Displacement of Manufactories

When thinking of gentrification, we tend to think of the consequences it has on the residents of a particular neighborhood, but we forget about the businesses equally affected by it, specifically manufacturing businesses. Just like people, large manufacturing businesses get displaced too as discussed by Winferd Curren in her article “‘From the Frying Pan to the Oven’: Gentrification and the Experience of Industrial Displacement in Williamsburg, Brooklyn”. Williamsburg, a once industrial neighborhood, is now being gentrified into a residential neighborhood, leaving manufacturers to be displaced. The issue at hand is that is this transition from industrial to residential harmful for the economy of the neighborhood, or even the city. Curren states that the displacement of manufacturers is “endangering the diversity of the economy and the employment outcomes of unskilled and immigrant workers” (1427). Such effect would not only increase the unemployment rate, but it will also “intensify mounting social ills such as poverty, racism, poor health care and inadequate education, which are still in the process of healing” as stated on Brooklyn Public Library’s history of Williamsburg.

However, gentrification of industrial neighborhoods is not all bad. As Curren describes in her article “In Defense of Old Industrial Spaces”, small scale manufacturing businesses thrive in a gentrified neighborhood due to more residents moving in, which for the manufacturers means new costumers. These new residents come with demands for certain services and products that the manufacturers can fulfill. What makes these light manufactures thrive in a gentrified neighborhood as supposed to large scale industries, is the ability to adopt to the needs of new residents. The Brooklyn Public Library’s history of Williamsburg states that during the last two decades, artists have been the new wave of residents to move into Williamsburg due to “low rents and large light-filled lofts of former factories”. As a result of these new residents, “galleries, restaurants and shops opened, catering to these new residents”. This then has a positive effect on the economy of the neighborhood and the city as a whole. Light manufacturing has been able to survive and thrive in a gentrified neighborhood due to their ability to adopt and innovate, and other cities that were once industrial should adopt light manufacturing as a way to save their city and the economy.

Brooklyn Public Library’s history of Williamsburg