Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Coordinates: 40°42′N, 73°57′W

Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint, Bed-Stuy, and Bushwick. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. ggg Williamsburg is home to a thriving art community and is largely associated with one of its main streets, Bedford Avenue. Many ethnic groups have sub-neighborhoods within Williamsburg, including Hasidic Jews, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. The neighborhood is also a magnet for young people moving to New York City.

Some residents view Williamsburg as a haven for established immigrant families, while other residents see it as an area of exclusive artists and hipsters. Still other residents see Williamsburg as a lively neighborhood with easy access to Manhattan. The sometimes-clashing definitions have been highlighted by a growing population and rapid development of housing and retail that is changing the look and feel of the neighborhood. It and its coastal counterpart Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California; are regarded as the most prominent and influential hubs for indie rock.

The Williamsburg Bridge connects the Brooklyn neighborhood to Manhattan

A view of williamsburg from above (lower) with the williamsburg bridge at left and manhattan in the upper section. notice the brooklyn queens expressway feeding out from the bridge/ near the large white industrial building is the old wallabout channel

History

Independent Williamsburgh

In 1638, the Dutch West India Company first purchased the area's land from the local Native Americans. In 1661, the company chartered the Town of Boswijck, including land that would later become Williamsburg. After the English takeover of New Netherland in 1664, the town's name was anglicized to Bushwick. During colonial times, villagers called the area "Bushwick Shore." This name lasted for about 140 years. Bushwick Shore was cut off from the other villages in Bushwick by Bushwick Creek to the north and by Cripplebush, a region of thick, boggy shrubland extending from Wallabout Creek to Newtown Creek, to the south and east. Bushwick residents called Bushwick Shore "the Strand(ed)." Farmers and gardeners from the other Bushwick villages sent their goods to Bushwick Shore to be ferried to New York City (now Manhattan) for sale via a market at present day Grand Street. Bushwick Shore's favorable location close to New York City lead to the creation of several farming developments. In 1802, real estate speculator Richard M. Woodhull acquired 13 acres (53,000 m²) near what would become Metropolitan Avenue, then North 2nd Street. He had Colonel Jonathan Williams, a U.S. Engineer, survey the property, and named it Williamsburgh (with an h at the end) in his honor. Originally a 13-acre development within Bushwick Shore, Williamsburgh rapidily expanded during the first half of the nineteenth century and eventually seceded from Bushwick and formed its own independent city.^[1]

Williamsburgh was incorporated as the Village of Williamsburgh within the Town of Bushwick in 1827. In two years it had a fire company, a post office and a population of over 1,000. The deep drafts along the East River encouraged industrialists, many from Germany, to build shipyards around Williamsburgh. Raw material was shipped in, and finished products were sent out of many factories straight to the docks. Several sugar barons built processing refineries. Now all are gone except the now-defunct Domino Sugar (formerly Havemeyer & Elder). Other important industries including shipbuilding and brewing.

Reflecting its increasing urbanization, Williamsburgh separated from Bushwick as the Town of Williamsburgh in 1840. It became the City of Williamsburgh in 1852, which was organized into three wards. The old First Ward roughly coincides with the South Side and the Second Ward with the North Side, with the modern boundary at Grand Street. The Third Ward was to the east of these, beginning to approach modern Eastern Williamsburg.

Brooklyn Union Gas in the early 20th century consolidated its producer gas production to Williamsburg at 370 Vandervoort Avenue, closing the Gowanus Canal gasworks. In the late 1970s an energy crisis led the company to build a syngas factory. Late in the century, facilities were built to import liquefied natural gas from overseas.

In Brooklyn's Eastern District

In 1855, the City of Williamsburgh, along with the adjoining Town of Bushwick, were annexed into the City of Brooklyn as the so-called Eastern District. The First Ward of Williamsburgh became Brooklyn's 13th Ward, the Second Ward Brooklyn's 14th Ward, and the Third Ward Brooklyn's 15th and 16th Wards.

In modern times the conception of Williamsburg (which lost its h with the Brooklyn merger) has expanded to cover areas not historically a part of the City of Williamsburgh. Much of what has later come to be understood as the heart of Williamsburg, the area south of Division Avenue in the west and Broadway in the east, was actually originally the Wallabout section of the City of Brooklyn. Also, much of what is today called East Williamsburg was originally organized as Brooklyn's 18th Ward from the Bushwick annexation, exclusive of the 27th and 28th Wards encompassing what is today called Bushwick, which were split off in 1892.

During its period as part of Brooklyn's Eastern District, the area achieved remarkable industrial, cultural, and economic growth, and local businesses thrived. Wealthy New Yorkers such as Cornelius Vanderbilt and railroad magnate Jim Fisk built shore-side mansions. Charles Pratt and his family founded the Pratt Institute, the great school of art & architecture, and the Astral Oil Works, which later became part of Standard Oil. Corning Glass Works was founded here before moving upstate to Corning, New York. Chemist Charles Pfizer founded Pfizer Pharmaceutical in Williamsburgh, and the company still maintains an industrial plant in the neighborhood, although its headquarters was moved to Manhattan in the 1960s.^[2] In 2008, it plans to close the plant, on a Flushing Avenue site it has used since 1849.^[1] Brooklyn's Broadway street, ending in the ferry to Manhattan, became the area's lifeline. At one point in the 19th century Williamsburg possessed 10% of the wealth of the United States and was the engine of American growth.

The Kings County Savings Institution was chartered on April 10, 1860. It conducted business in a building called Washington Hall until it purchased the lot on the corner of Bedford Avenue and Broadway and erected its permanent home, the Kings County Savings Bank building. This was the bank used by the wealthiest men in America. It remains to this day probably the most historically important landmark in Williamsburg, representing a time of conspicuous wealth and the industrial and financial strength of the American phenomenon.

The intersection of Broadway, Flushing Avenue, and Graham Avenue was a cross-roads for many "inter-urbans", prior to World War I. The inter-urbans were light rail trollies, and ran from Long Island to Williamsburg. Bannerman's Department Store, the Macy's of its day, was on the site now occupied by Woodhull Hospital. the population was heavily German but many Jews from the Lower East side of Manhattan came to the area when the Williamsburgh Bridge was completed. Katz Drug Store, founded in 1898, remains on Graham Avenue and is still in business. Williamsburgh was a financial hub rivaling Wall Street for a time. The area around Peter Luger's Steak House was a major banking hub until the City of Brooklyn united with New York City.

* Crossing the Williamsburg Bridge

In 1898 Brooklyn itself became one of five boroughs within the City of Greater New York, and its Williamsburg neighborhood was opened to closer connections with the rest of the new city.

Just five years later, the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903 marked the real turning point in the area’s history. The community was then opened up to thousands of upwardly mobile immigrants and second-generation Americans fleeing the overcrowded slum tenements of Manhattan's Lower East Side. Williamsburg itself soon became the most densely populated neighborhood in the United States. The novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn addresses a young girl growing up in the tenements of Williamsburg during this era.

After World War II, the economy sagged. Refugees from war-torn Europe began to stream into Brooklyn, including the Hasidim whose populations had been devastated in the Holocaust. The area south of Division Avenue is home to a large population of adherents to the Satmar Hasidic sect. Hispanics from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic also began to settle in Williamsburg. But with the decline of industry and the increase of population and poverty, crime and illegal drugs, Williamsburg became a cauldron of pent-up energies. Those who were able to move out did, and the area became known for its crime and other social ills.^[3]^[4]

Feast of St. Paulinus and Our Lady of Mount Carmel

A significant component of the Italian community on the North Side were immigrants from the city of Nola near Naples. Residents of Nola every summer celebrate the "Festa del Giglio" (feast of lillies) in honor of St. Paulinus of Nola, who was bishop of Nola in the Fifth Century. The immigrants brought the traditions of the feast with them. For two weeks every summer, the streets surrounding Our Lady of Mount Carmel church, located on Havemeyer and North 8th Streets, is dedicated to a celebration of Italian culture. The highlights of the feast are the "Giglio Sundays" when a 100 foot tall statute, complete with band and a singer, is carried around the streets in honor of Paulinus and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Despite the fact that many of the descendants of the early Italian immigrants have moved away, many return each summer for the feast.

The Giglio was the subject of a documentary that aired on PBS in 2002 called "Heaven Touches Brooklyn in July", narrated by actors John Turturro and Michael Badalucco.

Sub-Neighborhoods within Williamsburg

"South Williamsburg" refers to the area which today is occupied mainly by the Yiddish-speaking Hasidim (predominantly those of the Satmar sect) which comprised the whole of Williamsburg for some of the early 20th century. North of traditional Williamsburg is an area known as the "South Side," occupied by Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. To the north of that is an area known as the "North Side," traditionally Polish and Italian, but now home to an increasing numbers of newcomers. East Williamsburg is home to many industrial spaces and forms the largely Italian American, African American, and Hispanic area between Williamsburg and Bushwick. Traditional Williamsburg, South Side, North Side, Greenpoint and East Williamsburg all form Brooklyn Community Board 1. The "hipster" center of Williamsburg radiates from the strip of Bedford Avenue near the Bedford Avenue Station on the BMT Canarsie Line (L), the first stop from Manhattan.

Transportation

Williamsburg is served by 3 subway lines, the BMT Canarsie Line (L) on the north, the BMT Jamaica Line (J M Z) on the south, and the IND Crosstown Line (G) on the east. The Williamsburg Bridge crosses the East River to the Lower East Side. Williamsburg is also served by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

History of Toxic Sites in Williamsburg

Luis Garden Acosta, Founder/President & CEO of El Puente, a highly respected community human rights institution that promotes leadership for peace and justice through the engagement of members (youth and adult) in the arts, education, scientific research, wellness and environmental action has called Williamsburg "the most toxic place to live in America" in a documentary created by Williamsburg based VBS organization. Other rare cancer clusters in Willamsburg have been reported in the NY Post, CBS news and Geraldo at Large on Fox.^[5]

Environmental Hazards

Radiac Research Corporation, a radioactive and hazardous waste storage plant operates on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg. Radiac has a permit from the state's Department of Labor to store radioactive medical waste, including uranium and plutonium. Led by a local group, Neighbors Against Garbage, the plant's opponents believe that a truck bomb, for example, could cause a fire or explosion that could spew radioactive contaminants over parts of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. That would not be hard to do, they say, because Radiac's buildings either abut Kent Avenue or are separated from the street by a parking lot surrounded by a chain-link fence. City Councilman David Yassky, whose district includes the area, said the 35-year-old facility was no longer appropriate at its current site now that the city is a potential terrorist target. "A fire in the chemical part could easily spread," he said, "and we could easily face a dirty-bomb situation." ^[6]

Radiac does have a troubling history of failing to adhere to safety regulations. An environmental impact study commissioned by the New York City Department of City Planning during the recent North Brooklyn rezoning process noted that the site “has a long list of RCRIS violations,” referring to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Information System, a database operated by the Environmental Protection Agency. According to the study, Radiac has been cited for violating both general standards of such a storage facility, as well as preparedness/prevention requirements. And in 2001 Radiac received a fire protection report and analysis they themselves had commissioned that found that, “the current water-based fire protection system at the facility is inadequate to control the fire origination from a 55-gallon container” of the highly flammable chemical heptane, which is stored at the building.^[7]

Williamsburg Oil Spill

It has been believed that the oil oozing from the ground at the Roebling Oil Field at N. 11th Street and Roebling in Williamsburg was emanating from a ruptured tank nearby that can be found on environmental maps of the neighborhood. Workers have also noted digging up an oil tank on the site. Yet, historical research and noted conditions reveal that it could be moving underground from other locations in Williamsburg to the site. It turns out old creeks that ran through the neighborhood ran directly through the Williamsburg oil spill site (AKA McCarren Park Mews). A branch of Norman Kill runs directly beneath the Williamsburg Oil Spill site. It also runs beneath the newish apartment building across North 11th Street to the north, and beneath the block to the southeast. This tributary, once known as Swede's Kill, is the part of Bushwick Creek that was navigable as far south as Grand and Rodney Streets. As to industries of interest that might be original sources of pollution: Charles Pratt’s Astral Oil refinery, which was located at the mouth of the Bushwick Inlet in Williamsburg. Today, this is the Bayside Oil site – a site that is slated to become a public park, but which Parks has acknowledged is an environmental nightmare (understandable, considering that the site has been home to some form or another of petroleum processing for close to 150 years).

The Bayside/Astral site is right downstream from the Roebling Oil field.

The East River is a tidal strait – water flows in and out from New York Bay and Long Island Sound (and to some extent the Harlem "River") based on the tides. This tidal action was what formed Norman Kill, and could still be affecting the flow of water beneath parts of Williamsburg. There was once a network of waterways that to one extent or another could still exist beneath the streets. And that network of waterways could be pushing oil and other contaminants below the former marshlands of Williamsburg.

If the old creek system is in some way responsible for the appearance of oil at the Roebling/North 11th site, the Bayside/Astral would certainly not be the only potential source for oil itself. There were many other potential sources of historic oiliness, including the Williamsburgh Gas Light Company, which was located west of Kent Avenue between North 11th and North 12th Streets, and a Brooklyn Union Gas facility on Berry between North 12th and North 13th.

So perhaps it is geography that has reared its ugly head on Roebling and North 11th. Very little testing of what is under Williamsburg has ever been done. The only way it is discovered is through the occasional big hole that is dug that might attract attention because of the stench it give off.

Rise of the Arts Community

The first artists moved to Williamsburg in the 1970s, drawn by the low rents, large spaces available and convenient transportation, one subway stop from Manhattan. This continued through the 1980s and increased significantly in the 1990s as earlier destinations such as SoHo and the East Village became gentrified. The community was small at first, but by 1996 Williamsburg had accumulated an artist population of about 3,000.^{[citation needed]}

Rents

A gentrified street in Williamsburg

Low rents were a major reason why artists first started settling in the area, but that situation has drastically changed since the mid 1990s. Average rents in Williamsburg can now range from approximately $1200 for a studio apartment, $1,400-2,000 for a one-bedroom, and $2,000-3,000 for a two-bedroom. In many buildings, the rents have more than doubled in the past few years alone. The North Side (above Grand Street, which separates the North Side from the South Side) is somewhat more expensive, due to its proximity to the L and G train lines. More recent gentrification, however, has prompted an increase in rent prices below Grand Street as well. Higher rents - and now the imminent spectre of the Williamsburg and Greenpoint East River waterfront rezoning and high-rise construction - have driven many priced-out bohemians to find new creative communities further afield in areas like Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Fort Greene, Ridgewood, Clinton Hill and Red Hook.

Music Scene

In recent years, Williamsburg has rivaled Manhattan as a home for live music and an incubator for new bands. Venues like Warsaw, Pete's Candy Store, Union Pool, Galapagos, Asterisk Art Project, The Lucky Cat, free103point9, Tommy's Tavern,Uncle Paulie's, the Glasslands, the Woodser, and the Local (aka "Rock Star Bar" aka "Ship's Mast" aka "Rocky's" aka the "Mermaid Bar") are host to some of NYC's newest talents.

Recent editions to the ever-more crowded field of commercial music venues in the neighborhood include Lower East Side open-mic-night stalwart The Luna Lounge, which relocated to Williamsburg in January 2007, with financial and booking back from Live Nation promotions (aka Clear Channel). In late 2006, Bowery Presents, a Manhattan based promotion company, purchased the location of the former indie rock club Northsix. The company plans to gut the existing building and reconstruct a new club in the mold of the Bowery Ballroom. The venue re-opened as The Music Hall of Williamsburg on September 4, 2007, with Patti Smith performing the inaugural show.

Williamsburg and its scene has produced alternative and avant rock bands such as the National;The Aisler's Set,We Are Scientists, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, The Twenty Twos, General Miggs, Heroine Sheiks, The Cloud Room, Low Water, TV on the Radio, Nada Surf, Say Hi To Your Mom, Dirty On Purpose, White Magic [2], Japanther, Time of Orchids, Oneida, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Marah, Diamond Nights, Les Savy Fav, Langhorne Slim, Vic Thrill, Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice, Ghost Exits, Matt & Kim, The Rapture, Pixeltan, Enon, Young People, Ex Models, Rogers Sisters, Black Dice, Out Hud, Sightings, Aa (aka "Big A little a"), Parts & Labor, Gang Gang Dance, Robot Monster,Artanker Convoy, Double Leopards, BARR, Leaders, Awesome Color, Amphibian Skin, The Vox Illuminati, Nat Cassidy & the Nines, Liars, !!! (aka "Chk Chk Chk"),Blonde Acid Cult, Animal Collective, and Ratatat among many others.

In addition, Williamsburg is the home of They Might Be Giants co-leader, John Flansburgh.

Alongside the more prominent indie rock community, there is a respectable funk, soul and worldbeat music scene in Williamsburg - spearheaded by labels such as Daptone & Truth & Soul Records - and fronted by acts such as the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.

The neighborhood also has the dubious distinction of being the birthplace of electroclash, a trend fostered by self-styled New York celebrity Larry Tee and his Berliniamsburg parties (Tee even trademarked "electroclash," the word). For two years - starting the week before September 11, 2001 - Tee's internationally popular Saturday parties at Club Luxx (now Trash) introduced electronic musicians like W.I.T., A.R.E. Weapons, Fischerspooner, Avenue D, and Misty Martinez. By the summer of 2003, the fad dried up and Larry Tee's Williamsburg music nights were discontinued.^[8]

Jazz and World Music has found a foothold in Williamsburg as well, with classic jazz full time at restaurant venues like Zebulon and Moto, and - on the more avant / noise side - at spots like the Lucky Cat, B.P.M., Monkeytown, Goodbye Blue Monday, and Eat Records. There is also an active classic Jazz scene among the immigrant Polish community in nearby Greenpoint, centered around the lounges of large Polish dance clubs such as Europa and Exit. Similarly, a Latin Jazz community continues amongst the Caribbean community in Southside and East Williamsburg, centered around the many social clubs in the neighborhood.

Many roving parties have become cultural institutions of themselves for music in Williamsburg, including Todd P.'s parties [3], Dot Dash [4], Twisted Ones [5], and Rubulad [6].

In the late 1990s a number of unlicensed performance, theater and music venues operated in abandoned industrial buildings in the streets surrounding the Bedford avenue subway stop. Keep Refrigerated, The Lizard's Tail, Quiet Life, Rubulad, Flux Factory, Mighty Robot (aka Twisted Ones [7]), and others attracted a mix of artists, musicians and urban underground for late night music, dance, and performance events, which were occasionally interrupted and the venues temporarily closed by the fire department. These venues eventually diminished in number as the rents rose in the area and the police climate toughened, but are lived on in a number of smaller, fleeting spaces today. [8]

In the summer of 2006, Live Nation, an outdoor entertainment promoter and subsidiary of media giant Clear Channel, began staging concerts at the previously abandoned pool at McCarren Park in Greenpoint. Popular acts such as Bloc Party, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Shins, and Sonic Youth headlined dates. In addition to these concerts, a coalition dubbed JellyNYC presented an impressive series of free shows at the McCarren Park Pool, financed by numerous corporate sponsorships, featuring The Walkmen, Deerhoof, Les Savy Fav and Gang Gang Dance - among other notable acts.

Grassroots Development

Recently, efforts have been made to keep open, or re-open, firehouses slated for closure in Williamsburg. In addition, a movement to convert Bedford Avenue into a pedestrian viaduct has been proposed by some residents but not yet accepted. [9]