Variances that would add 433 more units in the area are before the board. Although Pat Pacifico, a spokesman for the board, said the amount of housing was relatively small, some land use experts have worried that the variances will amount to a rezoning of the area. The Hasidim and their lawyers say they are merely doing what any well-organized group could accomplish by paying attention to land use law. They add that the housing will help the local economy, bringing in businesses and increasing the tax base. They talk of creating a neighborhood where people feel safe walking the streets at night.
Residents say the neighborhood is already reasonably safe.
Rabbi Niederman says that developers have sought the Hasidim because they need housing and, unlike others, are willing to pay for new development. But such thoughts give many longtime residents in Bedford-Stuyvesant pause. They speak of a past when they could walk to work and businesses flourished. They recall the hard times that followed, the crime and the closing of shops, a time when some say the neighborhood ''burned like the South Bronx.'' Now that the future looks brighter, they worry that the benefits are headed toward somebody else. Pointing to warehouses where relatives once worked, residents are worried about variances allowing their conversion to residences, cutting out even more jobs in their neighborhood.