Flatbush Observations
If you head south on Flatbush Avenue, past Caton Avenue, you see a notable difference in retail business compared to, say, PLG. There is a greater variety of businesses, a few larger stores — it has an entirely different look and feel to it.
In the past I have been somewhat impressed by this, bolstered by the NY Times, who published a short article perhaps a year ago discussing the nearly 100% rental rate for retail space in this area.
Lately I have been walking in this area a lot. Though I still remain impressed by the retail variety and the contrast to my own section of Flatbush, I can’t help but notice there are plenty of buildings made ugly by the owners using cheap plywood to board up windows on the upper floors, or cover them entirely by signs that are way too large. It really is too bad, it makes me wonder what the overall atmosphere in this area would be if this changed.
Here is an example in the image below, 828 Flatbush (just south of Linden), you can see the plywood in most of the windows. When I see a building with this overall look to it — ill-cared for – to me it impacts the merchant in the lower floor. At least it makes me question the merchandise. The building to the right (only a tiny bit of it shows in this pic) has blocked windows as well though look less shoddy due to the material being standardized.
