A group of distinguished civic leaders and academics, including former journalist and Phoenix founder Michael Armstrong and former Deputy Mayor, now Crain's New York Business publisher, Alair Townsend (photo above), convened at the Brooklyn College Library on Thursday to discuss the events, forces and people behind the residential, educational, commercial and artistic resurgence of Brooklyn.

The proceedings began with brief introductory remarks by Mr. Armstrong, followed by several others, including former Borough President Howard Golden, who was honored at the opening reception held on April 16th at the Brooklyn Historical Society.  The keynote speaker was Professor John Mollenkopf, Director of the Center for Urban Research at CUNY Graduate Center, whose topic was "Modern Brooklyn in Context."  Professor Mollenkopf began by noting the similarity of Brooklyn's problems in the latter decades of the twentieth century to those of "rust belt" cities like Cleveland and Detroit: reliance on declining manufacturing industries, stresses caused by changing ethnic demographics, and crumbling infrastructure.  He noted, however, that Brooklyn benefitted from its proximity to the relatively vibrant Manhattan economy, its large stock of mostly well-preserved housing, and the energy imparted by the arrival of immigrants.  As a result, Brooklyn proved to be resilient.  Looking to the future, Mollenkopf noted that Brooklyn's "native" population is aging, and will need to "build bridges to younger immigrant populations."  He said that a critical issue for the Borough's future is how well the second generations of these immigrant groups fare in education and careers.  Finally, he noted that the problem of lower and middle income people being priced out of the housing market would have to be addressed.

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