The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership's map expands to Vanderbilt Avenue (including Barclays Center) and other distant points (sort of)

The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership's maps keep evolving, and now the Atlantic Yards project and Barclays Center are more clearly part of Downtown Brooklyn, at least conceptually.

That makes it easier to conceive of the arena and associated towers as being part of a Business Improvement District (BID) run by the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, which is significantly influenced if not controlled by project developer Forest City Ratner.

Also, it suggests that the scale of the Atlantic Yards project--the product of a state override of city zoning--should be consistent with and legitimized by the city's rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn.

Let's recap.

At right (click to enlarge) was a longtime map that could not quite fit in the arena, but contained an arrow pointing to the project.

Then, after the proposal for a new Barclays Center-area BID surfaced in January, a new map indicating current development projects (see below left; click to enlarge) found space for the Atlantic Yards site, albeit with the assistance of an inset.

(By the way, after the two meetings scheduled for May 2 regarding the proposed BID were postponed, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership has yet to announce a new date.)

Enter a new map

Now, as shown below, there's a new two-page map that manages to transcend the graphical limits of the earlier maps.

First, there's a map focusing on the more traditional boundaries of Downtown Brooklyn, with Tillary Street at the north and Fulton Street at south, and Flatbush Avenue at the east and Clinton Street (one block into Brooklyn Heights from Court Street) at the west.

The second page, however, posits a sort of Greater Downtown Brooklyn, encompassing DUMBO, Brooklyn Heights, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and Fort Greene, which are all marked.

There's no notation for  Prospect Heights, but the map indicates the Barclays Center and extends to the eastern boundary of the Atlantic Yards site, to Vanderbilt Avenue.


Downtown Brooklyn Partnership May 2013