Brooklyn was historically a thriving, self-sustaining African-American neighborhood in Second Ward, near the center of Charlotte. Originally known as Logtown in the late 19th century, Brooklyn grew into a vibrant cultural and economic hub for Black residents during the era of segregation. The neighborhood included homes, Black-owned businesses, churches, social clubs, and institutions such as Myers Street School and Second Ward High School, forming a dense and walkable urban fabric that supported strong social networks and economic self-reliance.
In the mid-20th century, Brooklyn became the first large target of urban renewal in Charlotte. Framed as “slum clearance,” redevelopment programs between the late 1950s and 1970s demolished more than 1,400 structures and displaced over 7,000 residents. Families were uprooted, businesses were shuttered, and few residents were able to return. Much of the cleared land was replaced with government buildings, wide roadways, parking lots, and institutional uses, fundamentally altering the scale, connectivity, and community life of Second Ward. The result was not only physical erasure but a lasting social and economic rupture that still shapes the area today.
In recent years, efforts to acknowledge this history have included memorialization initiatives and the proposed mixed-use redevelopment known as Brooklyn Village. While intended to honor the legacy of the original community, redevelopment conversations continue to raise questions about equity, affordability, and who ultimately benefits from reinvestment in this historically displaced neighborhood.
See below our proposal to patch this torn urban fabric through restorative spatial design. By re-establishing fine-grained pedestrian-only pathways, reconnecting severed street grids, and replacing expanses of impervious surface with residential units and active public space, the project seeks to rebuild the density, walkability, and social cohesion that once defined Brooklyn. Rather than replicating large-scale institutional blocks, the proposal focuses on human-scaled connectivity, housing infill, and community-centered development as a means of spatial and social repair in Second Ward.
Group project disclosure
This project was completed with 3 of my peers: Gabby Pace, Ellie New, and Amanda Marais. Research was distributed evenly, and decisions were consensus based. My graphical influence is highest in the “connect” section of the presentation. I did not create the collages or gateway drawings.
To create a functional analytical map of trip generators, I began by using Overpass Turbo, a web-based tool that allows users to extract data from OpenStreetMap. Instead of downloading a large, unfocused dataset, I wrote specific queries to pull only the types of places that generate daily trips—such as schools, grocery stores, parks, transit stops, medical offices, and retail spaces—within the boundary of my site in Charlotte’s Second Ward. This required me to think carefully about how places are labeled in OpenStreetMap and which categories actually relate to movement and activity in the city.
The process involved trial and error. My first queries either returned too much information or missed key locations, so I adjusted the search area and refined the tags I was using (for example, specifying “amenity=school” or “shop=supermarket”). Each revision required me to think logically about what I was asking the data to show and whether the results aligned with my understanding of how people move through the area. Rather than accepting the data at face value, I filtered and organized it to match the goals of my site analysis.
After exporting the cleaned data as a GeoJSON file, I brought it into GIS software to map and study the locations. I grouped the trip generators by type, looked at where they clustered, and examined how they related to existing streets, sidewalks, and redevelopment areas. By buffering key destinations and analyzing patterns, I turned open-source map data into a site-specific tool that helps explain where demand for movement already exists—and where new connections or housing might strengthen the urban fabric.
Erik Darden Portfolio 