In 2005, Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council rezoned large areas of Brooklyn land in order to spark a boom in residential construction. Developers immediately raced in to begin work on luxury high-rise condominiums. When the economy turned upside down in the midst of construction, north Brooklyn, Greenpoint, Bushwick, Lefferts Gardens, and many other Brooklyn neighborhoods were left littered with half-finished developments: Gothamist.com reports 143 stalled construction sites around the city, with the highest concentration in Brooklyn, which boasts a total 63 vacant lots and rusting steel building frames—18 in Williamsburg alone. This arrested development has a huge impact on the surrounding community. Residents are increasingly outraged about this “degentrification, which is attracting squatters and creating an urban graveyard.”

My piece combines a multitude of these unfinished and dilapidated condominiums from throughout Brooklyn into a single city corner. One has been left uncompleted for nearly 2 years and there is no sign of any development in the future. It has led to many complaints and the loss of value in the area. Another building (in north Williamsburg) has had numerous accidents from falling debris, and has become a "shooting gallery" for heroin addicts.

I believe in spite of all the "red tape" complexities and bureaucracy, a city/state or even federal agency should take projects like this over, and take action to either complete them and then offer them to qualified residents of these neighborhoods on a not for profit basis; or remove them entirely and install community-based gardens, and/or city parks. With all the substandard housing and lack of green spaces in areas like this all over the city, it is shameful to see the blight that accompanies these abandoned sites.

- Jake Messing