographic changes over the last decade, growing from minority White to majority White, and its shifts are exemplified by a mixture of older buildings under reconstruction, rows of classic 1890s brownstones and newly built luxury condominiums. The neighborhood is served by the New York Police Department's 77th Precinct.

Geography
Along the southern boundary, Eastern Parkway from Grand Army Plaza to Washington Avenue is reminiscent of Manhattan's Fifth Avenue "Museum Mile". Immense, opulent buildings line the north side of the parkway, and the south side features the Brooklyn Public Library, Mount Prospect Park (not to be confused with Prospect Park), the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the recently renovated Brooklyn Museum. To the north lies Fort Greene, to the south Prospect Park, to the west Park Slope and to the east Crown Heights.

The interior portion of the neighborhood consists mostly of brownstone-style residential rowhouse buildings, some built as early as 1890, although some blocks, including Lincoln and Saint Johns Places between Underhill and Washington Avenues, include larger multi-unit apartment buildings.

Defunct bakeries and factory spaces line Pacific Street from Vanderbilt Avenue to Carlton Avenue; some have been renovated and converted into lofts, and others have been purchased by developer Bruce Ratner and demolished in anticipation of his Atlantic Yards Project.

Ratner's company Forest City Ratner has planned a controversial development, the plans for which would include a basketball arena and luxury housing. An upscale, glass high-rise residential building designed by the architect Richard Meier and located near Grand Army Plaza was completed in 2008.

As demand for housing within Prospect Heights increased, some residents of Crown Heights came to consider Franklin Avenue rather than Washington Avenue as the western border with Prospect Heights. However, Washington Avenue remains the eastern border of Prospect Heights as recognized by major New York City media, including The New York Times and The New York Post.

The name "Prospect Heights" can be traced as far back as 1889 to a letter to the editor published in the Brooklyn Eagle, although at that time it was one of several potential names for a neighborhood that has since come to be known as Park Slope. The letter began by noting that it was "amusing to see the attempts made to fix upon a name for the rapidly growing part of Brooklyn near Prospect Park, bounded by Flatbush, Fifth and Ninth avenues, Some call it Park Slope, some Park Hill Side, some Prospect Heights and others Prospect Hill..."

Culture and architecture
Largely an Italian, Jewish and German neighborhood in the 1910s through the 1950s, Prospect Heights is currently well known for its mixed Black and White culture. Every year the West Indian Day Parade, the largest annual parade in New York City, follows Eastern Parkway, beginning in Crown Heights and ending at Grand Army Plaza in Prospect Heights. During the last 30 years, the neighborhood has seen an influx of new residents, more frequently young and White than in the recent past, perhaps due to its having had slightly lower real estate prices than neighboring Park Slope. A thriving commercial zone has emerged along Vanderbilt Avenue, which in just the last few years has been the location for new bars, restaurants and specialty shops.

Because of the area's density of Italianate and Neo-Grec rowhouses, much of the neighborhood has been designated a New York City historic district. The Prospect Heights Historic District covers an area bounded roughly by Flatbush Avenue, Sterling Place, Washington Avenue, and Saint Marks Avenue, though a section of the historic district extends as far north as Pacific Street. The district was designated by the city Landmarks Preservation Commission on June 23, 2009, and approved by the New York City Council on September 17, 2009. It is the fifth largest historic district in New York City.

Current controversy over development
Recently, controversy has erupted in the neighborhood over a massive development project proposed by developer Bruce Ratner and designed by the architect Frank Gehry for the portion of the neighborhood known as Atlantic Yards. It seeks to construct an arena which would house the Brooklyn Nets basketball team and a substantial amount of housing and commercial space, including a cluster of high-rise buildings that would tower over most of the borough's existing low-rise architecture.

A number of community groups oppose the project, claiming among other things that it abuses the principles of eminent domain. They further argue that the development will change the character of the neighborhood by introducing out-of-scale architecture and increased traffic to an already very congested intersection. Community groups also dispute Ratner's suggestions that residents meaningfully participated in the development of a Community Benefit Agreement.

Supporters of the project believe in its potential for reinvigorating what is now an unused, unattractive space. It is also favored by local unions for its potential to create construction jobs during and after its development.

Notable residents, past and current

 * Montego Glover, leading actress of 2010 Tony's Award Best Musical "Memphis"
 * MC Frontalot, Founding Father of Nerdcore
 * Foxy Brown, rapper. Born Inga Marchand, continues to live in the neighborhood as of 2007.
 * Tillamook Cheddar (dog), canine "artist."
 * Aaron Copland, composer, grew up above the family furniture store on Washington Avenue.
 * Joan Rivers, comedienne.  Her father was a doctor and they used to live on Eastern Parkway.
 * Mark Rudd, leader in the 1960s Weather Underground and Columbia University's 1968 protests. When he lived "underground" in the early 1970s, it was in one of the large apartment buildings on Plaza Street.
 * Isa Chandra Moskowitz vegan chef, cookbook writer, and host of "The Post Punk Kitchen", which is filmed in Prospect Heights
 * Keith Gessen co-editor-in-chief of n+1, novelist

Aaron Copeland, Clara Bow, and Howard Cosell all went to the old Public School 9 at the corner of Sterling and Vanderbilt.