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Page 12 PHOENIX April 25, 1974Officialdom's Rolein Redevelopment:Leone HeadsList of SupportivePublic Figuressupport and leadership.Mayor Abraham Beame, then City Comptroller, was an early supporter of the plans and programs outlined by the professional planners to renew this historic commercial area. Then-Mayor John Lindsay and a series of his top administration officials gave the Brooklyn process top priority.A host of public and political officials have had roles in putting the elements of the renewal plan for downtown Brooklyn into play over the years, but no one has probably been more crucial to the process than Brooklyn BoroughThe private business interests in and around downtown were the catalyst to the massive downtown renewal we are enjoying in Brooklyn, but nothing would have happened, many believe, without the kind of official standing their cause received right from the very start.Both in the New York City Planning Commission and in other government agencies, as well as in Brooklyn%u2019s Borough Hall, downtown renewal and the efforts of the group that put together the current push, received first a serious ear, then later enthusiastic and vitalPresident Sebastian Leone.Leone and his staff have been out in front in public and private to mobilize the political leaders of the Borough every time a crisis in the process occurred. His enthusiastic support has been vital before the Board of Estimate, fighting for the %u201c Brooklyn share%u201d of the municipal pie, and in the hundreds of public and private meetings, hearings and conversations that he has had helping to work out details and smooth the ruffled feathers of city agencies.Twice in the past year, major projects essential to the downtown area have nearly been eliminated, and both times he has rallied the forces to save them. The 1,100 units of new housing slated to go up on the vacant land between State and Schermerhorn Streets in Boerum Hill was nearly sidetracked at its final hearing before the Board of Estimate, but Leone persuaded his colleagues to back the plan.In December, with a major decision to be made about the location of Baruch College, long regarded as an integral part of the Atlantic Terminal Urban Renewal Area, it was Leone who led the lobbying effort before the State Board of Regents to put the new campus for this unit of the City University along Atlantic Avenue, east of Flatbush.In assessing why Brooklyn has been so successful to date in renewal progress for downtown Brooklyn, says it is because %u201c what we represent is people, and our political leaders in Brooklyn are behind the movement to bring downtown alive again.%u201dIn conversations with key business leaders involved in the current push on behalf of downtown, there was near-unanimous agreem ent that without the sympathetic and constructive support of the political leaders of the Borough, thereBorough President Sebastian John Hayes.would be no redevelopment effort today. %u201c Aggressive political leadership has been vital,%u201d says one banker. %u201c We found that if we call on our public officials for help, they are there. Much of what we have accomplished, we owe to their responsiveness.%u201dIn remarks prepared for the opening of a new health care facility on Livingston Street last week, Borough President Leone reminded everyone of the scope of what has taken place to date: %u201c It is too rarely mentioned and too often completely forgotten that in the last two decades, public and private investment with a current value of over half a billion dollars has been made in our downtown civic center area.%u201d He believes downtown Brooklyn a %u201c community of opportunity.%u201d-Michael Allenand Deputy Borough PresidentMayor Abe Beanie will be guestof honor at May 6 annual dinnerof Downtown BrooklynDevelopment Association.Business & Residential Growth:A Symbiotic RelationshipThere's the-chicken-and-the-egg debate in many quarters about which came first to downtown Brooklyn-commercial or residential renewal. But whatever the conclusion, most observers agree there is a strong symbiotic relationship between the two movements that works to everyone's advantage.Many of the business leaders who put together the Downtown Development Association firmly believed that a mix of residential and commercial renewal was essential to their goal. Many of the new families who have moved into the brownstone neighborhoods surrounding downtown came becausethe commercial area.The view of most of those who have watched downtown renewal over the past few years is that there is a strong movement back to thecity from the suburbs. The energy crisis has helped accelerate it, but it has been happening longer than that. Willard Hampton, chairman of Brooklyn Savings Bank, says that the suburban dream has faded fast. %u201c A lot of people get turned off to the grass and trees of the suburbs when they find out howp v n p n c iu p o r a c c a n M f r p p g r*n n h p r %u25a0 * o --------particularly in such a car-oriented area as Long Island.%u201d He sees a strong movement back to the cities underway now.%u201c We saw the residential rehabilitation that was taking place in some of the downtown neighborhoods as one element of encouragement in our decision to start the D ow ntow n B rooklyn Development Association,%u201d remembers Leonard Nadel. senior vice president at A & S.Robert Muery, Brooklyn vice president for Bankers Trust, says:\important part of the mix. If you can%u2019t attract people to live here, how are you going to get them to shop?%u201d His bank welcomes home mortgage applications in all the downtown neighborhoods, he says.The Chase Manhattan man in Brooklyn, vice president Michael Calandra, is proud of Chase%u2019s role in opening up its mortgage roles to the brownstone areas. %u201c We%u2019ve probably booked more mortgages now in Park Slope than anyone else.%u201d he believes. %u201c We'll put more than S25 million into home mortgages in Brooklyn this year.\Richard Arkwright of Kings Lafayette Bank agrees that the movement is underwav. and believes the business community is aware of the movement to the historic areas surrounding downtown, and thinks that businessmen must be responsive to it.