One After 1209

The air feels hot and heavy, but the energy is electrifying. A family plays harmonica on their stoop. Some men loitering on a corner tell me to have a good night. Plumes of weed smoke hang in the air, a reminder that people can still claim public space. Nearby, 1209 Dekalb stands as a drab counterpoint.

Early advertising for the high-end apartments boasted of its location in “one of NYC’s most historic neighborhoods.” Its smooth, boxy, unlovable exterior carelessly looms over a brick high school. Large glass windows offer a false sense of exchange between tenants and the community outside. Spruce Capital Partners bought the building, then known as Colony 1209, for $58 million in 2014. (Its new tagline? “Let’s Homestead, Bushwick style.”) Meanwhile, protesters amassed out front against the tax abatement program that publicly subsidized this and other “affordable” devel- opments across the city. Spruce’s marketing team got the message: there are no appeals to community and creativity in the latest publicity materials, no feigned interest in the family on their stoop o…