Brooklyn's Progress
October/November 2007

BY JILL D’AMICO

When you imagine a college town, it probably conjures up visions of a place like South Bend, Ind., or Ann Arbor, MI. But what about Brooklyn, NY?

The possibility of New York and Polytechnic Universities merging has forced the issue into the limelight.

Colleges need an attractive campus, good academics, and large endowments to compete in the college market. With enough stately architecture, leaf-strewn sidewalks, towering trees, and green space to compete on aesthetics alone, add in the many cultural outposts throughout the borough, and there is plenty of potential to put Brooklyn on the map as a prime college destination.

"With its seven colleges and universities and more than 35,000 students, downtown Brooklyn actually has more students than Cambridge, Massachusetts,” said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

The idea of Brooklyn as a college destination isn’t new: last year, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce held a College to Career Expo that brought 14 of the borough’s 16 colleges under one roof. Additionally, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has put together a task force to bring university expansion into underdeveloped neighborhoods. These and other efforts could bolster academia’s role in Brooklyn’s economic welfare.

From Not to Hot
Word of Brooklyn’s renaissance has made the rounds across the world. There was a time when people associated Brooklyn with blight and crime. Thanks to efforts on all fronts, the past is far behind the borough of kings, and the economic development spurred on is a great indicator of things to come.

“It’s certainly become a popular college destination,” said Michael Blaise Backer, executive director of the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership, which counts Pratt Institute as a neighbor and its president, Thomas F. Schutte, as chairman of the board.

“There are certainly enough destinations in terms of schools … and because New York is such a safe place now, parents and students are much more open to coming here as a college destination - and I think that affects Brooklyn as well.”

There are national chain stores taking up residence on major intersections which give locals a range of employment opportunities. The artisans that give Brooklyn its good name in the design world are able to work and live in the borough and promote their work accordingly. Throw a thriving educational scene into the mix and Brooklyn is attracting the best and brightest from across the nation and right here in New York. 

With more space than Manhattan and its own unique style, Brooklyn allows colleges to capitalize on the hype.

“We’re very excited about this,” said Beryl R. Jones-Woodin, Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Student Affairs at Brooklyn Law School, which is located in Downtown Brooklyn, across from Brooklyn Borough Hall.

“This year we’ve made a special effort to introduce our out-of town students to the Brooklyn community,” she said. “They might not have seen accurate visions of how exciting this Brooklyn community is.”

Ms. Jones-Woodin reports that the number of out-of-state students has been steadily increasing as well, and credits that in some part Brooklyn’s hip status.

“It really enriches the larger community,” she said.

“As we learned from the creation of the Metro Tech complex, home to Polytechnic University, it’s important that we continually invest in redevelopment in order to grow our college community,” said Mr. Markowitz. “The public and private development already underway and planned in downtown Brooklyn - retail stores, hundreds of new hotel rooms, residential and dormitory construction, affordable housing, the BAM Cultural District, the Atlantic Yards project, and the 85-acre Brooklyn Bridge Park - are essential to the process of branding Brooklyn as a truly world-class college town.”

College and Commerce
A large part of that community is the small businesses that line the main drags near campuses. College students are eager consumers and in need of the goods and services that come with being a resident, and banks, groceries, cafes, bars, restaurants, clothing shops, bookstores and cultural outlets all offer services students need. Even at “commuter schools,” students spending the bulk of their day in one neighborhood.

St. Francis College’s Dean of Student Affairs Cheryl Howell said that her students are a common presence on the various shops in Brooklyn Heights, near the school.
 
“There are a lot of little delis on Remsen Street,” she said. “The students familiarly refer to one of them their ‘office.’”

Mr. Backer knows the impact of students on the local economy is something shop owners rely on.

“I think during academic year, there’s a huge amount of positive impact, to the point where merchants definitely feel the pain in the summer when most of them are gone,” he said.

Depending on the location of the business on Myrtle Avenue, certain cafes, bagel shops, places like that feel a major impact from the student population, according to Mr. Backer. He mentioned one local business, the Pillow Café, nearly doubled their business just by moving closer to Pratt’s campus.
 
“Increasingly, our students are using the Brooklyn community,” reported Ms. Jones-Woodin of BLS. “For entertainment, shopping, clothes, whatever one might look for in a metropolitan area. Students are spending their week and their free time here.”

“Brooklyn is such a great community – especially Downtown Brooklyn – the housing stock is less expensive, there are number of great communities, and wonderful restaurants that are directly targeting a younger population,” she said. “I see this as having wonderful potential.”

Jamillah Evelyn, who is with Brooklyn College’s communications department, agrees.

Brooklyn College “sees some 15,000 students as well as 2,000 faculty and staff members come and go in the Flatbush/Midwood community every day. These numbers provide vital support to local businesses and add an undeniable sense of vitality to the Junction area… In many ways, this is already a college town.”

Bolstering the Workforce
Students infiltrating Brooklyn has long-term benefits as well – they provide a steady stream of trained workers.

“Most of our grads stay in the New York metro area,” said Ms. Howell. “Very few actually leave, because I think there’s something special about this urban environment.”

New York City being the epicenter of legal work, it makes sense that BLS graduates don’t go far. There are currently approximately 10,500 alums that work or live in the five boroughs, according to the school.

Brooklyn College also retains a steady number of graduates in the area. They estimate that about 65,000 graduates live here, those leavings are only replaced by new grads.

The possible merger between Polytechnic and NYU prompted a report by the Center for an Urban Future that found New York sorely lacking in the innovative environment that colleges incubate.

The Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership is working with its neighbors at Pratt already. 

“We tap into the student and faculty talent when we can, but more can be done,” said Mr. Backer. “We’ve been working with them to bring public art and programming – things they do well – out and off campus into the surrounding neighborhood.”