The before and after photographs above are a compilation of photograph’s Kristy Chatelain’s series called Brooklyn Changing. They illustrate the literal changes of Greenpoint, Brooklyn over the last couple of years. Greenpoint is an adjacent neighborhood to Williamsburg, which is heavily discussed in Zukin’s Book The Naked City, Chapter 1: How Brooklyn Became Cool. Greenpoint originated as a working class, immigrant neighborhood. Zukin refers to life in such neighborhoods as “ugly”, stating that as late as the 1930’s, “Greenpoint lacked central heat and hot water; many of the walk up tenements did not have private indoor toilets and bathtubs were in the kitchen…”. From such humble beginnings, Greenpoint has truly been transformed as evidenced by some of the images above. This transformation started as early as the 1940’s. At this point, people were slowly moving into Brooklyn to escape the high rents of Manhattan. Regardless of the slow influx of people, Greenpoint was able to retain its immigrant-neighborhood “charm”. It grew to be known as “Little Poland” and was filled with “mom and pop” shops selling traditional Polish foods. However, as Northern Brooklyn neighborhoods become “cool” as Zukin puts it, these dominating “mom and pop” shops are slowly losing their leases and that immigrant neighborhood “charm” that was initially attractive to the influx of people moving into Brooklyn is becoming lost in the process.
These changes, collectively known as “gentrification”, have become more and more evident especially in the last decade. The captured photographs above demonstrate how drastic the changes have been in just a matter of years. To cite a few specific examples from the images above, I want to begin with discussing the image of 47 Java Street. Today, that is the address of “The Naked Dog”, a high end cafe selling authentic Italian food made entirely from organic activities. As seen by the image above, they offer “coffee, fine food, and wines”. Clearly, this is a major shift from the original mom and pop shop vibe of the area. Another image that I would like to highlight is the photo of 122 Greenpoint Ave. The long standing slaughterhouse has officially been closed and is no longer operating as a slaughterhouse as shown by the photos. I think it is also important to highlight that the “artist scene” that originally entered the area, is arguably not so much the character of that neighborhood presently. By the procession of images in this address, we can see that the doors have been replaced to be entirely graffiti-less. This theme is seen in many other images, including the photograph of 33 Havemeyer St. At this location in 2009, we see a full wall of art…six years later and that graffiti is entirely “cleaned up” and we see a winery. Furthermore, I think it is important to consider the types of businesses that are opening up in this area, including comedy clubs and wineries and expensive cafes and ponder what group of people these businesses will be serving. With that being said, I raise a question. As Brooklyn “became cool” as Sharon Zukin put it, what did neighborhoods like Greenpoint lose/gain and who suffered the consequences & what can we apply from this transformation to our city as a whole?
