Creatives Flock to Bklyn, But Are They Endangered?
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,…
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.
Dont all gays have money to burn?
Park Slope still has the highest concentration of gays/lesbians in Brooklyn.
I have three gay friends who have just this past year moved there from Manhattan.
Some people don’t need edgy. They want nice places to live with like-minded individuals around them.
Park Slope is a haven for the gay population who have money to burn.
1:21, Bed Stuy…A train.
We’re in PLG’s LM, 1:08.
RH at 1:10, did you go to Williamsburg from PS? I really like Williamsburg. But it was already out of our price range at the time.
12:53, I agree with you, except…. When I cashed out of PS and was looking for my next Bohemian Paradise, I looked for edgier neighborhoods closer to Manhattan, not PS.
12:53, where is your new neighborhood?
Why should artists be different from anyone else? Live where you can afford to live. Case closed.
It’s the artist/gay/bohemian factor (a proven factor in real estate as we all know) that is exactly what always makes me believe the better investment (when you can’t afford Park Slope or you need a big space) are the edgier neighborhoods located close to Park Slope. Not way further out in the white neighborhoods that aren’t so bohemian. The edgier neighborhoods are full of new residents in creative fields and more are coming all the time. All the people we now know in our new neighborhood is in a creative field. Artists/bohemians are risk takers by nature. Nobody goes into a field in which there is no guarantee whatsoever of ever making money, without being that way. They venture in first then others follow. Everyone in real estate development knows that.
I love the chains that are more upscale.
Not the ones for the masses.