Greenpoint, once a working class neighborhood has recently become home to many young professionals who made the voyage across the East River due to Manhattans soaring rise in rent. The changes in this North Brooklyn neighborhood have never been as clear as they are now, after the April 9th opening of a Starbucks coffee shop in the heart of Greenpoint.
Starbucks means a lot more than just another coffee shop opening in the neighborhood. It means competition for private coffee businesses. Starbucks is a corporation that stands for none of the artistic, vegan, and anti-Manhattan vibes that many residents of Greenpoint thrive upon.
The coffee shop opened in what was once a Polish theater called “the American”, and in an attempt to hold true to the history of the neighborhood, it features a marquee adorned with Hollywood movie bulbs and reads “Starbucks coffee now open”
Starbucks welcomes a rise in rent as it gives prospective residents reason to believe that the neighborhood is just a cheap and convenient 15 minute train ride to the city. Many fear that the neighborhood will lose the middle class feel of the once highly populated Polish neighborhood where kielbasa is being replaced with venti mocha lattes. Bottom line, Starbucks welcomes gentrification.
For a full article on change in Greenpoint click here,Times
