IF YOU'RE THINKING OF LIVING IN: WILLIAMSBURG (1986)
Friday, June 15, 1990
IF YOU'RE THINKING OF LIVING IN; WILLIAMSBURG
By DAVID DORIAN
Published: June 15, 1986
EXTERIORS in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn are often deceiving. Bleak
and seemingly abandoned factories provide dramatic loft space for artists.
Just beyond desolate blocks, tree-lined streets are home to a vibrant
Hasidic community. And suddenly, among burned-out buildings, churches
distinctive in architecture and rich in history materialize.
Undoubtedly, sections of Williamsburg suffer from severe blight. Residents,
however, are quick to point to the solid Italian and Hasidic communities as
well as to the emergence of an artists' enclave along the neighborhood's
northern waterfront. Many say Williamsburg has rebounded since 1977, when
looting and arson ravaged many blocks.
Prospects for Williamsburg's industrial area, known as East Williamsburg,
also are improving. Pfizer, a major phar-maceutical company, will anchor a
63-acre redevelopment zone bounded by Marcy and Park Avenues and Broadway
that is expected eventually to include six industrial sites and provide 800
to 1,000 jobs.
The residential and industrial neighborhood lies along the East River,
bounded on the north by Metropolitan Avenue, the south by the Brooklyn Navy
Yard and Flushing Avenue and the east by the Brooklyn-Queens border.
Accessibility to Manhattan and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is one of the
neighborhood's assets. Commuters to midtown Manhattan may take a 20-minute
subway ride on either the J or M lines of the BMT or the LL line of the IND.
The intricate history of Williamsburg began with Jean Mesurolle, a French
immigrant who shortly after his arrival in 1663 began to farm 12 acres of
land just north of the Navy Yard Basin, once called Wallabout Bay.
An entrepreneur, Richard Woodhull, in 1802 parceled this plot into city
lots, established a ferry service to Grand Street in Manhattan, and named
the new village Williamsburgh in honor of his friend, Col. Jonathan
Williams, the Federal engineer who had surveyed the land. It became part of
the City of Brooklyn in 1855, when the final ''h'' was dropped (though the
Williamsburgh Savings Bank, which has a landmark branch at Broadway and
Driggs Avenue, still maintains it).
Although German and French Jews settled in Williamsburg as early as 1830, it
was the building of the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903 that brought a flood of
Eastern European Jews from the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Other Eastern European groups also contributed to the metropolitan mix. The
Church of the Annunciation, a Roman Catholic church at North Fifth and
Havemeyer Streets, still holds services in Lithuanian, and on the corner of
Driggs Avenue and North 12th Street, the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the
Transfiguration of Our Lord - with its copper, onion-shaped domes, octagonal
belfries and patriarchal crosses - is a prime example of Russian Byzantine
style.
After World War II, the grand rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum led the Satmar Hasidim
from Rumania and Hungary to Williamsburg, where they settled south of
Division Avenue. Along Lee Avenue, where signs are still in Hebrew, Hasidic
life remains intact. Cleaning establishments offer, for every two garments
cleaned, to ''whiten your talis kuten free,'' referring to the prayer shawl
worn by Hasidic men.
Restaurants on Lee Avenue serve either dairy or meat, and kosher delicacies
such as herring and baked salmon salad are a favorite of Hasidim and
non-Hasidim alike at Flaum's Smoked Fish at the corner of Lee and Wilson
Streets.
Not far off, on Broadway near Driggs Avenue, limousines that seem out of
place for the area are often parked outside Peter Luger's, a landmark
restaurant that Alfred Hitchcock once said served ''the best steak in the
universe'' and where Bavarian steins are displayed on half-timbered walls.
Shopping offers bodegas, Italian bakeries that make fresh bread daily, and,
further north, Polish specialty shops. Residents of the northern waterfront
area enjoy shopping on Bedford Avenue, where they can buy produce, fish,
meat, eggs and bread from wholesalers.
The Satmarer tend to coexist, not interact, with non-Hasidim - some in
low-income projects like the Roberto Clemente Plaza, where Hasidic and
Puerto Rican families live side by side. The 1980 census put the median
family income at about $9,000 in the predominantly Hasidic area and less
than $7,000 for the predominantly Hispanic area.
Census data show that more than 64,000 people live in Williamsburg, of whom
64.6 percent are Hispanic. The Hasidim, however are believed to be
significantly undercounted because they tend to ignore census forms,
according to Sean LaFrance, a community planner.
Rent for a one-bedroom apartment west of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway runs
about $550, according to Ken Firpo, a realty agent. Brick row houses in this
area sell for $60,000 to $100,000.
South of Metropolitan Avenue between Bushwick and Union Avenues, rows of
wood town houses are home to a small, stable, middle-class Italian-American
community. A one-family house there costs about $150,000; a two-family
between $200,000 and $250,000. THERE are no residential lofts on the
waterfront, which is zoned for manufacturing. Instead, many artists who
occupy the waterfront area north of Grand Street live in apartments in brick
row houses and rent separate studios. Rent for a 2,000-square-foot artist's
studio is about $750, according to Lori Ledis, an art dealer and artist
based in Williamsburg.
Most of the artists came seeking large work spaces and hoping to escape SoHo
prices, Miss Ledis said. In addition, ''they come to get away from the hype
of the Manhattan art scene and to get serious about their work,'' she said.
''They don't need to be seen at the right openings.'' There is no gallery in
Williamsburg, so Miss Ledis often has shows in her own duplex for the
artists she represents.
Williamsburg itself provides inspiration, too. ''Empty buildings amazed me
in my early work,'' said Miss Ledis. The expansive loft space has allowed
Williamsburg's sculptors to pursue larger subjects.
Although the northern waterfront area tends to be deserted at night,
residents say that they feel safe.
Williamsburg is a high-crime neighborhood, but crime tends to be
concentrated in the area south of Grand Street and north of Broadway between
Bushwick Avenue and Berry Street, according to Maurice Lichman, a civilian
who is director of community affairs for the 90th Precinct. There were 14
fewer reported felonies in 1985 than in 1984, down from 6,455, and 6 fewer
murders, down from 26.
The gangs that gave Williamsburg its dangerous reputation during the 70's
''have quieted down for about three years,'' Mr. Lichman said.
Many Wiliamsburg children attend P.S. 84, the Jose Diego School, which has
1,041 students from pre-kindergarten to sixth grade, or P.S. 380, the John
Wayne Elementary School, which has 700 students from pre-kindergarten to
fifth grade as well as an annex for multiply handicapped children. The
community also has three Roman Catholic parochial schools, Most Holy
Trinity, Our Savior and St. Peter and Paul.
Eastern District High School, the zone school for the neighborhood, has a
network of counseling and vocational guidance as well as programs involving
community organizations and bilingual education offerings. This network was
put in place last year to combat an 18 percent dropout rate, about double
the citywide average in the most recent reports.
Some students among those targeted as high risk for dropping out
participated this term in a production of ''Romeo and Juliet'' by Joseph
Papp, an Eastern District graduate. And Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks
presented warm-up jackets to Eastern District students with perfect
attendance records.
Some Williamsburg students also attend Eli Whitney Vocational High School on
North Sixth Street, where about 35 percent of the students go on to
four-year colleges, according to the principal, George Shirkey. Like much of
Williamsburg, Eli Whitney is scheduled for renovation.
COLOR IT CHEAPER
In 1983, 199 North 11th Street was just another vacant factory in
Williamsburg's northern waterfront area. Now it is the Northside Arts
Industry, a two-building, 40,000-square-foot condominium offering artists,
artisans, and art-related businesses an alternative to the high prices of
commercial space in Lower Manhattan.
''At first, people were dubious about Brooklyn,'' said Judy Freeman, a
sponsor and managing partner of the project. ''The idea of a commercial art
project didn't really catch on until the beginning of 1985.''
But a year after its opening, with only the lower floor left to renovate,
Northside Arts Industry is 80 percent full. Architects, graphic designers,
fine art printers and a shirt insignia embroiderer are among those who have
crossed the East River so far.
The cost of a condominium at Northside is $54 a square foot plus a
maintenance charge of $250 per month based on a 1,700-square-foot loft. Loft
space may also be rented for $5 a square foot.
Comparable space in Lower Manhattan would cost $150 to $250 per square foot
to purchase and $15 to $25 a square foot to rent, according to Miss Freeman.
By DAVID DORIAN
Published: June 15, 1986
EXTERIORS in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn are often deceiving. Bleak
and seemingly abandoned factories provide dramatic loft space for artists.
Just beyond desolate blocks, tree-lined streets are home to a vibrant
Hasidic community. And suddenly, among burned-out buildings, churches
distinctive in architecture and rich in history materialize.
Undoubtedly, sections of Williamsburg suffer from severe blight. Residents,
however, are quick to point to the solid Italian and Hasidic communities as
well as to the emergence of an artists' enclave along the neighborhood's
northern waterfront. Many say Williamsburg has rebounded since 1977, when
looting and arson ravaged many blocks.
Prospects for Williamsburg's industrial area, known as East Williamsburg,
also are improving. Pfizer, a major phar-maceutical company, will anchor a
63-acre redevelopment zone bounded by Marcy and Park Avenues and Broadway
that is expected eventually to include six industrial sites and provide 800
to 1,000 jobs.
The residential and industrial neighborhood lies along the East River,
bounded on the north by Metropolitan Avenue, the south by the Brooklyn Navy
Yard and Flushing Avenue and the east by the Brooklyn-Queens border.
Accessibility to Manhattan and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is one of the
neighborhood's assets. Commuters to midtown Manhattan may take a 20-minute
subway ride on either the J or M lines of the BMT or the LL line of the IND.
The intricate history of Williamsburg began with Jean Mesurolle, a French
immigrant who shortly after his arrival in 1663 began to farm 12 acres of
land just north of the Navy Yard Basin, once called Wallabout Bay.
An entrepreneur, Richard Woodhull, in 1802 parceled this plot into city
lots, established a ferry service to Grand Street in Manhattan, and named
the new village Williamsburgh in honor of his friend, Col. Jonathan
Williams, the Federal engineer who had surveyed the land. It became part of
the City of Brooklyn in 1855, when the final ''h'' was dropped (though the
Williamsburgh Savings Bank, which has a landmark branch at Broadway and
Driggs Avenue, still maintains it).
Although German and French Jews settled in Williamsburg as early as 1830, it
was the building of the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903 that brought a flood of
Eastern European Jews from the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Other Eastern European groups also contributed to the metropolitan mix. The
Church of the Annunciation, a Roman Catholic church at North Fifth and
Havemeyer Streets, still holds services in Lithuanian, and on the corner of
Driggs Avenue and North 12th Street, the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the
Transfiguration of Our Lord - with its copper, onion-shaped domes, octagonal
belfries and patriarchal crosses - is a prime example of Russian Byzantine
style.
After World War II, the grand rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum led the Satmar Hasidim
from Rumania and Hungary to Williamsburg, where they settled south of
Division Avenue. Along Lee Avenue, where signs are still in Hebrew, Hasidic
life remains intact. Cleaning establishments offer, for every two garments
cleaned, to ''whiten your talis kuten free,'' referring to the prayer shawl
worn by Hasidic men.
Restaurants on Lee Avenue serve either dairy or meat, and kosher delicacies
such as herring and baked salmon salad are a favorite of Hasidim and
non-Hasidim alike at Flaum's Smoked Fish at the corner of Lee and Wilson
Streets.
Not far off, on Broadway near Driggs Avenue, limousines that seem out of
place for the area are often parked outside Peter Luger's, a landmark
restaurant that Alfred Hitchcock once said served ''the best steak in the
universe'' and where Bavarian steins are displayed on half-timbered walls.
Shopping offers bodegas, Italian bakeries that make fresh bread daily, and,
further north, Polish specialty shops. Residents of the northern waterfront
area enjoy shopping on Bedford Avenue, where they can buy produce, fish,
meat, eggs and bread from wholesalers.
The Satmarer tend to coexist, not interact, with non-Hasidim - some in
low-income projects like the Roberto Clemente Plaza, where Hasidic and
Puerto Rican families live side by side. The 1980 census put the median
family income at about $9,000 in the predominantly Hasidic area and less
than $7,000 for the predominantly Hispanic area.
Census data show that more than 64,000 people live in Williamsburg, of whom
64.6 percent are Hispanic. The Hasidim, however are believed to be
significantly undercounted because they tend to ignore census forms,
according to Sean LaFrance, a community planner.
Rent for a one-bedroom apartment west of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway runs
about $550, according to Ken Firpo, a realty agent. Brick row houses in this
area sell for $60,000 to $100,000.
South of Metropolitan Avenue between Bushwick and Union Avenues, rows of
wood town houses are home to a small, stable, middle-class Italian-American
community. A one-family house there costs about $150,000; a two-family
between $200,000 and $250,000. THERE are no residential lofts on the
waterfront, which is zoned for manufacturing. Instead, many artists who
occupy the waterfront area north of Grand Street live in apartments in brick
row houses and rent separate studios. Rent for a 2,000-square-foot artist's
studio is about $750, according to Lori Ledis, an art dealer and artist
based in Williamsburg.
Most of the artists came seeking large work spaces and hoping to escape SoHo
prices, Miss Ledis said. In addition, ''they come to get away from the hype
of the Manhattan art scene and to get serious about their work,'' she said.
''They don't need to be seen at the right openings.'' There is no gallery in
Williamsburg, so Miss Ledis often has shows in her own duplex for the
artists she represents.
Williamsburg itself provides inspiration, too. ''Empty buildings amazed me
in my early work,'' said Miss Ledis. The expansive loft space has allowed
Williamsburg's sculptors to pursue larger subjects.
Although the northern waterfront area tends to be deserted at night,
residents say that they feel safe.
Williamsburg is a high-crime neighborhood, but crime tends to be
concentrated in the area south of Grand Street and north of Broadway between
Bushwick Avenue and Berry Street, according to Maurice Lichman, a civilian
who is director of community affairs for the 90th Precinct. There were 14
fewer reported felonies in 1985 than in 1984, down from 6,455, and 6 fewer
murders, down from 26.
The gangs that gave Williamsburg its dangerous reputation during the 70's
''have quieted down for about three years,'' Mr. Lichman said.
Many Wiliamsburg children attend P.S. 84, the Jose Diego School, which has
1,041 students from pre-kindergarten to sixth grade, or P.S. 380, the John
Wayne Elementary School, which has 700 students from pre-kindergarten to
fifth grade as well as an annex for multiply handicapped children. The
community also has three Roman Catholic parochial schools, Most Holy
Trinity, Our Savior and St. Peter and Paul.
Eastern District High School, the zone school for the neighborhood, has a
network of counseling and vocational guidance as well as programs involving
community organizations and bilingual education offerings. This network was
put in place last year to combat an 18 percent dropout rate, about double
the citywide average in the most recent reports.
Some students among those targeted as high risk for dropping out
participated this term in a production of ''Romeo and Juliet'' by Joseph
Papp, an Eastern District graduate. And Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks
presented warm-up jackets to Eastern District students with perfect
attendance records.
Some Williamsburg students also attend Eli Whitney Vocational High School on
North Sixth Street, where about 35 percent of the students go on to
four-year colleges, according to the principal, George Shirkey. Like much of
Williamsburg, Eli Whitney is scheduled for renovation.
COLOR IT CHEAPER
In 1983, 199 North 11th Street was just another vacant factory in
Williamsburg's northern waterfront area. Now it is the Northside Arts
Industry, a two-building, 40,000-square-foot condominium offering artists,
artisans, and art-related businesses an alternative to the high prices of
commercial space in Lower Manhattan.
''At first, people were dubious about Brooklyn,'' said Judy Freeman, a
sponsor and managing partner of the project. ''The idea of a commercial art
project didn't really catch on until the beginning of 1985.''
But a year after its opening, with only the lower floor left to renovate,
Northside Arts Industry is 80 percent full. Architects, graphic designers,
fine art printers and a shirt insignia embroiderer are among those who have
crossed the East River so far.
The cost of a condominium at Northside is $54 a square foot plus a
maintenance charge of $250 per month based on a 1,700-square-foot loft. Loft
space may also be rented for $5 a square foot.
Comparable space in Lower Manhattan would cost $150 to $250 per square foot
to purchase and $15 to $25 a square foot to rent, according to Miss Freeman.
