Fulton Mall Mallification' Inevitable?
Yesterday the Times had a loving portrait of the Fulton Mall, a chaotic throwback to the era before the sanitization and, yes, mallification of New York City’s retail districts. The article examines how the thoroughfare stays successful (it sees more than 100,000 shoppers each day) by catering to working-class minorities. Despite the fact that retail…
Yesterday the Times had a loving portrait of the Fulton Mall, a chaotic throwback to the era before the sanitization and, yes, mallification of New York City’s retail districts. The article examines how the thoroughfare stays successful (it sees more than 100,000 shoppers each day) by catering to working-class minorities. Despite the fact that retail rents at the Fulton Mall are extremely high, the commercial strip still boasts plenty of mom-and-pop shops and a dearth of big national retailers. That may not be case for much longer, according to Downtown Brooklyn Partnership prez Joseph Chan. With all the housing stock that we have now and the demographics in the communities that surround Downtown Brooklyn, the fact that there’s not a Bed Bath & Beyond, a Pottery Barn, a Pier 1 in the downtown of a city of 2.5 million people is odd, says Chan. He argues that more chain stores won’t necessarily mean the end of the Fulton Mall as we know it: Having greater retail diversity means having more choices. It doesn’t mean eliminating what’s there today. The reality is it’s never going to be all or nothing.
Step Right Up! Brooklyn Mall Is Oasis and Anomaly [NY Times]
Photo by johnkay1.
No matter how much people don’t like it, Bklyn will change considerably and not recognizable with the next 10 years. This is called progress, change is always inevitable and there is nothing you can do about it. Like the past article said. Brooklyn will be the new manhattan. Besides I like Pier 1 and BB B we need them close by, although ones opening just N of Battery Park. Bklyn would be the 4th largest city in the country if it was not part of NYC. So we need lots of things. Ever notice that when things change, crime goes way down. Thats a good thing.
@ 11:27 pm
What you’re describing also reminds me of 34th street in Manhattan; own up to it.
12:25 It’s ghetto own up to it. Guys who hawk cellphone plans on the sidewalk and holler at women, they’re ghetto. Peeps who drop potato chip wrappers on the streets after leaving McDs or White castle, that’s ghetto. Gimps who go to IHOP with cow look on their faces after leaving McD’s are morbidly ghetto. Sad that’s all it is.
I STILL need a place for gold teefs and hair extensions. If they cracker-up Fulton, where am I gonna go?
Only in America. Love the ABC stores and mix of Macys and Conway. Great deals at the mall just don’t think of cheap child labor practices in countries where these merchandise are made in. Evryone shops here so I hope it stays more or less the same.
Chalk me up as another white guy that shops at Fulton Mall. It’s the next best thing to Manhattan Avenue junk stores for cheap clothes.
cell phone stores and black people does not make a place “ghetto”.
the mall they shut down on fulton street was a shithole however and needed some work.
From ghetto to suburban mall. Which is better?
Been shopping there since I was a kid (A&S days), and I hope Fulton doesn’t change at all. People who are complaining about dirty streets – um… shouldn’t the city be doing a better job of cleaning them then?
Just because you don’t like the clothes or the feel of the place, the fact is that for many Brooklyn residents, Fulton is where you go to clothes shop. It is packed, merchants make a lot of money. It’s clearly successful, and clearly fills a niche for many people. Why change it? Because a handful of people want boring chain stores that you can find in any-mall USA?
A strip of Pottery Barns, BBBYs, Banana Republics….