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
Red Hook reminds me alot of Williamsburg before businesses and services were developed. The transportation sucks also.People mention the projects…well the projects are about the same distance away as the projects in the city from the bustling meatpacking district and you see how that is now.There are projects in Harlem but you see who has moved into the neighborhood there. Projects in Ft Greene and you see who lives there.Projects in Bedstuy and well…you get my point. I dont think the projects is the reason Redhook is not developing so much as the transportation factor.I still think eventually that the so called gentrifiers will move in that area and then the services will come.
no subway = no-one commuting to manhattan = no big salary to pay inflated mortgage
Sounds like the cops did what they had to do. The tragedy is the untreated mental illness and the trauma for these officers who were essentially forced to execute this guys suicide plot.
After responding to a woman’s 911 call about a domestic dispute with her son, the police fired between 13 and 20 times at the son, who claimed he had a gun. The gunfire killed 18-year-old Khiel Coppin and it turned out he was only holding a hairbrush.
Coppin had been arguing with his mother in their Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment, and when police arrived, came out to the window ledge, “screaming and acting irrationally,” according to the Daily News. A police source said, “Basically, it’s suicide by cop.” The police also say that Coppin’s mother repeatedly said her son had a gun and that the five police officers said “Halt!” and Drop it!” to the teen.
Some witnesses agreed, saying they heard Coppin’s mother say he had a gun, while some said Coppin had his hands up when he was shot. Andre Sanchez said he saw Coppin drop the hairbrush and that one officer yelled for the others to stop shooting; later, Sanchez claimed he saw one officer ask another, “Why did you shoot him?” Another witness, Precious Blood, told the Times that one officer kept shooting, in spite of shouts to stop.
Coppin was allegedly handcuffed after being shot and was pronounced dead at Woodhull Hospital. The Daily News adds that Coppin’s mother had looked into psychiatric help for her son. All five police officers passed Breathalyzer tests.
When I read about the subway closure, I felt awful for the residents of Red Hook who lack services, but secretly cheered. I love my visits to Red Hook and wouldn’t mind living in its isolated wonder, roaming packs of stray dogs and all. Maybe now, I’ll be able to afford it. But probably not.
“Hope you enjoy your brownstone enough that you don’t have to venture out anywhere.”
LOL!
I love red hook but let’s get real. Without subway, there’s not much hope for it in the long run period. I think eventually it’s just going to become a depository of big box stores I’m sad to say, unless some serious urban planners get involved – which they probably won’t because there’s just not enough money out there. Dvpt that is happening is hideous shabby crap.
Red Hook, Bed Stuy and other fringe markets were buoyed by the real estate boom. Now the pixie dust is fading away and the long-standing problems with each area can’t hide any longer. Just last night NYPD fired 20 shots at a unarmed teen in Bed Stuy. Hope you enjoy your brownstone enough that you don’t have to venture out anywhere.
I am sorry if investors are disappointed, but Red Hook has a unique set of problems and circumstances, thanks to confused public policy post-BQE. That being said, I love it the way it is — it is Brooklyn’s wild enclave — our Amazon. I seriously annoyed somebody a while ago when I teased Red Hook about being a movie set off Mad Max, for which I am truly sorry, but there is something refreshing about Red Hook and I am seriously sick of the whole business of looking for the next frontier. I can’t believe I am saying this, but maybe this pause in the markets is a good thing, to stop and take stock and start living in the neighborhoods we have chosen for a while, rather than frothing at the mouth looking for the next “up and coming” neighborhood.