NEW YORK TIMES --A Brooklyn Artery in Transition

January 31, 2014

The dream of turning Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn into a grand residential boulevard is still just that — a dream. Even so, residential development along the thoroughfare took off about a decade ago when the area was rezoned, and now, after a recession-induced break, construction has begun again at a somewhat frenzied pace.

Once crammed with auto repair shops, parking lots, delicatessens and low-rise walk-ups, parts of the ragtag stretch of Fourth Avenue that borders Park Slope and Gowanus/Boerum Hill are now flanked by apartment towers. And at least seven new development projects, either finished recently or in the works, are bringing several hundred additional rental units to the area. They will be joining the dozen or so high-rises, many of them condominiums, that were built after the rezoning in the early 2000s enabled property developers to build as high as 12 stories in the low-rise neighborhood.