I have been familiar with the Williamsburg-Greenpoint area since I moved to this city in 2008. However, Ida Susser’s Norman Street gave me a new perspective of the neighborhood. I had known that it was what was known as a “gentrified” neighborhood, but it was hard for me to wrap my head around the consequences of such a term.
The new introduction to Norman Street focuses on the gentrification of the neighborhood. Susser originally wrote her book on the working class neighborhood and industrial lifestyle of Williamsburg-Greenpoint, but thirty years later, the neighborhood had become exceedingly different. Susser writes about the goals of the city; the gentrification of a central neighborhood such as Williamsburg can bring in new money, get rid of poverty and crime, and reconnect a city in the wake of a crisis such as 9/11. However, such changes come at a cost: people lose their homes, are thrown out on the street, and lose the sense of identity that they once were able to find in their neighborhood.
Susser addresses the major moguls of gentrification in New York City’s past. Robert Moses, responsible for the major highways running through the city, cared only for making the city look better on paper; he did not care to preserve the memories and distinct culture of New York. Forces such as Jane Jacobs managed to oppose such a threat to the integrity and soul of our great city. These two prominent figures are exemplary of the individual, small-scale battles against gentrification every single day.
One of the most controversial aspects of the gentrification of Williamsburg that Susser notes is the influx of “hipsters”. She writes that “In spite of media narratives of ‘trust-fund babies, as we shall see later, most hipsters were not wealthy. While frequently middle class, educated, and aspiring towards an artistic or alternative identity, they often survived in the neighborhood by sharing apartments with many roommates” (17). Certainly there is much stigma against this group in New York today, but at the same time, their identity has become almost the mainstream culture of New York City. Has this new group brought good to the city, or have they only caused harm? Similarly, the demographic in Greenpoint shifted from an American, working-class neighborhood, to a distinctly Polish “enclave” due to recent immigration patterns.
— Chloe Sheffer
