Development

Is Red Hook de-gentrifying?

by David Alpert   •   November 14, 2007 10:22 am

SoHo, Alphabet City, Cobble Hill, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick. One after another, New York neighborhoods full of gritty industrial buildings and unsafe streets have turned into yuppie meccas. Red Hook was next... but then it wasn't, argues an article in New York Magazine. Despite a Fairway and beautiful riverfront views of Manhattan, would-be gentrifiers have been moving out, leaving the neighborhood still a "run-down fishing village" with more storefront vacancies than chic bars.

What's going on? asks the article. It posits many theories, though no academic experts or scientific evidence. Has gentrification run out of steam in New York? Is Red Hook just too far from the subway (Across the Park thinks this is the reason), too edgy, the buildings too ugly? Is gentrification "a self-extinguishing phenomenon?" Or is it just a matter of time before Red Hook looks like Fort Greene?

David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington. He has had a lifelong interest in great cities and great communities. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.