| Milton Fletcher: What do you do creatively in Williamsburg and what does this area mean to you? Jaclyn Moynahan: I am a dancer, choreographer, arts administrator and producer. I am now pursuing an M.S. in Urban Policy. Williamsburg is a place that has seen a lot of change. Artists try to live and work here, maybe less of them now than in prior years. I like to think it still has character: the mix of old commercial, vacant industrial and new residential, gallery/artist grit. |
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In Flux in Williamsburg Artist2Artist – Milton Fletcher
Art enclave Williamsburg, Brooklyn is undergoing a radical transformation from a funky Boho creative nexus into a developer-concocted upscale yuppie neighborhood. Four artists who live in the area and are witnessing the changes talk about it.
Milton Fletcher: What do you do creatively in Williamsburg and what does this area mean to you?
Jaclyn Moynahan: I am a dancer, choreographer, arts administrator and producer. I am now pursuing an M.S. in Urban Policy. Williamsburg is a place that has seen a lot of change. Artists try to live and work here, maybe less of them now than in prior years. I like to think it still has character: the mix of old commercial, vacant industrial and new residential, gallery/artist grit.
Stephanie Griffin: I am a musician and play in a number of ensembles. Beyond my artistic activities here, I do not do much else in Williamsburg, although I do enjoy shows and various local galleries and performance venues such as Sideshow, Galapagos and Zebulon. What Williamsburg means most to me is that itís our own spaceóparticularly a space for music rehearsal and performance. It also functions as a gathering place for an ever-expanding community of artists.
John Gurrin: I record music, make videos, take photographs, draw and paint, cook, read, write, sleep and dream.
Millar Kelley: I am a painter and Williamsburg has offered a life that is extremely pleasant, convenient and conducive to quality low-income living. It is important for creative people to belong to a community. It inspires and supports the creative process.
MF: When, from where and why did you move to Williamsburg?
JM: I moved here in 2002. I grew up on Long Island. Originally I moved to Williamsburg to move out of my parentsí home and in with friends from college who needed an extra roommate. I also wanted to be closer to the city.
SG: I never officially moved to Williamsburg. One day I just woke up and realized that I lived here. My involvement with Williamsburg started in the summer of 1998, in the early days of Galapagos Art and Performance Space on North 6th Street. Every month at Galapagos I met more and more interesting artists and musicians who came out to the concerts. Perhaps the most important person I met this way was my future partner.
JG: I moved here in about 1991. I had been in Manhattan for several years, in several different places.
MK: I moved to New York City from the country of Colombia where I had been living, painting and learning Spanish. Williamsburg seemed like a good place for a painter to be, even though I expected to hate itóthat was 11 years ago and I'm still here!
MF: What do you think will happen to Williamsburg?
JM: Like many other neighborhoods that started out this wayóSoHo, the Lower East Sideógentrification is in full effect. I think the area will become homogenized and lose its flavor if steps are not taken to try and hold onto the creative folks and all of the amenities that people know and want to come here for. The infrastructure in this neighborhood is not conducive to an influx of more residents. I cringe now when I have to ride the L train at rush hour, because I know I will watch a few trains go by before I can even squeeze myself into the sardine can.
SG: I do not know what will happen to Williamsburg. When I was walking around putting up posters for my concert series in 1998, I used to see little hand-made signs advertising ridiculously cheap lofts and apartments. People told me I was crazy for not jumping on the bandwagon, but I saw that there was no protection against landlords. Now the handmade signs are for sublets in the multiple thousands of dollars per month, and there are at least three big real estate offices right on Bedford Avenue selling luxury condominiums. Looking out our own window, we could see (and hear) the old factories going down. Whoís next? I worry about what could happen to us, and what has happened to other artists that used to enjoy the similar circumstances. But I also realize we are just another wave of immigrants in Williamsburg. Every day I admire the tenacity of the Polish and Hispanic communities that have managed to keep a toehold here. Despite the pressures of rising rents, they still manage to maintain successful businesses on Bedford.
JG: Williamsburg is going through an extraordinary change. Buildings that have been dormant for many years are being sold and developed. It seems that so much land has changed hands and so many places have been built and new ones proposed to be built, that there is now a question about what the neighborhood can handle. This is not Soho or Tribeca where there are beautiful mid-sized industrial buildings that have been re-purposed without wholesale destruction. In Williamsburg there are a bunch of beautiful buildings, but there are many more squat, wide, utilitarian buildings that deserve to be razed. But what is being built? It is like some bad science fiction fantasy of squalid proto-modernist architecture rising from the slums that teem at their feet. It is a devastating missed opportunity. How often does an industrial area of this size that is spread across a waterfront, gazing on one of the modern metropolises, become ripe for development? Architects and urban planners should be engaged in international design competitions to propose solutions to this fantastic landscape. Instead, cynical and ignorant developers are simply doing whatever will bring them a quick return on their investments, without any thought to the cultural and human implications of their actions.
MK: Sky rocketing property values are pushing out artists, businesses and the previous population. Artists are relocating further out near Bushwick, Bed-Stuy or out of the city entirely. There are some people left who still have reasonable leases, but they will become more and more rare, and I havenít seen any new artists moving in.
MF: What will you do if these changes take place?
JM: I will be forced to find a new place. Some location where the energy is still bubbling with creativity and life is still emerging. Personally I donít want to have to look out my window and no longer be able to see Manhattan because a luxury condo is now blocking my view.
SG: I will go elsewhere and try to buy a space so that I do not have to go through this again. If, however, the neighborhood becomes over-developed and we manage to hold on here, I would have no issue buying one of these new places from a bankrupt developer at a very low price and set up something a bit like our current space.
MK: I am biding my time until I am priced out. When that happens I will be happy to leave. I miss the old flavor of the neighborhoodóthe cultural diversity, the run-down yards with chickens, the historical buildings that are being knocked down daily, the cheap amenities. Everything that made this place good is disappearing.
JG: Live and learn.
