I just happened to be trolling through my image archive, wanting to collect and pool some images of a real estate office I stumbled upon two weekends ago (I’m a little behind schedule okay!) when I came across this article in the Washington Post about condos, gentrifiers, arson, $749 Stokke Xplory strollers and the age-old story of how artists revitalize neighborhoods only to be forced out through the real estate squeeze.
It reminded me of my just-mentioned images, a real estate office that I vaguely remember was a clothing store just a year ago. Ahh a building about selling buildings, complete with models and faux kitchens of future-planned sites, expected views, and an abundance of slogans, signage and information packs.
a whole corner all for yourself! WOW!
The chrysalis is formed.
A few diffused thoughts:
The author asks the questions, “where would all the Puerto Ricans go? Or the old Poles who run the delis”? The author also quotes Neil Smith, director of CUNY’s Center for Place, Culture and Politics as saying, “the wealthy are suburbanizing the center and pushing the poor to the fringes”. A little more research on behalf of the article’s author (did they ever actually travel to Williamsburg?) might reveal a link between these two thoughts, such as some of my friends – of Arabic descent – who run the Superior Markets deli on the northeast corner of Bedford and North 7 as well as the health food store on the same block, some of whom drive daily from as far away as Staten Island, in order to staff a deli which caters to a class with which they have no relation (it was designed that way).
WATER TAXI?!?!!!lk1 Faaaaaaaaack! That’s the first I’ve heard of that. Not surprised, but faaaaaaaaack!
Engine 212. Tis a shame:
In nearly three years of disuse, Engine Company 212 has fallen into disrepair, and while the Company itself has become a martyr for fire safety advocates, the tragedies it could have helped to contain outweigh its symbolic value.
Engine 212 would have been the designated first responder to the recent ten-alarm Terminal Market fire that ripped through fifteen warehouses in Greenpoint. Furthermore, Engine 212 represented the bulk of ambulance service in Williamsburg, which is now serviced by emergency medical units from Bellevue Hospital on First Avenue in Manhattan.
Now that the city has rezoned the waterfront through Williamsburg to Greenpoint for the development of more than twenty 400-ft.-tall apartment buildings, the danger is even greater. Engine 212 would have been just two blocks away from the waterfront, in a prime location to protect all of the development sites. Without that company, the likelihood of dangerous, potentially fatal fires raging out of control before emergency crews arrive is a grave concern for Williamsburg residents and fire safety advocates in the community.
Development causes dislocation even to the rooted (of 117 years, yarrr!).
[via mtaa.net]
Related websites:
My full-size images of ‘Williamsburg, Brooklyn – North 8 development’ on Flickr
Photo of Superior Markets originally from livefromthewb’s Flickr
blockquote about Engine 212 originally from Block magazine