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
If there were decent public transportation there might have been a chance. There was an article in Nov. 4 New Scientist called “Equation can spot a failing neighbourhood” that looks at how lack of public transportation and access is a pretty good predictor of economic success in a neighborhood.
taking the harsh glare of the speculation spotlight off red hook may be the best thing to happen to the neighborhood in years. i couldn’t believe how rapidly prices rose in the area, which previously was one of the last neighborhoods any of us expected to blow up. i think a lot of people were expecting it to become Boerum Hill II overnight, off-base for many reasons. here’s hoping this neighborhood’s respite from hype allows it to grow into something worthwhile instead of some developer’s idea of a worthwhile neighborhood.
THATS HOW DUMD YOU ARE BLACK PEOPLE IS TWO WORDS
and the recent news that the Smith/9th St ‘F’ station will be closed for 9+ months isn’t helping…
Well, I chose to live here, so I’m hardly impartial. I don’t want Red Hook to gentrify more than it has, but I sure am happy having a huge and well-stocked supermarket, some of the best restaurants in the city (Good Fork, Alma), a great coffee shop (Baked), and all the other slightly odd but wonderful shops we have. And it sure makes a difference being able to walk out and smell the sea air, or sit by the water. I love it. I don’t see the pockets of “nice” going anywhere, nor do I see a huge change coming any time soon to the rest of Van Brunt, the dirtiest street in the borough….
Red Hook was way overhyped. I love Red Hook, walk there frequently for Valentino Pier and Fairways, but always feel some relief when Carroll Gardens. Red Hook is gritty and interesting, but is off-the-grid (i.e. no subway) filled with not so light industry, dirty and derelict. Not to mention some large notorious public housing projects.
Let’s hope Red Hook avoids the curse of being “next”–then perhaps, except for the rising spectre of Ikea, it can retain the very qualities that the “pioneers” moved there to appreciate. I personally think it’s poised at a wonderful sweet spot right now–art and olive oil perched atop cobblestones and rotting wharves, no longer truly scary but not yet embarrassingly gentrified. Halfway, that is, between pit bull and poodle–squarely in, say, purebred Labrador territory, still functional and messy but with some authenticity left. May Red Hook NEVER be “next”!
that’s 2 words
one word – black people