Oscar Schrag Eric Wilson Seminar 1 11/04/16

Stepping out of the Graham subway station onto Graham avenue the signs of gentrification set in almost immediately. The avenue is lined with expensive brunch restaurants and health stores preaching the diaspora for an expensive green life. Mothers wander the streets pushing strollers full of children laughter. Their white faces wonder peering into the bodegas they pass looking for signs of halloween past. Soon shops and cafes fade into the distance the Brooklyn Queens expressway looms overhead. The dead darkness emanates from its underbelly and permeates the blocks surrounding it on either side. Green point is fundamentally altered by the Brooklyn Queens

expressway that runs through it to the extent that is creates a divide in the community. The expressway was created in the mid 1960s lead by Chairman of the Triborough

Bridge and Tunnel Authority Robert Moses. Stated in a 1966 New York Times article, Moses argued with the city council that the expressway was necessary to move city middle class professionals to their homes in the suburbs. The expressway was fought by the city on the grounds that it would create more traffic within manhattan1 Neighbors were not happy about the amount of construction and new car noise that came to envelope the blocks surrounding the expressway. Neighbors of this goliath are still feeling the affects of its poor build quality and construction. An article from The Wall Street Journal took these complaints and compiled them. One long time resident put it very bluntly when talking about construction by saying “It’s going to

1 By, MURRAY I. “Moses Now Urges Two Expressways in Brooklyn.” New York Times (1923-Current file) Dec 14 1966: 33. ProQuest . 4 Nov. 2016 .

be a mess.”2 Neighbors still seem to avoid this disruptive design. The highway falls into the distance and the smell of perogies wafts into air.

Driggs avenue is a puzzle of new and old housing with it most prominent contrast coming from The Polish National Home which hosts a music venue and cafe called The Warsaw room. Red awnings hang low over the street and street art showing a revolutionary holds itself over the small lot next door to the building. A New York Times article sites that Poles began in 1981 to migrate to green point in an effort to escape martial law in Poland3 Farther down the street are contrasting modernist columns which seem to shoot up from the ground as if brought on by a shifting of tectonic plates. Children walk around these shiney grey mountains heading for McCarren Park. Basketball courts match the surrounding brick structures with their red concrete yet the skeletons of new developments are seen on the skyline. Real Estate prices in polish greenpoint began to slowly rise during the late eighties and have gone up ever since. Article from 1987 gives tips to renters about moving to Greenpoint and the investment that can be had in the neighborhood4. To this day it remains primarily white but the economic class of those moving in is higher than those already living in the area. As new buildings rise the quiet serenity of brick homes are disrupted by the goliaths of new money.

Greenpoint today still finds itself divided by a highway and growing at a rapid rate. Families stroll the squares and parks passing polish bakeries serving cooking from centuries back. The sunlight dwindles and the serenity of Greenpoint slowly disappears as the noise of subway breaks scratch into the station. Polish elders sit beside new money. Strollers bouncy as the train takes a breath and dives under the channel.

2 T angel, Andrew. 2016. BQE cantilever work promises pain. Wall Street Journal, Jul 01, 2016. https://login.libproxy.newschool.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1800557849?acc ountid=12261 (accessed November 4, 2016).
3 By, MARVINE HOWE. 1984. “Polish Newcomers Revive Dying Greenpoint Customs.” New York Times (1923-Current File), Jun 22, 2. https://login.libproxy.newschool.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/122471083?acco untid=12261.

4 By, TERESA L. “If You’Re Thinking of Living in: Greenpoint.” New York Times (1923-Current file) Dec 06 1987: 1. ProQuest . 4 Nov. 2016 .

Bibliography

By, MURRAY I. “Moses Now Urges Two Expressways in Brooklyn.” New York Times (1923-Current file) Dec 14 1966: 33. ProQuest . 4 Nov. 2016 .

Tangel, Andrew. 2016. “BQE Cantilever Work Promises Pain.” Wall Street Journal, Jul 01. https://login.libproxy.newschool.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1800557849?acc ountid=12261 .

By, MARVINE HOWE. 1984. “Polish Newcomers Revive Dying Greenpoint Customs.” New York Times (1923-Current File), Jun 22, 2. https://login.libproxy.newschool.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/122471083?acco untid=12261.

By, TERESA L. “If You’Re Thinking of Living in: Greenpoint.” New York Times (1923-Current file) Dec 06 1987: 1. ProQuest . 4 Nov. 2016 .unnamed-2 unnamed-1 unnamed unnamed-3 unnamed-4 unnamed-5unnamed-8unnamed-6unnamed-7

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