March 7, 2008
Creatives Flocked to Brooklyn, Where to Next?
Last month The Brooklyn Eagle had a report on how Brooklyn has been sucking the creative lifeblood right out of Manhattan. In recent years Brooklyn has experienced a 33.2 percent increase in the number of self-employed creatives, while Manhattan’s growth during the same period was a mere 6.5 percent.
On Wednesday the Center for an Urban Future held a forum addressing the impact of Brooklyn’s growing cluster of self-employed creative freelancers on the borough’s economy. The Observer reports back and states that a majority of the borough's freelancers earn an average of $20,000 per year (a figure that likely doesn't account for all of their earnings).
Though their true economic impact remains unknown since full earnings are not accounted for, the BEDC estimates that they generated $504 million of taxable revenues in 2005—the height of the Brooklyn creative economy’s boom.With often unsteady work, and no benefits, will luxury condos and rising rents price most freelancers out of neighborhoods like Park Slope and Williamsburg in the coming years? The Brooklyn Paper article reported that there's already a sizable chunk of the freelance community now living in Bed-Stuy, along "with 511 other independent artists, by far the largest sector of freelancers in that neighborhood."After a decade of growth, rising real estate prices and a lack of appropriate, affordable space is now driving self-employed creatives out of Brooklyn’s traditional artists’ communities and is the “single largest challenge facing New York’s creative core,” according to a new study from the Center for an Urban Future.
The NY Times has a report on Two Trees Management using artists to invigorate the DUMBO neighborhood; problem is, once they're successful in doing so, the artists are then priced out. So where will the freelancers migrate to next...Philadelphia?
Photo of someone working on a rooftop in Williamsburg via bondidwhat's flickr.
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So where will the freelancers migrate to next...Philadelphia?
I say The Bronx in a few years. Mark my word...
So where will the freelancers migrate to next...Philadelphia?
I say The Bronx in a few years. Mark my word...
I agree about the Bronx-I'm surprised there aren't more of them up there already.
Angry anonymous ranting about how hipsters/artists/freelancers should move back to [insert state here] in 3... 2... 1...
Astoria, LIC...its already happening. It's just going to take awhile for it to reach the numbers that Brooklyn sees now.
I moved to Brooklyn from Manhattan in '93 and amongst my peers that was considered "crazy". But it allowed me to freelance and travel. Now in order to do that people will have to start moving *out* of Brooklyn.
Boy oh boy could this city use a little depression.
(does that count as a rant? ;) )
i dont think there is a more perfect picture of a "creative"/hipster than gothamist used in this post.
ironic beard? Check.
ironic plaid shirt? Check
Apple laptop? Check.
"unconventional" workspace? Check.
Dwelling that looks like crap but costs $$$$? Check.
How does that picture represent the "creatives", looks more like some angry hipster anarchist plotting a Unabomber type attack to me.
Yea, and please go back to Ohio/Wisconsin...
Where will they move next? Um. Whatever neighborhood is the poorest in town? Poverty just gets shifted around at the whim of richer people, it doesn't disappear. This is exactly what cracked me up about the concept of "cleaning up" Times Square. Dumbass Guiliani didn't eradicate prostitution and addicts, he just swept them into a different locale with less tourists.
I wonder if NY will ever get to the point where there isn't any affordable housing AT ALL.
What then?
I agree with Philadelphia.
staten island
Already gone... back to Ohio after 10 years living in Williamsburg. Now that all the creative people have relocated from Ohio to Brooklyn I should have a dandy time - such a buyers market for homes!
I used to spend around 20k a year to rent my loft, The same goes for 2-3 times as much. I remember stories of people who lived there a decade before me renting the whole floor or building for the same amount.
My income didn't keep up with the housing market - I was lucky to have a fair landlord. Moving after 8 years of a mere 2.5% increase annually to join the fray of current values blew my "creative" finances to shreds. Since I don't have much interest in chasing the edge of the ghetto for "affordable" housing I decided to make a change.
I got sick of each employer, in one case the same Nasté corporation, offering less and less, turning over permalancers as needed to drive costs down. Can't see how it's sustainable for creatives to compete with market forces in real estate and corporate outsourcing.
Already gone... back to Ohio after 10 years living in Williamsburg. Now that all the creative people have relocated from Ohio to Brooklyn I should have a dandy time - such a buyers market for homes!
I used to spend around 20k a year to rent my loft, The same goes for 2-3 times as much. I remember stories of people who lived there a decade before me renting the whole floor or building for the same amount.
My income didn't keep up with the housing market - I was lucky to have a fair landlord. Moving after 8 years of a mere 2.5% increase annually to join the fray of current values blew my "creative" finances to shreds. Since I don't have much interest in chasing the edge of the ghetto for "affordable" housing I decided to make a change.
I got sick of each employer, in one case the same Nasté corporation, offering less and less, turning over permalancers as needed to drive costs down. Can't see how it's sustainable for creatives to compete with market forces in real estate and corporate outsourcing.
Where next? Get creative!
Plenty of low rent in Newark! LOL
you guys should move to chicago. colder, yes, but more beer and cheaper rent.
#13 - LOL back to you. :)
Newark, definitely Newark. It might just even save Newark.
all the raw, empty space in Newark just waiting...
I know the $20,000 USD figure is probably a bit low, because freelancers skimp on taxes like everyone else, but that is the main point really. You can't live in a decent neighborhood in Brooklyn on that income. Part of living some imaginary bohemian lifestyle usually means living in a bad neighborhood. It's the trade off for getting to grow a shaggy beard and smoke pot on your roof all day while you read Gawker and pretend to make websites.
#1 and #10 are OTM.
Then, of course, there's the rest of Queens County and southern Kings County.
Unless your irony is so subtle I totally missed it, you are the kind of person who pisses me off, emilydickinson. I am a freelance creative. I live in Park Slope with my wife. I worked nearly 60 hours last week, probably more than you.
This idea of freelance creatives as these lazy bohemian lazing about growing ironic facial hair and blogging about the latest terrible underground band is ridiculous. Just because a whole slew of unemployed hipsters call themselves freelancers doesn't mean they're not just unemployed.
People think that freelancing means some kind of whimsical lifestyle where I can just take off and do whatever I want, whenever I want. Its harder for me to take a vacation than most salaried professionals. One wrong step, or turned down job, and my phone will stop ringing.
Its a constant, difficult hustle to make it as a freelance creative (I work in photography, in case you wondered). Next time you want to mock a huge group of people, at least know a little bit about it.