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| New York Artists Drawn to Hip Brooklyn Borough |
| Now developers are right behind them to Williamsburg |
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Dona Gibbs (dlfgibbs)  |
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Published 2007-07-28 16:14 (KST) |
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The Williamsburg Bridge links the Lower East Side of Manhattan with the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Hardly a week goes by these days without a trendy bar or restaurant opening on the Lower East Side. It’s a yeasty mix of young newcomers to the city, Hispanics, Chinese and a few remnants of its Italian and Jewish past.
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FROM THE SECTION |
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| The immigration of the young and creative started back in the late 1960s and early 1970s when artists of all kinds began to move into the East Village, Tribeca, Soho and, little by little, into the Lower East Side. Then came the New Yorkers who wanted to live in a bohemian part of town and soak up the artsy vibes. Demand tightened an economic fist and rents rose.
In Soho where the pioneering artists once lived, worked and popped around the corner for a deep, dark authentic espresso you’ll find eye-popping luxurious loft apartments, expensive chain stores with Starbucks pumping out the coffee. It’s not hard to imagine the full-on gentrification of the Lower East Side and East Village.
For artists who were making art but not a lot of money, the Williamsburg Bridge offered an exit route. Only a short bike across the East River or a quick trip on the J or L subway line and the rents were more affordable.
 | |  The view is worth millions. | | | ©2007 Dona Gibbs | | Williamsburg has now become hip. Or, at least monitors of the hipster scene report, it has.
I decided to have a look.
I walked across the bridge. The bridge was first opened in 1903 to horse drawn carriages, bicycles and pedestrians. The elevated train tracks were opened in 1908. Now each day 140,000 vehicles cross. Over 3,000 people use the pedestrian/bicycle lanes every day.
 | | | New apartments going up in old industrial sites | | | ©2007 Dona Gibbs | | The bright summer day brought out walkers, joggers, runners, skate boarders, rollerbladers, bikers and me. Me, I was an ambler -- stopping to admire view.
The bridge itself isn’t much to look at. Scientific American summed it up, "As a matter of fact, the (Williamsburg) Bridge is an engineer’s bridge pure and simple." It was built to help free up the congestion on the Brooklyn Bridge and to serve the industrial area of Williamsburg.
I was on a mission though. I was looking for the visual signs of hip, the ironic and the artistic. I looked at the pedestrians. They proved to be the usual bunch of New Yorkers out for some sun.
A skateboarder, arms covered in tattoos, bandanna on his head that was cradling a fierce looking deck and taking an herb break, might have qualified. He refused to be photographed, rejecting instant fame.
O.K., what about graffiti?
Now there are plenty of people who think graffiti is a visual assault.
And there are plenty of others who would retort, "Oh yeah, what about Keith Haring?"
New York City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., thought it should be illegal for anybody under 21 to possess spray paint or permanent markers. Art and design students disagreed and the passage of the law failed.
 | | | Where are the new Keith Harings? | | | ©2007 Dona Gibbs | | The entrance to the bridge offered dueling tags, the names and symbols quickly spray painted one on top of another.
Along the pathway, someone had altered the pedestrian symbol, adding artistic detail.
Further along stencil art began.
Many graffiti artists turn up their noses at the stencillers, who cut out pieces of cardboard in bold graphic designs, place them on a surface and blast away with spray paint.
 | | | Wall murals take days of work | | | ©2007 Dona Gibbs | |  | | | "This is not a statue," reads the graffiti on the side of a monument to Washington. | | | ©2007 Dona Gibbs | | Reaching the other side, a mural covered the side of a light industry building. These pieces can take day to create. This one was relatively free of casual tagging.
 | | | Where will the artists go after Williamsburg? | | | ©2007 Dona Gibbs | | It was on Continental Plaza that I spotted a mash-up of the classical meets the ironic meets the vandal.
On the side of this statue of George Washington someone had spray painted, "This is not a statue."
What is the future of Williamsburg? Many of the old industry sites have also been sold since industry packed up and moved away in the 1980s. People shook their heads when a building where string and percussion instruments were made was turned into condominiums, "There goes the neighborhood."
Walk along Bedford Avenue between North 1st and North 12th and you’ll see plenty of cafes catering to the young gabbing away in French, Hebrew, Spanish and, of course, English. There’s a bookshop that’s focused on graphic design books. An Internet cafe is the size of an industry garage, which it was in its previous incarnation. The day I stopped in, every seat was taken with twenty and thirty-somethings pounding away.
But, ahem, there is something else afoot in Williamsburg: little kids, double strollers and a toy store filled with all manner of toys -- all impeccably designed, of course. The New York Times Thursday shopping column noted this emporium of exquisite kiddy taste just last Thursday.
You don’t know that means, don’t you? Even if those little kids are dressed in tiny Ramones T-shirt, it means milk, cookies -- and goodnight for bohemia.
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| Another article on the same topic is scheduled to appear in Open Writing. |
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©2007 OhmyNews
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