This is my roundup of everything that's happening in Downtown Brooklyn's MetroTech area.
The stuff about the snake is gleaned from my own personal experience -- I remember coming out of the Fulton Mall's A&S and walking past the defunct movie theater (the same movie theater where I saw such '80s classics as "The Karate Kid" and "Back to the Future" when they first came out) and saw a snake charmer with what looked like a 9 foot long snake!
I nearly ran! (I managed to just walk quickly away.)
The area still has a ways to go, but, yes, it has made some remarkable progress.