Our third episode revolves around Industry City, a large shopping complex in Sunset Park, that is poised to increase its square footage from 5.3 to 6.6 million square feet as part of a comprehensive rezoning. Developers believe the rezoning will bring new jobs, while residents fear those new opportunities will attract wealthier households and displace a part of Brooklyn many hold dear. Do new jobs and commercial activity lead to gentrification and displacement?

Correction: This episode cites a statistic that 57 percent of current workers at Industry City are from Sunset Park. In fact, 57 percent are residents of Brooklyn, as reported by an HR&A Analysis in 2017.

Additional Reading:

• Making Sense of Incentives: Taming Business Incentives to Promote Prosperity (Tim Bartik, Upjohn Institute)
• Who’s to blame for high housing costs? It’s more complicated than you think. (Jenny Schuetz, Brookings Institution)
• Workforce Housing and Middle Income Housing Subsidies: A Primer (Jenny Schuetz, Brookings Institution)

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At 4th Avenue near Sunset Park in Brooklyn, Ellen McCann was hailing New York City Marathon runners with a smile and a sign that read, “You run better than our government.

Amused by McCann’s sign, a young runner shouted, “I do run better” as he gasped for breath.

“It’s just a joke about our government,” McCann said. “This means, ‘our government doesn’t run very well, but you do.’” she laughed. “While you’re running, you get very bored and the signs are funny and they make you laugh and they distract you.”

McCann was not alone. Standing beside her was her friend, Kimberly Gittines. They tracked down their friends and families on the phone who were running on the ready to cheer them on.

Around 11:00 a.m., McCann’s fiancé appeared in a group of runners. He dashed to her, kissed her hand, said,“ I love you”, and continued running.

McCann and her fiancé live in Virginia. Both of them are big fans of running.

“We work out about two hours a day, both of us together,” said McCann. “That’s how we spend time.”

Although she wanted to run in the marathon, she wasn’t chosen in the lottery.

“I like New York City,” she said. “It’s alive all day and all night. This isn’t the safest neighborhood , but it welcomes people. You don’t find that anywhere else. New York is awesome. I’ve always thought so.”

Last week, she ran the Marine Corps Marathon in Virginia with Gittines. They were next-door neighbors and knew each other for nearly three decades. The races are more like precious opportunities for them to spend time together.

“She lives in Virginia and I live in New Jersey and we don’t really get to catch up a lot,” said Gittines. “So it’s like catching up on the kids and work and our parents and all that stuff alike.”

When Gittines started to run marathons in 2011, her mother was severely ill because of cancer.

“I actually ran my first marathon two weeks before she passed away,” said Gittines. “I hadn’t trained. But I figured I’d go out and see how it was and I could push through the pain because I knew there was an end point. She didn’t have an end point and that’s what I thought when I ran. That helped me along in my run.”

After her mother died, she kept participating in marathons. Her memories with her mother always comes to her mind while she is running.

“I always think of her,” said Gittines. “When I grew up, we used to play golf with our families. And she was like, ‘here’s Kimberly! Putting for a birdie! It’s win! Yeah Kimberly!’ ”

Gittines said even though her mother had never watched her running marathons, she knew her mom would be supportive. “Whatever my brother and I did, she thought it was the best thing in the world.”

McCann’s niece, Regan Debennetto, 31, was also running in memory of her father, who died of a heart attack in 2002. After that, she began to run marathons. This time she ran for the American Heart Association and planned to raise money for them by finishing the whole course.

“For my niece, she says every five miles she runs for one person and she doesn’t want to let them down,” said McCann. “So five miles she runs for her father; five miles she runs for her grandmother and she wants to go home and tell grandma about those five miles she ran for her.”

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“I can only see shadows, no more,” said Lopez early Monday as the snow was starting to fall in this working class, immigrant community in Brooklyn. “As long as there are people walking on the street, it says the weather is not that bad, and I’d stay.”

Disabled and jobless, he makes money by singing upbeat ballads and playing his accordion every morning in his neighborhood. He spends one hour on a block, then moves to the next one. He makes $5 a day at most.

Before he went blind he used to be a roofer. But as his vision worsened, he could no longer do the job and had to rely on savings to pay his $320 rent.

He used up the last of his savings to hire his old immigration lawyer, to work out a deal with his landlord to suspend his rent. It was the same lawyer who helped him get his green card in 2002, 16 years after coming to this country from Mexico.

But his Social Security card and the green card were stolen and they have not been replaced. He carries around a certification from Maimonides Medical Center that says he donated blood at their blood center, to prove his legal status.

“I don’t have anything else to prove my identity,” he said.

When bad weather comes, Lopez stands under the eaves of the shops along the street. He helps shop owners with cleaning and other odd jobs. In return, they let him perform there.

Laia Diaz, the owner of the laundry on 4^th Avenue, said that when Lopez started singing in the neighborhood years ago, she recognized him right away.

“He was on television in 1991,” said Diaz. “He went into the UN building with a gun and got arrested. But he is a nice man in life.”

But Lopez said the gun charge was a big mistake.

“My friend wanted me to keep his gun for him. I did, I carried it everywhere. I didn’t speak English and had no idea it was illegal,” said Lopez. “I was just visiting the UN.”

As the snow falls, Lopez sings, but no one stops to listen.

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by Megan Jamerson

A sense of humor can come in handy when running the 26.2 mile TCS 2014 New York City Marathon course.

Standing on the corner of 39th Street and 4th Avenue, in Sunset Park, Brooklyn this morning, Patrick Hays’s goal is to help runners keep a smile. He held a sign that read in bright red letters “Want to finish fast?” Below it were simple to follow subway instructions on how to take the train from 36th Street to Columbus Circle. He explained this would deliver you a short jog from the marathon finish line.

“It’s not sanctioned, it’s just a suggestion,” said Hays of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn laughing. “There’s a question mark at the end.”

Runners are taking notice of his clever suggestion, and Hays is getting a number of smiles, out of breath laughs and high fives.

“I know they appreciate it,” said Hays of his sign.

Hays knows because in 2010 he completed his first New York City Marathon. Today he is standing on the same corner his family occupied to cheer him on four years ago. Every year since then he and his wife now return to encourage runners. According to Hays, there is a very simple reason for camping out just before mile six.

“Because the runners are happy here,” said Hays, 52. “You don’t feel the discomfort in your feet and knees. You’re just happy.”

In his personal marathon experience, training was the hardest part. Race day was all about having fun, and the crowds were what made the experience complete for him.

“Brooklyn was the best part,” said Hays. “People are just yelling “Yeah”! It carries you all the way through. I don’t even remember running.”

Just then, Hays paused to yell at a male runner wearing a Scotland sweatshirt and kilt. As a sidewalk spectator, seeing people represent their different cultural backgrounds and countries is his favorite part.

“We try to learn to say good luck in a couple different languages,” said Hays. “Then you get to yell at all kinds people, which is the best part.”

Hays and his wife are not alone cheering on the runners who still have 20 more miles ahead. The street is crowded with sidewalk bands, people hanging out of apartment buildings waving flags, and a nearby church holds a cookout. For Hays there is something very unique about the marathon, and one thing in particular stands out in his mind.

“Where else are you going to find 40,000 people insane enough to run 26 miles,” said Hays.

Hays, who trained for the cancelled 2012 marathon due to Hurricane Sandy, said he feels a little bit of that runner’s insanity beginning to creep back in.

“I was just telling my wife I want to do it again,” said Hays. “Every time I come out I get the energy.”

But it will not take him long to figure out if the excitement will last and he is truly committed to racing in 2015.

“If in two weeks from now I’m still sitting at the kitchen table stuffing my face then it’s not happening.”

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The Bello family has been flying in from Caracas for nine years for the New York City Marathon. They set up an elaborate camp flying the Venezuelan flag and cheering on their friends and relations at two points along the 26 mile route. Photo by Edna Ishayik

At 7 a.m., Gustavo Bello and a cluster of his friends and family set up banners, donned foamy red, yellow and blue hats and smeared their faces with paint.

They were preparing for an hours-long celebration of their team of more than 25 Venezuelan runners in the 2011 New York City Marathon. Brothers, sisters, husbands and wives were there to make some noise as their relations undertook a massive feat of physical endurance.

For the ninth consecutive year, the crew has parachuted in from Caracas to be part one of New York’s biggest sporting spectacles.

“It’s become a tradition,more and more runners have been joining us for this, some [have been participating] for 10 years some for the first time,” said Bello, a surgeon.

Every year, the Bellos and their extended family station themselves near the corner of Fourth Avenue and 37th Street in Sunset Park. This stretch of the course is lined with spartan bodegas, laundry services and fast food joints. It’s only several miles from the glitzy strip of Fifth Avenue marathoners will run later in the race, but in terms of socio-economics, it couldn’t be further.

But for the Bellos, the location serves not because of its diverse mix of Latino and Asian residents or its vibrant immigrant community, but because of its convenience.

“It’s easier. We’ve talked to the owner of the McDonalds. They let us park our cars,” said Adriana Vincentelli, one of the family members.

And it’s also easier to get a prime view. Unlike other neighborhoods further along the track, here the crowds are sparse.

The Bellos’ strategy, perfected over the years, allows no time for sampling the culture or cuisine of the taquerias and dumpling shops in the neighborhood. After the last runner in their group passes by, the plan calls for piling into rental cars and speeding up to the Upper East Side for a second round of cheering.

“The fifth mile is early enough that we get to see every runner—the slowest one and the fastest one,” Bello said. “It allows us then to go to the mile 18 and join them again. My dad is probably at the end. He’s 72.”

This year the group has a special motivation. Their long-time trainer, Marisela Diaz, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and missed the race for the first time in six years. Usually she gets the team into shape over half a year and then jogs along with them on the big day.
Her absence is palpable. Her image looms large on a sign strung between two poles and several family members wear her name on their shirts.

“We are doing this for her,” said Vincentelli.

Team Bello did their best to make Diaz proud. One by one, or in small clumps, the runners dash by the family’s festive encampment. Some give a simple wave, others stop for photos, hugs and even some small energy snacks. The group is exuberant—beaming with pride at their clan-members effort.

When the race is over, the celebration continues at the Mariott Marquis in Times Square.

“It’s fun to hear every one of them,” Bellow said. “There’s always a story. People rushing to the restroom, shoes with holes in them, people with bad cramps. All kinds of stories.”

By 12:15 p.m., the sidewalks of Sunset Park were quickly emptying out. Flashing police cars crawl down the avenue, trailing some of the very last of the 47,000 marathoners. The Bellos were long gone before the patrol cars pass 37th Street—they’re already on their way to catch their top runners cruise past mile 18.

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Wendy Reyes, 32, prepares the usual order for a local customer at family-owned Guadalupita II Mexican Deli and Grocery in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Reyes listens to her customers talk about issues like gang violence and anti-immigration laws that affect the local Mexican community. Photo by Amanda Plasencia

Wendy Reyes prepared the usual order of “res,” a type of meat used in Mexican cuisine, for a customer at her family-owned bodega. Familiar products from home, like “res,” papalo and extra spicy jalapenos, bring comfort to her neighborhood customers, many who recently immigrated here from Mexico.

The bodega, Guadalupita II Mexican Deli and Grocery, sells specialty Mexican products at Fifth Avenue and 39^th Street in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. For more than 13 years, Reyes has listened to her customers talk about issues such as their Mexican heritage, gang violence and anti-immigration laws that affect the neighborhood’s Mexican community.

Reyes, 32, is the owner’s daughter. She works the deli counter and register every day.

Originally from Puebla, Mexico, she immigrated to the United States with her family when she was 15.

“We left Mexico looking for opportunities and a better life. The only thing you can do in Puebla is to farm,” Reyes said.

Visiting Guadalupita II, like many of the bodegas in Sunset Park, is like crossing the border into Mexico. As you walk in, there is the smell and allure of jalapenos. Lively Mexican music and ceilings lined with brightly colored banners called “papel picado” give the place a fiesta vibe.

“We have a lot of specialty items that you only find in Mexico. We sell rare Mexican cooking herbs like papalo and pipicha, which has a ‘sabor fuerte,’ ” Reyes said.

Reyes’ family came to Sunset Park because they knew Mexicans were already living in the neighborhood and thought it would be a good place to start their business.

“I came over illegally with my family through Tijuana and then entered through California into Los Angeles. We came with a coyote smuggler,” Reyes said.

According to Reyes, many of the residents in Sunset Park are here legally, but there are some recent immigrants who have crossed the border illegally. Reyes and her family now have work visas and green cards, but no one has become a U.S. citizen.

“They come here because they need work,” Reyes said. “If not, why would you come? The majority have come illegally.”

The journey to Sunset Park is not easy, she said.

“After crossing the border, it was hard because we had to walk and walk all through the night,” Reyes said. “We would get on the ground when we saw the helicopters and hide behind trees.”

The family lived in Los Angeles for a month until her aunt told them to come live with her in Manhattan.

“My dad bought a rickety old car to take us across the country,” Reyes said. “It was my mom, dad, sister, brother and I driving with a map and without knowing English from Los Angeles all the way to New York.”

Reyes has experienced a lot in the neighborhood. She says it is a safe area, but admits there have been some incidents of gang violence.

“They are young hoodlums here. A long time ago, my friend’s brother was killed after leaving a dance party because he was dancing with a girl who one of the hoodlums liked. They shot him 20 times,” Reyes said.

Despite occasional violence, however, NYPD data for the 72^nd Precinct clearly shows a shift away from the crime-ridden times of 20 years ago. The creation of the Sunset Park Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District helped create this decline in violence.

Reyes, who leaves the store daily at 9 p.m., has never been robbed or seen any violence firsthand in her neighborhood.

Julia Fierro, owner of Maria’s Mexican Bistro in Sunset Park, also feels safe living in the neighborhood.

“Two years ago, there were a lot of gang fights and we couldn’t send out delivery boys at night because they would rob them,” said Fierro. “But now, we stay open late at night and have never experienced any problems.”

The community in Sunset Park is predominantly Mexican, with a mix of Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Salvadorians and Chinese. Many of the Mexicans have been here for years and have had started families.

The community is not deaf to recent anti-immigration sentiments in the U.S. The new Arizona anti-illegal immigration law, known as SB1070, which proposes, among other things, to deny citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants, scares many Mexicans in the neighborhood.

“There is fear that the law will come here and affect their children and families,” Reyes said as she stole a glance at her young son sleeping peacefully in a stroller behind the counter.

As a family business owner, she worries about how the law could affect her business if something similar passed in New York.

“For my future, I want to have my own business of the same style as my family’s. Who’s going to come buy Mexican products at my business if the people start getting too scared to be associated with Mexicans?” Reyes said.

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