Rising to a height of 70 feet, Oliver House has been called "out of context" by preservation-minded residents of the community; it is scheduled for completion in April 2011. Photo: Will Holloway

Even before construction began in 2008, the condominium development at the corner of Smith Street and Second Place in Carroll Gardens raised the eyebrows, and ire, of many neighborhood residents.

There was concern that Oliver House, as the development is known, was too big, that it was out of context with the neighborhood, and that it represented a slippery slope to which the historic brownstones and quaint charm of Carroll Gardens would eventually succumb. As the construction of the seven-story, 65,000-square-foot structure nears completion two years later, a debate between development and preservation continues. It is a hot-button topic in this traditionally blue-collar, Italian-American neighborhood, where gentrification and its effects – rising housing costs and the displacement of “indigenous” residents – are nothing new.

A few short blocks from the corner of Smith Street and Second Place is the Carroll Gardens Historic District. One of the smallest historic districts in the city, encompassing just two blocks – Carroll and President streets between Smith and Hoyt streets – it was designated in 1973 at the urging of community activist and local funeral home owner Salvatore “Buddy” Scotto. Today, Scotto is pushing for an expansion of the historic district, a proposal that meets both staunch support and fierce opposition in the neighborhood.

Scotto, 81, is something of a neighborhood legend; as his lifelong friend Joe Masefield says, Scotto is known as the unofficial “mayor of Carroll Gardens.” In fact, the neighborhood itself takes its name from the Carroll Gardens Civic Association, which Scotto formed in the mid-1960s. Prior to that time, Carroll Gardens was part of a larger area known as South Brooklyn.

“When I grew up, Italian-Americans were the poor in New York,” Scotto said recently as he sat in the austere parlor of the funeral home his family established in 1926. “We came to this Italian ghetto neighborhood, which formerly had been an Irish ghetto neighborhood. Growing up here, I thought the whole world was Italian-American.”

Scotto has been involved in community issues for years, from planting trees and pushing for the cleanup of the heavily polluted Gowanus Canal to advocating for affordable housing.

“A lot of people born and raised in this neighborhood can’t afford to live here,” he said.

A block away, next to a Chase Bank on the corner of Court and Carroll streets, is Marietta’s Dry Goods, a clothing store that opened in 1940 and seemingly hasn’t changed much in the seven decades since. It is run by Matt Chirico, 83, and his brother Joe, 89. The brothers took over the store from their parents when they returned from World War II. As Matt Chirico opened a shipment of shirts, he recalled that an apartment would rent for about $30 when he was young. Today, the real estate company Prudential Douglas Elliman estimates that the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the neighborhood is $1,326.

“When you’ve been around for a long time,” said Chirico, “you see the same people. You know people. And sometimes you look around and say to yourself, ‘Where are they? Where did they go?’”

A History of Change

Like the Irish immigrants that preceded them, Italian immigrants in the neighborhood worked as longshoremen in the early- and mid-20th century. And just as the Irish-American population dwindled as Italians moved in, so too has the Italian-American population dropped steadily in the past four decades as young urban professionals have moved to Carroll Gardens.

According to the U.S. Census, the number of persons with Italian ancestry in the 11231 zip code (which also includes the Red Hook neighborhood to the south) in 1980 was 11,516, or 31 percent of the total population; in 2000, the number of persons with Italian ancestry was 5,869, or 18 percent of the population.

As Italian-Americans have moved out, outsiders have moved in. In all of Community Board Six, which includes Carroll Gardens, 53 percent of current householders moved into their current unit between 2000 and 2008, while only 17 percent moved into their currently unit prior to 1980, according to the 2006-2008 American Community Survey.

In the Journal of the American Planning Association article “Gentrification and Displacement New York City in the 1990s,” authors Lance Freeman and Frank Braconi define neighborhood gentrification as “a dramatic shift in their demographic composition toward better educated and more affluent residents.” In Carroll Gardens, according to longtime residents, that shift began in the 1970s and hit full stride in the 1980s.

“A lot of people sold and moved out,” said Vincent Favorito, 69, who was born and raised in Carroll Gardens. “And the prices of apartments went through the roof.”

Favorito grew up in a rent-controlled apartment that his family rented for $400 per month in the late 1960s. In the early 1970s, he was looking to buy in the neighborhood, but found prices too high and bought a four-bedroom house in Marine Park. Favorito and his family now live in a Carroll Gardens brownstone that his wife inherited. His father-in-law bought it for $8,000 in 1944; Favorito said it is now valued at approximately $1.8 million.

Many residents took advantage of rising prices, selling their homes and moving to places like Long Island and New Jersey. Joan D’Amico, 54, who was born and raised in the neighborhood, said that in the 1970s and 1980s, the area wasn’t as desirable as it is now.

“People didn’t want to raise their kids here,” she said. “Now they can’t afford to come back.”

Toni D’Andrea, 59, a real estate agent and lifelong resident of the neighborhood, agreed.

“The children of most of the people I grew up with are living in New Jersey or Staten Island because they can’t afford to live here,” she said. “Growing up here was wonderful. You knew everyone on your block, and you felt like you knew everyone in the neighborhood. One of the things that I really miss is that you very rarely hear Italian spoken anymore.”

Holding on to the past

Today, despite gentrification, Carroll Gardens retains much of its Italian-American flavor. Restaurants such as Mama Maria’s, Marco Polo and Casa Rosa can be found on Court Street, along with Caputo’s Bake Shop and G. Esposito and Sons Jersey Pork Store. Men converse in Italian outside of the Van Westerhout Cittadini Molesi Social Club on Court Street and Fourth Place. Statues of the Virgin Mary stand amid angel and cherub figurines in several front courtyards.

Retaining that character in the face of development pressures is at the heart of the debate over projects like Oliver House. In 2007, a neighborhood group called the Carroll Gardens Coalition for Respectful Development was formed by residents concerned about developments seen as “out of character” with the neighborhood. A zoning amendment was proposed and approved by the city, limiting new developments to a height of 55 feet. But Oliver House was exempted from the amendment because its construction was ruled to be significantly underway; it now rises to 70 feet.

Now, in an additional effort to preserve the character of the neighborhood, the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association and residents like Scotto and Favorito are pushing for an expansion of the Carroll Gardens Historic District. The proposed expansion encompasses a 10-block area bounded by Court, Henry and Huntington streets and First Place.

Still, not everyone is sold on the idea.

John Esposito, 49, was born and raised in Carroll Gardens and owns Sal’s Pizzeria on Court Street. He also belongs to a group called Citizens Against LandMarking. Esposito said that unlike neighboring Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and Park Slope, Carroll Gardens is unique because it has a balance of low and high-income residents, and the expansion of the historic district would hasten gentrification by pushing low-income residents out.

While the net effect of historic districting on neighborhoods is difficult to gauge, a 2003 report by New York City’s Independent Budget Office concluded that, all things being equal, “prices of houses in historic districts are higher than those of similar houses outside historic districts.” In a neighborhood where, according to Prudential Douglas Elliman, 73 percent of the housing inventory is rented, that increase in housing prices would likely result in higher rents.

According to architect Stephen Byrns, a member of the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission, the expansion of the Carroll Gardens Historic District is currently being considered, but the process – from being calendared to a public hearing to designation – can sometimes take years. Byrns said the commission is proceeding cautiously because the community is split on the issue.

“The people who built this neighborhood, who have lived here for 80 years – they didn’t need landmarks to protect the neighborhood,” said Esposito, echoing another concern – that historic landmarking leads to a loss of property rights. “Why do we need Big Brother to tell us what to do with our property? Why do we have to go in front of a committee to get approval for something?”

While he has mixed emotions about new development in the neighborhood, Esposito said that restricting development restricts the growth of the city. “People need a place to live,” he said. “There should be certain parts of the area that have high rises. Why not? Nothing stays the same. Life moves on.”

Back at the Scotto Funeral Home, Scotto echoed that sentiment.

“The only constant in this world is change, and we’re doing the best we can with it,” he said, adding that no issues are unanimously accepted in any community in any circumstance.

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