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May 10, 2007

Thursday On The Record

gentrifybk3.jpg
Street Art, Williamsburg. Photo by SReed99342.
Thursday Links
Today in Brooklyn: Thursday, May 12
More Local Control for Booze Licensing
Fulton Street to Get a Bank (Finally)
A New Home for Cobble Hill CSA
Bye Bye To Williamsburg's Read Café
DUMBO Gearing Up for Bklyn Designs




Posted by Brownstoner at 2:24 PM | Comments (28)
Categories: On The Record

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Comments

geez, could you use a bit more discretion and not publicize/ immortalize the glorification of violence with this picture.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 10, 2007 2:24 PM

Um, it's art. Don't think this is supposed to be taken literally. Rather than glorifying violence, it's more likely, in our view, to be an expression of one person's feelings about the attitude and effect of gentrifiers as a group.

Posted by: Brownstoner at May 10, 2007 2:49 PM

Except that it looks like the poster is seeking to incite gentrifiers to rise up and take the area by force. Which would be a right turn up, and no mistake.

Posted by: Anon at May 10, 2007 3:13 PM

art can glorify, sensationalize, denigrate, etc.
It is still offensive ...besides the fact who ever put this up vandalized either public or private property.
Which I'm sure you don't condone (unless perhaps if you call it 'art').
Still giving it publicity and legitimacy and validation.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 10, 2007 3:21 PM

Interesting take. when we look at this, we see an indictment of gentrification, not a call to arms. but everyone's entitled to look at a piece of art and interpret in his own way. that's kind of the point of art. it makes you think.

Posted by: Brownstoner at May 10, 2007 3:22 PM

did W.A.R. sponsor this?

Posted by: Anonymous at May 10, 2007 3:28 PM

3:21 -- I find you offensive and allowing you to post on this site only publicizes and validates your ignorant thoughts. Please refrain from posting here again.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 10, 2007 3:35 PM

BTW, we post pictures of plenty of things we don't condone. Fedders Houses, for example.

Posted by: Brownstoner at May 10, 2007 3:38 PM

"we see an indictment of gentrification, not a call to arms"

That's what it seems like the intent must be, but the imagery itself suggests the opposite to me. That's why it seems so odd (again, to me, not nesc. everyone. Which is, as you say, part of the point of art).

Posted by: Anon at May 10, 2007 3:40 PM

It's a take off on the "Defend Brooklyn" posters/t-shirts. Which I doubt any of you latte-drinking, gentrification-bemoaning, haters would have a problem with.

Posted by: anon at May 10, 2007 3:41 PM

OMG, I need to swap out my Defend Brooklyn T for a Gentrify Brooklyn! Super hip!

Posted by: Whitey at May 10, 2007 3:50 PM

context is king.

btw, i just love the mental picture raised by anon's notion that the sticker is meant to "incite gentrifiers to rise up and take the area by force." can you picture some starbucks-swillin', bugaboo-sportin', relaxed-khaki-wearin' i-banker spotting the half-torn sticker on the side of a construction scaffolding and whipping out a mahcine gun and going after the nearest SRO? :D

anyway we all know this war is not fought with guns, it's a war of attrition.

Posted by: Jimmy Legs at May 10, 2007 4:00 PM

gentrifiers do take neighborhoods by force, by the force of their wealth. they don't need automatic weapons; they've got checkbooks.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 10, 2007 4:19 PM

Yes, longtime residents are forced to accept checks for 10 times what they paid for their home. What injustice.

Posted by: Anon at May 10, 2007 4:22 PM

Nice to see Brownstoner supporting the work of Tom Metzger.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 10, 2007 4:44 PM

I can even see a gangster rapper from Bed Stuy rockin one of these t-shirts onstage.
Oh "art," how sublime ART though...

Posted by: Anonymous at May 10, 2007 4:46 PM

it's ignorant to say that someone is supporting something or someone because they've attached an image to a blog for discussion (or not probably as the case may be).

REALLY ignorant.

if you don't like your freedom of speech, i can think a lot of countries where'd you'd fit in a lot better than here.

Posted by: anon at May 10, 2007 4:47 PM

"gentrifiers do take neighborhoods by force, by the force of their wealth. they don't need automatic weapons; they've got checkbooks."

Now that would be a funny and ironic poster. Substitute the image of the machine gun with a checkbook.

Posted by: EJ at May 10, 2007 5:13 PM

i just think it is so beautiful that that we can still post anonymously to this board.

look at what a piece of crap brooklynian is now that they forbid guest-posting. it has become an incestous clubhouse of similar-voiced sycophants.

i personally love the variety and spontaneity of ideas and crosscurent opinion you get when you let literally any fool who can throw his/her two-cents in.

oh yeah, the artwork is just outrageous. it reminds me of all the injustice in the world and all the injustice that has ever happened.

economic inequality, exploitation, death penalty, permanent war economy, bourgeois cultural hegemony, all that stuff. i just really cant stand it.

i say abolish money and war and revert to peaceful agrarian polymorphous technocratic society. grass skirts and sandals for everybody! state-subsidized love-making!

i can visualize it so easily. it's so beautiful. i'm crying in my own ejaculate!

Posted by: gavrilo princip at May 10, 2007 8:31 PM

The only thing we know for certain is that every single poster on brownstoner is a gentrifier. Try to pass yourselves off as whatever you want, but why else would you be here. I include myself in the group as well. Nobody born and raised in BK is into websites like this one. Most native Nyers have moved to Florida or AZ. The natives still here are either trash and live in places like Maspeth or Bensonherst or theyre rich manhattan douches who could care less for BK.

You people are most likely all gentrification personified. Guarenteed, in fact.

Posted by: Assbury at May 10, 2007 9:01 PM

Those Williamsburg kids just want to eradicate all hispanic people in the neighbor. And after that, rich people would come and do the same things to them. Silly...

Posted by: Anon at May 10, 2007 9:23 PM

http://www.mega.nu/ampp/vashi_red_primer/index.htm

Posted by: Privet! at May 10, 2007 9:26 PM

I am born and raised in Brooklyn and have been reading and posting since Brownstoner had a photograph of himself carrying one of his kids on the home page.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 10, 2007 10:17 PM

Wow. That would be like the first couple of days. We took that down the first time Apartment Therapy linked to us--and that was definitely in the first week we were up!

Posted by: Brownstoner at May 10, 2007 10:53 PM

"i just think it is so beautiful that that we can still post anonymously to this board."

Amen. There are plenty of posts to Brownstoner that rub me the wrong way. Still, on the whole, I don't think Brownstoner has ever been better than it is right now. Mr. B is doing a great job, and the B-stoner community is also doing a great job.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 10, 2007 11:34 PM

born in brooklyn, raised in nyc, currently living in a rapidly gentrifying area of BK, reader of brownstoner. clearly, i have issues.

Posted by: 9000 at May 11, 2007 10:48 AM

"Yes, longtime residents are forced to accept checks for 10 times what they paid for their home. What injustice." (Anon at May 10, 2007 4:22 PM)

You can't be serious. Do you actually think that there are no longtime renters displaced by gentrification? That longtime renters are not the overwhelming majority of the displaced? Your post is really cynical.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 11, 2007 12:47 PM

Gentrification is an unstoppable force of nature (barring accidental and planned calamities).
Brownstoner, to you it might be art.
But I would suggest that it contains a different connotation to the less well-heeled.
It's one thing to co-exist peacefully with your neighbors as you stake your territory. It's an entirely different ball of wax when you pronounce yourself to be the only true bull in the pen, which is an attitude that I've noticed in the attitudes and body language of a few (the minority, I must admit) gentrifiers.
The photo that you posted looks cool and all but I would be a little concerned about inciting a race/cultural riot. I believe we can all learn from each other; war and images of war should really be a last resort.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 11, 2007 2:15 PM

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