Ruing the Changes to Come in Northern Greenpoint
In the NY Times today, writer David Gonzalez waxes eloquent on the desolate beauty of Northern Greenpoint while ruing the inevitable loss of innocence that is sure to accompany the new rezoning plan: A certain postindustrial beauty still haunts the blocks along North Brooklyn’s waterfront, where a Hopperesque panorama rendered in rust and brick stretches…
In the NY Times today, writer David Gonzalez waxes eloquent on the desolate beauty of Northern Greenpoint while ruing the inevitable loss of innocence that is sure to accompany the new rezoning plan:
A certain postindustrial beauty still haunts the blocks along North Brooklyn’s waterfront, where a Hopperesque panorama rendered in rust and brick stretches from Williamsburg to Greenpoint. Frozen in time and twisted in shape, some of these streetscapes once abuzz with factories are now better known as generic urban backdrops for cop shows…While few would argue that the largely fallow waterfront was being wisely used before, the adjoining inland blocks are another story. They have long been home to scores of small factories that make everything from cabinets and candles to frames and food. As nondescript as they were affordable, their future is in flux as rezoning could allow landlords to opt for the big bucks by turning factories into loft homes.
On New Waterfront, A Place for the Old [NY Times]
Its interesting that the featured “industrial property” is none other than the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center, a non-for-profit, bought from the city for a dollar, and given millions by the Federal government to renovate. This non-for-profit now charges market rates for space, upwards of 14 dollars per square foot. Wonder where all that money is going – and where all that “support” for the woodworkers and artisans who initially built out and supported the space. More gory details here: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0328,barrett,45388,5.html
Guess that *still* nobody cares about the huge Greenpoint oil spill that was never cleaned up?
The blocks I was talking about are zoned for industrial use only, so residential conversions aren’t allowed. I think that the article is talking about the area immediately to the north of this. I just was trying to point out that the “certain postindustrial beauty” of the neighborhood isn’t completely doomed.
I think the anti-rent control folks might object.
After all – these days landlords can get more for the residential (see NYTimes article today).
So this is defacto rent-control giving a bonus to the lucky landlords who now are now free to rent residentially and keeping controls on those
on the unfortunate blocks.
Isn’t that what you learned in Eco101 and the Cato Institute?
One of the concessions that the city made to the community in the rezoning process was to keep a chunk of the current industrial zoning in Greenpoint’s middle-to-south part (not the northern reaches described in this article.) So light manufacturing– and its associated jobs, and structures, and sky– will not entirely disappear from the neighborhood.