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The two sides of Williamsburg, Brooklyn

By Michael Y. Park | Special to amNewYork

May 14, 2007

Williamsburg. Just a mention of the Brooklyn neighborhood conjures up images of a hipster heaven where people spend small fortunes to look like they just rolled out of bed, where rapping with the locals consists of rattling off the names of incredibly obscure bands and where funkily coiffed young Europeans and Japanese discreetly clutch guidebooks while shopping for $100 tchochkes on the sidewalk.

Wander away from the center of the hipster universe -- North 7th Street and Bedford Avenue -- and another Williamsburg is revealed, a Williamsburg that existed long before the first struggling artist arrived.

Here are the modest houses of Polish blue-collar workers, the warrens of Hasidim to the south of the bridge and the mostly Latino projects sprinkled throughout. This is the Williamsburg where it seems more plausible that a staggering 47.1 percent of the Williamsburg-Greenpoint population is on public assistance, according to numbers compiled in 2005 by the Department of City Planning.

But the neighborhood known for its diversity in ethnic groups and economic strata is absorbing a steady stream of young, white, middle-class professionals as more and more luxury developments go up and long-time residents are squeezed out.

"Everyone thinks that Williamsburg is just about the coolest neighborhood in America, but you it doesn't mean that everybody there can afford luxury housing, or that you want everyone who lives there to be able to afford luxury housing," says Elana Levin, spokeswoman for the Drum Major Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting progressive ideas for social and economic fairness. "Part of the reason it is the coolest neigborhood is because people who aren't making a million dollars are living there, and that you have a variety of people doing a variety of work."

Many locals -- including Jorge Legarreta, a 45-year-old truck driver, who is being evicted from his $421-a-month, two-bedroom apartment on Morgan Avenue -- feel they are being pushed out.

"I was born in Puerto Rico but came here when I was, like, 18 years old," he says. "I love this place. I've got so many memories, like the first day I brought my sons here from the hospital."

On Tuesday, Legarreta found out he and another first-floor tenant are going to have to find a new place to live. A Brooklyn civil court judge ruled that Legarreta must leave by July 31 at the request of the owner of the six-unit, three-story building, which currently houses five families and about 16 people. Legarreta suspects that the owner plans on selling the building at a high price to a developer in the recently high-priced area.

Alison Cordero, deputy director of community preservation at the St. Nicholas Preservation Corp. in Williamsburg, said building owners are using any means at their disposal to get renters out so they can sell at prices that were unimaginable when Williamsburg was still a solidly poor and working-class neighborhood.

"We have one or two new cases every week of people in small buildings who can't pay the higher rent, and we're seeing a lot of pressure on people in terms of harassment and doing everything possible to vacate units," Cordero said. "It's a phenomenon of the last five years. For St. Nicholas to acquire land and build in the neighborhood is virtually impossible.

We had one site we hoped to acquire for senior housing that now has 80 luxury units going on it. We couldn't beat the developer's price. The number of people being displaced is pretty scary, and there's really no place for them to go."

Indeed, Legarreta's landlady, Sofia Besinis, said one of the reasons she was asking Legarreta and the others to move out was that she herself was being squeezed out by skyrocketing Williamsburg rents.

For Legarreta, the result is the same: He may be forced to leave the neighborhood he's grown to call home.

"I make $500 a week. I can't afford to pay $1,200 -- two week's pay -- for rent, then have to pay child support for my babies, clothes, food," he said.

"I don't want to leave."