Williamsburg, especially near the waterfront, was a vital industrial district until the mid-20th century. As many of the jobs were outsourced beginning in the 1970s, the area endured a period of economic contraction which did not begin to turn around until activist groups began to address housing, infrastructure, and youth education issues in the late 20th century.[7] An ecosocial arts movement emerged alongside the activists in the late 1980s, often referred to as theBrooklyn Immersionists.[8] The community-based scene cultivated a web of activity in the streets, rooftops and large warehouses, and attracted both the national and international press.[9][10] Small, locally owned businesses began to return to the neighborhood during this expansion of creative urbanism in the 1990s.[11]
In the 21st century, the city provided zoning changes and tax abatements to corporate developers which shifted the area from a creative, slow growth revival to an economy that was dominated by high rises and chain stores.[12][13] Despite the rise in the cost of living that followed, and the loss of the original creative community that had rejuvenated the district, a newcontemporary art scene and vibrantnightlife emerged that catered to new residents. However, the intensity and innovations of the Immersionist era in Williamsburg has continued to project the district's image internationally as a "Little Berlin".[14] During the early 2000s, the neighborhood became a center forindie rock andelectroclash.[15] Numerous ethnic groups still inhabitenclaves within the neighborhood, includingItalians,Jews,Hispanics,Poles,Puerto Ricans, andDominicans.
Williamsburg is part ofBrooklyn Community District 1, and its primaryZIP Codes are 11206, 11211 and 11249.[1][16] It is patrolled by the 90th and 94th Precincts of theNew York City Police Department.[17][18] Politically, it is represented by the New York City Council's 33rd District, which represents the western and southern parts of the neighborhood, and the 34th District, which represents the eastern part.[19] As of the2020 United States census, the neighborhood's population is 151,308.[20][3]
In 1638, theDutch West India Company purchased the area's land from theLenape Native Americans who occupied the area. In 1661, the company chartered the Town ofBoswijck, including land that would later become Williamsburg. After the English takeover ofNew Netherland in 1664, the town's name wasanglicized toBushwick. During colonial times, villagers called the area "Bushwick Shore", a name that lasted for about 140 years. Bushwick Shore was cut off from the other villages in Bushwick by Bushwick Creek to the north and by Cripplebush, a region of thick, boggy shrub land that extended fromWallabout Creek in the south to Newtown Creek in the east. Bushwick residents called Bushwick Shore "the Strand".[21]
Farmers and gardeners from the other Bushwick villages sent their goods to Bushwick Shore to be ferried across the East River toManhattan for sale via a market at present dayGrand Street. Bushwick Shore's favorable location close to New York City led to the creation of several farming developments. In 1802, real estate speculator Richard M. Woodhull acquired 13 acres (5.3 hectares) near what would become Metropolitan Avenue, then North 2nd Street. He hadColonel Jonathan Williams, aU.S. Engineer, survey the property, and named itWilliamsburgh (with anh at the end) in his honor. Originally a 13-acre (5.3 ha) development within Bushwick Shore, Williamsburg rapidly expanded during the first half of the 19th century and eventually seceded from Bushwick and formed its own independent city.[21]Abraham J. Berry was the first mayor of the independent city of Williamsburgh;[22][23] the "h" at the end of the name was dropped in 1855.[24]
Map of the Village of Williamsburgh (1827).Map of the Town of Williamsburgh (1845).
Williamsburg was incorporated as theVillage of Williamsburgh within theTown of Bushwick on April 14, 1827.[25] In two years, it had a fire company, a post office, and a population of over 1,000. The deep drafts along the East River encouraged industrialists, many from Germany, to build shipyards around Williamsburg. Raw material was shipped in, and finished products were sent out of factories straight to the docks. Several sugar barons built processing refineries, all of which are now gone, exceptthe refinery of the now-defunctDomino Sugar (formerlyHavemeyer & Elder). Other important industries included shipbuilding and brewing.[citation needed]
On April 18, 1835, the Village of Williamsburg annexed a portion of the Town of Bushwick. The Village then consisted of three districts. The first district was commonly called the "South Side", the second district was called the "North Side", and the third district was called the "New Village".[26] The names "North Side" and "South Side" remain in common usage today, but the name for the Third District has changed often. The New Village became populated by Germans, and for a time was known by thesobriquet of "Dutchtown".[26]
In 1845, the population of Williamsburgh was 11,500.[27]
On April 7, 1840. reflecting its increasing urbanization, Williamsburg separated from Bushwick as theTown of Williamsburg. Edmund Smith Driggs (1809–1889) was a Williamsburg resident and was elected the first president of the Village of Williamsburg in 1850.[28] He was also president of the Williamsburg City Fire Insurance Company and built a row of houses on South Second Street. Driggs Avenue is named after him.[29]
In 1851, the municipality became theCity of Williamsburgh (it would discard the "h" in 1855), which was organized into threewards. The old First Ward roughly coincides with the South Side, and the Second Ward with the North Side, with the modern boundary atGrand Street. The Third Ward was to the east of these, stretching from Union Avenue east to Bushwick Avenue, beyond which isBushwick (some of which is now calledEast Williamsburg).[citation needed]
Brewers Row, North 11th Street.Bedford Avenue and North 8th Street.
In 1855, theCity of Williamsburg, along with the adjoining Town of Bushwick, was annexed into the City of Brooklyn as the so-called Eastern District. The First Ward of Williamsburg became Brooklyn's 13th Ward, the Second Ward Brooklyn's 14th Ward, and the Third Ward Brooklyn's 15th and 16th Wards.[30]
During its period as part of Brooklyn's Eastern District, the area achieved remarkable industrial, cultural, and economic growth, and local businesses thrived. Wealthy New Yorkers such asCornelius Vanderbilt and railroad magnateJubilee Jim Fisk built shore-side mansions.Charles Pratt and his family founded thePratt Institute, the great school of art & architecture, and theAstral Oil Works, which later became part ofStandard Oil.Corning Glass Works was founded here, before moving upstate toCorning, New York. German immigrant, chemistCharles Pfizer foundedPfizer Pharmaceutical in Williamsburg, and the company maintained an industrial plant in the neighborhood through 2007, although its headquarters were moved toManhattan in the 1960s.[31][32]
Brooklyn'sBroadway, ending in the ferry to Manhattan, became the area's lifeline. The area proved popular for condiment and household product manufacturers. Factories forDomino Sugar,Esquire Shoe Polish, Dutch Mustard, and many others were established in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[citation needed] Many of these factory buildings are now being (or already have been) converted to non-industrial uses, primarily residential.[citation needed]
The population was at first heavily German, but many Jews from the Lower East side of Manhattan came to the area after the completion of the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903. Williamsburg had two major community banks: theWilliamsburgh Savings Bank at175 Broadway (chartered 1851, since absorbed byHSBC); and its rival, theDime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh one block west (chartered 1864, now known as the DIME, has remained independent). The area around thePeter Luger Steak House, established in 1887, in the predominantly German neighborhood under the Williamsburg Bridge, was a major banking hub, until the City of Brooklyn united with theCity of Greater New York.[33] One of the early high schools in Brooklyn, theEastern District High School, opened here in February 1900.[34][35]
In 1898, Brooklyn became one of fiveboroughs within the City of Greater New York, and the Williamsburg neighborhood was opened to closer connections with the rest of the newly consolidated city. Five years later, the opening of theWilliamsburg Bridge in 1903 further opened up the community to thousands of upwardly mobile immigrants and second-generation Americans fleeing the over-crowded slum tenements of Manhattan'sLower East Side.[36] Williamsburg itself soon became the most densely populated neighborhood in New York City, which, in turn, was the most densely populated city in the United States.[37] The novelA Tree Grows in Brooklyn addresses a young girl growing up in the tenements of Williamsburg during this era.
Brooklyn Union Gas in the early 20th century consolidated itscoal gas production to Williamsburg at 370 Vandervoort Avenue, closing theGowanus Canal gasworks. The1970s energy crisis led the company to build asyngas factory. Late in the century, facilities were built to importliquefied natural gas from overseas. The intersection ofBroadway,Flushing Avenue, and Graham Avenue was a cross-roads for many "inter-urbans", prior to World War I. Theselight rail trolleys ran from Long Island to Williamsburg.[citation needed]
Refugees from war-torn Europe began to stream into Brooklyn during and afterWorld War II, including theHasidim, whose populations had been devastated inthe Holocaust. The area south of Division Avenue became home to a large population of adherents to theSatmar Hasidic sect, who came to the area fromHungary andRomania.[38] Hispanics fromPuerto Rico and theDominican Republic also began to settle in the area. But the population explosion was eventually confronted with a decline of heavy industry, and from the 1960s, Williamsburg saw a marked increase in unemployment, crime, gang activity, and illegal drug use. Those who were able to move out often did, and the area became chiefly known for its crime and other social ills.[39][40]
On February 3, 1971, at 10:42 pm, police officerFrank Serpico was shot during a drug bust, during a stakeout at 778 Driggs Avenue.[41] Serpico had been one of the driving forces in the creation of theKnapp Commission, which exposed widespread police corruption. His fellow officers failed to call for assistance, and he was rushed to Greenpoint Hospital only when an elderly neighbor called the police. The incident was later dramatized in the opening scene of the 1973 filmSerpico, starringAl Pacino in the title role.[42]
On May 11, 2005, theNew York City Council passed a large-scalerezoning of the North Side and Greenpoint waterfront.[48] Billions of dollars in tax abatements were also provided to developers. Much of the waterfront district was rezoned to accommodate mixed-use high density residential buildings with a set-aside (but no earmarked funding) for public waterfront park space, with strict building guidelines calling for developers to create a continuous 2-mile (3.2 km) string of waterfrontesplanades. Although a slow growth economic revival was already underway and was bringing back family owned local businesses, local elected officials touted the rezoning as an economically beneficial way to address the decline of manufacturing along the North Brooklyn waterfront. The storefronts and vacant warehouses in Williamsburg were already being adapted into creative clubs like The Green Room, El Sensorium, Fake Shop, Mustard, The AlulA Dimension and Galapagos Art Space.[citation needed]
The Edge and Northside Piers developments on Kent Avenue include some of the many high-rise condominium buildings constructed as a result of the 2005 rezoning.
The rezoning represented a dramatic shift of approach from an emphasis on a creative, locally based economy in the 1990s to one largely dominated by corporations. The waterfront neighborhoods, once characterized by active manufacturing and other light industry interspersed with smaller residential buildings, were re-zoned primarily for residential high rise construction. Alongside the construction of high rises, many warehouses which served as centers for creative community-building events like the Cats Head, Flytrap, El Sensorium and Organism, were converted into expensive residential loft buildings. Among the first was the Smith-Gray Building, a turn-of-the-century structure recognizable by its blue cast-iron façade. The conversion of the formerGretsch music instrument factory garnered significant attention and controversy in the New York press primarily because it heralded the arrival in Williamsburg of Tribeca-style lofts and attracted, as residents and investors, a number of celebrities.[49][50][51][52]
Officials championing the rezoning cited its economic benefits, the new waterfront promenades, and its inclusionary housing component – which offered developers large tax breaks in exchange for promises to rent about a third of the new housing units at "affordable" rates. Critics countered that similar set-asides for affordable housing have gone unfulfilled in previous large-scale developments, such asBattery Park City. TheNew York Times reported this proved to be the case in Williamsburg as well, as developers largely decided to forgo incentives to build affordable housing in inland areas.[53]
Williamsburg contains a variety ofzoning districts, including manufacturing, commercial, residential, and mixed-use. North Williamsburg contains primarily light industrial and medium-density residential buildings, as well as some residential structures with commercial space on the ground floors. There are also high-density residential developments with commercial space, as well as a few remaining heavy industries, along the waterfront. The area around Broadway is primarily commercial, and contains stores and offices. On the other hand, South Williamsburg is largely medium-to-high density residential, with some commercial space on the ground floors.[54]
TheWilliamsburg Houses were designated a city landmark on June 24, 2003.[56] The 23.3-acre (9.4 ha) site, consisting of twenty 4-story buildings, was designed byWilliam Lescaze, and was the first large-scale public housing in Brooklyn. It was completed in 1938, and is operated by theNew York City Housing Authority.[57]
In 2007, three buildings of theDomino Sugar Refinery were also designated New York City Landmarks. The original refinery was built in 1856, and by 1870 processed more than half of sugar used in the United States. A fire in 1882 caused the plant to be completely rebuilt in brick and stone; these buildings exist today, though the refinery stopped operating in 2004.[58] In 2010, a developer proposed to convert the site to residential use;[59] since them, a new plan was approved for the Domino Sugar Factory, led by Two Trees Management.[60]
TheNew England Congregational Church and Rectory, built between 1852 and 1853, was listed on the NRHP in 1983.[61] It is also a city landmark.[62] The church was sold to its current occupant, La Iglesia Pentecostal La Luz del Mundo, in 1981.
Numerous structures are also located on the NRHP, but are not city landmarks. TheAustin, Nichols and Company Warehouse, built in 1915 to a design by architectCass Gilbert, was placed on the NRHP in 2007.[65] Originally also a city landmark, the designation was later rescinded. The warehouse was converted to apartments in the 2010s.[66]
Public School 71K, built in 1888–1889 to designs byJames W. Naughton, was made a NRHP landmark in 1982, though it no longer serves as a public school.[68]
The subdivisions within Williamsburg vary widely. "South Williamsburg" refers to the area which today is occupied mainly by the Yiddish-speakingHasidim (predominantlySatmar Hasidim) and a considerablePuerto Rican population. North of this area (with Division Street orBroadway serving as a dividing line) is an area known as "Los Sures", occupied by Puerto Ricans andDominicans. To the north of that is the "North Side", traditionally Polish and Italian.East Williamsburg is home to many industrial spaces, and forms the largelyItalian American,African American, andHispanic area between Williamsburg and Bushwick. South Williamsburg, the South Side, the North Side, Greenpoint, and East Williamsburg all formBrooklyn Community Board 1. Its proximity to Manhattan has made it popular with recently arrived residents who are often referred to under theblanket term "hipster". Bedford Avenue andits subway station, as the first stop in the neighborhood on theBMT Canarsie Line (on theL train), have become synonymous with this new wave of residents.[71][72][73]
Williamsburg is inhabited by thousands ofHasidic Jews of various groups, and contains the headquarters of one faction of theSatmar Hasidic group.[74] Williamsburg's Satmar population numbers about 57,000.[75]
Hasidic Jews first moved to the neighborhood in the years prior toWorld War II, along with many other religious and non-religious Jews who sought to escape the difficult living conditions on Manhattan'sLower East Side. Beginning in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the area received a large concentration ofHolocaust survivors, many of whom were Hasidic Jews from rural areas of Hungary and Romania.[76] These people were led by several Hasidic leaders, among them therebbes ofSatmar,Klausenberg,Vien,Pupa, Tzehlem, andSkver. In addition, Williamsburg contained sizable numbers of religious, but non-Hasidic, Jews. TheRebbe of Satmar, RabbiJoel Teitelbaum, ultimately exerted the most powerful influence over the community, causing many of the non-Satmars, especially the non-Hasidim, to leave. Teitelbaum was known for his fierceanti-Zionism and for his charismatic style of leadership.[77]
In the late 1990s, Jewish developers renovated old warehouses and factories, turning them into housing. More than 500 apartments were approved in the three-year period following 1997; soon afterward, an area near Williamsburg's border with Bedford–Stuyvesant was re-zoned for affordable housing.[78] By 1997, there were about 7,000 Hasidic families in Williamsburg, almost a third of whom took public assistance.[79] The Hasidic community of Williamsburg has one of the highest birthrates in the country, with an average of eight children per family. Each year, the community celebrates between 800 and 900 weddings for young couples, who typically marry between the ages of 18 and 21. Because Hasidic men receive little secular education, and women tend to be homemakers, college degrees are rare, and economic opportunities lag far behind the rest of the population. In response to the almost 60% poverty rate in Jewish Williamsburg, theMetropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, a beneficiary agency of theUJA-Federation of New York, partnered withMasbia in the opening of a 50-seatkoshersoup kitchen on Lee Avenue in November 2009.[80]
There are many households withSection 8 housing vouchers; in 2000, there were 1,394 voucher recipients in Williamsburg's nineYiddish-speaking census tracts, but by 2014, Williamsburg had 3,296 voucher recipients within 12 Yiddish-speaking census tracts.[78] In 2014, it was reported that Williamsburg's Jewish community had among the highest rates of applications for Section 8 housing vouchers.[81] However, the newspaperNew York Daily News doubted the legality of the applications. In 2016, theDaily News said that New York City census tracts with 30% or more of the population applying for Section 8 were present only in Williamsburg andthe Bronx, except that Williamsburg's real estate, after the City of New York provided billions of dollars in tax abatements to developers,[12] was becoming the most expensive real estate in the city.[78]
A 2013 study by theUJA-Federation of New York identified Williamsburg as home to the second-fastest Jewish population growth in New York City, with a Jewish population of approximately 74,500 in 2011, a 41% increase from a decade earlier. Due to the neighborhood's rapid growth and high real estate prices, 77% of Jews in Williamsburg were renters, the highest rate in the city.[82]
After the city subsidized developers in North Brooklyn, and longstanding local land owners from both North and South Williamsburg sold large blocks of land to the corporations, Hasidim have characterized the influx of new renters who had nothing to with land sales or city policy, as theartisten, or a "plague" and "a bitter decree from Heaven".[83] Tensions have risen over housing costs, loud and boisterous nightlife events, and the introduction ofbike lanes alongBedford Avenue.[84] Although the effects of New York's development policies favoring high rise construction and luxury chain stores is increasing, many developers, such asIsaac Hager, continue to build more housing forHaredi tenants.[85]
According to a 2024 UJA-Federation of New York survey, 74% of Jewish households in Williamsburg identified as Orthodox. The total Jewish population was an estimated 36,000 adults and 32,000 children.[86]
Italian-American community and Our Lady of Mount Carmel
A significant component of theItalian community on the North Side and East Side were immigrants from the city ofNola near Naples. Residents of Nola every summer celebrate the "Festa dei Gigli" (feast of lilies) in honor of St.Paulinus of Nola, who wasbishop of Nola in the fifth century,[87] and the immigrants brought this tradition over with them. For two weeks every summer, the streets surroundingOur Lady of Mount Carmel church, located on Havemeyer and North 8th Streets, are dedicated to a celebration of Italian culture.[88]
The highlights of the feast are the "Giglio Sundays" when a 100-foot (30 m) tall statue, complete with band and a singer, is carried around the streets in honor of St. Paulinus and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Clips of this awe-inspiring sight are often featured on NYC news broadcasts. A significant number of Italian-Americans still reside in the area, although the numbers have decreased over the years. The northeastern section of Williamsburg associated with "Italian Williamsburg" retains a significant Italian-American presence and is home to numerous Italian-American families, community centers, social clubs, businesses, and restaurants, such asBamonte's, the Fortunato Brothers Cafe, Anthony and Son Panini Shoppe, Carmine and Son's, Emily's Pork Store, Napoli Bakery, Metropolitan Fish Market, Jr and Son, and Salerno Autobody. Sections of Graham Avenue in the Italian section are named Via Vespucci in honor ofAmerigo Vespucci and the Italian character of the neighborhood. Despite the fact that an increasing number of Italian-Americans have moved away, many return each summer for the feast. The Giglio was the subject of a documentary,Heaven Touches Brooklyn in July, narrated by actorsJohn Turturro andMichael Badalucco.[88]
On Williamburg's Southside, also known in Spanish as "Los Sures", which is the area south of Grand Street, there exists a sizablePuerto Rican andDominican population. Puerto Ricans have been coming to the area since the 1940s and the 1950s, and Dominicans came in the 1970s and 1980s. Many Puerto Ricans flocked to the area afterWorld War II, due to the proximity to jobs at theBrooklyn Navy Yard.[89] The neighborhood continues to have 27% Hispanic or Latino population, and Graham Avenue, between Grand Street and Broadway, is known as the "Avenue of Puerto Rico". Havemeyer Street is lined with Hispanic-ownedbodegas and barber shops. However, even though the Southside has the highest concentration of Hispanics in the neighborhood, this population is dispersed throughout all of Williamsburg, as far north as the Williamsburg-Greenpoint border.
The Latino community has several cultural institutions in Williamsburg. The Caribbean Social Club, the last remaining Puerto Rican social club in Williamsburg, preserves the neighborhood's culture.[90] Another such institution is the "El Puente" Community Center,[91] as well as the "San German" record store on Graham Avenue. Graham Avenue was renamed Avenue of Puerto Rico as a symbol of pride, just as the avenue's other alternate name, Via Vespucci, is meant to commemorate the neighborhood's Italian-American community.[92]Banco Popular de Puerto Rico has a branch on Graham Avenue. In addition, Southside United HDFC is a charity organization that helps residents with housing needs and other services, including mobilizing housing activists and residents, as well as providing affordable housing.[93] TheMoore Street Market, often referred to as La Marqueta de Williamsburg, is located at 110 Moore Street.[94]
In addition, there have been several cultural events. In the past, Southside United HDFC has held Puerto Rican Heritage as well as Dominican Independence Day celebrations, and currently operates El Museo De Los Sures.[95][96] The name "El Museo De Los Sures" roughly translates to "The Museum of the Southside". Williamsburg is also home to not one, but two campuses ofBoricua College: the Northside campus on North 6th Street, between Bedford Avenue and Driggs Avenue; as well as the East Williamburg/Bushwick campus on Graham Avenue.[97] A place popular among Dominican-American residents is the Fula Lounge, where Merengue and Raggaeton artists from the Dominican Republic often frequent.[citation needed] Once a year, the Williamsburg/Bushwick community hosts a Puerto Rican Day parade.[98]
The neighborhood has produced many prominent Latinos. Television chefDaisy Martinez, who specializes in Puerto Rican cuisine grew up in the neighborhood.[99][100] The neighborhood also is home to the office of U.S. representativeNydia Velazquez.[101] In addition to this, Williamsburg was the childhood home of City CouncilwomanRosie Méndez, ofPuerto Rican descent.[102] Williamsburg itself was represented in the City Council byDominican AmericanAntonio Reynoso.[103][104] The Hispanic sector as a whole was represented in a documentary called Living Los Sures, which documents the lives of Latino residents living in 1984 Southside before gentrification.[105] Another documentary in 2013,Toñita's, depicts the Caribbean Social Club, and is named after the club's owner.[106][107]
About 2 o'clock on November 7, 1854, a riot occurred between sheriffs and "some Irishmen" at the poll of the First District, at the corner of 2nd and North 6th streets, in Williamsburg. It began after a deputy approached a citizen, and a fight started. Immediately, eight or ten deputies began freely using clubs on a group of "about one hundred Irishmen", resulting in a half-hour general fight and many injuries.[108]
Prior to the corporatization of Williamsburg in the new millennium, the district often saw tension between its Hasidic population and its black and Hispanic groups. In response to decades of rising crime in the area, the Hasidim created a volunteer patrol organization, called "Shomrim" ("guardians" in Hebrew), to perform citizens' arrests, and to keep an eye out for crime.[109] Over the years, the Shomrim have been accused of racism and brutality against blacks and Hispanics. In 2009, Yakov Horowitz, a member of Shomrim, was charged with assault, for striking a Latino adolescent on the nose with his Walkie Talkie.[110] In 2014, five members of the Hasidic community, at least two of whom were Shomrim members, were arrested in connection with the December 2013 "gang assault" of a black gay man.[111]
The first artists moved to Williamsburg in the 1970s, drawn by the low rents, large floor area, and convenient transportation. This continued through the 1980s and increased significantly in the 1990s as earlier destinations such asSoHo and theEast Village became occupied by wealthier populations. In the 1990s a generation of interdisciplinary artists known as theBrooklyn Immersionists began to focus their fusion of art and music in Williamsburg's streets, rooftops and industrial warehouses near the waterfront.[114] The social and environmental engagement of the Immersionists was discussed in major arts journals and media, includingThe Drama Review,[115] Flash Art,[116] Wired,[117] The New York Times,[118]The New Yorker,[119] Domus,[120] The Guggenheim Museum CyberAtlas,[121]Die Zeit,[10]Newsweek,[122] andFuji Television.[123] At least four major art history books have included artists from the Immersionist movement.
By 1996 Williamsburg had accumulated an artist population of about 3,000.[124] Art galleries, interdisciplinary venues and immersive theater groups in the area included Sideshow Gallery,[125] Minor Injury Gallery, The Lizard's Tail Cabaret, Nerve Circle, Epoché, The Green Room, Test-Site, Hit and Run Theater, El Sensorium, The AlulA Dimension, Mustard, Pierogi 2000 Gallery, Momenta Gallery, Galapagos Art Space and theFront Room Gallery. Williamsburg andGreenpoint are served by a monthly galleries listings magazine,wagmag. Local arts media that began a discourse on neighborhood involvement in the early 1990s includedBreukelen,The Curse,The Nose, The Outpost,Waterfront Week,Worm Magazine and(718) Subwire.
In September 2000,11211 Magazine[126] launched a four color glossy circulating 10,000 copies in Brooklyn and Manhattan. The publication focused on the historical and notable properties, arts and culture, and real estate development of the 11211 ZIP Code. Other publications attributed to11211 Magazine:Fortnight,The Box Map (2002),Appetite, and10003 Magazine for the East Village in New York City. The magazine had published 36 issues (548,000 copies) of11211 over a six-year period, and ceased circulation in 2006.
A local bowling center also presents musical performances
Williamsburg has become a notable home for live music and an incubator for new bands. Beginning in the late 1980s, and through the late 1990s, a number of unlicensed performance, theater, and music venues operated in abandoned industrial buildings and other spaces in the streets.[127] A new culture has evolved in the area surroundingBedford Avenue subway station.[128] Venues attracted a mix of artists, musicians and the urban underground for late night music, dance, and performance events, which were occasionally interrupted and the venues temporarily closed by the fire department.[129]
The first large gathering of artists and musicians, with nearly 100 presenters and hundreds of attendees, took place at a three-day festival with the humorous name, The Sex Salon. The event opened on Valentine's Day, 1990 at Epoché, a warehouse space located near the Williamsburg Bridge. Five months later another interdisciplinary event, the Cat's Head, opened in a section of the Old Dutch Mustard Factory on N. 1st Street. Soon after that a series of other warehouse and street events merged live music, dancing and other art forms: Cats Head II, Flytrap, Human Fest (I & II), El Sensorium and Organism.
Taking over most of the Old Dutch Mustard Factory on June 12, 1993, Organism drew in more than 2,000 people according toNewsweek,[122] and was described by Suzan Wines inDomus Magazine as a "climax to the renegade activity"[120] that was emerging in Williamsburg in the 1990s. A fusion of urban environmentalism and interdisciplinary culture, the entire generation of experimental venues, events and zines in the 1990s has come to be known as theBrooklyn Immersionists and celebrated in art and music history books such as Cisco Bradley's The Williamsburg Avant-Garde: Experimental Music and Sound on the Brooklyn Waterfront.[8] Films have covered the movement such as Marcin Ramocki's Brooklyn DIY, which premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in 2009.
These events eventually diminished in number as chain stores and high rises moved into the area, rents rose, and regulations were enforced.[130][131] A number of smaller, fleeting spaces,[132] and several Manhattan-based venues also opened locations here. In the summers of 2006, 2007, and 2008, events including concerts, movies, and dance performances were staged at the previously abandoned pool atMcCarren Park inGreenpoint. Starting in 2009, these pool parties are now held at the Williamsburg waterfront.[133]
Williamsburg is also the place where innovative fusions of music, art and living systems emerged such as Nerve Circle's "media organism's" at Minor Injury Gallery in 1990 and 1991, and the "web jam," the aesthetic algorithm informing the large warehouse event Organism in 1993. In 1994, Lalalandia's "techno-organic" club, El Sensorium, gave birth to a new form ofelectronic music calledillbient. Other new genres of electronic music emerged in Williamsburg at that time, including dark,hip hop-,ambient- anddub-influenced varieties.
In the 1990s a large number of experimental media groups and street theater troupes emerged in Williamsburg which deliberately situated their screens and interactive performances in social and physical environments. These Immersionist groups included the Floating Cinema, Fake Shop, Nerve Circle, The Outpost, Ocularis, The Pedestrian Project and Hit and Run Theater. Galapagos Art Space, which first opened in Williamsburg in 1996, hosted the Ocularis media collective's roof screenings and was a major host of New Burlesque theater. More recently Williamsburg contains indie theater spaces such asthe Brick Theater. The Williamsburg Independent Film Festival was founded in 2010.[137][138][139] Williamsburg also contains the first-run multiplex theater known asWilliamsburg Cinemas, which opened on December 19, 2012.[140]
Low rents were a major reason artists first started settling in the area, but that situation has drastically changed since the late-1990s when the City of New York began rezoning the district in favor of large developers. The City furthered the process by providing them billions of dollars in tax abatements.[12] Russ Buettner and Ray Rivera point out in the New York Times that beginning in 2001, it wasn't the creative community or working class entrepreneurs, but rather the billionaire, Mayor Michael Bloomberg who "loosened the reins on development across the boroughs".[12] Buettner and Rivera continue: "His administration poured $16 billion into financing to foster commercial development."[12] New York City's Comptroller is then cited on such corporate welfare:
"Comptroller William C. Thompson has said the mayor focuses too much on large developments that go to favored builders who receive wasteful subsidies. When the new Yankee Stadium came up in Tuesday night's debate, he said: 'This is just another example of a giveaway, of the mayor's giveaway to another one of his developer friends in the city.'"[12]
Free market dynamics like that exercised by individual home buying and selling, does describe what occurred when the City of New York its corporate welfare program in the late 1990s. Subsidization of corporations is not free market gentrification by definition, and in theory can be avoided by future communities attempting to keep creative local culture and businesses alive. Average monthly rents in Williamsburg can range from approximately $1,400 for astudio apartment to $1,600–2,400 for a one-bedroom and $2,600–4,000 for a two-bedroom.[44] The price of land in Williamsburg has accelerated.[43] The North Side, aboveGrand Street, which separates the North Side from the South Side, is somewhat more expensive, due to its proximity to theNew York City Subway (specifically, theL train andG train on theBMT Canarsie Line andIND Crosstown Line, respectively).
Williamsburg's takeover by corporate development is the subject ofPrinceton University film professorSu Friedrich's 2013 documentaryGut Renovation.[142]
In June 2014, theNew York Post reported that northwestern Brooklyn's growth of a wealthier population, especially in Williamsburg, has led to an increasing number of convictions against defendants in the borough'scriminal cases, as well as to reductions in plaintiff's awards in civil cases. Brooklyn defense lawyer Julie Clark said that these new jurors are "much more trusting of police". Another lawyer, Arthur Aidala, said:
"Now, the grand juries have more law-and-order types in there. ... People who can afford to live in Brooklyn now don't have the experience of police officers throwing them against cars and searching them. A person who just moves here from Wisconsin or Wyoming, they can't relate to [that]. It doesn't sound credible to them."[143]
For census purposes, the New York City government classifies Williamsburg as part of two neighborhood tabulation areas: Williamsburg, and North Side/South Side.[144] Based on data from the2010 United States census, the combined population of the Williamsburg and North Side/South Side areas was 78,700, a change of 6,301 (8%) from the 72,399 counted in2000. Covering an area of 923.54 acres (373.74 ha), the neighborhood had a population density of 85.2 inhabitants per acre (54,500/sq mi; 21,100/km2).[3]
The entirety of Community Board 1, which comprises Greenpoint and Williamsburg, had 199,190 inhabitants, as ofNYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 81.1 years.[145]: 2, 20 This is about the same as the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods.[146]: 53 (PDF p. 84) [147] Most inhabitants are middle-aged adults and youth: 23% are between the ages of 0–17, 41% between 25 and 44, and 17% between 45 and 64. The ratio of college-aged and elderly residents was lower, at 10% and 9%, respectively.[145]: 2
As of 2016, the medianhousehold income in Community Board 1 was $76,608.[148] In 2018, an estimated 17% of Greenpoint and Williamsburg residents lived in poverty, compared to 21% in all of Brooklyn and 20% in all of New York City. Less than one in fifteen residents (6%) were unemployed, compared to 9% in the rest of both Brooklyn and New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 48% in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, slightly lower than the citywide and boroughwide rates of 52% and 51%, respectively. Based on this calculation, as of 2018[update], Greenpoint and Williamsburg are considered to begentrifying.[145]: 7
New York City Department of City Planning tabulated in the 2020 census splitting up Williamsburg between north and south sections of the racial demographic populations. The north section, which is just regularly called Williamsburg had between 30,000 and 39,999 White residents and 10,000 to 19,999 Hispanic residents, meanwhile each the Black and Asian residents were less than 5000 residents. South Williamsburg also had 30,000 to 39,999 White residents, but each the Hispanic, Black, and Asian residents were less than 5000 residents.[149][150]
The majority of Williamsburg is patrolled by the 90th Precinct of theNYPD, located at 211 Union Avenue,[17] while the northernmost section of Williamsburg falls under the 94th Precinct, located at 100 Meserole Avenue.[18] The 90th Precinct ranked 47th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010,[151] and the 94th Precinct ranked 50th safest for per-capita crime.[152] As of 2018[update], with a non-fatal assault rate of 34 per 100,000 people, Greenpoint and Williamsburg's rate ofviolent crimes per capita is less than that of the city as a whole. The incarceration rate of 305 per 100,000 people is lower than that of the city as a whole.[145]: 8
The 90th Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 72.3% between 1990 and 2018. The precinct reported 4 murders, 16 rapes, 198 robberies, 237 felony assaults, 229 burglaries, 720 grand larcenies, and 90 grand larcenies auto in 2018.[153] The 94th Precinct also has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 72.9% between 1990 and 2018. The precinct reported 1 murder, 6 rapes, 63 robberies, 115 felony assaults, 141 burglaries, 535 grand larcenies, and 62 grand larcenies auto in 2018.[154]
Woodhull Medical Center is the nearest large hospital, and it is located on Williamsburg's southern border withBedford–Stuyvesant.
Pre-term and births to teenage mothers are less common in Greenpoint and Williamsburg than in other places citywide. In Greenpoint and Williamsburg, there were 54 pre-term births per 1,000 live births (the lowest in the city, compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 16.0 births to teenage mothers per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide).[145]: 11 Greenpoint and Williamsburg has a relatively low population of residents who areuninsured, or who receive health care throughMedicaid.[161] In 2018, this population of uninsured residents was estimated to be 7%, which is lower than the citywide rate of 12%.[145]: 14
The concentration offine particulate matter, the deadliest type ofair pollutant, in Greenpoint and Williamsburg is 0.0096 milligrams per cubic metre (9.6×10−9 oz/cu ft), higher than the citywide and boroughwide averages.[145]: 9 Seventeen percent of Greenpoint and Williamsburg residents aresmokers, which is slightly higher than the city average of 14% of residents being smokers.[145]: 13 In Greenpoint and Williamsburg, 23% of residents areobese, 11% arediabetic, and 25% havehigh blood pressure—compared to the citywide averages of 24%, 11%, and 28%, respectively.[145]: 16 In addition, 23% of children are obese, compared to the citywide average of 20%.[145]: 12
Ninety-one percent of residents eat some fruits and vegetables every day, which is greater than the city's average of 87%. In 2018, 79% of residents described their health as "good", "very good", or "excellent", more than the city's average of 78%.[145]: 13 For every supermarket in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, there are 25bodegas.[145]: 10
Hatzalah, a volunteer ambulance service, was founded in Williamsburg in 1965[162] after a Hasidic Jewish man died while waiting for an ambulance.[162][163] Hatzolah of Williamsburg, a nonprofit organization, continues to operate within the neighborhood.[164]
In April 2019, after ameasles outbreak in Williamsburg infected over 250 people, mandatory measles shots were ordered in the area. MayorBill de Blasio said that people in the neighborhood ignoring the order could be fined $1,000, and that religious schools and day care programs might be closed down if they did not exclude unvaccinated students.[165][166] The outbreak in Brooklyn had been tied to an unvaccinated child who contracted the disease on a trip to Israel.[167]
Williamsburg is covered by threeZIP Codes. Most of the neighborhood is in 11211, though the southeastern portion is in 11206, and the far western portion along the East River is in 11249.[168] TheUnited States Postal Service operates two post offices in Williamsburg: the Williamsburg Station at 263 South 4th Street,[169] and the Metropolitan Station at 47 Debevoise Street.[170]
Greenpoint and Williamsburg generally have a higher ratio of college-educated residents than the rest of the city as of 2018[update]. Half of the population (50%) has a college education or higher, 17% have less than a high school education, and 33% are high school graduates or have some college education. By contrast, 40% of Brooklynites and 38% of city residents have a college education or higher.[145]: 6 The percentage of Greenpoint and Williamsburg students excelling in reading and math has been increasing, with reading achievement rising from 35 percent in 2000 to 40 percent in 2011, and math achievement rising from 29 percent to 50 percent within the same time period.[171]
Greenpoint and Williamsburg's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is slightly higher than the rest of New York City. In Greenpoint and Williamsburg, 21% of elementary school students missed twenty or more days perschool year, compared to the citywide average of 20% of students.[145]: 6 [146]: 24 (PDF p. 55) Additionally, 77% of high school students in Greenpoint and Williamsburg graduate on time, higher than the citywide average of 75% of students.[145]: 6
Public middle and high schools includeBrooklyn Latin School (aspecialized high school serving grades 9–12)[184] andIS 318 Eugenio Maria De Hostos (serving grades 6–8).[185] The Grand Street Campus (formerlyEastern District High School) contains theHigh School of Enterprise, Business, & Technology (EBT), Progress High School for Professional Careers, High School for Legal Studies. The Harry Van Arsdale Educational Complex houses three small high schools that offer academics, and a curriculum and faculty for their special needs populations:Williamsburg High School for Architecture and Design, Williamsburg Preparatory School,Brooklyn Preparatory High School. The Young Women's Leadership School of Brooklyn aims to instill qualities of leadership in girls.[172] There are several bilingual public schools in Williamsburg, including PS 84 Jose De Diego (offering Spanish-English), and Juan Morel Campos Secondary School (offering Yiddish-English).[186]
Other schools in Williamsburg includeEl Puente Academy for Peace and Justice[187] and the Ethical Community Charter School.Success Academy Williamsburg opened in August 2012.[188][189] It is a public charter school.Williamsburg Collegiate Charter School, a consistently top-performing charter school[190] in New York City, is located on the South side.Williamsburg Northside Schools are threeReggio Emilia-inspired schools that have three distinct programs within three locations: Infant and Toddler Center, Williamsburg Northside Preschool, and Williamsburg Northside Lower School.
TheBrooklyn Public Library (BPL) has two branches in Williamsburg. The Williamsburgh branch is located at 240 Division Avenue, near Marcy Avenue. It is housed in a 26,000-square-foot (2,400 m2)Carnegie library structure that is one of Brooklyn's largest circulating-library buildings, and is aNew York City designated landmark.[191] The Leonard branch is located at 81 Devoe Street, near Leonard Street. It is located in a 26,000-square-foot (2,400 m2) building that opened in 1908. The Leonard branch contains a tribute toBetty Smith, the author of the novelA Tree Grows in Brooklyn, whose main character, France, frequently visited the library.[192]
There are plans to build theBrooklyn–Queens Connector (BQX), a light rail system that would run along the waterfront fromRed Hook through Williamsburg toAstoria inQueens. However, the system is projected to cost $2.7 billion, and the projected opening has been delayed until at least 2029.[199][200]
El Puente, a local community development group, called Williamsburg "the most toxic place to live in America", in the documentaryToxic Brooklyn, produced byVice Magazine in 2009.[203] Other rare cancer clusters in Willamsburg have been reported by theNew York Post.[204]
In 1976, MayorAbraham Beame proposed building a combined incinerator and power plant at the nearbyBrooklyn Navy Yard.[205] The project garnered large community opposition from theLatino andHasidic Jewish residents of southern Williamsburg, located next to the site of the proposed incinerator.[206] Though theNew York City Board of Estimate narrowly gave its approval to the incinerator in 1984,[207] the state refused to grant a permit for constructing the plant for several years, citing that the city had no recycling plan.[208] The proposed incinerator was a key issue in the1989 mayoral election because the Hasidic Jewish residents of Williamsburg who opposed the incinerator were also politically powerful.[209]David Dinkins, who ultimately won the 1989 mayoral election, campaigned on the stance that the Brooklyn Navy Yard incinerator plan should be put on hold.[210] The state denied a permit for the incinerator in 1989, stating that the city had no plan for reducing ash emissions from the plant.[211]
The plan was placed on hold for several years, and in 1995, community members filed a lawsuit to block the incinerator's construction.[212][213] Further investigation of the incinerator's proposed site found toxic chemicals were present in such high levels that the site qualified forSuperfund environmental clean-up.[214] The next year, the city dropped plans for the construction of the incinerator altogether.[215]
National Grid (formerlyKeySpan) is remediating contamination at a former Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) site, located at KentAvenue, between North 11th and North 12th Streets, in Williamsburg. The Remediation is being performed in conversion for the site's conversion intoBushwick Inlet Park. It is being implemented under an order of consent with theNew York State Department of Environmental Conservation entered into between the NYSDEC and KeySpan in February 2007.[216]
There are also ten oil storage tanks on the site of Bushwick Inlet Park that were formerly operated byBayside Oil.[217] A plan unveiled in 2016, called "Maker Park", would convert the oil tankers into attractions such as a theater and hanging gardens.[218][219][220] It directly conflicted with the original plan for Bushwick Inlet Park, which would see the tankers demolished.[219][220] The city stated that the oil tankers were heavily polluted, and that the site needed to be cleaned before it could be repurposed into a park.[221]
Zecharia Dershowitz (1859–1921), founder of one of the firstYiddish communities in America, and the firstHasidic synagogue in Williamsburg
Yom-Tov Ehrlich (1914–1990), renowned Hasidic musician, composer, lyricist, recording artist, and popular entertainer known for his popular Yiddish music albums. One of his most popular songs is "Williamsburg", a song about Hasidic Williamsburg during the 1950s.
The first three novels byDaniel Fuchs —Summer in Williamsburg (1934),Homage to Blenholt (1936), andLow Company (1937), collectively known as "The Williamsburg Trilogy" or "The Brooklyn Novels" — are set primarily in Williamsburg or its immediate vicinity.[271]
The 2019 novelHipster Death Rattle, byRichie Narvaez, takes place in a heavily gentrified Williamsburg.[274]
Film, television, and theater
Once Upon a Time in America (1984) begins in Williamsburg, and includes scenes shot in Williamsburg, though the focus of the story was Manhattan'sLower East Side in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1960s.[275]
The 1988 movieComing to America was primarily filmed on South 5th Street in Williamsburg, despite being set inQueens.[276]
In the 1994 comedy-dramaThe Paper, directed byRon Howard, Williamsburg became the setting for the scene of a fictional double murder that turns out to be a mafia retaliation killing.[277]
^Hackworth, Jason; Smith, Neil (November 1, 2001). "The Changing State of Gentrification".Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie.92 (4):464–477.doi:10.1111/1467-9663.00172.
^Bernardo, Leonard and Jennifer Weiss.Brooklyn by Name: How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges, and More Got Their Names. New York. NYU Press:2006.
^The Physical LandscapeArchived April 18, 2016, at theWayback Machine,Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Accessed May 12, 2016. "Built in 1903, the Williamsburg Bridge had a greater effect on the ability of immigrants to leave the Lower East Side. In the early 20th century, the bridge was seen as a passageway to a new life in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, by thousands of Jewish immigrants fleeing the overcrowded neighborhood."
^Idov, Michael."Clash of the Bearded Ones; Hipsters, Hasids, and the Williamsburg street."Archived December 22, 2019, at theWayback Machine,New York, April 11, 2010. Accessed May 12, 2016. "The Satmars came to the neighborhood from Hungary and Romania after World War II, led by the revered rabbi Joel Teitelbaum... For years, the invisible border between South and North Williamsburg used to be, aptly enough, Division Avenue, which separated the Hasidim from the Hispanics."
^The Williamsburg Avant-Garde: Experimental Music and Sound on the Brooklyn Waterfront by Cisco Bradley, Duke University Press, 2023.
^Hahn Roche, Melanie (Fall 1993). "The Cat's Head: Constructing Utopia in Brooklyn and Dublin".The Drama Review.37 (3):153–165.doi:10.2307/1146314.JSTOR1146314.
^Interview by Francesco Bonami with Annie Herron,Flash Art, January/February 1993.
^"Mr. Meme" by Matt Haber,Wired Magazine, December 1995, p. 44.
^Michaele Vollbrach, "Nightlife: Rave New World," The New Yorker, April 1992.
^abWines, Suzan (February 1998). "Go With the Flow: Eight New York Artists and Architects in the Digital Era".Domus Magazine.
^CyberAtlas, an interactive web project curated by Jon Ippolito and Laura Trippi, Guggenheim Museum, 1996–2006; and "Intelligent Life" by Laura Trippi, Guggenheim Magazine, Spring 1997, p. 53
^ab"Where Do We Go After the Rave?" by Melissa Rossi, Newsweek, July 26, 1993, p. 58
^Tetsua Suda interviews Immersionists at Galapagos Art Space on "OK:NY" for Fuji Television, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 1997
^same as 139 just i don't know how to fill out. i m learning with time, same as 139 just i don't know how to fill out. i m learning with time (1992–2023)."FDNYtrucks.com (Engine Company 209/Ladder Company 102)".www.fdnytrucks.com. RetrievedJuly 6, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^"P.S. 018 Edward Bush".New York City Department of Education. December 19, 2018. Archived fromthe original on August 2, 2019. RetrievedAugust 2, 2019.
^"P.S. 084 Jose De Diego".New York City Department of Education. December 19, 2018. RetrievedAugust 2, 2019.
^Baver, S.L.; Lynch, B.D.; Miller, M.; Pizzini, M.V.; Burac, M.; Garcia-Martinez, N.; Garcia-Ramos, T.; Rivera-Rivera, A.; Soto-Lopez, R.; Minnite, L. (2006).Beyond Sun and Sand: Caribbean Environmentalisms. Rutgers University Press. p. 136.ISBN978-0-8135-3752-8. RetrievedSeptember 17, 2018.
^Flanders, Vicky."PERSIS ALBEE. The 1st Avon Lady"Archived May 18, 2017, at theWayback Machine, Historical Society of Cheshire County. Accessed November 29, 2017. "At age 30, Persis was living in Williamsburg, New York. There, she married Ellery Albee, and moved to his native home in Winchester, New Hampshire."
^Gates, Anita."A Musical's Star Plays, and Admires, Warhol"Archived October 5, 2017, at theWayback Machine,The New York Times, December 11, 2009. Accessed November 29, 2017. "Mr. Harrison made his Broadway debut in 2004, filling in as the Munchkin character Boq inWicked. AfterPop! ends its Yale Rep run, he hopes to work again in New York. He lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with his cats, Ella and Aggie."
^Blady, Ken.The Jewish Boxers Hall of Fame, p. 237. SP Books, 1988.ISBN9780933503878. Accessed July 2, 2016. "A native of the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, Solly Krieger was born on March 28, 1909."
^Interview With Barry ManilowArchived August 18, 2016, at theWayback Machine,Larry King Live, May 17, 2012. Accessed July 2, 2016. "MANILOW: Well, the Mayflower is an apartment building on the CD, but it was actually an apartment building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn called the Mayflower. KING: Did you live in it? MANILOW: Yes, my family lived in it."
^Belin, Jay."A Quickie With We Are Scientists' Keith Murray"Archived December 1, 2017, at theWayback Machine,WNBC. Accessed November 29, 2017. "[Q] As a New York based band, whats the benefit of playing hometown shows? [A] I'd say the largest benefit is that any post-show celebrations can end with a relatively easy stagger back to one's own apartment. I once tried to stagger home to my place in Williamsburg after a particularly rowdy after-party in Providence, RI, and it was a positively MISERABLE walk."
^Gluck, Robert."The 'Cinematic Zionism' of Mel Brooks"Archived December 1, 2017, at theWayback Machine,The Algemeiner, August 3, 2012. Accessed November 29, 2017. "According to Wakeman, after World War II, Brooks started working in various Borscht Belt resorts and nightclubs as a drummer and pianist. Another Williamsburg resident, Buddy Rich, taught Brooks how to play drums, and he started earning money that way at age 14."
^Compton, Julie."OutFront: Trans Woman Spreads LGBTQ Awareness in Hasidic Community"Archived July 18, 2020, at theWayback Machine,NBC News, January 13, 2017. Accessed November 29, 2017. "In 2012, Abby Stein sat alone in a busy mall — the only place she knew that had Wi-Fi. Bearded with long sidelocks and wearing a dark three-piece suit and black hat that are the traditional garbs of Hasidic men in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, Stein searched the internet on a tablet... The 25-year-old grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a neighborhood with a large enclave of Hasidic people."
^Mitchell, Eric."An Owner's Profile: Stuart Subotnick"Archived January 19, 2018, at theWayback Machine,The Blood-Horse, November 12, 2001. Accessed January 19, 2018. "Stuart Subotnick readily admits he knew nothing about Thoroughbreds or racing in the beginning. Horses were as foreign as hayrides to the Brooklyn, N.Y., native who grew up in a federally subsidized housing project in Williamsburg."
^Newman, Andy."Rabbi Moses Teitelbaum Is Dead at 91"Archived January 20, 2018, at theWayback Machine,The New York Times, April 25, 2006. Accessed January 19, 2018. "Moses Teitelbaum, the grand rabbi of the Satmar Hasidim, one of the world's largest and fastest-growing sects of Orthodox Jews, died yesterday in Manhattan. He was 91 and lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn."
^Staff."Daniel Fuchs, Novelist And Screenwriter, 84"Archived April 7, 2019, at theWayback Machine,The New York Times, August 11, 1993. Accessed May 29, 2017. "Mr. Fuchs turned to screenwriting after the commercial failure of 'The Williamsburg Trilogy', his novels in the 1930s about growing up in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. The books —Summer in Williamsburg,Homage to Blenholt, andLow Company — were critically praised, but sold poorly."
^Maeder, Jay."How Betty Smith'sA Tree Grows in Brooklyn became a literary sensation"Archived January 19, 2018, at theWayback Machine,New York Daily News, August 14, 2017. Accessed January 18, 2018. "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was the tender, courage-awash story of the Nolan family — impossible Johnny, the singing waiter who drank up his tips; patient, suffering Katie, the hard-working janitress who kept home and hearth together; and ceaselessly pensive daughter Francie, ever buried in library books and dreaming of clean skies somewhere beyond the grime of Williamsburg."
^Shepard, Richard F."Bringing Brooklyn Of The 1940s Back To Life ForThe Chosen"Archived January 20, 2018, at theWayback Machine,The New York Times, May 16, 1982. Accessed May 29, 2017. "Putting the period to a period film is a demanding business, an expensive one, too, that becomes even more challenging if the period is one that lies within the memory of living man.The Chosen, at the Beekman and Cinema 3, is a case in point, a movie that recalls a Brooklyn of the late 1940s, and does so with such fidelity that the tree-lined quiet streets of Williamsburg and the particular Jewish life on them seem to have emerged intact from a just-opened time capsule."
^Turner, Elliott (July 31, 2019)."Hipster Death Rattle".Latino Book Review. RetrievedMarch 16, 2022.
^Canby, Vincent."Film:Once Upon A Time In America"Archived May 25, 2011, at theWayback Machine,The New York Times, June 1, 1984. Accessed January 18, 2018. "The screenplay, by Mr. Leone and five others, cannot be easily synopsized. It begins in the 1920s in a long prologue set in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, the jungle where the five young friends, including Max and Noodles, learn their trade as petty thieves and arsonists."
^Murray, J. J."Until I Saw Your Smile", p. 16.Kensington Books, 2014.ISBN9780758277282. Accessed January 18, 2018. "He looked toward the bridge, shaking his head, wondering whyComing to America, supposedly set in Queens, was primarily filmed on South 5th Street in Williamsburg. It made me laugh to see Billyburg in that movie. Eddie Murphy is really trying to find his queen in Williamsburg, not Queens."
^Turan, Kenneth."Movie Reviews :The Paper: It's All in the Delivery"Archived November 1, 2020, at theWayback Machine,Los Angeles Times, March 18, 1994. Accessed October 27, 2020. "The Papers" breathless doings begin with a brief prologue showing a pair of black teen-agers in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn discovering a car containing two slain white businessmen and, via a bit of bad luck, becoming prime suspects for the crime... The problem of the day for this group is deciding whether that unlucky pair's arrest for the Williamsburg murder can command the front page."
^About 2 Broke GirlsArchived June 8, 2016, at theWayback Machine,CBS. Accessed June 3, 2016. "2 Broke Girls is a comedy about the unlikely friendship that develops between two very different young women who meet waitressing at a diner in trendy Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and form a bond over one day owning their own successful cupcake business."
^LaGorce, Tammy."Who Says You Can't Leave Home? Armor for Sleep"Archived July 2, 2022, at theWayback Machine,The New York Times, December 9, 2007. Accessed June 3, 2016. "As listeners will discover if they cue up 'Williamsburg,' a song on the new album that skewers the hipster scene in that Brooklyn neighborhood, the Secaucus stops may reflect more than a desire to be near the ones they love. "
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