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, 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.