By Dennis Holt
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BROOKLYN — The development changes coming to the Willoughby-Fulton Street part of the old Downtown Brooklyn will lead to dramatic changes in traffic patterns, rules and regulations.

This conclusion is not the result of any detailed traffic studies but of the simple act of walking around that part of Downtown Brooklyn for more than an hour last Friday with a development scorecard in hand.

A similar conclusion will eventually be reached by the city because of the major known changes that are in the works for the Willoughby Street corridor alone. And there is solid potential for even more changes to evolve that will strongly impact that area.

Traffic studies conducted now would be of no value because what is happening at this time is quite different from what will be evident three years from now, and in some cases sooner.

Here is what will be developed in this part of old Downtown. The Albee Center, replacing the old Albee Square Mall and its parking garage, will contain large mixed-use projects for new offices, a new retail complex and a large residential complex. This will take up the south side of Willoughby from Flatbush Avenue to Gold Street.

The block next to Duffield Street will be a new park. Beneath it will be a 600-car garage where most people will park. Duffield is going to be busy. St. Boniface Church will develop some new residential space, and across Duffield from the park will be two hotels. Ground has been cleared for those new buildings.

Where New York Telephone used to stand, the BelTel Lofts, another residential complex, is emerging. This is between Bridge and Lawrence streets. Down Lawrence Street, toward the MetroTech Center, the Clarett Group plans to build another major residential center; ground is being cleared for that.

What we are looking at will be several thousand new people making this small area their home, with others stopping by for a night or two. When this area was built in the 1800s, it was designed for residential use, not as a commercial center. (Most of the storefronts are converted houses.) But no one then thought of several thousand people. Go over to this area and just look around. You will make conclusions. One of them will be that none of these streets can be widened.

Also, parking cannot be permitted on Willoughby at any time. This street will become the province of taxis — Brooklyn is going to have its own taxi industry. Commercial deliveries will have to be sternly regulated and managed.

The short north-south streets intersecting Fulton Street could permit parking, but only on one side at a time. Go look at Fulton Street for awhile. It could be widened to its old size, but then at the cost of sidewalk space.

You will reach the obvious conclusion that buses have to be removed from that street. Cars and taxis will have to use the north-south streets to get to and from Willoughby Street. Buses will have to go to Livingston and Schermerhorn streets.

Changes are coming to Fulton Street that will further dictate the removal of buses and its conversion to pedestrian use.

There is nothing radical about these few thoughts. But city and Brooklyn planners have got to revisit the old Downtown area with the new Brooklyn in mind. Everything is going to have to change, and all these new buildings are going to have lots of people in them. And more new people who will be living just across the Flatbush Avenue Extension will also impact the area.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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