Downtown Brooklyn is showing no signs of ceding its title as the city’s fastest-growing neighborhood, even though shopping and public services have yet to catch up with residential development, the Post reported. According to new data from the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, there are now 12,000 residents of DoBro’s 16-block core, including the Fulton Mall, MetroTech complex and the Jay and Willoughby street corridors, up 50 percent from just one year ago. And the neighborhood is barely recognizable as its decade-ago self, when it had a mere 400 residents and a streetscape peppered with 99-cent stores. [more]

A gallery show at the Chashama space at 679 Third Avenue (Credit: Susu Pianchupattana of Chashama)

The practice of landlords donating space to the arts to enliven a neighborhood is blossoming in New York City. It’s been occurring since at least the early 1980s, when David Walentas, founder of Two Trees Management, donated space to lure artists to Dumbo. Although Chashama and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, two arts non-profit organizations that facilitate the donation of space to artists, say they’ve noticed no increase in offerings of space with the economic downturn, the quickness and ease with which Downtown Brooklyn Partnership has been able to fill vacant space with art installations, shows that landlords are increasingly open to this practice. [more]