2.17.09

BROOKLYN BOHEMIA THE ARTS CROWD MADE THE SCENE IN WILLIAMSBURG - NOW GENTRIFICATION'S IN THE PICTURE

By WHITNEY WALKER Daily News Staff Writer

"There's a renaissance occurring in Williamsburg," says Assembly Housing Committee Chairman Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn), a Williamsburg native who likens its gentrification to that of Park Slope. But as neighborhoods improve, he warns, poorer ethnic groups often get pushed out.

"People move into a neighborhood because it's quaint, but it becomes unquaint after a while," notes Marty Needleman of Brooklyn Legal Services in Williamsburg. "One generation of immigrants resists the next generation. Some of it's right and some of it's wrong."

"I used to have to choke on the word Brooklyn," says one painter who doesn't want his name used, because he was violently mugged when he moved to the south side 15 years ago. Though Williamsburg feels safer now, he worries it will go upscale and the industrial waterfront will be rezoned for fancy condos.

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/lifestyle/1997/04/20/1997-04-20_brooklyn_bohemia_the_arts_cr.html