How livable is Brooklyn?

 

 

 

 

The subject of our research was city ecology. We tried to approach this subject from an anthropologic point of view. City ecology is all about the quality of life and that is why we started asking ourselves: "How livable is Brooklyn?".

For many decades the New York Bay was home to one of the biggest and most successful harbors of the world. In the past decades however, industries started to shift their focus on to other harbors, where resources and cheap labor were present in abundance, leaving the bay neglected. New York developed into one of the greatest cities in the world because of its water, but really: "How swimmable is Brooklyn?".

Brooklyn is part of an island, but it doesn't feel like it's surrounded by water. In comparison with Manhattan, a great part of the borough doesn't have access to natural landscapes such as water or parks. The only physical element is the built environment, creating an artificial landscape on its own. Where connection to the waterfront could be possible, it is often obstructed by fences. On a waterfront accessibility map, it becomes clear that a major part of the shoreline is inaccessible and even invisible.

With the exception of the Brooklyn Bridge Park, almost no shore is reachable. When comparing real-estate prices of different neighborhoods with each other, a clear overlap shows between more expensive and regions with water visibility and/or access.

When you eventually succeed in reaching the shore, you cannot enjoy the water like you should be able to: the water quality doesn't allow for water recreational activities. The water quality of New York has significantly improved over the past years, but is still in very bad shape. Definitely the Red Hook bay and Jamaica are heavily polluted, due to previous or ongoing industrial activities, sewage overflow in case of heavy rainfall and standing water.

Streets, sidewalks, rooftops,... are all surfaces where rainfall can't be retained in the soil, the sewers have to cope with all of the water. In case of heavy rainfall, the sewage overflow ends up directly in the bay, which is one of the main causes of the water pollution.

By studying Brooklyn's topography we found a relationship between the topography and how Brooklyn developed its grid. The streets clearly run parallel with lines of equal height. The natural inclinations define how the directions of the Brooklyn grid were conceived. The grid wasn't implemented as rigidly on its environment as in Manhattan but rather adapted to the existing condition. Brooklyn's topography also defines which areas are in risk of flooding in case of a hurricane or because of arctic meltdown. This would create plenty of new shoreline if the city doesn't undertake actions in the future.

More inland, the quality of air is a major problem for public health. An interesting question to ask in this context is "How breathable is Brooklyn?".

Concentrations of particulate matter in the air are mainly caused by old heating boilers of buildings, vehicle exhaust and industrial processes. Creating tons of health problems for the people heavily exposed to it. Very striking is fact that the amount of hospitalizations caused by respiratory problems is for a major part attributable to the large amount of particulate matter in the air.

A remarkable big area in the south of Brooklyn  where a lot of inhabitants suffer asthma and other air-related problems might be caused by bad indoor air quality in larger housing projects.

Another big issue for Brooklynites is unhealthy food and the many problems related to it. That is why "How tasty is Brooklyn?" is the third question in our research.

By drawing a Voronoi-diagram of pizza restaurants in Brooklyn, we discovered a very homogenous distribution throughout the borough. Pizza is quick, it's cheap and most of the time right around the corner. The Voronoi-diagram creates fictive communities, each defined by one restaurant. The area served by one place is rather small. We only considered pizza restaurants which showed up on Google Maps, obviously there are a lot of other places selling fast food. Mapping those would take a week.
When doing the same for the community gardens, we stumbled upon a remarkable fact: We expected that in places where there is a lot of poverty, fresh food would be a lot less available. But we discovered the opposite: A lot more community gardens are found in areas where poverty is the most strikingly present. This is due to the large amount of vacant lots in those areas, creating the possibility for urban farming.

Clearly, New York City is facing challenges concerning its ecology.

How can a long-term vision, such as PLANYC be realized in practice? Can projects be conceived beyond the terms of mayors?