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The social tissue of Brooklyn is constantly transforming. It has become a global attraction for national and international migration in its Post-Industrial development, using its strategic location next to Manhattan combined with its identity of a diverse tissue of religious, ethnic, economic or cultural enclaves. At the same time Brooklyn has become a global creativity centre, and a gateway into the American city fabric. The desirability of Brooklyns diverse social tissue has become so successful that a real estate market has emerged that focuses on QGLQJ WKH QH[W QHLJKERUKRRG WR GHYHORSinto a multicultural hub. Displacement of inhabitants is the downside of the success of this model, creating an internal migration pattern of poorer neighborhoods being pushed to areas with less opportunities for development. It causes a delicate balance between coexistence and an urban frontier between poor and rich.

Brooklyn, a Borough of Neighborhoods

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34 | 34

Connected to Manhattan

Connection with Manhattans o c i a l e n c l av e s

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Connection with and proximity to Manhattan has a great influence on the social tissue of a neighborhood. Historically, the East River crossings between the two boroughs were important factors in the demographic growth of the Borough. Infrastructural links between boroughs like the Fulton Ferry or the three bridge connections between Manhattan and Brooklyn created essential links for migration to the East River neighborhoods in Brooklyn and the development of the Brooklyn harbor. The subway tunnel and the Brooklyn-Battery road tunnel created an opportunity for neighborhoods that were not in proximity to Manhattan to still develop a rich and diverse social tissue. Induced by the suburbanization movement in the 50s, the Parkway road system provides a connection to Manhattan for neighborhoods with a great distance to Manhattan and this creates vibrant suburban communities like Canarsie.

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Brooklyn Bridge (1883)

NY Waterway (1986)

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14th Street Tunnel (1924)

Clark Street Tunnel (1919)

Rutgers Street Tunnel (1936)

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36 |

7KH LQXHQFH RI 0DQKDWWDQ KDVa physical impact on Brooklyns building tissue. Some neighborhoods have developed a distinct building stock because of their connection with Manhattan and a certain crowd has migrated into the tissue of Brooklyn because of the connection or disconnection with Manhattan. Identities like metropolitan Brooklyn, connected with Downtown Brooklyn DQG LWV EDFN RIFH GLVWULFW ZRXOGnot have been possible without the proximity and very good connection with Manhattan. The Brownstone belt developed into the area for the new hip, young and progressive middle class, because it combined a distinct character with the Brownstone typology and a very well organized public transport connection with Manhattan. At the outskirts of Brooklyn, neighborhoods that have severely changed due to the urban renewal programs of the city in the 1950s and 60s, and the public housing developments in the 1930s to the 60s are still struggling with their heritage because they lack connection with the centre of the city, creating a situation in which almost no major developments will take place.

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Over the past decades the image of Brooklyns neighborhoods has strongly evolved. In the 1970s and 80s working class neighborhoods suffered from the deindustrialization of the Borough, causing large scale social and economical problems like high crime rates and unemployment. These neighborhoods became the ghettos that characterized the inner FLW\ LJKW RI WKH XUEDQ FULVLV $W WKHsame time the migration of a new young middle class into the social tissue has completely transformed these neighborhoods into what is now often labeled as the gentrifying neighborhoods. Newspaper articles discussing a neighborhood give a good indication of the identity of a neighborhood. By investigating New York Times articles of the last decades discussing a neighborhood and looking IRU WKH ZRUGV JHQWULFDWLRQ RU JKHWWRwe can see an evolution in the identity and social tissue of the neighborhoods located in the studied strip.

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s o c i a l e n c l av e s Ethnic Diversity

Next to the connection with and proximity to Manhattan, ethnic diversity is one of the biggest social transformation models. Global migration to Brooklyn creates a tissue of ethnic enclaves in which each has their own particular characteristics. When connected with public transport, these neighborhoods become an attraction point for a progressive young middle class from all over the world. The desirability of this condition has created a real estate market that focuses on diversity and connectivity but it results in the significantly rise of land value in these neighborhoods. This effect displaces the original inhabitants of the neighborhood. Internal migration of poorer inhabitants being displaced of their neighborhoods is a result of a new middle class public moving into the neighborhood. Completely destroying the social and economic diversity of the neighborhood system in Brooklyn and defining a new social frontier between different ethnic and income groups. An example of this transformation model is Prospect Park which was once a ghetto neighborhood but is now one of the neighborhoods with the highest land value and a white upper class population.

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42 | 42

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Increase In Native Black Population

Decrease In Native White Population

Increase In Native White Population

S o c i a l e n c l av e s Displacement

The ethnicity of its population is one of the defining elements for the image of a neighborhood in Brooklyn. An ethnic group settles in a neighborhood and develops a sense of community in its environment. Neighborhoods like Sunset Park, which has one of the largest Latin American communities in New York City, becomes a focus point for immigrants and creates a social gateway into the city fabric. The current transformation model of gentrification however threatenes this neighborhood dynamic. Displacement of the original population of a neighborhood due to the rise of land value creates a situation where ethnic populations are being pushed out of their neighborhood to the outskirts, or to less connected parts of the borough. These places lack development initiatives and therefore their inhabitants will have less economic oppurtinities to develop themselves, creating a stronger division of rich and poor.

Map

43

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Black Population

Latin American Population

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Population Changes of Three Largest Ethnic Groups in Brooklyn 2000-2010

Decrease In Native Black Population

Increase In Native Black Population

Increase In Native White Population

Decrease In Latin American Population

Increase In Latin American Population

Increase In Latin American Population

Essay

44 | Springboard or WellS o c i a l e n c l av e s

Brooklyns social tissue has always been greatly influenced by its location next to Manhattan. Lying right across Lower Manhattan it enjoyed the benefit of the growing importance of Manhattans harbor to urbanize its territory. In the 19th century Brooklyn grew to become the third largest city of the United States, a twin for the growing metropolis on the other side of the East River. After the annexation as one of the five boroughs of New York City, infrastructural connections between Manhattan and Brooklyn caused an internal migration pattern and a demographic increase for Brooklyn. But it also created a hierarchical organization between the two former cities. Brooklyn evolved from an independent city into the main residential suburb of the city, connected with the metropolitan centre of Manhattan by a system of bridges (the Manhattan, the Brooklyn and the Williamsburg bridge) and subway lines. Brooklyn as a collection of urban middle class and creative enclaves is a condition that gained great importance in the 50s and 60s in the aftermath of the suburbanization movement and the emptying of the inner city. It became the third social paradigm for the city, an answer to metropolitan impersonality and to suburban artificiality and boringness1. Brooklyns working class neighborhoods close to the East River bank that are known today as the brownstone belt2 became the stage for an anti movement

against modernist planning tactics and a search for authenticity. The area was severely damaged by the de-industrialization of the city, and its population consisted of a working class spending their working days in the industries that were disappearing. Urban renewal plans where the method to deal with these situations by the city, clearing out the slums to be replaced by towers in the park. As a reaction a movement of urban pioneers, who were attracted by the authenticity and the social diversity of the area, would revitalize the existing building stock and within this movement a large social capital3 grew that gave these neighborhoods a strong identity. They grew out to become a new model for the city, a collage of inner city suburbs.Being periphery and centre at once is the condition that is defining for Brooklyn. Neighborhoods like Prospect Park, Cobble Hill or Brooklyn Heights benefit from having the identity and density of a suburb that is well connected to the centre by public transport to attract a global middle class. This group is attracted by the combination of living in the global metropolis New York without having to deal with the extreme density and metropolitan lifestyle that defines Manhattan. With the rising housing prices in Manhattan and the upperclass identity a young generation of creative people became attracted by the authentic identity and relatively cheap housing prices of Brooklyn, and in neighborhoods like

To understand the complex network that Brooklyn is we start by looking at the base, its population. The people that live in the borough form its identity, give every spot its characteristics, create the challenges that the city faces. Brooklyn is a multicultural city, the place where a wide variety of lifestyles develops. People that have visited Brooklyn have a specific image of neighborhoods like Crown Heights, Williamsburg, Red Hook, East New York, or Bed-Stuy exactly because of the cultural, ethnic, economic or religious groups that live there and that color the streets and define the feel of the neighborhood. Its unique combination of an inner city suburb lifestyle and a close connection to the metropolis creates a condition which attracts a global audience. Being local and global in one gesture is an appealing identity for a young middle class and the transformation Brooklyn went trough over the past 50 years has made it a fresh and affordable alternative for a new generation of creative people. The ethnic groups living in the borough create gateways into the United States for immigrants from around the world. Brooklyns diversity is what creates its identity.

Springboard or Well, Brooklyns network of neighborhoods

Essay

45

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8

Ghent Urban Studies Team, The contemporary social landscape, The urban condition, 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 1999Osman S. , The Invention Of Brownstone Brooklyn: Gentrification and the search of authenticity in postwar New York, Oxford University Press, New York, 2011Social capital : stocks of social trust, norms, and networks that people can draw upon in order to solve common problems.Smith N. , The new urban frontier: gentrification and the revanchist city, Routledge, 1996The Newest New Yorkers, Population, internet, 13/04/2012, http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/census/nny_exec_sum.shtmlMoia, internet, 13/04/2012, http://www.nyc.gov/html/imm/html/about/about.shtmlLuo M,, A closer look at the Sanctuary City argument, internet, 13/04/2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/us/politics/29truth.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=sanctuary+city+new+york&st=nytMayor Bloomberg launches one NYC one Nation, internet, 13/04/2012, http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2011a%2Fpr119-11.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1

Williamsburg or Fort Green this has caused a creative revolution.The popularity of this living condition has grown to a global scale over the course of 50 years. A young, wealthy public is appealed by Brooklyns double identity and a real estate market focussing on spotting the next neighborhood to become revitalized has emerged from its popularity. It gives these neighborhoods enormous economic potential to attract developments and new inhabitants. But its popularity has also a contradictory effect. The desirability of this lifestyle has made housing prices grow steadily in these neighborhoods. As a result the original poorer and more diverse population is being displaced to other areas of the borough, adding to a growing frontier between poor and rich social groups4. The end station of this evolution can be seen in neighborhoods like Park Slope, which has now one of the highest housing prices of the city and there is little left of the self organizing street tissue it had 40 years before. Gentrification is one of the important issues that Brooklyn is facing today, and it is constantly looking for a balance between revitalization and displacement.New York is the example of a global city, attracting a population from around the world to form vibrant communities in its tissue. had to attract a foreign born public has always played a key role in the economic, cultural and social health of the city. The last migration wave that started in 1970s is a defining factor in understanding the current social tissue of the city. New arrivals of the 70s helped mitigate the catastrophic population losses that hit the city with the suburbanization movement, and the growth in influx of immigrants in the 80s and 90s helped the city reach a new population peek of 8 million inhabitants in 20005. By then 36 percent of New Yorks population was born outside the United States, and this figure is still growing today.The city government has realized the importance of global immigration towards

its territory and has adapted its politics to keep attracting immigrants. Instead of trying to keep foreign illegal aliens out of its territory, the city has taken on a political position to attract immigrants by adapting its laws to protect the immigration status of its inhabitants. It also created a series of public instances, like the Mayors Office of Immigrant Affairs6, that engage themselves with the well being of its immigrant population. Often marked as a Sanctuary City7, a safe haven for immigrants, New York as often been at the centre point of political debate about immigration policies in the United States, but the economic, social and cultural impact that immigrant groups have on New York is of such importance that city government still keeps its immigrant friendly political stands. Mayor Bloomberg has always expressed the importance of immigrant groups, like recently on the launch

of the One NYC One Nation campaign:

For generations immigrants have come to New York City to pursue their dreams and make our City great. While we continue to make the case for sensible immigration reform in Washington, at home we must also work to continue empowering immigrants to contribute to the cultural and economic well-being of our City - because the more civically engaged New Yorkers are the stronger our neighborhoods become.8

Essay

46 | S o c i a l e n c l av e s Springboard or Well

910

Rones David R., Krausen L. Steven, Housing the city op Immigrants, research by Community Service Society, Krase J. an Hutchison R, IMMIGRANT GLOBAL NEIGHBORHOODS IN NEW YORK CITY, Research in Urban Sociology, Volume 7, 2007, pp.25-55Sanders D., Arrival Cities, Vintage Canada, Toronto, 2010

The large percentage of immigrant population manifests itself in the neighborhood tissue of the different boroughs. Brooklyn is no exception to this, containing the second largest percentage of non-native population of the city in its built tissue. Each ethnic group has developed its locational pattern which results in a mosaic of different neighborhoods, each having their specific needs and problems. It is important to realize that immigrants are not a homogeneous group but rather a network of nationalities and generations that all have a specific history with the city which creates specific situations each group is facing.9Some groups have concentrated in large quantities in a certain area creating ethnic enclaves, neighborhoods that become defined by its ethnic inhabitants. Strolling trough neighborhoods like Sunset Park, one of the largest Latin American neighborhoods, is like entering a small world that has its own language, a social image and defining feel to them that is fundamentally different from the rest of the city. Other ethnic groups have a much less concentrated locational pattern, and in some neighborhoods different groups share a territory, resulting in polyethnic enclaves10 a new phenomena growing out of the latest migration movement. Ethnic neighborhoods become places of arrival11 for new immigrants and this dialectic movement creates the wave that characterizes the immigration pattern of the last 30 years. If these places of arrival have the opportunity to develop themselves they add in a great manner to the social tissue of the city. But when these neighborhoods are not properly dealt with they can deteriorate back to the ethnic ghettos that where defining for Brooklyn in the 70s and 80s during the urban crisis. Brownsville and East New York are examples of neighborhoods where the urban crisis is still leaving its marks. High crime rates and unemployment in combination with housing and connectivity problems is still causing social issues

that ask for a city government approach to be resolved. These neighborhoods are enclaves of exclusion, places laking the potential for economic developments because of their lack of subway connections, social risks, or lack of consuming public.

Over the course of 50 years Brooklyn has grown beyond the identity of a residential suburb, the little brother of Manhattan. Brooklyns evolution is the anti-these to Manhattans transformation, focusing on an authentic lifestyle in close contact to the metropolis, and this attracts a global young, hip and middle class public. At the same time some of Brooklyns neighborhoods are still dealing with the effects of the urban crisis of the 70s and 80s, trying to form wealthy base for ethnic groups to develop vibrant communities that can attract economic developments and continue the unique authenticity of the borough. It is Brooklyns challenge to find a balance between these two transformation models, to develop a method of inclusion for both identifiers of its social tissue.

c o l l e c t i v e c u lt u r e

An Assembly of Images

Brooklyns varied social tissue operates as DEDVHIRUWKHHTXDOO\GLYHUVLHGH[SHULHQFHRIXUEDQOLIH'LIIHUHQWJURXSVFRH[LVWLQDQGVKDUH WKLV XUEDQ FXOWXUH 7KH FRH[LVWHQFHDQG WKH HQFRXQWHU GHQHV WKH SK\VLFDOcondition, the public space and the build collective memory, as well as the image the city transfers to the outer world. Today, this image is increasingly getting more and more recognition on a global level, revealing a different New York City than the well-know Manhattan-story: less urban, more urbane.

54

Today, New York City is widely as-sociated with the image of a vibrant attraction pole for tourists and businesses, while in the 1970s the city was rather known as a violent, horror city. This reversal happened thanks to very succesfull city branding strategies. The city of New York FROODERUDWHG ZLWK PDUNHWLQJ UPVand businessleaders to produce city-branding operations such as the Big Apple-campaign .....(1971), NYC & CO promotions .....and various I Love New York-campaigns ..... (1977 until now). Manhattans city branding functions served as a magnifying glass for selective spots in the city, such as ground zero and Time Square. But meanwhile the citys part above 96th street and the other boroughs became obscure.

In the last decades, Brooklyn started to create its own Brand. In a fragmented way and through bottom-up tactics, a brand with many facets emerged. Among these facets are: a tourist destination offering attractions such as Brooklyn Music academy and Brooklyn Bridge , a desirable place for living , as well as the cradle of black hip hop , and the ideal place to start a business or expose a hip lifestyle . This variety makes the brand attractive, not only for tourist and businesses but also for Brooklyns inhabitants.

Manhattan

Brooklyn

C O L L E C T I V E C u LT U R E | City Branding

4

2

3

1

5

6

7

55

observation

Branding Concentration

4

1 2 3

5

6 7

56

During the last two decades, the emergence of the brand Brooklyn sparked a new sort of economic activity in the borough. This commercial and industial revival tends to counterweight the lang period of industial decline New York City, a city that previously focussed only on the service sector and tourism. Many of the Brooklyn-based businesses carry the name Brooklyn in order to EHQHW WKH DGYDQWDJHV RI WKH EUDQGBrooklyn. Businesses that played keyroles in this industrial development are Brooklyn Brewery since 1994 and Brooklyn Industries since 1997 ...... Succesfull events such as the Brooklyn Flea Market .. EHQHW WKHcharacteristics associated to the brand Brooklyn too, in order to attract costumers from other boroughs and even tourist from overseas.

Entrepreneurial BrooklynC O L L E C T I V E C u LT U R E |

1

2

1

2

57

collage

Brooklyn-named Trade Marks

58

Shop (clothes, fur- niture,books,...)

The streetlife demonstrates the identity of a borough. Each neighborhood has one or more commercial streets that are used by inhabitants for their shoppings, leisure or to make a certain lifestyle YLVLEOH 9HU\ RIWHQ WKH UVW VLJQV RIJHQWULFDWLRQ DUH UHDGDEOH LQ WKHVHcommerical streets: coffeeshops, galleries, restaurants or other commercial activity that reacts on the lifestyle and wishes of the gentrifying class. On the other hand, these streetscapes display the bankrupcies, foreclosures and bad living conditions too. In the neigborhoods of Red Hook, Clinton Hill, Park Slope and Crown +HLJKWV JHQWULFDWLRQ LV PDQLIHVWHGin respectively Van Brunt Street, Court Street, Vanderbilt Avenue and Franklin Avenue. Further located from the Hudson river, Uteca Street and New Lots avenue show different VWUHHWVFDSHV ZKHUH JHQWULFDWLRQdidnt take place. These two streetscapes are primary dominated by immigrant commercial activity but suffer from bad maintanance and criminality.

C O L L E C T I V E C u LT U R E | Livable Brooklyn

Cafe, bar, restaurantFood storeArt gallery

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Shop (clothes, furniture, books,...)Art gallery

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metal and thread

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bakedFort Difiance

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court pastry shop

noble cleaners

sweet melissa patisserie

strong place

Five guyscobble hill cinemas

chocolat room

k&y fruit and veggieDegraw Street Degraw Street

italian deli

neda

classic impressions gift cards

home and beauty

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union market seol custom tailor

pizzazz toys

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joyce bakeshop

met foodmarkets

aliseo osteria del borgo

the brooklyn pizza factory

india place

amorina

happy cleaners

quality laundromat

caree fine dry cleaning

plan b

milk bar

namaskar old brooklyn bagel shop

polish bar of brooklyn

eton on vanderbilt

maya taqueriabiton

unnameable books soda bar

pieces

shanghai stress free

fermented grapes and wine

pet supply

prospect heights realty

seafood cafe

w!nk eco beauty bar

penas food market

Nostrand Avenue Nostrand Avenue Nostrand Avenue

Lincoln Avenue Lincoln A venue Lincoln Avenue Lincoln

St Jhons Avenue St Jhons s Avenue St Jhons Avenue

bristens cafe

happy wok chinese

broadway grocery

chavellas

la higienica 3 ds

lily & fig

one love cultural arts

js wong

deli food corporation

pine tree

about time

my space

59

STRIP

A Collection of Streetscapes

Shop (clothes, furniture, books,...)Art gallery

Cafe/ bar/restaurant

Other

Food and Drinks Store

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Prospect Place Prospect P lace Prospect Place Prospect

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old brooklyn bagel shop

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St Jhons Avenue St Jhons s Avenue St Jhons Avenue

nams fruit market

beauty boutique

bristens cafe

happy wok chinese

broadway grocery

chavellas

la higienica 3 ds

lily & fig

one love cultural arts

js wong

deli food corporation

pine tree

about time

my spacelaunch pad

UTI

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photo max

best deal deli & grocery

crown fried chicken & pizzadbest spot

barbara gift shop

ladies stop

adonijah health food

caribbean fried chicken

ayanassams same day cleaners

hardee restaurant

primitos corporation

kings new lot deli

crown fried chicken

new lots furniture & bedding

PPH real estate

johnnys original pizzza

60

Dikeman Street Dikeman Street Dikeman Street

Coffey Street Coffey Street Coffey street Coffey Street

Wolcot Street Wolc ot Street Wolcot Street

VAN

BRUN

T ST

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VAN

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hope and anchor

botta di vino

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metal and thread

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nates pharmacyCO

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Butler Street Butler Street Butler Dougmas Street Douglass Stree

Degraw Street Degraw Street

court pastry shop

noble cleaners

sweet melissa patisserie

strong place

Five guyscobble hill cinemas

chocolat room

k&y fruit and veggieDegraw Street Degraw Street

italian deli

neda

classic impressions gift cardshome and beauty

ocean spa

union market seol custom tailor

pizzazz toys

nail & spa

Brownstone estate

Cobble hill fitness collective

VAN

DER

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NU

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Park Place Park Place Park Place Park Place Park Place

Prospect Place Prospect P lace Prospect Place Prospect

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joyce bakeshop

met foodmarkets

aliseo osteria del borgo

the brooklyn pizza factory

india place

amorina

happy cleaners

quality laundromat

caree fine dry cleaning

plan b

milk bar

namaskar old brooklyn bagel shop

polish bar of brooklyn

eton on vanderbilt

maya taqueriabiton

unnameable books soda bar

pieces

shanghai stress free

fermented grapes and wine

pet supply

prospect heights realty

seafood cafe

w!nk eco beauty bar

penas food market

C O L L E C T I V E C u LT U R E | Livable Brooklyn

61

OBSERVATION

A Collection of Streetscapes

FRAN

KLIN

AVE

NU

e FR

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IN A

VEN

UE

FRAN

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Nostrand Avenue Nostrand Avenue Nostrand Avenue

Lincoln Avenue Lincoln A venue Lincoln Avenue Lincoln

St Jhons Avenue St Jhons s Avenue St Jhons Avenue

nams fruit market

beauty boutique

bristens cafe

happy wok chinese

broadway grocery

chavellas

la higienica 3 ds

lily & fig

one love cultural arts

js wong

deli food corporation

pine tree

about time

my spacelaunch pad

UTI

CA

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UE

UTI

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UTI

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Park Place Park Place Par k Place Park Place Park Place

Sterling Place Sterling Pl ace Sterling Place Sterling Pl

St Johns Place St Johns P lace St Johns Place St Johns Pl

photo max

best deal deli & grocery

crown fried chicken & pizzadbest spot

barbara gift shop

ladies stop

adonijah health food

caribbean fried chicken

ayanassams same day cleaners

hardee restaurant

primitos corporation

NEW L

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Jersey Avenue New

Jersey AvenueNew Jersey Avenue

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yona Street Wyona Street

Street Vermont Street

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kings new lot deli

crown fried chicken

new lots furniture & bedding

PPH real estate

johnnys original pizzza

62

A formal appearance of a collective culture in the public realm is that of representative space. This type of public space tends to provide the cityscape with credibility and prestige, a sense of character, a shared identity, and serves as a forum for civic activity. Today, the big representative spaces are rather anachronisms from another era of politics. They have a strong classical design language and represent the power of the nation, the city or the borough. In Brooklyn, most of these spaces are located close to the northern tip of Prospect Park, the former center of the borough. Examples are Grand Army Plaza in front of Brooklyn Public Library and Camden Plaza in front of the Borough Hall. These public spaces are less vulnerable for processes VXFK DV JHQWULFDWLRQ EHFDXVH RItheir scale and public functionality. However, today the city invests less in big-scale representative spaces. While collective culture today is often experienced in other sorts of space (community centers, urban farms and parklets), the classical squares and promenades are still the prime location for parades, festivals and folklore.

C O L L E C T I V E C u LT U R E | Livable Brooklyn

Public space and institutions

Landmark

Open space

63

STRIP

Representative Space

64

:KLOHJHQWULFDWLRQLQIXULDWHVLQVHYHU-al neighborhoods and hipsters remain GHQLQJ%URRNO\QDVWKHLU FRROKDEL-tat, a whole different cool emerged in time. A movement of rappers, among them Jay-Z and Biggie, entered popu-lar culture while evoking the problems and racial experience in their neigh-borhoods. Through their video clips and lyrics, Brooklyn got to be known as a gangsta rap cradle for millions of hip hop fans.

Lemme tell you where I grew up at 6LSPRWKUHZXSDWLSFRNHEOHZXSthat. Where fake thugs got they vests shoot up at Brooklyn! Beef, who wantthat?

Foxy Brown, BK Anthem

C O L L E C T I V E C u LT U R E | Hip Hop Brooklyn

1

2

3

4

65

observation

Brooklyn Hip Hop Video Clips

The Notorious B.I.G., Juicy2 1 .

Fabolous ft. Jeremih, My Time 2 .

Jay-Z, 99 Problems 3 .

Busta Rhymes, Break ya neck 4 .

Foxy Brown, BK Anthem 5 .

Mos Def, Ms. Fat Booty 6 .

LilKim, Lighters Up 7 .

Spike Lee ,Do the Right Thing 8 .

5

6

7

8

66

In the virtual realm, the emergence RI EORJV DQG VRFLDO QHWZRUNV LQXHQFHV XUEDQ SURFHVVHV VLJQLFDQWO\The amount of neighborhood-related blogs in Brooklyn can highlight the areas that are transforming and even accelerate the process. The branding of Brooklyn as a hipster locus hap-pened partly thanks to this new way of spreading the news. However, blogs are not only used by hipsters. The phenomenon is used by both the ones that aim to transform neighbor-hoods by promoting its advantages, as the local community that uses the internet as a powerful tool to react to this transformation. In this sense, the internet led to a different kind of space to experience collective culture.

C O L L E C T I V E C u LT U R E | Brooklyn Blogs

67

STRIP

Concentratrion of Brooklyn Blogs

68 C O L L E C T I V E C u LT U R E | Observation Prospect Park

69Forty minutes of visitors, photographed every minute between 3.00PM and 4.00PM

70 | C O L L E C T I V E C U LT U R E Imagining Brooklyn

Imagining BrooklynFrom fragmented tactics to a general strategy?

Seventy years ago, American writer and Pulitzer prize winner, James Agee stated that this fact alone, which of itself makes Brooklyn so featureless, so little known, to many so laughable, or so ripe for patronage, this fact, that two million human beings are alive and living there, invests WKH ERURXJK LQ DQ H[WUDRUGLQDULO\ KLJK SLWHRXV DQG LQYLRODEOH GLJQLW\ZHOO EH\RQG RI ODXJKWHUdefense, or need of notice. 1 In his article on New York City for Fortune magazine, he describes Brooklyn as an endless, low-rise working-class living area, both depending on and ensuring H[LVWHQFH RI WKH FRXQWU\V FXOWXUDO FRPPHUFLDO DQG ILQDQFLDO FHQWUH 0DQKDWWDQ ,Q WKHwell-known travel guide Lonely Planet, put Brooklyn on the tourist radar proclaiming a cultural movement has emerged and now Brooklyn is the hippest part of the city.

A lot has changed since James Agee crossed the Brooklyn Bridge commissioned to describe Brooklyn. The borough now has its own skyscrapers, is home to numerous businesses carrying its name and attracts new people from all over the world to inhabit its housing stock. Partly thanks to the pen of Neil Simon, the camera of Spike Lee and beats from Jay-Z to MGMT, Brooklyn has a world-wide cultural profile.3 There are Brooklyn tourists now, drawn over the bridge by guidebooks or carried by tour buses that stop at the Brooklyn Music Academy, Prospect Park and other of the boroughs landmarks.4 Its current profile can hardly be more different from the monotonous, working class, sorry reputation the borough faced in the past.5 Various experts cite Brooklyns claim to be authentic6, a place where history, character, culture and integrity rolled into one.7 However, the current profile is hard to pin down; Brooklyn tends to represent a list of things, among them a hip, creative, cultural ethnicity, the epicenter of cool and a brand name, yielding world-wide instant recognition.8 Off course, the shortcomings of this image-making have to be considered. In this essay we will try to uncover what the brand Brooklyn means, as well as what the risks are that it poses. Indeed, while creating Brooklyns newly flourishing profile, significant parts of the borough

remain excluded and other rises, falls and evolutions are being obscured. The process of providing cities with an image, a cultural significance in order to improve its symbolic and economical position, is applied world-wide in various forms. In the conception of this urban reinvention process, New York City played a pioneering role.

A b r a n d , t h e m a g n i f y i n g g l as sDuring the 20th century, deindustrialization hit New York notably hard, and in 1975 the city was facing bankruptcy and was no longer able to cover basic operating expenses like transportation, sanitation, education and policing.9 City dwellers who could, fled to the suburbs, causing even more damage to the citys tax and job base. New York, once the symbol of a modern city, in all its contradictions from the working-class, polyglot Ghotam to the sophisticated New Rome of modern art and high fashion started to evoke the single urban imaginary of a racist, post-apocalyptic Horror City. Moreover, due to the many media and publishing companies located in the city, this representation was spread rapidly on a global scale, causing long-lasting damage to New Yorks image. New York City joined, like many other cities facing government cut-backs and recession, an inter-urban competition to

71

ESSAY

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45

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89101112

AGEE, James, Brooklyn Is. Southeast of the Island: Travel Notes, Fordham Press New York, New York, 1968HOPKINS, Roz, Blue List. The Best in Travel 2007, Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd, Victoria, Australia, 2007The references to Neil Simon, Spike Lee and Jay-Z are borrowed from Jake Mooney. MOONEY, Jake, Brooklyn: The Borough Behind the Brand, in: City Limits: Defining Brooklyn, 2008, Vol. 35, No.1, New York, p10-p11MOONEY (2008)This terminology is borrowed from Sharon Zukin. ZUKIN, Sharon, The Naked City: The Life and Death of Authentic Urban Places, Oxford University Press, Oxford, USA, 2010Examples can be found in Sharon Zukins Naked City, which treats Authenticity in Brooklyn in various Chapters, And in Brittany Hudsons article The Branding Power of Brooklyn. ZUKIN (2010), HUTSON, Brittany, The Branding Power of Brooklyn, 2010, on: http://madamenoire.com/106616/the-branding-power-of-brooklyn/, last visited on: 09/04/12HUTSON (2010)In order of reference: COTTER, Holland, 2004, New York Times, in: ZUKIN (2010); ZUKIN (2010); PARKER, Farrah, 2008, in: HUTSON (2010)GREENBERG, Miriam, The Limits of Branding: The World Trade Center, Fiscal Crisis and the Marketing of Recovery, in: International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2003, volume 27.2, p.386-p.416New York Department of City Planning, Economic recovery: New York Citys program for 1977-1981, DCP, New York, in: GREENBERG (2003)MOMMAAS, Hans, City Branding: Image Building & Building Images, NAi Publishers, Rotterdam, 2002EVANS, Greame, Hard-Brandening the Cultural City From Prado to Prada, in: International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2003, volume 27.2, P. 417-440

Brands should also be, in order to be successful, a source for spatial identification and differentiation, recognition, continuity and collectivity for its own inhabitants G. Evans

retain and attract new markets in financial services, real estate, entertainment and tourism. The city practiced enthusiastically the neo-liberal policy of de-regularization, favoring business development. Billions of dollars where solicited for tax brakes, subsidies, grants and zoning changes. In the late 1970s, the city began to use mass marketing as a strategy for the first time. A marketing program funded by the city, state and private business was established that created the brand Manhattan, emphasizing its advantages as a place to do business and attract tourists and conventions.10 Stating that brands give products, services, places and events an additional symbolic value, making them transcend their material value, Hans Mommaas, professor in Leisure Studies at the Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, gives a fine description of what happened to the declined Manhattan of the 1970s until the end of the century.11 Along with marketing firms and business leaders, the city transformed itself into an entrepreneur, packaging and selling the image of Manhattan as a global brand. It was within this policy that big campaigns such as the nationwide Big Apple-campaign and the worldwide I Love NY-campaign were held in 1971 and 1977. And the marketing worked, as both the increase in travel receipts and tax revenue were significant and Manhattans tourist sites from 96th street to

the world trade center saw rapid economical growth. When Mayor Rudy Giuliani got both the tourist and media production under his watch in the 1990s, Manhattans image circulated in film and television globally (in television programs such as Friends and 6H[ DQG WKH &LW\), thus attracting more tourists. At this stage, New Yorks previous imaginaries, from Gotham to Asphalt Jungle or even the colorful nightlife of early I Love New York-commercials, got replaced by a much more sanitized urban imaginary.

The branding of Manhattan certainly repositioned the city as an attractive base for cultural and economical development. But according to Greame Evans, professor Urban Cultures at the London Metropolitan University, brands should also be, in order to be successful, a source for spatial identification and differentiation, recognition, continuity and collectivity for its own inhabitants.12 Since the city branding of New York was conceived by the city, state and private business, its clearly a top-down process which tends to favor a small cash-rich group and holds the risk to mean little

72 | C O L L E C T I V E C U LT U R E Imagining Brooklyn

for the big crowd. Since its conception, the brand omitted all life and culture above 96th street and other boroughs but Manhattan. In this sense, the brand Manhattan magnifies certain aspects of the city (businesses, finance and tourism) and places (for example the World Trade Center and Times Square) on a unseen scale but it overlooks the citys own inhabitants. Although Manhattans profile remains successful and keeps attracting millions of tourists each year, it seems a shift is taking place. Manifestations such as Occupy Wall Street, located in the epicenter of the brand and thus world-wide featured, are creating a negative stigma damaging the sanitized image that represented New York until now. B r o o k ly n , t h e b o r o u g h b e h i n d t h e b r a n dThe branding of Manhattan served as model for many other cities. Brooklyns current Borough President Marty Markowitz is familiar with the methods that made Manhattan re-flourish. However, his attempts to promote Brooklyn internationally, were not so much of a success. Despite the shiny

central tourist office, a website and all kinds of Brooklyn merchandising he established, he discovered on a promotion tour through Europe that multiple travel agencies didnt know what Brooklyn was, other than they had a bridge.13 In Brooklyn a different kind of brand was conceived. Whereas Manhattan became a brand through top-down politics, Brooklyn created its current image(s) much more through bottom-up processes. Through these opposite operations Manhattan created a single framework favoring the financial, touristic

and entertainment sector, while Brooklyn tended to create a less one-sided image. The brand Brooklyn has several facets, including a desirable place for living, the ideal place to expose a hip lifestyle or to set up a business, or the cradle of gangsta rap.

L i va b l e B r o o k ly nIn the forties, a small group of literary men and woman showed an interest in Brooklyn, seeking a haven from the high rents in Manhattan and looking for a small, personal life.14 At that time, Brooklyn had the image of a place that once had a culture and aristocracy but was in time transformed into an unknown land full of factories and homes on gigantic avenues.15 Acting as urban pioneers, a term defined by Neil Smith in The Urban Frontier, the intellectuals crossed the Brooklyn Bridge and settled in the area close by the base, named Brooklyn Heights.16 Their aim for a more personal lifestyle was a clear response to the modernist vision of cities with towers, highways, and public housing and thus against the image of Manhattan. As much as they rejected this vision, they were freightend by the idea of living in suburbia. The abandoned brownstone neighborhoods of Brooklyn served well as an alternative space for both the modern paradigm and suburbia as this morphology appeared historically diverse or authentic.17 Supported by their social networks in Manhattan, the newcomers developed into an influential political force and, less expected but even more important, into an image-maker for the city.18 Following Brooklyn Heights rebirth, the borough boasted a series of diverse enclaves. By the 1970s, many neighborhoods were transformed and named historically: Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Park Slope, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill. This specific historic theming appeals to the intellectual class because it acts as a middle brown link between the

Whereas Manhattan became a brand through top-down politics, Brooklyn created its current image much more through bottom-up processes.

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MARKOWITZ, Marty, 2007JORDAN, June, 1984, in: ZUKIN (2010) Among the intellectuals were poet W. H. Auden, poet June Jordan and writer Truman Capote. OSMAN, Suleiman, The Invention Of Brownstone Brooklyn: Gentrification and the search in Postwar New York, Oxford University Press, Oxford, USA, 2011SMITH, Neil, The New Urban Frontier, Gentrification and the revanchist city, Routledge, London and New York, 1996OSMAN (2011)ZUKIN (2010) BYRNE, D., Understanding the urban, Palgrave, Basingstoke, Hampshire, 2001NEWMAN, K. and WYLY, E., Gentrification and Resistance in New York City, on: http://www.nhi.org, last visited: 07-12-2011ZUKIN (2010) HUTSON (2010)Id.

branded fantasy and elite taste.19 Ultimately, this elite intellectual group succeeded to make their own Brooklyn more viable for the outside, through their pens, their art and networks, as a place of qualitative and quiet living, different from both the suburbs and the city center: more urbane and less urban. In the very early gentrification of the 1940s not only the modern city was considered threatening but also the industrial cityscape of polluted factories at Brooklyns waterfront disturbed the lifestyle the residents envisioned. Half a century later, it is at these areas in particular that gentrification becomes rampant.

H i p B r o o k ly nIn the 1990s, the process of gentrification expanded beyond the Brooklyn quarters with appealing brownstones and excellent transportation access, into those with considerably less desirable housing, challenging transportation connections and few amenities.20 Williamsburg started to attract artists, journalists, writers, actors and filmmakers. Later Greenpoint and even the isolated port-area of Red Hook started to experience a similar influx. In the building stock left behind by deindustrialization they found the studio spaces that had become too expensive in Manhattan. Again, the image of Brooklyn as alternative space convinced them to move here. Brooklyn turned out to be the ideal playground for the new creative class to organize new kinds of urban initiatives. DIY (Do It Yourself) parties,

alternative events and performances, often without investment of either private developers or government created an opportunity for a new culture to thrive.21 New media such as blogs and email servers covered these new initiatives so that they emerged to a wider public faster than ever before. Hipsters and twentysomethings got attracted. On the one hand because of the sky-high rents in Manhattan, on the other because this seemed a place where they could make their lifestyle viable.22 Williamsburgs growing prominence as a Hipster locale oddly confirms the principles Jane Jacobs conceived thirty years before, that old buildings with low rents will act as incubators for new activities. But while her vibrant description of the streetscape was based on the neighborhoods existing owners and residents, in reality that streetscape took the form of a new terroir for indie music, alternative art, and trendy restaurants.23 This new community consolidates, just like the early gentrifiers in the 1940s, the gab between the authenticity of historic houses and vibrant street life, and the authenticity of the lower class families that inhabited them.

E n t r e p r e n e u r i a l B r o o k ly nThe image described in the two previous paragraphs made Brooklyn an attractive locus for entrepreneurs with social, cultural and economical capital who were able to spark a commercial revival. During last decade, the name Brooklyn turned out as

74 | C O L L E C T I V E C U LT U R E Imagining Brooklyn

an attractive marketing tool for an evolving numbers of entrepreneurs.24 After a long period of industrial decline, some new industries got attracted to the area. They were different from the former industries and strongly affiliated with Brooklyns new identity. When these local industries extended globally, again Brooklyns new

image became known outside the city. In 2010, Crains New York counted at least 70 companies tapping the Brooklyn name and the amount was still growing. Brooklyn Brewery, a company that returned to Brooklyn in 1994, played a key role in this process, among clothing retailer Brooklyn Industries founded in 1997 and Brooklyn Wine Co. founded in 2007. For these brands, Brooklyn represents a quality of life, extending into a quality of the product.25 Steve Hindi, co-founder of Brooklyn Brewery says Brooklyn-named products are seen as authentic, handcrafted and pure reacting to the rest of Americas mass-produced big-box culture.26 This authenticity indicates both the popularity and the risks of the Brooklyn branded products. As more and more products adapt the name Brooklyn, without an intrinsic connection with the borough, the risk for Brooklyn fatigue exists.27 Another risk is to be found in the high manufacturing costs, and the lack of manufacturers in the city. Because of this, Brooklyn becomes untenable as home base for some businesses and the production of the authentically handcrafted Brooklyn products starts to happen overseas.

H i p h o p B r o o k ly nWhile gentrification took place in several areas throughout the borough and Williamsburg was becoming the epicenter of cool in the 1990s, many other parts of the borough did not transform and remained stuck in serious problems such as bad housing, failing schools, lack of jobs, and high crime rates.28 Often these miserable conditions were to be found in neighborhoods located further from the Hudson waterfront and inhabited by mainly poorer Latino and Afro-American residents. In exactly these neighborhoods, a completely different image of Brooklyn as cool was developed. A new generation of rappers emerged that mentioned neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy or East Flatbush or a public housing project like Marcy Houses in their lyrics, evoking their problems and racial experience.29 Figures such as Jay-Z (whose name is said to derive from the J/Z lines stopping at Marcys houses) and Busta Rhymes were able to enter popular culture and thus developed the black, hip hop-imagery of the borough. Sharon Zukin states that the naming of neighborhoods gave hip-hop artists a means of branding their products in terms of origins. On the other hand, for the neighborhoods it meant a positioning as the epicenter of cool for an international group of hip hop fans.30 Although this facet of the Brooklyn brand became considerably visual in popular culture, the neighborhoods did not benefit from such a cultural production. Zukin blames it on the missing dialogue with Manhattan: while Brooklyn Heights intellectuals and Williamsburgs Hipsters can still profit from the critical cluster and capital of Manhattan, Bed-Stuys rappers remain far from this border. However, just like Williamsburgs bands, cloths and art, Brooklyns rap music became a considerable global brand.

Brooklyn-named products are seen as authentic, handcrafted and pure reacting to the rest of Americas mass-produced ELJER[FXOWXUH

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HINDI, S., 2010, in: CHAPATTA, B., Companies tap into Brklyns Power of Cool, 2010, on: www. crainsnewyork.com, last visited; 07-12-2011id.MOONEY, J., Yo, Brooklyn Brand, Whats Up?, 2008, on: cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com, last visited: 07-12-2011ZUKIN (2010) Id. Id. Id.DE CERTEAU, Michel, The Practice of Everyday Life, University of California Press LTD, Londen, England, 1984MOMMAAS (2002)EVANS (2003)MOMMAAS (2002)

Brooklyn means a million different things to a million different people, but it all adds up to a positive image, recalls entrepreneur Steve Hindi. A brand representing a quality of life, a lifestyle, hip and hip hop culture, as well as a whole range of products carrying its name. Recalling the theory of French social scientist Michel De Certeau on the contrast between a strategy, formulated on the basis of a clear center with a higher degree of generality and coherence, and tactics, leading a more fragmented, informal and less regulated, but at the same time deeper existence, Brooklyns image making is situated in the second approach.31 This branding makes explicit, normal and coherent that what was already present in the city in implicit and fragmented form.32 Whether it were the DIY-parties, hip-hop lyrics or community gardening, many of it was picked up to form this positive image. In contrast to Manhattans branding, the brand Brooklyn presents itself as being

much more affiliated with the actual population. From our study on the creation of the brand Brooklyn, we conclude that this also seems to reflect the actual

way in which this branding was developed. According to Evans, the successful branding of a place can provide a sustainable link between the individual and collective culture and identity, reconnecting the locale with its inhabitants in a sense of socio-cultural belonging.33 Especially through its actual affinity to the population, the Brooklyn brand may indeed stand a good chance to convey such a sustained effect. However, both future risks and current problems of the brand Brooklyn must be named. The brand may be well affiliated with populations in Park slope (livable Brooklyn), Williamsburg (hip Brooklyn) an Bed-Stuy (Hip Hop Brooklyn), there is no mentioning of East New York, Bushwick, Bensonhurst and other neighborhoods where changes take place that fit neither of these labels. All of this makes up a Brooklyn, too complex to fit one slogan. In an area as big as Brooklyn, this may seem evident, and even harmless. The danger is, though, that in places such as Brooklyn, where the brand is successful in tapping existing cultural tactics, that these tactics become upgraded to the level of strategies which then in the worst case become subject to rationalization.34 At the moment when high-rise towers proclaiming a unique Brooklyn lifestyle and handmade Brooklyn messenger bags are fabricated in south east Asia, it does not seem hard to tell whether the brand that made Brooklyn popular is enhancing or is starting to destroy itself in this way.

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An Amalgam of Authorities

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An Amalgam of Authoritiesp l a n n i n g t h e c i t y

the early 20th century: local real estate

In the nineteenth century, New York City was the financial center of an emerging global empire in the Americas.3 The city achieved formal political status in 1898 with the consolidation of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. At that time, the Western World was characterized by a laissez-faire economy, an economic system free from state intervention and driven by market forces, centered on the belief that human beings are naturally motivated by self-interest.4 Instead of resulting in a balanced system of production and exchange based on mutual benefit, this policy caused a huge dispersion between social classes, making the wealthy even wealthier. Lots of New York elitist entrepreneurs traded the commodities produced throughout the American hinterland and invested the surplus in new speculative ventures.5 They decided to invest their assets into local real estate, mainly in Manhattan. The city government had the opportunity to develop a regional planning for the city, but strongly influenced by wealthy real estate developers, they rejected the idea of a comprehensive planning for the entire city and let the real estate industry take the initiative in developing the five boroughs.6 As a result, the central core (Lower Manhattan) became overdeveloped and sprawl spread along the

first subway lines7 into the outer boroughs, causing an uneven urban development, a fundamental principle of capitalistic growth.8

Besides the new transportation technology, the invention of the elevator contributed to the rapid development of Manhattan. High-rise structures were the most profitable way to built because land was scares and height was unregulated. Not only the construction of residential towers was popular. Because of the citys importance as financial center, businesses needed to expand their office space and also housed in skyscrapers. These towers were not only the locus of business but also the businesses themselves.9 Their design didnt only depend on air, light and site but was a product of standard real estate formulas, leading to maximum financial gain. As taller buildings started to appear all over, New Yorkers began to protest the loss of light and air, as early as the 1870s and 1880s. In response, the state legislature enacted a series of height restrictions on residential buildings, culminating in the Tenement House Act of 1901.10

Since Manhattan is finite and the number of its blocks forever fixed, the city cannot grow in any conventional manner, making its land extremely valuable.11 The higher the value of land, the taller a building must rise

New York City often is described as the Capital of Capitalism 1. Since the citys origin, its development has been based on economics and the exploitation of land. The Dutch laid the first foundation of NYC in the 16th century to profit from the sites natural harbor and to consolidate their position in the global market. Due to its location the city became an active speculative environment, luring lots of immigrants in search of prosperity. In 1811 the Manhattan grid was designed to facilitate the buying, selling and improving of real estate.2 In this real-estate driven market the citys capitalism becomes most visible. This essay tries to describe NYCs socio-economical history and the relation to its decision-making, concerning urban planning and zoning.

An Amalgam of AuthoritiesUneven urban development in New York City

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WILLIS, C., Form Follows Finance, Princeton Architectural Press, 1995, New York, p34KOOLSHAAS, R., Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan, The Monacelli Press, 1997ANGOTTI, T., New York for Sale: Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate, The MIT Press, s.l., 2008, p58Urbanization, 010 Publishers, X., Laissez-faire economic, http://www.businessdictionary.com/, last visited: 12-04-2012 ANGOTTI, T., New York for Sale: Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate, The MIT Press, s.l., 2008, p58ANGOTTI, T., New York for Sale: Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate, The MIT Press, s.l., 2008, p59The first underground line of the subway opened on October 27, 1904. (X., New York City Subway, http://en.wikipedia.org)KAMINER T., ROBLES-DURAN, M., SOHN, H. (Ed.), Urban Asymmetries: Studies and Projects on Neoliberal Urbanization, 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2011, p11WILLIS, C., Form Follows Finance, Princeton Architectural Press, 1995, New York, p10NYC DEP. OF CITY PLANNING, About Zoning, http://www.nyc.gov, last visited: 12-04-2012KOOLHAAS, R., Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan, The Monacelli Press, s.l., 1997WILLIS, C., Form Follows Finance, Princeton Architectural Press, 1995, New York, p88Information from NYC DEP. OF CITY PLANNING, About Zoning, http://www.nyc.gov, last visited: 12-04-2012NYC DEP. OF CITY PLANNING, About Zoning, http://www.nyc.gov, last visited: 12-04-2012WILLIS, C., Form Follows Finance, Princeton Architectural Press, 1995, New York, p68ANGOTTI, T., New York for Sale: Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate, The MIT Press, s.l., 2008, p61ANGOTTI, T., New York for Sale: Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate, The MIT Press, s.l., 2008, p63

ESSAY

to reach the point of maximum economic return.12 Unregulated height and the urge for increasing profit caused an oversupply of high-rise in some city districts, putting smaller and older skyscrapers in permanent shadow. This created a stage for the nations first comprehensive zoning resolution. But also other forces were at work. Due to an influx of new immigrants, a housing shortage developed and slum landlords were able to rent tenements with minimum standards and maximum bulk. Warehouses and factories began to encroach upon the fashionable stores, near Fifth Avenue. These intrusions called for zoning restrictions that organized separate districts for residential, manufacturing and commercial use and regulated height and bulk control for all uses.13

In 1916, the first Zoning Resolution was constituted and required setback for high-rise and designated residential districts that excluded what were seen as incompatible uses.14 Earlier attempts to regulate urban development failed due to a lack of backing of business and real estate forces, leaders

of the free-market. However, given the condition of oversupply, building owners and developers began to favor zoning restrictions on new construction15 , afraid for devaluation of their real estate properties. Remarkable is, that the zoning resolution wasnt a future vision on the city or comprehensive land-use planning that tried to integrate social and cultural development. It primarily followed the existing land market. And that was how powerful property owners wanted it. The 1916 Zoning Resolution still allowed for new land subdivisions and could be changed to accommodate even greater growth with changing market demand.16 From the start, zoning and planning focused on Manhattan, where the stakes in land were the highest. Most parts of the other boroughs outside Manhattan were zoned as unrestricted. That meant that industry, housing and commerce could be mixed.17 The land outside Manhattan became the place were small developers could establish themselves. The other boroughs permitted low- to midrise housing development and the location of smaller businesses on relatively cheap land. They generated typical mixed-use neighborhoods, such as Red Hook, Greenpoint and Williamsburg in Brooklyn. New York Citys Zoning Resolution was made to protect the interests of Manhattan real estate, leaving the rest of the city to the vagaries of a less imperial and somewhat

From the start, zoning and planning focused on Manhattan, where the stakes in land were the highest.

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less profitable marketplace.18 As time went by, the cheaper land in Manhattan became scarce and high-rise development started to spread to the outer boroughs that were accessible through mass transit.

The 1916 zoning law renewed the confidence of developers and real estate agents in construction. They used their surpluses, required from foreign or domestic labor, to invest in Manhattan real estate and development along the newly built transit lines. The renewed confidence in construction, together with the subway expansion coupled a building boom in Manhattan with an explosion of new development in the outer boroughs in the 1920s. The distance between rich and poor grew. In the early twentieth century, a national urban reform movement arose, that wanted to address the miserable living condition in the slums to eliminate the breeding grounds for both disease and radical political ideas. Robert Moses, known as the master builder of mid-20th century New York City, was the reform movements most accomplished representative. He cleared working-class neighborhoods, built highways and parks for the new middle class, and created down-town development opportunities.19 As new development expanded, minority groups started to be displaced from their neighborhoods because of rising rents. But labor began to fight back.20 In the early decades of the twentieth century, tenants advocated legislation to control rents and evictions. In 1921 the New York State passed the first law regulating rents. But the new legislation and upcoming community protests didnt stop New York City from rapidly developing. Rising competition between private entrepreneurs caused increasing land and property prices,

far above the actual value. These asset bubbles didnt only occur in the construction and real-estate market, but in the entire economic system. The crucial point came in the 1920s when banks began to loan money to stock-buyers since stocks were the hottest commodity in the marketplace. Banks allowed Wall Street investors to use the stocks themselves as collateral. If the stocks dropped in value, and investors could not repay the banks, the banks would be left holding near-worthless collateral. Banks would then go broke, pulling productive businesses down with them as they called in loans and foreclosed mortgages in a desperate attempt to stay afloat.[] In October 1929 the New York Stock Exchanges house of cards collapsed in the greatest market crash seen up to that time.21 The asset bubbles burst and induced the Great Depression. The true causes of this economic crisis remain arguable. Those in favor of the laissez-faire economy believe it was primarily a failure of state agency, but those advocating interventionism blame the free-market.22

At the threshold of the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover became President of United States. He resisted calls for government intervention to get the economy out of the Great Depression on behalf of individuals. He believed that the economy would right itself, if it was left alone. He even believed government spending should be continued to be cut, but the Congress forced him to intervene. Hoovers efforts consisted of spending to stabilize the business community, believing that returning prosperity would eventually trickle down23

the great depression : new deal policies

Roosevelt tried to revitalize a mass-consumption based economy by revitalizing the masses ability to consume.

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ANGOTTI, T., New York for Sale: Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate, The MIT Press, s.l., 2008, p63ANGOTTI, T., New York for Sale: Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate, The MIT Press, s.l., 2008, p64ANGOTTI, T., New York for Sale: Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate, The MIT Press, s.l., 2008, p84X., The Great Depression and New Deal, 1929-1940s, http://iws.collin.edu/kwilkison/Online1302home/Information from X., Great Depression, http://en.wikipedia.orgTrickle-down economics and the trickle-down theory are terms in United States politics often used by the American right to refer to the idea that tax breaks or other economic benefits provided by government to businesses and the wealthy will benefit poorer members of society by improving the economy as a whole.[2] The term has been attributed to humorist Will Rogers, who said during the Great Depression that money was all appropriated for the top in hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. (X., Trickle-down, http://en.wikipedia.org)X., The Great Depression and New Deal, 1929-1940s, http://iws.collin.edu/kwilkison/Online1302home/An example is the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), passed in 1933. This act accepted the long-held premise that low farm prices resulted from overproduction. Thus, the government sought to stimulate increased farm prices by paying farmers to