Brooklyn Heights' severed artery

One-fifth of historic Montague Street's storefronts have shuttered.

Montague Street, the four-block strip through the heart of Brooklyn Heights, is withering.

The picturesque street guides pedestrians—tourists and locals alike—from Kings County Supreme Court and Borough Hall past local storefronts and deposits them at the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. It is the heart of New York City’s first historic district, designated in 1965. And it is in trouble, as it has been before and doubtless will be again.

Property taxes and the attendant high rents had conspired with online shopping and the slow death of mom & pop stores to hit the area hard, even before coronavirus arrived on our shores. Add to that the departure of the Jehovah’s Witnesses from their Brooklyn Heights headquarters (which drove some tourism) and you have a precarious situation.

In a new deep dive about the strip, the Brooklyn Eagle reports that one-fifth of Montague storefronts have shuttered:

“The unofficial ‘Main Street’ of New York’s first historic district should be a dream location for popular retail stores and restaurants, but the shopping strip has been plagued by vacancies for decades. Now, amid COVID-19, the bottom is falling out,” writes Mary Frost. Read more here.

Now, the Brooklyn Heights Association is conducting a survey to determine what comes next for the historic street, “to help the BHA better understand how you experience Montague Street, and to gather ideas for changes you would like to see post-COVID.” Got something to say? Take the survey here.