POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_Contextual Development

It seems that the residents of Kensington are not taking news of the recent sale of the Little Grey Barn to a developer sitting down. Yesterday I got an e-mail from a friend who is the owner of an adorable rowhouse in Kensington, about a community group calling itself the East Windsor Terrace Group, that is forming to make sure that proposed buildings stay "in context with the community and will not put a strain on the already overburdened municipal services." The group mourns the downsizing of the stables and worries that it will be "squeezed and threatened by the traffic, noise, loss of light and air that will come with all the additional proposed housing units."

Dating back to the 19th Century, Kensington Stables is the only remaining stable on Prospect Park. There are two barns, one containing an indoor riding ring, and a small corral adjacent to the other. They also have the exclusive use of The Shoe and Breeze Hill, two riding areas in the center of the park, in addition to the bridle path, which runs from Park Circle to the southwest corner of the Long Meadow.

There are very few horse stables left in New York City. I know of one on the Upper West Side near Central Park and one off the Belt Parkway in Queens. Back in the 1930's, my mother would subway over from Avenue J to the Kensington Stables and ride English saddle in Prospect Park.

Kensington is a mixed-use neighborhood on the edge of Prospect Park that I was barely aware of until a few years ago, when a realtor drove me over there to see a tiny house on Caton Street. It encompasses the edge of Windsor Terrace, parts of Ocean Parkway Coney Island Avenue and funky name streets like Kermit and Caton that have quaint rowhouses evocative of London.  Apartment buildings, a bright turquoise modern pre-fab Baptist church and tiny wood houses co-exist in a kind of rococo asymmetry.

Just minutes from Park Slope by car, Kensingtonians are able to take full advantage of shopping on Seventh Avenue and Prospect Park West, as well as Coney Island Avenue.  Prospect Park and the Parade Grounds are just a hop, skip, and a jump away.

Understandably, the locals are of two minds about the current development plans. "Our neighborhood certainly needs some development, but it does not need hundreds of new residents and no new amenities or services," says Mandy Harris, who is one of the group. Clearly they don't want their neighborhood overdeveloped nor do they want it to lose its unusual and eclectic character.

The word of the moment is CONTEXTUAL. And I am loving it. I understand it to mean that development should never be indifferent to the historical and residential context that already exists. Bulldozing through a neighborhood and changing its architectual and social character is a sure no no.

To be contextual means to proceed with development in a way that compliments and improves what is already there.

South South Slope, the group that is protesting the current land grab in Greenwood Heights, also uses the C-word. On their web site they say: "We have come together to protect the low-scale, residential character of our neighborhood and are working to change our present zoning to R6b. While R6b allows for new development, it stipulates that all new construction must match the CONTEXTUAL height of the surrounding buildings" Their biggest gripe: a luxury building that that will block a  beautiful view of the Statue of Liberty from Battle Hill in the Green-Wood Cemetery.

In my opinion, that Battle Hill view belongs to all the residents (dead and alive) of Brooklyn and should not just belong to someone able to pay $1 million dollars or more for a penthouse. 

Brooklyn is so hot right now that greenbacks seem to be burning holes in the pockets of developers and politicians. Overdevelopment could quite possibly destroy what makes this borough such a livable place. Development that takes into consideration the context and the history of place will be much easier to bear.

For those who are interested in learning more about how Kensington residents feel about this developmental incursion: On Thursday May 12 at 7:30 there is a meeting of the East Windsor Terrace Group at the Baptist Church on 312 Coney Island Avenue, entrance on Caton Street.

-Louise G. Crawford

FOR MORE ABOUT BROOKLYN DEVELOPMENT: SEE LETTER FROM JANE JACOBS TO MAYOR BLOOMBERG IN SCOOP DU THURSDAY.