A developer that has long focused on emerging markets in Manhattan and the outer boroughs released renderings Tuesday of its latest endeavor—the largest residential project underway in Ridgewood, Queens. The project, being built by Essex Capital, will be tailored to creative-class New Yorkers priced out of Brooklyn and Manhattan.
The firm has already begun construction on the 90-unit building at 16-14 and 16-26 Madison St., between Myrtle and Wyckoff avenues. Construction will run through summer of 2016.
The property will include a WeWork-style business center designed for renters who work from home (and are largely associated with trendy neighborhoods like Williamsburg), but Essex Capital founder Mitchell Rutter does not want to jump on the Queens-is-the-new-Brooklyn bandwagon.
"We view Ridgewood as having an separate identity and a separate desirability from whatever places like Bushwick are offering," said Mr. Rutter, a 1996 Crain’s 40 Under 40.
Though it is undeniably undergoing gentrification, Ridgewood has a more established working-class residential and retail community than do the gritty former industrial areas of Williamsburg and northern Bushwick that have seen a wave of new residential development. In addition, large swaths of Ridgewood are landmarked, meaning opportunities for new development are limited.
I guess we've given up on keeping artists in the neighborhoods they originally moved to and now have to build more affordable housing (which will be unaffordable as soon as it is completed) to attract them to other areas.
67 comments:
Poor doors and fenced off terraces included?
Have we given up keeping artists in the neighborhood? Should we?
If you build it, they (the hipsters) will come.
This is exactly the crowd that Ridgewoid Social caters to. Too bad they also want affordable housing. I'm sure they'll be writing East New York Social soon.
Yeah, breathlessly writing about the trendy new spot that you stuffed your face/imbibed at the night before and being able to pay your rent often don't exactly go together, but this crowd hasn't figured this out yet. The old guard (Kerzner/Renz) who has been pining for gentrification for decades loves it though. Suckers are soon parted with their money.
Allow me to summarize:
Artists once moved to the Lower East Side. People laughed at them, but gentrifiers followed.
Then the artists, much to their chagrin, moved to Williamsburg. Then the faux artists moved in and prices soared. Both populations then moved to Bushwick.
All these neighborhoods were filled with lower middle class and middle class people. The faux artists felt safe there because they saw white artists there.
But the shitstains from across the country who want to live out their dream of living in NYC and have parents who will fund such folly are in limitless supply.
So now Ridgewood is next. Which is funny as hell considering how this bunch would have rolled their eyes at the mention of Queens a decade ago.
I've lived in Ridgewod for 20 years. It was improving before this recent wave of newcomers. The ironic thing is that the new businesses that these folks celebrate and patronize will become the very reason they can't afford to live here anymore. No worries for me, though. I own.
The same thing happened in Greenpoint to Jen G. Write about how great it is that a bar serves 25 different kinds of scotch, attract people who will pay $15 for a shot of scotch and pay $4000/mo for an apartment, find yourself having to hit the road because you can't afford to do same.
The most laughable thing about this is that you can see gentrification coming from a mile away, yet these dopes always seem to be taken by surprise. My favorite is when they have seminars on how to keep the neighborhood affordable after its way too late.
For the amount of hype this area has received over the past few years, there still is a lack of desirable stores along Myrtle. The area really looks like a strip in the ghetto with its cheap clothing stores and made in China 99 cent vibe. Myrtle used to be where you family would go to buy everything. I can't remember the last time I went there for anything.
Aren't gentrifier apartments
better than homeless hotels? That's the choice it seems these days in Queens.
How much could these so called "artists " earn? Painters, musicians, poets. Six figures ? I doubt it. I'm sure many are on some kind of social assistance. How many artists does NYC need anyway?
The blaz's affordable housing plan totally benefits the creative class,since most of the mixed use apartments,the 80 part,have supposed middle class rates around the thousands.
I feel bad for ridgewood,it's only reason for the locusts plaguing the town is because of all the transit options and all of their favorite craft beer and whiskey and gimmick eateries in bushwick are just short bike ride on the metropolitan.As a rival blog mentioned,these are the results of hypergentrification.A combined diabolical effort engineered by developers,corporations and the government elected by a minority of the populace.
I wish the residents of the new brooklyn would take a page from their neighbors up north that were fighting the pan am homeless shelter.Because the creative types they are courting will bring nothing to their towns but oblivious behavior.
and by the looks of that picture and the promoting of it,I can't help but think of edgewater nj,and the dealings of silver,his immoral law firm buddies and property pimps.anyone else?
"How much could these so called "artists " earn?"
They are artists but for a living they rely on mommy and daddy and waiting tables (paying no taxes), tending bar (paying no taxes), driving a cab (paying no taxes), renting out a room in their apartment (paying no taxes) and getting a tax abatement on the condo/coop (paying no taxes).
America, what a concept!
Aren't gentrifier apartments
better than homeless hotels? That's the choice it seems these days in Queens.
Aint it the truth. For all the bellyaching people do on this blog about gentrification, at the end of the day, once the older yuppies with stable jobs and young families start to push out the obstreperous hipsters, the neighborhood actually gets a hell of a lot nicer than it's been in 50 years, like Wiliamsburg and Park Slope. Unlike the illegal hordes, they're also cleaner and contribute to the system.
My favorite is when they have seminars on how to keep the neighborhood affordable after its way too late.
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True enough, the public seems to have forgotten how to get involved in the process and we can thank our electeds for coming down on us every time we open our mouth.
The really sad thing is how they bribe others in our community to go along with their mischief and to marginalize us.
The problem with this development is that strong communities are being systematically destroyed by people that have no real connection to the area.
Think how over development caused a wealthy upper middle class Harlem to turn ghetto within a generation and you see the future of Queens.
I find it funny that commenters here are so hung up on artists "paying taxes" while corporate clowns across the river make out like bandits with credits and other dubious means, shitting all over the character and history of the city. Yeah, go after the fucking twenty somethings pulling in 30k a year. That's the most pressing worry!!!
And before anyone counters wth the "two sides of the same coin" rhetoric, the coin is not weighed evenly. Please. Corporations and developers are the true enemy of the integrity of NYC.
The problem is that these 20 somethings help the corporate clowns rape our neighborhoods. So yeah, fuck them.
"Corporations and developers are the true enemy of the integrity of NYC."
Bet you are wearing your Che Guevara tee shirt today.
Yeah, but the anger is never directed at them, because they wear suits instead of big glasses and tight pants.
By hating "hipsters," you do exactly what developers want.
I guess you missed the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.
"Corporations and developers are the true enemy of the integrity of NYC."
Yes, and that's been the focus of this blog since day one. These kidult enablers make the situation worse.
speaking of seminars
https://www.facebook.com/events/531912090245394/
Yes, and as mentioned previously: the Kerzner/Renz gentrification express comprises the main panel! Amazing how it got called here.
^ noticable about that panel discussion is:
1) it was convened by one of newest CB members, who runs yoga programs in gentrified neighborhoods and has lived in area only 5 years or so
2) is comprised otherwise seemingly of the longtime "old guard" community development members (native-born American generally of German or Italian stock say) and new "creative class" residents (think others have been added along these lines too)
3) held at brand new hip bookstore/cafe rather than established community center
4) as with much of the discussion, the more recent immigrant groups (Eastern European, Latin American, Egyptian, Nepali, etc) who likely make up bulk of the neighborhood's population and likely have most to lose in these processes aren't visible part of leadership at this event or in most discussions of neighborhood issues and future (why? language and cultural insularity or networks could be partial explanation? onus on whom to change this?)
5) the name "Ridgewood: Preserve, Discover, and Re-Define: means what?
-Preserve = probably historic structures/architectural character... but also affordability? Culture(s)?
-Discover = what? by whom? Implies outsider perspective re: "Columbusing" ala the Manhattan/Brooklyn press, gentrifiers "exploring" a "new" neighborhood
-Re-Define = why does the neighborhood need to be "re-defined"? And who gets do do so???
Eh..what's up doc? What percentage of fine artistes can make enough money dabbling to stop eating out of garbage cans and afford a high class restaurant? La Boheme...now there is an opera about the artistic human drama.
Lerner is a real estate baron. The more that hipsters will pay for a crib...the higher his commission.
Maybe I made the wrong choice in my early years selecting commercial art...specifically the advertising business...as opposed to getting a bachelor of fine arts degree etc. and pursuing a long shot as a painter or sculptor. My successful ad game career allowed me to pay off my home in northeast Queens. Now NYC (Manhattan I mean) is my oyster, and now I can afford to doodle and sell my fine art creations in a lucrative side business. Face it folks, NYC is running out of the kind of low priced real estate that an artist can call home. Try Pittsburgh or Fargo. An artist always suffers for his art.
Maybe the "wrong kind of people" are moving into Rodgewood and this is a campaign to attract hipsters over third worlders.
I live in Ozone Park and a local store owner told me a few of her customers are Hipsters who left Bushwick because they were priced out. Who would've thought that Gotti's old turf (101 Ave) might one day have trendy coffee shops and Gluten free bakeries. Anything is possible.
OP is getting a lot of Polish refugees pushed out of Greenpoint and Ridgewood moving into the neighborhood over the last few years.
Acutally, a coworker of mine told me the other day she saw white people on Pitkin Ave in ENY over the weekend...What's this world coming too.
Correction Kerzner not Lerner...oops, my bad.
Lol, the "creative class"
Give me a fucking break theres nothing creative about these spoiled nasal voice brats
NYC has always been creative, transients not needed.
I apologize in advance for moving to Ridgewood. We previously helped gentrify a neighborhood in Brooklyn (moved somewhere affordable at the time, primarily due to tax incentives offered by the city). With an increase in our family size, we needed a larger home. Unfortunately, because of our gentrification efforts, we are now priced out of our own neighborhood (we at least think it's our neighborhood). So, we looked at a lot of neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens. We stumbled upon Ridgewood (before all of the crazy articles). We really liked it. Unfortunately, the prices in Ridgewood has gone up quite a bit over the last year or so. In order to afford the mortgage, we will need to increase the rents.
If it weren't for our interest in eating healthy (organic food), the arts, occasionally buying something at a vintage store, or - yikes, even partaking in yoga, we would probably be considered regular folk - working to do the best for our family and community.
Ironically, (and not in the hipster way), I'm from Florida (been in NYC since 1987). In my hometown of Port Saint Lucie, there's probably now four New Yorkers to every one native Floridian. Growing up, all I heard was complaining about the New Yorkers with money moving down, ruining the neighborhood, and jacking up rents.
Why would anyone in their right mind move from Port St. Lucie, Florida to Brooklyn? You must have been quite wealthy by Florida standards.
There is always Jamaica. We certainly use the "white" faces there, plus you can still get some good deals on apartments and houses.
Gentrification can be a godsend to areas where crime and drugs are rampant. However, this has not been the case with the areas that were gentrified over the past 20 years or so. Yes, there was "some" crime/drugs in Williamsburg, et al, but these areas weren't ghettos. I think the gentrification of Bushwick was welcome. The gentrification of Greenpoint, Ridgewood, LIC, etc. was just due to greed. It's no coincidence that massive upzonings of most of these areas preceded the invasion.
Now these hipsters I can respect. Live within your means, be yourself and help boost the economy of an area that truly needs it.
I grew up relatively poor. I joined the Coast Guard at seventeen and was stationed on Governers Island (at the time it was a coast guard station). I've been here since 1987.
I've been working class a good portion of my life. I've got my own business now. I like healthy food (organic) and good cuisine (like Bun-Ker), I like art - in all its forms. I'll do yoga every once in awhile. This doesn't make me a hipster. I'm too old anyway. Haha Nor a creative - in its proper form. And, I'm certainly not a yuppie.
I can understand not wanting Ridgewood to be the next Williamsburg, but...
It doesn't make you a hipster, but it does make you a gentrifier. Yoga and Vietnamese food? Not really staples of Ridgewood living until the past couple of years.
In many ways, Ridgewood is fast forwarding past the puking in the streets arrested development generation and onto established successful people who have families. (I'm still trying to figure out which shitty school do they send the kids to? I'm thinking they move before it gets to that point.)
These folks' tastes are not like those of the people who have been living there all along. Don't get me wrong, it would be nice to have a butcher and baker on every other block, but when they sell Kobe steaks and $10 cake pops, it poses a bit of a problem for the local hoi polloi.
I always thought that yoga was a DIY thing...all you needed was a floor mat and a copy of Yoga For Dummies.
Isnt the "solitaire" aspect of yoga the reason that yoga got so popular in the first place?
Do you realize that yoga or cuisine of different cultures, or healthy eating has become more popular in general? You're seeing this all over the country. Yes, more so in certain demographics, but it's an increase across the board - even in Ridgewood.
And on the flip side, certain things are in decline, like religion, fast food, and intolerance.
Sorry, I have a Muslim and vegetarian nanny - From Russia that wants to move to Ridgewood. She does yoga too.
Fast food is in decline? Hardly. There are new chain stores opening up all the time in this city. What seem to be closing are supermarkets.
Slavs and Muslims have been making Ridgewood home for decades, so I'm not sure what you're trying to get at with your snarky comment.
@productive hipsters anon a few posts back,
Productive huh?
So she is somehow able to buy property, renovate property, play old Macdonalds farm and travel for months at a time all while being a "creative"?
Sounds like every other hipster to me, 'shadow funds from nowhere' included.
You have a nanny yet you dont consider yourself to be a gentrifier?
AnOn - you're gonna have to read my original post - which I admit I'm a gentrifier. We have a nanny because we have multiples, which makes it more cost effective. And we want them to learn Russian. Sorry that, if I want to better the life of my family, means I'm gentrifying and being hated by people like you. Simple logic - growing family, move somewhere more affordable, better life. I think the real estate developers, investors. city hall, and the 1% in general are more to blame than me, really a regular working guy, or some young hipster types that tends bar or wait tables and live 3 or 4 to an apartment.
Queens Crapper - I'm general, fast food is in decline. In some areas fast food has been on the increase, and this has a lot to do with (as you might know) poverty, lack of fresh food markets, and the general lack of ability to cook actual fresh food (loss of skill / culture) But, in general, healthier food is on the rise. This is my opinion of course. I could be wrong. If you like, you could provide evidence.
In general, in QUEENS, fast food is not on the decline. And it really has nothing to do with anything you mentioned and more to do with rental costs.
And who causes rental costs to increase? Gentrifiers. Starbucks and Brooklyn Industries won't be far behind this wave moving into Ridgewood. The irony is that the gentrifiers supposedly shun these places but they were crying in their craft beer when White Castle closed.
Trying to cease or slow gentrification is akin to shoveling sand against the tide.
Buy a place in Ridgewood and then start looking for the next hipster Utopia. Sell the Ridgewood stake and buy a plot of nouveau Utopia.
Then start looking for the next move. And on and on and on and...
There's a contingent of Queenscrap posters who will never be happy until communities once again consist of mostly one or more of the following ancestries: German, Italian, Jewish, Irish, Nordic, or some mix thereof, with no darker than a light olive complexion.
They claim to hate the commie hizzoner, but have plenty of righteous opinions about how hipsters, their parents, or even self-sufficient gentrifiers spend their money.
They like clean streets, safe neighborhoods, and good schools, but bristle every time a civil service union tries to stand up for itself.
They turn productive discussion in the comments into a laughingstock.
They are on the losing side of history, and are missing the point of the Queenscrap blog, which is the enablement of honest graft by monied interests and corrupt politicians. They confuse the instrument peoples for the men behind the curtain.
Queens is a third world dump. i would take a gluten free gluten shoppe with hipsters everywhere over a halal grocery store with a dead goat carcass lying out back. move out like i did and enjoy living among the civilized world.
All driven by slimy developers and realtors.
"There's a contingent of Queenscrap posters who will never be happy until communities once again consist of mostly one or more of the following ancestries: German, Italian, Jewish, Irish, Nordic, or some mix thereof, with no darker than a light olive complexion."
That's who's moving into Ridgewood these days. And we don't like it. So much for that theory.
Once any prospective tenants see the local public schools clearing out 3PM they will head for the hills.
The owners will then play the HARDSHIP card and it will become sec 8 or homeless shelter.
I never considered anything south of Cypress ave Ridgewood. Its always been a borderline cesspool since 1964 or so.
Back in the good old days whenever a mugging, theft or purse snatching happens the urban youths that committed these crimes always ran SOUTH. That's how the local neighborhood "watch" people and gangs like the Boogymen & Duckys would catch & give em a good tuneup.
Good luck to these west of "the Hudson" prospective yahoos with the $400 Smartphones :) ;) the 104 is useless and Wycoff & Madison aint Kansas after dark
Queens Crapper,
I cant speak to Queens specifically, but nationally, across the board, fast food has been on the decline. For example, McDonalds sales is down 4% and soft drink consumption is down to 1995 levels. I also do believe that fresh (local) food availability is on the rise, which makes sense with the whole CSA, community garden, local food, farmers market thing going on. As for Ridgewood, seems to be a lot of fresh produce markets, at least from what I've seen on Fresh Pond.
That's who's moving into Ridgewood these days. And we don't like it. So much for that theory
You don't like it because they drive up rents because living in "cool" neighborhoods is important to them, and do gluten free yoga. In other words, they're not like you. I come to this blog plenty; you don't fool me.
Isn't Ridgewood already mostly white? Like almost 70%?
There seems to be a tendency to label every young white kid who moves into Queens these days as a hipster, a gentrified or both. Yes, there are plenty of both around Queens days, but the above mentioned characteristics do NOT necessarily make them one or either. Williamsburg? FILLED with hipsters. Ridgewood? Astoria? Yes we have them, but not so much, and not as many as some of you would think. Most just seem to be dopey college graduates who can't afford Manhattan. Don't blame them for raising the rents in the neighborhoods. Blame the developers, the landlords, the media and the politicians.
"In other words, they're not like you."
Well no, skippy, they aren't. They don't want to be like me and I don't want to be like them.
"As for Ridgewood, seems to be a lot of fresh produce markets, at least from what I've seen on Fresh Pond."
Those have always been there, and some of them have gotten into trouble as well. (That one closed.)
99 cents stores will soon be pushed out by 99 cent pizza places which will be pushed out by fancier restaurants.
This post is great Crappie !
Once all the neighborhoods along the train lines become gentrified and overdeveloped, where do the hipsters go next?
Myrtle used to be where you family would go to buy everything. I can't remember the last time I went there for anything.
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This. Myrtle Ave. still has a LONG way to go before it even gets back to where it was in the 70s and 80s, when stores like the Fair (now in Atlas Park) used to anchor the area. Now its all chineses cellphone accessories and CashForGold.
When the hipsters finally displace the locals from high crim East New York, then gentrification will have reached its summit. Remember what Donald Manes once said about Queens. "Queens has nothing but (underdeveloped) land to offer, and I intend to see it developed". There you have it, borough hall's credo. Every burro prez in Queens sordid history, partnered with developers. Shulman followed her boss. Marshal gave away Queens. Now Katz will follow the builders' marching orders...."Upzone the borough"!
And I just read a piece that suggested that was about to happen!
When the hipsters finally displace the locals from high crim East New York, then gentrification will have reached its summit
I find it hard to believe anyone would think New Lots Ave. turning into Bedford Ave. would NOT be an improvement.
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