How Has Chinatown Stayed Chinatown?Against all odds, an ethnic monolith still exists within the most gentrified island on Earth. In part because of these 21 people.
The Red Hot Rubble of East New YorkOne of the poorest neighborhoods in Brooklyn is suddenly the focus of both private speculators and City Hall.
ByAndrew Rice
real estate
The Red-Hot Rubble of East New YorkOne of the poorest neighborhoods in Brooklyn is suddenly the focus of both private speculators and City Hall, which wants to build thousands of units of affordable housing there — and by announcing its plans is fueling the land rush.
Carroll Gardens Woman Will See Nanny Brought to JusticeA busybody mom seeks punishment for a nanny she thinks left a kid unattended in Carroll Gardens, New York ‘Press’ commenters lose their lunch over a Harlem-gentrification story, and a snarky Greenpoint blogger goes soft, all in today’s neighborhood news.
neighborhood watch
The Chelsea Hotel Has Not Lost Its EdgeThe naked girl at the Chelsea Hotel, the lost ‘SNL’ sets of the Brooklyn Navy Yards, and a very awkward tale of gentrification from Harlem, in today’s boroughs bundler!
intel
Is the Brooklyn Flea in Danger?The yuppie flea market, which opened in April, has run into some problems with its Fort Greene neighbors.
cultural capital
The New Museum, Unleashed Upon the Bowery!
The Bowery may be moving toward the mainstream, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for fluorescent lights and papier-mâché nudes! Towering amidst restaurant-supply stores and flophouses, the fascinating, hyperbizarre New Museum is the Bowery’s latest step toward its new, haute identity. We were treated to a preview of the sure-to-be landmark, talked to architects Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, and checked out the locals’ reaction to their strange new neighbor. For your viewing pleasure, a sneak peek inside the new New Museum, opening Saturday. Click the image above to watch.
Related: Party Lines: Calvin Klein’s First Look of the New Museum
Art Review: Little House on the Bowery [NYM]
Architecture Review: The Gray Ghost of the Bowery [NYM]
in other news
Exploring Colonial Williamsburg
Sure, Williamsburg is an easy target, but what does that make journalists who earnestly attempt to enlighten you about Williamsburg’s blue-collar underbelly? Would you believe that, behind the glitz and the glamour and the skulls and the antlers, there are “the modest houses of Polish blue-collar workers”? If not in other words, if you’re either contemplating a move to NYC from afar or have the memory span of a goldfish head right over to AM New York, which is dispensing some hard-earned sociological wisdom. (Also, Houston is pronounced “Howston,” even streets go east, etc.) After the lede that mentions haircuts twice in one sentence, the Michael Y. Park piece drops the bomb with the panache of, say, Pravda writing about Harlem circa 1979 : “Wander away from the center of the hipster universe … and another Williamsburg is revealed.” Poor people! Puerto Ricans! Jews! (And not the media-owning ones the other kind, with the hats!) A couple of rent-hike and tenant-eviction scenarios round out the article, leading the author to conclude that the neighborhood’s diverse social fabric may, in fact, be in danger.
cultural capital
Although We See More Potential for Murder and Mayhem at Atlantic YardsAward-winning mystery writer S.J. Rozan’s latest book, In This Rain, is about — isn’t everything these days about? — New York’s redevelopment. A standing-room-only crowd turned out last night at Partners & Crime, in Greenwich Village, for a launch reading of the book, set squarely at the intersection of developers, activists, and City Hall in the gentrification of Harlem. (A large portion of Rozan’s research, she said, apparently involved consuming sticky goods at Wimp’s Bakery on 125th Street.) So who gets a cameo in this whodunit? “There’s a character who’s Bloomberg, and people keep telling me they see him in the book,” commented Rozan. “But they also keep seeing Rangel. Poor Rangel! I didn’t mean to have him in there.” No word yet on whether Harlem’s most presidential neighbor gets a role — or whether people think they see him there. — Lizzie Skurnick
S.J. Rozan [Official site]
neighborhood watch
How Much Is That Cat in the Window?Brooklyn: Area man throws cat out window, gets arrested. Honestly, who throws a cat? [NYS]
Chelsea: After renting an unheated, bathroom-less space in an attempt ride to Larry Gagosian’s coattails across the street, artist Hubert Waldroup closes up shop without selling a painting. [Chelsea Now]
Greenpoint: Ladies and gentlemen, Greenpoint is gentrifying. (Is this news?) [amNY]
Lower East Side: There’s no eruv — a boundary within which certain things usually forbidden to orthodox Jews on Shabbat are allowed — on the Lower East Side. Should there be one? Maybe. [Downtown Express]
Midwood: One public high school produced three U.S. senators. Huh. [Brooklyn Record]
Park Slope: New kiddie boutique makes it that much easier to scar kids for life dressing them in psychedelic, cuddly, fluffy getups. [Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn]
Upper West Side: It’s not quite Stuy Town, but it’s still a big deal: The Apthorp has sold for $425 million. Strangely, the new owners plan to keep it rental. [NYT]
