3 responses so far ↓

• 1 rick // Jan 28, 2009 at 11:46 am

  There is no Gowanus much to your dismay…..if you lived here before the real estate industry made it up and charged you ten-fold to live here you would know that. Hipster credo: let’s more to a fucked up area, rename it and get fucked on the rent prices,,, not too bright, but very hip.

• 2 Josh // Jan 28, 2009 at 2:36 pm

  From the June 13, 1909 New York Tribune:

  “Within the next few days the Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity will let the contract for the extension of the high pressure water system for fire fighting to cover the Gowanus section. There is still an important section to be protected, the Williamsburg and Greenpoint section, which is the great manufacturing district.”

  The name for the neighborhood didn’t originate with contemporary real estate developers, but current real estate developers are responsible for its resurgence. As gentrification moved down the slope and down Smith Street, the neighborhoods around the canal tended to be identified by the real estate industry with the more gentrified area nearby. It’s only as the gentrifier population has increased and more artists have relocated studios from Manhattan/Williamsburg to the lofts of the neighborhood, that people in the real estate industry have chosen to revive the traditional name for the neighborhood.

  Complaining about New York real estate investors branding a neighborhood in an attempt to increase rent revenue is like complaining that water is wet. It’s always been that way from Gramercy Park to Soho to Tribeca to Boerum Hill.

• 3 rick // Jan 28, 2009 at 5:46 pm

  Not complaining just telling you fools you been duped. And I hope you didn’t have your trust fund money with Madoff…