From The Peopling of New York City
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"The Next Chelsea"
- Williamsburg has been a place of attraction for artists looking to display their works in large places for low rent. However, since the 1990s, the low rent aspect of it has skyrocketed. Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment can range anywhere from $1,200-$1,400. It has become a place to allow emerging artists to be established. Artists have started moving into the area since the 1970's. A lot has changed over the last decade. There are now more galleries, restaurants, and clubs. There's a steady gentrification of the neighborhood transforming from the working class neighborhood to a mixed economic and cultural community.
- Real estate centers have opened up all over in Williamsburg where the high rate prices of rent have forced many artists to move out. Once local residents cannot continue residing there due to high rent, they are left with no choice but to move out. Before, when artists originally moved here, it was due to the high rent of places like Greenwich Village, SoHo, or Chelsea. Williamsburg, Brooklyn seemed like the perfect place to express their art with less worries of having to pay high rent. However, that has been changing over the years as artists and young couples venture out to settle in the new hip art center of Williamsburg. Due to this steady gentrification, rents increase tremendously and artists who cannot compensate for this increase move out. This is a recurring aspect of many neighborhoods that witness new groups of people moving into their neighborhoods to change it into a new art scene. This is what had happened to Greenwich Village, SoHo, and Chelsea. They were once non-commercial institutions to help new artists come about. However, that changed due to an increase in residents where artists will move to Williamsburg. Now, seen from the image above of a real estate building hosting prices of rent, the costs of living even in a one bedroom apartment can seem outlandish for those wishing to jump start their artistic careers.
Local Artists
- Upon interviewing an employee at a store named Earwax(Music store on Bedford Ave.), Ben Greenberg is one such artist who had no choice but to move out of Williamsburg. He lived in Williamsburg as a musician for three years while attending the New School on 5th Ave.
- "I lived in Williamsburg because it was affordable," said Greenberg. When asked why he thought the prices of rent skyrocketed, he replied, "Because people like me moved here, it's the cycle of gentrification."
- Greenberg now lives in Bushwick, which is also becoming the new hip center to be now that it's becoming less affordable for artists to live in Williamsburg.
Williamsburg: What Greenwich Village Used to Be
- Another local resident who works in a bookstore lived in Williamsburg for 10 years. Quentin Rowan, short-story writer, said, "I came here right out of college when I was 22 and rents were a lot cheaper back then (referring to 1998). People keep moving here, and there are a lot condos going up and so everything is more expensive."
- The influence of art in Williamsburg is beginning to fade. Rowan said, "Williamsburg is all about its art galleries but now its becoming more of a shopping district, and it has happened quicker then it has happened there (SoHo). It's already turning more commercial, and it's more about the nice condos and fancy stores. A lot of the galleries are moving out."
Local Store Owners
- Fredrik Larsson, owner of "Scandinavian Grace" (furniture store located on North 9th St.) lived in Williamsburg for a year. He moved here after deciding that it would be cheaper to run his business in Williamsburg rather than Manhattan.
- "I believe there's a need for what I'm selling" said Larsson. "Especially with all the construction that's going on, and it's really working. Also, when Greenwich Village and SoHo got to expensive and tight, this is now the destination (to be). But I think this is about to move as well. I think people will soon be going out to Bushwick because this (Williamsburg) is getting too close to the city and getting too expensive as well. It's just one of the destinations of the change of what's happening. Right now Williamsburg is very hip, which I think it's going to stay for a very long time. When the young trendy people take over a place or a space it becomes very cool and hip to live here. I think the first sign of sudden change is when a restaurant opens because then everything else follows. I was in Bushwick a couple of nights ago, and a friend of mine opened up a restaurant there, and it's the beginning of something that's about to change again."
- Larsson is correct to say that Bushwick is now seeing its rise of trendy hipsters looking to escape rising rent rates of Williamsburg such as our earlier former-resident Ben Greenberg.
Art Galleries
- The Black & White Gallery located on Driggs Ave. is holding an exhibit by Kim Holleman. Her exhibition is called Law of the Land. Holleman attended Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in NYC as well as The Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, Holland. Holleman's work focuses on conveying ways that the man-made works of the environment along with the natural environment itself live in a symbiotic and healthy way. Her art questions mankind's methods and motives of dominating earth.
Jenny Wilson, a woman who works at the Black and White Gallery said, "In terms of art, I think Williamsburg is a good place for it to thrive in. We're going to keep this space open so that we can serve the residents and artists who have over-arching ideas to do non-commercial work. It seems to be a reoccurring theme that the artist goes and takes over a place no one wants to go to and make it cool and hip. That's when the real estate ventures start happening, and a lot of people are moving out. A lot of artists are going to Greenpoint and Bushwick and going further and further into Brooklyn."
Black & White Gallery will start an Artist in Residency program and turn the space into a non-profit gallery. There's a kitchen so that artists can live there and display their works.
