Downtown Brooklyn

“That’s why we got haters, that’s why we got haters
Haters everywhere we go, haters everywhere we go”

– B.o.B

Justin Davidson, writing about the architecture of Downtown Brooklyn for Curbed:

The new Lidl grocery store at 490 Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn opened its doors on Friday, May 23rd, 2025. It feels like it happened in the blink of an eye—or maybe everything seems fast in the dark shadow of the slow-moving slug that is the never-finished 9 Dekalb.

I popped into the store the other day to check out the new location and snap some pictures. Here are some first impressions:

• Prices are great, making this store a welcome edition to the neighborhood
• Selection is mid—this isn’t the type of grocery store that will have every specific item you’re looking for. However, you should be able to find most categories of items you need, just not necessarily specific brands.
• The store was full of shoppers on the Saturday I popped by. People are excited it’s now here!
• It’s larger than you might expect from the outside. It’s definitely a full-sized grocery store
• The produce section was full of fresh-looking items.

I did not do a side-by-side price comparison for specific items that can be found at competing nearby stores. So I can’t speak to the specifics of the “discount” claims. But overall it did seem to be priced competitively for the neighborhood.

I’ll definitely be curious to see how Lidl stacks up against the upcoming Fresh Grocer opening right across the street.

What’s the opposite of a Food Desert? A Food Oasis? Because that’s exactly what Downtown Brooklyn has become.

I’ll drop a few more photos at the end of this post to help celebrate the store’s opening.

Sure, the west side of Flatbush has a huge selection of new luxury apartments. But what about the east side?

If you visited City Point mall recently, you likely spotted striking workers distributing flyers outside Alamo Drafthouse. Good news: after nearly two months, the strike has ended with a victory for the union!

Some people look at Brooklyn Tower—the supertall skyscraper in Downtown Brooklyn—and see the Tower of Sauron. To me, it’s more like a giant slug with movement so slow it’s nearly imperceptible.

Construction started in 2018 (earlier, if you count the demolition of the previous building) and residents started moving in in 2022. But slow sales caused JDS Development to default on its loan, stalling construction on this eye-catching building. Silverstein Capital Partners took over the building last summer in a $672 million foreclosure settlement and sales are re-lauching soon.

As an ode to the soon-to-be-closing Macy’s on Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn, Brownstoner has a wonderful article describing the history of “dazzling emporiums” that once lined these streets.

The legend herself is now immortalized at City Point in Downtown Brooklyn. You should pop in and see it next time you’re in the area.

I must say, the location of the statue is pretty cool. It’s right inside the entrance to City Point from Flatbush. It’s one of the lesser-used entrances, north of the typical Trader Joes entrance. But you can see it easily from the street as you’re walking past.

Gage & Tollner was one of the sadder Downtown Brooklyn stories, with the grand re-opening scheduled for just days after the city shut down due to the Coronavirus in March 2020. Seriously: March 12th was my (and many other’s) last day working in an office, and their opening was scheduled for March 15th. Oof.