From the NY Post:
The last of the starving artists who colonized Williamsburg two decades ago and began its transformation into the hipster capital of New York could soon find themselves out on the street.
...in 2010 the state revised the Loft Law — to put such artist-occupied spaces under rent stabilization.
The Berry Street tenants claim the legislation supersedes their agreement. But Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Bert Bunyan two weeks ago sided with the current landlord, Mona Gora-Friedman, who wants to show them the door.
She finds the artists unpalatable, they claim, because they’re standing in the way of converting the building into luxury condos.
If the decision stands, the artists appear to have two alternatives: Leave their beloved Billyburg and trek east to Bushwick, where many of their fellow painters and sculptors have been driven.
Or try to get enough money together to move into the expensive new legal artist lofts that are being built in their current hood.
7 comments:
Good.
Maybe now they will be forced to fly back home to Wisconsin and Missouri to move back in with the parents.
Say what you want about those original "pioneers", but they came with the best intentions, looking for suitable living spaces after being priced out of neighborhoods in Manhattan. Both in Brooklyn and Manhattan, they helped sustain run down neighborhoods, and helped breathe new life into them. It is a sad irony that they helped build the desirability of places like Williamsburg, SOHO, TriBecCa etc, and then get pushed out after the landlords get greedy with rents, and developers step in and destroy the charatcer of those neighborhoods.
Say what you want about those original "pioneers", but they came with the best intentions, looking for suitable living spaces after being priced out of neighborhoods in Manhattan. Both in Brooklyn and Manhattan, they helped sustain run down neighborhoods, and helped breathe new life into them. It is a sad irony that they helped build the desirability of places like Williamsburg, SOHO, TriBecCa etc, and then get pushed out after the landlords get greedy with rents, and developers step in and destroy the charatcer of those neighborhoods.
You forgot to mention artisinal somewhere in your post.
It's always the artists that pioneer nabes.
It happened that way in SoHo.
But, alas, most have poor business heads and get screwed in the end.
"Thanks for upgrading my real estate. Now you can move on to make way for the high rollers".
I would rather live with the artists than the snooty yuppie cockroaches that follow them.
Artists are stupid.
Instead of going for the #1 commercial paying work they are content expressing themselves making #2.
Same crap with musicians.
When the family money runs out they are flat broke and screw everybody.
I simply think the landlords see this coming and want to protect themselves.
I wont rent to artists or worse a single female with children. When they cant pay the rent it takes a fortune and over 50 hours in court with bullshit liberal judges and laws. Meanwile you must keep the heat and electric atop loosing thousands of dollars
But that's the cycle. Why would they even WANT to live there anymore? The landlord has the right to legally evict the tenants with proper notice if she wants to redo the building, or sell it.
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