Fern Sharm Zokin, Naked City? The Death + Life oF Rulrenbe Urboon Places (Vue (uw Terle! OxFo cd Oniversibey Press, polo) SEE UEEC re How Brooklyn Became Cool ‘Travel guidebook publisher Lonely Planet named Brooklyn as its 2007 “Blue List’ its annual Kdyn's booming” the two- ‘New Yorker worth their street ered New York Daily News, January 8, 2007 one ¢’elock in the morning on a warm October night, and the streets of northern Brooklyn are eerily deserted. The hulks of warehouses and the chimney of the old Domino sugar refinery stand guard along the water- ‘front, while grim industrial buildings hunker down in the shadow of the -ooklyn-Queens Expressway. Steel gates hide the windows of small plas- tics and metalworking shops. Nearby tenements are silent and dark. ‘You're wide awake, though, driving through the darkness on Kent Ave- ue, bumping over warped asphalt and steering around potholes. You're idling Williamsburg, looking for the neighborhood that made Brooklyn cool‘Williamsburg’s growing prominence asa hipster locale during the 19908 confirms Jane Jacobs's idea thet old buildings with low rents will act as incubators of new activities. In contrast, though, to her focus on a neigh- borhood’s existing business owners and residents, the social, cultural, and economic capital of Williamsburg’s new entrepreneurs reinvented the community as a new terroir for indie music, alternative art, and trendy res- + taurant cuisine, Together with gentrification in other neighborhoods, this remade Brooklyn's image as well. Cool cultural production created a nev, ethnically white, cosmopolitan image of Brooklyn centered on the north side of the borough, in contrast to both more expensive neighborhoods in ‘Manhattan and more traditional ethnic and working-class neighborhoods in Red Hook, Bensonhurst, and Bedford-Stuyvesant. This new image would not have worked, though, if new creative people had not moved into Brooklyn, reversing decades of flight. 1 first became aware ofthe talent train to Brooklyn in the mid 80s, when, \weiting om architecture and design for the [New York] Times, I noticed For most of the twentieth century Brooklyn had a sorry reputation as @ FF private indoor toilets and bathtubs were in the Kitchen, where water could HL. when he was growing up, two decades aw almost Rolodex fattening with 78 [telephone area code] prefixes, Not long the borough started getting seriously cool, with all those Rol ‘on productions at BAM [the Brooklyn Academy of Musi ports froma the Royal National Thester at BAM's self-consciously annex, the Majestic....Restaurants followed, and soon, ‘where artists and writers were born but were eager to escape from. ‘to Manhattan, leaving behind the hardships of his poor immi- ‘parents and newer black neighbors—and never looked back. cking-clas, immigrant neighborhood was ugly. Factories were F and residents often turned on each othe P in Williamsburg and the adjacent neighbochood of Greenpoint lacked ‘central heat and hot water; many of the walk-up tenements did not have be boiled in big pots on the stove and poured in the tub when needed. Daniel Fuchs, an Academy Award-winning screenwriter of the 19308 who set two novels in Wiliamsburg, paints a stark picture ofthe neighbor was nothing picturesque about it? By the 1940s however, a small number of Literary men and wornen who ‘were native-born Americans but not native to New York began to migrate over the Brooklyn Bridge, seeking a haven from the high rents and frenzied competition of Manhattan. From Walt Whitman to Truman Caj ite ers who chose to move to Brooklyn delighted in it as an alternati with a strong sense of plact, with # “masculine” culture of piers and fac- tories; it was proletarian, authentic, and not fully modern. Brooklyn espe- ally atracted artists and writers who had lived in the Lower Manhatten neighborhood of Greenwich Village, which, during the 192 ienced both an early form of gentrification and an influx of tou antes Wow BROOKLYN BECAME COOLto see how bohemians lived. Pushed by rising rents and curious visitor, ‘many writers were drawn to Brooklyn Heights, whose aristocratic brown. stone townhouses and natrow streets looked very much like the Village, ‘only quieter and less crowded and with a great view of the Manhattan sky- line, Housing was cheaper there, especially to the south, where the Heights segued into a motley landscape of settlement houses, tenements, and mod. ‘st apartments. There, in the 19305, the poet and writer James Agee found ‘ians and barbers” This was a place a writer could call home? ‘Writers found Brooklyn appealing because it was not Manhattan. Cheap rents were an important factor. But the borough's slower pace, neighborly i of sophistication made it seem more like tes than Manhattan was; for this reason, Brook- a of-age story A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, in 1943. This myth of return con- trasts with the rejection of the borough by Broo cvters such as 1d Pete Hamil, who grew up and left their parents’ ive ethnic community, whether itized appreciation of the urban: ts and writers to Brooklyn as those ethnic communities aged and, srew smaller Writers who migrated to brownstone Brooklyn after the 1970s found that the aesthetics of the streets and buildings confirmed their own sense of identity. “The scale and style of the a suited to small, personal lives, and we all lead small, personal to the grocer on streets lined with old houses that don't hide the stars, to pass beneath sycamore trees, their changes from leaf to bare branch ‘marking the seasons more intimately than the calendar” Such an aes- thetic appreciation of the built environment was limited, though, to old Dourgeois neighborhoods like Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Fort Greene, suring the 1980s and 19908 the migration of more journalists, ass, gr ators, and filmmakers across the East River began to alter Brook ‘Together with the Brooklyn Academy of Music's adventurous vot eponscrng| avant. ances to establish a niche among citys major cata este about the borough. oe nt ‘both subjects and authors of Brooklyn novels, films, dia shifted the city’s cultural geography. Noah ‘odd neighborhoods. Because by this time ‘poor artists and wiiters to move into the they rented apartments from ‘brownstone houses of Brooklyn Heights, they vntrfying homeowners in Park Slope and lofts in Dambo (the waterfront Srerict of factories and warehouses Down Under the Manhattan Bridge ‘Overpass) and Williamsburg. The critical density of new restaurants and: “The epicenter of col: Bedford Avenue, Wiliamsbutg, Photograph by Sbaron Zikin. How BROOKIN BECAME COOLi 2 fa shrinking Jo residents near the waterfront. Only 2 percent o i oer wes nee ey ee nei iste pr en Willi burg was no mos indus of these areas, and for this Fay known fr the arts. During the 19908 the nur of arise and se io hic designers, furniture builders, and new media p re cially in Williamsburg, Park Slope, and Dumbo. As many 19608 ; 3s of these neighborhoo | Bode Rendlbotsog wean mnematnemersecry sto agua of all New Yorker and only 2 pret of tries di, the neighborhood's venir. Saute (ot only were new residents ofthese three neighborhoods been farnous for breweries in the nineteenth century, bt the lst remain. ing brewery, E&M Schaefer, sot down in the 19705 and the Domino suger refinery, once the are’s dominant em ly phased out produc. tion. When factory owners complained about rising labor costs, congested ‘tuck routes, and competition from overseas, city officials didnt even try to help them. Business and politcal leaders saw Manhattan asthe cis commercial center, and they saw Brooklya as a dormitory for workers in Manhattan's corporate headquarters. After the fiscal cris of 197s, when banks imposed control over the city government’ budget, elected officials could not devise a rescue plan for anyone. Dep cuts in public spending left streets and highways in need of repair, with garbage often piled up on at the sidewalks and firehouses and other basic services shut down, Thot ul wn men who summoned ‘ational attention focused on poverty and aton inthe South Brome he [ight Fever), or the nostalgic homeland of grow taian Field in Crown : it i irs when they talked about how they used to go to Ebbets Perera enact WM Suns apron bt ee before the team abandoned Brooklyn for Los Angeles, and many of these : th Carolina. Instead encouraged city officials to think again about economic growth, they paid sien, ow ede and eed, moved to Flora or South Carlin. Intend litle attention to Williamsburg? ley riper ge apap ROPE REET en ‘Though elected officials did not support Broo] ti had a e om Holland Cotter wrote in they sometimes responded to political pressure to avoid creating“: “Brooklyn-ness," ea fae : 04, is now “a cultural ethnicity? : on 7 5 veethe contentious fate of the McCarren Park pool, a public rere ea 2 facility on the border between Williamsburg and Greenpoint, reflects re Aramaic shit in Brookiya'image- Buty Robert Moses in he gp with fands from te federal Works Progress Administration, the swimming Poot here is jobs,” Deputy Mayor Alair A. Townsend said, served an overcrowded tenement cease a aed dees oe ee : in what was probably the last offical statement to downplay the potential ee in the _ ake tar ey avin Ia hegre ead urban renewal. ay would pass through me ee eee though, when more black and Puerto Rican residents moved into nearby neighborhoods and began to use the pool, racial conflicts broke out over Puerto Rican working-class residents, suffered from what looked minal decline, During the 180s, when the expansion of the financial se ‘ho were living illegally the manufacturing zones of Williamsburg and Fulton Ferry (the g in the lofis and small apartments of Williamsburg. In the early 990s two thousand of them lived How BROOKLYN BECAME COOL UxcouMon spaces: ighborhood’s reinven- who belonged there as well as over who was responsible for mounting inc. of hipster os Saas product cycle of dectsof crime and vandalism, Svimmers topped going tothe park becay Se eee ance mn in cr ic" cool Lik new authen- Shy elena Tec grveromen aah inthe sa es et hepa _neeeaper es oe teen ereroate enna ee st eyan with a low-tent and somewhat dangerous neighborhood, Lae somethings who wanted to be artists to form ‘and experimental art forms with lle market value. Local ines, 8 ive week chat ware ill developed by and for inskden—aleoatv weekly plans, with the Parks Depar, papers, photocopied ee pranpeiin iment pushing fo larger pool to xevean expanded ae. of Brooklyn and 4 ceeceten ee ee Joc residents sapporng a smaller pool that would be Limited to nearhy residents and would therefore be more ethnically exclusive: Continues ; 4 finally conporate media conflict over the scale and type of new facilities, another: dispute over des- trawled its cool-cat shops”), an¢ nt its shopping opportunities. ignating some of the pool’s buildings as historic landmarks, and repeated ‘that promoted the neighborhood for PP budget crises prevented any renovations from being done. Meanwhile Wil. i the outreach of the media lamsburg was changing from an ethnic cauldron of working-class whites illansbarg asthe nest ner thing Thro the product for global cal blacks, and Puerto Ricans into a mainly white cultural mix of artists and ‘Williamsburg crystallized into an i . L tusicians, some of whom took advantage of the unused public space in Enger dae ners quickly the new ‘McCarren Park to begin organizing free concerts. fn 2008, aftr a modern i oe asia lam, Williamsburg’s first art gallery, eat pool drew an api ataapicnae weekly the empty cement pool drew an audience of fiteen Senn np he Re or fre en ae we and grocery stores ‘make a great venue for paying concerts organized by its Live Nation ea. paper given away for free peers ‘Unbound? wich pra sidiary. The company made a multimillion-dollr donation to the Pasko a rep ean peri eelaeres Dep. nt fo clean of graft and renovate the pool in return fora con- poe gin al doe cesta echoes use ‘Throughout the next three summers conflict over the poo! focused again P Flliamsburg “the new Bohemia, ‘on who belonged there, but this time the disp ted Clear Chan: story in New York magazine eis : ai tourists. Typical of & major corporate promoter of mainstream, big-ticket concerts crowds of wed those who wanted to continue the Sunday-night “poo! tured free concerts by post-punk bands, many of whom bothood. Because Wiliamsburg was now certfizbly ool, co would take a chance on it! find Brooklyn on cunusual mix of a 2 As...T trawled its cool-cat shops, ‘walked the gale ked in the indie rock scene and d café-lined streets, “Billyburg” still felt balanced on catalogue proclaimed the discovery: of the Willan peradign” Thi i wwerelooking foranew —Hennifer Barger, Washington Post, Noveraber 3, 2005 érew the attention of both artists and patrons who were looking Uxcommon spacssarts community to replace the overly popular and increasingly expensive East Village Jonathan Fineberg, an art professor who organized the exhibition, cred sted the paradigm to a synergy built up by different kinds of bohemian artists who like their earlier counterparts in nineteenth-century Paris and 980s-era Lower Manhattan, organized unusual events that created a sense of community. Though Fincberg praised Williamsburg’s artists for their’ lack of slickness, he could have praised them for their entrepreneurial energy, for the ephemeral clubs and gatherings that they initiated laid the groundwork for a dynamic cultural economy. In this sense Williamsburg operated very much like any other arts-based “industrial district” such 4s Wicker Park, Berkeley, Hoxton in London, or the East Village. In each place cultural producers build overlapping networks around the nodes of temporary events, which creates the social capital and media feedback for continued innovation. Participants in one event, club, art gallery, or blog likely join or organize others. I like Silicon Valley without engineers and with much less venture capit ‘The East Village art scene that had burned so brightly in the early 1980s ‘undoubtedly shaped both the hopes and the fears that artists held for Wil- Hamsburg in the 1990s, Like a 1984 show at the Institute of Contempo. rary Ar of the University of Pennsylvania that quickly canonized the East ‘Village art scene, the 1993 exhibition on “the Williamsburg paradigm” at the University of Tlinois helped to establish the neighborhood's new repa- tation for creativity. Any ambitious young artist would want to be there. At fist, the absence of other artists was an attractive feature. The cultural as well as the geographical distance between Brooklyn and Manbattan ‘taade it easy to see Williamsburg as an “alternative” space. As more artists ‘moved in, however, their ability to find and entertain each other—through street parties, discussions, and DIY performances—created a hothouse of “authenticity” Like other arts districts, Williamsburg’s viability depended not just on the presence of artists, writers, and musicians, but also on their ability to become cultural entrepreneurs. In truth, some of them brought their best ‘teative efforts to this role. The clubs and galleries that they organized were small, but they became social centers for both fellow artists and young cul- tural consumers who wanted to be around them. These places also attracted. act crities and mm ists because they were run by artists whose amateur status as business owners—an artist presenting other artists, a vxcommon spaces participants, when, promoting other bands—emphasized their identity as insiders ‘madé them appear even more authentic, For their part, the gallery Rnd conspicuously poor. Because the owners made hardly any money, the Saces lacked heat and rarely if ever had a cabaret or Liquor licens +, occasional raids by the police and fire departments. Their names were agsironic as any indie rock band’s, and it was often hard to find them in the ‘and alleys near the derelict industrial waterfront. Buty of their authenticity. 5 Williamsburg began to develop a wider reputation ‘complex multimedia events that were somewhat Bike clubs and parties of the 1980s but also like mass be-ins and perfor- mances of the 1960s. Unused factories and warehouses in Williamsburg F could hold crowds, and the potential audience for performances was even * larger because of the growing popularity of alternative movernents such as, raves and culture jamming. All of these cultural events in and around the P ndependent art and music worlds came together at the Old Dutch Mus- E tard factory, a large, multistory loft building near the waterfront that had been vacant for several years. The factory's owners were already renting it out asa location for unadvertised parties, drawing hundreds of paying 1993 a group of more than a hundred artists an event they called “Organism.” Described # lasted from 6 o'clock one evening until 9 ‘After a fire closed the Mustard Factory in 1994, one of Organisms orga~ nizers, Robert Elmes, opened Galapagos, a performance space and bar, in condiment plant, a mayonnaise factory, on the Bedford Avenue subway station. Elmes had moved to Williamsburg from Canada in 1989, and he wanted Galapagos to become @ permanent place of artistic incubation and interactive performance as well as enter- tainment—a community institution for a creative community. Soon the i Times and Village ers from Europe and MOW BROOKLYN BECAME COOL‘anew, bohemian combination of Asian exoticism and flea mar- 10 ‘Gano’ Dish, a storefront restaurant offering Middle Bastern cui- smned in 1992 and received a good review two years later in the New “at the same time, young woman named Kitty Shapiro opened ‘near the Bedford Avenue subway station. “She did it something Zch Village” recalled a bartender at a Polish tavern down the Within a few years the café had become a neighborhood institation, ages through the storefront window and offering high chairs and dents’ children. It was “an authentic ‘Dan Siegler, who bought the café 105" of steamed mi famsburg’s new authenticity took a giant leap when Brooklyn » yy moved into another old factory just a few blocks from Galapa- the first brewery to open in this area in about « hundred years, the ation was the brainchild of two Brooklyn-bera men, a repor Canker, who decided to quit their jobs and go into the beer business tisanal beet made by microbreweries swept through. Former ste of Galapagos artspace : orth Sah Stes, Wi com : Wiliams rard the East Rive. Photograph by Sharon Zoli 1B looking pocorn ea ; ager that was brewed upstate an¢ ‘Asia F soshood to the east of Williamsburg 45 well as North America in this way he becan ‘American and Latino popul Willamsburgs neircoolT nn) Ye beceme a prime promoter of F dated houses and factor F into Bushwick after dark, Brookiy F Williamsburg for deliveries. Inthe mid-19905, around the same time that Galapagos opened, the owners decided to take direct conteo oftheirbrew- ing operations and move them from upstate to Williamsburg, Though this attracted the unwanted attention of both labor union gangsters and armed robbers, archetypal figures who harked back tothe neighborhood ecause truck drivers were afraid to Brevery rented warchouse space in ‘together a show for his venta, Four Walls, and Pierogi—t ee sa 7 = gallery. The SoHo exhibition put Wilamsburgon anna ne ans the meee ee aM Pied Wilansbury Manhattan began to ist alerin thee Cate no base in artisanal beer production retazmed Williamsbu: forts authentefel ite Sato before was"diecse aed th higher-class commodities” io before it was discovered" Is : During the 19908, in addition to seater a i ‘Toward the end of the 19908 the “street fashion” company Brooklyn begun to develop production sites for to other secon of he ne Industries added another cool cultural product to Williamsburg’s grow- = eaeaca eaten of the symbolic ing entrepreneurial mix In this case, the entrepreneurs, Lexy Funk and Ofdle ate Doan esa ‘Vahap Avsar, were artists trying to make careers as designers in Manhattan cries and Latino while working at non-art jobs, Fank at an advertising agency and Avsar as from the “original” authenti vNcomuon spaces Wow BROOKLYN BECAME COOL 8i the discarded sheets of giant vinyl billboards that he found in ee ster near their studio-home in Manhattan, He cut the Pieces, and the en bet fdas tna eee Naccrstoncts set elseapesWians se alin label that they needed al spirth from a cheap, unremarkable, immigrant neighborhood near ent an empty, 0 jorhood? in urban America tamorphosis from gritty to cool was not unique to Williamsburg os. Though it didn't affect cites with decining populations end ‘opportunity for economic growth this same metamorphosis did i the success of big cities with dynamic corporate financial and media to rundown neighborhoods outside the center. Nouveau describes Williamsburg’s revivals it also applies to the rebirth of San co south of Market Street during the dot-com boom and the Seattle mpany to Brooklyn Industries ‘sarbucks and grunge, 25 well as to the revival of a small number of theirlineof bags and opened reat nan added jusial neighborhoods in Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Baltimore, and ‘Store on Bedford yiladelphia. Gritty’s appeal was in the postindustrial spirit of the times thin the next few years they opened seven Manhattan and Brooklyn and ike Bockyn Sewer bee eet and in the symbolic economy's ability to synthesize dirt and danger into products outside the region, ewer began to distribute F new cxltual commodities ist who wore Brooklyn Industries fae eee Whitin hip-hop art ust love how gritty and industrial it is here,” she sai, indicating the trucks double-parked, motors running in the street, the guys in hooded sweatshirts pushing handcarts. “It’s kind of like these are the raw F ingredients, and then you go to the restaurant and havea meal” —New York Times, February 9, 2007 Like Williamsburg, the word “gritty” hardly madean appearancein popular culture before the 19908, and when it did, it carried the symbolic beguege of death and destruction, “Gritty both the style and substance of éld black-and-white pecially the film noir movies made in New ‘York and Los Angeles in the late 19408 and 1950s films that suggested the alienation of the individual in modern cities and those cities’ tragic loss of power to younger, more prosperous suburbs. The noir image suit narrative of Brooklyn's economic decline, rom the shutdown of the port and Navy Yard in the 1960s and the abandonment of the breweries to the changing social geography of upwardly mobile white ethnic groups who gradually left the borough's tenements and brownstones for high-rise apartments in Manhattan and split-level houses in the suburbs. “Gritty” is tory of Brooklyn cool isa ro artists 4 romantic story of indie arti d sof participation and creativity its oy amen svianteta nt atorchet oe involvement by private developers and public o an anticorporate, ence of economic als, who ignored ewcouwon sracs see Peay tn wlrertomee He ayybehind: crowded rising crime sndy restaurants and clubs that were opening in ices eee a fae ia sremiet ad ‘ungentrified neihboood bars, and 7 Breet . ” Many articles identified artists as agent By #he19708 the term was commonly used to describe factory towns and ol tien bugs: oa es urban neighborhoods that were squeezed by pl cmon he iy main bg St ven image of urban blight” Because of rising housing pros hah itty and prime areas began to narrow. “Manhat : ge ing ou sein ten iy Tie ‘achieves ‘were known by 5 vaured for “rising housing costs in prime areas have pushed more ies a Fiedared, vee ‘ents in oanufacturing they were the Tron City the Silk City ‘the Steel City, and the Brass City, where “neighborhoods have the tough, proud look of the b a an vest gallery district. In London, said the Finan- » abandoned factory chimneys, and : ae tht it % industrial wasteland climate” ofthe South Bank “ao oe . isnow “a powerhouse for growth” fueled by theaters, trendy shopping, and a modern art museurn. ty streets” Baltimore wasa a nee Ben] Shahn took of seemingly endless strip of grity row houses where on hot summes nights come to expect of gaan Photgraphs aaiees rity spontane- ‘Sweltering people hunch...on their stone steps for a breath of polluted ‘on New York: ae eae ee admired the “gritty urban aes- : ee ai fork Times, The ms ; ‘ rat "ote Prosperous cites "grity neighborhoods” looked grim next to iy ot pe i neighborhoods fom Phas ° San siemens i = 1 joined, paradoxically, :Ar the same time, journalist also began to apply the word to popular where “gritty bars” fevunnunay Cie aig ana ataeae caltural forms they liked, especially those that had some connection with restaurants, peace ea pene imail than elsewhere. Today the use New York Cit. “Grity” described both the punk rock eb CBGB om the Oe ag synergy between underground Bowery in Lower Manhattan and the highly rated TV detective series Rojak pide Ate ratesio they bring to both cultural consumption tier took place on the sees ofa fcdonal Midtown South. The changing [ates andthe conte eng they bring ots cual esumpin ‘use of “grit” especially in the New York context, boded ‘well for neighbor c. and real estate. tne York Times recommends “the gritty charm boods like Wiliamsburg, despite thei physical decay and lack of Public hs” in the basement ofa church, where the audience | exes the het. ue car working ea pes sh dade and hips reads tow hs i pote esomnendationSi ion of the NewYork Secret nee foe a ee oa eee tars Fae } of the original musical West Side Story and directed its revival Hudson Street in the lower West Side” But the Times’ Weekend section UNCOMMON spacesauthentic grittiness that the theater of the s9sos didn’t allow” “Gritty” we now understand, means authenticity, and that is good” Bot a trace of the bad old gritty remains when it comes to race. While ighborhoods such as Williamsburg were becoming hip in the 1990s, other Brooklyn neighborhoods, inner-city areas where blacks ‘with repidly aging public housing projects that xs surrounded by green park-like space but were experienced as ve _ghettos—the very design Jane Jacobs despised, Yet this racially other, located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Fort Greene, Clinton Fill, and East Fla bush, also developed a new image of Brooklyn as cool. Unlike in Wiliams- burg, however, these new beginnings entered popular culture through hip-hop music and biack films. Jay-Z, Big’ Smalls, n—s— ya drawers Brooklyn represent yal, hit you fold You crazy, think yous litle bit of rhymes can play me? T'm fron Marcy I'm varsity, chump, you're JV. Z,“Brookyn's Finest,” 1996 In the mid-1990s, when Spike Lee adapted the novel Clockers to the screen and changed its locaton from the fictional tow of Dempsy, New Jersey to the zeal streets of Brooklyn, he brought the borough's gritty black neigh- borhoods into the virtual core of popular culture. Le had set his movies in Brooklyn and filmed on location there since beginning his career a decade carlier, His frst film, Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (198 much a neighborhood movie. His second film, Shes Gotta Have begins with a shot of the Brooklyn Bridge. Unlike other direct tend to shoot the bridge in front of Manhattan's skyline, Lee focuses on the Brooklyn side of the river. He uses such local landmarks as the downtown Fulton Mall, Brooklyn Heights Promenade, and Fort Greene Park, site of @ six-minute-long color fantasy sequence, To introduce the character Mars, played by Lee himself, Lee shows him bicycling down a hill in Dumbo. If the audience needs a more literal sign to identify blacks with Brooklyn, Lee dresses Radio Raheem, a character in his later flim Do the Right Thing (4989), in a T-shirt labeled “Bedford. Stuyvesant” And the song that opens F eblack community in Brooklyn at tis time isthe conflict between insid- Te images of these neighborhoods follow a model set bythe African ¥ rectors Oscar Michaux and Charles Burnett, who portray sc a nonkng cls eas ofthe inner cy, But they lo folow al. New York “street” movies like Dead End yn igs) tat cain to show authentic urban fe through the lens i block Unlike these earlier films, though, that were shot on Hol- es designed to looklike New York streets both Do the Right Thing ‘Croats (3994) take place of a real steetof browmatone houses in resent, Lee uses the street theatrically, asi it were a set. In ver the comings and goings of neighbors end friends and comment on ‘As Mos Def the hip-hop artist and actor who ‘echoing the current view of Brookiyn, “It stil borhoods. People knovr each, loyal to their neighborhood” Bat Do the Right Thing dors not ‘hateful ethnic and social tensions that were so much ‘apart of New York and other American cites in the 1960s. The tragedy of ‘them like a Greek g African American residents against each other a8 Jno own the corner pizzeria and the recently oped the beats and techniques of sampling in the 19708 came from th Bronx. Not until the 1980s and 1990s, when M.C’s were rapping lyrics rather than laying down bests, did a new generation of rappers make a ‘yocal claim for the “authenticity” ofthe other Outer Boroughs with sizable black populations: Brooklyn and Queens. If Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes “rep- resented” an African American neighborhood like Bed-Stuy or East Flat- bush or a public housing project like Marcy Houses this said their product swas authentic—to both the black audience who expected the music to be “real” in terms of evoking racial experience and the whites who liked it because it spoke of danger. Like movies by black directors, hip-hop moved HOW BROOKIYN BECAME COOLGluing the 1590s from depicting an abstract space called “the ghetto naming specific streets and landmarks of “the hood.” And some of the neighborhoods were in Brooklyn.” Naming neighborhoods gave hip-hop artists a means of branding the Products in terms of origins, and branding was important to them becans4 the economic and cultural stakes of success in the music business were ¢ high. Just as Nike and Adidas bought endorsements by black athletes other corporations that sold clothes, cars, and cell phones hired fi artists to promote them. ion. and-entertainment complex 5 Roc-a-Fella,and Bad ‘oY Records in New York and Death Row Records in Los Angeles, ll recond Vhen gangsta rap made iborhoods. Prominent among {hem was Bedford-Stuyvesant, home of Jay-Z. as well as Biggie Small the jictorious BLG."aheavy-setrapper and, briefly the most important hi hop arti : Taking his stage name fom a character in a 1s7os gangster comedy directed by Sidney Poitier, Biggie Smalls was larger than life in more than body size, He repped about being drug dealer and spending time inal, using explicit language to depict a neighborhood of gun battles and cocaine deals. By his persona no less than his lyrics he represented his home bor. ough as a cradle of “authentic” hip-hop culture—the good, the bad, and the ugh, from legal drug sales to gold chains. When Biggie and Jay-Z tapped “Where you from?” on the chorus of “Brooklyn's Finest” (1996) they offered a shout-out tothe neighborhoods spanning central Brookdyn that had gone through a racial transformation from white to black in the 29608 and 9708 and developed a more complex ethaic identity in the and 19905 with growing Caribbean and African immigration, The 1 popularity of gangsta rap cast these neighborhoods as an epicenter of cool though ina diferent way from Williamsburg and fora diferent partof the public Even ifbl vas cool, it was not always easy to survive there, Biggie Smalls was shot to death in 1997 in what was presumed to be a battle in the lethal rivalry between hip-hop record labels andthe moguls who run ‘hens. Other Brookiya rap artists were regulary azested for illegal weap. ons Possession or involved in fights in music clubs—a mirror image of the Violence in many oftheir songs. Like Wiliamsbury's artistic entrepreneurs, vxcommox spaces created a story of origin that became the basis for Brook: *p5e5 3 ar cniity, But unlike hipster Wiliamsburg, black Brooklyn. save Ab authen aan ies black Brooklyn's power to entrap *" Zsmovie Clockers dramatizes : ie a ople in the central character's thvarted love of tain. 3 never been on a train. Only been trying to solve a murder ight cers through the train window in the last ae ees a marked difference from the gritty cinematograph esta Se erprets this contrast between golden p beta race v sbels, and mix-tape producers” 5 stati ns, record labels, rn Savurpar rp musi, Ti ope P iobed ao fret ening shot in She's Gotta Have rcefully, then, by the opening shot : oe ae ae -value for black Brooklyn that praca fa a a h i a six years later, when. the another bridge created for Willi aaa te Seat a ass ransalongsde te story of origin in Brook- ly’s rebirth as cool. While cultural tae cae regions of the world, so have many ep nue famili come to central Brooklyn from Africa and the oe 7 ‘Williamsburg exports Brooklyn art, bands, leg eee world <0 Brocka hip-op isa global rend. But Hack coumopoliasise confronts the demographics of a gradually “whitening BROOKLYN BECAME COOLwenty-somethings tended to be working-class youths in traditional white ethnie neighborhoods ike Bensonhuret ney ad the urban vilage After 1980 these nodes of youthful whiteness diseypese vith the aging of the white population and the suburban mips ‘he upwardly mobile among them, along with growing Caribbean, Lan Asian, and Afican immigration; Brooklyn became blacker and bese By 2000, though, the map of Brooklyn showed young white adie ne in diferent places the thre creative neighboshoods—Wiliamsburg, Pat lope, and Dumbo—that represent a news more affluent, and mene ac ‘hetically attuned “urban village™ ea Most people cal this gentrification, But that is too natrow a tern describe the demographic and economic changes that have reshaped bor, Brook’ psa fbric and its reputation. In-movement y ven cose with in migration, suggests a proceis of eth. 2 eon whites now replacing blacks end Latinos and the comer bodega sling organic whole wheat pasta. Brooklyn's ne authenticity” reflects a different, upseale socal character, where upset ‘cans richer people on the one hand and taller buildings on the tea” ‘twas generally felt that Brooklyn was a good place for parents ambitious for their children and a kind of up-and-coming su; sentriied are said Mr. Hampton, whois British, —Now York Times, March 29, 2009 : ‘Though the collapse of financial markets in 2008 stalled fonding for new construction and left many condos unsold, the rezoning that New York a because private real estate developers did not believe people with ae 7 oes Tey have moved in, though, and rising new luxury apartments hav fae chngiaWiimsbargDljaSeeneyenhesean det ages Artspace has decamped to Dumbo, and artists and musicians are ‘moving eastward into Bushwick, farther afield to Fstbush, and even ou ts Queens seeding new areas with cool bars and restaurants a they migrate 9m the hipster core. cts uNcommon spaces 8 in the rezoning process the Bloomberg administration respected the the New York City Planning Commission rezoned 170 blocks in ‘burg in 2005, they explicitly aimed to upscale the waterfront, rid~ remaining industrial uses and reclaiming the prime space for residential construction. Now twenty- to forty-story apartment tretch along the East River from the old Domino suger refinery ‘and the area upland, away from the spived but paid no attention to her broader goals. The City Plenning Commission held public hearings on 2197 immunity development plan created by neighborhood residents, a coali- ‘of working-class families and artists, who strongly supported keeping» + ties for light manufacturing and building low-rise, affordable housing. the commissioners rejected the residents’ proposals. At the next level ‘quent letter supporting the comm B chortly before she died. “What the intelligently wo: © by the community itself does not do is worth notic E does not destroy hundreds of manufacturing job mote new housing at the expense of both tive and economical new shelter that residents can afford. violate the existing scale of the community, nor does economic advantages of neighborhoods that are p that demonstrably attract artists and other live-work craftsmen.” But the council members proceeded to rezone the waterfront from manufacturing to residential use, permitting talland presumably nxury—apartment toveis to replace empty factories and rundown warehouses * Gity Council members compromised with community demands for reasonably priced housing by offering tax subsidies, and the right to build bigger buildings, to developers if they agreed to include about 20 percent “affordable” rental apartments in their projects. These agreements, though, are strictly voluntary, and developers and building owners upland most often ignore the incentives, preferring to charge rents as high as the market ‘will bear For these reasons, a developer tore down the Old Dutch MustardFactory—arguably a monument to Williamsburg’s new authenticity—and replaced it with loft-condos and townhouses, a “private zen garden.” ang rooftop cabanas." ‘The story of how Brooklyn became cool, and of the upscale real estate development that followed, shows the effects of capital investment and government policies, to be sure, but also demonstrates the cultural power of the media and new middle-class consumer tastes. These have produced a sense of Brooklyn's authenticity different from anything that came before, middle-aged man who was born and raised in the ” Paul sees Brooklyn's authenticity in the mov- that he grew up with, whose ethni 7 the absence of blacks, who fough of the earth.” But this speaks of a time when the In those years one of every seven Americans, regardless of where they lived, 3 hhad a family member who came from Brooklyn. people come to, not a place sve a traditional, urban village to become the next cultural destination and yearning for an urban village that disappeared after World War Il. For each generation, though, the idea ‘of Brookyn’s authenticity shows an aspiration to connect the place where people live toa timeless urban experience. Brookiyn’s older generation, who grew up with Jackie Robinson and watched him break the “color barrier” in 1947, is defined by nostalgia for ‘yesterday. They look back to the years before the Dodgers left town, the Navy Yard shut down, and many of their neighbors left for the suburbs 4s Brooklyn's prime time. Now they live in retirement in the South or in lower-middle-class neighborhoods with new immigrant neighbors. ‘The middle-aged generation of new immigrants arrived in Brooklyn after 2985, when US. immigration laws were changed and the flow of people from the Caribbean, Mexico, China, and Africa increased, and the F Together with dramatic decreases in the crime et Union broke apart, bringing other new residents from Russia and al Asia. This generation is defined by hope for tomorrow. Working small factories, driving taxs, or caring for children in other peo- ‘omnes, they look forward to the success of the next generation, “The third generation is the twenty- and thirty-somethings who define emselves by today. Gentrifiers as well as hipsters, they find the aesthetic 1s to fashion a looser, hipper identity in their Brooklyn neighborhood, 1m fading shop signs and loft buildings to new art galleries and cas cough they claim to admire the old authenticity of Brooklyn's origins, y have.created another authenticity that reflects their own story of Poot everything in Brooklyn i relentesly upscale, While Williamsburg ffers from a glut of unsold luxury condos, the popular free concerts sve moved from the McCarren Park pool to a new waterfront park. A ‘neighborhoods away, in gentrified Park Slope, the food co-op inspires least as much dedication—and idealization of community—as the old orner candy store. The new development project planned for Atlantic ds has been halted by the economic crisis, and in Coney Island, the city government is fighting a developer who wants to turn the historic but P seedy amusement park into a theme perk with shopping mall. Yet devel- Brooklyn Borough president Marty Markowitz, makes all of hes brought many changes to Brooklyn in recent years. has encouraged people to venture into neighborhoods where they had never B: sone before, Race wsed to be considered a barrier to these changes. The recent whitening of Broolyn, though, has expanded gentrifcation into [ass black neighborhoods while new immigrants as well as white ‘gentrifiers have made other areas into an ethnic mosaic. If racial barriers still hold back gentrification anywhere, however, we would surely see their effects in Harlem, “the capital of black America.” The historical connection between race and place should be even more “authentic” there than in any E neighborhood of Brooklyn.Na 6C'¥ SLOCIEIG S31 “YOK MON, ‘adpjooag uy 2oyso uv Jo.no paSem Sutaq s1 woRvoyLzUeA yurwBe Ud Jeuconen v ping 0} uBredusvo ovp yeUp eXe9] 0} pastsdans oq ][}a1 U0 ON gioz ‘ZdaS | OFYN IVS: yong /ueu ouabing “| JEM PHOM JO UFeUUEYe BU} Ul] SUCHEN payun eu} Aq perleouos uoRIUYap e sJeaW sjUsp!se1 OLUNBUO| Jo juawade|dsip oy) Jeu) BuynBue s| dnoi6 peseq-uApjooig V eUONRIOIA SIYSIY-ueUM B UONRIYLIUS ST UDINE, 7 q-woHeayo8 go/slogeaomsomsnqnuos onueaNTNAYAdN —~QlONeIOIA SHUR HoNEDNIUED S| ‘PuoXoR pu EATON LWd 6e'b STOZIEIS au aquosop 0111 peut0 4si8ojo100s YsHUNE 8 “SseID YMY LOYM “028] sopeoop omy Aprean [fun asn oyut aU09 3 IPI W79} EYL “ARH I PIO JON, “voRRoyryued jnoge SunpAue hes 7 sa0p “YBnoyy ‘oxoyMON “aaNyI0} WOLy MIOpoDxy pue ‘oxeaupyeoy ‘uoneonpe Surpnyour ‘sqySis festoAqun [esoAes soyRUEpr juoumoop oy ‘sIysry UeUMT Jo LOTeIePA [esIEAIUA aU} Paydope SUOHRN PaUn oy ‘siawq UE IONEYO op steyed ay 7k ‘BFET UI “ISNLdO|OH, JoYJOUR JsUTeBE ssaxqing [EnJoaToqUt pur pedo] e sv oar9s plnom yey} BUITIDOP B OSTAAP 0} Joy}990} OWRD sAOpPed] POM UOYM “T] TEM PHOMA JOYE Ajayerpoumun sxead ou ur adeys 00} syy8ir ueuy Jo }daauod uzapour oy, “10g Jo Axoysty OU JapISTOD OF MHyyaY{ 8,31 ‘FOHPET axp Jo VOHEIOLA v st JOULIO yp Jo uoRFe\sopTueUE au] JEU UATE Poo sysTAHOR asayy MOY PURIssOpUN OL, -seapr pareaqjdtr09 10} suis) peorg are asayy—stysa unumny ‘uorvorfismusy suORE|OTA sqySiz-reumy e st 91 998 sroziueB10 asaup se ‘uoTeOyEUAD :A1O ay} 01248RE 40] ssoutsng Jo Jopso yszy a4 st UoNNdaozad syy) BursuweyD sone] paoyadssao pur svystieq snonuajard yp dn Sumynd yo sayssey ayy wey} JoyLMy ou popuarxo syaoye jnguumey sy] YBNoy; 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