Dead' Hook: When Gentrification Doesn't Take
New York mag has a provocative article about how Red Hook’s failed to live up to the substantial hype pegging it as Brooklyn’s next great frontier for gentrification. (Evidence of that failure, according to the article, includes the closure of the Pioneer bar, bistro 360 and the Hook, as well as the claim that real…
New York mag has a provocative article about how Red Hook’s failed to live up to the substantial hype pegging it as Brooklyn’s next great frontier for gentrification. (Evidence of that failure, according to the article, includes the closure of the Pioneer bar, bistro 360 and the Hook, as well as the claim that real estate values appear to have peaked.) Red Hook’s used as a springboard for a deeper examination of how many of us have come to assume that there’s always going to be another neighborhood ripe for transformation:
In some ways, Red Hook was a Realtor’s dream, boasting Manhattan views, a salty maritime history (working piers! Brawling sailors!), and a brochure-ready name, all of which would play perfectly on some theoretical condo prospectus. Seeking waterfront living with a dusting of urban grit? Then drop your anchor in Red Hook! More crucially, Red Hook was simply next. Because if we’ve learned anything in the last twenty years of gentrification in New York, it’s that there will always be a next.
Do you really think Red Hook’s time has come and gone or is it just taking a breather?
The Embers of Gentrification [New York]
Photo by Betty Blade
I don’t know, Brenda, I’m thinking more of a mixed breed, from an animal league or a shelter, smart and street saavy, that’s my dog analogy to Red Hook. No pure breeds needed. They can stay in the Heights. I love it in Red Hook.
9:52, Agree about Good fork, but Alma is horrible except for the view, yet alone classify it as one of the best in the city lol
I don’t think Red Hook needs New York Magazine to validate it. I live near Smith Street and by the time New York Magazine got around to liking Smith St. I couldn’t stand it there anymore. Red Hook is a great neighborhood that has improved dramtically over the past 10-20 years. There is no reason that improvemment should not continue.
Well Well Well. Now we see that gentrification doesn’t work out. Dumd asses pay over a million dollars for a house and the are no amenities in the neighborhood. No coffee shops (I have to go to Gorlla in the slope) No restaurants and no bookstores. Take a walk down Fulton Street it’s a shithole. Clinton Hill is in plenty of trouble! Plus when the crash gets underway, you will see the U-Hall truck all over the place.
The pioneers will be leaving and maybe the Hood can return back to normal.
The What
Someday this war is gonna end….
Agree with 10:00, especially as this was a harsh lesson learned in my many hours playing Sim City
Transportation is an issue. Also, Bed Stuy and Crown Heights have heated up, both of which have better transportation and housing stock. There may not have been room for three simultaneous next hot neighborhoods.
Slow and gradual change, without the hype, sounds good for Red Hook.
i think #1 is being sarcastic
Object lesson to everyone who posts on here about moving to a neighborhood because you like that it’s not too “gentrified,” yet also hope for more restaurants / organic groceries, etc. to open in the next few years. You can’t on the one hand pray for the side effects of gentrification and on the other hand expect the neighborhood not to get overrun with people just like you. Can’t have it both ways.
Better that Red Hook stay underserved by transportation, so it can never really gentrify the way the rest of Brooklyn has.
I agree with 9:52. I live in nearby Carroll Gardens and I go to Red Hook frequently to shop, to drink, or just to hang out at the waterfront and get some sea air. I love the neighborhood, and part of me is a big indignant about the assertion that the area is “busting” and not living up to all the recent grand “next big thing” expectations. But another part of me is VERY leery of the inescapable side effects of gentrification — namely, making an area more homogenous and less funky and unique.
While I don’t want to romanticize Red Hook’s rough edges, I don’t necessarily think a slower pace of change leading to gentrification is a bad thing for the area!