When one is walking down Bedford Ave in Brooklyn, the first thing to stick out are the vast amounts of businesses that are in the area. Whether its a small cafe that specializes in fruit smoothies or a book store that sells used books, there’s something for practically any person with varying taste. Such a thing couldn’t have been said about Beford Ave back in the ’80s and ’90s, since such businesses weren’t anyway near this part of Brooklyn.

One trend that’s taken the city by storm is gentrification, the renovation of formerly run down neighborhoods to make them more appealing to middle and upper class demographics. Several neighborhoods across the city have either been completely gentrified or is in the middle of becoming gentrified, and one such neighborhood is in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Over the last few years, the neighborhood has seen a significant change in both demographics and aesthetics. In the past, Williamsburg was seen as a run down neighborhood predominantly filled with eastern Europeans, Central Americans, and African Americans.

However, developers have sinced zeroed in on the neighborhood and started to develop new middle and upper class housing, as well as renovating existing buildings. Sure enough, a totally new demographic descended on Williamsburg: hipsters. Along with the new housing, throngs of independent businesses started sprouting up in the neighborhood to serve the new arrivals in Williamsburg. Within a few years, Williamsburg went from being a neighborhood that most New Yorkers wouldn’t have paid much mind, into a thriving and rapidly popular community.

The issue of gentrification has drawn many voices from both sides of the spectrum. From new residents, the basic consensus is that the new Williamsburg is a dramatically improved place to live. The general upkeep, the wide variety of businesses, and just the overall facelift lead to the conclusion from residents.

While some are glad about the rebirth of a once run down neighborhood, others aren’t as enthusiastic towards the changes. Several long time residents of Williamsburg don’t want their neighborhood to be labeled as a predominantly “hipster village”. Some consider that these new residents are taking away Brooklyn’s character as a rough and tough area of the city.

One such opinion came from Spike Lee last year. During a Q&A session with the Oscar nominated director, a question about gentrification in his home borough of Brooklyn lead to Lee going into a profanity laced rant about how whites were supposedly ruining the neighborhoods by gentrifying them and pushing out black people who have lived there before the changes started.

Kelvin Mata, a long time resident of Brooklyn, also weighed in on the gentrification issue. “I really don’t have any personal problem with hipsters and if they want to move to Brooklyn, more power to them. That said, I hate the fact that people are now gradually labeling the whole borough as a haven for those types of people.”

He then went on to explain how Williamsburg and Brooklyn in general during his childhood was a generally more gritty area that wasn’t all that appealing to those thinking about moving across the city. “I’ll bet you that none of these new arrivals in Brooklyn would even think about moving here 10 years ago. It’s like us real Brooklyn natives need to show the hipsters what it’s like to really live in this part of the city.”
Mata ends by stating that while it’s nice to see any neighborhood go through improvements that results in more people moving in, he doesn’t want it to lose its sense of character and uniqueness that makes it stick out amongst the rest of the city.

(Pictures by Ashley Feinberg; Gizmodo)