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
1:17, I’ll be waiting for your ass on the platform with my shiv.
I once had my car towed to Red Hook and I have never been so freaking afraid in my life. That said, if anyone is selling, I’ve got a suitcase of cash for you!
The When
Someday this bore’s gonna lend…
I walk in a speedo to Red Hook three days a week to look at real estate. Then swim back to my Manhattan triplex. Then I take the subway to my Puerto Rican mistress’ apartment in Boogie Down.
No train. Sorry but that’s the deal.Plus, Fairway is cool (if you have a car) but the projects make the area a problem. Always have. Oh, and I was born and rasied here, own a house and take the train. The area is not a place you want to walk around at night.
I commute nude.
I’m wearing 150K worth of jewelry today and rode the 2/3 into work.
I’m a subway motorman and I wear a mink lined vest every damn DAY!
Ditto, 1:00pm. I have a NEW Marc Jacobs (from the *expensive* line) coat and take the 2/3 every single day in both directions–have for the last 10 years. Ooh, and my boss has a really ugly Versace coat with fur lapels and she commutes on the A train daily.
Yo, 12:48, it began as Red Hook and shall end as Red Hook. No namby pamby realtor can change that!!
The Where
Someday this whore’s gonna bend…