Posted on January 25, 2016 by Jake Blumgart in Next City Next City, By Jake Blumgart Few neighborhoods are more associated with gentrification than Brooklyn’s Williamsburg. The subject of a thousand trend pieces, its transformation has been carefully charted from its days as a depressed working-class enclave for longshoremen, truck drivers and the Mafia to its current state as a neighborhood for up-and-coming financiers and the other winners of America’s post-industrial economy. Grand Street serves as a de facto dividing line between the new Williamsburg of luxury condos and expensive, preciously named shops and what’s left of the old neighborhood. Go north of Grand and you find stroller-pushing professionals, recent college grads packed five to an apartment and plenty of options for craft beer. Head south and find yourself looking at the tan brick, low-rise edifices of Williamsburg Houses, the city’s third oldest public housing development, sharing sidewalks with the rearguard of Puerto Rican, African-American and Orthodox Jewish families that discovered the neighborhood long before its industrial skyline began appearing on messenger bags.
