“By listening to residents and responding to their needs, we can ensure that East New York’s growth creates opportunity while preserving its identity.”
The intersection of Atlantic and East new York avenues, pictured here in 2019. (Photo by Adi Talwar)
East New York has long been a neighborhood defined by resilience. It’s where families have built their lives, small businesses have kept communities connected, and neighbors have had each other’s backs.
Yet, while other Brooklyn neighborhoods have seen new resources and investments transform their streets, East New York has been left waiting. Despite being home to one of New York City’s busiest transit hubs, Broadway Junction lacks deeply needed public spaces, job opportunities, and affordable housing. Our community wants to see commonsense quality-of-life investments, but we have been kept waiting.
Recently, officials have started taking action, investing to uplift the people who call this neighborhood home. The city and MTA’s $500 million commitment to improve Broadway Junction is a step in the right direction, promising better public spaces and station upgrades to make it more accessible and welcoming. Soon, NYC EDC’s improvements outside the station and the new Human Resources Administration offices at 2440 Fulton will bring jobs and resources to the heart of our neighborhood.
These changes are encouraging, but they come with understandable concerns. Too often, investment has meant disruption, displacement, and broken promises. That’s why it’s critical that East New York’s future is shaped by and for the people who live here. True progress means centering the voices of longtime residents and ensuring their needs—more housing, safer streets, stronger local businesses—guide the path forward.
As a longtime resident of East New York who has worked in the Broadway Junction area for 25 years, I am acutely aware of the challenges our community faces. East New York is rich with history, culture, and spirit. It’s where neighbors know one another, local businesses anchor our streets, and families have built their lives for generations. But too often, when new development comes to neighborhoods like ours, it ignores what makes these communities special.
But there’s a better way, one that strengthens communities rather than displacing them. That means thoughtful development to create local jobs, invest in shared spaces, and prioritize deeply affordable housing to ensure stability.
We’ve seen signs of this approach taking shape. The Herkimer-Williams project, which aims to transform the concrete lots around Broadway Junction, has taken steps in the right direction. Totem, the development team, analyzed past studies of Broadway Junction and held over 100 touchpoints with the local community to incorporate such feedback into a proposal.
While the initial design already reflected years of community visioning, Totem then spent another two years engaging directly with residents, community leaders and local stakeholders to shape a revised plan, one that reflects the local evolving desires for permanently affordable housing, expanded job opportunities and increased public space.
Totem’s blueprint includes affordable housing, retail, supportive services, community spaces, and room for local businesses—a holistic mix aimed at boosting social connections, stimulating the economy, and meeting long-neglected needs. It’s a practical and grassroots approach that speaks to the hopes of those who’ve lived and worked here for generations.
While we still have work ahead, this kind of engagement shows how developers can, and should, build with the community rather than for it. By listening to residents and responding to their needs, we can ensure that East New York’s growth creates opportunity while preserving its identity.
Our future depends on development that reflects our voices. In choosing negotiation over confrontation, we’re that much more likely to achieve a collective vision for Broadway Junction. Our community’s strength has always come from its people, and together, we can make sure that strength guides East New York’s future.
Bill Wilkins is the executive director of the Local Development Corporation of East New York.
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