Fat City

05/22/2008 | Comment

People in Williamsburg and Bushwick are, on average, more overweight and more obese than the citywide population. This has resulted in much snark on the interweb about skinny hipsters, but the problem is real, and likely tied in to the socioeconomic realities of our neighborhoods.

The report, “Keeping Track of New York City’s Children”, was prepared by the Citizen’s Committee for Children (an executive summary (pdf) is here). The picture it paints for north Brooklyn is not pretty – in just about every measure, our community districts come out in the bottom quartile. This is particularly true of the districts that comprise Bushwick and Bed-Stuy; Williamsurg and Greenpoint proper fare slightly better.

At least some of the blame lies with economics. According to City-Data.com, the median income the five north Brooklyn zip codes is barely half that of the comparable New York City figure. In order from low to high, the median household incomes (2005) are:

  • 11206 (East Williamsburg and Bed-Stuy): $21,679
  • 11221 (Bushwick and Bed-Stuy): $25,912
  • 11237 (Bushwick): $26,840
  • 11211 (Northside and Southside, some areas east of the BQE): $27,378
  • 11222 (Greenpoint): $39,0081
  • Kings County: $37,332
  • NYC (all boroughs): $43,434

Those bottom three zip codes roughly correspond to the Bed-Stuy and Bushwick community districts tracked by CCC (its not a direct correlation, though). In the CCC study, these districts consistently fall in the lowest quartile for all measures of children’s health. Overall, the children in these districts are at the highest risk to their well being.

  • 44% to 58% of children live below the poverty line
  • 13% to 16% of adults have diabetes
  • 22% to 26% of adults had no fruits or vegetables in the previous day
  • 26% to 30% of adults are obese

As noted, Williamsburg (north) and Greenpoint fare slightly better. In terms of obesity, these northern community districts fall into the third quartile, at 22% to 26%. In the other measures noted above, these districts also generally fall into the third quartile.

All of north Brooklyn (all five zip codes) fall into the fourth quartile in terms of number of grocery stores and supermarkets per square mile.

Given all this, its no wonder that north Brooklyn has such high levels of obesity.

1. The difference between Greenpoint’s median income and the rest of north Brooklyn is striking.↩



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Check Your Bag?

When I lived in Ecuador in the 1970s, they had these wonderful buses that basically amounted to a crude wood cabin on an old truck chassis. I imagine that would be a step up from the American Airlines experience these days.

See the Big Apple Any Way You’d Like it Aboard New York Water Taxi

Here’s some great tourist advice – hop aboard the New York Water Taxi and check out “the historic, artsy and vibrant neighbourhoods of Brooklyn including DUMBO and Williamsburg…”

Better pack a sandwich or two, though – the Water Taxi won’t be stopping in DUMBO or Williamsburg until July.

Florent

Bruni has a wonderful reminiscence of Florent, and by extension downtown and New York before it was all business class. I first went to Florent in the late 80s, probably after a night downtown. When we moved to Hudson Square (nobody called it that then) in ’89, Florent was a frequent dinner or breakfast choice. It wasn’t exactly nearby, but everything west of Greenwich felt like the same neighborhood.

I spent most of the ’90s tending bar on Spring Street, and after a good night, we’d head to Florent for breakfast – usually around 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning, sometimes later, rarely earlier. After mediocre nights, we’d hit the Waverly Restaurant for cheap eats, but whenever possible, it was to Florent for steak and eggs (and more drinks). (After slow Sunday shifts, I’d usually hit Blue Ribbon and spend my shift pay with Alonzo at the raw bar, but that’s a different story.)

Hetero, homo or trans, Gansevoort has been over for close to a decade now (ditto “Hudson Square”, or that part of Spring west of Hudson). And no, its not the fault of Sex and the City – that was but one symptom, never the cause. I really hope that Florent got a good settlement out of his landlord.

Rose Plaza

Curbed has dug up some Gene Kaufman renderings of the proposed Rose Plaza project at the Certified Lumber site (just south of Schaefer Landing). As one commenter noted, this design won’t be winning anyone the Pritzker prize.

In the silver lining department, the application at City Planning was filed by Gruzen Samton Architects. Either Kaufman is showing an earlier concept, or Gruzen is only responsible for the master planning, not the architecture.

207 Grand

207 Grand St.jpg
207 Grand Street (proposed), via Gowanus Lounge.

Via Curbed and GL, a rendering has surfaced of a proposed commercial building at 207 Grand Street (northwest corner of Driggs). The project is build to suit, which basically means nothing will get built unless a retail tenant comes along. Still, its interesting to see that retail is alive and well on Grand Street (contrary to what anti-context advocates have said). In fact, retail is so strong that developers are willing to forego (future) residential FAR in order to construct retail.

The design, by Karl Fischer Architects, is not bad. Its relatively simple (sometimes, as here, that’s a good thing), uses red brick rather than the now-standard black/gray, and even includes some corbelling details at the cornice. Of course its easy to see how an owner could dumb this down pretty quickly with just a little value engineering.

School Overcrowding

Today’s Daily News has a piece on overcrowded Brooklyn schools and the slow response of the Department of Education. The article includes these nuggets of local interest:

– In Williamsburg and Greenpoint, the City Planning Commission projects a general population increase of 12.5% from 2000 to 2010 because of thousands of new apartments being built. But Education Department consultants project an enrollment decline of 19.5%.

– In Bushwick, the neighborhood population is projected to increase by nearly 11%, but school enrollment is projected to decline 14%.

Much of the blame is put at the feet of DOE, but City Planning certainly deserves its share. After all, Williamsburg and Greenpoint have undergone a comprehensive rezoning that is projected to add 10,000 new housing units by the middle of the next decade. And yet this rezoning included no provisions for expanded school services.