The new introduction to Norman Street by Ida Susser revisits the gentrification of Greenpoint-Williamsburg over the last thirty years and it development after the first published version of the ethnography. Following the fiscal crisis of 1975 the area was filled with a low-income population and this new intro takes a look at what has come from the changes enforced in the years following.
Susser points that before the fiscal crisis there was prominence in the rental of living spaces however after the crisis came the plague of homelessness and the rise of home ownership. The housing policy and the increase of rent costs that came about in the turn of the decade after the crisis brought an increase in the percentage of homelessness across the entire city. The upper class continued to make money while the lower income population stayed in place and were thus unable to afford the luxurious condos that were being implemented in the area. Another cause of the rise in homelessness was the actions taken by the government to ensure gentrification. Improvements of the housing complexes and the work put into refurbishing parks made the Greenpoint-Williamsburg area more attractive to real estate developments along with the new housing policies that altered the prominent demographic. Bloomberg’s rezoning plans only emphasized the aforementioned changes.
Though Greenpoint has remained fairly stable in their poverty rate, Williamsburg has increased by ten percent. The Polish population still remains prominent in the Greenpoint area that stays true to the work ethics of the neighborhood perhaps being the cause of the stability of poverty rate whereas both Greenpoint and Williamsburg have remained scarce of an African American population.
Even prior to such drastic developments there were underlying issues that set the ball rolling. Robert Moses played a huge part in changing the landscape pushing the idea of working class Americans to live in Manhattan unreasonable. Jane Jacobs was also a key player in her renovation of buildings and maintenance of street social relations.
Despite these changes some things have remained the same. The emergence of the hipster community that strongly embodies the Bohemian culture in the Greenpoint-Williamsburg area much of the area is still lower income families and is still plagued by homelessness. However on the surface it seems to be bursting with commerce and culture in comparison to years prior.
