Williamsburg, Brooklyn

The Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh

In 1638, the Dutch West India Company purchased the area's land from the Lenape Native Americans who occupied the area. In 1661, the company chartered the Town of Boswijck, including land that would later become Williamsburg. After the English takeover of New Netherland in 1664, the town's name was anglicized to Bushwick. 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 from Wallabout Creek in the south to Newtown Creek in the east. Bushwick residents called Bushwick Shore "the Strand".[11]

Farmers and gardeners from the other Bushwick villages sent their goods to Bushwick Shore to be ferried across the East River to Manhattan for sale via a market at present day Grand 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 (53,000 m²) near what would become Metropolitan Avenue, then North 2nd Street. He had Colonel Jonathan Williams, a U.S. Engineer, survey the property, and named it Williamsburgh (with an h at the end) in his honor. Originally a 13-acre (53,000 m²) development within Bushwick Shore, Williamsburg rapidly expanded during the first half of the nineteenth century and eventually seceded from Bushwick and formed its own independent city.[11] Abraham J. Berry was the first mayor of the independent city of Williamsburgh;[12][13] the "H" at the end of the name was dropped in 1855.[14]

Map of the Village of Williamsburgh (1827)

Map of the Town of Williamsburgh (1845)

Williamsburg was incorporated as the Village of Williamsburgh within the Town of Bushwick on April 14, 1827. 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, except the refinery of the now-defunct Domino Sugar (formerly Havemeyer & Elder). Other important industries included ship-building and brewing.

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".[15] 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 the sobriquet of "Dutchtown".[15] In 1845, the population of Williamsburgh was 11,500.[16]

Reflecting its increasing urbanization, Williamsburg separated from Bushwick as the Town of Williamsburg on April 7, 1840. Edmund Smith Driggs (1809-1889) was a Williamsburg resident and was elected the first president of the Village of Williamsburg in 1850.[17] 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.[18]

It became the City of Williamsburg (discarding the "h") in 1855, which was organized into three wards. The old First Ward roughly coincides with the South Side, and the Second Ward with the North Side, with the modern boundary at Grand Street. The Third Ward was to the east of these, stretching from Union Avenue east to Bushwick Avenue, beyond which is Bushwick (some of which is now called East Williamsburg).

Brewers Row, North 11th Street

Bedford Avenue and North 8th Street

In 1855, the City of Williamsburg, along with the adjoining Town of Bushwick, were 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.[19]

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 as Cornelius Vanderbilt and railroad magnate Jubilee Jim Fisk built shore-side mansions. Charles Pratt and his family founded the Pratt Institute, the great school of art & architecture, and the Astral Oil Works, which later became part of Standard Oil. Corning Glass Works was founded here, before moving upstate to Corning, New York. German immigrant, chemist Charles Pfizer founded Pfizer Pharmaceutical in Williamsburg, and the company maintained an industrial plant in the neighborhood through 2007, although its headquarters were moved to Manhattan in the 1960s.[20][21]

Brooklyn's Broadway, ending in the ferry to Manhattan, became the area's lifeline. The area proved popular for condiment and household product manufacturers. Factories for Domino Sugar, Esquire Shoe Polish, Dutch Mustard, and many others were established in the late 19th and early 20th century. Many of these factory buildings are now being (or already have been) converted to non-industrial uses, primarily residential.

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: the Williamsburgh Savings Bank (chartered 1851, since absorbed by HSBC); and its rival, the Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh (chartered 1864, now known as the DIME, has remained independent). The area around the Peter 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 New York City.[22] One of the early high schools in Brooklyn, the Eastern District High School, opened here in February 1900.[23][24]

The Williamsburg Bridge connects the area with Manhattan's Lower East Side

South Williamsburg streetscape

In 1898, Brooklyn became one of five boroughs within the City of Greater New York, and the Williamsburg neighborhood was opened to closer connections with the rest of the newly consolidated city. Just five years later, the opening of the Williamsburg 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's Lower East Side.[25] 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.[26] The novel A 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 its coal gas production to Williamsburg at 370 Vandervoort Avenue, closing the Gowanus Canal gasworks. The 1970s energy crisis led the company to build a syngas factory. Late in the century, facilities were built to import liquefied natural gas from overseas. The intersection of Broadway, Flushing Avenue, and Graham Avenue was a cross-roads for many "inter-urbans", prior to World War I. These light rail trolleys ran from Long Island to Williamsburg.

Refugees from war-torn Europe began to stream into Brooklyn during and after World War II, including the Hasidim, whose populations had been devastated in the Holocaust. The area south of Division Avenue became home to a large population of adherents to the Satmar Hasidic sect, who came to the area from Hungary and Romania.[27] Hispanics from Puerto Rico and the Dominican 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.[28][29]

On February 3, 1971, at 10:42 p.m., police officer Frank Serpico was shot during a drug bust, during a stakeout at 778 Driggs Avenue.[30] Serpico had been one of the driving forces in the creation of the Knapp 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 film Serpico, starring Al Pacino in the title role.[31]

The site of the former Domino Sugar Refinery, which is being redeveloped for residential and commercial use, seen in 2018

Low rents were a major reason artists first started settling in the area, but that situation has drastically changed since the mid-1990s. Average rents in Williamsburg can range from approximately $1400 for a studio apartment to $1,600–2,400 for a one-bedroom and $2,600–4,000 for a two-bedroom. The price of land in Willamsburg has skyrocketed.[32] The North Side, above Grand Street, which separates the North Side from the South Side, is somewhat more expensive due to its proximity to the New York City Subway (specifically, the L train and G train on the BMT Canarsie Line and IND Crosstown Line, respectively). More recent gentrification and the route of the M train (whose route was modified to go from the downtown BMT Nassau Street Line to the midtown IND Sixth Avenue Line in 2010), however, have prompted increases in rents south of Grand Street as well. Higher rents have driven out many bohemians and hipsters to other neighborhoods farther afield such as Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Cobble Hill, and Red Hook.[33][34][35]

On May 11, 2005, the New York City Council passed a large-scale rezoning of the North Side and Greenpoint waterfront.[36] 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 two-mile-long string of waterfront esplanades. Local elected officials touted the rezoning as an economically beneficial way to address the decline of manufacturing along the North Brooklyn waterfront, which had resulted in a number of vacant and derelict warehouses in Williamsburg.

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 scale in the ongoing process of gentrification in the area since the early 1990s. The waterfront neighborhoods, once characterized by active manufacturing and other light industry interspersed with smaller residential buildings, were re-zoned primarily for residential use. Alongside the construction of new residential buildings, many warehouses were converted into residential loft buildings. Among the first was the Smith-Gray Building, a turn-of-the-century structure recognizable by its blue cast-iron facade. The conversion of the former Gretsch 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.[37][38][39][40]

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 as Battery Park City. The New 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.[41]

Pentecostal church

Several structures in Williamsburg have been landmarked by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission. The Kings County Savings Institution, chartered in 1860, built the Kings County Savings Bank building at Bedford Avenue and Broadway. The structure, an example of French Second Empire architecture, has been on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) since 1980, and was made a New York City landmark in 1966.[43]

The Williamsburg Houses were designated a city landmark on June 24, 2003.[44] The 23.3-acre (94,000 m²) site, consisting of twenty 4-story buildings, was designed by William Lescaze, and was the first large-scale public housing in Brooklyn. It was completed in 1938, and is operated by the New York City Housing Authority.[45]

In 2007, three buildings of the Domino 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.[46] In 2010, a developer proposed to convert the site to residential use;[47] since them, a new plan was approved for the Domino Sugar Factory, led by Two Trees Management.[48]

The New England Congregational Church and Rectory, built between 1852 and 1853, was listed on the NRHP in 1983.[49] It is also a city landmark.[50] The church was sold to its current occupant, La Iglesia Pentecostal La Luz del Mundo, in 1981.

One historic district also exists in Williamsburg, the Fillmore Place Historic District. Landmarked in 2009, it consists of several Italianate style buildings.[51][52]

Numerous structures are also located on the NRHP, but are not city landmarks. The Austin, Nichols and Company Warehouse, built in 1915 to a design by architect Cass Gilbert, was placed on the NRHP in 2007.[53] Originally also a city landmark, the designation was later rescinded. The warehouse was converted to apartments in the 2010s.[54]

The German Evangelical Lutheran St. John's Church was built in 1883 and made a NRHP landmark in 2019.[55]

Public School 71K, built in 1888-1889 to designs by James W. Naughton, was made a NRHP landmark in 1982, though it no longer serves as a public school.[56]

The United States Post Office, built in 1936 by Louis A. Simon, was landmarked in 1988.[57]

Hebrew Academy for Special Children

Williamsburg is inhabited by tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews of various groups, and contains the headquarters of one faction of the Satmar Hasidic group. Williamsburg's Satmar population numbers about 57,000.[62]

Hasidic Jews first moved to the neighborhood in the years prior to World War II, along with many other religious and non-religious Jews who sought to escape the difficult living conditions on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Beginning in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the area received a large concentration of Holocaust survivors, many of whom were Hasidic Jews from rural areas of Hungary and Romania.[63] These people were led by several Hasidic leaders, among them the rebbes of Satmar, Klausenberg, Vien, Pupa, Tzehlem, and Skver. In addition, Williamsburg contained sizable numbers of religious, but non-Hasidic, Jews. The Rebbe of Satmar, Rabbi Joel 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 fierce anti-Zionism and for his charismatic style of leadership.[64]

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.[65] By 1997, there were about 7,000 Hasidic families in Williamsburg, almost a third of whom took public assistance.[66] 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, the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, a beneficiary agency of the UJA-Federation of New York, partnered with Masbia in the opening of a 50-seat kosher soup kitchen on Lee Avenue in November 2009.[67]

There are many households with Section 8 housing vouchers; in 2000, there were 1,394 voucher recipients in Williamsburg's nine Yiddish-speaking census tracts, but by 2014, Williamsburg had 3,296 voucher recipients within 12 Yiddish-speaking census tracts.[65] In 2014, it was reported that Williamsburg's Jewish community had among the highest rates of applications for Section 8 housing vouchers.[68] However, the newspaper New York Daily News doubted the legality of the applications. In 2016, the Daily News said that New York City census tracts with 30% or more of the population applying for Section 8 were present only in Williamsburg and scattered parts of the Bronx, except that Williamsburg's real estate was among the most rapidly gentrifying in the city.[65]

With the gentrification of North Williamsburg, Hasidim have fought to retain the character of their neighborhood, and have characterized the influx of what they call the artisten as a "plague" and "a bitter decree from Heaven".[69] Tensions have risen over housing costs, loud and boisterous nightlife events, and the introduction of bike lanes along Bedford Avenue.[70] Although gentrification is increasing, many developers, such as Isaac Hager, continue to build more housing for Haredi tenants.[71]

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Feast

A significant component of the Italian community on the North Side were immigrants from the city of Nola near Naples. Residents of Nola every summer celebrate the "Festa dei Gigli" (feast of lilies) in honor of St. Paulinus of Nola, who was bishop of Nola in the fifth century,[72] and the immigrants brought this tradition over with them. For two weeks every summer, the streets surrounding Our Lady of Mount Carmel church, located on Havemeyer and North 8th Streets, are dedicated to a celebration of Italian culture.[73]

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. 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 actors John Turturro and Michael Badalucco.[73]

On Williamburg's Southside, also known in Spanish as "Los Sures", which is the area south of Grand Street, there exists a sizable Puerto Rican and Dominican 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 after World War II, due to the proximity to jobs at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.[74] 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-owned bodegas 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.[75] Another such institution is the "El Puente" Community Center,[76] 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 historical Italian-American community.[77] 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.[78] The Moore Street Market, often referred to as La Marqueta de Williamsburg, is located at 110 Moore Street.[79]

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.[80][81] 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 of Boricua 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.[82] A place popular among Dominican-American residents is the Fula Lounge, where Merengue and Raggaeton artists from the Dominican Republic often frequent. Once a year, the Williamsburg/Bushwick community hosts a Puerto Rican Day parade.[83]

The neighborhood has produced many prominent Latinos. Television chef Daisy Martinez, who specializes in Puerto Rican cuisine grew up in the neighborhood.[84][85] The neighborhood also is home to the office of U.S. representative Nydia Velazquez.[86] In addition to this, Williamsburg was the childhood home of City Councilwoman Rosie Méndez, of Puerto Rican descent.[87] Williamsburg itself was represented in the City Council by Dominican American Antonio Reynoso.[88][89] 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.[90] Another documentary in 2013, "Toñita's", depicts the Caribbean Social Club, and is named after the club's owner.[91][92]

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.[93]

Prior to gentrification, Williamsburg 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.[94] 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.[95] 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.[96]

The mid-century tension between the Hasidic and Modern Orthodox Jewish communities in Williamsburg was depicted in Chaim Potok's novels The Chosen (1967), The Promise, and My Name Is Asher Lev.[97] One contemporary female perspective on life in the Satmar community in Williamsburg is offered by Deborah Feldman's autobiographical Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots.[98] The Netflix miniseries Unorthodox is loosely based on Feldman's autobiography.

Street graffiti in East Williamsburg

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 as SoHo and the East Village became gentrified. The community was small at first, but by 1996 Williamsburg had accumulated an artist population of about 3,000.[99] Art galleries in the area include the Front Room Gallery. Williamsburg and Greenpoint are served by a monthly galleries listings magazine, wagmag.

In September 2000, 11211 Magazine, created by writer Breuk Iversen,[100] launched a four color glossy circulating 10,000 copies in Brooklyn and Manhattan, intent on promoting the area from a design firm in Manhattan. A year later, the firm moved to Williamsburg. The content was richly focused on the historical and notable properties, arts and culture and real estate development of the 11211 ZIP Code. The bi-monthly was funded by advertisements from local businesses and founded by writer and designer, Breuk Iversen. Other publications attributed to 11211 Magazine: Fortnight, The Box Map (2002), Appetite, and 10003 Magazine for the East Village in New York City. The magazine had published 36 issues (548,000 copies) of 11211 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.[101] A new culture has evolved in the area surrounding Bedford Avenue subway station.[102] The Bog, Keep Refrigerated, The Lizard's Tail, Quiet Life, Rubulad, Flux Factory, Mighty Robot, free103point9 and others attracted a mix of artists, musicians and urban underground for late night music, dance, and performance events, which were occasionally interrupted and the venues temporarily closed by the fire department.[103] These events eventually diminished in number as the rents rose in the area and regulations were enforced.[104][105]

There are a number of smaller, fleeting spaces,[106] including Todd P.,[107] Dot Dash,[108] Twisted Ones,[109] and Rubulad.[106] Many legitimate commercial music venues opened in the neighborhood including Pete's Candy Store,[110] Union Pool,[111] Music Hall of Williamsburg (formerly Northsix), Public Assembly (formerly Galapagos, now closed), Cameo Gallery, Muchmore's, and Grand Victory. Several Manhattan-based venues also opened locations, including Bowery Presents (who bought Northsix and transformed it to Music Hall of Williamsburg), Luna Lounge, Knitting Factory, and Cake Shop. In the summers of 2006, 2007, and 2008, events including concerts, movies, and dance performances were staged at the previously abandoned pool at McCarren Park in Greenpoint. Starting 2009, these pool parties are now held at the Williamsburg waterfront.[112]

The neighborhood has also attracted a respectable funk, soul and worldbeat music scene spearheaded by labels such as Daptone and Truth & Soul Records – and fronted by acts such as the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra and Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. Jazz and World Music has found a foothold, with classic jazz full-time at restaurant venues like Zebulon and Moto, and – on the more avant and noise side – at spots like the Lucky Cat, B.P.M., Monkeytown (closed in 2010),[113] and Eat Records. A Latin Jazz community continues amongst the Caribbean community in Southside and East Williamsburg, centered around the many social clubs in the neighborhood. In the early 2000s, the neighborhood also became a center of electroclash.[114] Friday and Saturday parties at Club Luxx (now Trash) introduced electronic acts like W.I.T., A.R.E. Weapons, Fischerspooner, and Scissor Sisters.[115]

From left to right: Linda Hamilton, Jane Lynch, and Carol Leifer at the Williamsburg Independent Film Festival in 2016

Williamsburg contains indie theater spaces such as the Brick Theater and the Charlie Pineapple Theater. The Williamsburg Independent Film Festival was founded in 2010.[116][117][118] Williamsburg also contains the first-run multiplex theater known as Williamsburg Cinemas, which opened on December 19, 2012.[119]

Williamsburg skyline, looking east.

Low rents were a major reason artists first started settling in the area, but that situation has drastically changed since the mid-1990s. Average rents in Williamsburg can range from approximately $1,400 for a studio apartment to $1,600–2,400 for a one-bedroom and $2,600–4,000 for a two-bedroom. The price of land in Williamsburg has skyrocketed.[32] The North Side, above Grand Street, which separates the North Side from the South Side, is somewhat more expensive, due to its proximity to the New York City Subway (specifically, the L train and G train on the BMT Canarsie Line and IND Crosstown Line, respectively).

More recent gentrification and the route of the M train (whose route was modified to go from the downtown BMT Nassau Street Line to the mid-town IND Sixth Avenue Line in 2010), however, have prompted increases in rent prices south of Grand Street as well. Higher rents have driven many priced-out bohemians and hipsters to find new creative communities further afield in areas like Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Cobble Hill, and Red Hook.[33][34][35] On July 1, 2011, the United States Postal Service (USPS) split the 11211 zip code, due to a "large increase in population and in the number of companies doing business in our area".[120]

Williamsburg's gentrification is the subject of Princeton University film professor Su Friedrich's 2013 documentary Gut Renovation.[121]

In June 2014, the New York Post reported that northwestern Brooklyn's change to a wealthier, more educated population, especially in Williamsburg, has led to an increasing number of convictions against defendants in the borough's criminal 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."[122]

In April 2019, after a measles outbreak in Williamsburg infected over 250 people, mandatory measles shots were ordered in the area. Mayor Bill 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.[138][139] The outbreak in Brooklyn had been tied to an unvaccinated child who contracted the disease on a trip to Israel.[140]

The New York City Department of Education operates public schools as part of District 14. The following public elementary schools in Williamsburg serve grades PK-5 unless otherwise noted:[145]

• PS 16 Leonard Dunkly[146]
• PS 17 Henry D. Woodworth[147]
• PS 18 Edward Bush[148]
• PS 84 Jose de Diego (grades PK-8)[149]
• PS 132 Conselyea[150]
• PS 147 Isaac Remsen, an empowerment school[151]
• PS 196 Ten Eyck[152]
• PS 250 George H. Lindsay[153]
• PS 257 John F. Hylan[154]
• PS 319 Walter Nowinski[155]
• PS 380 John Wayne Elementary[156]

Public middle and high schools include Brooklyn Latin School (a specialized high school serving grades 9-12)[157] and IS 318 Eugenio Maria De Hostos (serving grades 6-8).[158] The Grand Street Campus (formerly Eastern District High School) contains the High 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.[145] There are several bilingual public schools in Williamsburg, including PS 84 Jose De Diego (offering Spanish-English), PS 110 The Monitor School (offering French-English), and Juan Morel Campos Secondary School (offering Yiddish-English).[159]

Other schools in Williamsburg include El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice[160] and the Ethical Community Charter School. Success Academy Williamsburg opened in August 2012.[161][162] It is a public charter school. Williamsburg Collegiate Charter School, a consistently top-performing charter school[163] in New York City, is located on the South side. Williamsburg Northside Schools are three Reggio Emilia-inspired schools that have three distinct programs within three locations: Infant and Toddler Center, Williamsburg Northside Preschool, and Williamsburg Northside Lower School.

• 
  PS 18
• 
  PS 196 Ten Eyck School
• 
  JHS 50 John D. Wells
• 
  Former Eastern District High School

The BPL Williamsburgh branch

The Brooklyn 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 a New York City designated landmark.[164] 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 to Betty Smith, the author of the novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, whose main character, France, frequently visited the library.[165]

In 1976, Mayor Abraham Beame proposed building a combined incinerator and power plant at the nearby Brooklyn Navy Yard.[177] The project garnered large community opposition from the Latino and Hasidic Jewish residents of southern Williamsburg, located next to the site of the proposed incinerator.[178] Though the New York City Board of Estimate narrowly gave its approval to the incinerator in 1984,[179] the state refused to grant a permit for constructing the plant for several years, citing that the city had no recycling plan.[180] The proposed incinerator was a key issue in the 1989 mayoral election because the Hasidic Jewish residents of Williamsburg who opposed the incinerator were also politically powerful.[181] 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.[182] The state denied a permit for the incinerator in 1989, stating that the city had no plan for reducing ash emissions from the plant.[183]

The plan was placed on hold for several years, and in 1995, community members filed a lawsuit to block the incinerator's construction.[184][185] Further investigation of the incinerator's proposed site found toxic chemicals were present in such high levels that the site qualified for Superfund environmental clean-up.[186] The next year, the city dropped plans for the construction of the incinerator altogether.[187]

National Grid (formerly KeySpan) is remediating contamination at a former Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) site, located at Kent Avenue, between North 11th and North 12th Streets, in Williamsburg. The Remediation is being performed in conversion for the site's conversion into Bushwick Inlet Park. It is being implemented under an order of consent with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation entered into between the NYSDEC and KeySpan in February 2007. [188]

There are also ten oil storage tanks on the site of Bushwick Inlet Park that were formerly operated by Bayside Oil.[189] A plan unveiled in 2016, called "Maker Park", would convert the oil tankers into attractions such as a theater and hanging gardens.[190][191][192] It directly conflicted with the original plan for Bushwick Inlet Park, which would see the tankers demolished.[191][192] 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.[193]