Constructed Environments Seminar: “My Brooklyn” Documentary

“My Brooklyn” a documentary film done by , is a journalistic pice on Fulton Street Market or Mall.  The once bustling street of street venders, thrift stores, and cheap wholesale goods is now overrun with designer stores and expensive restaurants today.  This film brings insight to the community that once was, and how gentrification has pushed out countless families and other residents to the outskirts of these areas for new businesses and buildings to bring a “higher quality” lifestyle to a great hub of transportation in Brooklyn.  The film follows the trail of how this all happened; the proposals, town meetings, council decisions, and opposition, and how ultimately the rich got richer and the hard work and opposition of the poor public was not heard.  The sale of the Fulton Street Mall was one of the largest losses to the public fight, and large developers rapidly changed the area bringing in new designer shops and expensive housing.  The film covers “FUREE’s” activism throughout the proposal process, and the work of the Pratt Center and the general public, hoping to incorporate some of the old and help preserve the local character in new developments.  A huge community, culture, tradition, and lifestyle was lost in the heart of Brooklyn, and through video can be shown as something that is not too unfamiliar or far off from where we are today.

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