[photo via Flickr/mcuenot]
Just this past Friday, Curbed guest blogger Lost City referred to Brooklyn's Columbia Street as a "fairly bleak thoroughfare." Burn! Today the Times also checks in with the so-called Columbia Street Waterfront District, which they point out has been passed around from Cobble Hill to Carroll Gardens to Red Hook like an ugly stepchild. So why is this stretch of waterfront Brooklyn so downtrodden when the promised glory of gentrification was so ... promising? An excerpt:
The wishful thinking about Columbia Street’s being the new Smith Street goes only so far. The magical combination that makes one street hot and another tepid can seem elusive, but not here, where the reasons for the stalled revival are painfully clear. Continuing construction, a sense of geographic isolation and waning buzz continue to hush the “pop” that speculators had predicted.The road-widening construction that has messed with so many businesses is expected to go on for at least another year, so we'll have to see if the buzz is still buzzing by then.
· Two Years Later, a Street Still Waits for Its Promised Gentrification [NYT]
· Columbia Street Nostalgia: 'Meet Me at the the Clock' [Curbed]