Greenpoint
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Culture on the Cheap
Bed-Stuy Speaks Out About Gentrification
Marcy Avenue sports some of the niftiest buildings this borough has to offer. When I knocked around there recently I found a real beauty at Hancock Street.
After I took the above photograph I noticed a flier affixed to the light pole next to me. Intrigued, I went in for a closer look.
Ah progress! The next thing you know they’ll be complaining about homeless boogeymen. Come to think of it, I did see a pair of police officers there roust a derelict from a park there once.
Congratulations Bed-Stuy, you have arrived!
Miss Heather
Comments
5 Comments on Bed-Stuy Speaks Out About Gentrification
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Jimmy Legs on
Thu, 28th Feb 2008 11:13 am
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reverb on
Thu, 28th Feb 2008 3:25 pm
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missheather on
Thu, 28th Feb 2008 4:34 pm
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reverb on
Fri, 29th Feb 2008 8:48 am
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missheather on
Fri, 29th Feb 2008 3:05 pm
what do you wanna bet the creator of this provocative artwork is indistinguishable from the ‘hipster’ they decry? it’s like they think if they make the statement first it must mean they aren’t gentrifyers.
Interestingly, the condo in the photo is in Greenpoint, on the corner across from Enid’s. It certainly did not push homeless onto the street when built.
Excellent observation, reverb (I posted this because the condo in question IS in Greenpoint). But I beg to differ regarding your logic regarding pushing people onto the street: every time one of these bad boys is built it invariably displaces lower income residents. They, in turn, are forced to move elsewhere. But where is elsewhere nowadays?
Bushwick?
Bed-Stuy?
Nope. Too expensive. When rent-stabilized housing and light industry are removed from Greenpoint people lose both jobs and homes. What takes their place? Affluenzics and the poorly paid service workers who cater to them:
http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.typepad.com/only_the_blog_knows_brook/2008/02/starbucks-milk.html
Would you like fries with that condo/co-op? Not enough foam on that latte? No problem. We’ll retrain our workers.
http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.typepad.com/only_the_blog_knows_brook/2008/02/park-slope-star.html
This is not what I want out neighborhood to turn into. Seriously. That said, you’re right: Mr. Scarano’s condo on Manhattan Avenue “did not push homeless onto the street”. They were already there. But condo-goers don’t like looking at them so they were encouraged to move elsewhere. And move they have: IN DROVES. To far north Greenpoint mostly.
I wasn’t generalizing, but referring to this property in particular. It was an empty lot used for dumping garbage and parking cars for quite some time, and before that was zoned commercial. I don’t think this new construction displaced anyone. Personally I would rather see retail on that corner, but what we have now is better than the alternative of an empty lot with rats. I just thought the building was a curious choice to include in the flyer, opposed to a condo going up ontop of a woodframe knock-down or small business where the owners sold-out and moved out. I think the neighborhood loses in those scenarios.
Agree with you from a general sense that the neighborhood is being flooded with high-end real estate which puts pressure on current residents to maintain increased rents and cost of living. I think its difficult to watch Greenpoint change so quickly, especially with the threat of mega-retail squeezing our great local shops & stores.
I hear ya reverb. The mega-retailers ARE indeed squeezing our neighborhood. If I see another bank or cellphone store open up here I swear my head is going to explode.
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