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Originally Posted by Crawford
NYC (and most other cities) also experienced very steep declines (in some ways I think NYC's 70's-era decline was more severe and shocking) but the difference is that NYC had a crapload of prewar fabric, probably more than any other city on earth. It had the ideal bones once density/walkability became an asset.
Also, the recent Fulton corridor infill narrative is a bit misleading, because those lots were empty due to city urban renewal efforts. It isn't like Fulton Street was ever bombed out; the city demolished half the neighborhood and then went broke, so they never finished rebuilding the blocks until very recently. The lingering lots were more a legacy of 70's-era municipal cutbacks (notice that all the urban renewal is early 70's stuff or stuff from the last 20 years, and nothing in-between).
And the city rezoned Bed Stuy a few years ago, allowing midrise towers. There were none previously because they weren't allowed, not necessarily because they wouldn't have been built.
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Yes, the rezoning made repurposing the gas station - this one as well as those on Atlantic Avenue that are also being demolished - financially viable because of the costs of converting a gas station to residential. But there were plenty of under-utilized lots to build on, parking lots, as well as existing buildings to renovate, well before the rezoning. What is different now is that nearly all of Manhattan is at a very advanced stage of gentrification, so developers have had to move deep into the boroughs.