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Brooklynites: Artsy and disdainful of working for the man. Brooklyn experienced the fastest growth in self-employment of any borough between 2000 and 2006, according to stats released yesterday at panel hosted by Center for an Urban Future and the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation, with those employed in the creative sector (graphic designers, artists, architects, writers, etc.) accounting for the biggest chunk of that increase (their ranks rose by 33 percent). Park Slope, Williamsburg, and Downtown/Brooklyn Heights top the borough, respectively, each with between 2,500 and 3,500 residents who count themselves among the growing class of creative professionals, according to the BEDC, which used figures based on Census data from 2002 and 2005. The corporation calls these neighborhoods the borough’s creative crescent, and some of the talk at the panel yesterday was about how rising residential values in such areas threatens to crack the crescent. There’s no data to support this view, though an article on The Real Estate yesterday tried to come up with some anecdotal evidence. For example, playwright Scott Atkins, who founded the Brooklyn Writers’ Space and Room 58, says, A one-bedroom apartment with an office in center Slope is now $2,700, Mr. Atkins said. It’s unbelievable that rents could be so high and that the market is supporting it… we have seen more people come into Brooklyn, but we’ve also seen a lot of people going to Philadelphia, Jersey, and Vancouver. People go to L.A. all the time… Some move to upstate New York. If there’s a case to be made for Brooklyn’s creative class drying up eventually, the best evidence might be across the East River: Manhattan’s self-employed creative population grew an anemic 6.5 percent between 2000 and 2006.
Brooklyn’s ‘Creative Crescent’ In Danger of A Drought [The Real Estate]
Photo by Luke Redmond.


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  1. “LA may be a cesspool but life can sure be sweet there and you do not have to be in Forbes’ richest list to buy a really cute house.”

    You’re joking right? Have you actually priced LA real estate? Any place worth living in is very expensive.

    And besides the weather, if you aren’t in the business, what reason is there to be in LA?

  2. LA may be a cesspool but life can sure be sweet there and you do not have to be in Forbes’ richest list to buy a really cute house. or rent one. A whole house, not just the basement and part of the first floor. Imagine.
    It is NYC that is the shithole acually and I think this is why the worker bees here are constantly telling themselves how wonderful NY is. How special, how unique, how fantastic. Actually, there is nothing special about living badly and working yourself to death. That is how most of the world lives. Ask any Bangladeshi.

  3. very true about Philly. They can’t give properties away there. I went there recently and it is worse than the worst nabe in Nyc any day. Crime is up big time . What idiot is moving there? tell me.

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