Commune of Creative Types' in the Burg is Emptied Out
Most of the dailies have stories this morning about the sad, curious evacuation of 475 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg. The FDNY designated the building a fire hazard on Sunday, forcing hundreds of tenants out of their apartments on one of the coldest days of the year. The FDNY said the building needed to be evacuated…
Most of the dailies have stories this morning about the sad, curious evacuation of 475 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg. The FDNY designated the building a fire hazard on Sunday, forcing hundreds of tenants out of their apartments on one of the coldest days of the year. The FDNY said the building needed to be evacuated because its owner, Nachman Brach, was storing flammable materials in the basement that he used to power a matzo bakery. More than 200 tenants lived and worked in 475 Kent despite the fact that the building doesn’t have a C of O for residential use, and now many of them are suddenly homeless. The Times describes the former pasta factory as a commune of creative types, and quotes residents who are confused and angry about the evacuation. One of those residents, Betsy Kelleher, said the timing of the evacuation was suspicious because there’s a pending court decision that might result in all the units being rent-controlled. They want to clean everyone out and then convert them into expensive condos, said Kelleher. The building had been lived in for a decade. According to Am New York, the first artists who leased spaces at 475 Kent had been evicted from illegal loft conversions in Dumbo.
For Evacuated Building’s Tenants, an Uncertain Future [NY Times]
475 Kent Avenue Evacuated, Due to Numerous Violations [Gothamist]
Residents of B’klyn Loft Evicted for Fire Code Violations [AM New York]
475 Kent Update: Holdout Says It’s “Creepy as Hell” [Gowanus Lounge]
A Holdout Stays in Brooklyn Loft [Metro]
Photo by i’m just sayin’.
9:52 – Thank You.
In 2000 after the evictions in DUMBO caused outrage (people cared back then, I guess), Guiliani said there would be no more such evictions.
These kinds of landlord-incited mass evictions have been happening all over the neighborhood for years. They fill the building up with illegal tenants, call the FDNY to have them evicted (easier than going through the courts), wait a month and then fill them up at higher rents for a couple years, rinse, repeat. Property owners like Brach are the scum of the earth.
10:17…
“9:04 = spoiled rich kid in denial.”
If ONLY ~~that~~ were my situation!!!
Nope, parents dead. No one but me driving this ship.
I think “spoiled rich kids in denial” is a phrase only a spoiled rich kid in denial would write. Think about it.
hey, what about this jerk of an owner who KNOWS he’s illegally renting out units for residential use, just biding his time until he can cash in, and probably does not keep the building up to code AND has the chutzpah (totally appropriate word here) to store flammable materials just under these people’s noses. He should be ashamed.
Just because you have declared yourself a “creative type” doesn’t really account for much, in fact most times just means your a lazy scumbag.
what an A-hole 9:51 is. “lazy” creative types are the catalyst for billions$$$ of economic development and are the people who made it possible for development to happen in places like Williamsburg. Funny how the FDNY and the landlords never cared before these neighborhoods got expensive.
Do you enjoy living in a hip neighborhood, but like your creature comforts? Thank an artist.
9:04 = spoiled rich kid in denial.
why kick them out on the coldest night of the year?
asshats.
I don’t know when you dopes are going to get it, Landlords and developers (or the FDNY, and if you don’t think they are on the payroll you really are blind) DO NOT CARE about you or “creative types” or illegal squaters. They always have and always will care about money and the amount they are pissing away by letting a bunch of stinky hipsters and burnouts live in a fire bomb waiting to happen.
The story would be much different if the building went up in flames along with a bunch of “creative types”.
Just because you have declared yourself a “creative type” doesn’t really account for much, in fact most times just means your a lazy scumbag.
It is relevant – give it one year before the building becomes luxury condos and we can all moan about how overpriced it is.