Condos and More Change Williamsburg, New York

Walking around my new neighborhood, I couldn't help but overhear an abundance of clickity-clack sounds of platform boots hitting against the pavement sidewalks of Bedford Avenue. As I lifted my slouching head away from my chest I was...well...appalled by the persons who owned these shoes. Full-grown men in the tightest jeans outlining their testicle cleavage that would make my breasts outrageously jealous. But this is old news. We've all heard of the "hipster" community growing in Williamsburg and heard the stories of the insane and clueless fashion that is emerging from the neighborhood. Despite the supposed negatives of the trendy occupying the land, Williamsburg has grown to become a very comfortable community. Unfortunately, that is also on the brink of changing.

In the past, streets were drug-infested and overcome with crime. It use to be a "war zone," as my father put it. As factory jobs decreased to astonishing numbers, the Hispanic community faced unemployment and social inequality. On top of that, racial tensions rose between them and the Hasidics, adding more fuel to the fire. But one man's shit is another man's treasure. When the factories closed down, artists began discovering the low rent and spacious area, creating the building blocks of what we see today in this wanna-be-bohemian neighborhood. Quiet frankly, the real bohemians left long ago after the rise in the rent and hipsters. Ask the French where they moved too.

As I'm reading the local papers and getting to know the vicinity of my temporary home abode, I couldn't help but react to an article found in The Brooklyn Rail ("The Blight and Plight of Condoburg" by Colby Hamilton) condemning the condo plans that many hungry grubbing development companies are jerking off too. While I do feel for Williamsburg local Phil DePaolo's bitterness on the two-hundred-feet condos trying to meddle in his small-rise neighborhood, I can't help but think, what can you do?

Right now developers are limited to the current zoning plans restricting them from building soaring high condos over looking the Manhattan skyline, but eventually they will fine a way through it. With top lawyers and capitalist pushers on their side eager to make a buck, the real community of Williamsburg, excluding myself and the people who are there for the trendiness of the neighborhood, is up for a loosing battle.

Take this for example. Picture an ugly troll of boy living in Sheepshead Bay having a perfect view from his bedroom window overlooking his community. Because he's an ugly-face troll, he avoids social interaction but keeps himself occupied by staring out his window. When his next-door neighbors decided to sell their house, it was quickly brought out by a hungry, money loving development company anxious to tear it down and replace it with an extremely tall condo. In a matter of months, the condo was finished and the ugly-face troll boy found himself looking out his bedroom window at a plain brick wall. This frighten the boy was now forced to go out in public and show his troll-like face to the neighborhood so he wouldn't be lonely. This deeply scarred the rest of the neighborhood as well.

So what's the moral of this story? For starters, condos bring out the ugly in a neighborhood. Second, if you live by Manhattan, be sure to see developers rummaging through your neighborhood to whore your land for a buck in the future. It's nice that the original community has somewhat of a nostalgia dedicated to their old neighborhoods, but the honest, brutal truth is, it's never coming back. You think the Mexicans are happy that a bunch of whiteys came to their country and stole their land? No, but they have to deal with the sad truth, and so do you, Mr. DePaolo.