Category: 1965-2000

Starting in the late 70s and going into the 80s and 90s, efforts were being made to revive the neighborhood of Flatbush. The Flatbush Development Corporation was formed in 1975 to address the neighborhood’s problems, particularly the deterioration. It helped rehabilitate apartment buildings and combat poor conditions, provided job-training programs, after school and summer programs for children, and helped immigrants assimilate to life in Flatbush. It also helped with business attraction and retention.^[1]

The author Ray Suarez writes that toward the end of the 20th century, whites started moving back to Flatbush and buying back houses at prices far above what earlier white owners had sold them for.   The price of housing went up tremendously in Victorian Flatbush.^[2]

According to an article published in 1983, Flatbush was stabilizing. Revival efforts were being made, businesses were prospering, investment was growing, people were moving back into Flatbush, and real estate prices were rising. The only major concern at the time was crime. ”Crime is the No.1 problem,” said Cathy Paull, a Flatbush resident. ”What else is there to be concerned about? Everything else is perfect.”^[3]

Some residents took it upon themselves to protect the community from crime. They formed small night patrol groups to keep their neighborhoods safe. Chaim Deutch, who is now a city councilman, formed a civilian patrol called a shmira mainly made up of Orthodox Jews. There are up to six cars patrolling the streets at night.

UMMA is also a patrol group in North Flatbush which was started by eight Muslim families but has grown into a multi-racial and multi-religious group that is concerned for the safety of the neighborhood and everyone’s welfare.^[4] The group drove drug dealers, pushed the city to create a local park in their former hangout, and insisted that police provide strong protection to the neighborhood.

According to a New York Times article in 1996, there were fewer burglaries and drug dealers out on the streets because of increased police presence and patrols. Sales in many stores went up and many people did not have a fear for their safety as much as before. Reflecting a citywide trend, numbers of shooting victims, burglaries, car thefts and robberies went down by at least 40 percent in each category compared to 1993. Flatbush saw its deterioration in the ’70s and ’80s but the ’90s brought back stability as well as diversity.

^[1] “Our History – Flatbush Development Corporation.” Flatbush Development Corporation. http://www.fdconline.org/about/history/.

^[2] Suarez, Ray. The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration, 1966-1999. New York: Free Press, 1999.

^[3] Motyka, Joan. “IF YOU’RE THINKING OF LIVING IN FLATBUSH.” The New York Times. January 29, 1983.

^[4] Holloway, Lynette. “Late at Night, The ‘Watchers’ Patrol Streets.” The New York Times. October 16, 1993.

Racial tension also arose in the boycott of a Korean grocer in Flatbush. A Haitian woman, Giselaine Felissaint, reportedly entered the Family Red Apple produce store on Church Avenue and was accused of stealing. When asked to open her bag she refused and her lawyers claimed that at this point she was beaten, while the storeowners claimed that she fell to the floor and was told to await the arrival of police. Some local residents sided with the customer, and refused to shop at the Korean-owned store.

The incident marked tensions between a new immigrant group, Korean-Americans who were rapidly opening small businesses, and the Caribbean-American community. According to an NBC news report, this wasn’t the first time these tensions led to a boycott.

NBC noted that two Korean grocers in Bedford-Stuyvesant were shut down by black boycotters in 1988, and that similar boycotts had occurred in in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and

In Flatbush, the tensions between Korean merchants and black customers sparked a 15-week boycott with 500 picketers stationed outside local Korean-owned shops. The Koreans were dismayed. Bong Jae Jung, owner of the Family Red Apple store at Church Avenue and St. Paul’s Place, stated, “This is not the way of the land of hope that America is supposed to represent.” Along Church Avenue and its surrounding streets, multiple vigils were held to support all the different people who were affected by these ^[1]

During the years from 1965 to 2000, West Indians opened many stores in Flatbush and nearby neighborhoods, helping to revitalize once-dormant commercial areas. This 35-year period was a time when immigrants from many nations settled in Flatbush and get accustomed to it.

^[1] Calvin Sims, “Black Customers, Korean Grocers: Need and Mistrust; Shoppers Complain Of Hostile Treatment, But Choices Are Few,” The New York Times, May 16, 1990.

After 1965, New York saw a huge influx of immigrants due to a change in federal immigration law. From 1970-1989, the population in Flatbush was predominantly white and Jewish. They made up 89% of the population while non-whites made up the other 11%. [1]However, families had started moving to the suburbs after World War II, helped along by construction of new highways and bridges. Spacious suburban homes attracted white middle- and lower-middle-income families from smaller Flatbush apartments.. They left in hopes that they could provide better lives for their children. However, young, well-educated, two-income middle-class families began a move in the opposite direction: into the city. They did not believe that “new is better” and decided to renovate the old Victorian houses in Flatbush.^[2]

As white families moved out, they took their business with them. The neighborhood deteriorated. Stores were boarded up and with the advent of television, theaters closed down. Loew’s Kings Theater, which attracted people from all over New York to its Flatbush Avenue movie palace, shut in 1977. Crime was at a high at this point and Flatbush had become known as a dangerous place. This increase in crime affected every single resident, including Jeff Blumstein, who remarked, “Every house on my block has been robbed except the one on the corner, so we figured the guy on the corner had to be doing it but he got cleaned out too, so he’s okay now.”

At this time, West Indians moved in, including some from Crown Heights, because of the cheaper real estate. They opened small mom-and-pop stores and businesses on Flatbush Avenue. That began the economic revitalization of Flatbush.

By 1980, Flatbush was 30% white, 50% black, and the other 20% made up Hispanics and Asians.[1]

These maps show the population density of whites in Flatbush in 1960 and 1980. We see a noticeable decrease because of the white flight.

These maps shows the population of blacks in 1960 compared to 1980. There’s a huge increase in the population as Caribbean folk moved in and whites moved out.

[1] Motyka, Joan. “IF YOU’RE THINKING OF LIVING IN FLATBUSH.” The New York Times. January 29, 1983.

^[2] Lydia Noone, “Flatbush: Brooklyn’s Melting Pot,” Publication?, December 6, 2008.