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January 24, 1974 PHOENIX Page 3iWlllliKMPKWHIIIIIIIIWWitMPHOENIX Survey ShowsReverse Exodus' to CityBY KITTY TERJENThe recent upsurge in local real estate sales and rentals may indicate that the energy crisis is reversing the exodus to the suburbs, a special PHOENIX survey of local realtors has found.%u201cWe%u2019ve had the most successful month since we%u2019ve been in business,%u201d said Montague St. realtor Bernard Hughes Atkins who explained that the time around Christmas and the first two weeks in January is usually the slowest time in the real estate business. \however,%u201d he said, %u201c we have sold more houses and rented more apartments than any time in our history.%u201d%u201c My clients in the past month have been people with apartments in the suburbs%u2014Long Island, New Jersey and Westchester%u2014people who want to be closer to their work because the future is so uncertain,%u201d Atkins said.Also noting a recent upsurge not only in saies, but also in the number of potential customers, was Jerry Miles of Living Unlimited, a real estate firm thathandles properties in Park Slope, Ft. Greene and Downtown Brooklyn. \Miles noted, \conservative element looking for property in the area. In the past, most have been from the young, liberal element.\Miles also points out that a record number of suburban dwellers looked at property in Brooklyn during the last month and a half, due no doubt to the current energy crisis, he thinks. \banites looking at property recently,%u201d he said. %u201c Although these people are harder to sell, we have closed on three houses.\Rita Noonan of Boss Realty also agrees that the energy crisis has prompted greater interest in urban property, but she also thinks that a general disenchantment with the suburban way of life%u2014two-hour commutes, the necessity of owning a car, etc%u2014is also bringing people back to the city to live.%u201c For example, one of my clients now lives in Westchester and wants to move back,%u201d she said. \work, it%u2019s not the gas shortage that%u2019s prompting his move back to the city. He%u2019s just sick of the long commute.%u201dWhile not willing to call it an \also of Boss Realty, says she has noted a difference in her clientele recently. \am beginning to see couples who have moved to the suburbs and who now want to move back to the city to live,%u201d she said, \most of my clients continue to be people who already live in the city.%u201dOne real estate salesman, Sidney Glass of Heights Cranford on Montague St., said that he could see no change as a result of the energy crisis. If anything, he thinks, the energy crisis is hurting the local real estate business. %u201c The price is going up on fuel oil 60 per cent,%u201d he said. \dlords who can%u2019t pass the increases on to their tenants.%u201dWhile brokers at Living Unlimited have also noted that sales of multiple dwellings have fallen off, they feel that the upsurge in the sales of one- to four-family dwellings has more than offset the loss.income properties, m ultiple family dwellings, that have been called off or stalled because the investors don%u2019t know about the price of oil and are afraid their potential income might be cut,%u201d Jerry Miles said. He explained that many m ultiple family dwellings in Brooklyn are still under rent control or occupied by tenants with leases so that many investors fear they will be caught in a profit squeeze if the price of oil continues its dramatic rise.Brushing aside this potentially negative aspect of the energy crisis on Brooklyn's real estate market, Bernard Atkins said, \anything that makes sense, you can get mortgages and many owners are now writing in escalation clauses into their leasesEven if it is prompted by a crisis, reversing the exodus to the suburbs%u2014with more and more people not only working but also living in the city%u2014is an exciting prospect for realtors and other Brooklynites who have seen an even greater future for the borough as renewal and restoration in various parts of our neighI know of some deals on borhoods of old Brooklyn.UH!Ullffiilllfll%u00bbSliHIIIIIIIIHHIUIIIMIIIIIIIHIHIHillUIIIIIIIIIlllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllilllilIfnilllllliniillHllllllilHIIIIIIIIIBKIiliniI9iHIIIIIIIUHIIHHIIillHIIHaiHIIIHHIIHIIUIIIIIItllllllllllllUlllliniltill!!llll!lflllilllillllllllillllllilllllllllllllllllltllAtlantic Ave. Committee's Aim:Develop Diverse, Serviceable Blvd.BY EILEEN PLATZProving there%u2019s no energy crisis as far as Brooklyn%u2019s revitalization is concerned, The Atlantic Avenue Committee of the Downtown B r o o k l y n D e v e l o p m e n t Association (DBDA) has swung into action with a membership participation program aimed at involving as many interested m erchants and residents as possible in the development of Atlantic Avenue, from Buttermilk Channel to the LIRR Terminal.Gaining momentum from the successful Triangle Parks program along Flatbush Avenue, the Commitee, headed by Alden Bassett, Vice President of South Brooklyn Savings Bank and Robert Higginbotham, , President of McVickers & Higginbotham, an Atlantic Avenue m arketing development firm, is geared to diversifying and developing the Avenue into a more serviceable boulevard for the residential community. A secondary, accompanying concern is enhancingAtlantic Avenue as a shoppingtourist facility.Membership enrollment and committee formation to permit the group to efficiently address themselves to nearly a score of issues from Sanitation to Public Relations is the Atlantic Avenue Committee%u2019s (AAC) first order of business and solicitation is already underway.Bassett, whose South Brooklyn Savings Bank has quietly, but firmly supported the redevelopc o m m gThe Third Street Playground, long a battleground for Park Slope mothers and the ParksDepartment, sits under mantle of ice and snow on weekend in January as work is issued by Parksofficials that construction will proceed in Spring of this year. (Ann Mandelbaum Photo)ment of Atlantic Avenue over recent years, said, %u201cWe saw the upturn Atlantic Ave. was taking some time ago, and are determined that through this kind of formal effort everyone on the street will join to push for more and greater growth.Membership fees will be used to fund the activities of a %u201c Field Force M an\actually a troubleshooter who,, armed with a detailed map of Atlantic Avenue from Furman St. to Flatbush Avenue, will scout the Avenue, footnoting sidewalk conditions, sanitation violations, building maintenance, street signage and general conditions along the Avenue. His observations will be reviewed weekly with the appropriate City Agency and representatives of the DBDA to insure that both existing and potential problems are attended to. The Field Force Man. a student at Polytechnic Institute of N. Y., who begins his rounds this month is the second one employed by the DBDA. There is currently a Field Force Man for the downtown Fulton Street area and Flatbush Avenue from the bridge to Grand Army Plaza.Higginbotham, vice chairman of the AAC, feels this Field Man problem identification and referral program is absolutely essential to the progress of Atlantic Avenuerln\\;%u00ablAnmotif v-'~ *It was this kind of perceptive appraisal of the potential of thearea in the early days of 1972 that led Donald Moore, President of the DBDA and Alden Bassett, vice president of the 124 year old South Brooklyn Savings Bank at Court and Atlantic to informally pursue the idea of a special Atlantic Avenue group.The im plem entation of the Atlantic Terminal Urban Renewal Project and the success of merchant Harry Reid%u2019s TAG (Turn Atlantic Green) project contributed to the belief that an Atlantic Avenue group would be feasible and productive. Reid's success, in particular, in securing both private money from local merchants and homeowners as well as from the City for tree planting documented the interest and willingness of the community to take Atlantic Ave. in handThe first project of the newly formed committee was to set up a system of block captains to serve as liaisons between the community's residential and commercial population and the DBDA. Participants in this program included Basil Barvell, Alden Bassett. Michael A. DeVito, Robert Higginbotham, William Klein, Irving Meshel, Raymond Prose, Harry Reid, doe Shuhda. Dick Starr and Mark ZuliThe first priority of the /AAC has been zoning revisions for Atlantic Avenue, particularly the area fromQt In li1! nlKneVi in t Unjurisdiction of the LandmarksContinued on Paqe 13iiiiHvmtfniiiitnimNniiiiiiiniiMiiiiiiiiivinmiiiHiiiMiniaimiuiiimniBiiyiiiMiiiMirmmMiMUtMimiP f lO O T X130 Clinton StreetA weekly community newspaper published SO times a year t>v Advocate Freis UK. serving ihe neighbor hoou*surrounding Downtown Brooklyn n ciudmg Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens. Cobh'e Hill. Fort Greene ar.d Parh Slope Subscr pt on ss per yearApplication to MaH at Second Class Postaqe Rates is Pending ,it Brooklyn rxew York