Red Hook waterfronts: dismantling the heritage
Monday, 22 February 2010
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Written by Riccardo
Red Hook waterfronts: dismantling the heritage
New York - West Brooklyn
"As for Red Hook - it is always the same." wrote in 1925 H. P. Lovecraft. (1)
In point of fact, Red Hook has always been host to a high crime rate, gangs, smugglings, all fueled by isolation from the city, by a large number of abandoned buildings, the port and docks. A tough and doomed reputation surrounds the place. Yet, by the early 1990s the unemployment, poverty, dumping, and other social issues among the fabric of the community, skyrocketed drug use and violence.
Surrounded by water on three sides, Red Hook also suffered by racial divide: the nicknamed "back" attractive waterfront was traditionally occupied by white people, while the less appealing inner blocks mostly by latino and afroamerican newyorkers, where two large affordable public housing projects where built astride WWII -in 1938 and under Roosevelt presidency - to accommodate the growing number of dockworkers and their families.
Red Hook has recently attracted investors and stepped into the ruthless real estate mechanism. And, despite the Lovecraft statement, Red Hook will never be the same. The controversial transformation started is mostly driven by the logic of the profit and recalls “Manhattanism” emblematic processes. The changes in progress are unaware of the important industrial heritage and archaeology. Savvy preservation principles and rehabilitation criteria seem to fail: Several and valuable dismissed industrial buildings and structures have already been teared down to make place to the Ikea store gigantic and immutable blue box. Tons of asbestos have been irresponsibly pulled off the air as the only inheritance for the Red Hookers. The unwritten promises for jobs that pay modest wages aren't helping to dissolve waterfront enclaves.
The most appealing waterfront site buildings has been already occupied by Fairway supermarket and other commercial giants are looking at other attractive vacant sites to further transform and make void of the historical industrial landscape, leaving in place just isolated episodes often mocked up or falsely placed to vaguely recall an awkward past.
(1) Lovecraft H.P. (1925) The Horror at Red Hook, in: Wright F. (1927) Weird Tales, Chicago (1927), vol. 9, No. 1, ch. VII
In point of fact, Red Hook has always been host to a high crime rate, gangs, smugglings, all fueled by isolation from the city, by a large number of abandoned buildings, the port and docks. A tough and doomed reputation surrounds the place. Yet, by the early 1990s the unemployment, poverty, dumping, and other social issues among the fabric of the community, skyrocketed drug use and violence.
Surrounded by water on three sides, Red Hook also suffered by racial divide: the nicknamed "back" attractive waterfront was traditionally occupied by white people, while the less appealing inner blocks mostly by latino and afroamerican newyorkers, where two large affordable public housing projects where built astride WWII -in 1938 and under Roosevelt presidency - to accommodate the growing number of dockworkers and their families.
Red Hook has recently attracted investors and stepped into the ruthless real estate mechanism. And, despite the Lovecraft statement, Red Hook will never be the same. The controversial transformation started is mostly driven by the logic of the profit and recalls “Manhattanism” emblematic processes. The changes in progress are unaware of the important industrial heritage and archaeology. Savvy preservation principles and rehabilitation criteria seem to fail: Several and valuable dismissed industrial buildings and structures have already been teared down to make place to the Ikea store gigantic and immutable blue box. Tons of asbestos have been irresponsibly pulled off the air as the only inheritance for the Red Hookers. The unwritten promises for jobs that pay modest wages aren't helping to dissolve waterfront enclaves.
The most appealing waterfront site buildings has been already occupied by Fairway supermarket and other commercial giants are looking at other attractive vacant sites to further transform and make void of the historical industrial landscape, leaving in place just isolated episodes often mocked up or falsely placed to vaguely recall an awkward past.
(1) Lovecraft H.P. (1925) The Horror at Red Hook, in: Wright F. (1927) Weird Tales, Chicago (1927), vol. 9, No. 1, ch. VII
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