A NEW GARMENT DISTRICT
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A NEW GARMENT DISTRICT
AN OVERVIEW
Special Purpose Districts (SPD) came into New York City
in 1973 with Williamsburg becoming the first SPD in NYC. These districts came about primarily due to the immense pressure exerted by different community residents and members who wanted the legalization of development of replacement housing for those displaced by any urban renewal plan that facilitated the expansion of industrial plants. "A Special Purpose District is created when an amendment is made to a zoning ordinance. It is intended to either protect a particular area from development pressure or to preserve its appearance (Pratt Institute, May 31, 2001, pp 40)". One such a special purpose district is the Special Garment Center District. This district was created in 1987 to preserve manufacturing spaces at affordable rents for apparel-related production and manufacturing within the traditional Garment Center. This was also a measure enacted to provide the locality with the benefits of concentrating similar businesses in vicinity to one another. Once this center became a SPD, manufacturing space within the Preservation Area of the special purpose district could only be converted if an equal amount of space is dedicated elsewhere towards the apparel manufacturing and other production work in the special purpose district.
a prospective site to relocate this district so as to give a new lease of life. While the purpose this district sets to serve is very important for our local economy and revenue generation, a new site will help boost the productivity and output we derive out of this special purpose district. This project stems from the De Blasio administration’s consideration to move the Garment District to Brooklyn, majorly due to the reasons stated above. This proposal is still underway, with considerations being undertaken to establish a site most suitable to relocate the Garment District in Brooklyn. This project tries to locate such a suitable site for the Garment District in Brooklyn, with a set of criteria to undertake a multi-criteria decision analysis among other spatial analyses and these will be dealt with in depth in the coming sections of this research project.
However, studies show that even after the conversion of the Garment District into an SPD, high rents are increasing the number of displaced manufacturing hubs out of the district. These estimates are compounded by the leases expiring in 2 years in the Garment District and other rezoning issues. Thus without apt interventions and enforcement of the current regulations the garment industry is likely to be displaced from Manhattan. This district is today an example of lack of zoning enforcement since not only residential uses increased, which was not permitted, but also commercial uses, which are limited, grew at exorbitant rates. Given the trends of decrease of manufacturing hubs in the Garment District, this research is an attempt to identify 2
‘Garment District,Pushing racks through the streets’. 1957.
A NEW GARMENT DISTRICT
LET US BEGIN.. The Garment District is located in the heart of midtown Manhattan between 42nd W and 34th W Street on the Avenue of the Americas and 9th Avenue. It is a small yet dense district occupying 1 mile2 of area and has long been known to cater to the biggest names in fashion.
BRONX
QUEENS
Garment District Census Tracts in Manhattan Green Spaces
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A NEW GARMENT DISTRICT
SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS The scope on ground for this project is very vast and
there are numerous considerations that need to be kept in mind before any such site is selected for relocation of the Garment District. While the project can expand its criteria for selection, the project restricts the area of focus to four specific criteria to undertake the analysis: • Existing locations of manufacturing zones in Brooklyn • Existing location of textile manufacturing units in Brooklyn • Availability of Vacant lots in Brooklyn • Current Non-Special Purpose Districts in Brooklyn
Undertaking this research with four criteria is a limitation, however, it should reveal certain key aspects that needs to be considered while proposing a new site for the Garment District. If not a complete study, this research will bring out results, we will cover very important aspects for proposing new sites. This study does not look for sites outside Brooklyn and shall stick to the De Blasio administration’s decision to find a site in Brooklyn without contesting the suitability of Brooklyn vis-à-vis other boroughs.
DATASETS
The datasets forming the base of our maps have been
taken from out lab exercises for the Introduction to Geographic Information Systems class. The datasets in the box correspond to the information necessary for the study. • Borough boundaries from NYC Department of City Planning’s Bytes of the Big Apple. • Polygon file depicting the green spaces in the city will be downloaded from the NYC OpenData portal. • Polygon file representing the water features around New York. •
Neighborhood Tabulation Areas to identify the prospective sites.
• ReferenceUSA for locations of textile manufacturing units in Brooklyn. ReferenceUSA. 2017. Accessed on March 20, 2017. http://www.referenceusa.com/UsBusiness/Search/ Custom/9bc96f2500f641e8aeb23230686a0f56 • PLUTO data for land uses in Brooklyn New York City Department of City Planning. MapPLUTO. Open Data. “mapPLUTO-Brooklyn” [shapefile]. https:// www1.nyc.gov/site/planning/data-maps/open-data/ dwn-pluto-mappluto.page • Bytes of the Big Apple for zoning features of special districts New York City Department of City Planning. Bytes of the Big Apple. OpenData. NYC Zoning Tax Lot Database. Updated February 2017. https://www1.nyc.gov/site/planning/data-maps/ open-data.page • NAICS codes for apparel/textile manufacturing businesses in Brooklyn North American Industry Classification System. Textile Mills and related manufacturing codes. https://www. naics.com/naics-search-results/
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A NEW GARMENT DISTRICT
METHODOLOGY MapPLUTO datasets, the borough boundaries, water areas and green spaces shapefiles were used along with
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the graticule data of manufacturing unit locations from ReferenceUSA to plot the locations of the 219 existing manufacturing units in Brooklyn.
Textile Manufacturing Units
Borough of Brooklyn 5
A NEW GARMENT DISTRICT
QUERYING THE DATA
The existing vacant lots in addition to the vacant lots in
manufacturing zones were selected through a series of selections by attributes and locations. Additionally, all lots that are currently not Special Purpose Districts are selected
Textile Manufacturing Units
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Manufacturing Zones
as the study aims to propose a new Special Purpose District. We have 949 vacant lots in manufacturing zones and 248793 non special purpose districts in Brooklyn.
Special Purpose Districts
Non-Special Purpose Districts
Vacant Lots
Vacant Lots in Manufacturing Zones
A NEW GARMENT DISTRICT
CLUSTER ANALYSIS
The next part of the study encompasses a cluster
analysis to see whether the existing manufacturing units in Brooklyn are in fact clustered or not. If they are, it gives us an important criteria to keep in mind while proposing a new location for the Garment District. The Average Nearest Neighbor test gave a p-Value of 0 indicating a 100% confidence that the existing
manufacturing units are clustered. It also gives 2 important values of average and expected distances between these units in a cluster. The average distance is 1112 feet and the expected distance is 1486 feet. The Kernel Density tool is run with the expected radius of 1486 feet to map clusters of existing manufacturing units.
p value = 0 Average distance = 1112 ft. Expected distance = 1486 ft.
Density of manufacturing unit clusters
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High: 0.209133 Textile Manufacturing Units Low: 0 7
A NEW GARMENT DISTRICT
DECISION LAYER I : NON-SPECIAL PURPOSE DISTRICTS
The first decision layer comprises of all the non-special
purpose districts in Brooklyn and this will have a binary function. A value of 0 corresponds to all polygon features which are Special Purpose Districts currently. A value of 1
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corresponds to all polygon features which are currently not Special Purpose Districts. Only non-Special Purpose Districts will be considered in the site selection.
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Value = 1
A NEW GARMENT DISTRICT
DECISION LAYER II : VACANT LOTS
The second decision layer is a combination of two layers: • •
Existing vacant lots Vacant lots that lie in manufacturing zones in Brooklyn
Both these were individually created as decision layers and
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were given binary values. A value of 1 was given to lots which are vacant in both the above categories. A value of 0 was given to lots which are not vacant in both these categories. The map below represents both these layers together.
Vacant lots carrying a value of 1
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A NEW GARMENT DISTRICT
DECISION LAYER III & DECISION MAP: DENSITY IN CLUSTERS
Certain calculations were made (see Appendix) to decide if a cluster of manufacturing units could be considered appropriate to propose the new site like the minimum density requirement of existing manufacturing units in a cluster for it to be considered suitable for our study. This
was created as ranked layer with values ranging from 0, being the least suitable cluster to 5, being the best suited cluster. The map below is an overlap of all 3 decision layers and the 2 probable sites have been highlighted here. (See Appendix for ranked decision map equation)
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Suitability Scores
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Value = 1
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A NEW GARMENT DISTRICT
OUR SITES
A: DUMBO
The neighborhood of DUMBO – Vinegar Hill – Downtown
Brooklyn – Boerum Hill and Borough Park are the best suited sites for the relocation of the Garment District in Brooklyn. Future research on similar lines can incorporate other factors like the revenue generated by the neighborhood to understand if or not that neighborhood needs any
Street art in DUMBO, Brooklyn
B: BOROUGH PARK intervention and the displacement of existing populations that will occur due to this development. Other intangible aspects must also be considered by planners like the needs of the community on ground, their expectations from such a district and the cultural vibrancy these neighborhoods pre and post such interventions.
St. Catherine of Alexandria, Borough Park, Brooklyn 11
A NEW GARMENT DISTRICT
APPENDIX - The North American Industry Classification System (2017 NAICS) codes representing textile and allied manufacturing industries are: • • •
313 series - Textile Mills 314 series - Textile Product Mills 315 series - Apparel Manufacturing
- The metadata of the MapPLUTO dataset mentions the following fields related to zoning districts: • ZoneDist1 (Zoning, Zoning District 1) Tax lots divided by a zoning boundary line depicting a zoning district classification occupying the second greatest % of the tax lot’s area. The codes of interest to us in this field are: M1-1 – M3-2 : Manufacturing districts • ZoneDist2 (Zoning, Zoning District 2) Tax lots divided by a zoning boundary line depicting a zoning district classification occupying the second greatest % of the tax lot’s area. The codes of interest to us in this field are: M1-1 – M3-2 : Manufacturing districts
11 – Vacant Land - The metadata of the MapPLUTO dataset mentions the following fields related to special purpose districts: • SPDist1 (Zoning, Special Purpose District 1) Tax lots in this field are defined as a special purpose district based on the lot occupying the greatest % area. If a tax lot is not a special purpose district the field is left blank. • SPDist2 (Zoning, Special Purpose District 2) Tax lots in this field are defined as a special purpose district based on the lot occupying the second greatest % area. If a tax lot is not a special purpose district the field is left blank. • SPDist3 (Zoning, Special Purpose District 3) Tax lots in this field are defined as a special purpose district based on the lot occupying the smallest area. If a tax lot is not a special purpose district the field is left blank. - Calculations for Decision Layer 3: Area of a cluster circle = πr2 = π (1486)2 = 6937246 ft2 ~ 7 million ft2
• ZoneDist3 (Zoning, Zoning District 3) Tax lots divided by a zoning boundary line depicting a zoning district classification occupying the third greatest % of the tax lot’s area. The codes of interest to us in this field are: M1-1 – M3-2 : Manufacturing districts
Minimum required density of existing manufacturing units in a cluster = 2 / Area of cluster circle = 0.0000028829 units / cluster
• ZoneDist4 (Zoning, Zoning District 4) Tax lots divided by a zoning boundary line depicting a zoning district classification occupying the fourth greatest % of the tax lot’s area. The codes of interest to us in this field are: M1-1 – M3-2 : Manufacturing districts
We now create a binary dataset to identify clusters where:
- The metadata of the MapPLUTO dataset mentions the following field related to vacant lots:
- Equation to derive ranked decision map:
• LandUse (Land Use Category) A tax lot’s land use is defined by the lot’s building class. The code of interest to us in this field is: 12
Note: We are considering 2 existing manufacturing units in a cluster as we need more than 1 unit at minimum.
• •
Densities of existing manufacturing units greater than 0.0000028829 units/cluster get a value of 1. Densities of existing manufacturing units lesser than 0.0000028829 units/cluster get a value of 0.
[ Non SPD ] x [ (Vacant Lots) + (Vacant Lots in Manufacturing Zones) ] x [ Existing clusters ]
A NEW GARMENT DISTRICT
BIBLIOGRAPHY Cover image DUMBO NYC, Notes from the Brooklyn, neighborhood NYC. Published August 29, 2013. http://dumbonyc.com/blog/2013/08/29/ny-times-revisits-dumbo-brooklyn/ ‘Garment District,Pushing racks through the streets’. 1957 Photographed by United States Office of War Information. Presently housed in the Museum of the City of New York.1944. http://collections.mcny.org/Collection/Garment-district,-pushing-racks-through-the-streets-2F3XC58TZGLT.html ‘New York Special Garment Center District and Zoning’. Lader, Rachel. Published by PB Works. April 17, 2008. http://fashionlawwiki.pbworks.com/w/page/11611235/New%20York%20Special%20Garment%20Center%20 District%20and%20Zoning ‘De Blasio seeking to rezone Garment District’. The Real Deal - New York Real Estate News. Published on February 28, 2017. https://therealdeal.com/2017/02/28/de-blasio-seeking-to-rezone-garment-district/ The Garment District NYC. http://garmentdistrict.nyc/ ‘Making it in New York – The Manufacturing Land Use and Zoning Initiatve - Vol I Report’. The Pratt Center for Community and Environmental Development. Published on May 31, 2001. http://communityinnovation.berkeley.edu/ presentations/industrial/NY-Making-it-in-NY-Pratt-Study.PDF 'De Blasio Admin. Considering Moving Garment District to Brooklyn'. Spectrum news NY1. Scotto, Michael. Published on March 7, 2017. http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2017/03/6/garment-district-de-blasio-administrationconsidering-move-brooklyn.html Street art in DUMBO, Brooklyn 'Walking on Street Art in Brooklyn'. Love Antoinette. Published on July 9, 2012. http://www.loveantoinette.com/walking-on-street-art-in-brooklyn/ St. Catherine of Alexandria, Borough Park, Brooklyn. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/138556126008135010/
Borough boundaries from NYC Department of City Planning’s Bytes of the Big Apple. New York City Department of City Planning. “New York City Borough Boundaries” [shapefile]. Bytes of the Big Apple. http://www1.nyc.gov/site/planning/data-maps/open-data/districts-download-metadata.page Polygon file depicting the green spaces in the city from the NYC OpenData portal. New York City Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications. Open Space (Parks) [shapefile]. https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Recreation/Open-Space-Parks-/g84h-jbjm Polygon file representing the water features around New York. U.S. Geological Survey, National Geospatial Program, 20161103. USGS National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) Best ResolutionHU4-0203 20170102 for HU-4 Sub region File GDB 10.1 Model Version 2.2.1: U.S. Geological Survey. https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/581d7618e4b0dee4cc8e6080
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ReferenceUSA for locations of textile manufacturing units in Brooklyn. ReferenceUSA. 2017. Accessed on March 20, 2017. http://www.referenceusa.com/UsBusiness/Search/Custom/9bc96f2500f641e8aeb23230686a0f56 PLUTO data for land uses in Brooklyn New York City Department of City Planning. MapPLUTO. Open Data. “mapPLUTO-Brooklyn” [shapefile]. https://www1.nyc.gov/site/planning/data-maps/open-data/dwn-pluto-mappluto.page Bytes of the Big Apple for zoning features of special districts New York City Department of City Planning. Bytes of the Big Apple. OpenData. NYC Zoning Tax Lot Database. Updated February 2017. https://www1.nyc.gov/site/planning/data-maps/open-data.page NAICS codes for apparel/textile manufacturing businesses in Brooklyn North American Industry Classification System. Textile Mills and related manufacturing codes. https://www.naics.com/naics-search-results/ Neighborhood Tabulation Areas New York City Department of City Planning. NYC OpenData. “Neighborhood Tabulation Areas” [Shapefile]. Updated January 20, 2017. Accessed April 23, 2017. https://data.cityofnewyork.us/City-Government/Neighborhood-Tabulation-Areas/cpf4-rkhq
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Introduction to Geographic Information Systems Columbia University in the City of New York Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation Submitted by Ramya Ramanathan Guided by Prof. Leah Meisterlin
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