North Williamsburg, BK
1
in the
80’s
4
2
3
Begin tour at number 1 and then follow the map to the following
numbers: 2, 3, 4. These specific sites will take you on an informative,
mind-opening experience of Williamsburg, focusing on areas that
have affected the community since the ‘80s. Williamsburg has been
gentrifying in the last twenty years, and has seen tremendous changes. There are many locals who feel bitter-sweet toward the situation.
Take your time while walking along this tour, and make sure you notice how people are dressed, what shops and restaurants are popular, and how the architecture looks like from building to building. Can
you tell the major shift between the Polish families and young artists
to a a wealthier and commercial driven population?
On the right is a census of ethnicities occupying the area. It
appears that it is still predominantly white, which include the
newcoming hipsters and the
Polish immigrants.
http://maps.nyc.gov/census/
Old Dutch Mustard Seed Factory
1
80 Metropolotain Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11249
There are many sites to cover in North Williamsburg, but one in particular
that talks about how industrious the area primarily was would be the Old Dutch
Mustard Factory, where it provided an immense amount of jobs for immigrants in
the area. It recently in 2009 was converted from the Old Dutch Mustard Warehouse to 80 Metropolitan, and used for residential purposes. The argument is
to make it a mixed-use development. This is interesting, because in 2005, the
Williamsburg waterfront was rezoned. The 375 acres were rezoned into mixed
use, and in exchange for letting developers build tall luxury condominiums; the
city required them to make
20 percent affordable
housing units. When the
housing market crashed a
few years later, the new
construction came to a
halting stop. Presently, in
2013 only one-third of the
originally projected number of housing units have
been created, and about
20 percent of the affordable housing units have been built. Now Jane Jacobs, as
an urban planner, argued for the development of mix-used buildings to improve
the safety of the people, and overall make for a more beautiful city. Specifically,
the Old Dutch Mustard Factory, a historical structure, is said to be converted. The
choice of the word ‘converted’ was used loosely, because there are no remains
of the old building. It was not preserved and not even the frame was kept to at least have apart of the original infrastructure. Steiner Equities demolished the Old Dutch Mustard Factory, even after the developer was ‘behooved’
to tear down what was one of the Williamsburg’s most charming surviving old industrial buildings. Now, we know
that a ‘conversion’ is a synonym for ‘demolition’ into a pile of bricks, concrete, and twisted metal. The other piece
of the story was the fact that it was written in a story
in Flatbush Life that a group called the Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance (FBNPA)
has put the Old Dutch Mustard Building on a list
of historic structures to save. Obviously, someone
mad a mistake, because if this is what they call
preserving a site, we are in a world of trouble.
“He did not want anyone who
was black. This was primarily
an Polish area and of an older
age group”.
-Rose Kampert
On your right are two pictures of a before and after of the factory in just a
month.
“Women walking to work along Broadway. Facing east, the World Trades visible in the
foggy distance. Johnny Lieberman, Ken McKay and Larry Crombez all put a lot of time
into documenting the streets of Williamsburg when the Berry Street group of artists first
moved there. Photographed by Johnny Lieberman early 1980’s.”
“Trinity - Peter Pryor, Robin Janatti, John Spano. It was a hard night. Photographed
by Johnny Lieberman, late 1970s.”
“An indigo victim at the end of its last ride. SX70 Polaroid. Photographed by Ken
McKay, early 1980s.”
Typical Polish Home
N. 1st and Berry
Brooklyn, NY
2
North 1st and Berry Avenue is a great example of how some immigrants
might have lived. This building had a fire broke out in the early 1980’s. It is
now a vet clinic but an old Polish-American couple lived there previous to
that. A resident who lived across the street witnessed a hundred men streaming out of this little building one early morning to escape from a fire, they
dispersed among the herd of fire trucks. Later a fireman told him, that the
building was filled with triple-decker bunk beds, where Polish men on visitor
visas were working to make money to send home, slept in shifts, two men
rotating a bed. It was an interesting contrast to the man who lived across the
street, because it turned out he occupied a 4000 square feet
loft by himself. This
comparison is a great
example of how close
two situations of living
are in one neighborhood. During the ‘80’s
there was a major
shift between factory
workers and those
who commuted into
Manhattan. There were
little rules back then,
to control the standard
of how people lived
and worked. The city
did not take notice
until Williamsburg was a destination rather than an after thought for
residence. A couple blocks south from here, Grand Avenue or what we can
identify as the Mason-Dixon line, separates the two parts of Williamsburg, the
North and the South. The Polish community trickled down from Greenpoint
into North Williamsburg to be closer to the work. History of Williamsburg
demonstrates that the wave after wave of newcomers has been one of the neighborhood’s defining
characteristics. Just as immigrants have seen a
reason to call Williamsburg their home, other people have agreed as well over the last thirty years.
The neighborhood has a convenient location to be
right on the edge of Brooklyn across the river from
Manhattan, but cheaper. Williamsburg has a trend
to act similarly to a port city, people flock and then
they eventually leave. This characteristic evolves
the conditions and landscape of Williamsburg,
and as the people change, the neighborhood will
follow shortly.
“I am already grieving the lost
of authenticity that I was apart
of when I bought the place in
‘86”
-Rose Kampert
On your left is a photo of the
brownstone that went up on flames
that morning in the early ‘80s.
“The AA, CC, RR and QB are locals. JFK is the train to the plane. And it’s still
the LL to the lonely platform and ancient, clumsy wooden turnstiles at Bedford
Avenue in 1986.”
“Williamsburg Bridge Bike/Walking Path early 90’s. photo Yvette Helin”
Knitting Factory
361 Metropolitan Avenue
Brooklyn, New York
3
Metropolitan Avenue extends into the heart of Williamsburg as it intersects with Bedford Avenue. There
is a venue that is currently popular amongst the local
artists and music lovers, but also represents what has
brought so many people to this area: the music scene.
In the late ‘80s and ‘90s punk, hip-hop and grunge
were extremely popular
amongst younger people. The
Knitting Factory
is one example
of venues in
Williamsburg
that have the
essence of Bohemian lifestyle.
It was founded
in 1987, but
originally occupied a space in Manhattan on Houston Street. It later
moved to Williamsburg in 2008, because of how popular Williamsburg has become, some will say it is the
next hip, artsy neighborhood in New York City. The
Knitting Factory grew into Knitting Factory Entertainment and handles the careers of
emerging and critically acclaimed
recording artists both in the U.S
and overseas. Music has been one
of many ways in which people
who reside in Williamsburg express
themselves, and spend their time.
“I can not even step into a bar
without feeling thirty times
older than ninety-nine percent
of the people there”.
-Rose Kampert
On the left is a photo
of the inside of the venue, where one would
purchase a ticket and
so forth.
Overview ages living in Williamsburg
It appears that the majority of people living in Williamsburg is between the ages 18
and 30, which is very different from thirty years ago, when there was mostly Polish
working-class families.
Kasias’ Restaurant
146 Bedford Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
4
To come full circle, a Polish restaurant called Kasia’s
Restaurant represents the presence of a Polish influence
in the community. This is one of only a handful of stalwart Polish Restaurants in Williamsburg that has survived
the neighborhood’s population shift, primarily drawing
a faithful, older clientele. This is no small feat so it seems
as though this physically bland, dinner-style eatery is doing something right. In this quaint restaurant, there is a
cacophonous conversations between customers who order off a menu
mainly
consisted of meat and
fried food. They
are known for
their cheap large
portions of filling
Polish eats, like
stuffed cabbage,
beef, goulash,
kielbasa, and of course Pierogis. This is a great example
of how commercial and expensive
restaurants have become in North
Williamsburg.Kasia’s Restaurant is
an anomaly compared to the rest
of Bedford Avenue. It may not be
as pretty and ‘unique’ as other commercial stores, but it served what
was primarily the community. People shared their day over a simple
cup of coffee, now we have wealthy
hippies overflowing coffee shops,
where a iced, double shot, soy milk,
salted-caramel coffee replaces a
cup of coffee.
“They can not possibly have
anything better to do than
hangout at bars and restaurants, don’t they have jobs?”
-Rose Kampert
“Not a lot of places to go outside in Williamsburgh in the early Eighties where
you didn’t have to watch your back. No restaurants, no bars, no stores, a few
isolated, narrow bodegas. The kitchen table was it. Here’s 235 Berry looking
uncharacteristically empty. Must have been early morning on a summer day
- I would have been up and no one else, after a night of many conversations
and comings/goings. We propped the oven door closed with that chair for
three decades. Painted chipboard on the floors that had to be redone every
two years. Massive maintenance. Photograph by Sian Evans. 1989.”
Please check out these two Facebook
sites, because these are real people
who went through the changes of
Williamsburg who are openly having a
conversation with the rest of the world.
“You probably lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the ‘80’s if
you remember”
https://www.facebook.com/groups/239903192719710/
“Williamsburgh Brooklyn”
https://www.facebook.com/williamsburgh.brooklyn?fref=ts
New hit television series called “Girls”
Williamsburg Flea Market
Present day Williamsburg Waterfront
THE END