Starving Artists Can No Longer Afford Williamsburg

The former Cinders Gallery space (via Cinders' website)

Did you guys know that Williamsburg isn't as cheap as it used to be? Were those high-class infant apparel stores that opened up on the waterfront any indication? No? Oh, okay, well, maybe this will help put things into perspective: now even the artists are being priced out.

We already knew that Secret Project Robot, Monster Island and Mollusk Surf Shop were being demolished, possibly to make way for a Whole Foods. Today, the Brooklyn Paper takes a look at a number of other artist and gallery spaces who are being forced out. “This is a dramatically changing neighborhood,” said Not an Alternative gallery's Beka Economopoulos. “The hipster is on its way out and there is a new breed of resident here now.” Not an Alternative is being forced out of their Havemeyer Street location after seven years following a 240% rent increase. They plan to build a new space elsewhere in Brooklyn.

Other displaced galleries include Cinders, who were first priced out of their Havemeyer Street space (just up the street from Not an Alternative!) last winter and then kicked out again from their newer space on Marcy Avenue this summer. Momenta Art and Nurture Art have both left their Williamsburg spaces in recent months and moved into a new location in Bushwick, the latest hotspot for the north Brooklyn art scene. (At least until the Times comes along and ruins that, too.)

Economopoulos sums it up to the Paper thusly: “At our space we were dedicated to how we can leverage our role as hipsters to do something about gentrification. But we fell victim to the very narrative that we aimed to intercept.” And so it goes, Williamsburg. So it goes.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jamie Feldmar in Arts & Entertainment on September 14, 2011 1:42 PM

Comments [rss]

Polite New Yorker

1999 called; it wants this story back.

Ryan Rosado

Stay away from The Bronx.

RobertMosesSupposesErroneously

Too late! I know hipsters in the Bronx!

pharoahnj

clinton hill and bed stuy are next up.

souper_crackers

Next up? Where've you been? There's been more skinny jeans and big glasses floating around the Classon and Bedford-Nostrand stops than Williamsburg for a couple of years now, while Williamsburg has become been filled with young boring financial types who want to seem edgy and hope to bang girls with uneven hair.

RobertMosesSupposesErroneously

Those young artsy folk you're seeing around Classon and B-N would be Pratt kids.

Dirk

What exactly does that mean: leverage our role as hipsters?

tani P.

“At our space we were dedicated to how we can leverage our role as hipsters..."
That's the first time I've ever seen anyone openly identify themselves as a hipster! Or was she just being ironic?

brooklynRick

Help a buddy move some stuff he bought on CL, picked up in williamburg and the whole floor was owned by bankers

ohmygodshutup

Timely news story. This is nytimes.com's style section, right?

Dirk

The Times Style section is always a good 9 months behind.

xXxMExXx

Plenty of inexpensive space in Newark...

Michael M. Millican

This is the way major metropolitan areas are going to go. Population density in places like NYC is only going to increase, because it is cheaper to sustain people in close proximity than it is over large swaths of residential areas, like LA. Jobs will continue to be readily available here (albeit at a lower wage than some other parts of the country) and it will be cheaper to live overall in an urban environment. Williamsburg is a victim of proximity to Manhattan via the L. The southside near the J. is still ready for gentrification... oh, and if you have an apartment now, then your rent will not change drastically. The long term hipsters and artists will remain. It is only the businesses that are being forced out. Leases for commercial spaces are much less protective than residential leases.

WorksInDUMBO

I'm just shocked to read a story where someone actually self-identifies as a "hipster". I thought rule number one of Hipster Club was that you never call yourself a hipster?

RobertMosesSupposesErroneously

Intercept the narrative, man. Intercept the narrative!

AlexTheOriginalPartyDog

Pfft. That was, like, 2 years ago, man.

chuzzlewit

you guys hate hipsters (wtf ever that means)?

well, the people who are flooding the area now pushing out the freaks are people i consider a complete and utter waste of life, time, air, and skin.

IT_guy

can we get a description of these people flooding the area?

69GeorgeWBush69

People who live in Northside Piers or the Edge, or any other yuppie troll that could only hack it in Brooklyn if it's been steriilzed with Duane Reade's and Whole Foods