diversion about real estate (any discussion of Gentrification is tangentially about Manhattan loft neighborhoods)

though the focus recently is on Brooklyn

A perennial never-get-to on my Don’t Do list is a thought piece on how neighborhoods change, including my personal history as a residential pioneer in the then newly-minted Tribeca (truly TriBeCa in those days) in 1981. It is hard to write much about residential loft neighborhoods without being confronted with issues of change, including gentrification, as by definition classic loft neighborhoods involve the residential repurposing of formerly commercial or industrial space.

Which is a long introduction to a short post collecting two recent pieces for my further review and consideration:

• a new one from the Utne reader,The Great Inversion in New Brooklyn,

• and a not so new one from the New York Observer, Who ‘Ruined’ Williamsburg? Blaming Developers May Be Satisfying, But It Misses the Mark

Food for thought, even food for a future Manhattan Loft Guy post….

© Sandy Mattingly 2013