Is Pete Hamill Responsible for the Brooklyn Boom?
Almost 40 years ago, the writer Pete Hamill wrote an article in New York magazine declaring Brooklyn “the sane alternative” to Manhattan. “Art galleries are opening. Neighborhoods like Bay Ridge and South Brooklyn now have boutiques and head shops. People who have been driven out of the Village and Brooklyn Heights by the greed of…
Almost 40 years ago, the writer Pete Hamill wrote an article in New York magazine declaring Brooklyn “the sane alternative” to Manhattan. “Art galleries are opening. Neighborhoods like Bay Ridge and South Brooklyn now have boutiques and head shops. People who have been driven out of the Village and Brooklyn Heights by the greed of real-estate operators are learning that it is not yet necessary to decamp for Red Bank or Garden City. It is still possible in Park Slope, for example, to rent a duplex with a garden for $200 a month, a half-block from the subway; still possible to buy a brownstone in reasonably good condition for $30,000, with a number of fairly good houses available for less, if you are willing to invest in reconditioning them.” This week, Hamill returns after a long hiatus in Manhattan, and finds, not surprisingly, that Park Slope is fancyland, and that some things have been lost in its transformation. “Today, there are dozens of real-estate offices along Seventh Avenue and more on Fifth Avenue, and many houses were going for $2 million and more,” he writes. The people he sees on 7th Avenue “are in their twenties, most of them gym-thin. Shoulder bags hang from their shoulders while other bags form humps on their backs. Their thumbs flick across tiny keyboards. They talk into cell phones. They never make eye contact with anyone, as if adhering to some paranoid manual of New York behavior. Instead, they glance into restaurants, hurry past art-supply stores, dress shops, delicatessens, heading to places that are provisional, not permanent, parts of their narrative. They rent.” Hard to buy when the places are $2 million, of course. He’s not completely nostalgic for the old, old neighborhood, though, the one that was dangerous. As he says, “Gentrification is better than junkies.”
Brooklyn Revisited [New York]
Sunset. Photo by arimoore.
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I’m in complete agreement with you. Frankly, I found the article to be tedious. Note that in the entire article he never cites a discussion with present residents. I believe he was projecting his spin of what he believes Park Slope has become.
A guest,
I have a couple friends who have mentioned that they hope rental prices fall enough so that they can leave Williamsburg and come down to either Park Slope or Ft. Greene.
When the world becomes an ugly place, people want to surround themselves with beauty.
Williamsburg also has a high concentration of kids who got by on money from their parents or on bartending and retail jobs. The neighborhood will feel a lot of pain from the impending crisis, and these young kids will not be out spending freely like they have over the past 10 years.
I walk down 7th Avenue 3-10 times a day, and I have absolutely no idea what this guy is talking about.
I’d say the majority of people are in their 30’s and above..very few in their 20’s.
“dozens of real estate offices” is a total stretch. There might be A DOZEN in a couple mile stretch.
As for the skinny comment, I thought everyone made fun of Park Slopers for being heavier and not very stylish. It sounds like he’s describing Bedford Avenue, not 7th Avenue.
With all that said, I prefer the Park Slope that I see everyday. Diverse, community-minded, environmentally concerned, gay and family friendly and culturally alive.
I just had the pleasure of sitting down with my landlord and signing my new lease.
From my experience, it would seem alot of landlords are feeling really nervous, or are already hurting with what is going on. I was able to convince him to lower my rent, and pay for half of the gas (which i wasn’t responsible for in my previous lease)
He also said that his condo buildings didn’t sell, and is now having a terrible time renting them out to cover whatever costs he is carrying.
This is in Williamsburg/Greenpoint, so I’m sure this has nothing to do with what’s happening down in Brownstone Brooklyn, but I thought it was an interesting indicator of what might start to happen in areas with excess inventory of ugly housing.
Hey Santa,
Maybe you’re relatively poor (I’m sure you mean just post-college transition poor) but the fact you at least know about Crown Heights and Sunset Park as an option speaks volumes of positiveness about you. I meet a lot of Manhattan-working people (probably not going to meet many people who don’t though) who would never tear off the J.Crew aline skirts and chill at Franklin Park. It’s like, if you want Manhattanesque entertainment (where everything’s “nice”), and you’re willing to pay high rents no matter what, just live in Manhattan already. They bring the ‘tude back over the bridge and tunnel, I mean to say.
Veering into potential rant mode here so I’ll stop.
i thought it was supposed to be “whatevs.”
Santa…the closing “whatever” gives you away!!! 🙂
infinitejester:
as a generation Y twenty something Im hoping this stock market fiasco causes prices to drop. Honestly if prices go down I think more people like me will move in because they can afford it. Alot of people live in areas such as sunset park and crown heights that would rather be in park slope.
however at the same time alot of “richer” people will move out. But im relativly poor and live in prospect heights so whatever.
I’m a 40 something, not a 20 something, but a lot of the nostalgia in this article is for a generation of people who largely left Brokklyn when urban life got tough in the late 60s-80s. I moved to Boerum Hill in 1983 and think that I’ve lived through the renaissance of Brooklyn. I don’t like the outsize development on 4th Avenue + Atlantic Yard etc. but I’m not going to blame that in hipsters and 20 somethings. Some of those people revitalized a lot of neighborhoods (i.e. Williamsburg, Red Hook etc.) by opening businesses and staying to raise families.