I’m a bit old for “what I did on my summer vacation” but I went on two fun trips this fall and I wanna talk about them. This is my blog, so without further ado:
Musings from a couple action-packed trips to fantastic cities: Part 1 – BKLYN (<- that’s the fancy pants spelling of Brooklyn. Makes sense: I’m about to discuss gentrification.)
In October I went to see my sister in Brooklyn. It was a super fun trip, though my train there was excruciatingly, fabulously, awesomely late. In between the sisterly teasing and walking my sister’s dog Miró, we also got into some deep conversations about gentrification.
My sister owns an apartment in Sunset Park. She’s an art teacher at McKinley Middle (PS 259, go Lions!). She also often worries that she’s a gentrifying force. On the one hand, that worry isn’t unfounded: she’s a white woman in a heavily Asian and Hispanic area. However, I don’t think she qualifies as a gentrifier. She’s a public servant who directly serves the local community. The Asian and Hispanic kids in the neighborhood are more likely than not to recognize her from their school. (Which, by the way, apparently leads to some funny interactions.) So, to me, she’s actually what will allow gentrification to remain slow and controlled in her neighborhood. People like her, who are rooted in the community and not too upwardly mobile, may hold back the hipster hordes from descending on the area. Let’s hope.
Anyway, we took my sister’s dog for a walk in Bush Terminal Park, and oh my goodness. That place is amazing. Walking around, my sis mused out loud how she would love to move there, and asked me whether the area was going to gentrify. My answer was a bit complex.
So here goes. In some ways, not only is the neighborhood ripe for gentrification, it already *is* gentrified. The park itself is an adaptive reuse of a once industrial area. Right next to it is Industry City, which is another enormous-scale adaptive reuse of factory buildings. There you can shop for pet toys, get groceries, and get BiBimBap and/or affogato at the food court. Or spend many months’ salary on furniture at Design Within Reach. (Full disclosure: I actually really liked some of that furniture. Good thing I can’t afford any of it. “Within Reach” is relative.) The Industry City website has more buzzwords than you can shake an artisanal locally-sourced clean-tech stick at.
So, case closed, right: it’s gentrified! It’s gone! Everyone cry!
Except, not really. And I’m not sure it ever will be. That’s because of a few things, which really boil down to location, location, and zoning (<- admit it, you thought I was gonna say location).
Look at a map of Brooklyn and you’ll see why I don’t think the neighborhood will be overrun with million dollar condos anytime soon. Bush Terminal Piers Park is exactly where something with “piers” in its name would indicate: on the water. And it’s not high on a bluff, either. This area seems very, very prone to flooding. It can’t be an accident that making this into a park was the best option. Even the very fancy new restrooms seem specifically designed to survive repeated flooding (hopefully of seawater and nothing else.)
Industry City is also right on the water, and is zoned commercial/industrial. The reuse of the factory buildings makes huge economic sense, but not with condos there. After all, there are still *many* light and heavy industries in the area, both inside and close to Industry City. People who buy expensive condos really really don’t like loud noises at 5am and funky smells associated with production. So even if zoning were to be changed (unlikely) condos wouldn’t be desirable.
Plus, there’s location reason number two:
Industry City is right on the BQE, hence the industrial and commercial uses. There’s space for parking, too. So: good for families that live in the outer boroughs and have space for Costco runs. Not downtown hipsters who live in 205 square feet.
I can only speak anecdotally, but when I visited, both the park and Industry City were overrun with families, many of them Hispanic. This makes sense: it’s a Hispanic neighborhood.
Finally, in addition to the location stuff, the City seems to have done a good job with planning tools like zoning. Yes, there are restaurants and stores, but this is no Chelsea Market. There are stores that regular people go to (see Costco), but also nonprofit and city uses, and yes, there are *still* industrial uses as well. Yes, some of it is high-end stuff, but so what? Industrial means jobs, it means use of the space both during the day and in the evenings, and it means no runaway rents. All good things.
So the brief version: while Industry City and Bush Terminal Piers Park already have gentrified, they are no High Line and Chelsea. This is a nice thing to see. I really like the High Line as a linear park, but it has turned out to be an epic failure of planning. The runaway gentrification of Chelsea has completely changed it. Everyone who was once there has now been pushed out. The High Line is still a beautiful design, but it’s mobbed, mostly by tourists.
Bush Terminal Piers Park, for now, is still blissfully uncrowded. Used, yes, but by locals. Industry City is bustling, but the City is clearly trying hard to prevent the runaway gentrification that has taken place elsewhere. It’s using the buzzwords of the day, and lots of amenities, but they are flowing, at least for now, to businesses that are a net gain for the neighborhood.
Hopefully, between those efforts and the location, this area can remain a treasure in the depths of Brooklyn, one that New Yorkers, not tourists, can call their own.
In my classes, I often compare gentrification to fire. Gentrification has a bad reputation, not all of it unfair. Just like fire, if it’s not well-controlled, it will DESTROY. But well-controlled fire will warm you, and cook your food. It’s all about *location* and *preparation*. Location in that you should start your fire in the hearth, not on your couch. Preparation in that having a fire poker, using the right kind of logs, and a fire extinguisher, just in case, can make all the difference.
So, in this metaphor, Chelsea is dry tinder right at the foot of your drapes. The neighborhood had already lost most industrial uses by 2000, and instead had many squatters that while illegal, established the possibility of residential development. Without control, the whole thing went up with one big WHOOMP. In contrast, Industry City is nicely aged logs in a hearth with good ventilation: the buildings are still used for commercial and industrial use only, and they are hemmed in by the Gowanus Bay on one side and the BQE on the other. Between the zoning and the location, there’s nowhere for the fire to get out of control. Instead, it should provide constant, useful heat for a long time.
This comparison is unfair, I realize: Chelsea is very high density, in the heart of Manhattan. Industry City is off in Brooklyn, and is much lower density. Still, these two places illustrate the issues of location and preparation in controlling gentrification. Industry City may still sprout multi-million dollar apartments, but I feel confident that it won’t. Time will tell whether I’m right. Note to self: revisit this in 2027.
In my next blog entry, I’ll discuss my recent trip to Chicago. Now that I’ve announced it publically, I have to do it, right?
PS: Want more Miró? Of course you do. You can follow his adorableness at @MiromonAmour.