Hermes arrives in Williamsburg, joining Chanel in the once-upon-a-time hipster paradise.
But “gentrification” comes in many stripes and colors.
I love them all — why doesn’t every low-income neighborhood have access to better stores and food, and more middle-class residents to spread their dough around?
But the sweetest form of the g-word happens organically.
That is when people follow their hearts and instincts to revive the dead zone that we commonly call slums.
And do so without the zoning changes, subsidies and political machinations required to launch mega-projects that often result in more press conferences than actual “affordable” homes.
It happened in the South Bronx, in much of Harlem and elsewhere.
But the closest to my heart is my childhood neighborhood of low-rise Ocean Hill in Brooklyn, east of Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Now predominantly black and Hispanic — including a large immigrant community from the Caribbean — Ocean Hill is one of the least known areas of the borough and is unfortunately associated in many minds with the NYCHA hell of Brownsville to the south.
When I first revisited my old haunts of 40 odd years, I had no problem that the Colonial cinema where I saw “Pinocchio” at the age of three had become a Baptist church.
But Ocean Hill was so dangerous that I walked in the middle of the road. Vacant lots left by the 1977 fire are everywhere.
Signs of a new development in Ocean Hill, where newly designed modern residential buildings are rising on once abandoned lots. EMMY PARK
As recently as 13 years ago, the destroyed Broadway commercial drag under the J and Z el tracks was so spooky after dark that the local (and only) diner closed for its own safety at 4:30 p.m.
What has happened since then proves New York City’s unparalleled power of regeneration.
Unlikely, cheap real estate attracts real estate investors who build new buildings on vacant land and restore old buildings.
Easy subway access at the menacing but much-needed Broadway Junction station complex above and below ground helps attract families who can’t afford the more attractive parts of Bed-Stuy.
The newcomers signaled a more “organic” form of gentrification than that occurring in Williamsburg, where the luxury Chanel outpost opened. Chanel
The zoning does not allow for the construction of large new homes — which may well be the case. The changes have been dramatic – making it amazing – since my last walk before the 2020 lockdown.
Older three- and four-story buildings thrive thanks to investment by their landlords.
Bainbridge Street’s beautiful brownstone — one of the city’s lesser-known gems — would be right at home on the Upper East or West Side.
No Hermes (ha!) but more groceries, pharmacies and shops than in a very long time.
A Hermes boutique is also slated to debut in Williamsburg.Hermes
The preserved facades, well-kept gardens, and even some simple “architectural” residences stir my heart.
The same goes for security.
Ocean Hill has rough edges, but thanks to broken policing and political determination to lock up the bad guys, crime continues to decline in Ocean Hill as it did in most of the Big Apple before 2020.
Even after “bail reform” and the escalation that followed former mayor Bill de Blasio’s crackdown on proven police tactics, the 73d Precinct — which covers both Ocean Hill and Brownsville — saw 22 homicides last year, compared to 74 in 1993.
There have only been six so far this year. Most of the bloodshed occurred in and around Brownsville’s gang-infested projects south of Atlantic Avenue, according to the NYPD’s incident map.
Although the area is growing, there are still many abandoned shops in Ocean Hill. EMMY PARK
People looking for affordable housing are voting with their feet as a result.
Although some minority neighborhoods lost residents, Ocean Hill’s population continued to grow from 31,935 in the 2010 US Census to 37,952 in 2020.
Now, the government has finally taken that action. (To his credit, Eric Adams fought for improvements during his time as president of the Brooklyn region.)
Economic Development Corp. planned a half-billion-dollar redesign of the notoriously labyrinthine Broadway Junction station and trashed sidewalks around it.
Ocean Hill’s landmark Broadway Junction train station, where much of the ‘hood revival is slated to take place. EMMY PARK
It won’t start until 2027 and the work will take three years — but after half a century of decline, it’s better late than never.
The east end of Hull Street, where I grew up in the early 1950s, is at the foot of the station.
Street recovery from the 1977 riots came slowly. But of at least a dozen empty lots that I recall, very few remain.
A concrete-paved and steel-fenced parcel at 137 Hull St. is where I was born.
It is not clear when or why the building, which was located between two other tenements, was destroyed.
It appears on the city’s Department of Finance property registry literally as a cipher — “Street code is zero.”
The Department of Buildings says the address page is an “obsolete bin kept for historical purposes only.”
But if recent history is any indication, it shouldn’t remain empty much longer. I hope someone will slow it down before the price goes up.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
