‘She Liked to Kick the Tires and
Visit Every Community She Funded’
By Sarah Ryley
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
CARROLL GARDENS — Brooke Astor will forever be immortalized by her philanthropic efforts throughout the city, from the millions she donated to cultural institutions like the city’s public library system and Bronx Zoo, to the smaller contributions and encouragement she gave to community groups like the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation.
After years of struggling with Alzheimer’s Disease, Astor, 105, quietly passed away from pneumonia at her Holly Hill estate in Westchester County. Throughout her lifetime, she contributed some $200 million through The Vincent Astor Foundation, named after her late husband, to various causes, largely in the five boroughs. She is said to have believed that since the money was made here, it should be spent here.
Long-time local activist Buddy Scotto, founder of the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation and the Carroll Gardens Association, said he first met Brooke Astor in 1979 at an early meeting about the formation of the Partnership for New York City.
Scotto said he had boldly stood up and suggested to founder David Rockefeller that he partner with local community groups, “and I was thinking of my own, of course,” on the Partnership’s affordable housing initiative. The response was noncommittal.
“At the end of the meeting, this very lovely elderly lady comes up to me — she was wearing this great big hat and had white gloves up to her elbows — and she sits down next to me and says, ‘Young man, I think I can help you,’” said Scotto.
“Then, all of a sudden, David Rockefeller comes over and says, ‘Brooke, Brooke, how are you?’ It was only then that I knew who she was.
“And she looked up at David and pointed her finger at him, her index finger, mind you — the only way she could have done that and got away with, I thought, it was because her money was older than his money — and she said to him, ‘David, this young man has some good ideas and you should pay attention.’
“In essence, she was telling David Rockefeller that my idea about working with us, an indigenous group [on creating affordable housing] was a good idea, something that she and her Vincent Astor Foundation had been doing for years.”
Astor offered to come down and visit the neighborhood, touring the Gowanus Canal and Public Place site. “We told her about our dreams for the development of the Gowanus Canal,” said Scotto, noting that only some 25 years later are they really starting to come to life.
Astor continued to visit Carroll Gardens and the canal throughout the years. In addition to offering her encouragement, and donating $50,000 to the study of property along the canal, Scotto said she eventually used her influence with the New York City Housing Partnership, a subsidiary of the Partnership, to fund the construction of affordable housing in Carroll Gardens.
What was once vacant property along Columbia Street, between Kane and Woodhull streets, is now Columbia Gardens, an affordable housing complex of 24 condominiums, retail space and eight townhouses that took 20 years to complete.
“[Astor] liked to kick the tires and visit every community that she funded,” said Kathy Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City. “And she was very close to David Rockefeller, who believed that home ownership was the key to stopping middle class flight from the city and stabilizing our neighborhoods.
“And Buddy Scotto was one of the earliest champions of that effort from the neighborhood, and became an early partner. So Mrs. Astor, I think through her relationship with David Rockefeller, got involved in supporting the home ownership efforts,” said Wylde.
Astor was one of the early donors of the Housing Partnership, contributing $100,000, “which was a lot of money back in 1981,” said Wylde.
“A word from Mrs. Astor would have made us very enthusiastic about helping, and I can’t imagine that we would have ever turned down a project that she suggested,” she said, noting that Astor also pushed for housing in Sunset Park and Coney Island.
Wylde said the early investment of people like Brooke Astor, and the leadership from community activists like Scotto, “resulted not only in the resurrection of a neighborhood that was, along with much of Brooklyn, in trouble. But also provided the opportunity to local residents to have equity in the neighborhood, to buy homes so that they are protected from the tremendous escalation in prices that resulted in so many people who can’t afford housing anymore.”
“She was a tremendous influence on me, and have me a tremendous amount of encouragement, needless to say” said Scotto. “I loved that woman.”
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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