OMG What has Happended to this part of Flatbush Avenue?

What has happened is what has always happened, with a dash of landlord greed due to the new arena. Also, the original poster's list is a mish-mash of recent and not-so-recent changes, so it seems apocalyptic when it's not quite so. 

after some recent visits to Flatbush, here are my thoughts:

1) Byklyn: The spin-cycle place near all the Eladia's storefronts seems to have a large clientele and are working hard to keep it that way.

2) The new French place on the same strip: I walked by in the late afternoon on Thanksgiving weekend and there were at least six people in there, seeming to enjoy themselves.

3) Woodland: Has clearly changed management (if not ownership) and strategy. The menu has made a shift to what I would call Southern-inflected hotel restaurant fare...Unfortunately, hotel restaurant quality as well, with somewhat random but quite high price points. Service was friendly but unskilled and not particularly attentive. We went for a Sunday early dinner, and by 7:30 pm to our surprise they started preparing for it to turn into a comedy club 8, with a DJ, and nearly 100% African American clientele. We were speculating that the SugarCane folks may have decided to expand here instead of next door as the clientele seemed similar - if not SugarCane then some other place with an established clientele.

It'll be interesting to see what happens to this place - we liked having another option for nicer family meals in the neighborhood but they seem to be going for something pretty different. But there's clearly a market for what they are doing --

4) Flatbush/Bergen St. seems to be attracting NYC area mini-chain restaurants/cafes that do upscale-ish versions of accessible food/drink. That makes sense to me, given the various demographics which you probably need to satisfy in order to survive. Shake-Shack, Hungry Ghost, Gorilla, Doughnut Plant, Morgans, Franny's/Larder...We'll be sad to see Marco's go but it doesn't necessarily surprise me that it was not profitable enough in this location. I hope we can hang onto these places, and it would not surprise me to see that the persistent mix is cheap favorites, like Burrito Bar and cheap pizza, chinese and wings shops along with new shops trying to hit the sweet spot between something for arena-goers and something for the neighborhood(s).

5) As for non-food businesses, it's hard for me to see what's actually going to stick here. Many of the commercial properties seem pretty run-down and pretty unattractive - and hard to see how anything but a pretty established business that can afford to renovate or one that is tolerant of raw space and can assure a pretty immediate following (spin, cross-fit, yoga) could make it work.